Neoconservative Forbes magazine columnist Michael Novak on Tuesday accepted the $1 million Templeton Prize, established with the stated purpose of countering the Nobel Prize with an emphasis on religion.
The award was announced at the Church Center for the United Nations in New York.Last year's winner was convicted Watergate criminal Charles Colson, who donated much of the $1 million prize to the Prison Fellowship program he started to minister to inmates after serving his own prison sentence.
Other past winners include Mother Teresa, the Rev. Billy Graham and Alexander Solzhenitsyn.
Now in its 22nd year, the annual Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion rewards those who show "extraordinary originality in advancing humankind's understanding of God and/or spirituality," said a statement from the prize committee.