Guest post by David T. Crater, chair and associate professor of Engineering and Computer Science at The Master’s University.
What a privilege and honor it is to support Dr. John MacArthur and Dr. Tai-Danae Bradley in launching The Math3ma Institute! The Master’s University has for a long time wanted to get more involved in research, especially in the STEM fields, and by divine grace we met Dr. Bradley — a scholar who has had a desire most of her professional life to establish a unique platform for math and science — at just the right time. The Institute is the result of a happy providential confluence of these two long-standing interests and motivations.
We have big plans for the Institute, starting with a new semi-annual scholarly journal that will publish the highest quality research work being conducted both at Master’s and elsewhere. At the same time, the Institute and the journal will facilitate new connections between Master’s researchers and external researchers who share our commitment to a robust intellectual curiosity, to expanding human knowledge in science, mathematics, technology, engineering, and computing, and especially to situating that knowledge within the worldview of historic, orthodox Christian faith. God is real. He has spoken. He has spoken clearly. He has provided an intellectual and spiritual framework for all knowledge in a completely reliable and comprehensive Scriptural record, in the record of history and science it reveals, and especially in the record of a divine Savior of mankind that Scripture, that history, and, yes, that science together reveal and glorify.
John’s gospel says that Christ is “the true light that gives light to everyone coming into the world.” What does this mean? It means there is some amazing sense in which the man Jesus Christ not only existed before he was born but was present with God at the creation of the world, served as God’s agent or wisdom in establishing the creation, and thus is the mediator to men not only of salvation but, whether they know it or not, of all rational intellectual ability, activity, inquiry, and productivity. Master’s president Dr. Abner Chou likes to speak of this reality as “Christ in all things and above all things.” When Jesus Christ entered creation, he entered his own creation. When he entered history, he entered a history that was already his.
The Institute under Dr. Bradley’s leadership will focus on motivating and organizing intellectual energy toward the production of STEM scholarship that reflects and rejoices in these truths. That scholarship will then enrich not only the Master’s campus and the education that happens here but the entire Christian world and the intellectual lives of every thinking person who engages with our work. This will happen not through the journal alone but through additional outlets such as books and our annual conference we plan to hold every fall. We hosted the first such conference called TheoTech on October 30 in Santa Clarita, CA, where we along with 250 scholars, technical industry professionals, and interested lay people and students explored the genius of God in creation and the genius of men in designing and creating technology. We hope to make this an annual event hosted by the Institute for education, intellectual stimulation and interaction, academic and professional networking among Christian technologists, and most of all worship of the Triune, eternally productive and creative God.
Pray with us that He will support and sustain and empower this vision even as He has brought it to pass in the first place.