I am a person who loves Jesus, loves math, and doesn’t think that those loves are mutually exclusive.
My name is Josh Wilkerson (the one on the right). I am married to a beautiful daughter of the King, Laura, and we currently reside in Austin, Texas. We have an amazing son named Caleb and a sweet daughter named Levi.
In a 1977 paper entitled, “The Historical Shaping of the Foundations of Mathematics,” Dr. Robert Brabenec (professor of mathematics at Wheaton College) introduced the beginnings of the Association of Christians in the Mathematical Sciences and the motivation behind their conferences. He outlined the major areas of mathematical study in which Christian thought simply must have an influence and he then concluded with the following statement:
The ideal person we are looking for to work in this area would have to simultaneously be a Christian, a mathematician, a philosopher, a theologian and a logician (p. 9).
Since it is difficult for any one person to dedicate themselves fully to multiple fields of in depth study, Dr. Brabenec proceeded to list five practical steps Christian mathematicians could take to make themselves more well-rounded, all of which I agree with wholeheartedly. You can read the article in its entirety here.
I would add one more label to Dr. Brabenec’s list. Perhaps since he was giving his address to those working in higher education, the label of “Educator” was assumed. But I believe it deserves explicit mention, just as the label “Christian” does in a room full of believers. If Christian faith is to truly influence work in mathematics, then it must be evident in the way students are mathematically educated.
All of my background training, current endeavors, and future goals are designed toward personal growth in each of the areas mentioned above.
EDUCATION:
B.S. cum laude, Mathematics, Texas A&M University, May 2005
Th.M. high honors, Historical Theology, Dallas Theological Seminary, May 2010
Ph.D. Mathematics Education, Texas State University, May 2017
AREAS OF INTEREST AND RESEARCH:
Math Education, Mathematical Assessment, History and Philosophy of Mathematics, Integration of Christian Faith with Mathematical Practice, Church History with Emphasis on the Historical Interplay between Theology and Mathematics
TEACHING EXPERIENCE:
Regents School of Austin, Austin, TX (8/12 – Present)
Mathematics Department Chair K-12 (4/18 – Present)
Gordon College, Wenham, MA (remote) (1/21 – 5/21)
Austin Community College, Austin, TX (8/17 – 6/19)
Navasota High School, Navasota, TX (8/10 – 8/12)
David Kemp Tutoring Services Inc., Dallas, TX (8/07 – 8/10)
L.V. Berkner High School, Richardson, TX (8/06 – 8/07)
Colleyville Heritage High School, Colleyville, TX (8/05 – 8/06)
Texas Teaching Fellows, Carrollton/Richardson, TX (6/05 – 5/06)
Texas A&M University, Department of Mathematics, College Station, TX (1/03 – 5/03)
PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS:
Association of Christians in the Mathematical Sciences
Board Member
President, 2021 – Present
Vice President, 2019 – 2021
Secretary, 2017 – 2019
Mathematical Association of America
National Council of Teachers of Mathematics
PUBLICATIONS AND PRESENTATIONS
GOD & MATH: Thinking Christianly About Math Education 
Dear Mr. Wilkerson!
Thank you at first for your distinct confession to the fact that teaching of mathes always matters to the Christian thought!
As a conservative German Evangelical I look worlwide for the most sophisticated Christian apologist that are highly specialized in the following fields: options of the natural theology, explication of a theology of nature AGAINST platonic pythagoreism and its accompanying traditions (wholeness-traditions, …). I will need these results for a kins of structural foundation to an apologetic of the single mindsets. This also implies deeper insight into the philosophies of mathematics. because therein a Christian apologist can find some relevant differentiations (Hebrews 4,12) at least described, although not yet apologetically solved.
I hold very extended bibliographical collections, a quite good collection of mostly German literature to this topic and also the relevant online pdf-files and plan to write an apologetic companion to the single mindsets, in which I want to reveal also the influence of natural sciences/technics to the ways Christian are thinking in a far more concrete way than known to me so far, a partly structural approach, not a historical one. (a German enlisting already exists to some headlines, if you should be interested)
The user is shown by evident examples, also from teaching materials, that his single mental concepts are always already the result of a philosophical tradition and there is a more or less acceptable influence on his way he should use his mind, how the biblical “equivalent” would have to look like (2.Cor. 10,8).
