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_____________
"Neurophysiology
of the person is valuable to the extent that it can open new frontiers
of explanation. It may well provide considerable information and
valuable new understanding about the functions of the human person.
But neuroscience is also freighted with considerable optimism and
interest today because it seems capable of providing a degree of
assurance regarding life beyond the grave.
Faith in science has become the modern mantra replacing faith in Christ.
Expectations are running high! Could we perhaps really know with
scientific assurance that there is something personal that will survive
our death?
Is there perhaps something "soulish" that could surely survive,
something that we could detect and measure today?"
Thad Tren
_________
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Psychology&Neuroscience:
molecules, electrons, and mind; counseling
Psychology is both an applied and academic field
that studies the human mind and behavior. Research in psychology seeks to
understand and explain thought, emotion, and behavior. Applications of
psychology include mental health treatment, performance enhancement,
self-help, ergonomics, and many other areas affecting health and daily
life.--Kendra Van Wagner
About.com
Neuroscience
studies the brain and nervous system, including molecular
neuroscience, cellular neuroscience, cognitive neuroscience,
psychophysics, computational modeling and diseases of the nervous system.
In addition to these textbook definitions, the Christian
would add the necessity for a Christian perspective on the
theories, presuppositions, and practices of theses multi-faceted disciplines. "The interface between psychology and
Christianity is perhaps most apparent in the arena of counseling and
clinical psychology."
Today, we find ourselves in the midst of an explosion of
new insights into the ways that the brain
works and the implications that these findings have for human behavior and
health. The computer, imaging, and a variety of micro-methods have
provided the means for obtaining new and often surprising information.
There are new challenges for the Christian at the ethical level and with
what it means to be human. The following papers represent current
thinking in this diverse and controversial
field.
An allied
issue concerns the place of psychology in addressing human behavior. Is
the Bible the sole authority in treating the human condition - the notion
that all behavioral problems are rooted in spiritual issues - or, are some
problems more properly handled by mental health professionals and
physicians?
---------------------------------------------------
First: a
historical introduction to the field.
Then a representative series
of papers on the
scientific side
and
counseling. Use the search engine on the
home page for a more complete survey of ASA thought.
Magnetic Image showing a vertical cross-section of the
human head
Media Introductions
Oxford developmental psychologist Dr Olivera Petrovich
explains her research that suggests belief in a creator is the default position
of children. (Video)
8 Minutes.
Faraday Institute
Fraser Watts, "Relating Theology and Psychology: Distinctive Features and
Methodological Principles" MP3
Audio 46 Minutes.
Faraday Institute
A Recent ASA Blog :
Thoughts about Psychopathy and the Moral Law, Iain
Strachan, 2010
Articles
From the
June 2010 PSCFTheme IssueEditorial: Matthew S. Stafford,
"Psychology, Neuroscience, and the American Scientific Affiliation,"
PSCF
62 (June
2010): 73-74.
PDF
Paul Moes, "Minding
Emotions: The Embodied Nature of Emotional Self-Regulation, "
PSCF 62 (June 2010): 75-87.
PDF
Kevin Seybold, "
Biology of Spirituality," PSCF
62 (June 2010): 89-98.
PDF
David O. Moberg, "Spirituality
Research: Measuring the Immeasurable ?," PSCF
62 (June 2010): 99-114.
PDF
Thaddeus J. Trenn, "Conscious
Experience and Science: Signs of Transition," PSCF
62 (June 2010): 115-121.
PDF
D. Gareth Jones, "Peering
into People's Brains: Neuroscience's Intrusion Into Our Inner Sanctum,"
PSCF 62 (June 2010): 122-132.
PDF
Earlier Papers
Faw, Harold. "In
the Image of God: Exploring Links with Cognitive Psychology",
PSCF 58.4:310-314 (12/2006).
Constructive, ongoing conversations between cognitive psychologists and
theologians are both possible and valuable. Indeed, these two fields
need each other as they pursue a balanced understanding of the most
complex portion of God's creation of ourselves. Reasons for cooperation
include the significant ways in which our cognitive capacities reflect
those of our Creator, the rational nature of the theological enterprise,
and the corrective reminders biblical theology provides concerning our
creaturely status in God's world.
