God & Nature Magazine
  • 2025-#2 Issue
    • Letter from Editors 2025-2
    • Horst, Corruption in Romans 8
    • Touryan, Deep Seeing
    • Defoe, Discernment
    • Quick, Computation
    • Carpenter, Death Before the Fall
    • Pinkham, Deceiver deceived
    • Brownnutt, Incarnated Teaching
    • Bostrom 252
    • Clifford 252
    • Johnson 252
    • Eyte, Wings
    • Owen, Useful
  • 2025-#1 Issue
    • Letter from Editors 2025-1
    • Schrotenboer, Lying Dormant
    • Strauss, God Laughs & Smiles
    • Carr, Creation Stories
    • King, Falleness Physical World
    • Colon, A Hike
    • Thuraisingham, Identity
    • Bostrom 251 Every 6 Steps
    • Clifford 251, Just Starting Out
    • Johnson 251
    • Eyte, Touch
    • Budek-Schmeisser, Quitting
  • 2024-#4 (Fall) Issue
    • Letter from the Editors F24
    • Madison, 5 Smooth Stones
    • Dickenson, Genesis & Evolution
    • Berg, Is Genesis History?
    • Pinkham, Cells and Organs
    • Mitchell, Questions for AI
    • Taskinen, Alexander Grothendieck
    • Bostrom, On Camera F24
    • Clifford, Across the Pond F24
    • Johnson, Food for the Soul F24
    • Strand, Morning Prayer
    • Budek-Schmeisser, Sonrise
  • Past Issues
    • 2024-#3 (Summer) Issue >
      • Letter from Editors Summer 24
      • Horst, Death through Adam
      • Bradley, Game Theory & Theology
      • Defoe, Science and Faith
      • Pickett, Wonder & Miracle
      • Touryan Wonder of Math
      • Wright, In The Beginning, God
      • Clifford Sum24
      • Johnson,, Summer 24
      • Eyte, Kaleidoscope
      • Budek-Schmeisser Bohemian Gravity
    • Spring 2024 Issue >
      • Editor's Letter Spring 2024
      • Miller, Sense of Place
      • Quick, Georg Cantor
      • Niemeyer, Research to Thriller
      • Carpenter, Creationism Inter-Textual
      • Defoe, Wittenberg Circle
      • Madison, Buttercups
      • Bostrom, Birds' Eye View
      • Clifford, What's the Use
      • Budek-Schmeisser, The Choice
      • Anderson, Van Gogh's Sunflowers
      • Lange, Summer Meadow
    • Winter 2024 Issue >
      • Garte and Albert W24
      • Fagunwa, Origen: Black Scientist
      • Gonzalez, Being Human
      • Defoe, A Pastor/s Journey
      • Curry, Birds of New Zealand
      • Lin, Environmental Problems
      • Garte, Genetics of Race
      • Pohl, Third Culture in Church
      • Bostrom, Mentors
      • Clifford, Hidden Figures
      • Albert; Poem. A Goldfish Sings a Tentative Psalm
      • Ardern Contact Points
    • Fall 2023 Issue >
      • Letter from Editors Fall 23
      • Owen, Mystery of the Trinity
      • Albert, Denialsim: A Case Study
      • King, Elements in the Bible
      • Carpenter, When was Day One?
      • Spaulding, Guided Differentiation
      • Greuel, Vision for the ACB
      • Bostrom, Lady Bugs
      • Clifford, Small Things
      • Gentleman, 30/80 Anno Domini
    • Summer 2023 Issue >
      • Letter from Editors Summer 23
      • Touryan, Feathers
      • Stenerson, Horseshoe Crabs
      • Hull, Evolving Scotus
      • Silva, Younger Ages
      • Williams, Dense Obscurity
      • Bostrom, Water Cries
      • Clifford, To Church Repair
      • Craig, Heavenly Lights
      • Valerius, Nothing to Something
      • Pinkham, Wisedrop
    • Spring 2023 Issue >
      • Letter from Editors Spring 2023
      • Rummo Lewis and the Cross
      • Pagan Biodiversity
      • Funck Assembly Theory and Life
      • Williams Thus Far
      • Mitchell Making Mistakes
      • Phillippy Living in Paradox
      • Bostrom Rain Shadow
      • Clifford Sustainable Cooking
      • Budek-Schmeisser, Completion
    • Winter 2023 Issue >
      • Letter From the Editors
      • Braden, A Modern Bestiary
      • Garte, Assembly Theory
      • Defoe, The Heavens Declare
      • Greenberg, Bonding
      • Barrigar, God's Big Story
      • Phillippy, Overcoming Paradox
      • Bostrom, Near
      • Clifford, Hidden Figures
    • Fall 2022 Issue >
      • Letter Fall22
      • Curry, Attentiveness
      • Russo, Deconstruction
      • Touryan, Four Forces
      • Mittchell, Three Words
      • Philippy, Math Theology Fall 22
      • Bostrom, Goodbyes
      • Clifford FAll 22
      • Linsley, Mystic Exile
      • Hall, A Call to Arms
    • Summer 2022 Issue >
      • Letter Summer 2022
      • Engelking, Neurotheology
      • Kelley, Environmentalism
      • Garte, Sandpipers
      • Madison, Cultivating Contentment
      • Collins, Answers on Evolution
      • Touryan, Tentmakers
      • Oord, Ever-Creative God
      • Bostrom, Mentors
      • Clifford, Carbon and Sin
      • Campbell, Just, In Time
    • Spring 2022 Issue >
      • Letter from the Editors Spring 2022
      • Curry, Knowldege and Truth
      • Pinkham, On a Car Emblem
      • Murray, Candling the Egg
      • Carr, Music, Math, Religion
      • Smith, Wonder and Longing
      • Linsky, Cyber Service
      • Bostrom, Buteo
      • Obi, Coincidences
    • Winter 2022 Issue >
      • Garte &Albert Letter Winter 2022
      • Thuraisingham Pondering Invisible
      • Cornwell Mediations from Molecular Biologist
      • Fagunwa Blsck Scientist & Church Father
      • Garte A Dialogue
      • Gonzalez Being Human
      • Klein Naturalist in Two Worlds
      • Bostrom Creeds
      • Clifford Winter 2022
      • Ardern Contact Points
      • Cooper Imagine No Christmas
    • Fall 2021 Issue >
      • Garte &Albert Letter Fall2021
      • Johnson, God Winks
      • Cottraux, Ancient Aliens
      • Arveson, Anti-Vax Email
      • Gammon, Evolutionary Insights
      • Mitchell, No One Told Me
      • Rummo, Faith in the Invisible
      • Bostrom, Fall Furrows
      • Lemcio, A Franciscan Weekend
      • Funk, Plant Haiku
      • Robinson & Lim, Who is God?
    • Summer 2021 Issue >
      • Garte &Albert Letter Sum2021
      • Warren, Immunization and Salvation
      • Defoe, Bernard Ramm
      • Cornwell Canine to Divine
      • Mix, Running with Nature
      • Pinkham, Scuba Divers
      • Cao, Physics and Bible
      • Bostrom, Sugar Birds
      • Clifford Sum21
      • Oostema, Evolution of Faith
      • Hall, Generation upon Generation
    • Spring 2021 Issue >
      • Garte and Albert Letter Spring 2021
      • Loikanen, Divine Action
      • Madison, Humus and Humility
      • Lappin, Puddles and Persons
      • Cornwell, God's GPS
      • Touryan, Contolled Fusion
      • Russo, Vaccine and Salvation
      • Bostrom, Short-eared Owl
      • Redkoles, Expect Unexpected
      • Clifford, Boring
      • McFarland, Imposition of Carbon
      • Lemcio, Manis Mastodon
    • Winter 2021 Issue >
      • Winter 2021 Contents >
        • Garte and Albert Letter from the Editors
        • Burnett How iit All Started
        • Isaac Director's Corner
        • Ruppel Herrington, First Editor
        • Burnett Origin of Lire
        • Hearn Balance
        • Middleton Natural Theology
