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TEMPLETON PRIZE LEGACY

May 28, 1999 

Ian Barbour, a Carleton College professor emeritus, was awarded the 1999 Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion in recognition of efforts to create a dialogue between the worlds of science and religion. The following history of the Templeton Prize is provided by the John Templeton Foundation.

 

NewsHour Links


A forum with Templeton Prize winner Ian Barbour

May 28, 1999
Elizabeth Farnsworth interviews 1999 Templeton Prize winner Ian Barbour.

May 17, 1999
Prof. Barbour's Templeton Prize acceptance speech.

Prof. Barbour's biography.

April 28, 1998
How should evolution be taught in schools?

December 25, 1997
America's search for spiritual experiences in everyday life

December 25, 1997
Scientific find indicates King Soloman's temple existed

December 25, 1996
The search for Jesus and authenticity.

 

 

Outside Links

The John Templeton Foundation

Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences

Carleton College

Yale University

Duke University

Swarthmore College

 

 

 

When John Marks Templeton established the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion 27 years ago, he decided that the award should always have a monetary value exceeding the Nobel Prizes. Currently, the Templeton Prize is valued at 750,000 pounds sterling, approximately 1.24 million dollars and is the world's largest annual award.

Since the founding of the prize, several million dollars have been awarded to 27 recipients. Although there are no restrictions on how the money may be spent, most prize winners have invested their awards into the pursuits that brought them to the attention of the Templeton Foundation -- extending the legacy of the prize beyond the recognition it bestows.

Mother Teresa, the first Templeton Prize recipient, used her prize money to help fund the Missionaries of Charity, which she founded, and help homeless children in Calcutta.

 

Winners since Mother Teresa

 
Chiara Lubich, winner in 1977, financed a Philippine hospital's maternity wing with part of her prize money. Another portion went to build two houses for the poor in a Brazilian shantytown and part went to complete a religious and social training center in Asia and to establish a "Town of Charity" in Italy for people with disabilities.
Barbour received his masters degree in physics from Duke University in 1946. While there, he met his future wife, Deane Kern, of Washington, D.C. They were married in 1947.

Dame Cicely Saunders won the 1981 Templeton Prize for creating hospices dedicated to relieving physical and mental suffering of the sick. Clinical studies show that her pain-relief methods have a 99 percent effectiveness on terminally-ill cancer patients. Her prize money was used to construct a new wing at St. Christopher's Hospice, founded by Dame Cicely.

The Rev. Dr. Billy Graham donated his 1982 prize money to funding his seminars and conferences for itinerant evangelists in underdeveloped nations.

Professor Stanley Jaki, a Benedictine monk with a vow of poverty, won the 1987 Templeton Prize for his investigations into the relationship of science, culture and faith. With his award, Jaki established a trust to care for Benedictine monks in exile.
 
 
Prize sought worldwide  

Professor Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker, co-winner of the award in 1989, was honored for his efforts to initiate a dialogue between the academic disciplines of natural science and religion. His prize money now funds research at Starnberg, Germany, and the "Justice and the Integrity of Creation" program at the Conference of European Churches.

Baba Amte, the Hindu lawyer who has spent his life helping the so-called untouchables of India and co-winner of the 1990 prize with Charles Birch, donated his money to the leper colony he founded in Anandwan, India.

The Rt. Hon. Lord Jakobovits, a theologian noted for his extraordinary scholarship and 1991 winner of the Templeton Prize, committed his money to projects aimed at deepening spiritual awareness. In honor of his efforts in education, a new Jewish grammar school in London has been named for Jakobovits.

The 1992 winner, Dr. Kyung-Chik Han, has spent almost his entire life dealing with the clashing political and religious divisions of Korea. The majority of his money has been set aside to rebuild the churches of North Korea as soon as it is politically possible.

Charles Colson donated his 1993 Templeton Prize money to Prison Fellowship, the prison ministry he founded after his release from a federal penitentiary for Watergate-related crimes.

The winner in 1994, Michael Novak, disbursed his award in a number of directions, including establishment of a scholarship fund -- the Novak-Templeton Fellowship -- at his alma mater, Stonehill College in Massachusetts. Four scholarships are given each year, including one to a student from the Bahamas, in honor of Templeton (who resides in Lyford Cay), and one for a student from Slovakia, a reflection of Novak's family heritage. He also created a fellowship program at the American Enterprise Institute, where Novak holds the George Frederick Jewett Chair in religion and public policy, and made a significant grant to Crisis magazine, where he is editor-in-chief. Finally, he also established a grant to Notre Dame College in Dacca, in honor of his brother, Richard, a missionary killed there during a Hindu-Muslim riot in 1964.

 
For research or good cause  
The 1995 recipient, Paul Davies, a mathematical physicist from Australia, received the Templeton Prize for his wide ranging inquiries into the workings of the universe that breach the barrier between science and religion. Having spent most of his life working as a professor, Davies, who had a personal chair at the University of Adelaide in Australia, chose to use his prize money to pursue his research.

Campus Crusade for Christ International founder and president Dr. William R. "Bill" Bright, the 1996 recipient, in recent years has worked to mobilize millions of Christians to fast and pray for a worldwide spiritual revival. All of his prize money is directed to this endeavor.

The 1997 recipient, Pandurang Shastri Athavale, founder and leader of the Bhagavad Gita- based self-study known as swadhyaya. Swadhyaya encourages the recognition of God within all humans which, in turn, leads to a sense of self-esteem and respect for others and is credited with helping an estimated 20 million people in 100,000 villages in India.

Yet, the movement -- which discourages proselytizing and is open to those of all faiths -- does not have a single paid worker, no formal hierarchy, and no bank account. Athavale, consequently, distributed his Templeton Prize money directly into the communities in which he and the swadhyaya movement work.

Last year's winner, Sir Sigmund Sternberg, has tirelessly promoted interfaith dialogue for decades and played a critical role in relocating a Catholic convent in Auschwitz in the 1980s, organizing the first-ever papal visit to a synagogue, negotiating the Vatican's recognition of the state of Israel, and opening Vatican war-time files relating to Nazis and Jews and the relations of both with the Catholic Church. The Hungarian-born British businessman also has a long history as a philanthropist, and directed his award to several of the charities he has sponsored throughout his career, including the Sternberg Centre for Judaism in London, Europe's largest Jewish cultural center.
 

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