Mathematics: David Neuhouser
October 11, 2010: 7:00 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.
Address: "What Does Mathematics have to do with Christianity?"
Mathematics is one of the last things that most people would think of as having anything to do with Christianity. However, the thesis of this paper is that mathematics can be a great help in Christian growth and understanding. My chief witness for the support of this claim will be George MacDonald (the man C. S. Lewis called his master) but I will include others as well as share some of my own experiences. MacDonald was a 19th century author of novels, poetry, literary essays, and sermons. However, he majored in natural science in college and even taught science and mathematics for a while as a part time professor. Some of the aspects of mathematics discussed in this paper that relate to Christianity are reason, imagination, paradoxes, beauty, and obedience.
David L. Neuhouser (Ph.D. Florida State University) is Professor Emeritus of Mathematics at Taylor University. He has served as Mathematics Department Chair, Director of the Honors Program, and Director of the Center for the Study of C. S. Lewis & Friends. He received the Distinguished Professor Award in 1976 and the Sears-Roebuck Foundation Teaching Excellence and Campus Leadership Award in 1989. He also received the Howard Vollum Writing Award for his article “Higher Dimensions in the Writings of C. S. Lewis”. In addition to many articles, reviews, and book chapters, he compiled the anthologies, George MacDonald: Selections From His Greatest Works and A Novel Pulpit: Sermons from George MacDonald’s Fiction, and is the author of Open to Reason.