        • Story Antibodies and Randomness
        • Lamoureux I Sleep a Lot
        • Warren Overloaded Brains
        • Isaac Knowledge of Information
        • Bancewicz Wonder and Zebrafish
        • Oord Photoessay
        • Albert Hope in Winter
        • Clifford Storytelling & Drama in Teaching
        • Pohl The Column (Poetry)
    • Fall 2020 Issue >
      • Letter from Editors
      • Pohl, Panpsychism and Microbiome
      • Reyes, Communion During Loss
      • Griffin, Hands On
      • Azarvan, Science and Limits
      • Cornwell, Search Engines for God
      • Thuraisingham, Duality of Humans and Particles
      • Touryan, Prayers of Petition
      • George, Perfect Vision
      • Declare the Glory, Green: Awe
      • Bostrom Purpose
      • Oord, Theological Photoessay
      • Clifford, Food, Water, Waste
    • Summer 2020 Issue >
      • Summer 2020 Contents >
        • Editors Letter Summer2020
        • Jones, Science Faith Duopoly
        • Mix, God and the Virus
        • Warner, COVID-19 and Goodness of Creation
        • Gonzalez, Pandemic and Groaning of Creation
        • Johnson, Star Wars Food
        • Pyle, It Takes a (Medical ) Village
        • Arveson, Use for 3D Printers
        • Peterson, Pandemic and Research
        • Zeidan, Mentorship Online
        • Oleskeiwicz, Dragonfly on Water
        • Carr, COVID-19 and Climate Change
        • Nierrman, The Squirrel
        • Cornwell, COVIS-19 Bucket List
        • Bostrom, Grass Thoughts
        • Clifford, Summ20 Conflict
    • Spring 2020 Issue >
      • Letter from the Editors SP20
      • AD
      • Murphy, Nature and Calvary
      • Dickin, The Flood and Genesis 1
      • Gruenberg, Empiricism and Christian Spirituality
      • Ungureanu, Science, Religion, Protestant Tradition
      • Russo, How does it End?
      • Siegrist, Problems with Materialism
      • Ohlman, 20/20 in 2020
      • Warren, Rock Frogs
      • Edwards, Sanctuary
      • Bostrom, Clothed
      • Clifford, The Lent of Lockdown Spring 2020
      • Hall, 1:30 AM on a Tuesday (Poem)
    • Winter 2020 Issue >
      • Letter from the Editor Winter 2020
      • AD
      • Wimberly Inheritance, Meaning and Code
      • Defoe; A Pastor's Journey
      • Mix The Ends of the World
      • Pevarnik Limits of Physics
      • Greenberg "Godly" Science
      • Pinkham Teleological Thinking
      • Alexanian How to Witness
      • "Declare the Glory" Neal, Cross, Gait
      • Clifford "Across the Pond" Winter 2020
      • Oord "Theological Photoessays" Winter 2020
      • Salviander The Objective Man (Poem)
      • Ohlman Orphan of the Universe (Poem)
      • Lemcio Grey's Anatomy (Poem)
    • Fall 2019 Issue >
      • Letter from the Editor Fall 2019
      • Phillippy Mathematics and God
      • Pohl & Thoelen Databases
      • Garte Limits of Science
      • Mitroka Healthy Lifestyle
      • Sigmon Science and Revelation
      • Mariani Compatibility Creation and Evolution
      • Anders Theistic Evolution
      • Touryan Are we alone
      • Johnson Purpose and Source
      • Declare the Glory Curry, Smith, Best
      • Clifford "Across the Pond" Fall 19
      • Oord "Theological Photoessays Fall 19
      • Eyte Cross Cascade "Poem"
    • Summer 2019 Issue >
      • Letter from the Editor Summer 2019
      • Arveson Is There a “Theory of Everything”
      • Anderson The History and Philosophy of Science and Faith
      • Tolsma Science in Church
      • Salviander Black Holes and Atheism
      • Johnson Practical Problems for Literal Adam
      • Hall God and the Assumptions of Scientific Research
      • Linsky Overcoming Misconceptions
      • Wilder Sanctity of Creation
      • Clifford "Across the Pond" Summer19
      • Oord "Theological Photoessays" Summer 2019
      • Flaig Time and Me (Poem)
    • Spring 2019: Creation Care and Environment >
      • Letter from the Editor Spring 2019
      • Bancewicz;Sustainability Pledge: Why the Environment is My Problem
      • Lin; Environmental Problems as a Place for Compromise and Dialogue
      • Garvey; Where the Fall Really Lies
      • Lewis; Solar-Powered Life: Providing Food, Oxygen and Protection
      • Garte; Time and Human Impact on the Environment
      • Mays; Reforming Science Textbooks
      • Carr; Cosmic Energy First, Then Matter: A Spiritual Ethic
      • Kincanon; The Young Earthers and Leibniz
      • Declare the Glory Gauger
      • Clifford "Across the Pond" Spring 2019
      • Oord; Photoessay. Theological Photo Essays
      • Rivera; Photoessay. Digital Artwork: Images of Jesus
      • Albert; Poem. A Goldfish Sings a Tentative Psalm
      • Armstrong; Poem Holy Sonnet XI
    • Winter 2019: Education and Outreach 2 >
      • Letter from the Editor, Winter 2009
      • Applegate; Project Under Construction: Faith Integration Resource for High School Biology
      • LaBelle; Sidewalk Astronomy Evangelism - Taking it to the Streets!
      • Reed; Speaking to the Heart and Mind of Students about Evolution and Creation
      • Marcus; The Conflict Model
      • Rivera; The Implicit Assumptions behind Hitchen's Razor
      • Russo; Redeeming Bias in Discussion of Science and Faith
      • Fischer; Origins, Genesis and Adam
      • Clifford Column, Winter 2019
      • Gait; Photoessay - Stripes
      • Lee; Poem. In Chaos and Nothingness
    • Fall 2018: Education and Outreach 1 >
      • Letter from the Editor Fall 2018
      • Glaze; A Walk within Two Worlds: Faith, Science, and Evolution Advocacy
      • Johnson; Teaching the Controversy in Texas
      • Cootsona; Mere Christianity, Mainstream Science and Emerging Adults
      • Kindstedt; Creating a Third Culture
      • Zeidan; An Effective Way to Integrate Supportive Communication and Christian Belief into Virtual Classrooms
      • Marshall; A New Model of Causation
      • McClure; Nothing in the Bible Makes Sense Except in the Light of Grace
      • Frank; Christianity, Science and Teamwork
      • Assad/Reyes; Interview. Discovering a Renewed Sense of Awe and Wonder about God
      • Clifford Column Fall 2018
      • Menninga; Photoessay. What do These Stones Mean?
    • Summer 2018: Judgment and Peer Review >
      • Letter from the Editors Summer 2018
      • Jones; Peer Review: Avoiding Judgmentalism
      • Arnold; Discovering Spiritual Information Through Peer-Reviewed Science
      • Peterson; Peering at Double-Blind Peer Review
      • Smith; A Philosophical Influence from the Scientific Revolution on Scientific Judgment
      • Mix; The Poetry of Probability
      • Mobley; Randomness vs. the Providence of God?
      • Gordon; Chances are Good: Design and Chance in Genesis 1
      • Siegrist; But the Multiverse...!
      • Reyes; The Community Table: Interview with Marianne Johnson
      • Clifford Column Summer 2018
      • Hill; Poem. Synthesis
