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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
The Theology of Arithmetic: Number Symbolism in Platonism and Early Christianity

The Theology of Arithmetic: Number Symbolism in Platonism and Early Christianity

Kalvesmaki, Joel

Paperback

Series: Hellenic Studies, Book 59

PhilosophyReligion General General Mathematics

ISBN10: 0674073304
ISBN13: 9780674073302
Publisher: Harvard Univ Pr
Published: May 6 2013
Pages: 242
Weight: 0.72
Height: 0.51 Width: 5.98 Depth: 9.02
Language: English
In the second century, Valentinians and other gnosticizing Christians used numerical structures and symbols to describe God, interpret the Bible, and frame the universe. In this study of the controversy that resulted, Joel Kalvesmaki shows how earlier neo-Pythagorean and Platonist number symbolism provided the impetus for this theology of arithmetic, and describes the ways in which gnosticizing groups attempted to engage both the Platonist and Christian traditions. He explores the rich variety of number symbolism then in use, among both gnosticizing groups and their orthodox critics, demonstrating how those critics developed an alternative approach to number symbolism that would set the pattern for centuries to come. Arguing that the early dispute influenced the very tradition that inspired it, Kalvesmaki explains how, in the late third and early fourth centuries, numbers became increasingly important to Platonists, who engaged in arithmological constructions and disputes that mirrored the earlier Christian ones.

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