Mathematics and logic are probably the two fields deemed least susceptible to religious influence. Doesn’t 2 + 2 = 4 and a2 + b2 = c2 (the Pythagorean Theorem) hold whether you’re a Christian, a Muslim, or an atheist? How can religious faith affect the truths of arithmetic or geometry?
As a baby boomer growing up in the U.S. in the mid- to late-’60s, I witnessed major upheavals that provoked society-wide polarized responses: in popular music (Simon & Garfunkel, the Beatles, Bob Dylan), in politics (the Vietnam War, civil rights, New Left protests), in countercultural movements (hippies, psychedelic drugs, the sexual revolution), and even in religion (the Jesus movement, praise-and-worship liturgies).
Mathematics education also underwent a major upheaval in the 1960s with the New Math Revolution. New Math was a reaction both to the limitations of traditional rote learning and conventional curricula and to the urgent social needs of the day. The space race between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. in the late ’50s required a modern, mathematically trained core of American scientists and engineers as soon as possible so we could be first to land a man on the moon. Which we did, in 1969.
New Math programs aimed to streamline mathematical learning by emphasizing constructivist pedagogy and abstract ideas drawn from earlier twentieth-century developments in philosophy of mathematics. Bourbaki’s focus on algebraic structure (associative, commutative, and distributive laws) was adopted, often at the expense of memorizing standard computational algorithms, and mathematical ideas like number were reconceptualized using the foundational notions of set theory. Many teachers, parents, and students found this new theoretical approach confusing and unnecessary; others believed it opened up amazing scientific vistas otherwise unattainable.
Christian Worldview and Mathematics
These social changes were enough to make someone interested in mathematics wonder whether philosophy might be a more responsible path to follow as a Christian. Studying first at Trinity Christian College (under Calvin Seerveld and Pete Steen) and then at Calvin College (under Evan Runner) opened me up to the Reformational Christian philosophy of Herman Dooyeweerd and other Dutch thinkers. The motto popularized by Runner (“All of Life is Religion”) encapsulated Abraham Kuyper’s “every-square-inch” claim that all of life is under the Lordship of Jesus Christ.
But did this include mathematics? Without mentors to help think through what such an integral worldview approach to mathematics might be, it was challenging to trace the connections. I had an “aha” moment one day, however, while wandering in a used bookstore. A New Math curriculum guide I stumbled across recommended that children first be introduced to the concept of a set (collection), then to the idea of one-to-one correspondence (matching), and finally to the notion of the cardinality/number of a set—that unique property shared by all and only those sets in one-to-one correspondence with the given set.
Wow, I thought: the idea that mathematics should be reduced to a theory of logical classes, one-to-one correspondence, and equivalence relations, the turn-of-the-century philosophical outlook advocated by logicism as the way to make mathematics absolutely secure, was here being implemented in the lower elementary grades! I asked myself, if a secular perspective on mathematics could be used as a basis for mathematics education, couldn’t a Christian outlook on mathematics play a similar role?
What might such a Christian perspective on mathematics look like? I thought it should at minimum involve some stance on the foundations of mathematics, so my graduate-level study of mathematics in the ’70s included courses in history of mathematics, philosophy of mathematics, and mathematical logic. I also participated in a week-long summer workshop in Toronto led by Harro Van Brummelen that focused on developing a Christian perspective on elementary and secondary school mathematics for Christian schools.
Bibliographic Resources for Christian Mathematicians
Around the same time, the question of how to relate Christianity to mathematics was becoming more existential for mathematics professors at Christian colleges, especially those then being asked to write a faith-and-learning position paper in their field as part of the tenure process. Developing some consensus about how to link faith to mathematics was also behind Bob Brabenec’s invitation to interested folks to attend the 1977 conference at Wheaton College on “A Christian Perspective on the Foundations of Mathematics,” the first of what was to become a regular series of biennial conferences sponsored by the Association of Christians in the Mathematical Sciences (ACMS). In preparation for the conference, Bob compiled a collection of nine readings addressing various aspects of this issue that attendees could read prior to the meeting.
Gene Chase and I met at this conference and decided to collaborate on developing a more complete inventory of resources we already knew about or that we might discover. The resulting annotated Bibliography of Christianity and Mathematics: 1910 – 1983, published as a booklet by Dordt Press, contained nearly 300 items, far more than we had anticipated. Anyone interested in obtaining a copy of an item could request a photocopy from us for cost.