      • Lemcio; Poem. I Could See Where This was Going
      • Oord: Photoessay
    • Spring 2018: Chance & Design >
      • Letter from the Editors
      • Bishop; God, Love and Chance
      • Bonham; Quantum Reflections
      • Spaulding; God as Designer
      • Garte; Teleology in Evolution
      • Hall; God, Chance and Buridan's Ox
      • Pohl; Why We Need a Third Culture in Church
      • Dorman; Liturgical Brain
      • Warren; Galapagos
      • Blanchard; On Christian Science
      • Touryan; The Cross as a Cosmic Filter
    • Winter 2018: Race & Inheritance >
      • A Note from the Editors
      • Essay: “Some Pastoral Considerations of CRISPR CAS 9 Gene Editing” by Mario A Russo
      • Essay: “The Genetics and Theology of Race” by Sy Garte
      • Essay: "Grieve the Segregation of Science" by S. Joshua Swamidass
      • Poem: "Cardboard Man" by Ciara Reyes
      • Featured Interview: “Love Is Risk” with Carolyn Finney
      • Essay & Poem: “Abortion Languages: Love, fear, confusion and loss”
      • Essay: "Why the Church Needs Intersectional Feminism" by Emily Herrington
      • Essay: “Elected to Salvation (and other things?)” by Bill Leonard
      • Essay: “Local Colour: A reflection on family, history, and heritage” by Mike Clifford
      • Interview: Corina Newsome, environmentalist and animal keeper
      • Essay: “Spiritual Kin Selection” by Steve Roels
      • Photo Essay: "Trouble in Paradise: Plastic pollution in the Bahamas" by Grace Swing & Robert D Sluka
      • Essay: “Race & Inheritance: Personal reflections and annotations” by Walt Hearn
      • Interview: Carla Ramos, molecular biologist
      • Clifford Column; Discipine Hopping
      • Lemcio; Waves
      • Harris Artwork
      • Hearn; Eulogy - Beyond Science,
    • Summer 17: Cosmology & Theology >
      • Letter from the Editors: Summer 2017
      • Essay: "The News from My Home Galaxy" by Walt Hearn
      • Interview: "Deep Incarnation & the Cosmos: A Conversation with Niels Henrik Gregersen" by Ciara Reyes & Niels Henrik Gregersen
      • Photo Essay: "Breath & Dust" by Kathleen Eady
      • Essay: "Why the Eagle Nebula Just Doesn’t Do It For Me" by Mike Clifford
      • Essay: "The Cosmos in My Hand" by Lucas Mix
      • Interview: “What is Life? On Earth and Beyond” with Andreas Losch
      • Artwork by Missy Pellone
      • Essay: "When God & Science Hide Reality" by Davis Woodworth
      • Essay: "​In Search of Wonder: A Reflection on Reconciling Medieval and Modern Cosmology" by Monica Bennett
      • Essay: "If Christianity and Cosmology Are in Conflict, Whose Side Is Philosophy on?" by Vaughan Rees
    • Winter/Spring 17: "Flesh & Blood" >
      • Letter from the Editor: Winter/Spring 2017
      • Essay: "Probiotics, Prebiotics, Synbiotics: On microbiomes and the meaning of life" by John F. Pohl
      • Essay: "With All Your Mind" by Paul S. Kindsedt
      • Essay: "The Stuff of Life" by Mike Clifford
      • Essay: "Experiencing God’s Love in a Secular Society: A Christian experience with socialized medicine" by Alison Noble
      • Poem: "The Problem with Pain" by Eugne E. Lemcio
      • Essay: "Thoughts of Death in a Cruel World: Job’s suicidal ideation and the “right” Christian response to depression" by Jennifer Michael Hecht and Emily Herrington
      • Essay: "Tissues at Issue" by Walt Hearn
      • Essay: "The Dilemma of Modern Christianity" by Tony Mitchell
      • Poem: "Light" by Billie Holladay Skelley
      • Essay: "Some Theological Implications of Science: Revisiting the Ant" by Mario A. Russo
    • Summer/Fall 16: "Stewardship of Words" >
      • Letter from the Editor: Summer 2016
      • Levity: "Walt Being Walt: Excerpts from the ASA newsletter" by Walt Hearn (compiled by Jack Haas & Emily Ruppel)
      • Poem: "A Prayer Tribute to Walt and Ginny Hearn" by Paul Fayter
      • Essay: "Authentic Science & Authentic Christian Faith" by Paul Arveson
      • Essay: "On Modern-Day Saints & Epistles" by Emily Ruppel
      • Essay: "​Mathematics and the Religious Impulse" by Karl Giberson
      • Poem: "The Wasteful Gene" by Eugne E. Lemcio
      • Three Poems by Dan Eumurian
      • Excerpts from: "The Dictionary of Daily Life in Biblical and Post-Biblical Antiquity" by Edwin Yamauchi
      • Essay: "A Comprehensible Universe: The blessing from God that makes science possible" by Bob Kaita
      • Poem: "The Epistolarian" by Emily Ruppel
    • Spring 16: "Brain Science" >
      • Letter from the Editor: Spring 2016
      • Essay: "Ancient Q, Modern A (?)" by Walt Hearn
      • Essay: "Souls, Brains and People: Who or what are we?" by Gareth D. Jones
      • Essay: "A Functional Theology of Psychopathology" by Edgar Paul Herrington IV
      • Three Poems by Richard Gillum
      • Essay: "Thoughts of Death in an Unkind World: Job’s suicidal ideation and the “right” Christian response to depression" by Jennifer Michael Hecht
      • Short Story: "Malefic" by Jeffrey Allen Mays
      • Essay: "An Engineer Visits a Mindfulness Workshop" by Mike Clifford
      • Essay: "Traces of Trauma in the Body of Christ: The case of The Place of Refuge" by Elizabeth Hernandez
      • Essay: "Did God ‘Create’ Science? Christianity and the uniqueness of the human brain" by William H. Church
    • Winter 16: "Quantum Physics/Epigenetics" >
      • Letter from the Editor: Winter 2016
      • Essay: "God and the New Evolutionary Biology" by Sy Garte
      • Essay: "Quantum Mechanics and the Question of Divine Knowledge" by Stephen J. Robinson
      • Essay: "Creation Out of... Physics?" by Joshua Scott
      • Essay: "Of Books and Bosons" by Mike Clifford
      • Essay: "Words, Words, Words" by Walt Hearn
      • Poem: "Encountering Ernst Haeckel’s 'Ontogeny Recapitulates Phylogeny'" by Eugene Lemcio
      • Essay: "The Extended Evolutionary Synthesis: New conversations and theological questions at the horizons of modern science" by Michael Burdett
      • Poem: "The Difference" by Emily Ruppel
      • Essay: "Maupertuis's Ghost: Finding God in 'action'" by Colin C. Campbell
    • Fall 15: "Technology" >
      • Letter from the Editor: Fall 2015
      • Essay: "‘Braving the New World (Wide Web): Mapping Theological Response to Media" by Justin A. Bailey
      • Poem: "Entropy and Enthalpy" by Glenn R. McGlaughlin
      • Essay: "‘How Proactive Should Christians Be in Learning about Emerging Biomedical Technologies?" by D. Gareth Jones
      • Essay: "‘Can We Fix It? Erm..." by Mike Clifford
      • Poem: "To My Dear Parents" by Sarah Ruden
      • Essay: "‘Which Side, Lord?" by Walt Hearn
      • Poem: "The Column" by John F. Pohl
      • Essay: "‘Technology and the Church" by Derek Schuurman
      • Poem: "On the Shores of Oroumieh" by Emily Ruppel
      • Essay: "‘Technology as Discipline" by Johnny Wei-Bing Lin
    • Summer 15: "Doubt" >
      • Letter from the Editor: Summer 2015
