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Early Life
Polkinghorne was born in Weston-super-Mare, England. During his childhood he attended The Perse School in Cambridge and then went on to study mathematics at Trinity College earning his his PhD and graduating as Senior Wrangler . He served in the Royal Army Educational Corps from 1948-49. -
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Education and Physics
In the early 1950's, Polkinghorne joined the Christian Union at Cambridge where he met his wife. He then accepted a postdoctoral at Harkness Fellowship with the California Institute of Technology. In 1956, he began a position as lecturer University of Edinburgh. -
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Priesthood and research
During his years at Cambridge, Polkinghorne worked on several mathematical and physics theories including the Quark, Feynman integrals, and the S-matrix theory and in 1974 was elected as Fellow of the Royal Society. In 1977 Polkinghorne trained for the priesthood. -
Religious thoughts
Polkinghorne said, "moving from science to religion has given him binocular vision". He considered himself a "critical realist", which is one who believes science and Christianity are similar and should go hand-in-hand. Polkinghorne also stated, "the nearest analogy in the physical world to God would be the Quantum Vacuum." Interestingly however, Polkinghorne did accept evolution and did agree with a literal interpretation of the Genesis one creation.
