Review:
Timothy Jennings, in new book
The God Shaped Brain (IVP, 2013),
uses his medical understanding of the brain as a doctor to explain how the
brain reacts to fear or to love. He then
overlays that knowledge with his training as a psychiatrist to expose lies
about God’s character that promote fear and insecurity. His theological premise is that God is in
essence a God of love – not of judgment, or punishment or anger. He explains how people can rewire their brain
from negative images of God that stimulate fear and insecurity to positive
images that are based on the truth of God’s love. In his theological explanations Jennings
tends to mold scripture teaching to support his unilateral perspective and in
so doing disowns the Biblical teaching of propitiation and the justice of
God. His own thinking needs a bit of
adjustment. But there is considerably more
truth than error in his book and it is worth reading for all who want to delve
deeper into neuroscience and the fascinating aspects of neuroplasticity, where
the promise of “renewing the mind” -the core of discipleship - is made
practical and do-able.
M.L.
Codman-Wilson, Ph.D. 12/6/13
Excerpts:
“Humanity was patterned after
God. Therefore…in order to understand God’s original design for humanity and
the functioning of the human brain, I had to understand God Himself…the
essential, core, defining characteristic of God...which is love” (p.22).
The effect of fear
and insecurity on our brain
“Our brain has an alarm
switch called the amygdala…The amygdala both releases attention-getting
adrenaline from the adrenal glands to the brain and it alerts a sort of 911
operator, the hypothalamus which is connected to the radio tower of the
pituitary gland, to send out an urgent call…The pituitary gland transmits
hormonal signals calling for the body’s emergency response…They’re the stress
steroids knows an glucocorticoids…Then, after the alarm has sounded, the
brain’s administrator, which is the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex…evaluates
whether there is real danger or whether it was a false alarm…One of the jobs of
the prefrontal cortex is to process stimuli from your brain’s emotional center
and to either calm the system or put you squarely in fight or flight
mode…Unfortunately, many people have difficulty calming their alarm circuitry, as
they struggle with recurring or chronic fear” (pp. 33-34) “Satan is the father
of lies (Jn.8:44). He lied about God to Adam and Eve… Believing Satan’s mischaracterization
of God, they no longer trusted him. From a neuroscience perspective, their
prefrontal cortexes, rather than flowing with perfect love, activated the fear
center, increasing anxiety, insecurity and the desire to protect the self…The
prefrontal center lost its governance and the fear center became inflamed and
became the driving force in fallen humanity” (pp. 35-36).
“Fear and love are inversely
proportional. It is in our prefrontal cortex that we experience healthy love,
compassion, altruism, empathy, reasoning capacity, judgment, the ability to
worship, conscientiousness, morality and the ability to plan, organize and
problem solve. Whereas fear, insecurity, selfishness, anger, rage, lust,
jealousy, envy and aggression arise from our constantly stimulated limbic
systems” (p.48). “If our alarm system doesn’t turn off,…our immune
system is impaired and our prefrontal cortex becomes paralyzed” (p.47).
Healing the mind
through truth, love and freedom
“The good news is that many
brain regions remain changeable throughout life, thanks to a condition called
neuroplasticity. This is particularly true of the prefrontal cortex...When
God’s methods for increasing brain health and nurturing mental stability are
applied, the brain circuits of the prefrontal cortex actually grow strong and,
despite previous damage, healing ensures… And what are God’s methods? Truth,
love and freedom…Regularly meditate on some aspect of God’s character of love
at least 15 minutes per day. Be truthful and eliminate falsehood of any kind
from the mind…Establish relationships with people of love and mature character
and terminate destructive and exploitive relationships…When mistakes are made,
resolve guilt as soon as possible, forgive those who mistreat you and don’t
hold to anger or grudges as such emotions activate the body’s inflammatory
cascade. Resolve fear, as un-remedied fear truly destroys. It is love that
heals and restores but genuine love is only experienced when lies about God are
removed” (pp.56-58).
Lies About God
“The Scripture as a whole
provides no ground for a portrait of an angry God needing to be appeased in
atoning sacrifice…Brain research has demonstrated that the kind of God you
worship changes your brain. Only the worship of the God of love brings healing”
(p. 66).