Trenn, Thad, "Science
and the Mystery of the Human Person," PSCF
58.3: (September 2006): 216-225.
"Traveling with haste, in the unerring security which transcends
all objects, instructed by the Spirit Who Alone can tell us the secret of our
individual destiny, man begins to know God as he knows his own self. The night
of faith has brought us into contact with the Object of all faith, not as an
object but as a Person Who is the center and life of our own being, at once His
own transcendent Self and the immanent source of our own identity and life."
--Thomas Merton.
Malcolm Jeeves, "Neuroscience,
Evolutionary Science, and the Image of God," PSCF
57 (September 2005): 170-186.
"Acknowledging the persuasive current impact of neuroscience and
neuro-philosophy this paper urges us to remember that biblical warrant and
scientific evidence join in reminding us that central to our understanding of
what it means to be a person is our psychosomatic unity. We know each other, not
as brains ensheathed in bodies, but as embodied persons. We are people who
relate to each other as beings created in the image of God. This image is not a
separate thing. It is not the possession of an immaterial soul. It is not the
capacity to reason. It is not the capacity for moral behavior. It is not the
possession of a God spot in our brains. It is acknowledging our human
vocation, given and enabled by God, to relate to God as God's partner in
covenant. To join in companionship of the human family and in relation to the
whole cosmos in ways that reflect the covenant love of God. This is realized and
modeled supremely in Jesus Christ.î
David F. Siemens, Jr. "Neureoscience,
Theology, and Unintended Consequences," PSCF
57 (September 2005): 187-190.
Most contemporary neuroscientists hold that soul or mind is
no more than what emerges from complexly organized matter, that is, is strictly
a function of brain. While not necessary, this view has been adopted by some
evangelicals who seek current relevance. They, of course, have to posit a
nonmaterial deity, something clearly not part of science. Their claims have been
disputed on grounds of incompatibility with the resurrection, with spiritual
beings, with free will, and with eternal life. None of these criticisms has
noted an even more fundamental problem: non-reductive physicalism apparently
makes the Incarnation impossible.
Peter Rust, "
Dimensions of the Human Being and Divine Action,"
PSCF
57 (September 2005): 191-201.
Humans are three-dimensional, body-soul-spirit entities, but nevertheless
unitary, indivisible persons. Animal behavior includes deterministic and random
constituents. It may be modeled in terms of information systems, containing
regulatory loops. Goal settings for these may be fixed, as in ìlowerî animals,
or governed by internal adaptive supervisory systems freely selecting from
alternative routines, as in conscious ìhigherî or soulish animals. A
meta-supervisor in humans provides self-consciousness, free will, conscience and
spiritual behavior. As with space, each further dimension includes the previous
one, but cannot emerge from it or be reduced to it.
Trenn, Thad, "If the Spiritual Soul Were
Beyond the Scope of Physicalism," Private communication.
Paper presented at the ASA/CSCA/CiS meeting on the theme,
Neuroscience and the Image of God, held 2004 July
22-26, at Trinity Western University, Langley, BC, Canada.
Moreland, J. P., "A
Christian Perspective on the Impact of Modern Science on Philosophy of Mind,"
PSCF 55.1:2-13 (3/2003)
Today
it is widely held that, while broadly logically possible, dualism is no longer
plausible in light of the advances of modern science. My thesis is that once we
get clear on the central first and second-order issues in philosophy of mind, it
becomes evident that stating and resolving those issues is basically a
(theological and) philosophical matter for which discoveries in the hard
sciences are largely irrelevant. Put differently, these philosophical issues
are, with rare exceptions, autonomous from (and
authoritative with respect to) the so-called deliverances of the hard sciences.
Hall, Freud, Jung (front row) Clark University 1909
P. David Glanzer, "Mind Life,"
Perspectives on Science And Christian Faith, PSCF 53(June 2001): 74-83.
Donald F. Calbreath, "Aggression,
Suicide, and Serotonin: Is There a Biochemical Basis for Violent and
Self-Destructive Behavior?," PSCF 53.2
(June 2001): 84-95.
Contemporary biomedical science has attempted to explain
behavior in terms of genetic determinism, with specific mental states being
produced by alterations in the brain concentrations of one or more specific
biochemical components. The literature relating to the presumed association
between low brain levels of the neurotransmitter serotonin and aggression and
suicide is reviewed and critiqued. Due to the variety of methodological
shortcomings in this research, conclusions based on the data cannot be
considered valid. Implications for the legal profession and for Christian moral
principles are discussed.
