diff --git a/docs/content/en/content-management/formats.md b/docs/content/en/content-management/formats.md
index 576ce2fa330..3343fd41122 100644
--- a/docs/content/en/content-management/formats.md
+++ b/docs/content/en/content-management/formats.md
@@ -50,7 +50,7 @@ tool on your machine to be able to use these formats.
 Hugo passes reasonable default arguments to these external helpers by default:
 
 - `asciidoctor`: `--no-header-footer -`
-- `rst2html`: `--leave-comments --initial-header-level=2`
+- `rst2html`: `--leave-comments --initial-header-level=2 --syntax-highlight=short --math-output=MathJax`
 - `pandoc`: `--mathjax`
 
 {{% warning "Performance of External Helpers" %}}
diff --git a/markup/rst/convert.go b/markup/rst/convert.go
index cbc15c81a47..bf01b09500d 100644
--- a/markup/rst/convert.go
+++ b/markup/rst/convert.go
@@ -72,10 +72,14 @@ func (c *rstConverter) getRstContent(src []byte, ctx converter.DocumentContext)
 	// handle Windows manually because it doesn't do shebangs
 	if runtime.GOOS == "windows" {
 		python := internal.GetPythonExecPath()
-		args := []string{path, "--leave-comments", "--initial-header-level=2"}
+		args := []string{path,
+			"--leave-comments", "--initial-header-level=2", "--syntax-highlight=short",
+			"--math-output", "MathJax https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/mathjax/2.7.1/MathJax.js"}
 		result = internal.ExternallyRenderContent(c.cfg, ctx, src, python, args)
 	} else {
-		args := []string{"--leave-comments", "--initial-header-level=2"}
+		args := []string{
+			"--leave-comments", "--initial-header-level=2", "--syntax-highlight=short",
+			"--math-output", "MathJax https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/mathjax/2.7.1/MathJax.js"}
 		result = internal.ExternallyRenderContent(c.cfg, ctx, src, path, args)
 	}
 	// TODO(bep) check if rst2html has a body only option.