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February 27, 1986, Page 00012 The New York Times Archives

Dr. James I. McCord, president of the Princeton Theological Seminary in New Jersey from 1959 to 1982, was named yesterday as the 1986 winner of the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion, which carries a cash award of about $250,000.

Dr. McCord, a 66-year-old Presbyterian, was chosen for the award because of his work as an educator, particularly the founding in 1982 of the Center of Theological Inquiry, a religious research center modeled on Princeton's Institute for Advanced Studies.

Housed in a two-story Georgian building near the seminary, the center invites a handful of promising or seasoned scholars for periods up to three years to spend full time on theological research, away from the distractions of teaching and academic committees. Dr. McCord is its chancellor. The center has also encouraged conversations between scientists and theologians about such questions as the the existence of a Creator, and several of the eight resident scholars are exploring the relationship between science and religion.

Theology in Eclipse

In acknowledging the award yesterday at a news conference at the United Nations Church Center, Dr. McCord, whose raspy voice retains the slight twang of his native Texas, said the field of theology had been in eclipse for two decades. He said theology had been preoccupied with such peripheral matters as money and sex but not on questions ''of God, the Cosmos, Creation, the human condition.'' ''What we need to do is withdraw from the edges and occupy the center,'' he said.

Dr. McCord said he was also interested in exploring why people's religious consciousness has remained steadfast in the face of the materialistic assaults of modern society. ''Man is incurably religious,'' he said, quoting the philosopher William James.

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Dr. McCord, who will be presented with the award formally on May 13 by Princess Alexandra of Britain, said he would use a good deal of the prize money to further endow the center.

The award, one of the richest prizes in the world, is sponsored by John M. Templeton, a multimillionaire financier who lives at Lyford Cay in the Bahamas. A Presbyterian elder and former Rhodes Scholar, he is president of the board of trustees of the Princeton Theological Seminary.

The nine judges for the award included the Prince of Wales, the American businessman J. Peter Grace, Senator John C. Danforth of Missouri and Jihan Sadat, the widow of the slain Egyptian President.

The 13 previous winners of the annual award include Mother Teresa, Billy Graham and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.

In the 24 years Dr. McCord was its president, the Princeton Seminary increased its endowment to $150 million from $11 million, attracted top scholars and more than doubled the enrollment.

Much of Dr. McCord's career has also been devoted to finding areas of theological agreement between different denominations. He has headed the World Alliance of Reformed Churches and the Consultation on Church Union, an effort to merge 10 Protestant denominations.

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