SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) — Retired University of Notre Dame philosophy professor Alvin Plantinga has won one of the world’s leading religion prizes.

Plantinga, whose writings over half a century made belief in God or a divine reality a serious option within academic philosophy, was announced Tuesday as the winner of the 2017 Templeton Prize. The honor from the John Templeton Foundation comes with a $1.4 million award.

Plantinga taught at Notre Dame for 18 years until retiring in 2010 and, before that, at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, from 1963 to 1982.

The Templeton Prize honors a living person who has made an exceptional contribution to affirming life’s spiritual dimension. Previous winners include Mother Teresa, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and the Dalai Lama.