New Voice Media | Associated Baptist Press
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
| John Templeton, religious philanthropist, dead at 95 |
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| By Vicki Brown | |
| Thursday, July 10, 2008 | |
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NASSAU, Bahamas (ABP) -- Sir John Marks Templeton, religious philanthropist and founder of an annual award that honors innovation in religion, died of pneumonia July 8 in Nassau, Bahamas. He was 95. Perhaps most widely known for the Templeton Prize and the Templeton Foundation, Templeton made billions in mutual funds and investments. The longtime Presbyterian wanted to encourage discovery of what he called “spiritual realities” and “progress in religion” through love, gratitude, forgiveness and creativity. He believed that science and religion could cooperate to find answers to philosophical questions. Born Nov. 29, 1912, in Winchester, Tenn., he graduated from Yale University in 1934. He was awarded a Rhodes scholarship to Balliol College at Oxford University, earning a master’s degree in law. He gave up his United States citizenship to become a subject of Queen Elizabeth II, who knighted him in 1987. He served as a Princeton Theological Seminary trustee for 42 years, including 12 as board chair. He also endowed Templeton College at Oxford. He founded the Templeton Prize in 1972 because no Nobel Prize was offered in religion. Sir Templeton awarded the first prize of $85,000 to Mother Teresa in 1973. The prize has grown to $1.6 million. Recipients have included Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists and Hindus. American religious icon Billy Graham and Russian writer Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn are among past Templeton honorees. Templeton established the foundation in 1987 to administer the prize and to promote projects that study religion with scientific methods and the nature and origin of religious belief. In 1992, he sold his money-management firm to the Franklin Group for $440 million and devoted more time to philanthropy. He authored eight books on spiritual subjects and edited several others. Templeton is survived by two sons, a stepdaughter, three grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. -30-                 No comments for this article yet...
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