Abstract

The subjects of mathematics are gifts of the mind which help humans house, heal lead, feed, comfort, protect, and inspire each other. They can facilitate faithful agreements about nature and action across ages and cultures. Since mathematics is often entangled with truth claims, technologies, and theories of reality, both trivializations and apotheoses of mathematics can deform science, degrade nature, and diminish humans. The love of life compels the search for a theology of mathematics: an understanding of mathematical activities, artifacts, and auras in their relations to existence. This essay proposes a theology of mathematics which can say both "yes " and "no" to the reign of mathematics, to guard the dignity and humility of human thought, and support the stewardship and enjoyment of nature, culture, and community. In theology, the doctrine of the Trinity reveals both aptness and limits in mathematical understanding. In mathematics, Plato's "no one ignorant of geometry enter here,can either support or subvert Christ's "no one comes to the Father except through me."