Over the years, Gene and I collected additional references, although Gene found more time to devote to this than I did. He computerized our initial collection, eliminated a number of ephemeral student items, and added approximately 70 new references, growing the Bibliography to about 350 items. In a 2005 ACMS talk, Gene shared his plan to produce a revised edition of the Bibliography. He also set basic criteria for what to include in the Bibliography: it should deal substantively with how mathematics connects to the Christian faith, theology, or worldview, in either direction, and it should not be limited to the time period covered by the first edition, especially since many qualifying ACMS items had been produced in the meantime.
For whatever reason, this edition did not materialize, so in 2020, as retirees, Gene and I decided to work toward updating our Bibliography with a second edition. Sadly, Gene died shortly thereafter from COVID-19 (see my 2023 ACMS tribute to Gene). Consequently, I continued the work on my own.
Bibliography of Religious Faith and the Mathematical Sciences
The first edition of the Bibliography had been compiled using shoe-leather, book-in-hand investigation—perusing catalogues, indexes, shelved books and journals, requesting inter-library-loan books and articles, etc.—a painstaking process increasingly foreign to today’s academics with ready access to computer-based resources. For the current edition of the Bibliography, I decided instead to use Zotero, a personal research assistant that provides excellent tools for collecting, importing, organizing, and annotating items into an online database. This makes it freely available in a digital form and allows me to continue updating it as needed.
Connecting religious faith to some aspect of the mathematical sciences has burgeoned since the publication of the first printed edition 40-plus years ago. This is due in part to ongoing reflections and presentations by ACMS members, but it has also become more common for others, even members of other religions, to reflect on how mathematics might be related to faith. Professional mathematicians and philosophers of mathematical practice have also begun to ponder the broader ethical context and moral implications of the discipline, especially now that artificial intelligence has successfully entered the picture. All of this led me to broaden the focus of the Bibliography into the Zotero library Bibliography of Religious Faith and the Mathematical Sciences. Items are now included that treat a broader range of fields and topics (mathematical sciences) and from a broader range of perspectives (religious faith, both Christian and non-Christian). The original focus on Christianity and mathematics, however, remains central and substantial. Users will find items written from a Reformational philosophical perspective as well as ones advocating a Roman Catholic/Thomist outlook.
Entries go beyond published peer-reviewed documents to include blog posts, interviews, and video recordings, though some of these web-based items will undoubtedly disappear over time. My goal has been to include anything publicly available on the topic of religion and mathematics. At present, I’ve catalogued and annotated over 1925 items, many more than I had when I began expanding the database in 2023, though I optimistically believed I might be nearing closure after reaching about 750 items.
Potential Uses of the Bibliography
I’ve attempted to make the new edition of the Bibliography as accessible as possible. In addition to giving standard bibliographic information for each item, I’ve included an abstract generated either from the item itself or based on my reading of it. Numerous key words (“tags”) are provided for each item, and items are linked to anything else in the database that they explicitly connect with. I’ve also introduced a folder structure to help link items with obvious connections, such as resources appearing in the same conference proceedings/journal or dealing in a substantial way with a particular topic. Links to items’ locations are provided, and wherever possible, a copy is attached to the item’s listing.
I suspect the Bibliography will be most helpful for those wanting to thoughtfully consider how religious faith impacts work in mathematics or conversely, either for themselves or for the students they teach. It should be useful for exploring global foundational issues, relating mathematics to philosophy or theology, or for focusing on a particular topic—beauty, ethics, prophecy, apologetics, intelligent design, infinity, chance and divine sovereignty, artificial intelligence, mathematization, mathematics education, etc. The Bibliography also includes items with a biographical or historical focus. Readers will find some sources with a sympathetic perspective to help them further develop their own viewpoint and some items that will challenge their basic preconceptions. Whatever the interest, I hope that users of the library will find something of value.
I have tried to be as comprehensive as possible, but new items appear continuously. If you are aware of an item that should be in the Bibliography but isn’t, or if you just want to give some feedback to the Bibliography, you can contact me at calvin.jongsma@dordt.edu.
