The Brain and the Spirit: Unlocking the Transformative Potential of the Story of Christ

by Gena St. David

The Brain and the Spirit invites readers to embark on a practice of listening to the Christ story through the earpiece of neuroscience. After many years steeped in brain science, the author had an unexpected encounter with a theologian, James Alison, whose trust in God and forgiveness toward others appeared to defy neurobiological explanation. How did his encounter with the Christ story produce in him the Christlike responses that it did? This question launched the author on a thrilling quest to listen to the scriptures and take up questions of creation, humanity, sin, Jesus, salvation, the Spirit, and the body of Christ, to hear what might get amplified by our ever-expanding understanding of the human brain. Readers are invited to eavesdrop on the twists and turns of the author's story and take up their own practice of listening to the Spirit, scripture and theology through the earpiece of neuroscience, and to become curious how the Christ story may spark trust which unlocks our brain's capacity to engage reality with relationality, kindness, creativity, and access to joy.

289 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 12, 2021

Reviews

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am a bit biased as I begin this review because Gena St. David is one of my professors. And this bias is in a good way because after reading this book. Not only do I understand so much more about the connection between the brain and religious connectivity, but as a student, I see her daily life as a way of being in her classes and conversation. Something is calming and healing just being around her.

This book is also filled with thoughtful and strong academic scholarship- from theology and psychology. Seigel, Gilligan, Banks, Ecker, Van Der Kolk to Jennings, Rhor, Volf, Girard and others. I truly enjoyed watching St. David's connections seamlessly interact in psychological and theological dimensions.

In a personal sense, this book also has helped me leave behind some of the more fundamentalist retributive versions of God (I thought I had already left behind). St. David is thoughtful and approachable even through her words- it's always a conversation, one in humility she enters with her readers.

[Mathias · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book is written in a subjective, anectodal manner using some neurological terms and jargon, weaving this into some reflections about biblical passages, but in my view ultimately in the service of a romantic ethos. The author seems to be replicating the enlightenment belief in the autonomy of the self, which means that she has not understood girard's criticism of the enlightenment. The divine autonomy stemming perhaps from Kant and fundamentally Plato is a cope and suppression of the mimetic mechanism leading to violence. I am wondering if this is a female trait - the constitution of femininty is highly mimetic, which might be the actual message of the Genesis story and st Pauls theology