(RNS) — The leader of a major evangelical publication was named the new president of the John Templeton Foundation, one of the nation’s largest funders of research into spirituality and meaning making.
Tim Dalrymple, currently the CEO and president of Christianity Today magazine, will become the third president of the Templeton Foundation, based in West Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, at the end of July. The foundation, which controls more than $3 billion in assets and distributes more than $130 million in grants each year, funds “interdisciplinary research and catalyzes conversations that enable people to pursue lives of meaning and purpose.”
“We are working to create a world where people are curious about the wonders of the universe, free to pursue lives of meaning and purpose, and motivated by great and selfless love,” reads the foundation’s job description for the CEO.
“Tim’s appointment marks an exciting next chapter for the Foundation,” said Leigh Cameron, chair of the Templeton Foundation board, in announcing Dalrymple’s new role. “His curiosity, passion for thoughtful inquiry, and experience spanning scholarship, entrepreneurship, and organizational leadership will help us deepen our impact.”
Dalrymple, who holds graduate degrees from Princeton Theological Seminary and Harvard, will succeed Heather Templeton Dill, granddaughter of the foundation’s founder, who is ending her 10-year term as its president.
She said Dalrymple will be a “thoughtful steward” of the foundation’s mission.
“The Foundation will thrive under his leadership. I couldn’t be happier about this transition,” Dill said in a statement.
For the past six years, Dalrymple led Christianity Today — an influential evangelical magazine and media ministry founded by the famed evangelical preacher Billy Graham.
During Dalrymple’s tenure, Christianity Today’s revenue grew from $9.7 million in 2019 to $18.3 million in 2023, according to the ministry’s IRS disclosures. Net assets grew from $6 million to $9.9 million over the same period. The publication also expanded its international content and launched a capital campaign that has raised close to $28 million.
“Serving Christianity Today the past six years has been the honor of a lifetime,” Dalrymple said in a statement. “The mission is compelling, the team is exceptional, and the future is bright. While I’m excited to return to the kinds of questions that motivated my academic work, I could not be prouder of what the team has accomplished at Christianity Today.”
Thomas Addington, a former CT board member, will serve as interim president after Dalrymple’s departure.
Ryan Burge, an associate professor of political science at Eastern Illinois University who studies the religious landscape, said Dalrymple’s hiring at Templeton made sense. Dalrymple has the academic credentials and the institutional leadership experience the role requires — along with a sincere interest in spirituality and an active faith practice.
“He checks all the boxes,” said Burge, who has received funding from Templeton for his studies.
Dalrymple, though he is an evangelical Christian, is not a culture warrior.
“There is still a lot of respect in America for religious people who really live out their convictions but are not trying to beat you over the head with their convictions,” Burge said.
Dalrymple said he sees overlap between his doctoral work at Harvard, where he studied religion and the nature of suffering, and the mission of the foundation. He called Templeton’s mission “soul stirring.”
“We live in a world hungry for purpose, where the lines between science, spirituality, and moral imagination are converging in new ways,” he said. “The insights we gain and decisions we make in the next ten years could have profound civilizational effects.”
Dalrymple told RNS in an email that physics was his first love—noting that in fourth grade, he dressed up as Stephen Hawking, who was a hero of his. He’d hoped to double major in physics and philosophy but ended up focusing on the history of ideas.
“Your first love never leaves you, and JTF is positioned right in the middle of the history of ideas,” he told Religion News Service in an email.
He said that his work at Templeton will be inspired by the same kinds of questions that the foundation’s founder pursued and will follow Sir John Templeton’s “sense of awe before the majesty and mystery of the universe.”
Dalrymple said the foundation “invests in human dignity and flourishing, in character and moral formation, amid rapid social and technological change.”
“I find all these questions fascinating, important, and deeply spiritual,” he said. “In an age of artificial intelligence, synthetic biology, and interreligious conflict, our answers to these questions will have profound consequences for the whole of humankind.”
He will miss his colleagues at CT, saying they are “vibrant, intelligent, and passionately committed to living a life of faithfulness.”
“It was mine to serve CT for a time, but the ministry has a far grander story that began long before me and will endure long after me,” he “The future for CT is as bright as it’s ever been.”
(This story has been updated with more comments from Dalrymple)