      • Essay: "‘The Road Not Taken’: A personal reflection on careers, counterfactuals and callings" by Tim Middleton
      • Essay: "The Gift of Doubt in My Life" by Rev. Paul Herrington
      • Poem: "The Marsh Birds" by Sarah Ruden
      • Essay: "On St Brendan and the Pendulum of Postgraduate Study" by Mike Clifford
      • Essay: "Doubt: The Invisible Conversation" by Karl W. Giberson
      • Essay: "Doubt, Faith, and Crevasses on My Mind" by Peter M. J. Hess
      • Poem: "Magdalene" by Leonore Wilson
      • Essay: "Breaking Barriers, Ministering in Relationships, and Exemplifying the Gospel" by Stephen Contakes, et al.
      • Poem: "On the Extinction of Matter Near a Black Hole" by Ruth Hoppin
      • Essay: "Sometimes I Doubt..." by Walt Hearn
      • Essay: "The Risks of Love and Life's Big Questions" by Thomas Jay Oord
    • Spring 15: "Animals/Imago Dei" >
      • Letter from the Editor: Spring 2015
      • Essay: "50 Years of Wilderness: a Christian perspective" by Peter van der Burgt
      • Essay: "All Creatures Great and Small " by Walt Hearn
      • Essay: "Let There Be Less: A Christian musing on nature, faith, and farmers’ markets" by Emily Ruppel
      • Poem: "The New Plant and Animal Kingdoms" by Steve Roels
      • Essay: "Of Wonder and Zebrafish" by Ruth Bancewicz
      • Essay: "The Lion, the Spider and the Image of God" by Mike Clifford
      • Cat Poem 1: "Lullaby for Stomp the Cat" by Sarah Ruden
      • Cat Poem 2: "Letting the Dog In" by Emily Ruppel
      • Cat Poem 3: "Reading on the Couch" by Carol Ruppel
      • Essay: "Angry Discussions: A Wrong Way to Stand for Creation Care or Science Advocacy " by Oscar Gonzalez
      • Essay: "Ethical Eating on a Catholic Campus: Some thoughts from a student of environmental studies" by Grace Mican
    • Winter 15: "Information" >
      • Letter from the Editor: Winter 2015
      • Essay: "What Does it Mean to Know?" by Mark Shelhamer
      • Essay: "Knowledge of Information" by Randy Isaac
      • Photo Essay: "Being Here" by Carol Ruppel
      • Essay: "Truth Anyone?" by Walt Hearn
      • Poem: "Transformation" by Ruth Hoppin
      • Interview: "Unpacking Chance, Providence, and the Abraham's Dice Conference" by Olivia Peterson
      • Essay: "On Knowledge and Information–Tales from an English childhood" by Mike Clifford
      • Poem: "Space Travel" by Ruth Hoppin
      • Essay: "Resuming the Science/Faith Conversation" by Jamin Hubner
    • Archives >
      • Past Contributors
      • Fall 14: "History of Science & Christianity" >
        • Letter from the Editor: Fall 2014
        • Essay: "Orchids: Why the founders of modern science cultivated virtue" by Ruth Bancewicz
        • Essay: "Science Falsely So Called: Fundamentalism and Science" by Edward B. Davis
        • Essay: "The Other 'Atom' in Christianity and Science" by Karissa D Carlson
        • Poem: "The Hermit" by Ciara C. Reyes
        • Essay: "Players" by Walt Hearn
        • Essay: "Using Storytelling and Drama in Engineering Lectures" by Mike Clifford
        • Essay: "Is There Anything Historical About Adam and Eve?" by Mike Beidler
        • Essay: "Finding Harmony in Controversy: The early years of the ASA" by Terry Gray and Emily Ruppel
        • Levity: "Fish n' Chips" by Mike Arnold
        • Essay: "Stories" by Walt Hearn
      • Summer 14: "Christian Women in Science" >
        • Letter from the Editor: Summer 2014
        • Essay: "I Really Did That Work: A brief survey of notable Christian Women in Science" by Lynn Billman
        • Essay: "He + She = We" by Walt Hearn
        • Photo Essay: "The Faces of Nature" by Susan Limone
        • Essay: "On Grass that Withers: Overloaded brains and spiritual discernment" by Janet Warren
        • Interview: "Ancient Humans and Modern Choices" with Briana Pobiner
        • Essay: "Crystallographer, Quaker, Pacifist, & Trailblazing Woman of Science: Kathleen Lonsdale’s Christian Life 'Lived Experimentally'” by Kylie Miller and Stephen M. Contakes
        • Artwork: "Eden, Zion" by Harold Sikkema
        • Essay: "Asking the Right Question" by Dorothy Boorse
        • Interview: "Not So Dry Bones" with Mary Schweitzer
        • Essay: "Is Being a Mother and a Scientist Worth It?" by Abby Hodges
        • Essay: "Playing God: A theological reflection on medicine, divine action, and personhood" by Ann Pederson
        • Column: Great Gravity! "BNL 1976 – 2000 (Part 1)"
      • Spring 14: "G&N: The 2-year tour" >
        • Letter from the Editor: Spring 2014
        • Essay: "Political Science?" by Walt Hearn
        • Comic: "Education"
        • Essay: "Finding Hominids with Kamoya Kimeu" by Fred Heeren
        • Poem: "Ziggurat (and Helix)" by Amy Chai
        • Creative Nonfiction: "One Summer" by Dave Harrity
        • Essay: "Do the Heavens Declare the Glory of God?" by Owen Gingerich
        • Comic: "Miracle Mechanics" by Emily Ruppel
        • Essay: "I Sleep A Lot" by Denis O. Lamoureux
        • Poem: "Angels and RNA" by Walt Hearn
        • Comic: "Seminary"
        • Essay: "The Elegance of Antibodies" by Craig M. Story
        • Photo Essay: "Conversing with Nature" by Thomas Jay Oord
        • Essay: "Under the Tutelage of Trees: Arboreal Lessons on Virtue, Kinship, and Integrity" by Peter M. J. Hess
        • Comic: "Humor"
        • Essay: "Science and Scientism in Biology" by Sy Garte
        • Interview: "Biopsychology and Faith" with Heather Looy
      • Winter 14: "Health & Medicine" >
        • Letter from the Editor: Winter 2014
        • Poem: I Have a Piece of Cow in My Heart
        • Essay: Acts of God: Are all mutations random?
        • Column: Beyond Science
        • Poem: Psalm 1859
        • Essay: The Tao of Departing
        • Essay: The Tao of Departing p 2
        • Photo Essay: Walking in Winter
        • Essay: A Christian Doctor on Evolution, Faith, and Suffering
        • Opinion: Making Friends with Frankencorn
        • Poem: Chiaroscuro
        • Interview: "Biopsychology and Faith" with Heather Looy
        • Essay: "The Elegance of Antibodies"
        • Artwork: "Helix" by Harold Sikkema
        • Column: Great Gravity! "Dissertations and Revelations"
      • Fall 13: "Environmentalism" >
        • Letter from the Editor: Fall 2013
        • Poem: Time
        • Essay: Is there Hope for the Ocean?
        • Artwork: "Earthly Tent" by Harold Sikkema
        • Essay: What is Responsible Eating?
        • Essay: Are We Too Obsessed with Food?
        • Poem: Conversation on Creation
        • Essay: Creation Care from the Perspective of a Conservation Geneticist
        • Essay: Mobilizing Scientists for Environmental Missions
        • Poem: Paleocene Spring
        • Interview: Dorothy Boorse
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Souls, Brains and People: Who or what are we?

