The Mathematician Who Tried to Convince the Catholic Church of Two Infinities

In the late 19th century, Georg Cantor believed his new theory could help the Church understand the infinite nature of the divine. It might have escaped lay people at the time, but for some observers the ascension of Leo XIV as head of the Catholic Church this year was a reminder that the last time a Pope Leo sat in St. Peter's Chair in the Vatican, from 1878 to 1903, the modern view of infinity was born. Georg Cantor's completely original "naïve" set theory caused both revolution and revolt in mathematical circles, with some embracing his ideas and others rejecting them. Cantor was deeply disappointed with the negative reactions, of course, but never with his own ideas. Because he held firm to the belief that he had a main line to the absolute--that his ideas came direct from (the divine intellect).