Numerical Projects Guided by Faith in Christ
“As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace: whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.” (1 Peter 4:10-11)
Welcome to Numbers By Faith! I’m Bill Konyk, and this site is my platform for publishing interesting hobby data science projects. At the moment, the focus of this research is on analyzing contemporary and historic Christian texts, ultimately with the hope of developing numerical tools and expertise to tackle the Scriptures themselves.
Scroll down for links to different projects and check out the Resources page for interesting work by others!
A Setting of Silver
This podcast provides 21st century listeners access to the writings of first century Christians. These historic works provide insight into how some of the earliest followers of Christ encouraged one another, interpreted the Bible, lived in community, and faced adversity. By hearing their words, carried through the centuries, we can be encouraged in our own walk with God. While these works are of less value and less complete than Scripture, they still provide a setting of silver for understanding the teachings of Christ and His apostles.
A Survey of 175 Years of Southern Baptist Resolutions
As the name would imply, this is a study of all the resolutions published by the Southern Baptist Convention. This project began with the hubris of a physicist, but four years later it’s complete. Click the link below to find out how the largest Protestant denomination’s focus has changed over the centuries. Click here to read the article published in Southeastern Theological Review.
The People, Preaching, and Priorities of Together for the Gospel
In 2022 for the first (and last time) I attended the Together for the Gospel conference in Louisville, KY. During the conference I made an offhand comment to my pastor that I could use a computer to collect all his sermons and, with a bit of machine learning, summarize everything he'd ever said from the pulpit. A few weeks after T4G ended, somewhat on a whim, I began to do just that for the conference; with most of the transcripts from past events available on YouTube, and the rest able to be created using AI, it was fairly straightforward to gather, organize, and summarize everything said at T4G over its 16 year run. Click the link below to find out how the preaching, people, and breakout sessions changed over time and fit into a broader movement within American, Evangelical Christianity. If you want more details, click here to read the full article.
A machine-augmented survey of the SBC's convention sermons and presidential addresses
Following along with my first study of the SBC’s resolutions I also studied the sermons and presidential addresses given at the yearly convention. Click the link below to find out how the language used by the SBC’s leadership has changed over the decades or click here to read the full article.