Brief
Biography
Since 1973, James Nickel has devoted himself to the cause of Christ's kingdom. Albeit falling short of God's standards in many ways, he has endeavored in God's grace to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ (II Corinthians 10:5) - especially in the area of mathematics and science. He holds degrees in mathematics (B.A., Fresno State University), theology (B.Th. and B.Miss., Bethany College of Missions), and education (M.A., Valley Christian University). He is the author of three books and is working on two more high school textbooks:
1. Mathematics: Is God Silent? (Ross House Books, [1990] 2001).
2. Lift Up Your Eyes on High: Understanding the Stars (Christian Liberty Press, 1999) - an Australian (Southern Hemisphere) version of this book is entitled The Heavens Declare: Understanding the Stars (Light Educational Ministries, 1998).
He is a Senior Fellow of Mathematics and Education at the Center for Cultural Leadership and an adjunct Professor of the History and Philosophy of Mathematics at Rivendell Sanctuary.
He is currently working on two more textbooks, Mathematics: Building on Foundations
(pre-calculus), exploring the nature, structure, and purpose of mathematics starting from explicit biblical presuppositions and Mathematics: The Language of Science, exploring advanced topics in high school algebra, geometry, and trigonometry.
He has always had a fascination for numbers starting with keeping baseball statistics in the 1960s (he was then and currently is now a San Francisco Giants baseball fan). This interest led him into the field of mathematics and computers and he has programmed computers in a wide variety of contexts:
1.
Science: for the United States Navy in Pt. Mugu where in the 1970s (as a mathematical analyst) he designed code to analyze radar flight data of the F-14A Tomcat and the Tomahawk Cruise Missile.
2.
Book publishing business: for a major publishing house in Minneapolis where he designed and programmed an order entry/royalty system in the late 1970s.
3.
Education: for an Australian Christian school (teaching mathematics, science, and history) in the state of South Australia where in the 1980s he first encountered the personal computer - a 2.33 Mhz processor with a dual 5.5 inch floppy (no hard drive), and a monochrome monitor costing a whopping $5,000 AUD (He wrote the manuscript of his first book using the word processor Multimate).
4.
Utility business: as a systems analyst, he enjoyed about 15 years programming, designing, and maintaining software applications (platforms: mainframe, client/server, Web).
5. Education:
Dean of the School of Mathematics of a proposed distance learning program.
6. He is currently doing full-time consulting and teaching work.
Above all, he loves researching and writing (especially in the areas of mathematics and science) and has accumulated a library of over 2,000 books covering these fields and the fields of theology, history, economics, education, and law.
If, as an interested reader of this web site, you know of anyone that would be interested in talking to James Nickel about his mathematics curriculum projects, then please let him know by clicking the E-Mail button on this page.“The works of the Lord are great, studied by all who have pleasure in them" (Psalm 111:2) .
