Student Essay Prize

Sensus Fidelium:
Listening for the Echo
6
Essay Prize 2016
Aimed at Masters and Doctoral students, this annual prize seeks to
strengthen emerging voices in Catholic theology by offering new
platforms for work in line with the annual conference theme.
After the First Vatican Council, John Henry Newman hesitated before
accepting what the Council had to say about papal infallibility. He was,
said Lord Acton, “waiting for the echo”. Acton understood, as many
before and since have failed to do, that it is not the business of those
whom we call “teachers” in the Church to tell us things we did not
know, but to articulate, interpret, clarify, the faith we have in common.
Nothing can become “the teaching of the Church” unless and until the
People of God as a whole “echo” the expression: react to it with
something like “Yes”, “Amen”, “that’s it”.
This echo is sensus fidelium and the 2016 CTA Annual Conference
gathers to discuss its implications for the ongoing life of the Church.
Possible responses to this theme may include essays on:
Historical perspectives
Case studies
Church teaching
The role of theology
Christian praxis
Sources and development
Essays should be of 5000 words and submitted by email to
[email protected] by August 1st 2016. The winner, who will receive £300,
will be announced on September 7th at the annual conference:
5th-8th September
The Hayes, Alfreton
Contributors include:
Ormond Rush Helen Costigane Sarah Boss
Paul D. Murray Roderick Strange
Tarcisius Mukuka and others
Conference booking information will appear at www.ctagb.org.uk,
where you may also find all other terms and conditions.
Image: Detail, John Piper, Baptistery Window, Coventry Cathedral
Photograph © Herry Lawford, used under a Creative Commons 2.0 License