My question is now, I do not overview the complete English market nor possible institutes or private researchers, who works already on these topics??? I do not plan to make a work twice but want to go adead the works already existing.
Have very much thanks and kind regards
in Christ
Peter Bister
Germany
Mr. Bister,
Thank you for your interest in my site. It is always a pleasure to hear from a committed believer who sees the importance of mathematics.
I must admit that I don’t quite follow all of your comment. There may be something lost in translation? But I wish you the best in your endeavor. I would be happy to offer any insights that I can if we can find a suitable forum in which to communicate.
Hello Josh Wilkerson,
I was wondering if you could consider some Biblical calculations?
I am no mathematician, I am not an academic, I am a 68 year old whose background was in the printing industry.
So if you have the time and the inclination I would indeed welcome a reply.
Thanks
Thank you for your interest in my site.
I must say I am intrigued by the phrase “biblical calculations.”
I would be happy to oblige in what ways I can.
I have a similar request which I will state here. Suppose that I am randomly trying to create a string of text using the 26 characters of the alphabet. My word is 6 characters long. How would I calculate the highest possible number of permutations? Would it be: Fact(26) x 6?
John,
For this problem I am assuming you don’t care about repeated letters and you don’t care if you actually make a word. For instance: ZDDITF would be perfectly acceptable.
If this is what you are asking then then the basic idea is that you have 26 options for space 1, 26 options for space 2, 26 for space 3, etc. with each space being filled independently of the previous spaces. In this case you would simply calculate 26^6 = 308915776.
If you mean that letters cannot be repeated (in other words we are sampling from the alphabet without replacement) then that is a different story. In this case ZDDITF would not be acceptable bu ZDUITF would be. Then the formula would be 26!/(26-6)! = 165765600
Here is maybe a nice summary
Hope this was helpful.
In my case, I don’t care about repeated letters so ZDDITF would be perfectly acceptable. THANK YOU…JD
Dear Josh,
if you think it’s relevant, you could add to your list of books a mention of my book,
Christian and Humanist Foundations for Statistical Inference: Religious Control of Statistical Paradigms,
advertised at
Also I have published an article on statistics in the JACMS; however, I’m not sure how much you want to duplicate what is available thru other websites. I would be very eager to engage in discussions with anyone about Christian perspectives in statistics / probability.
God’s rich blessings on you & your ministry
Mr. Hartley,
I am well aware of your book and I have it included on the resource page:
https://godandmath.com/resources/books/
If you are at all interested, I would love to have you write a guest post on a Christian perspective in statistics/probability.
Mr. Wilkerson, I think this is interesting and I think you should teach about this in class some when we aren’t doing anything else. That is, if there is such a day.
Dr. Wilkerson, your site is amazing. I am the principal in a Christian School in Mexico, and I am in a ThD program in the Edinburg Theological Seminary, in Edinburg, TX. I am going to work in my dissertation about teaching math form a Christian perspective, and the philosophy of mathematics. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you for your interest Carlos. I look forward to adding your dissertation to the resource page!
Dr Wilkerson, thank you for your site.
Hi,Dr. Wilkerson, I am also very interesting in apologetics in mathematics. I am not specialized in mathematics but I love to defend faith in it. I wonder whether you have read Dr. Vern Poythress about mathematics ?
Yes! His books are listed on our “Resource” page.
Loving this website mate. I am a Secondary Mathematics educator at a Christian independent school in Australia and was very much exciting to find your work on God and math. So excellent to see wrestling with cultural discourse and providing a christian alternative! Thank you and keep it up…
Thank you Tom for the encouragement!
Hi Dr Wilkerson
I am an Australian Christian maths educator, having taught secondary maths for over 30 years, including doing some textbook writing, and teaching of teachers. Presently I am in Uganda, teaching primary teachers – particularly in Mathematics. We have built and run a Christian primary teacher training college. I am really interested in what insights I will get from this website and you.
Presently, despite being over 60, I am studying my masters in order to be able to teach the new degree program that will be introduced. Through this I have come across your website. I believe there is a lot to learn as our faith is totally integrated into everything we do, even those areas such as maths, that appear on face value to be value free.
I look forward to all I will learn, and continue to learn.
Anne