Written by Randi Tubbs
Laura Eloe, part-time faculty member at the University of Dayton, visited Harding March 25 to speak about Theology and Mathematics for the inaugural lecture in the “Theology and” series hosted by the Theological Studies program in partnership with various other departments.
Eloe’s undergraduate degree is in religious education and math education. She taught high school for 29 years before going to graduate school at the University of Dayton in 2013. She then taught at Dayton for 10 years.
Director of the Theological Studies program Mac Sandlin was a student with Eloe at Dayton while he worked on his doctorate in theology. Sandlin and Eloe became quick friends at Dayton and have kept in touch ever since. Sandlin said he invited Eloe to give the inaugural lecture of the series because of his respect for her work and his eagerness to share what the Theological Studies major is all about.
“What [the Theological Studies program] is trying to embody in the lectures, is what the theology major is ― namely, people who are called to different things but always looking for God and to refine their senses of God and eyes to see Him,” Sandlin said.
Theology and math are Eloe’s two passions, and through the years she said she has come to realize that the only real boundaries separating the two, or theology with any other field, were created by humans. God created every discipline, so therefore they all can be related and appreciated together, she said.
“It’s hard for many people to imagine how to cross disciplinary boundaries because it is hard to imagine that not meaning ‘teaching each other’s content,’ and we know so little about each other’s fields,” Eloe said.
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, S.J. ― a French Catholic priest, mystic and paleontologist from the early 1900s ― became a major component of Eloe’s study of the relationship between theology and math. Teilhard wrote for people with anxieties, questions and doubts while also exploring the connected world of theology with mathematics and sciences.
In the essays, letters and journals that Teilard wrote, there are “hundreds of references to mathematics and a number of important mathematical analogies that speak to pursuing and finding God in the world in which we live,” Eloe said. “For Teilhard, science always had a purpose beyond itself to lead us to God.”
Eloe feels that Teilhard beautifully communicates the idea that any separation between theology and people’s interests are completely made by humans. Eloe said that Teilhard is so compelling because he let the patterns of this world become the patterns of his mind.
“We can see every course in every department as able to reveal the face of God,” Eloe said. “We don’t need to teach each other’s content to embrace the boundaries between disciplines. We just need to quit thinking that God is revealed more fully in only one of them.”
A student who attended the lecture, sophomore Luke Bensinger, is a theological studies major along with a math licensure and a major in computer science. Bensinger said he decided to come to the lecture because of his relevance to his aspirations and its application to two out of his three majors.
“I see the complexity and order of math come together to solidify my knowledge and security of a savior,” Bensinger said. “I love how everything orders together and builds off of each other to create the whole concept of math as we see it today. I really took away how solid and spherical geometry work together to show how the entire world points to a singular creator, just like in a cone.”
Eloe left the lecture with a call to action for everyone in the audience. Whether a student, a professor, or just someone who was interested in the topic, Eloe called for them to seek more from their education and become beacons for God’s word intertwining in academics.
“Go deep into everything,” Eloe said. “Students, ring every last drop out of every class you take. Make it clear to your professors that you want to be challenged. Professors, take your students into the depths. Everything is connected. Since God is there to be seen in all of creation, all the ways we learn about that creation reveal the face of God.”
