Remembering the Depth of True Worship

I often forget just how broad an experience of truly worship the God who shapes our lives can be until a story like Tony Rothman’s pursuit of the early math of Japan’s isolationist period comes along.

“Sangaku tablets are perhaps unique among the world’s cultural creations, as they are simultaneously objects of art, religious offerings and a record of what we might call folk mathematics,� said Rothman, who is a lecturer in the physics department and Pulitzer Prize nominee for his writings on science for the public. “I’m not an expert on any of these subjects, but the aesthetic tradition that created them shines through when you see them all these years later. I think it’s wonderful that a society could consider these finely-wrought expressions of abstract beauty to be worthy of contemplation and inclusion in a temple, as other cultures have valued mosaics, icons or stained-glass windows.� [source]

My point here is not to equate Shinto and Christianity. They have some profound differences. I think that we can learn something here though of a people’s eye for the spiritual in the world around them. After all, if skillful mucisianship can be honoring to God, can’t skillful mathematical proofs?