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Column 1: October, 2002 The Mathematics of the Soul. by Sarah Voss In Plato's "Myth of Er" the souls, having left their dead bodies behind on earth, line up to choose their new lives according to lot. Those who draw the first numbers receive first choice from the immense pool of possible lives. The departed souls, in other words, rely upon a random process of ordering, i.e., on mathematics, to help determine the nature of their immortality. But mathematics is more than a practical aid to the soul. To Plato and the ancient Greeks... Column 2: Current Mathematical Theology by Sarah Voss Although the concept can be traced back to the ancient Greeks, the term "mathematical theology" is relatively new. Fifteen years ago, when I was teaching calculus at a small Midwestern college and my career in ministry was still barely a dream... This essay will be included in Spiritual Information, forthcoming by the Templeton Press. Longer and shorter variations of it will appear, respectively, in The Journal of Religious Humanism (February, 2002) and The Unitarian Universalist World (March or May, 2002). |