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Talking with God examines the neuroscience of belief and belief change related to prayer. It puts forward a model based on neuroscience and theology to understand how God speaks to us individually and inspires us through the human capacities for language and imagination. Offering a fresh, integrated perspective for those who struggle with the dissonance between their experience in the physical world and a healing spiritual life, this work navigates a path to reconcile religious spirituality with science. It also sheds light on an integrated view of science and religious belief, accepting the physicality of consciousness while allowing for spirituality in the form of divine inspiration. Talking with God is an original academic contribution to the field of science and religion and an indispensable read for researchers and readers interested in the concept of belief and belief change from a neuroscientific perspective.
List of contents
Part I Inspiration, Imagination, Language, and Prayer.- Chapter 1 Introduction: The Language-Enabled Inspiration Model of Divine Action.- Chapter 2 Inspiration and Imagination Enabled by Brain Architecture.- Chapter 3 DialogicPrayer as a Conversation with God.- Part II Thought as a Physical Process.- Chapter 4 Inner Speech: Narrative Consciousness and the Capacity for Relationships.- Chapter 5 The Brain as a Hypothesis-Generating Machine: Modeling Inner Speech and Hearing.- Chapter 6 Embodiment of Beliefs and a Sense of Reality.- Chapter 7 Cultivating Cognitive Change with Words.- Part III The Language-Enabled Inspiration Model: Bridging Science and Religion.- Chapter 8. Language-Enabled Inspiration The Theological and Metaphysical Perspectives.- Chapter 9. Concluding Remarks: Wherever the Holy Spirit Resides, there is Freedom.
About the author
Paul Johnson is Professor Emeritus of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Wyoming, a recent PhD in Science and Religion at the University of Edinburgh, and a current Master of Divinity student at Garrett Evangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston, Illinois. His academic publications include planetary and extragalactic astronomy as well as bacterial and chemical detection systems for environmental and medical applications. He has authored/coauthored forty-four journal articles and one textbook.
Summary
Talking with God examines the neuroscience of belief and belief change related to prayer. It puts forward a model based on neuroscience and theology to understand how God speaks to us individually and inspires us through the human capacities for language and imagination. Offering a fresh, integrated perspective for those who struggle with the dissonance between their experience in the physical world and a healing spiritual life, this work navigates a path to reconcile religious spirituality with science. It also sheds light on an integrated view of science and religious belief, accepting the physicality of consciousness while allowing for spirituality in the form of divine inspiration. Talking with God is an original academic contribution to the field of science and religion and an indispensable read for researchers and readers interested in the concept of belief and belief change from a neuroscientific perspective.
