Priest-Physicist Polkinghorne Wins Templeton Religion Prize
John C. Polkinghorne, a British mathematical physicist and Anglican priest whose popular writings on reconciling religion and science have helped propel the boom of public interest in the field, was named winner of the 2002 Templeton Prize on Thursday.
The $1-million religion award is the world’s largest annual monetary prize awarded to an individual. It was created in 1972 by Sir John Templeton, a global investor who wanted to offer a prize exceeding the Nobels to underscore his belief in the importance of advances in spiritual discoveries.
Polkinghorne, 71, calls himself a “two-eyed scientist-theologian” who needs both the scientific lens to study the processes of the world and the religious one to understand whether they have divine meaning and purpose.
“I’ve tried to take both religion and science seriously and try to see them as complementary to each other and not rivals,” he said in an interview from New York, where the prize was awarded. “The most important thing that they have in common is that both believe there is truth to be sought and found.”
He argues that evolution and the “Big Bang” theory of the origin of the universe are compatible with belief in God as creator and that evil, disease and suffering can be explained as the inevitable result of a God-given freedom for “creation to make itself.” But he says “the jury is still out” on such theories as “intelligent design,” whose advocates assert that creation’s complexity can only be explained as the work of a purposeful designer.
In recent years, the study of religion and science has taken off as a hot field of intellectual inquiry. The interest has fueled a spate of new magazines on the topic, such as “Science and Spirit,” books on the “biology of belief” and other popular topics, and a plethora of college courses at institutions including Princeton and UC Berkeley.
Polkinghorne’s voluminous writings on the topic--along with Templeton’s financial support of related research--have helped propel the burgeoning interest. The priest has written more than 20 books, including his first foray into the subject nearly two decades ago, “The Way the World Is,” on how a thinking person can be a Christian. He says he views his most important work as “The Faith of a Physicist,” published in 1994, which defends the rationality of believing in the resurrection of Christ and other tenets of the Nicene Creed.
Polkinghorne attended the University of Cambridge, where he earned an undergraduate degree in mathematics and advanced degrees in quantum field theory and theoretical elementary particle physics. He became a professor of mathematical physics at Cambridge, mentoring a generation of physicists exploring the mysteries of subatomic matter. His models for measuring the trajectory of fast-moving subatomic particles using the theory of relativity are considered his most significant scientific contributions.
In 1979, at age 49, Polkinghorne suddenly decided to switch gears. He resigned his teaching post, began theological studies at Westcott House in Cambridge and was ordained an Anglican priest in 1982.
After two years as a parish priest, he accepted an invitation to return to Cambridge as dean of Trinity Hall and became president of Queen’s College, Cambridge, three years later. He retired in 1996 and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II the next year.
