Theological Perspectives

Gregory Peterson's Minding God: Theology and the Cognitive Sciences (2003) is a biologically knowledgeable theologian's scholarly exploration of phenomena and issues that concern both theology and cognitive neuroscience— the need to understand ourselves, nature, and what's beyond nature. It's a fine, balanced book for theologians who want to understand cognitive neuroscience, and for cognitive neuroscientists who want to understand theology. Further, it's an engagingly accessible and informative book for folks who just want to understand both the spiritual and scientific elements of their life.

Peterson argues that theology can no longer ignore biology, since scientists can now gather credible objective data on formerly speculative elements of life and belief, but also that biologists must realize the power of religious belief in the many transcendent areas of life that currently seem to defy biological explanation.

Bob Sitze's Your Brain Goes to Church: Neuroscience and Congregational Life (2005) focuses on the practical problem of how to get a religious community to understand and incorporate new biological understandings of human life into their congregation's religious life.

His ingenious solution is not to provide specific answers, but rather to propose a series of (frequently metaphoric) explorations that a congregation might undertake to discover the common ground that exists between biology and theology. He focuses on a set of intriguing dichotomies that are relevant for understanding both a brain and a congregation: belief and knowledge, growth and development, foreground and background, danger and opportunity, learning and memory, and coming and going.

The book's informal conversational approach and explanations of brain systems and processes make it a useful resource for a congregation's educational and leadership programs. It doesn't view either biology or theology as remote and mystical, but rather as constructs replete with exploratory possibilities.

All four books successfully handle the daunting problem of unfamiliar biological and theological terminology, realizing that they can't possibly make their case if readers don't clearly understand the terms. The four books stimulated my thinking, and I trust they will also stimulate yours if you approach them with an open mind.