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New Maths

10+2 = ∞

Christian faith is both like and unlike mathematics. It isn’t a small, encapsulated piece of knowledge like, say, the five times table or the formula for finding the area of a circle. Once we’ve learnt our tables, we’re done and move on.

Just apply them or use a calculator! Some Christians, and many non-Christians, think we just learn a few key rules and then apply them. The monastic orders, like the Carmelites or Benedictines, were a bit like this – hence ‘the Rules of St Benedict’, etcetera. 

Maths isn’t just tables, it is an infinite field of potential knowledge. We explore it to the limits of our need and capacity. I remember quadratic equations, imaginary numbers and the square root of minus one! Christian faith is like that. It is an infinite field of experience and understanding.

We learn the basics – the Ten Commandments and Jesus’ “two greatest laws” but then we have to understand and apply them. Provided they are not dead letters to us, but are enlivened by real faith, we are embarking on eternal – that is, infinite, life. We might get by with only just the Christian basics, just as we might get by knowing only our tables, but let’s not think that’s all there is. In Christian life ten plus two really does equal infinity.  

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