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To research the religious beliefs and faith of mathematicians in both classical and contemporary areas of mathematics for current courses. Will use research tocompile a collection of s hort summaries about the Christian faith of these mathematicians, including bibliographic information for further research. Will distributethese summaries to students throughout the semester and discuss them as part of class devotional time

Introduction

As a mathematics professor at a Christian college, I am often asked to consider how I integrate my faith with the work I do as a mathematician and a mathematicsteacher. I find this integration of faith and learning to be a challenging and often frustrating task. !pon reflection over the past few months, I have reali"ed that thesource of my frustration is not my inability to put these two aspects of my life together, but rather the difficulty I have in separating them out in t he first place. Theword integration implies a blending together of things which are initially distinct# yet, I have always viewed my mathematical study as an important part of mygrowth as a Christian, as I search for $od s truth and beauty.

In my own e%perience, I cannot recall a time when I considered my study of mathematics to be anything other than an integral part of my personal Christian faith.&erhaps this is true in my life for several reasons. I became a Christian at a young age, long before I began seriously studying mathematics. 'y parents and my&resbyterian church family encouraged me to approach issues in faith from a rational perspective, emphasi"ing reason and respect for $od s power and creativity.

As an analytic thinker by nature, I found this approach to religion appealing. When I attended Wheaton College for my undergraduate education and chose amathematics ma(or, it seemed natural for me to view a mathematician s search for )uantitative and logical truth as part of a larger search for philosophical andreligious truth and beauty. 'y professors seemed to hold this view as well, and they often e%pressed an attitude of worship in their work. *or instance, to aChristian mathematician, the fre)uent occurrence of the irrational number pi in studies of geometry or of +, the golden ratio, in the natural world, or the intricaciesof the 'andelbrot set, may be as awe inspiring and convincing of $od s e%istence as a clear, star filled sky is to the casual observer. 'athematics supplies thefoundation for many of t he applied and social sciences, and Christian mathematicians who e%plore these foundational ideas consider their work to be goodstewardship of their talents and gifts, as valuable to society and the church as the work of a doctor or social worker.

As a teacher, having taught in both secular and Christian environments, I find that students come to mathematics classrooms with a variety of e%periences andattitudes, and many of them do not share my inclination to value mathematical thought and ideas as part of Christian stewardship and worship through discovery.-n the contrary, some students who struggle with mathematical concepts dislike the sub(ect so much that they have a difficult time identifying anything inmathematics beyond basic arithmetic which is useful or relevant to t heir lives. Certainly, a substantial number of students, particularly t hose in general educationcourses, do not enter a mathematics course e%pecting to find e%amples of beauty and elo)uence that they might look for in their art, literature, or ible courses.Teaching at a Christian college, I have the opportunity and responsibility to share my Christian perspective of mathematics with students in my courses, as ameaningful aspect of material we cover in the course. Integrating this perspective into my teaching so that the connections between mathematics and Christianityare clear even to skeptical students re)uires prior planning and organi"ation, and I value this integration pro(ect as a format for organi"ing my thoughts andmaterials to distribute to students.

As an undergraduate student at Wheaton College, I particularly remember learning that many of the mathematicians whose works form the foundation ofmathematics also studied theology and in some cases wrote e%tensively about their religious beliefs. /%amples of these mathematicians include 0ohannes 1epler,Isaac 2ewton, and 3ene 4esCartes. I was impressed as a student t o reali"e that so many of those who made great contributions to mathematical thinking weregreat religious thinkers, and they were drawn to worship their Creator through their work. I was fortunate to learn about the biographies of these men and womenin mathematics history and philosophy courses I took as a part of my ma(or. 5tudents in general education courses or service courses for other ma(ors are likely tohear about the mathematical contributions of a few of these people, in the conte%t of a particular course, but they are less likely to learn about the mathematiciansfaith, unless course and te%tbook material is supplemented by additional summaries. Therefore, for my pro(ect, I intend to compile a collection of short, one pagesummaries, describing both the mathematical and religious contributions of mathematicians whose work is central to the courses I teach, including Introduction to'athematics, /lementary *unctions 6&recalculus7, Calculus, and $eometry. In future semesters, when I teach these courses, I will distribute these summaries tostudents at appropriate times when we are studying the work of a particular mathematician. 'y goal is for students to s ee some of the connections othermathematicians have made between their mathematical studies and their faith, in addition to the connections which I point out regularly in class. I will encouragestudents, particularly mathematics ma(ors, to keep these summaries and use them as a starting point for their own future research. 4uring this spring semester6899:7, I will distribute all of the summaries to students in my 5enior 'athematics 5eminar, a capstone course in which issues of faith and philosophy arediscussed.

I intend for this pro(ect to eventually become part of a larger Integration of *aith and ;earning pro(ect, re)uired by full time faculty at 'essiah College. In this largerpro(ect, I plan to discuss in more depth my v iews of mathematical work as stewardship of $od s resources and discovery of in the small *rench town of ;a

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4esCartes was reluctant to publish many of his works, because he considered himself a devout 3oman Catholic and the Church was threatened at that time by hisideas about the formation of the solar system, and the position of the sun rather t han the earth at the center of the universe. In 'editations, published in 8>D8,4esCartes discusses his philosophical conclusions about the nature of $od, the soul, and eternal truths. The ideas set forth in 'editations have been debated byboth orthodo% Christians and philosophers since they were published, but certainly 4esCartes writings indicate that he sought to apply the same reasoning heemployed in mathematics to )uestions of Christian faith. This is reflected in the following e%cerpt from 4iscourseE

I have noticed certain laws which $od has established in nature, and of which he has established such notions in our souls, that having reflected on themsufficiently it is impossible for us to doubt that t hey are obeyed with e%actness in everything which e%ists or which happens in the world. F

3eferencesE

urton, 4avid '. The History of Mathematics: An Introduction , Fnd ed., Wm. C. rown &ublishers, 4ubu)ue, IA, 8998.

3e, 0onathan. 4esCartes, &ica &ress, 2ew ?ork, 89 D.

8 as cited in urton, p. BBG.

F as cited in 3e, p. 8DD.

Johannes Kepler

0ohannes 1epler was born in 8= 8 in a village in southern $ermany.

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of the first to develop the system of binary arithmetic. Ars Combinatoria, published in 8>>>, summari"ed ;eibni" s work developing the theory of combinations andpermutations. In this work, ;eibni" discusses the language of reasoning that mathematics provides, as a @basic alphabet of human thoughts@ F.

;eibni" s most significant contribution to mathematics was his development of infinitesimal calculus, which he published in 8>:D. !nknown to ;eibni" at the time,Isaac 2ewton had discovered the field of calculus nine years earlier, but 2ewton had not published his work. The simultaneous independent discovery of calculusby both 2ewton and ;eibni" sparked a great deal of suspicion and controversy between the two mathematicians which led to academic tension between /nglandand *rance for years to come.

;eibni" applied the deductive reasoning of mathematics to many fields of st udy, including science, logic, political issues, and even civil engineering.

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countries and observed the conditions of sanitation, personnel, diet, buildings, and methods of care in their health care facilities. 5he took detailed notes on herobservations, organi"ed her information, and drew conclusions about improvements which needed to be made in the ritish system. 5he returned to ;ondon andbecame manager of the ;ondon Womens