Mathematicians and their Gods

Snezana Lawrence is a Senior Lecturer in Mathematics Education at Bath Spa University. She has been involved with a number of national and international initiatives to promote the use of the history of mathematics in mathematics education. Snezana is on the Advisory Board of the History and Pedagogy of Mathematics Group (an affiliate of the International Commission on Mathematics Instruction), and is Mathematics Programme Director of the Prince's Teaching Institute Schools' Programme. She in on the Editorial Boards of BSHM Bulletin (as Associate Editor from January 2013) and Mathematics Today. Her website mathsisgoodforyou.com has attracted more than 4 million visitors since its launch in 2005.Mark McCartney is a Senior Lecturer in mathematics at the University of Ulster. His research and scholarly interests include nonlinear dynamics, mathematical modelling and the history of science. He is the editor (with Andrew Whitaker) of Physicists of Ireland (IOP, 2003) and (with Andrew Whitaker and Raymond Flood) of Kelvin - Life, Labours and Legacy (OUP, 2008) and James Clerk Maxwell - Perspectives on His Life and Work (OUP, 2014).

• 1. Introduction ; 2. The Pythagoreans: Number and Numerology ; 3. Divine light ; 4. Kepler and his Trinitarian Cosmology ; 5. The Lull before the storm: combinatorics in the Renaissance ; 6. Mystical Arithmetic in the Renaissance: From Biblical Hermeneutics to a Philosophical Tool ; 7. Newton, God, and the mathematics of the Two Books ; 8. Maria Gaetana Agnesi, mathematician of God ; 9. Capital G for Geometry: Masonic lore and the history of geometry ; 10. Charles Dodgeson's Work for God ; 11. P. G. Tait, Balfour Stewart and The Unseen Universe ; 12. Faith and Flatland ; 13. Godel's "proof" for the existence of God

Perhaps this is the most valuable contribution of Mathematicians and their Gods as a whole: it discusses ideas which must often appear strange to modern readers, and in explaining their context and influence helps us to understand how they captured the imaginations of our mathematical predecessors. This book will appeal to all those with an interest in mathematical history, regardless of their own religious views.