Written by Randi Tubbs<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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 \u201cTheology and\u201d series hosted by the Theological Studies program in partnership with various other departments. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Eloe\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhat [the Theological Studies program] is trying to embody in the lectures, is what the theology major is \u2015 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,\u201d Sandlin said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Theology and math are Eloe\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s hard for many people to imagine how to cross disciplinary boundaries because it is hard to imagine that not meaning \u2018teaching each other\u2019s content,\u2019 and we know so little about each other’s fields,\u201d Eloe said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, S.J. \u2015 a French Catholic priest, mystic and paleontologist from the early 1900s \u2015 became a major component of Eloe\u2019s 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the essays, letters and journals that Teilard wrote, there are \u201chundreds 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,\u201d Eloe said. \u201cFor Teilhard, science always had a purpose beyond itself to lead us to God.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe can see every course in every department as able to reveal the face of God,\u201d Eloe said. \u201cWe don’t need to teach each other\u2019s content to embrace the boundaries between disciplines. We just need to quit thinking that God is revealed more fully in only one of them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI see the complexity and order of math come together to solidify my knowledge and security of a savior,\u201d Bensinger said. \u201cI 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.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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\u2019s word intertwining in academics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cGo deep into everything,\u201d Eloe said. \u201cStudents, 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.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15068,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19676","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15068"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19676"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19676\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19677,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19676\/revisions\/19677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}