NEW YORK — John D. Barrow, a British cosmologist and astronomer whose work has helped scientists and theologians find common understanding about the nature of life and the universe, was named the winner of the 2006 Templeton Prize March 15.
The prize — officially called the Templeton Prize for Progress Toward Research or Discoveries About Spiritual Realities — was founded in 1972 by philanthropist and global financier Sir John Templeton and is perhaps the most prestigious award in the field of religion.
At 795,000 pounds sterling — some $1.4 million — the award is the largest annual monetary prize given to an individual.
Barrow, 53, a professor at the University of Cambridge in England, has been acclaimed for reaching a wide audience not only through books and lectures but also through the theater.
The announcement was made at the Church Center for the United Nations in New York. Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, will award the Templeton Prize to Barrow in a private ceremony May 3 at Buckingham Palace in London.
In a prepared written statement, Barrow said, “Many of the deepest and most engaging questions that we grapple with still about the nature of the universe have their origins in our purely religious quest for meaning.
The concept of a lawful universe with order that can be understood and relied upon emerged largely out of religious beliefs about the nature of God.”
One of the cornerstones of Barrow’s thinking is that science has proven time and again that humanity always possesses “an interim picture of the universe” and that, as he said in his prepared remarks, “how parochial (are) our attempts to find or deny the links between scientific and religious approaches to the nature of the universe.”
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