By Gareth D. Jones
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In 1980 IVP published my book Our Fragile Brains, aimed at presenting a Christian perspective on brain research. In this I touched on the relationship of the soul to the brain and argued for a unitary vision of a human being and against any compartmentalized view. More explicitly I wrote: “The principle repercussion of the biblical view is a discarding of the Greek idea of an “immortal soul.” What is stressed is not the immortality of the soul (and dissolution of the body) at death, but the Christian hope that God will reconstitute the whole person.” (p274) At the time one of the reviewers of the book seriously wondered whether I could possibly be a Christian. Strange as this riposte was to me, it should not be totally unexpected. After all, no less a giant among theologians than John Calvin, appeared to argue that the soul is an ‘incorporeal substance’ that is an immortal, yet created essence, which is the person’s nobler part.” (Calvin Institutes 1, 15, 2).  This dualist anthropology and the existence of an intermediate state after death were enshrined in the Westminster Confession of Faith (1646, XXXII). Here we read: “The bodies of men, after death, return to dust, and see corruption; but their souls which neither die nor sleep, having an immortal subsistence, immediately return to God who gave them . . . . “
 
Contemporary evangelical worship does not shy away from the soul, utilizing this concept as much as, if not more than, traditional hymns. In some instances, the words are based on psalms such as ‘Lord I lift up to you my soul’ (Psalm 25), while some are hymns dating from the 19th century, such as: ‘It is well with my soul’ (1876). Others, however, are far more recent. Think of: ‘I love you, Lord, And I lift my voice, To worship You Oh, my soul, rejoice!’ (1978); ‘Awake my soul God, resurrect these bones’ (2013); ‘Bless the Lord, O my soul O my soul, Worship His holy name, Sing like never before O my soul, I’ll worship Your holy name’ (2012). There are even ‘Christian worship songs for the soul.’ It is far from clear what those singing these songs mean by the soul and whether or not they are dualists, but of one thing you can be certain, they have little idea of the relationship between the ‘soul’ and the brain.
 
