Title: Lutheran Ethicist and Theologican Wins Grawemeyer Award ELCA NEWS SERVICE - NEWSBRIEF June 2, 1997 LUTHERAN WINS GRAWEMEYER AWARD Dr. Larry Rasmussen, a Lutheran ethicist and theologian, has won the 1997 Louisville Grawemeyer Award in Religion, a $150,000 prize. Rasmussen, a member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, is the Reinhold Niebuhr Professor of Social Ethics at Union Theological Seminary, New York. He was given the award for his book, "Earth Community, Earth Ethics." The book is a Christian perspective on environmental ethics. Christianity, Rasmussen writes, has not always been an environment-friendly faith, and persons of all faiths should be judged by their contributions to the well-being of the earth. Rasmussen currently serves as a writer for the ELCA's Lutheran Ethics Project, set to be published in early 1998. The Grawemeyer Award is given jointly by the Louisville (Ky.) Presbyterian Theological Seminary and the University of Louisville. It honors "insights into the relationships among between human beings and the divine ways these relationships may empower human beings to attain wholeness, integrity and meaning," according to Dr. David Hester of Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary. Rasmussen dedicated his book to colleagues in the Justice, Peace and Creation Unit of the World Council of Churches, which he co-moderates. "Earth Community, Earth Ethics" is published by Orbis Books and WCC Publications. Rasmussen is a member of the American Academy of Religion and the Society of Christian Ethics and is a board member of the International Bonhoeffer Society. He has taught at Union since 1986. Rasmussen is a graduate of St. Olaf College, Northfield, Minn., Luther Seminary, St. Paul, Minn., and earned his doctorate at Union in 1970. For information contact: Ann Hafften, Director (773) 380-2958 or [log in to unmask] http://www.elca.org/co/news/current.html