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Expanding Possibilities of New Spiritual Discovery.

Andrew Baughen | St James Clerkenwell

Building Soulful Enterprises, A Vision for Value

At its core business is about growing and selling, making and marketing, producing and promoting. There is satisfaction in creating useful products and selling to people who are delighted by the value they receive in exchange for their cash. But before there’s a buyer, there’s a seller. Before there’s a seller, there’s a grower or artist or engineer – or all three. And those creators are...
Cristine Legare | The University of Texas at Austin

The Larger Significance of Miniature Art

Why do some ancient art forms become a vibrant part of the modern imagination rather than merely a historical footnote? Indian miniature painting originated in the manuscript traditions of the Mughal, Rajput, and other North Indian dynasties and has a history spanning over a thousand years. This art form thrives in Rajasthan, with artistic communities dedicated to its maintenance and evolution. Re...
Mario Gollwitzer | Ludwig Maximilians University

Engagement vs. Avoidance: Can Art Be the Difference?

There’s no shortage of atrocities, injustice, and suffering in this world. We see vivid instances of it nearly every time we access the news. Some of us may even regularly encounter it up close as we go about our normal lives. In such everyday contexts, our instinct is probably to turn away and distance ourselves as quickly as possible. Of course, there are exceptions. Some of us may feel such o...
Bahador Bahrami | Royal Holloway University of London

Researching Art Experiences as a Group Dynamic

What do we look at when we look at art? And how does that affect our takeaway from the experience? Our eyes see what is in front of them. But our minds determine what we look at and what we make of it. Our minds are always aware of others around us, which means that the experience of viewing art is fundamentally collective. Every time we visit a gallery or museum, we carry with us a brainful of ba...
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Zorana Ivcevic Pringle | Yale University

From Art Creation to Art Reception

Pablo Picasso once famously stated that “art is not truth; art is a lie which allows us to approach the truth— at least in so far as truth is discernible to us.” A century later, it’s still a provocative idea. It says that art is fundamentally an abstraction of reality. Paradoxically, it also proposes that art is a vehicle for deep understanding, a means of revealing an otherwise hidden tr...
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Jonathan Schooler | University of California Santa Barbara

Engaging the Brain in Art

You don’t have to spend much time in a gallery, theater, or concert hall to realize that art causes vastly different responses. At the same time, it’s not uncommon to hear someone say, “I just don’t know what to make of it.” It’s a simple acknowledgment that the experience is taking them beyond the filters of what they already know, potentially changing what and how they think. Beyond ...
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Alison Jack | University of Edinburgh

Researching Art as More than Pleasure

Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the largest arts festival in the world, annually features thousands of free-spirited, often quirky theater, music and comedy shows. It’s a huge attraction for people from all over the world who come to experience the pleasures and entertainment value of art in many forms. In contrast, the Edinburgh Sacred Arts Festival, which occurs concurrently, focuses exclusively an...
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Gregory Mitchell | IRF Secretariat

Catalyzing Multifaith Coalitions for Religious Freedom

Just two decades into it, there’s an unsettling sense that human progress in the 21st century may be slowed to a standstill or even moving in reverse. A big reason for our growing apprehension is the rise of religious extremism and intolerance throughout the world. Too often it seems like the better angels of human nature may be giving  up and exiting the world stage. Overall, government restri...
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Carlos Miguel Gómez | Universidad del Rosario

Exploring Artists’ Spiritual Searches

In Colombia, South America, a small group is taking on a very big task as they delve into a mystery that is as confounding today as it has been for centuries. “We want to go very deeply into the exploration of spiritual experience and artistic creation,” says Carlos Miguel Gómez, an associate professor in the School of Human Sciences at Universidad del Rosario and himself a poet and philosop...
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Alfonse Borysewicz | BBH Literary LLC

Art and Transcendence

Historically, faith traditions have focused on both the written word and images as sources of knowledge and meaning. Some would claim that words have taken undue precedence as theologies have developed, while i...
Brian Nosek | Center for Open Science, Inc.

Advancing Research Transparency

Among human endeavors, scientific research ranks high as a noble pursuit. Most of us trust science to make discoveries that add to the world’s storehouse of knowledge, solve problems, and make our lives bette...
Oludamini Ogunnaike | University of Virginia

The Knowledge Poets Give Us

Culture has long recognized poetry as a unique medium for expressing knowledge and beauty in profound ways. The poets themselves have articulated this in ways only they can. As William Carlos Williams said, ...
Carl Plantinga | Calvin University

Developing Moral Understanding at the Movies

Most of us have experienced strong effects when watching movies or series. We cry, laugh, swoon, tap our feet, flinch, and sometimes even involuntarily call out in alarm or delight. But we also think. We wonder...
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Kutter Callaway | Baylor University

Measuring Transcendence: IRL

Do you remember the last time a work of art changed you? Usually, these moments take you by surprise. You’re walking through the gallery, the echo of footsteps and hushed voices around you. You turn a cor...
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John Tomasi | Heterodox Academy

Not All Great Minds Think Alike

Higher education in the United States is at a crossroads. Will it maintain its legacy of open inquiry as the path to discovering truth and generating knowledge? Or will it become permanently sidetracked by rigi...
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Multiple Researchers | Multiple Universities, Researchers, and Onsite Locations

