Halton, associate rector at Christ Church Cathedral in Lexington, argues in his 2021 “A Human-Shaped God: Theology of an Embodied God” that embracing a God with human qualities can deepen our theological connection and inspire moral growth.

This perspective earned him the 2024 Grawemeyer Award in Religion, presented by the Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary and the University of Louisville. The award recognizes those who have presented ideas with the potential to bring about change in the world through religion.

At a , Halton presented examples of God’s emotions, such as regret. He reasoned that the modern interpretation of the rainbow focuses on love and promises after devastation, but scripture actually states God regretted destroying everything except Noah’s Ark.

“In the story I had always assumed, I was supposed to look out in the world and see the rainbow and I am supposed to be reminded of God’s love and care and provisions,” he said. “That’s not what the book of Genesis says. It says God made the rainbow to remind God to never do that again.”

Halton believes a deeper understanding of God’s human-like depictions in the Old Testament, when combined with traditional theology, offers a richer perspective.

“The God of Genesis experiences emotion, changes their mind, has regret, makes promises to be better in the future,” Halton said. “This is a God who is on a moral arc. It’s a God who is in relationship with creation. It’s a God who is in the process learning, even about God’s self, within this relationship with God’s creation. The more God learns about itself, the more God wants to change and be more kind, more loving, more charitable and embracing of God’s creation.”

By emulating this evolving God, Halton encourages individuals to find inspiration for their own understanding of how to move in the world.

The $100,000 Grawemeyer prizes also honor seminal ideas in , ,ĚýĚý˛ą˛Ô»ĺĚý. Winners visit Louisville to accept their awards and give free talks on their winning ideas.

UofL presents the annual prizes in music, world order, psychology, education and religion and gives the religion prize jointly with the seminary. All of the 2024 winners will visit Louisville in April to give free, public talks on their winning ideas.

The winners are:

• Aleksandra Vrebalov, a Serbian-American composer who won the music prize for a chorale work transcending a single language, culture or religion to express how all life is interconnected
• Neta Crawford, a University of Oxford international relations scholar who won the world order prize for analyzing the Pentagon’s carbon footprint and its effect on climate change
• Ann Masten, a University of Minnesota child development scholar who won the psychology prize for finding that resilience comes from “ordinary magic” within us and our supportive connections with others
• Laura Hamilton and Kelly Nielsen, two University of California sociologists who co-won the education prize for exploring the racial consequences of funding cuts at public universities
• The Rev. Charles Halton, an Episcopal priest in Lexington, Ky., who explained how embracing God as a being with human qualities can inspire us to become better people

“The Grawemeyer Awards recognize highly constructive ideas with world-changing potential and that’s certainly true of the ideas we’re honoring this time.” said Marion Hambrick, the awards program’s executive director.

Vrebalov shows how music can unite us despite our differences, while Crawford sheds new light on the U.S. military’s role in climate change. Masten explains why some people recover quickly from major setbacks when others don’t. Hamilton and Nielsen call for a fairer way to fund the nation’s public universities and Halton offers a fresh perspective on spiritual growth.

UofL graduate Charles Grawemeyer created the Grawemeyer Awards in 1984 with an initial endowment of $9 million. The first award, music composition, was presented in 1985. łÉČËÖ±˛Ą was added in 1989, religion in 1990, world order in 1998 and psychology in 2000.

Grawemeyer distinguished the awards by honoring ideas rather than lifelong achievement, also insisting that laypeople as well as professionals take part in the selection process.