Oxford Expects to Launch a $250,000 Theology Prize Funded by Michael Huffington

Oxford University is expected to open a new award next year: the Huffington Prize in Ecumenical Relations. The prize carries a $250,000 award. Town & Country describes it as set to become the Nobel Prize for theology.

Ecumenical relations means the work of building understanding between Christian churches that are divided from one another. The prize is named for Michael Huffington, a former American congressman and Senate candidate who now funds religious scholarship.

His name is already on several pieces of Oxford's academic life. Merton College hosts the Michael Huffington Chair of Eastern Orthodox Christianity, a professorship that a donor pays to endorse, and a post called Huffington's Chaplain. Trinity College hosts the Michael Huffington PhD Scholarship Fund, which supports doctoral students.

Huffington's own path began in science and business. He studied chemical engineering at Stanford University and earned an MBA at Harvard Business School. He then ran for Congress.

In 1992 he won a U.S. House seat by defeating an 18-year incumbent, the officeholder already in the seat. Two years later he challenged Senator Dianne Feinstein of California. He lost by 1.9 percent.

Both campaigns were expensive. His House race cost $5.4 million, and his Senate race cost $30 million. Each set a spending record for its chamber, the House or the Senate.

Huffington has rarely spoken publicly since. Town & Country published a profile of him titled "The Reinvention of Michael Huffington," and in it he said the interview was his first in 20 years.

For readers in the United States, the story is a little unusual. A former American politician is putting money into one of the oldest universities in the English-speaking world, and into a prize meant to rank alongside the Nobel.

What comes next is Oxford's to announce. The first award is expected in 2027.