Winners of 2014 Christian Worldview Essay Contest

The First Prize winner is Ammi Burke.

Biography: Brought up in a Christian family, I became a Christian at a young age and have a deep interest in the study of the Scripture. It was a wonderful experience to participate in the Trinity Foundation Essay Contest. Studying the work of a theologian and philosopher of the stature of Gordon H. Clark challenged me to a fresh examination of not just the theoretical but also the practical ramifications of what it means to be a true follower of Jesus Christ.

I am a law graduate (BA, LLB) from Castlebar in the west of Ireland. At present I am completing my FE-1s (final examinations before becoming a Trainee Lawyer) and tutor Company and Criminal Law to university students. In whatever spare time I have left, I teach classical piano and violin and languages (Irish, French) at weekends to primary and secondary level students. This summer I was privileged to spend two months in the USA on a legal externship scholarship, working as a judicial intern in the Massachusetts Appeals Court in Boston. This was a once-in-a-lifetime-experience for me, and I enjoyed every minute of it.

Writing this essay caused my faith to be strengthened and my appetite for further intensive study of the key doctrines of Biblical Christianity to be greatly increased. Entering this essay contest is challenging but incredibly faith-building for any young person. I could not recommend the experience of entering the competition more highly!

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The Third Prize winner is Luke Cummings.

Biography: I was born in Philadelphia and baptized into the Presbyterian Church at an early age by the late James Montgomery Boice. My parents instilled in me both a love for God's Word and a healthy curiosity about the origins of my faith. From the age of six up until I turned fourteen, my faith was grown and tested as I lived overseas in a number of places. I first moved abroad in 2003, when my family relocated from Baltimore, Maryland to Ankara, Turkey. While my parents worked as medical volunteers, I attended Turkish elementary school. From Turkey we moved to Kyrgyzstan in Central Asia, where I lived up until the end of middle school. Living abroad and moving quite often, I was exposed to many different religions and denominations of Christianity. This encouraged me to constantly question and qualify my Christian beliefs, a practice that has been integral to my spiritual health.

I returned to the US in 2010 to attend high school in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was there that I was first exposed to a formal academic evaluation of my Christian faith in my church's confirmation class. Through reading John Stott's Basic Christianity, I became intrigued in intellectually evaluating Christianity, which is what sparked my interest in this scholarship. What Is the Christian Life? was my first Gordon Clark book, and I eagerly anticipate reading more of his works.

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