Abacus And The Cross

This is the story of the Pope who brought the light of science to the Dark Ages. The popular picture of the Dark Ages is wrong. The earth wasnt flat. People werent terrified that the world would end at the turn of the millennium. Christians did not believe Muslims and Jews were their mortal enemies. The Church wasnt anti-science - in fact as science writer Nancy Marie Brown reveals the pope of the year 1000 Gerbert of Aurillac was the leading mathematician and astronomer of his day. Called The Scientist Pope during his lifetime he rose from peasant beginnings to the pinnacle of the Christian world through his knowledge of science and his love of books. A professor of mathematics at a French cathedral for most of his career Gerbert was the first Christian to teach math using the nine Arabic
numerals and zero. He wrote treatises on acoustics and logic-and tutored kings and emperors. He was a spy a traitor a kingmaker and a visionary. Drawing on 25 years of experience as a science writer and medievalist Brown nimbly crosses disciplines and languages to follow Gerbert of Aurillac through scientific exploration and political scheming from peasant to pope. Using medieval letters and modern reportage and traveling through Gerberts world she shows how science was central to the lives of monks kings and even popes a thousand years ago. It was the mark of true nobility and the highest form of worship of God. An enchanting narrative of the life of one remarkable math teacher The Abacus & the Cross" will captivate readers interested in history mathematics and religion alike
reminding us along the way that the major conflicts in our world today-between Christianity and Islam between religion and science - are products of our own age not historical inevitability."