First published in Latin in 1699, John Craige’s Theology represents a rare early attempt to introduce mathematical reasoning into moral and theological dispute.

Craige’s effort to determine the earliest possible date of the Apocalypse earned him ridicule as an eccentric and a crank. Yet, Richard Nash argues, the intensity of the response to Craige’s work testifies to how widely felt the conflict was between the old and newly emergent notions of probability.