If this is correct, it forces us to ask how our worship reflects contemporary thought forms, both within and outside the church. What connection does it have with our lives as 21st century Christians? To ignore the significance of our brains in making us what we are is to court intellectual and, I would suggest, even spiritual disaster. It is a massive failure in science-faith dialogue, since it ignores what is known about the brain and the relationship of the brain to what we are as persons. These are not idle theoretical ruminations, but have intensely practical outcomes.
 
As a neuroscientist by training, I have no doubt about the centrality of the brain for so much of what makes us human. This immediately sets me on a collision course with those commentators whose starting point is the duality of body and soul. I am using my scientific expertise to throw light on biblical teaching and theological thinking. This is far from unique, since we readily accept that an understanding of the functioning of the gastro-intestinal tract, the liver or the kidneys is vital for an appreciation of numerous aspects of health and disease. Mental health is no different.
 
The fear expressed by Christians is that the person will be reduced to a material organ, the brain, with its neurons, synapses, neuronal networks, fibre tracts and specialized brain regions. This is reductionism writ large, as epitomized by Francis Crick’s famous aphorism that all human joys, sorrows, memories, ambitions, sense of personal identity and free will are nothing more than the behavior of a vast assembly of nerve cells and their associated molecules. In similar vein, neuroscientist Dick Swaab, argues that “Everything we think, do and refrain from doing is determined by our brain. From religion to sexuality, it shapes our potential, our desires and our characteristics.”
 
