The Parnassus Prize is Memoria College’s annual literary award given to a recent book that best contributes to the cultivation of the Western liberal arts tradition.

2023 WINNER

From Plato to Christ: How Platonic Thought Shaped the Christian Faith, by Louis Markos 

In ways that might surprise us, Christians throughout the history of the church and even today have inherited aspects of the ancient Greek philosophy of Plato, who was both Socrates’s student and Aristotle’s teacher.
 
To help us understand the influence of Platonic thought on the Christian faith, Louis Markos offers careful readings of some of Plato’s best-known texts and then traces the ways that his work shaped the faith of some of Christianity’s most beloved theologians, including Gregory of Nyssa, Augustine, Dante, and C. S. Lewis.

2023 Shortlist

The Death of Learning: How American Education Has Failed Our Students and What to Do About It, by John Agresto

Rescuing Socrates: How the Great Books Changed My Life and Why They Matter for a New Generation, by Roosevelt Montas 

From Plato to Christ: How Platonic Thought Shaped the Christian Faith, by Louis Markos 

The Music of Christendom: A History (from 2022), by Susan Treacy

Shakespeare and the Idea of Western Civilization, by R. V. Young 

2022 WINNER

Vision of the Soul: Truth, Goodness, and the Beauty in the Western Tradition, by James Matthew Wilson

2022 Shortlist

How to Think Like Shakespeare: Lessons from a Renaissance Education, by Scott Newstok

The Vision of the Soul: Truth, Goodness, and Beauty in the Western Tradition, by James Matthew Wilson

The Lincoln Highway, by Amor Towles

Gallimaufry: A Collection of Essays, Review, Bits, by Joseph Epstein

The Music of Christendom: A History, by Susan Treacy