Neuroscience, Evolutionary Psychology, and the Image of God

URL:

http://www.asa3.org/ASA/PSCF/2005/PSCF9-05Jeeves.pdf

Keywords:

Neuroscience; Evolutionary Psychology

Abstract:

Almost daily we read media reports of scientific breakthroughs, often in neuroscience andevolutionary psychology, which, it is claimed, offer new insights into our mysterious humannature. Most of these reports present no direct challenge to widely held traditional Hebrew-Christian understandings of human nature. Others, however, seem directly to confrontsome of our most deeply held Christian beliefs about our nature. Beliefs reinforced as we singsome of our favorite hymns.Whilst references to the “image of God” are relatively infrequent in Scripture nevertheless theunderstandings of humankind which they enshrine are all pervasive. For two millennia,Christian Councils and Confessional Statements have presented different, competing viewsof what is of the essence of being made in “the image of God.”Acknowledging the persuasive current impact of neuroscience and neuro-philosophy thispaper urges us to remember that biblical warrant and scientific evidence join in reminding usthat central to our understanding of what it means to be a person is our psychosomatic unity.We know each other, not as brains ensheathed in bodies, but as embodied persons. We arepeople who relate to each other as beings created in the image of God. This image is nota separate thing. It is not the possession of an immaterial soul. It is not the capacity to reason.It is not the capacity for moral behavior. It is not the possession of a “God spot” in our brains.It is acknowledging “our human vocation, given and enabled by God, to relate to God asGod’s partner in covenant. To join in companionship of the human family and in relation tothe whole cosmos in ways that reflect the covenant love of God. This is realized and modeledsupremely in Jesus Christ.”1A proper understanding of the doctrine of the image of God is an essential groundwork toformulating and understanding a proper Christian response to humanitarian, evangelistic,apologetic, and ecological concerns.