The Templeton Prize is an annual award granted to a living person, in the estimation of the judges, "whose exemplary achievements advance Sir John Templeton's philanthropic vision: harnessing the power of the sciences to explore the deepest questions of the universe and humankind's place and purpose within it." It was established, funded and administered by John Templeton starting in 1972. It is co-funded by the John Templeton Foundation, Templeton Religion Trust, and Templeton World Charity Foundation, and administered by the John Templeton Foundation.Online: https://templetonreligiontrust.org/areas-of-focus/
The prize was originally awarded to people working in the field of religion (Mother Teresa was the first winner), but in the 1980s the scope broadened to include people working at the intersection of science and religion. Until 2001, the name of the prize was "Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion", and from 2002 to 2008 it was called the "Templeton Prize for Progress Toward Research or Discoveries about Spiritual Realities". Hindus, Christians, Jews, Buddhists and Muslims have been on the panel of judges and have been recipients of the prize.
The monetary value of the prize is adjusted so that it exceeds that of the Nobel Prizes; Templeton felt, according to The Economist, that "spirituality was ignored" in the Nobel Prizes. , it is £1.1 million. It was typically presented by Prince Philip, during his lifetime, in ceremonies held at Buckingham Palace.
The prize has been referred to as prestigious and coveted, with The Washington Post calling it the most prestigious award in religion. While atheist scientists Richard Dawkins, Harry Kroto and Jerry Coyne have criticized the prize, alleging it is "blurring [religion's] well-demarcated border with science" and being awarded "to scientists who are either religious themselves or say nice things about religion", the criticism was rejected by atheist and 2011 laureate Martin Rees, who pointed to his own and other laureates' atheism and that their research in fields such as psychology, evolutionary biology, and economy can hardly be classified as the "promotion of religion".
Laureates YearLaureateNotesRef(s)1973Mother TeresaFounder of the Missionaries of Charity; 1979 Nobel Peace Prize laureate1974 Brother Roger Founder of the Taizé Community 1975 Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan Former President of India, advocate of non-aggression with Pakistan 1976 Leo Joseph Suenens Pioneer in the Catholic Charismatic Renewal movement 1977 Chiara Lubich Founder of the Focolare Movement 1978 Thomas F. Torrance Former Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland 1979 Nikkyō Niwano Co-founder of the Risshō Kōsei Kai 1980 Ralph Wendell Burhoe Founder of the journal Zygon 1981 Cicely Saunders Founder of the hospice and palliative care movement 1982 Billy Graham Evangelist 1983 Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Soviet dissident novelist; Nobel laureate 1984 Michael Bourdeaux Founder of the Keston Institute 1985 Sir Alister Hardy Founder of the Religious Experience Research Centre 1986 James I. McCord Former president, Princeton Theological Seminary 1987 Stanley Jaki Benedictine priest; professor of astrophysics, Seton Hall University 1988 Inamullah Khan Former secretary-general, Modern World Muslim Congress 1989 Carl Friedrich Freiherr von Weizsäcker Physicist and philosopher George MacLeod Founder of the Iona Community 1990 Baba Amte Developer of modern communities for people suffering from leprosy Charles Birch Emeritus professor, University of Sydney 1991 Immanuel Jakobovits, Baron Jakobovits Former Chief Rabbi of Great Britain and the Commonwealth 1992 Kyung-Chik Han Evangelist and founder of Youngnak Presbyterian Church, Seoul. From northern Korea. 1993 Charles Colson Founder of the Prison Fellowship 1994 Michael Novak Philosopher and diplomat 1995 Paul Davies Theoretical physicist 1996 Bill Bright Founder of the Campus Crusade for Christ 1997 Pandurang Shastri Athavale Social reformer and philosopher, founder of the Swadhyaya Movement 1998 Sir Sigmund Sternberg Philanthropist; founder of the Three Faith Forum 1999 Ian Barbour Former professor of science, technology and society, Carleton College 2000 Freeman Dyson Theoretical and mathematical physicist, mathematician, and statistician 2001 Arthur Peacocke Former dean, Clare College, Cambridge 2002 John Polkinghorne Physicist and theologian 2003 Holmes Rolston III Philosopher 2004 George F. R. Ellis Cosmologist and philosopher 2005 Charles Hard Townes Nobel laureate and physicist 2006 John D. Barrow Cosmologist and theoretical physicist 2007 Charles Taylor Philosopher 2008 Michał Heller Physicist and philosopher 2009 Bernard d'Espagnat Physicist 2010Francisco J. AyalaBiologist 2011Martin ReesCosmologist and astrophysicist 201214th Dalai Lama, Tenzin GyatsoSpiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism, and 1989 Nobel Peace Prize laureate 2013Desmond TutuNobel laureate, social rights activist and retired Anglican archbishop 2014Tomáš HalíkRoman Catholic priest, theologian, philosopher 2015Jean VanierCatholic theologian, humanitarian and founder of L'Arche and Faith and Light2016Jonathan SacksFormer Chief Rabbi of Great Britain, philosopher, and scholar of Judaism2017Alvin PlantingaAmerican scholar, philosopher, and writer 2018Abdullah II of JordanKing of Jordan2019Marcelo GleiserBrazilian physicist and astronomer, Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Dartmouth College2020Francis CollinsGeneticist and physician2021Jane GoodallEthologist, activist and renowned chimpanzee researcher2022Frank WilczekTheoretical physicist2023Edna Adan IsmailHealth care advocate2024Pumla Gobodo-MadikizelaPsychologist2025Bartholomew I of ConstantinopleEcumenical Patriarch of Constantinople2026Simon Conway MorrisEvolutionary biologist
See also List of religion-related awards Lists of science and technology awards
Notes
References Specific
General
External links