John Craige's Mathematical Principles of Christian Theology

JOHN CRAIGE'S MATHEMATICAL PRINCIPLES

OF CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY.

by Richard Nash

The Journal of the History of Philosophy Monograph Series. xx + 94 pp., figs., app., bibl., index. Carbondale/Edwardsville: Southern Illinois University Press for the Journal of the History of Philosophy, Inc., 1991. $15.95 (paper)

In his day, John Craige (d. 1731) enjoyed international renown as a mathematician. Leibniz's journal, Acta Eruditorum, ranked Craige among the originators of the calculus. A French mathematician visiting London reported that the other guests at a dinner party in Newton's home were Edmond Halley, Abraham De Moivre and Craige, "all mathematicians of the first order." Craige did have an established reputation as a mathematician, but these seemingly stunning endorsements have to be read in light of the controversy over the discovery of the calculus.

Although he deferred to Newton, Craige's Methodus Figurarum Lineis Rectis et Curvis Comprehensarum Quadraturas Determinandi (London, 1685) was the first English work to use the Leibnizian notation, and one of the first in England to exploit the new method of the calculus. At the beginning of this treatise, Scottish Craige distanced himself from the dispute over the discovery of the calculus: "The thing is not of so much importance that it seems worthy of any further discussion, especially to me who am neither English nor Batavian." Later, Craige adopted Newton's notation for the calculus.

What "tarnished" Craige's prestige, in the eyes of some historians and later commentators, was his Theologiae Christianae Principia Mathematica (London, 1699). This brief pamphlet has been dismissed as a travesty of Pascal's wager, or labeled "an insane parody of Newton's Principia." Nash, whose goal is historical recovery, argues that Craige deserves better. Craige was not ignorant of the new inductivist approach toward probability reasoning; rather, he rejected it. Craige's apologetic "wager argument" in the Theologiae is not drawn from Pascal, but follows along lines formulated by Locke.

Another feature of Craige's Theologiae is the application of mathematical probability to human testimony: with increasing time and distance, suspicion will increase and belief based on testimony will fade away. Thus, Craige thinks that the authority of Moses and the prophets would have vanished if Christ's advent had not added a new probability to them. Craige goes on to calculate that, if Christ's history had depended on oral reports alone, it would have disappeared at the end of the eighth century. However, by writing, the historian transmits ten times greater probability over oral testimony. Therefore, belief in Christ will not fade out until after the year 3150. Since Christ said "Nevertheless, when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the Earth?," then the second coming cannot occur until after that time. From this, Craige advises that "it is clear how seriously mistaken are all those who establish the advent of Christ so near to our own times."

Besides translating the Theologiae, Nash provides both a biography of Craige and the social and intellectual contexts of his time. Historians of mathematics, of the Scientific Revolution, and of science and religion should find Nash's book interesting.