Dr. Carl R. Trueman, professor of Biblical and Religious Studies at Grove City College, will be recognized for his Christian contribution to public life and thought with the Davenant Institute’s first-ever C.S. Lewis Award for Christian Wisdom.
Davenant Institute, a non-profit organization focused on “the riches of classical Protestantism,” said Trueman’s “exemplary public witness as a Protestant scholar” resulted in him being the group’s choice to receive the award. Trueman is being recognized for his scholarship and the challenge it poses for classical and Christian understandings of the human person and political order, according to the institute.
“His recent work on ‘expressive individualism,’ first in “The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self,” and then for a wider audience in “Strange New World,” introduced many readers for the first time to the intellectual undercurrents behind the radical new understandings of sexuality and the human condition that have upended our churches and our politics,” the institute said.
“We are thankful the Davenant Institute has recognized Dr. Trueman’s contributions to contemporary Christian scholarship. The C.S. Lewis Award is richly deserved. We are also grateful that our students have the opportunity to study with scholars like Dr. Trueman,” said Dr. Paul C. Kemeny, dean of the Calderwood School of Arts and Letters at Grove City College.
The C.S. Lewis Award for Christian Wisdom honors public intellectuals and Protestant scholars whose work, like Lewis,’ “combine deep insight, historical perspective, and resolute orthodoxy with winsome, articulate, and persuasive presentations of Christian truth,” the institute said.
Trueman will receive the award and speak on “Prometheus Unbound, Man Abolished” at the First Annual Davenant Award Banquet in April in Washington D.C.
Davenant Institute’s mission is to “retrieve the riches of classical Protestantism to renew and build up the contemporary Church” through publishing, education, residential programs, and in-person events held nationally and internationally.
Trueman, a well-known Reformation historian, author, and frequent contributor to conservative cultural and religious outlets such as First Things and Public Discourse, joined the Grove City College faculty in 2018. He previously served as the William E. Simon Fellow in Religion and Public Life at Princeton University. Prior to that, he served on the faculties of Westminster Theological Seminary, the University of Aberdeen, and the University of Nottingham. He holds a Ph.D. in Church History from the University of Aberdeen and an M.A. in Classics from the University of Cambridge.
In addition to ““The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self” and “Strange New World,” Trueman has written or edited more than a dozen books, including: “Luther’s Legacy: Salvation and English Reformers, 1525-1556;” “John Owen: Reformed Catholic, Renaissance Man;” "Histories and Fallacies;" and “The Creedal Imperative.”
Trueman served as a member of the Davenant Institute’s Board of Advisors and delivered the keynote address at the organization’s Fourth Annual Convivium Irenicum in 2016.