College & Seminary News

A Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about the reflections of a dying minister has earned an international religion award. Gilead: A Novel, a book by Marilynne Robinson, has claimed the 2006 Louisville Grawemeyer Award in Religion. This is the first time a novel has won the Grawemeyer religion prize, which is given jointly by Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary and the University of Louisville.

Louisville Seminary professor Johanna W. H. van Wijk-Bos has won the 2005 Metroversity Instructional Development Award for her course, To Know the Heart of the Stranger. The award, presented each fall semester, was announced to the Seminary community by Seminary Dean David Hester, who said: “In addition to exploring a theme of central significance to the Hebrew Bible and highly relevant to our lives in a contemporary multicultural world, Johanna’s course encourages students to take responsibility for their own learning and to think critically about race, ethnicity, and sexuality, in an atmosphere that encourages open and respectful discussion.”

A January Lifelong Learning Seminar on “The Strange New World of the Bible”, with Walter Brueggemann, Barbara Brown Taylor and David Bartlett, is scheduled for January 30- February 1, 2006 at Columbia Theological Seminary.

As a result of special gifts received from congregations and individual supporters, the Rhodes College Chaplain’s office is now able to award the Rhodes Presbyterian Mission Scholarship to support graduating Rhodes students in their commitment to global missions of the Presbyterian Church. Rhodes Chaplain Billy Newton has announced these recipients for the mission year 2005-06: Stephen Ogden, is serving in Cairo, Egypt; Brooke McClelland is serving in Buenos Aires; Christine Coy is serving in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

The Lifelong Learning program at Columbia Seminary is offering a Presbyterian Heritage Tour of Georgia and South Carolina Lowcountry and Upcountry, April 3-8, 2006. Focusing on the historical influence of Presbyterianism, participants will visit Sea Island and Savannah, GA, as well as Charleston, Columbia, Clinton, and Due West, SC. Call 404-687-4587 for more information.

The Maryville College office of financial aid helped to demystify the financial aid process for high school students and their families during Community Financial Aid Night scheduled for December 8 in the Lawson Auditorium of Fayerweather Hall. “College is an investment in a young student’s life,” said Richard Brand, Maryville College’s director of financial aid. “The more informed students and parents are about the intricacies of financial aid, the better prepared they are to take advantage of financial aid awards offered by any institution.”

The 18th annual Appalachian Lecture Series came to a close at Maryville College on November 8 with a presentation by best-selling and awardwinning author, Dorothy Allison. The series 2005 season began earlier this fall with film director and producer Elizabeth Barret, presenting her documentary “Stranger with a Camera”. Appalachian poet Frank X. Walker spoke on October 11. For nearly two decades, the Series has invited artists, scholars, musicians, writers and historians to the campus each fall to give presentations on the heritage, as well as the future, of the region.