Ralph Wendell Burhoe

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Ralph Wendell Burhoe (May 21^[1] or June 21, 1911-May 8, 1997) was an important twentieth century pioneer interpreter of the importance of religion for a scientific and technological world. He was awarded the Templeton Prize in 1980.

Contents 1 Birth and education and career 2 Contributions 3 Awards 4 Works 5 References 6 See also 7 External links

[edit] Birth and education and career

Ralph Wendell Burhoe was born on 21 June 1911, in Somerville, Massachusetts. He attended Harvard University from 1928 to 1932 as a student of meteorology and climatology, though never completing his degree. He then entered Andover Newton Theological School.^[2] Burhoe spent eighteen months in theological study at Andover. Instead of becoming a minister as he had planned, he returned to Harvard University as an employee of the Blue Hill Meteorological Observatory, finding some success as a scientist. He went on to become an executive officer of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences starting in 1947.^[2] Until 1964, his position at the AAAS brought him into close contact with such eminent scientists as the astronomer Harlow Shapley, the geologist Kirtley Mather, and the biologist George Wald.

[edit] Contributions

In 1955 while a director at AAAS, he helped found the Institute on Religion in an Age of Science. ^[2] Ralph Wendell Burhoe was the founder and former editor of Zygon: Journal of Religion & Science. He pursued a passionate investigation into the differences and similarities of theology and science, becoming one of the world's most informed voices in communicating this evolving research. He played a major role in the interdisciplinary pursuit of issues at the boundary of science and religion by offering a common ground for dialogue. According to Hans Schwarz, the journal Zygon has "achieved a circulation far beyond the confines of theological journals." ^[2]

[edit] Awards

In 1980 he was awarded the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion. He became the first American to win the Templeton Prize.

[edit] Works

Science and Human Values in the 21st Century, Philadelphia: Westminster Press 1971.

• Review: Spencer Lavan, Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Volume 40, Issue 3, (Sep., 1972), page 410
• Review: David O. Moberg, Review of Religious Research, Vol. 14, No. 2, (Winter, 1973), pages 134-134

[edit] References

1. ^ Social Security Death Index[1]
2. ^ ^{a b c d} Theology in a Global Context: The Last Two Hundred Years, Hans Schwarz, Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2005, ISBN 0802829864, 9780802829863, 597 pages, p.561-562

[edit] See also

• List of science and religion scholars

[edit] External links

• Remembering Ralph Burhoe
• Templeton Prize - Previous Prize Winners

v • d • e Templeton Prize Laureates Mother Teresa (1973) • Frère Roger (1974) • Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (1975) • Leo Joseph Suenens (1976) • Chiara Lubich (1977) • Thomas Torrance (1978) • Nikkyo Niwano (1979) • Ralph Wendell Burhoe (1980) • Cicely Saunders (1981) • Billy Graham (1982) • Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1983) • Michael Bourdeaux (1962) • Alister Hardy (1985) • James I. McCord (1986) • Stanley Jaki (1987) • Inamullah Khan (1988) • Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker & George MacLeod (1989) • Baba Amte & Charles Birch (1990) • Immanuel Jakobovits (1991) • Kyung-Chik Han (1992) • Charles Colson (1993) • Michael Novak (1994) • Paul Davies (1995) • Bill Bright (1996) • Pandurang Shastri Athavale (1997) • Sigmund Sternberg (1998) • Ian Barbour (1999) • Freeman Dyson (2000) • Arthur Peacocke (2001) • John Polkinghorne (2002) • Holmes Rolston III (2003) • George Ellis (2004) • Charles Townes (2005) • John D. Barrow (2006) • Charles Taylor (2007) • Michał Heller (2008) • Bernard d'Espagnat (2009)