How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Brain

Autor/in	Hogue, David A.
Titel	How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Brain
Quelle	In: Religious Education, 106 (2011) 3, S.257-261 (5 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0034-4087
Schlagwörter	Figurative Language; Religion; Brain; Neuropsychology; Philosophy; Religious Factors; Neurology; Brain Hemisphere Functions; Memory; Imagination; Social Influences; Theories + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Gehirn; Neuropsychologie; Philosophie; Neurologie; Gedächtnis; Sozialer Einfluss; Theory; Theorie
Abstract	Twenty-five years ago the author was taking a required class in neuropsychology in which students were introduced to the amazing structure and functions of the brain. During the very last class session, exams completed, students were relaxed, and by then had enough basic information to ask interesting questions. The author ventured a question about religion. "What happens to the brain during a religious experience?" There was a pause while the professor considered his response, and one student muttered under his breath, "That one's easy. The brain shuts down." His implication was clear: religion requires the short-circuiting of rational thought, and intelligent people do not engage in that sort of thing. In the years since the author first asked that question, a cascade of discoveries from the neurosciences has touched on virtually every facet of human life, including religion. In hindsight, that course prompted a kind of conversion experience for him. In some deep way, the psychology and theology he had been studying for years found an embodied ground, what former colleague and pastoral theologian Jim Ashbrook called an "anchoring metaphor." This research trajectory has shaped not only the author's work, but his understandings of people (including himself), relationships, and spirituality. Here, the author discusses four clusters of thought that have particularly influenced him: (1) embodiment; (2) memory and imagination; (3) a theory of change; and (4) the social nature of brains and bodies. (ERIC).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2017/4/10