| Paul Marston: John Polkinghorne Wins Major Prize |  |
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Date: 22 March 2002
The Templeton Prize is worth 1 million dollars – intentionally more than the Nobel Prize. Begun in 1972 as the "Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion" (when Mother Theresa was given it) it is now for "Progress Toward Research or Discoveries about Spiritual Realities". Bizarrely to many of us who believe that the truth and content of belief is important as well as its sincerity, winners hold a wide diversity of beliefs including very liberal theologies, and a variety of other religions. Viewed from any angle, however, one can only congratulate John Polkinghorne for deserved recognition. When a recent "creationist" controversy hit the British media, John in a radio interview insisted that he was a "creationist" – albeit he accepts the big bang cosmology and the organic process of evolution. John Polkinghorne's God is one who acts in the world, both inside and outside what we call "natural processes" – in the words of the Nicene Creed: We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is seen and unseen. We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, one in Being with the Father. Through him all things were made. One of his books – interestingly in view of Scibel's own theologically conservative basis of belief - was based on his Gifford Lectures, which defended the rationality of the Nicene Creed phrase by phrase. This has come out under two titles:
More information on John and his work is on http://www.templetonprize.org/news.html |
John Polkinghorne, now 71, resigned a
prestigious position as Professor of Mathematical Physics at the
University of Cambridge in 1979 to pursue theological studies, becoming an
Episcopalian (C of E) minister in 1982. His theology is essentially
conservative (though doubtless this statement will result in a flurry of
half-understood and carefully mined misquotes from critics to "prove" he
is a liberal!), but his breadth of understanding and independence of
thought have rightly gained him admirers of all kinds. The current
Astronomer Royal, Martin Rees, is an atheist, but is respectful of the
views of his former teacher and mentor John Polkinghorne and does not
rubbish them. He is one of few authors who can get books from a genuinely
Christian viewpoint into secular bookstores.
Science and Christian Belief
Faith of a Physicist