The program “Science and Religion in Conversation: Celebrating the Career of Ian C. Barbour as He Nears His 90th Birthday” will be held from 7:30 to 9 p.m. Tuesday, April 9, in Room 126 of the John R. Roach Center for the Liberal Arts on the St. Paul campus of the University of St. Thomas.
Dr. Philip Rolnick, a St. Thomas professor of theology, said that over the last 40 years “Barbour has been perhaps the most well-known figure in the field of science and religion. In fact, Ian Barbour did much to found this interdisciplinary study in the contemporary academy.”
Ian Barbour lecturing at Carleton College on the relationship between religion and science. (Photo by Kate Trenerry, courtesy of Carleton College.)
Dr. Alan Padgett of Luther Seminary will open the program with an overview of Barbour’s accomplishments. Next, Dr. Nathan Hallanger of Augsburg College will present the paper “A Brief History of Ian Barbour’s Work.”
Following a short video, Barbour will take questions from the audience.
The program is free and open to the public and will be followed by a reception and refreshments. It is co-sponsored by St. Thomas’ Theology and Philosophy departments and the Science and Theology Network.
Barbour, who will turn 90 later this year, earned his doctorate in 1949 at the University of Chicago, where he studied with Italian physicist Enrico Fermi. He went on to teach at the University of Kalamazoo, where he chaired the Physics Department, and later enrolled at the Yale Divinity School to study theology and ethics.
Barbour joined the Religion and Physics departments at Carleton College in 1955 and became Carleton’s first professor of science, technology and society. He has written many books and articles on science and religion and in 1999 received the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion.
For more information contact Dr. Philip Rolnick, chair of the Science and Theology Network, at parolnick@stthomas.edu or visit this website.