The Issachar Fund

With funding from the Templeton Religion Trust, in partnership with Issachar Fund, several distinguished researchers embarked on numerous research projects across three disciplines—Anthropology, Psychology, a...
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Matthew Mayhew, Ph.D. | Ohio State University

Learning About Professors’ Beliefs

Disruptive campus demonstrations centered on the Middle East conflict. Hateful graffiti. Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs under attack. University president firings and resignations. Candidates and leg...
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Dennis Kinlaw | Erskine College

Truth in Fiction: A Cognitivist Approach to Literature as a Source of Spiritual Understanding

There was no deceiving himself: something terrible, new, and more important than anything before in his life, was taking place within him of which he alone was aware. – Leo Tolstoy, The Death of Ivan Ily...
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Jer Clifton | The University of Pennsylvania

Discovering People’s Primal World Beliefs

Have you ever noticed this? People can be in the same place at the same time …. and yet have vastly different experiences. Riding a city bus, for example. Some people appear relaxed. They’re taking in the sights, maybe listening to music, pecking away on their devices or exchanging a few words with someone nearby. Others, however, look tense, their eyes furtively darting or focused downwar...
Robert MacSwain | The University of the South

Exploring Human Goodness as Evidence of God

Does God exist? It’s a question that nearly everyone confronts at various times in our lives. The existence of God is theology’s most basic concern. It’s also an intensely personal struggle. Our beliefs about the reality of God directly affect our views of ourselves and why we’re here. Whatever we ultimately decide to believe, we can’t help but look for assurances that we got it right. A...
Wade Kusack | Love Your Neighbor Community

Religious Freedom Starts with One Voice

After Kusack saw a troubling article about religious persecution online, he was moved to form LYNC and work for greater religious freedom in Central Asia. ...
C. Stephen Evans | Baylor University

Accountability is Relational Responsibility

In Western cultures, we often talk about accountability in terms of demanding that public officials, big corporations, criminals, etc., be “held accountable” for their actions. What we often really mean is that we want them to be punished. But Dr. Evans and his team are asking the question, “What does it mean to be good at living accountably?” To fully explore this question, we must first ...
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Lobsang Tenzin Negi | Emory University

Ancient Wisdom For A Modern World

The ultimate goal of ETSI is to build a bridge between two complementary systems of knowledge by educating future scientific collaborators who can contribute to new discoveries in the science of mind and body. ...
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Bob Roberts | Multi-Faith Neighbors Network

Infusing Collaboration: Multi-Faith Retreats in Sudan

Sudan’s post-independence history has been dominated by political and civil strife. Most observers have attributed the country’s recurring civil war either to an age-old racial divide between Arabs and Africans, or to recent colonially constructed inequalities. But in September 2022, Pastor Bob Roberts and Imam Mohamed Magid of Multi-Faith Neighbors Network (MFNN) traveled to Sudan on...
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Garrick V. Allen | Dublin City University

Words Are Not Enough

It could be said that above all else Sir John Templeton’s aim was “to encourage researches for vastly more spiritual information to supplement the wonderful ancient scriptures.” More concretely, Sir John wanted to encourage researchers to draw on novel sources of data, and to follow progressive methods of intellectual discovery such as we find in the scientific method. ...
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Wendy Cadge | Brandeis University

Chaplains: Leading Amidst Change

American religious life is changing fast. More people than ever describe themselves as unaffiliated with a religion, especially those under 30. Yet those unaffiliated continue to face unavoidable human challenges such as loss, sickness, life transitions, and death. Chaplains (or “spiritual care providers”) have long served people in the midst of life’s challenges in places like hospitals, ho...
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Dominic Johnson & Michael Price | St. Anthony’s College, Oxford and Brunel University, London

An Evolutionary Perspective

At least seven billion of the world’s nearly eight billion people today subscribe to some sort of religion, compared to only about 500 million atheists.* Clearly, religious belief has enjoyed staying power in human history. But why? So far, answers to that question have been mostly based on opinions rather than empirical evidence. At the turn of the 20th century, Harvard philosopher and psycholo...
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Areas of Focus
Art Seeking Understanding

Putting Aesthetic 
Cognitivism to the Test

Science & Religion in Context

Valuing Science and Religion as Mutually Enriching Sources of Insight

Covenantal Pluralism

Going Beyond Religious Tolerance

Social Consequences of Religion

Exploring Religion as a Transformative Force for Good in the World

Art Seeking Understanding

Putting Aesthetic 
Cognitivism to the Test

Learn More about ASU
Science & Religion in Context

Valuing Science and Religion as Mutually Enriching Sources of Insight

Learn More about SRC
Covenantal Pluralism

Going Beyond Religious Tolerance

Learn More about CP
Social Consequences of Religion

Exploring Religion as a Transformative Force for Good in the World

Learn More about SCoR
About Templeton Religion Trust

We're seeking to enrich the conversations about Religions

Templeton Religion Trust is a global charitable trust established by Sir John Templeton in 1984 with headquarters in Nassau, The Bahamas, where Sir John lived until his death in 2008. TRT has been active since 2012, and supports projects as well as storytelling related to projects seeking to enrich the conversation about religion.