"The fall of the theorem economy," by David Bessis, is an insightful reflection on the current prospects for mathematics. The author and I, both mathematicians who eventually left academia, endorse Bill Thurston's view, "The product of mathematics is clarity and understanding. Not theorems, by themselves." To this I want to add an explicitly Christian perspective.

God has tasked humanity with stewarding the cosmos or, as Genesis 2:15 puts it, working and keeping the garden. How much understanding does a good steward need? There were and presumably still are good vintners who wouldn't recognize a yeast cell under a microscope. More to the point, Bessis opines that, "It is entirely rational to invest 10 billion dollars of compute in the equations of plasma containment, if it fast-tracks the design of grid-scale fusion reactors, even if intelligibility has to wait for another century or two."

The difference between "has to wait for another century or two" and "is abandoned" could be the difference between responsibility and abdication, between calculated risk and lazy folly, between keeping the garden and merely playing in it. Is this just a burden from a stern taskmaster? The mathematician says, no, there is great joy in working this corner of the garden.