Who Should Win the Next Templeton Prize?

The nomination process for the Templeton Prize has been greatly simplified in recent years, according to Judith Marchand, the director of the program, and the Foundation hopes to receive a flood of new candidates for the 2010 Prize before the nominating deadline of October 1, 2009.

For the late Sir John Templeton, who established the Prize in 1972 (long before the Templeton Foundation opened its doors in 1987), the Prize was a way to recognize those whom he called "entrepreneurs of the spirit.” Its purpose is to “honor a living person who has made an exceptional contribution to affirming life’s spiritual dimension, whether through insight, discovery, or practical works.” Marchand emphasizes that “people from all walks of life are eligible,” from scientists and scholars in the humanities to religious leaders and journalists. What matters is “the rigor, creativity, and impact of what they have done.” Templeton Prize laureates can come from any faith tradition or from none at all.

Nominations for the Prize can be submitted online, and individuals can be nominated not just by other individuals but by organizations as well. To make a nomination, all that is necessary is: (1) basic background information about the nominee, (2) a short narrative about his or her contribution to “affirming life’s spiritual dimension,” (3) a brief list of relevant works or activities, and (4) the names and contact information of at least three references.

Clockwise from upper left: Mother Teresa, Baba Amte, Paul Davies, and Charles Taylor.

Though many recent winners of the Templeton Prize have been distinguished scientists, the award is open to individuals in any number of fields. The Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor, who won the Prize two years ago, is the author of several works on the relationship between modernity and religious belief. Sir Sigmund Sternberg, a Hungarian-born British philanthropist and businessman, was influential in organizing the first-ever papal visit to a synagogue and in advocating the Vatican's recognition of the state of Israel. Baba Amte, a Hindu lawyer, developed modern communities to help those with Hanson's Disease (leprosy) and other so-called untouchables in his native India.

Religious leaders who have won the Prize include Nikkyo Niwano, whose mission blossomed from a handful of adherents into the world's largest Buddhist lay group, with more than five million members, and Chiara Lubich, the founder of Italy's Focolare Movement, which dedicates itself to serving the poor. Several more widely recognized individuals have also won the Prize, including the author, scholar, and ambassador Michael Novak, the Nobel Prize-winning novelist Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, and Mother Teresa.

The current honorarium of the Templeton Prize is one million British pounds sterling, making it the largest annual prize given to an individual. Many Templeton Prize winners have used the funds from the award to expand their work. Mother Teresa used her honorarium to provide additional care for the homeless and neglected of Calcutta. Charles Colson invested his award money in his Prison Fellowship program. Other Templeton Prize winners, like Ian Barbour, a pioneer in the field of science and religion, and the physicists Michael Heller and Paul Davies, have used the proceeds of the Prize to support research in their fields.

Enterprise and Education

Video

A child drops out of high school in the U.S. every nine seconds, but it doesn’t have to be that way, according to a new film called TEN9EIGHT: Shoot for the Moon. The film tells the inspirational stories of several inner-city teens as they compete in an annual business-plan competition run by the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE). Both the film and the NFTE have received major grant support from the John Templeton Foundation.

Produced by the award-winning filmmaker Mary Mazzio, TEN9EIGHT shows that when young people are given the opportunity to start their own businesses and take control of their futures, they can improve their academic performance and lift themselves out of even the most difficult circumstances. One of the students featured in the film is Rodney Walker, who was put into the foster care system at the age of 5 and ended up homeless on the streets of Chicago. During high school, he founded Forever Life Music and Video Productions, and he is now studying business as a freshman at Morehouse College. Another student in the film is Amanda Loyola, whose father escaped from the slums of Rio de Janeiro and brought his family to Brooklyn, where he worked at Burger King. Inspired by his example, Amanda started her own business, a vegetarian dog-treat company.

The final NFTE competition in New York City brings together 35 young entrepreneurs, chosen from over 24,000 participating students from across the country. The winner receives $10,000 to launch his or her own business. The finalists have the opportunity to interact with high-profile entrepreneurs like Arthur Blank, the founder of Home Depot; Tom Scott, the co-founder of Nantucket Nectars; and Kay Koplovitz, the founder of USA Network.

To see the trailer for TEN9EIGHT, click here. One of the first full screenings of the film will be at the Aspen Ideas Festival this summer, where it will be introduced by U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. To learn more about the film and its release, join the TEN9EIGHT group on Facebook.

In Character: The Grit Issue

The spring issue of In Character, the Templeton Foundation’s “Journal of Everyday Virtues,” focuses on the distinctively American virtue of grit. Among the articles in the issue, which is now available online:

Wilfred M. McClay examines the deep roots of our notion of grit and wonders if Americans still have it.
Einstein biographer Walter Isaacson looks at the great physicist's refusal to abandon his quest for a unified field theory, a perseverance that lasted until his final moments.
The ultra-Orthodox Chabad movement became tragically famous with the recent terrorist attacks in Mumbai, where a rabbi and his pregnant wife were killed. Samuel J. Freedman shows how the movement's ethic of work and service has allowed it to spread so widely.
A symposium: “Does Focusing on the Failures of the ‘System’ Undermine the Psychological Basis for Economic Recovery?” with panelists Tony Blankley, Theodore Dalrymple, Jeff Faux, William Galston, Jeff Madrick, Michael Novak, and Star Parker.
Tamar Jacoby argues that immigration increases our “grit quotient,” but Mark Krikorian believes that modern conditions have reduced the cost of coming to America, making today's immigrants less gritty than their predecessors.
Sam Schulman says that, until the 1980s, the Hollywood Western was the Plutarch’s Lives of grit.
Walter Shapiro, in the “Devil’s Advocate” column, suggests that luck may matter a good deal more than pluck.