“Jesus said ‘You will know the truth and the truth will
set you free.’(Jn.8:32) Truth enters
the mind through the circuits of the prefrontal cortex. But the enemy not only
tries to confuse our thinking with lies, he also inflames our limbic systems…Our
evil desires arise from our limbic systems, our own centers of emotion and
desires…It is truth about God that destroys lies and wins us back to trust. In
trust we open our hearts and experience God’s love, which overcomes fear…This
is conversion…Although we can experience conversion in a moment…God’s healing
transformation of our lives occurs gradually, steadily, progressively. It takes
time for unhealthy neural circuits to degrade and healthy ones to form” (pp.83, 86).
A punitive God
With a punitive God image,
the person believes God is condemning them. He is mad at them. Instead, “God wants to save and heal you…He
loves you…’God did not send his Son into
the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him’”
(Jn.3:17) (pp.94-95). When people see
God “as the source of pain and suffering and death, their prefrontal cortex
sends signals to the amygdala to fire the alarm rather than calm it. Anxiety and fear increase, reacting back on
the prefrontal cortex, causing further threat-based interpretations of life,
resulting in more fear and anxiety” (p.111). “Restoration starts by removing the lies about God
and restoring trust” (p.113). “God is not seeking to punish. He has poured out all
the agencies of heaven for our healing…He doesn’t need appeasement to heal and
save…He sent His Son to make the way of forgiveness available to us – to heal
us of our guilt and fear and anxiety…God is not a policeman in the sky…God has
his agencies following us throughout our lives…always to bandage our wounds,
repair our broken lives and put us back on the path to eternal life (pp. 125, 148).
Brain research shows that 15 minutes
a day in meditation or thoughtful communion with the God of love results in
measurable development of the prefrontal cortex, especially in the area of the
anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). This is the area where we experience love,
compassion and empathy. The healthier the ACC, the calmer the amygdala (alarm
center) and the less fear and anxiety we experience. Truly love casts out all
fear” (pp. 132-133).
“We are all sick and dying
and we all need real healing and real transformation in our lives. That baby in
Bethlehem is our remedy. He came to do that which no human could do for
himself: to heal our condition, all within the bounds of God’s eternal law of
love” (p.163). “It is because of Christ’s victory, because of his
achievement, that all who trust him will be infused with his Holy Spirit, the
one who takes all Christ has achieved and reproduces it in us. Through Christ
we are healed to live eternally with him!...What is Christ’s that we need? A
pure heart and right spirit, a perfect character of love. When we trust him, he
pours his love into our hearts….We literally become partakers of God’s divine
nature of love. We are restored back to “at-one-ment’ with God” (p.169).
“Like many, I thought that
atonement meant ‘satisfaction or reparation for a wrong or injury, to make
amends. I drew all kinds of wrong conclusions: like Jesus had to die to appease
the Father’s wrath toward my sins. As long as I believed that distortion, love
didn’t flow in my heart…I discovered that when the King James Bible was…translated
into English in 1611, atonement had a different meaning than we typically
ascribe today….The word meant to bring back into unity, into oneness…Jesus is
the way back to unity and oneness with God. He came to repair the breach sin
caused in our relationship with God and reconcile us to himself…Only in Jesus
can we know the truth about God, which wins us to trust and then in that trust
relationship…the prefrontal cortex grows stronger and its influence extends
through the rest of the brain. The limbic system is calmed, distorted ideas are
removed, empathy, altruism and giving all increase and we experience genuine
peace and joy” (pp. 177, 179).
Vengeance and justice
“A desire for vengeance is
the reason so many people cling to lies about God. In such cases, we actually
want a God who is vengeful and severe, who will gratify our selfish desire for
retribution…Only by holding to lies about God can the brain continue to pursue
the hateful course…When a person wants peace, they have to excise the poisonous
unforgiveness from their heart” (p. 185).
“The policy of ‘stern justice’ and
righteous retribution’ is the elixir of Satan…Justice in God’s government is
built on God’s law and God’s law is the law of love. Therefore, God’s justice
is always an expression of God’s character of love…Biblical justice is
delivering the oppressed, not punishing the oppressor. The justice of God involves discipline to
teach, heal and restore” (pp. 186, 188).
“The Christianity of Jesus
Christ is a healing system based on the truth of God’s love…When we finally
remove the distortions of God from our minds,… when we finally return to the
truth of God’s design template of love and enter into unity of truth with him,
he will not only cleanse our character but will also come again and cleanse his
universe from fear and selfishness” and create a universe united again on God’s
law of love” (pp.230-231).