Environmentalist wins Templeton Prize

Christian Century, April 5, 2003

Holmes Rolston III, an environmentalist and Presbyterian minister, has been named this year's winner of the Templeton Prize, one of the world's most prestigious awards in the field of religion.

A self-described "tree hugger" who teaches philosophy at Colorado State University, Rolston, 70, has been prominent in the burgeoning field of environmental ethics. Rolston professed utter surprise at winning the award of more than $1 million, the world's biggest monetary award for an individual.

Rolston differs from many ethicists in that human beings are not at the center of his studies. He argues that ecosystems--systems of plants and animals as well as human beings--should be at the heart of theological and scientific inquiry.

"I'm trying to keep humans within a bigger picture," Rolston said. "It's a mistake for humans to think they are at the center, the focus of creation."

The prize was founded in 1972 by Sir John Templeton, a U.S.-born investor knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1987. The Presbyterian layman lives in Nassau, the Bahamas.

In recent years the award--whose full title is the Templeton Prize for Progress Toward Research or Discoveries about Spiritual Realities--has gone to a long line of academics working in the fields of science and religion. The 2003 winner was announced March 19 at the UN Church Center in New York.

"I had to fight both theology and science to love nature," said Rolston in prepared acceptance remarks. "Science thought nature to be value-free. Monotheism thought nature fallen owing to human sin," he said. "They [both] agreed that humans were the center of value on Earth."

Rolston, who received his theological education at Union Seminary in Virginia, said it is only recently that Protestant thinkers have taken environmental concerns seriously.--ENI