Feature: From Sacred Texts to Great Mathematical Ideas
Sacred texts are not only about faith: they manipulate numbers, symbols, worldviews, sometimes genuine thought structures. From the Bible to Descartes, from Newton to Leibniz, this feature follows the unexpected paths through which beliefs, spiritual readings and ancient traditions have inspired mathematical, logical or scientific concepts. A dive into the long history of ideas, where calculation dialogues with meaning.
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The three certainties on which Descartes built all of his physics
How Descartes built his philosophy on three certainties: the existence of the thinking subject, divine goodness, and mathematical rigor.
Number symbolism in the Bible: the spiritual meaning of 2, 3 and 4
Explore the spiritual meaning of the numbers 2, 3 and 4 in the Bible: the divine covenant, the Trinity and the whole of creation.
The Bible’s sacred numbers: 7, 8 and 12
Discover the symbolic meaning of the numbers 7, 8 and 12 in the Bible and their impact on culture, architecture and the Christian faith.
Biblical numbers: 40, 153 and π—meanings and mathematics
An exploration of the symbolic and mathematical meanings of 40, 153 and π in Scripture, from spiritual trials to calculating a circle's circumference.
Newton on space and the divine: a philosophical and historical analysis
Isaac Newton revolutionized our understanding of space by conceiving it as an absolute mathematical framework, distinct from the bodies within it.
Leibniz, the Yi Jing and binary: an unlikely encounter
Discover how Leibniz found a forerunner of the binary system that would revolutionize modern computing in the Chinese Book of Changes.