While I have some sympathy with these assertions, they do not lead inevitably to determinism. And yet the attractions of dualism are obvious. Why not allow the material brain its role, but ensure that it is balanced by a non-material soul or mind? Theologians and philosophers have debated these issues ad nauseam, leading to a plethora of perspectives, such as substance dualism, holistic dualism, emergent dualism, and nonreductive dualism (physicalism).
 
One neuroscientist who stood out against the crowd was Nobel-laureate and Roman Catholic, Sir John Eccles who, in the late 1970s (in conjunction with philosopher Karl Popper), defended human dignity and meaning on the basis of an explicit dualism between the self and the brain. For him, the self-conscious mind acts on neural centres in the brain thereby modifying the dynamic spatio-temporal patterns of neural events, especially in the neocortex. The fundamental problem for this form of dualism is the feasibility of one sort of substance acting on another sort of substance. Even postulating such an interaction takes one beyond the legitimate boundaries of scientific investigation.
 
As an evangelical neuroscientist Donald MacKay provided an alternative perspective: comprehensive realism. Although human beings are an indivisible whole, they can be described in two different ways: the I-story (Inside story) and the O-story (Outside story; also referred to as the brain-story). These correspond to what we know as conscious agents (Inside story) and how we can be described in terms of our brains (Outside story). Both are equally real aspects of what makes us what we are, complementing one another and each needing to be taken seriously in its own right.
 
