The Mystery of the Aleph by Amir D. Aczel is a look at one of the most fascinating areas of mathematics — the study of infinity and infiniteness.

This is a topic that has interested me for some time. As a youngster I read The Aleph by Jorge Luis Borges (my mother was a Spanish professor). In college I majored in mathematics and studied Georg Cantor and set theory.

Three things stand out in the book for me:

1) The study of mathematical infiniteness often takes on religious or mystical meaning.

2) Many of the people who have pursued this topic (like Cantor)— ended up in insane asylums.

3) I have often used examples of infiniteness from Cantor to illustrate theological points (like the hypostatic union.)

I guess the fourth item would be that I too have been called crazy.