About The Gutenberg Award

The Gutenberg Press

The Gutenberg Award is named after Johannes Gutenberg (c. 1398–1468), inventor of the movable-type printing press. Prior to Gutenberg’s invention, books, including the Bible, were hand copied. With the printing press, books and newspapers could be mass produced and available to the common person.

In 1450, Johannes Gutenberg printed the first Bible. Known as the Gutenberg Bible, He printed 180 copies – an effort that would have taken a dozen scribes decades prior to his invention. Only 48 copies survive today, and only 21 of those copies are completely intact. The other copies have been divided into individual pages. Two of those pages are in the Chicago Bible Society collection currently housed at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, DC. A replica of the original Gutenberg Press was commissioned by Chicago Bible Society and is part of the American Bible Society exhibition in Philadelphia.

The Gutenberg Award

In 1952, the Chicago Bible Society decided to honor Gen. Douglas MacArthur with the first Gutenberg Award because of his effort to provide Bibles to the people of Japan at the conclusion of World War II.  Since that time, the Chicago Bible Society has honored national and local leaders who have served the cause of the Bible either in the church or in the business or civic world.  Among the well-known recipients have been Billy Graham (1963), Archbishop Fulton Sheen (1974), Dr. Martin Marty (1986), and football star Michael Singletary (1990).

Today, Chicago Bible Society continues this tradition by honoring those men and women who have exemplified Christian leadership by their service to the Christian church and to society.