God Plays the Numbers

Last week’s first post on torture (see the more divisive second one here) mentioned Stratford Caldecott’s All Things Made New. One of the many things I’ve learned from this book is something about something I hate: numbers.

I was a good math student in high school right up until AP calculus, but my friends were brilliant.

I gave up on math knowing that I could never develop the natural acumen they had. I secretly came to hate numbers and turned to the humanities for refuge.

All Things Made New sort of gives me a new entryway into numbers (not really math) through its discussion of the numerical symbolism of The Book of Revelation–and the whole Bible by extension. Feel free to print the following two pictures out and use them whenever you run across numbers in your Bible.

According to to Caldecott, against the song below, two is a much worse number than one.

In other news, all of Stratford Caldecott’s Communio essays are now available online for free.