On Newton’s Theological Views

In the February 2026 issue of the Alumni Weekly, there is a letter from Stephen M. Barr *78 and Kathy Whitney Barr s*78 defending the compatibility of certain theological views with mathematics. They largely draw on a sentence in translation from the French mathematician Augustin-Louis Cauchy from 1844 listing a number of distinguished mathematicians which he identifies as Trinitarians and then add a couple of more recent examples. One of these is Kurt Godel, whose published theological views don’t include any explicit recognition of “the divinity of Jesus Christ,” but there may be unpublished work to which the Barrs had access.

It is easier to take issue with the presence of Newton’s name in the list given by Cauchy. In material not available to Cauchy, Newton’s theology comes across as distinctly non-Trinitarian, as demonstrated in Priest of Nature, a study of Newton’s theological manuscripts by Rob Iliffe published in 2017. While the compatibility of Trinitarian views with a mathematical approach to life remains a lively topic for discussion, by now Newton’s name ought to be removed from the list of compatibilists.