Book Review – Mathematics: Is God Silent?

by Marc Hays

Last year, my path crossed that of a mathematician named James D. Nickel. I traveled with my family to Cincinnati to hear him lecture at the Toward the Quadrivium conference, which was hosted by Classical Conversations, Inc.  In a single Saturday, Mr. Nickel took Cornelius Van Til’s epistemology and R. J. Rushdoony’s triune solution to the problem of the “one and the many” and applied these truths to the physical world around me. As surely as the triune God who lives has created the “stuff” that exists, He organized His work according to a pattern, and therefore, created it knowable. He has spoken words and He has spoken numbers.  He has revealed Himself and His beauty in both word and number, and He has hidden Himself and His beauty in both word and number. Mr. Nickel opened the doors to this world where number, sequence, pattern, unity, and plurality are perpetually speaking the beauty, goodness, and truth of God’s wonder-filled universe.

In 1990, Mr. Nickel published Mathematics: Is God Silent, and in 2001 it was updated and expanded.  This book is a must read.  There is no need to re-invent the wheel, but after years of abuse and neglect, the wheel needs to be realigned.  Mathematics: Is God Silent is the Christian realignment of the history of mathematics, science, and philosophy.  It is the incarnation of presuppositional apologetics applied to the aforementioned fields of study.  In fact, this book shows the necessary integration of the study of history, science, math, and philosophy under the auspices of the Christian worldview in order to be understood at all.

There are books that teach us that the “subjects” of education must be integrated to be properly understood, and there are books that teach us methods of the integration of the “subjects”. Mr. Nickel has written a book that accomplishes the task and shows us how exciting beautiful this adventure of integration can be.  Did you hear me right? Did I just say that math can be beautiful and exciting?  You betcha.  Mathematics: Is God Silent is a lens that brings distant galaxies, microscopic worlds, as well as things we see every day into sharper focus that we may behold more and more beauty in God’s creation.

Mr. Nickel has a new book being released this summer entitled, The Dance of Number.  You can read an interview with Mr. Nickel about the new book here:

http://pioneerproductions.blogspot.com/2013/06/james-d-nickel-and-dance-of-number-part.html

James Nickel also has a website filled to the brim with free articles.  Go to the Mathematical Circles tab, open wide, and drink deeply:

http://www.biblicalchristianworldview.net/

Here’s a link to Mathematics: Is God Silent at Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Mathematics-God-Silent-James-Nickel/dp/187999822X

Here’s a more in depth article about the book at Classical Conversations website:

http://www.classicalconversations.com/why-study-mathematics-it-is-the-language-of-creation

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