For MacKay these two stories point to a duality of aspects rather than of substances. Consequently, there are no rational grounds for thinking that the material aspect is more ‘real’ than the mental. He was adamant that Christian perspectives start from the dependence of physical events on God leading to a positive incentive for Christians to take seriously the physical aspect of human nature, including the brain and neural events. His emphasis on the primacy of consciousness (I-story) and brain activity (O-story) is in stark contrast to Crick’s view of the ‘I’ story solely in terms of neural activity.
 
After surveying the neuroscientific and theological literature, psychologist Malcolm Jeeves concluded that the primary ground with which we have to deal is not mind or matter, but self-conscious human agency. This does not provide any simple solution to the dualism/monism dialectic, but it warns us against advocating any extreme form of dualism.
 
It appears, therefore, that when serious attention is paid to neuroscience, there is no escape from incorporating it into a view of personhood. However, neuroscience by itself is not the only or even the determinative factor in moving in this direction. In his assessment of what it means to be human, theologian Joel Green argues that the Genesis narrative does not provide a “basis for the existence of an ontologically distinctive entity known as the “soul” […] nor with the identification of a person’s true “self” with such an entity”. For him both theology and neuroscience highlight the embodiedness and relationality of human beings. There have to be neurobiological correlates of all our actions, attitudes, behaviors and beliefs – from prayer to love, from forgiveness to hope. Being created anew in Christ (2 Cor. 5:16-17) will be accompanied by neural changes underlying profound differences in all that we are becoming. The neural repercussions of growth in holiness and increasing spiritual maturity will, in turn, make possible ongoing changes in both brain and behavior.
 
While a scientific study of the nervous system will not by itself tell us all we want to know about people and their functioning, a barely functioning brain or a severely damaged one will have major consequences for the individual and their relationships. Extreme damage to the brain demonstrates that there is an intimate relationship between the brain and the person, even if this is not the whole story. We are embodied persons rather than brains ensheathed in bodies. This embodied persons idea sits far more comfortably with the Christian claim that we are created in the image of God. Nevertheless, we have moved a great distance from an immaterial soul, an idea that continues to be ardently advocated in some Christian circles.
 
For Christian philosopher Nancey Murphy, the New Testament writers attest that humans are psychophysical unities and that the Christian hope for eternal life depends on the reality of bodily resurrection and not on the ongoing existence of an immortal soul. Additionally, what is central to human existence is the network of relationships with others and also with God. However, she does not consider that study of the biblical writers leads definitively to either physicalism or dualism. For Murphy a satisfactory resolution lies in what she calls ‘nonreductive physicalism’. The complexity depicted in this conclusion is to be expected. The centrality of a material brain is to be viewed within the context of human social relations, cultural factors and most importantly God’s action in the lives of human beings.
 
There is much we do not understand and will not understand, no matter what position we adopt. However, this does not allow us to use concepts and terms we have never questioned and that are foreign to the culture within which we live. As we grapple with the mysteries of the brain we may realize there are depths of understanding here that help us to interpret the expectations Jesus had of how his followers were to think and act.
 
What might this mean in practice? When challenged by the Pharisees over the failure of the disciples to wash their hands before meals, Jesus rebuked them for their hypocrisy since they were merely paying lip service in their worship. In reply he stated: “it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but it is what comes out of the mouth that defiles.” (Matthew 14: 10-11). His explanation was that “whatever goes into the mouth enters the stomach, and goes out into the sewer. But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this is what defiles” (vv 17-18). While it is clear what Jesus was getting at, these are the thought forms of his time and not ours. For me the impact is far greater if we think in terms of the effects on our brains of what we see and hear. The organization of our brains is altered by what we see and hear, thereby influencing our responses and attitudes, our likes and dislikes, our priorities and preferences. What we are and what we are becoming have a neural basis. If we took this more seriously, we would be far more careful about what books we read, what films we watch, what activities we participate in (including online activities), because all these influence our brains and have ongoing repercussions – for good and for ill. In other words, growth in grace (or lack of it) is reflected in modifications to our brains that, in turn, influence how we will live in future. Jesus might have said “whatever comes out of the mouth proceeds from the brain, and this is what defiles.”

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Gareth Jones is Emeritus Professor in the Department of Anatomy at the University of Otago, New Zealand. He trained as a neuroscientist, but has also written widely in the field of bioethics especially in relation to the human body.

Gareth served as Head of the Anatomy Department for many years, since which he has served as Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic) and Director of the Bioethics Centre. He currently consults in a number of areas in the University, mainly over leadership issues.
Gareth has written widely in academic circles in neuroscience, bioethics and anatomical education, and for a general readership on the interrelationship of Christian faith and science. His books include: Speaking for the Dead: The Human Body in Biology and Medicine (Ashgate 2009), and Peril and Promise of Medical Technology (Peter Lang 2013).        

God & Nature magazine is a publication of the American Scientific Affiliation, an international network of Christians in science: www.asa3.org