uch of the Foundation’s high profile work promoting religion-science dialogue involves bringing together top-notch scientists and leading theologians with pedigrees from the world’s finest universities. These are men and women who, in most cases, have spent decades rising to the top of their professions. But why not cultivate intellectual leaders earlier in their careers and jumpstart the dialogue?

That’s exactly the aim of the Oxford Seminars (Click here for 2003-2005 Templeton Oxford Seminar Participants) that ran from 1999 to 2005 and brought dozens of young faculty members to Oxford University for summer programs designed to open minds and forge human links. “What we are doing is generating the next crop,” says Dr. Alister McGrath, a biochemist and reformation historian at Oxford University, who directs the program.

The second round of seminars ran for three consecutive summers from 2003 to 2005 and drew 34 participants from around the world to Oxford for an intensive program of lectures, workshops and discussion groups. One of the seminars’ central aims was to generate a ferment of ideas among participants that would lead to published works and start-up projects.

The Council for Christian Colleges (CCCU), and Universities, based in Washington, DC, administers the seminars and, as a result, the participants have tended to be Evangelical Christians. “The CCCU and the Templeton Foundation fully expect that this new round will produce a cadre of scholars who are prepared to help lead the future conversations between science and Christian faith,” said Ronald Mahurin, CCCU’s Vice President for Professional Development and Research, at the launch of the second, three-year round of seminars.

The collaboration has resulted in Christian academics hearing lectures in Oxford by the likes of 2006 Templeton Prize winner John Barrow, the mathematician who delivered “Simplicity and Complexity—A Secret of the Universe.” According to McGrath, the second round of seminars is the last. “It has achieved its goals very successfully,” he says. But McGrath doesn’t rule out reviving the seminars in the future.

www.cccu.org/projects/templeton