I've generally felt it is worth making a distinction between the brain and the mind--the mind is what is mediated by the brain. I'm inclined to affirm free will and think our conscious self is capable of top-down causation. I don't know how or if that version of a mind maps to Biblical nouns like spirit and soul, and I wonder to what extent we are obliged to affirm those precise categories as Christians and to what extent they were the closest available options in Greek metaphysics of the time. I tend to attracted to … [Read more...] about Science Corner: Do You Mind?
mind
Science Book Club: When Science & Christianity Meet Ch 10
The more we evolve, the less we need God. That's the proposition up for debate in a recent Intelligence Squared event. And if that phrasing wasn't enough to raise the eyebrows of Christians, the pro-God side is represented by Deepak Chopra and Anoop Kumar, who share a concept of God that seems more pantheistic than personal. Of course, no two people could represent the full range of religious beliefs, and in many other comparable debates or dialogues one or a few Christians wind up standing for all believers of all … [Read more...] about Science Book Club: When Science & Christianity Meet Ch 10
Book Review: The State of the American Mind
The State of the American Mind, Mark Bauerlein and Adam Bellow eds. West Conshohocken, PA: Templeton Press, 2015 Summary: The contributors in this volume chart the factors contributing to and consequences of what they see as a declining intellectual life in the United States. … [Read more...] about Book Review: The State of the American Mind
Developing your Mind for God’s Global Mission: Greg Jao at Urbana 2015
Global poverty, inter-faith engagement, church planting: what do these require besides a prayerful spirit, a willing heart, and an available body? Greg Jao answers this question in this afternoon's seminar, Developing your Mind for God's Global Mission. From Dec 27 - Jan 1, volunteers with our network of early career Christian academics are liveblogging seminars at the Urbana conference, a mission-focused student gathering of 16,000 Christians from across North America and the world. This post was co-written by Elsie … [Read more...] about Developing your Mind for God’s Global Mission: Greg Jao at Urbana 2015
Kuyper on The Role of the Church
The fifth post in a series drawing from and interacting with Richard Mouw's Abraham Kuyper: A Short and Personal Introduction (Eerdmans, 2011). Today there is a fundamental error occurring in the way we think about the Church. We confuse and collapse two concepts into one, leading us down a dangerous path. These concepts are the Church of Christ and the Kingdom of Christ. “Kuyper makes much of the fact that the Kingdom of Christ is much bigger than the institutional church.” (Mouw, 57) When we hold that the … [Read more...] about Kuyper on The Role of the Church