Math Mystic’s Guide to Creative Spirituality: A Collection of Work by Sarah Voss
Ebook
The Math Mystic's Guide to Creative Spirituality is unique, provocative, engaging, and a masterpiece of philosophical and mystical exploration. It offers gourmet treats for those with spiritual hunger, a feast of innovative perspectives on building social collateral (trust, forgiveness, resilience . . .), and intellectual desserts for the mathematically inclined. User-friendly for the non-mathematician, the book also provides a smorgasbord of resources for those who want to know more about the math. Deeply personal but also scholarly, with an unprecedented use of mathematical metaphors, this book will appeal to mathematicians, scientists, teachers, philosophers, religious educators, and spiritual seekers of many persuasions. A math professor before becoming a Unitarian Universalist minister, the author has compiled herein a lifetime of creative study about the relationship between math and religion. She has pioneered ways to use mathematics to help clarify such spiritual ideas as God, fairness, equality, redemption, and the nature of things. In the process she coined the terms "matheology" and "mathaphor," introduced the notion of math sermons, and has expanded the concept of moral math. This exciting collection of essays (with a little poetry as garnish) uses math as a language to nourish the spiritual heart of our global society.
“A trailblazing exploration of previously uncharted territory, full of surprising and profound insights into the fascinating intersection of mathematical and spiritual realms of human experience. Sarah Voss is uniquely qualified to reveal the wonderful connections between mystical and mathematical ideas, and she has a gift for grounding these ideas in the practical concerns of our everyday lives.”
—Thomas J. McFarlane, author of Einstein and Buddha: The Parallel Sayings
“Sarah Voss takes us on a personal journey in which she connects some fundamental aspects of mathematics to spirituality, religion, and mysticism with openness, gentleness, and sensitivity. Through metaphor, poetry, and history combined with descriptive narrative and observation, she balances human hopes, needs, uncertainties, and moral frailties with realities of life. Offering insights earnest and enriching in equal measure, and with mathematics always at the book’s heart, this is an engaging read whose thought-provoking messages speak to us all.”
—Peter J. Larcombe, professor of discrete and applied mathematics, University of Derby
“Mathematics! Esoteric and ‘over my head’? Mundane and dry? Not so: Sarah Voss shows instead that math is a rich source of valuable spiritual insights. Her wide-ranging imagination will take you on a journey that is entertaining as well as enlightening.”
—Daniel S. Levine, professor of psychology, University of Texas at Arlington
“Sarah Voss has written a most evocative book, one I know I will keep returning to for many years to come. This is a captivating exploration of what Voss calls math mysticism, her unique blend of mathematics and spirituality. Voss knows her theology as well as her mathematics, and she weaves them into a provocatively beautiful tapestry. Her voice is welcoming and hopeful; may many read her words and heed her call!”
—Gizem Karaali, professor of mathematics and statistics, Pomona College
“Do you want to know truth? Do you want to know what is real? Both the languages of mathematical science and the revelations of faith claim to offer us truth. But with a phase/phrase change from metaphors to mathaphors and from theology to matheology, Sarah Voss, the mathematician-mystic, constructs bridges between the two languages so we can better understand—and improve—reality.”
—Vern Barnet, minister emeritus, Center for Religious Experience and Study
- Title: Math Mystic’s Guide to Creative Spirituality: A Collection of Work by Sarah Voss
- Authors: Sarah Voss, Sal Restivo
- Publisher: Wipf and Stock
- Print Publication Date: 2024
- Logos Release Date: 2024
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Ebook
- ISBNs: 9781666742497, 9781666742480, 1666742481, 9781666742473, 1666742473, 166674249X
- Resource ID: LLS:9781666742497
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2024-04-16T01:49:02Z
Sarah Voss is a Unitarian Universalist minister. She is the author of What Number Is God? (1995); Heart to Heart, Voice to Voice (1996); Out of Our Prayers, Hope (1991); Zero (1998); Possum, Beaver, Lion: Variants (2017); and Poems from the Gravel Road (2022). Voss lives in Omaha, Nebraska, with her biochemist husband and two cats and hopes this newest book will inspire younger generations to continue her promising work.