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Joyful Mathematics:�Worshipping The Creator by Delighting in His Creation

Erica Oldaker

Gordon College

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Can you think of a time when an encounter with mathematics inspired a sense of wonder, awe, or excitement?

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A Story of�Joyful Mathematics

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I’ve got several such stories, but I will limit myself to one, for now. It was the fall of my junior year, and fresh off a year of mathematical disillusionment, I was finally taking Calculus III, multivariable calculus. The previous year I had taken Calculus II, and as my students have heard many times, I despised it. It was the first time I had ever failed a math exam and it made me seriously question my commitment to my math major, despite choosing that path from a very young age. (At a fundamental level, calculus is about the mathematics of change. Multivariable calculus takes that mathematics and brings it into the three-dimensional (and beyond!) world.) In Calculus III, we looked at the equations that describe three dimensional shapes, or surfaces. Our teacher had (at the time) cutting edge graphing software that would let us look at these surfaces and it even featured an option to view them in 3D (like the movies). She brought in 3D glasses and we looked at the shapes and when I saw the first one (an ellipsoid), I exclaimed “you could find the equation of an egg?!” My mind was set alight with the way our world could be described mathematically. The image of the ellipsoid inspired and delighted me and captivated my imagination for what was possible with mathematics.

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This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA-NC

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA

Wikipedia

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Another source of awe…

Wikipedia

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Defining Joy

Miroslav Volf

“Emotional attunement between the self and the world – usually a small portion of it – experienced as a blessing”
Relies on subjective perception and objective reality (not entirely self-generated)

Marianne Meye Thompson:

“Joy because of the good that one has or experiences”
Response to God’s good ordering of the world

Joy is a good and right response to a good and right thing

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Beauty vs. Joy

BEAUTY

Property of an object
Independent of my experience
Objective?

JOY

Response to an object
Emotion
Subjective reaction to the external

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“The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him (and his good gifts?) forever.”

Westminster Shorter Catechism (with added comment)

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Put It Into Practice

Mathematics is not the ultimate source of our joy
God orders the world
Recognize and redirect
Cultivate an attitude of joy in ourselves and our students

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Rejoice always

1 Thessalonians 5:16 (NIV)

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Thank you!

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Works Cited

Thompson, M. M. (2015). Reflections on joy in the Bible. In Joy and Human Flourishing (pp. 17–38). https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt155j2mp.5
Volf, M. (2015a). The Crown of the good life: In Joy and Human Flourishing (pp. 127–136). https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt155j2mp.9