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Nancey Murphy is Professor of Christian Philosophy at Fuller
Theological Seminary.
George F. R. Ellis, a specialist in relativity theory and
astrophysics, is Professor of Applied Mathematics at the University
of Cape Town and the B. C. McVittie Visiting Professor of astronomy
at Queen Mary College, London University.
"Winner of the 2004 Templeton Award"
George F.R. Ellis, a leading theoretical cosmologist renowned for
his bold and innovative contributions to the dialogue between
science and religion and whose social writings were condemned by
government ministers in the former apartheid regime of his native
South Africa, has won the 2004 Templeton Prize. The announcement
was made Wednesday at a news conference at the Church Center for
the United Nations in New York.
The Templeton Prize, valued at 795,000 pounds sterling, more than
$1.4 million, is the world's largest annual monetary prize given to
an individual. It will be awarded to Ellis by the Duke of Edinburgh
in a private ceremony at Buckingham Palace on May 5.
Ellis's work on the origin of the universe, evolution of
complexity, the functioning of the human mind, and how and where
they intersect with areas beyond the boundaries of science, has
been covered in such books as the groundbreaking On the Moral
Nature of the Universe from Fortress Press, written with Nancey
Murphy.
Dr. Ellis, a professor of applied mathematics at the University of
Cape Town, specializes in general relativity theory, an area first
broadly investigated by Einstein. He is considered to be among a
handful of the world's leading relativistic cosmologists, including
luminaries such as Stephen Hawking and Malcolm MacCallum.
Ellis joins Fortress Press authors John Polkinghorne (2002), Arthur
Peacocke (2001), and Ian Barbour (1999) who have also received this
prestigious award. The first Templeton Prize was given to Mother
Teresa in 1973, six years before receiving the Nobel Peace
Prize.
The award, officially known as the Templeton Prize for Progress
Toward Research or Discoveries about Spiritual Realities, was
founded by Sir John Templeton, the financier who pioneered global
investment strategies. Since selling the Templeton Group of mutual
funds in 1992, he has focused his talents on stimulating progress
through philanthropy that fosters broader understanding of the
relationship between theology and science. The world's best known
religion prize, the Templeton Prize is given each year to a living
person to encourage and honor those who advance spiritual matters.
When he created the prize in 1972, Templeton stipulated that its
monetary value always exceed the Nobel Prizes to underscore his
belief that advances in spiritual discoveries can be quantifiably
more significant than those honored by the Nobels.
Referring to On the Moral Nature of the Universe, Ellis added,
''Indeed it is only if ethics is of this nature that it has a truly
moral character, that is, it represents a guiding light that we
ought to obey.'' He believes, along with co-author Murphy, that
kenotic behavior is ''deeply imbedded in the universe, both in
ethics and in other aspects of our lives'' and that it is the only
way to achieve what might otherwise be ''rationally impossible'' in
a world fraught with war and insecurity.
Ellis, the father of two children and two stepchildren, and his
wife, Mary, a retired doctor, live in Cape Town.
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