$3 Million Global Philosophy of Religion Project

The “Global Philosophy of Religion Project: Fundamental Spiritual Reality, Human Purpose, and Living Well”, based at the Birmingham Centre for the Philosophy of Religion at University of Birmingham, has garnered  £2.4million (approximately $3 million) in funding.

The support is mainly from the John Templeton Foundation, along with the University of Birmingham, the William Paton Trust, the JAINA Academic Liaison, and other sources.

The project is led by Martin Pickup (Birmingham) with his colleagues Marie-Hélène Gorisse and David Cheetham as co-investigators.

It follows an earlier Global Philosophy of Religion project led by Yujin Nagasawa.

According to Dr. Pickup, the project

will particularly focus on human purpose, the meaning of life, and what it is to live well, including ‘down-stream’ questions connected to religious practice. It will consider what role (if any) fundamental spiritual realities like God or other divine entities play in addressing such issues. It will expand to cover all religious traditions, including traditions which are at the crossroads between religions, philosophies, spiritualities and ways of life, such as Buddhism and various East Asian philosophies (e.g., Jainism, Confucianism, and Taoism), as well as the position that can be described as the “spiritual but not religious.”

[The project] will support academic research in these areas, and will also include funding streams in teaching and training, and in public engagement and impact. It will pilot science-engaged global philosophy of religion to test whether interdisciplinary collaborations with scientists advance philosophical investigation of the “Big Questions,” particularly when they are addressed from a multi-faith perspective. By enabling high-quality work across varied religious traditions and geographical regions, GPR-2 aims to bring about concrete progress on central questions of human existence.

You can learn more about the project here.