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Birth and Early Life
On October 16, 1930, John Polkinghorne was born in the town of Weston-super-mare, England. His family were followers of the Church of England. Even at an early age, his capabilities for mathematics were apparent for most to see. -
Education
Polkinghorne attended Trinity College in Cambridge. He received a bachelor's in 1952 and a Master's in 1955 in mathematics. In 1956, he achieved a doctorate in quantum field theory. Later, Polkinghorne receive another doctorate in 1974 for theoretical elementary particle physics. -
Time as a Professor
Polkinghorne become a lecturer and later a professor in Mathematical physics at Trinity College, Cambridge. While there, he continued his research and theories on elementary particles and eventually aided in the discovery of quarks. Additionally, his research into Feynman integrals were used in the creation of the S-Matrix theory. -
Becoming a Priest
Surprisingly, in 1979, he retired and would go on to become a priest in 1982. While serving as a priest, he would write several books regarding having faith in Religion while still being a scientist. The first would be "The Way the World Is" published in 1983.
Polkinghorne, J., 1983. The way the world is. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press. -
Connecting Religion to Science
Over the next few decades, Polkinghorne would spend his days contemplating and researching how his Religion fit into science and reality. He would end up publishing 5 books regarding physics and an astounding 26 focusing on the intertwining of Science and Religion.
https://youtu.be/C-RBaGLtjEc -
Citations
Turner, D., 2021. John Polkinghorne | English physicist and priest. [online] Encyclopedia Britannica. Available at: https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Polkinghorne [Accessed 7 February 2021]. Closertotruth.com. 2021. John Polkinghorne | Closer to Truth. [online] Available at: https://www.closertotruth.com/contributor/john-polkinghorne/profile [Accessed 7 February 2021].