Kevin James Sharpe (23 January 1950 – 6 November 2008) was a mathematician, theologian, archaeologist, Anglican priest and professor at

Union Institute & University Union Institute & University (UI&U) was a private online university that was headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio. It also operated satellite campuses in Florida and California. In early 2023, it began to experience severe financial challenge ...

. He was known for his publications on the

relationship between religion and science The relationship between religion and science involves discussions that interconnect the study of the natural world, history, philosophy, and theology. Even though the ancient and medieval worlds did not have conceptions resembling the modern ...

, on the interpretation of

quantum physics Quantum mechanics is the fundamental physical Scientific theory, theory that describes the behavior of matter and of light; its unusual characteristics typically occur at and below the scale of atoms. Reprinted, Addison-Wesley, 1989, It is ...

David Bohm David Joseph Bohm (; 20 December 1917 – 27 October 1992) was an American scientist who has been described as one of the most significant Theoretical physics, theoretical physicists of the 20th centuryDavid Peat Who's Afraid of Schrödinger' ...

, as well as for his investigations with Leslie Van Gelder on

finger fluting In prehistoric art, finger flutings are lines that fingers leave on a soft surface. Considered a form of cave painting, they occur in caves throughout southern Australia, New Guinea, and southwestern Europe, and were presumably made over a conside ...

s in the

Rouffignac cave The Rouffignac cave, in the French commune of Rouffignac-Saint-Cernin-de-Reilhac in the Dordogne département, contains over 250 engravings and cave paintings dating back to the Upper Paleolithic. In conjunction with other caves and abris of the ...

Education

In 1975, he obtained a Ph.D. in

mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...

from

La Trobe University La Trobe University is a public university, public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. Its main campus is located in the suburb of Bundoora, Victoria, Bundoora. The university was established in 1 ...

, Melbourne, Australia, under supervision of Graham Elton, with a thesis entitled “Relationships between Group Topologies”. on personal web site (downloaded 13 April 2012) In 1976, Sharpe was ordained as an

Anglican priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deity, deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in parti ...

.Obituary
Union Institute & University (downloaded 13 April 2012) He obtained a second Ph.D. in

religious studies Religious studies, also known as religiology or the study of religion, is the study of religion from a historical or scientific perspective. There is no consensus on what qualifies as ''religion'' and definition of religion, its definition is h ...

in 1987 from

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a Private university, private research university in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. BU was founded in 1839 by a group of Boston Methodism, Methodists with its original campus in Newbury (town), Vermont, Newbur ...

, Boston, Massachusetts, for work performed under supervision of Professors Robert S. Cohen of the Philosophy Department, and Harold H. Oliver with the topic “Christian Theology and the Physics, Metaphysics, and Mathematics of

”, which later led to his book published in 1993.

Career

Since 1987, Kevin Sharpe was professor in the Graduate College of the

, Cincinnati, and associate director of research at the ''

Ian Ramsey Ian Thomas Ramsey (31 January 1915 – 6 October 1972) was a British Anglican bishop and academic. He was Professor of the Philosophy of Religion at the University of Oxford, and Bishop of Durham from 1966 until his death in 1972. He wrote e ...

Centre for Science and Religion'',

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

, England. He was editor of ''Theology and the Sciences'' of the ''

Fortress Press Augsburg Fortress Publishers is the official publishing house of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). Headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Through various imprints, Augsburg Fortress Publishers publishes worship, music, curricu ...

'' series as of 1991, founding editor of '' Science & Spirit'', and member of the advisory boards of ''

Anthropology of Consciousness ''Anthropology of Consciousness'' is the primary publication of the Society for the Anthropology of Consciousness, a section of the American Anthropological Association (AAA). It has been published since 1990. Editors Nicole Torres and Gary Moore ...

'', of '' Zygon: Journal of Religion & Science'' and of the ''Center for Humility Theology'' at the

John Templeton Foundation The John Templeton Foundation (Templeton Foundation) is a Philanthropy, philanthropic organization founded by John Templeton in 1987. Templeton became wealthy as a Contrarian investing, contrarian investor, and wanted to support progress in relig ...

. Sharpe authored more than 130 journal articles.

Finger flutings

Together with his second wife, Dr. Mary Catherine Lacombe, Kevin J. Sharpe wrote several articles on finger flutings, after doing research in the Rouffignac cave and in Australian caves. Dr. Lacombe, who had a PhD in writing along with experience in childhood education made the connection between these finger flutings and mnemonic devices that young children use. and .) Continuing with his third wife Leslie Van Gelder, Kevin J. Sharpe, pursued his interest in archaeology lectured extensively on early

cave painting In archaeology, cave paintings are a type of parietal art (which category also includes petroglyphs, or engravings), found on the wall or ceilings of caves. The term usually implies prehistoric art, prehistoric origin. These paintings were often c ...

s and markings, in particular on

s by men, women, and children in the

. They continued to interpret these as early

mnemonic A mnemonic device ( ), memory trick or memory device is any learning technique that aids information retention or retrieval in the human memory, often by associating the information with something that is easier to remember. It makes use of e ...

devices and a precursor to writing.Zypon: Journal of Religion & Science, March 2010 editorial
(downloaded 13 April 2012)

Books

* Kevin J. Sharpe: ''Science of God: Truth in the Age of Science'', Rowman and Littlefield, 2006, * Kevin J. Sharpe, Rebecca Bryant: ''Has Science Displaced the Soul? Debating Love and Happiness'', Rowman and Littlefield, 2005, * Kevin J. Sharpe: ''Sleuthing the Divine: The Nexus of Science and Spirit'', Minneapolis, Fortress Press, 2000, * Kevin J. Sharpe: ''David Bohm's World: New Physics and New Religion'', Bucknell University Press, 1993, * Kevin J. Sharpe: ''From Science to an Adequate Mythology'', Science, Religion, and Society Series, No. 1, 1984,

References

External links

*

Union Institute & University {{DEFAULTSORT:Sharpe, Kevin J. 1950 births 2008 deaths 20th-century American mathematicians 20th-century American theologians 21st-century American theologians