Free to enter, Thomas More College's Faith and Reason Essay Contest, top prize: $30000

Deadline: 25 February 2011

The Thomas More College of Liberal Arts announced today the prizes and rules for its 2011 Faith & Reason Essay Contest. The contest is available to high school seniors, homeschool students, and to all young people eligible for Freshmen admission to Thomas More College in the Fall of 2011.

The Faith & Reason Essay Contest will distribute a combined $100,000 to qualified students. Awards will include one first place prize of $30,000, two second place prizes of $20,000 each, and three third place prizes of $10,000 each. Prizes will be distributed over four years, and cannot be continued beyond that time. To maintain eligibility, winners must continue with a full course load of at least 12 credits per semester and maintain a GPA of 3.0 or higher.

Applicants are invited to reflect upon Pope Benedict XVI’s 2008 address at the College des Bernadins and to submit an essay in answer to the question: How does a renewed “culture of the Word” offer hope to the world today?

In his address, Pope Benedict XVI explored the connection between Benedictine monasticism and Western civilization. The monks of the West, he explained, did not set out “to create a culture nor even to preserve a culture from the past.” Instead, their goal was at once more simple and more lofty: to search for God.

“The search for God entailed—and still entails—the outward manifestation of the inward spirit,” said Thomas More College President William Fahey, “and so from the monk’s faith and devotion came forth a vibrant culture of the Word, a culture of praying and reading, building and singing, cultivating and teaching.”

Dr. Fahey added that Pope Benedict has articulated that the search for God calls upon every human excellence, from the bodily strength to endure the labors that charity demands to intellectual discipline, spiritual attentiveness, humility, and patience.

“The Holy Father has said that today’s world is caught between the two poles of ‘subjective arbitrariness’ and ‘fundamentalist fanaticism,’” said Fahey. “That is why we need more than ever to labor manfully for the rebuilding of an authentic culture of the Word, a culture founded upon the search for God and the readiness to listen to him.”

Essay submissions must be mailed by February 25, 2011. Awards will be made by March 15th. Essays should be two to three pages typed, double-spaced, with 12-point Times New Roman font and 1-inch margins on all sides. Applications must include a cover sheet listing the applicant’s name, address, telephone number, e-mail, graduation date, and age. Completed applications should be sent to Mark Schwerdt at 6 Manchester Street, Merrimack, NH 03054, or emailed to mschwerdt@ThomasMoreCollege.edu.

Prizes will be awarded only to those students who have completed an Application for Admission to Thomas More College.

Additional information on the Faith & Reason Essay Contest can be found on the College’s web site at www.ThomasMoreCollege.edu.

The Thomas More College of Liberal Arts provides a four-year undergraduate education which develops young people intellectually, ethically, and spiritually in the Catholic tradition and in faithfulness to the Magisterium of the Roman Catholic Church. Thomas More College introduces its students to the central questions of Western Civilization—and to the Church’s response. It teaches skills in reasoning, speaking, and writing that allow its graduates to become faithful leaders according to the individual vocations which God has given them.

More information here.