Most people do not advance far in mathematics, and for that matter, do not care to. Often young people comment that they will never use calculus in their profession or in their daily lives. Even many older people will categorically state that they have never used any advanced mathematics in their lives since school. In saying this, however, they miss the intellectual effect of mathematics: mathematics provides a foundational bed of logic that enables a person to compute non-mathematical components in life.
Enter Calculus. Calculus offers us the concept of computing the ideal from a series of approximations. In calculating, for example, the area under a curve, one first thinks of a series of rectangles, the sum of whose areas gives an approximate figure of the area underneath that curve. This approximation is then extended to an imagined infinite number of rectangles (since the human mind, as finite, cannot wrap itself around infinity). By theoretically computing the infinite limit of this approximation, the exact, or ideal, value of the area can be computed. This concept of approximating the infinite or the ideal from the finite or approximate is very powerful.
Let us apply this mathematical concept to a seemingly non-mathematical field--Christianity. In the Christian life, we consider certain ideals--there is the law or standard expected of humans by God, which sinful human beings (and all are sinful) cannot hold to. There is also an example of the ideal, or perfect, Man, the God Man, Jesus Christ. He lived a perfect, that is, sinless, life on this earth, exemplifying to us the ideal (perfect) form of humanity. As Christians, we are called to live Christ-like lives--that is, lives that approximate the ideal form of humanity. In a sense, we are finite approximations to the infinite goodness of God. As approximations of the ideal Man, our objective is to make our approximation closer to the ideal, not to make ourselves look good, but to demonstrate how great God is, just as calculus, when applied to the real world, aims to make a sufficiently close approximation to the exact value.
How do we become closer approximations of the perfect God Man? We need to be empowered by the Spirit, we need to study the Word of God, and we need to learn from others’ more (or less) accurate approximations of Christ. Pursuing Christ-likeness is calculus in the truest sense; calculus of the most important kind.
Enter Calculus. Calculus offers us the concept of computing the ideal from a series of approximations. In calculating, for example, the area under a curve, one first thinks of a series of rectangles, the sum of whose areas gives an approximate figure of the area underneath that curve. This approximation is then extended to an imagined infinite number of rectangles (since the human mind, as finite, cannot wrap itself around infinity). By theoretically computing the infinite limit of this approximation, the exact, or ideal, value of the area can be computed. This concept of approximating the infinite or the ideal from the finite or approximate is very powerful.
Let us apply this mathematical concept to a seemingly non-mathematical field--Christianity. In the Christian life, we consider certain ideals--there is the law or standard expected of humans by God, which sinful human beings (and all are sinful) cannot hold to. There is also an example of the ideal, or perfect, Man, the God Man, Jesus Christ. He lived a perfect, that is, sinless, life on this earth, exemplifying to us the ideal (perfect) form of humanity. As Christians, we are called to live Christ-like lives--that is, lives that approximate the ideal form of humanity. In a sense, we are finite approximations to the infinite goodness of God. As approximations of the ideal Man, our objective is to make our approximation closer to the ideal, not to make ourselves look good, but to demonstrate how great God is, just as calculus, when applied to the real world, aims to make a sufficiently close approximation to the exact value.
How do we become closer approximations of the perfect God Man? We need to be empowered by the Spirit, we need to study the Word of God, and we need to learn from others’ more (or less) accurate approximations of Christ. Pursuing Christ-likeness is calculus in the truest sense; calculus of the most important kind.
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