This book explores the implications of recent insights in modern neuroscience for the church's view of spiritual formation. Science suggests that functions of the brain and body in collaboration with social experience, rather than a disembodied soul, provide physical basis for the mental capacities, interpersonal relations, and religious experiences of human beings. The realization that human beings are wholly physical, but with unique mental, relational, and spiritual capacities, challenges traditional views of Christian life as defined by the care of souls, a view that leads to inwardness and individuality. Psychology and neuroscience suggest the importance of developmental openness, attachment, imitation, and stories as tools in spiritual formation. Accordingly, the idea that care of embodied persons should be fundamentally social and communal sets new priorities for encouraging spiritual growth and building congregations.
The Physical Nature of Christian Life
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Book Description
This book explores the implications of recent insights in modern neuroscience that attribute mental capacities often ascribed to a disembodied soul instead to the functions of the brain and body in collaboration with social experience. It explores how this insight changes the traditional "care of souls," encouraging more attention to fostering spiritual growth through a social and communal focus.
About the Author
Warren S. Brown is Professor of Psychology and Director of the Travis Research Institute at the Graduate School of Psychology, Fuller Theological Seminary. He is a research neuropsychologist with more than eighty peer-reviewed scientific papers on human brain function and behavior. He has also edited or co-authored four previous books, most recently Neuroscience, Psychology and Religion (with Malcolm Jeeves, 2009).
Brad D. Strawn is Vice President for Spiritual Development and Dean of the Chapel at Southern Nazarene University in Oklahoma. He recently co-edited the book Wesleyan Theology and Social Science: The Dance of Practical Divinity (2010) and he is an ordained Elder in the Church of the Nazarene.
Brad D. Strawn is Vice President for Spiritual Development and Dean of the Chapel at Southern Nazarene University in Oklahoma. He recently co-edited the book Wesleyan Theology and Social Science: The Dance of Practical Divinity (2010) and he is an ordained Elder in the Church of the Nazarene.
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Applying Science and Theology
July 30 2012
By Jonathan M. Platter
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
Brown and Strawn have produced an exceptional book in which they explore the physicality of human nature through the neurosciences and psychology. They begin with a thesis that it is not antithetical to Christianity to hold that humans are essentially physical. They claim that the body-soul dualism of much modern Christian thought is not properly Christian.
In fact, they assert that a physicalist view of human nature actually fosters healthier church practices and a more wholistic vision of formation and discipleship. They describe their position as that humans are embodied and socially embedded. This allows them to draw from social psychology in understanding human development and applying this to church practice.
This application is one of the great benefits of this book. The authors are not satisfied with abstract consideration of human nature, but recognize the impact our conceptions have on social interactions and ultimately church formation. This allows for more than just a wholistic view of human persons; it allows for a wholistic view of the church as well.
It is extremely accessible, thought-provoking, and worthwhile.
In fact, they assert that a physicalist view of human nature actually fosters healthier church practices and a more wholistic vision of formation and discipleship. They describe their position as that humans are embodied and socially embedded. This allows them to draw from social psychology in understanding human development and applying this to church practice.
This application is one of the great benefits of this book. The authors are not satisfied with abstract consideration of human nature, but recognize the impact our conceptions have on social interactions and ultimately church formation. This allows for more than just a wholistic view of human persons; it allows for a wholistic view of the church as well.
It is extremely accessible, thought-provoking, and worthwhile.
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