Alvin Plantinga Awarded 2017 Templeton Prize
Alvin Plantinga, an American scholar whose rigorous writings over a half century have made theism—the belief in a divine reality or god—a serious option within academic philosophy, has become the 2017 Templeton Prize Laureate.
The Templeton Prize, valued about $1.4 million, is one of the world's largest annual awards given to an individual and honors a living person who has made an exceptional contribution to affirming life’s spiritual dimension, whether through insight, discovery or practical works.
Plantinga joins a group of 46 prize recipients including Mother Teresa, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and the Dalai Lama.
“I am honored to receive the Templeton Prize,” Plantinga said. “The field of philosophy has transformed over the course of my career. If my work played a role in this transformation, I would be very pleased. I hope the news of the prize will encourage young philosophers, especially those who bring Christian and theistic perspectives to bear on their work, towards greater creativity, integrity and boldness.”
“Calvin College congratulates Dr. Plantinga in this remarkable achievement and is honored to call him an alumnus and faculty member emeritus,” said Michael K. Le Roy, president of Calvin College
Plantinga did his undergraduate work in the early 1950s at Calvin College, from which he earned a degree in philosophy in 1954. He studied under Professor Harry Jellema, the founder of Calvin’s philosophy department, and credits Jellema’s teachings in helping to sustain him in the Christian faith through times of doubt and uncertainty and for helping set the trajectory of his adult intellectual life.
After Calvin, he received a master’s degree in philosophy from the University of Michigan and a doctorate in philosophy from Yale. He then began his work in the late 1950s, a time when academic philosophers generally rejected religiously informed philosophy. In his early books, however, he considered a variety of arguments for the existence of God in ways that put theistic belief back on the philosophical agenda.
Plantinga’s 1984 paper, “Advice to Christian Philosophers,” challenged Christian philosophers to let their religious commitments shape their academic agenda and to pursue rigorous work based on a specifically Christian philosophical vision.
At the same time, he was developing an account of knowledge, most fully expressed in the Warrant Trilogy published by Oxford University Press, making the case that religious beliefs are proper starting points for human reasoning and do not have to be defended or justified based on other beliefs. These arguments have now influenced three generations of professional philosophers.
“Sometimes ideas come along that revolutionize the way we think, and those who create such breakthrough discoveries are the people we honor with the Templeton Prize,” said Heather Templeton Dill, president of the John Templeton Foundation, which awards the prize.
“Alvin Plantinga recognized that not only did religious belief not conflict with serious philosophical work, but that it could make crucial contributions to addressing perennial problems in philosophy.”
Nicholas Wolterstorff, a former colleague of Plantinga at Calvin College, Noah Porter Professor of Philosophy emeritus at Yale University, and currently a senior research fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture at the University of Virginia, said Plantinga has made a wide and lasting impact on the field of philosophy.
“Hundreds of graduate and undergraduate students have found his teaching compelling and inspiring. His public lectures have regularly drawn hundreds. On a recent lecture trip in Iran he was hailed as a rock star. He has ‘presence,” said Wolterstorff.
James K. A. Smith,a professor of philosophy Calvin, added: “Al Plantinga's work has changed the terrain of philosophy and even the academy more broadly. He has shifted the plausibility conditions of academic discourse, making room for faith in the halls of the university. An entire generation of us have become Christian philosophers because of his example and encouragement."
Plantinga, 85, is the John A. O’Brien Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at the University of Notre Dame, where he taught for 18 years until retiring in 2010. Prior to that, he was a professor of philosophy at Calvin College in Grand Rapids for 19 years.
He has published 13 books and more than 100 scholarly articles. He has also given more than 250 public lectures, including more than 30 named lectureships throughout the United States and Europe as well as in China, Iran, Israel and Russia.
Plantinga has served in various leadership positions as well, including as a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellow, a Fellow in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, as president of the American Philosophical Association (Central Division) and as president of the Society of Christian Philosophers.
Plantinga will be formally awarded the Templeton Prize on Sept. 24, 2017, in a public ceremony at The Field Museum in Chicago.
A video of Alvin Plantinga, a video of Heather Templeton Dill announcing the 2017 Templeton Prize, and videos of Alvin Plantinga from the PBS/public television series “Closer to Truth” are available at www.templetonprize.org.
