Olivet Nazarene University is excited to announce that Dr. Dale K. Hathaway, who will be the associate dean of the Walker School of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) in fall 2022 and who is a professor of mathematics has published a daily devotional book, Mathematical Devotionals (Kharis Publishing).
Mathematical Devotionals serves as a guide to connect Christianity with mathematics through a year’s worth of inspirational prompts and meditations. Each devotional is self-contained, including scripture verses and an image. The devotionals fall into four categories:
• The connection between mathematics and the Christian faith
• The mini-biographies of Christian mathematician
• Quotes either from a mathematician or related to mathematics
• The use of logical reasoning as a form of Christian apologetics
“Teaching at Olivet, we’re encouraged to integrate our faith and our learning,” Dr. Hathaway said of the inspiration for his book. “It’s been tough, and it certainly was as a young faculty member. I wished there was a resource that I could pull out and bring into class.”
A few years ago, his wife bought him a book for Christmas titled The Mathematics Devotional, hoping to provide a resource for pre-class devotional thoughts. He soon discovered that the book was focused on mathematics, not Christian faith. However, its format of providing a quote and a picture for every day of the year provide Dr. Hathaway with the idea for an actual devotional book that connects Christianity with mathematics. It was about a year after that that Dr. Hathaway began to write down devotionals.
“The first 100 or so were fine, but getting to 366 took more effort,” he reflected about the process.
He finished writing and editing in summer 2021 and began to look for a publisher that would accept an unsolicited manuscript. Eventually he found Kharis Publishing, located in Aurora, Illinois. In addition to being a good fit for the content, Dr. Hathaway liked the missional aspect of the publisher, which donates proceeds of every book sold to providing educational resources for people in underdeveloped countries.
Dr. Hathaway had previously published a mathematics textbook—one that is still used for a course at Olivet.
“I liked doing both writing projects for different reasons. For the devotional, I enjoyed the ability to connect professional life with my profession of faith. That was very special. Certainly, the mathematics in the devotional is not very high, but I like the idea that someone may open the book because of the mathematical connection and gain a spiritual understanding from it.”
Mathematical Devotionals is available wherever books are sold.
For more information about the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, or any of Olivet’s 140 areas of study, contact the Office of Admissions at admissions@olivet.edu or 800-648-1463.
Published 4/28/2022
LB