Bert M.
Hodges, "Remapping
Psychology: A New Look at Values in Scientific Ontology, "Christian
Scholar's Review XXI (Spring 2000): 471 - 497.
Hodges explores the possibility that values are the ontological fundamentals
within which human activities such as perception, development, and emotion are
enacted. The relation of values to "laws" and "rules" in scientific accounts is
considered, and a theory of values is sketched that clarifies the enigmatic
character of behavior. Values, it is proposed, are heterarchical, legitimating,
and frustrating. Dr. Hodges teaches social, cognitive, and theoretical
psychology at Gordon College.
Malcolm
Jeeves,
"Psychology and Christianity: the view both ways,"
A lecture delivered in the Winstanley Lecture Theatre, Trinity College,
Cambridge on Tuesday, 28th November 2000.
Warren S. Brown and Malcolm
A. Jeeves, "Portraits
of Human Nature: Reconciling Neuroscience and Christian Anthropology,"
Science and Christian Belief 11 No. 2 (October 1999):139-150.
Polischuck, Pablo "Perspectives
on the Self: Substantial and Dialogical Aspects," PSCF
50.2: 95 (6/1998)
Dialogue on Mind-Matter
Dembski, William A., "Converting
Matter into Mind: Alchemy and the Philosopher's Stone in Cognitive Science,"
PSCF 42.4:202-226 (12/1990)
Comment Clark, Gregory A., "Response
to W. Dembski's 'Converting Matter into Mind' (12/1990)"
PSCF
43.2:103-106 (6/1991)
Feuch,
Dennis, "The
Mind/Body Debate," PSCF
43 (March 1991): 71-72.
Rebuttal
Dembsky, William, "Conflating
Matter and Mind," PSCF
44 (June 1991): 107-111.
Insertion of Electrode during Parkinson surgery
Evolutionary Psychology
J. Raymond Zimmer, "Evolutionary
Psychology Challenges the Current Social Sciences," PSCF
50 (September 1998): 176.
Comment:
Roger K. Bufford and Jonothan M. Garrison, "Evolutionary
Psychology: A Paradigm Whose Time May Come: A Response to J. Raymond Zimmer",
PSCF 50 (September 1998): 185.
Leda Cosmides & John Tooby, "Evolutionary
Psychology: A Primer" Center
for Evolutionary Psychology, UC Santa Barbara
Mental Health
Allan Chapman, "Historical Perspectives
on Mental Illness", 3 Feb. 2009 MP3
Audio
Faraday Institute
Jep Hostetler, "Humor,
Spirituality, and Well-Being,"
PSCF 54.2:108-113. (6/2002).
Struthers,
William M., "Defining
Consciousness: Christian and Psychological Perspectives."
PSCF 53 (June 2001):
102-106.
Views on Biblical Counseling
The articles offered below reflect the
tensions that may arise when one seeks to counsel or find a counselor within a
Christian context.
Harold D. Delaney and Thomas E. Goldsmith,
Scientific Psychology and Christian Theism
by Tim Lane
Are you facing a situation in your church that will
require pastoral care over a long period of time? If you don't have a
situation like that now ñ you will in the future. Are you ready for
it?
Caring for people in the local church is
challenging work. As a pastor, I remember numerous occasions where a
need for long term care arose. These were always challenging
situations and ones that caught the church by surprise. Over the span
of a decade, though, I began to see some pretty obvious things that
were essential for providing good long term care. I compiled these
ideas into a chapter for my doctoral thesisi
which I have updated to publish here. I must say that I learned these
things simply by watching brothers and sisters in Christ pour out
their lives in sacrificial love to friends and loved ones who were in
need. Perhaps it will help you to prepare for the pastoral care
demands that will come your way sooner or later.
Malcolm Jeeves,
Psychology & Christianity -
The View both ways
David Powlison,
What is wrong with the therapeutic approach to counseling - 9 Marks
More about the
CCEF
approach
Further Resources
Christian
Association for Psychological Studies (CAPS)
Google Psychology Resources David Meyers,
Hope College

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