A worldwide call for compelling and thoughtful essays on the meaning and value that purpose brings to human experience defines The Power of Purpose initiative. To lure both the shy and the bold, the experienced and the as yet undiscovered, the program is offering substantial monetary prizes. Participants may write personal reflections, journalistic reports, scientific inquiries or fiction. Professional writers as well as unpublished writers are encouraged to enter. The awards will be given in 2004.

The world needs more focus in terms of purpose,” says Michael Reagan, founder of Lionheart Books and director of the Power of Purpose initiative. “We want to give the world meaningful examples of purposeful lives that will hopefully inspire other people. In spite of the fact that I’ve lived in the commercial world, I’m a hopeless romantic, and I think people can be inspired when they read stories of other people who have done great things.”

As far back as Plato and Aristotle, philosophers have considered the goal or purpose of natural phenomena intrinsic to understanding it. In the 18th and 19th centuries it was common to cast the emerging scientific understanding of the world in terms of natural theology, which looked for purpose in nature and reasoned from those insights to the nature of God.

Gradually however, this perspective gave way to a mechanical view of nature and skepticism about purpose in nature came to dominate the scientific worldview. The growing influence of science and waning relevance of religion contributed to a sense that the human search for purpose was a futile quest. Many asserted that there was no such thing as purpose—in nature or in human experience.

The Power of Purpose initiative has the ambitious goal of restoring purpose to its rightful place at the heart of our understanding of our world. “We are reaching worldwide,” says Reagan, “and we don’t know what we are going to get. It’s kind of a black hole. You just don’t know when you send out massive amounts of information to, say, India, what kind of response you are going to get.”

The competition will award those individuals that can write the best essays. At the risk of sounding sentimental, Reagan acknowledges that his dream is that this project might actually help change the world a bit for the better. “If we can make some small contribution to the recognition that we need more vision in terms of what our future is and what our purpose is, that would make me a happy man,” says Reagan.


For more information please visit: www.powerofpurpose.org