A “spiritual handbook” for survivors of sexual abuse has won the Australian Christian Book of the Year for 2016.
Written by Jane N Dowling, Child, Arise! The Courage to Stand: A Spiritual Handbook for Survivors of Sexual Abuse is described as a “courageous and historic book”.
Other books among the 10 shortlisted for the award had included Roy Williams’ Post-God Nation? How Religion Fell Off the Radar in Australia and What Might be Done to Get It Back On, Rev Neil Bach’s biography of New Testament scholar Leon Morris, Leon Morris: One Man’s Fight for Love and Truth, Peter Stiles’ Trumped By Grace and Sheridan Voysey’s Resilient: Your Invitation to a Jesus-Shaped Life as well as academic Bernie Power’s Understanding Jesus and Muhammad: What the ancient texts say about them.
The awards, which were announced in Melbourne last week, are held each year by SparkLit (The Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge Australia).
Other awards announced include the Young Australian Christian Writer Award – won by Miriam Dale for a poetry and prose collection, The Weight of Hope – and Australian Christian Teen Writer, won by Annie-Jo Vogler for All the Ways We Are.
Each of the awards carries a cash prize.
