Robert, I got this note just now from a priest friend in Toronto who asked me to pass it along.
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today on my substacks feed I got a triple reference to Kwasniewski, Keim, and you discussing number theory. This and symbolism are crucial to the recovery of premodern thought, as you and your cohort see. I'm writing to you because I am so computer illiterate that I don't know how to submit anything to whatever sort of entity forwarded the summary of your articles and comments to me.
Mr Keim's work is good, but in it he quotes something very puzzling about the number six, which seems to be a mistake--or possibly deliberate trolling on someone's part, viz., the claim that 6 represents imperfection. Far from it! 6 is (and is known as) the first of the "perfect numbers" in traditional number theory and in medieval lore. In witness to which I append a text about this standard teaching. If you could pass it along to Mr Keim it might be useful for him to consider:
“The number 6 was the first perfect number, and the number of creation. The adjective "perfect" was attached to numbers that are precisely equal to the sum of all the smaller numbers that divide into them, as 6=1+2+3. The next such number, incidentally, is 28=1+2+4+7+14, followed by 496=1+2+4+8+16+31+62+124+248; by the time we reach the ninth perfect number, it contains thirty-seven digits. Six is also the product of the first female number, 2, and the first masculine number, 3. The Hellenistic Jewish philosopher Philo Judaeus of Alexandria (ca. 20 B.C.-c.a. A.D. 40), whose work brought together Greek philosophy and Hebrew scriptures, suggested that God created the world in six days because six was a perfect number. The same idea was elaborated upon by St. Augustine (354-430) in The City of God: "Six is a number perfect in itself, and not because God created the world in six days; rather the contrary is true: God created the world in six days because this number is perfect, and it would remain perfect, even if the work of the six days did not exist." Some commentators of the Bible regarded 28 also as a basic number of the Supreme Architect, pointing to the 28 days of the lunar cycle. The fascination with perfect numbers penetrated even into Judaism, and their study was advocated in the twelfth century by Rabbi Yosef ben Yehudah Ankin in his book, Healing of the Souls.” ― Mario Livio, The Golden Ratio: The Story of Phi, the World's Most Astonishing Number
P.S. I can see that, considered from the perspective of grace presupposing and perfecting nature that 6 would be incomplete. But I think the traditional understanding of the integrity of creation in its own order (even fallen creation) would militate against identifying it with imperfection first and foremost. It is almost perverse to identify the first perfect number with imperfection!
