Conclusion

The two primary intellectual pillars supporting many of the current arguments against theological claims, supposedly drawn from cognitive neuroscience (and science in general), are a physicalist metaphysics and a positivist epistemology. Both have been analyzed here and found wanting. The theoretical and scientific problems with physicalism have only been summarized in this book since they are extensively developed in other places which are alluded to in the text and notes. But even these brief summaries should be sufficient to show that physicalism is hardly the uncontested and self-evident viewpoint that it is often made out to be in the popular media. I have suggested ways in which some versions at least of embodied knowing might also support other perspectives on the nature of the physical world (particularly that part of the physical world known as our body) and more complex models of human nature and even certain types of dualism.

Living Religion

An embodied approach to human understanding can ground the case for a “spiritual sense” and for understanding religious knowledge as a form of perception, especially if proprioception (and not just ordinary sense perception) is used as an analogue. The long-standing tradition of the existence of a spiritual sense is brought up to date by linking it to various contemporary neuroscientific theories. An embodied-relational model offers several avenues for understanding our capacity to transform and transcend our ordinary awareness. Two classical Christian theological texts on religious experience—the Cloud of Unknowing and Scheiermacher’s The Christian Faith—are also discussed.

Meaning-Making

An increasingly popular approach to thinking about religion from a psychological perspective is to treat religions as “meaning systems.” A lot of research in the psychology of religion has been conducted within this “meaning systems” paradigm. Such research also demonstrates the positive role religious meaning-making can play in health and resilience, stress and coping, and pro-sociality. The research cited in this book suggests that our embodiment directly impacts our understanding of how meanings are arrived at. This, in turn, affects the ways in which we understand religious meaning-making and moves the concern with justifying the religiously lived life in a more pragmatic direction.

Understanding as Living

Drawing upon clinical psychoanalysis and laboratory research, this chapter develops an “embodied-relational” epistemology. The chapter reviews major research findings on the ways embodiment influences the cognitive processes by which we understand ourselves and the world. It also reviews current neuro-network studies whose findings imply the brain can be understood as a single, interactive system and not simply a collection of relatively autonomous domains. The emphasis here is on the brain’s complexity, integration, and a certain degree of openness. Sensory experience is understood as an active, not passive process, involving an intimate interconnection between self and world. The role of proprioception, as well as the five basic senses, is analyzed. The implications of such research findings for human understanding, and especially religious understanding, are elaborated.

Introduction

This text is a dialogue between psychology and theology. In different ways, they both deal with understanding the religiously lived life and with the question of whether there is any validity to living that kind of life. The central question of the book is whether it is meaningful and reasonable to speak of a “spiritual sense,” whether there are ways we can “sense” or perceive the reality of God. The first chapter develops an “embodied-relational” approach to human understanding by drawing on two very different psychological paradigms: clinical psychoanalysis and laboratory research into the role embodiment plays in human understanding. The second chapter builds on this review of the empirical findings to discuss some of their implications for the traditional and virtually universal theological topic of human nature. A popular approach to thinking about religion from a psychological perspective is to treat religions as “meaning systems.” The research cited here suggests that our embodiment directly impacts our understanding of how meanings are arrived at, thus affecting how we understand religious meaning-making—the subject of chapter three. The fourth chapter examines the impact of our embodiment on studying and understanding religion. The fifth chapter explores a case for a “spiritual sense” grounded in an embodied approach to human understanding.

Knowing Religion

Taking embodiment seriously impacts the way religion is theorized in the discipline of cognitive psychology and in other religious studies disciplines, including theology. This chapter describes new avenues of research that follow from adopting an embodied perspective. An embodied perspective also transforms the way we think about traditional topics concerning religious knowledge. The often argued parallel between ordinary perceptual experience and certain religious experiences commonly described as religious perceptions is analyzed and an appreciative critique of William Alston’s 1991 book Perceiving God is offered. Arguments for conceiving of religious experience as a form of perception are strong but the argument as currently framed is seriously flawed psychologically. Reframing the argument in terms of an embodied-relational model strengthens it and supports the argument in this book that reason is on the side of those who choose a religiously lived life.

The Embodied Mind and the Mind-Suffused Body

This chapter reviews current empirical findings relevant to traditional and virtually universal religious teachings about human nature, especially the claim that there is more to human nature than what can be easily described by contemporary natural science. It argues that any purely physicalist account is necessarily incomplete and inadequate and not as compelling as is often assumed in popular discussions of neuroscience. The many ways embodiment impacts our theorizing about our bodies and their sensory capabilities lays the basis for the possibility of a spiritual sense. It also opens up another approach to the “mind-body” dilemma and the issue of dualism.