Ian Barbour

Ian Barbour studied at Duke University, University of Chicago and Swarthmore College. The recorded working language is English. The field of work recorded is natural science, theology and theology and science. Employment is recorded with Yale University and Carleton College. Distinctions recorded are Guggenheim Fellowship and Templeton Prize.

• Name — Ian Barbour • Birth Name — Ian Graeme Barbour • Born — 5 October 1923 • Birthplace — Beijing, China • Died — 24 December 2013 • Place of death — Minneapolis, Minnesota, US • Awards — Templeton Prize (1999) • Alma Mater — * Swarthmore College (BS) • Duke University (MS) • University of Chicago (PhD) • Yale University (BDiv) • Thesis Title — Magnetic Deflection of Cosmic-ray Mesons Using Nuclear Plates • Thesis Year — 1950 • School Tradition — * Process theology • theological critical realism • Discipline — * Physics • religious studies • science and technology studies • Sub Discipline — Particle physics • Workplaces — Carleton College • Main Interests — Relationship between religion and science • Notable Works — Issues in Science and Religion (1966) • Notable Ideas — Theological critical realism • Influenced — * Arthur Peacocke • John Polkinghorne

Barbour was born on October 5, 1923, in Beijing, China, the second of three sons of an American Episcopal mother (who was the daughter of the obstetrician Robert Latou Dickinson) and a Scottish Presbyterian father. His family left China in 1931 and Barbour spent the remainder of his youth in the United States and England. A conscientious objector, he served in the Civilian Public Service for three years during the Second World War. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in physics from Swarthmore College and his Master of Science degree in physics from Duke University in 1946. In 1950, he received a Doctor of Philosophy degree in physics from the University of Chicago, where he worked as a teaching assistant to Enrico Fermi. He earned a Bachelor of Divinity degree in 1956 from Yale University's Divinity School. Barbour taught at Carleton College beginning with a joint appointment in the departments of physics and philosophy. He began teaching religion full-time in 1960, when the university established a religion department. In the 1970s, he co-founded of the Science, Technology, and Public Policy program at Carleton, which later became the Environment and Technology Studies program. He retired in 1986 as the Winifred and Atherton Bean Professor Emeritus of Science, Technology and Society. Barbour gave the Gifford lectures from 1989 to 1991 at the University of Aberdeen. These lectures led to the book Religion in an Age of Science. He was awarded the Templeton Prize in 1999 for Progress in Religion in recognition of his efforts to create a dialogue between the worlds of science and religion. Barbour was married to Deane Kern from 1947 until her death in 2011. They had four children. Barbour suffered a stroke on December 20, 2013, at his home in Northfield, Minnesota, and remained in a coma at Abbott Northwestern Hospital until his death four days later.

Ian Barbour is recorded as physicist, university teacher, writer, philosopher and theologian.