Bibliography of Religious Faith and the Mathematical Sciences

Introduction to Its Zotero Group Library

Genesis and Focus of the Bibliography

The Bibliography of Religious Faith and the Mathematical Sciences began as a booklet published in 1983. Its purpose was to expand a list of nine readings that Robert Brabenec compiled in 1975 for people interested in exploring a Christian perspective on the philosophical foundations of mathematics. In 1977, Bob organized a conference devoted to this topic at Wheaton College, the first of what was to become a regular series of biennial conferences of the Association of Christians in the Mathematical Sciences (ACMS). Following that conference, Gene Chase and I collaborated to develop a more complete inventory based on items we found that went beyond the list. The resulting annotated Bibliography of Christianity and Mathematics contained nearly 300 items.

Over the years, we collected additional references, although Gene was able to devote more time to this than I. Gene worked to computerize our initial collection, eliminated some ephemeral student items, and added approximately 70 new references, growing the Bibliography to about 350 items. In a 2005 ACMS talk Gene envisioned publishing a second edition, but that never materialized. Then, in 2020, he and I decided to revise and update our Bibliography in an enlarged second edition. Unfortunately, Gene died shortly thereafter from COVID 19 (see my 2023 ACMS tribute to Gene). With some initial clerical assistance from Carina Wolfert, a student at Redeemer University in Hamilton, Ontario, I incorporated the items from the first edition plus Gene’s additional items into a database and began adding new items as I discovered them.

Gene’s 2005 paper outlined a basic criterion for including an item in our revised Bibliography: it should deal substantively with how mathematics connects to the Christian faith, theology, or worldview, in either direction, and it should not be limited to the time period covered by the first edition, especially since many qualifying ACMS items had been produced since the first edition. In the present Zotero database, that criterion is expanded in two ways: items are admitted that treat a broader range of fields and topics (mathematical sciences) and from a broader range of religious perspectives. Entries also go beyond published documents to include blog posts, interviews, and video recordings, though some of these web-based items will undoubtedly disappear over time.

The first edition of the Bibliography was compiled using shoe-leather book-in-hand investigation—perusing physical library materials such as catalogues, indexes, shelved books and journals, inter-library loan books and articles, etc.—a research methodology increasingly foreign to today’s academics with access to computer-based resources. For the present incarnation of the Bibliography, I chose Zotero, a personal research assistant that provides excellent tools for collecting, importing, organizing, and annotating items located online or in hard copy.

Developing a comprehensive annotated bibliography in today’s world is both more manageable and less attainable than earlier. Connecting religious faith to some aspect of the mathematical sciences has burgeoned since the publication of our first edition. This is due in part to the ongoing reflections and presentations of ACMS members, but it has also become more common for members of other religions to reflect on how mathematics might be related to their faith and even for professional mathematicians to ponder the broader ethical context and moral implications of their discipline. The result is that, at present, I’ve catalogued and annotated more than five times as many items as I had when I began developing the database in 2023, though I optimistically believed I might be nearing closure after about 750 items. I now realize that the database will ever only approximate what is available at any given time. I will continue updating the Bibliography over the foreseeable future, but it is time to make what I’ve currently compiled available for others to use.

Basic Features of the Bibliography

The Zotero database has three panels. The top portion of the left panel organizes bibliographic entries into a number of collections (folders) and subcollections. Clicking on a right arrow (►) will expand a collection into its subcollections; clicking on a down arrow (▼) will collapse the subcollections back into their collection. Some naturally related items have been placed in collections and subcollections for the sake of convenience; many items are in more than one collection. The bottom portion of the left panel lists the bibliography’s tags or key words.

The middle panel lists the entries in the collection currently being viewed. Various columns indicate the items’ title, creator, item type, publication title, date, date modified, and attachment. Clicking one of these column headings will organize the collection’s entries alphabetically or numerically under that category. A column selector (the book icon above the column headings) allows you to add or subtract columns to personalize your view of the middle panel.

The right panel contains metadata for a highlighted entry. The Info column provides standard bibliographic information, such as title and author, plus source location (DOI, URL), language, and abstract. Other tabs in the right panel bring up Notes, Tags, Attachments, and Related items.

A few additional comments about some of these Zotero features.

Abstracts

Abstracts have been created in several ways. Those written by me are indicated by [CJ]. Gene’s abstracts are indicated by [GBC]; [WJB] indicates a contribution by Jim Bradley. Several items carried over from the first edition were abstracted by Harro Van Brummelen [HVB] and Daniel Francois Malherbe Strauss [DFMS]. Abstracts provided by a publisher are indicated by [P], while an author’s own abstract or words are indicated by [A]. Many of these have been lightly edited or silently abbreviated; if a change is substantial, I include my own initials as well as the other’s.

Notes

This tab allows one to take/save notes about an item. I have not used this feature in developing the Bibliography, but others may wish to make use of it if/when they download entries from the Bibliography into their own Zotero library.

Related Items

This field links items having some explicit significant connection to the entry. Chapters are linked to the book in which they appear, and entries explicitly interacting with one another on a common issue are related, as are reviews of an entry.

Search Capability

A Search Box is provided on the top right of Zotero’s web page for the library. The highlighted collection being viewed (be sure to know which collection you’re in as you search!) can be searched for Title, Creator, Year or for Title, Creator, Year + Full-Text Content. Another way to search for items that have a common tag is by highlighting that tag name in the list in the bottom corner of the left panel.

Using the Bibliography

This Bibliography is offered as a helpful resource for anyone who wishes to thoughtfully explore the connections between religious faith and the mathematical sciences. Searching the database for a topic of interest will bring up items with that focus. An entry’s attached PDF (when publicly available) can be opened and read while in the database. Alternatively, each item contains a URL/web link to a location where one can either read the item or retrieve information about how to obtain a copy of it.

Those interested in compiling a bibliography on a topic covered by the database can highlight relevant entries and export them either to their own database or to a document of their choosing. Acknowledging this sort of borrowing should follow the practice of standard scholarly attribution.

Those who wish to provide feedback on the Bibliography (questions, suggestions for improvements, additional items) can contact me at the email address given below.

Soli Deo Gloria

Calvin Jongsma

calvin.jongsma@dordt.edu

March 2026