| Authorised form of name | Polkinghorne; Sir; John Charlton (1930 - 2021); physicist and theologian |
| Dates | 1930 - 2021 |
| Nationality | British |
| Place of birth | Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, England, United Kingdom |
| Date of birth | 16/10/1930 |
| Place of death | Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England, United Kingdom |
| Date of death | 09/03/2021 |
| Occupation | Clergyman, Church of England |
| Research field | Theology |
| Theoretical physics |
| Activity | Education:
Elmhurst Grammar School, Street (1941); The Perse School, Cambridge (1945); Trinity College, Cambridge BSc (1952), studied under Abdus Salam and Paul Dirac for his Ph.D (1955); Westcott House Anglican theological college, Cambridge (1979-1982)
Career:
National service, Royal Army Educational Corps (1948-1949); Harkness Fellowship, California Institute of Technology (1955-1956); Lecturer in Mathematical Physics, University of Edinburgh (1956); Lecturer in Mathematical Physics, Cambridge University (1958); Professor of Mathematical Physics, Cambridge University (1968); resigned his professorship to train for Anglican priesthood (1979); ordained to Anglican clergy (1982); Curate, Bristol (1982-1986), Vicar, Blean, Kent (1986); Dean of Chapel, Trinity Hall, Cambridge (1986); Fellow of Queen's College, Cambridge, and President (1989-1996); Chair of a Health Department advisory committee on genetic testing (1996); advisor on Medical Ethics Committee of the British Medical Association and the Church of England on ethics; Chair of Science, Medicine and Technology Committee of the Church of England's Board of Social Responsibility; Chair of publications committee of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge; Chair of the joint working party on Cloning of the Human Genetics Advisory Commission and the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority; awarded Templeton Prize for Progress Towards Research or Discoveries about Spiritual Realities (2002) , valued at $1million.
Honours:
KBE 1997 for distinguished service to science, religion, learning and medical ethics |
| Membership category | Fellow |
| Date of election | 21/03/1974 |
| Age at election | 43 |
| Relationships | Parents: Dorothy Charlton and George Polkinghorne
Siblings: Peter Polkinghorne; Ann Polkinghorne
Spouse: Ruth Martin |
| PublishedWorks | The way the World is (1983); The Faith of a Physicist (1984); Belief in God in an Age of Science (1998); Exploring Reality - the intertwining of science and religion (2005); |
| OtherInfo | After a succesful career in theoretical physics, notably formulating the deep inelastic scattering model, Polkinghorne retrained as an Anglican priest. He was an opponent of the 'Intelligent Design' theory of evolution, supporting the general view that God is not a deus ex machina who assembled part of the universe supernaturally according to a preconceived design, but as transcendent love generating the world in such a way that it generates itself. This is similar to the view adopted by Catholic Church, that the accepted theory of evolution is not a threat to theological understanding but a way of enriching it. |
| Source | References:
John Z. Shi, 'John C. Polkinghorne and Chen Ning Yang on the Dialogue between Science and Religion' in Christian Perspectives on Science and Technology, New Series, Vol. 3 (2024), 209-257
Sources:
Newspaper articles
Notes:
Awarded DSc (Exeter University) and Honorary DD (Kent University) in the same week (September, 1994) |
| Code | NA6234 |