Notre Dame philosopher Alvin Plantinga wins Templeton Prize

SOUTH BEND, Ind. – Retired University of Notre Dame philosophy professor Alvin Plantinga has won one of the world’s leading religion prizes.

Plantinga, whose writings over half a century made belief in god or a divine reality a serious option within academic philosophy, was announced Tuesday as the winner of the 2017 Templeton Prize. The honour from the John Templeton Foundation comes with a $1.4 million award.

Plantinga taught at Notre Dame for 28 years until retiring in 2010 and, before that, at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, from 1963 to 1982.

The Templeton Prize honours a living person who has made an exceptional contribution to affirming life’s spiritual dimension. Previous winners include Mother Teresa, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and the Dalai Lama.

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This story has been corrected to show Platinga taught at Notre Dame for 28 years, not 18 years.