Who is John Polkinghorne?
Born as John Charlton Polkinghorne, he was raised in a quietly devout Chruch of England family. His mathematical abilities were very apparent at his younger age, which would enable him to go on to collect an assortment of degrees over the years he studied, which would help him maximize his potential over his career.
Rev Dr. John Polkinghorne studied at Cambridge University, England. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society and a former President of Queens’ College, Cambridge. Born on the 16th of October 1930 in Weston-super-Mare, England, and was married to Ruth, his first and only wife, until she sadly passed in 2006.
During their marriage, they gave life to three children, Peter, Isobel, and Michael.
In his younger years, he went to the Elmhurst Grammar School, Street, Somerset; further developing a career as a Physistictat when attending Trinity College, Cambridge, where he studied under Dirac and Abdus Sallam. Elected as a fellow of Trinity in 1954, and gained his Ph.D. in 1955, Dr. John Polkinghorne went onto to become a Lecturer in Mathematical Physics at Edinbrough: eventually returning to Cambridge to Lecturer in this same field 1958, promoted in 1965 to Reader and then onto Professor in 1968.
Resigning as Professor in 1979, J.C Polkinghorne went on to train for the Anglican Priesthood, studying at Westcott House. He was ordained Deacon in 1981 and served as Curate in Cambridge and then worked his way up to be Vicar of Blean from 1984-1986. He was appointed an Honorary Professor of Physics at the Unversity of Kent in 1984 and then appointed Fellow, Dean and Chaplain Trinity Hall, Cambridge. Before retiring in 1996, he was appointed President of Queens’ College; notably saying “You could have knocked me over with a feather”.
He was then honored with a KBE title, Knight Commander of the order of the British Empire, in 1997.
John Polkinghorne: Notable Achievements
Becoming ‘Sir John Polkinghorne‘ in 1997 after being knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for the distunigused service to science, relgiion, learning and medical ethics. J.H had many more notable achievments within his career ontop of this honoray title.
Chairman of Science, Medicine and Technology Comittee of the Church of England’s Board, of Advisory Comittee on Genetic Testing (1996-1999)
Served on the General Synod of the Chruch of England (1990-2000)
Served on the Doctrine Commission of the Church of England (1989-1995)
Part of the Medical Ethics Committee of the British Medical Assocation (89-98)
Awarded the Templeton Prize for Science and Religion; and became the Founding President of the International Society for Science and Religion. (2002)
Received the Honorary Doctor of Divinity title from the University of Kent (1994) and Durham (1999)
Received the Honorary Doctor of Science title from the Univeristy of Exeter, Leicester and Marquette.
John is also an Honorary Fellow of St Chad’s College, Durham (1999) and of St Edmund’s College, Cambridge (2002) and Trinity Hall (1989)
During his time, he also publised several books exploring and developing aspects of the compatibility between both religion and science; becoming a respected author within the industry. Beginning with ‘The Way The World Is’ and creating such books as One World, Questions of Truth, Science and Creation, and Science and Providence. He has continued in his efforts to identify the relations between both viewpoints and has continued to create a number of books, the entire list can be found here.
John Polkinghorne Quotes
Being such an insightful person, John Polkinghorne had many great quotes that are still recognized today amongst religion and science; these are taken from the various books and interviews which he has produced and participated in over the years of being active in his career. For all of these qutoes, had on over to our blog post ‘John Polkinghorne Quotes‘.