College Theology SocietyServing Church and Academy Since 1954

The College Theology Society honors excellence in scholarship by presenting three awards each year.  These are the Best Book Award, the Best Published Article Award, and Susan G. Perry Award for the Best Student Essay.  The deadline for submissions this year is Wednesday, December 14, 2022.  Submissions should be directed to James Bretzke, S.J., chair of the Awards Committee at the addresses listed below.


Criteria for the Awards:

  • For the book and published article awards, submitting authors must be current members of the College Theology Society, with dues paid for 2022 by the submission deadline of December 14, 2022.  Now is a good time to check your membership status.
  • The membership and dues requirements are waived for graduate students.
  • For the book and article awards, eligible material must have been published in 2022.
  • For the graduate student essay award, eligible material must be unpublished, outstanding, course work that was completed in the 21-22 academic year.
  • Graduate essay submissions should be prepared according to the instructions pertaining to style for manuscript submission to the CTS’s journal Horizons, and including the practices that ensure the review of essays is blind for reviewers. See the guidelines linked at the bottom of the page here: http://collegetheology.org/Horizons
  • Members may submit one, and only one, item in each category.
  • Current members of the Awards committee may not submit their own materials for either the book or article award during their years of service on the committee.

If you are submitting a book published in 2022, send (or have your publisher send) three copies of your book to:

James Bretzke, S.J.

2520 Miramar Blvd.

University Heights, OH 44118

If you are submitting an article published in 2022, please send it as a PDF attachment to James Bretzke, S.J. at  jbretzke@jcu.edu


If you are submitting a graduate student essay completed in AY 21-22 (an unpublished essay of superior quality written for a graduate course), please send it as an attachment, with identifying information on a separate page, to James Bretzke, S.J. at jbretzke@jcu.edu


All who submit a book, published article, or student essay should receive an acknowledgement of receipt of materials by January 13th, 2023


Winners are expected to attend this year’s annual meeting at Sacred Heart University (Fairfield, Connecticut), June 1-4, 2023.


We are always looking for new members for the Awards Committee – if you would like to serve on this committee, please email Julia Brumbaugh!


See past award winners.


If you have any questions, please email James Bretzke (jbretzke@jcu.edu) or Julia Brumbaugh (jbrumbau@regis.edu).


The College Theology Society is a registered, non-profit professional society and a Related Scholarly Organization of the American Academy of Religion.

Email: secretary@collegetheology.org

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