The Ian Ramsey Centre for Science and Religion warmly congratulates our IRC Research Fellow, Dr Tim Middleton, on receiving both the International Society for Science and Religion (ISSR) 2026 Book Prize and the European Society for the Study of Science and Theology (ESSSAT) Research Prize 2026 for his monograph, Witnessing a Wounded World: A Theology of Ecological Trauma (Fordham University Press, 2025).
Together, these awards recognise the book as a significant contribution to contemporary scholarship at the intersection of theology, science, and ecological thought. The ISSR Book Prize, now in its seventh year, recognises outstanding recent publications that combine scholarly excellence with the ability to shape future directions in the field of science and religion.
Dr Middleton, who is a Tutorial Fellow in Theology at Regent's Park College, University of Oxford, explores ecological suffering through the lens of trauma theology. In Witnessing a Wounded World, he examines forms of trauma arising from climate change, focusing particularly on disruptions to communication, flesh, and time. Drawing on theological accounts of deep incarnation, the book develops a distinctive framework for understanding ecological trauma and humanity's responsibility to witness and respond to a wounded world.
Awarding the ISSR Book Prize in the category of Professional and Educational Books, the judges praised the work as "scholarly, insightful, passionate, and committed to beginning a conversation on witnessing the world as wounded by trauma." The prize recognises books that demonstrate excellence in both content and communication while advancing the field of science and religion.
The book has also been honoured with the ESSSAT Research Prize 2026, awarded by the European Society for the Study of Science and Theology. In announcing the award, ESSSAT described Witnessing a Wounded World as "groundbreaking", commending its reframing of ecological collapse as a form of theological trauma and its call to bear faithful witness to planetary suffering. The Society noted the book's outstanding contribution to dialogue between science and theology. [esssat.net]
The recognition of Witnessing a Wounded World by both ISSR and ESSSAT highlights the growing importance of theological engagement with the ecological crisis and underscores the vitality of contemporary scholarship bringing theology into conversation with the sciences.
The Ian Ramsey Centre warmly congratulates Tim on these well-deserved honours and on the international recognition of his work within theology, science and religion, and ecological thought.
