Templeton Prize Winner Sir John Polkinghorne to Lecture on Religion and Science

WORCESTER, Mass. – Sir John Polkinghorne, one of the world’s greatest living writers and thinkers on religion and science and winner of the prestigious Templeton Prize, will deliver two public talks at the College of the Holy Cross during a rare speaking trip to the United States. The first lecture, titled “Science and the Soul” will take place at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 6. The second, titled “Ethical Problems in Human Genetics,” will be at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 7. Both talks will be held in the Rehm Library in Smith Hall.

Polkinghorne will spend several days at Holy Cross, arriving on Tuesday, October 5 and leaving on Friday, October 8. In addition to his two public lectures, he will meet informally with students and faculty in classrooms.

A world-class physicist turned priest, Polkinghorne began his scientific career as a student at Trinity College Cambridge, where he studied under Nobel-Prize winning physicist Paul Dirac. After earning his Ph.D. in 1955, Polkinghorne taught mathematical physics at Edinburgh, and subsequently returned to Cambridge where he held the prestigious post of Professor of Mathematical Physics. In 1979, he resigned his professorship to train for the Anglican Priesthood, a move that bewildered many of his scientist colleagues.

A Canon Theologian of Liverpool Cathedral and fellow of the Royal Society and of Queen’s College, Cambridge, where he served as president from 1989 – 1996, Polkinghorne was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1997 for distinguished service to science, religion, learning and medical ethics. In 2002, he was awarded the Templeton Prize for Progress Toward Research or Discoveries about Spiritual Realities, the world’s largest and best-known annual monetary religion prize. Founded by philanthropist Sir John Templeton in 1972, the award is worth about $1 million.

Polkinghorne has published a series of books exploring the interconnectedness of religion and science. His best known works include The Way the World Is (1983), The Faith of a Physicist (1984), and Belief in God in an Age of Science (1998).

Polkinghorne has served as chair on a number of scientific and religious organizations, including the Science, Medicine and Technology Committee of the Church of England's Board of Social Responsibility, the publications committee of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (SPCK), the joint working party on Cloning of the Human Genetics Advisory Commission and the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority. He has also served on the General Synod and the Doctrine Commission of the Church of England, and on the Medical Ethics Committee of the British Medical Association.