Dr. Derek L.
Pursey, left, presents award to Dr. Junkin
Erskine Physics Professor Receives “Science As A Christian Vocation” Award
Dr. William F. Junkin III, a longtime Erskine College physics professor now serving as Dean for Learning and Technology, has been selected as one of three 2004 winners of the Daniel W. Martin “Science as a Christian Vocation” award.
Junkin, who has taught at Erskine since 1974, was nominated for the award by Vice President and Dean of the College Dr. Donald Weatherman and was honored at a July 1 luncheon sponsored by the Presbyterian Association on Science, Technology and the Christian Faith (PASTCF) during the 216th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) in Richmond, Va.
Begun in 1998, the “Science as a Christian Vocation” program is named in memory of Daniel W. Martin, distinguished acoustical physicist, first vice president of PASTCF, and first editor of the association's newsletter, “SciTech†.”
Awardees “have demonstrated that their professional scientific, technical or educational work is clearly part of their calling to serve God's people and the world,” according to the Martin program's description, which continues, “These persons have exhibited an effort to understand the significance of their field of endeavor for their understanding of Christian faith and the significance of their Christian commitment for their professional work.”
“Dr. Junkin's professional career exemplifies everything the creators of this award wanted to recognize and reward,” said Weatherman. “When I read the qualifications for the award, it seemed to me that they had written the guidelines for the award with him in mind.”
Junkin was asked to write a brief personal statement about the connection between his faith and work for PASTCF’s newsletter. As part of his statement, he recalled an experience early in his Erskine teaching career that affected him profoundly.
“I remember distinctly the day I learned that there were two hundred billion stars in our galaxy, that the Milky Way was one of thousands of galaxies in our neighborhood, that there were thousands of neighborhoods in this super-neighborhood, and that super-neighborhoods were scattered throughout the universe,” Junkin wrote.
“At that moment I knew that the god I had believed in — a god who could barely manage the world — didn’t exist. God is much more than I had ever dreamed or imagined.”
Junkin said his attempts to relate his world view to his understanding of God produces both “healthy tensions and mutual benefits,” with each serving as a corrective for the other.
“Christianity produces a healthy tension as it guides the scientist part of me,” Junkin said. A number of important questions result from such tension. For example, he asks himself whether he is researching important ideas or primarily striving for publication, and he thinks about ways in which he can use his knowledge to help others.
“I must be sure that science never becomes my god,” Junkin said.
Still, Junkin finds that insights gleaned from science can lead to clearer thinking about his faith. He cites as an example the scientific theories of special and general relativity.
“These theories indicate that our usual concepts about time are wrong,” he explained. “Time probably started when matter began to exist. If an entity were made of light and traveled at the speed of light, that entity probably would experience a present that included all our past, present and future.”
Junkin said he has come to realize that some of his theological questions about free will and predestination “are based upon a view of God who is ‘in time’ the same way I am.
“Maybe God's relationship to time is different from mine," he observed. “This analogy from physics helps me think such thoughts.”
Junkin finds being a Christian as well as a scientist a liberating combination. “I rejoice in being a Christian who is also a physicist,” he said.
“I am freed from worry about my worth,” he said. “God loves and values me regardless of whether my research efforts succeed or fail. My life can be filled with joy and awe instead of stress and fear.”
Junkin graduated from King College in Bristol, Tenn., and earned the Ph.D. at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Known for his creation of Erskine’s mentoring networked classroom, he was named South Carolina Governor’s Professor of the Year in 1995 and won the 2002 Innovation in Education Award for his development of the Web-based technology “Beyond Question,” now known as “BQ.” He is the son of missionary parents and serves as an elder at Greenville Presbyterian Church in Donalds. He and his wife Peggy are the parents of three children and have five grandchildren.
