Passages in Thompson’s Anatomy of the Soul and Wilder’s Renovated Indicating Persons are Fundamentally Brains

What led me to conclude Curt Thompson and Jim Wilder are writing as Christian physicalists¹ are the many passages in which they (1) use mind/soul and brain interchangeably, (2) ascribe to the brain what are properties of the soul, or (3) indicate the brain causes the soul and our mental life, combined with (4) no passages indicating they share the biblical understanding of persons as enduring souls (independent of brain activity). Here is a sampling of some of these passages:

Thompson, Anatomy of The Soul (emphasis added):

• “[T]he terms brain and mind . . . are . . . closely enough related to seem interchangeable.” (p. 9)
• Mind is “an embodied and relational process, emerging from and within and between brains.” (p. 29)
• “The mind . . . is housed in your physical self and depends on your body to function” (p. 29) and so, “no body, no mind.” (p. 31)
•  “[A] better working understanding of the structures and function of the brain . . . gives [patients] a greater appreciation of what makes them uniquely human.” (p. 31)
• “The limbic circuitry . . . is the wellspring of primal neural activity that eventually emerges . . . in the form of fear, joy, disgust, anger, hurt, disappointment, relief, and dozens of other emotions.” (p. 39)
• “The fact that the brain responds [to other brains/persons] in such an interdependent, contingent manner reminds us that there is no such thing as a true individual.” (p. 99)
• “The prefrontal cortex (PFC), along with our language centers, is the part of our neurological system that sets us apart from all of God’s other created beings.” (p. 157)
• “The prefrontal cortex contains neurons responsible for a range of complex, conscious, intentional mental activity . . . enabling us to: discern and decide . . . distinguish . . . create a mental sense of expectations. . . focus attention . . . [and] construct our sense of morality in the world.” (pp. 159, 162)
• “Essentially, Satan suggests that Jesus use his gifts as coping strategies in the face of anxiety. Doing so, however, would have cut Jesus off from various parts of his own mind—his own prefrontal cortex.” (p. 181)
• “[T]he reptilian, limbic, and cortical portions of our brains [are] those parts of our souls by which God’s voice is mediated.” (p. 205)
• “The left hemisphere [of the brain] sets me apart as ‘me.’” (p. 244).

Wilder, Renovated (emphasis added):

• “Brain functions . . . determine our character.” (p. 6).
• “Mind comes from the same brain structures that produce mindfulness and mindsight.” (p. 37)
• It is “the brain system that forms and changes character.” (p. 39)
• “Our brain creates and maintains a human identity.” (p. 68)
• “Dallas [Willard] describes the soul as ‘that part of the person that integrates all the other dimensions to make one life.’ The brain happens to contain a structure whose function is the integration of all internal states and external connections with others….When Dallas describes our experience of the soul…he could hardly have described the cingulate [cortex] in clearer terms.” (p. 85)
• “In the brain, our social identities are at the core of character formation.” (p. 88)
• “The soul integrates our identities and directs the energy of everything it means to be human. The brain can create this integration using the cingulate cortex.” (p. 89)
• “The brain has attachment love.” (p. 75) by which “we are both created and made new” (p. 89)
• “The general tendency of our hearts—especially the PFC [prefrontal cortex]—is toward deceit and hiding the truth.” (p. 170)

In Have We Lost Our Minds? I give reasons to believe our enduring soul is the cause of what Wilder and Thompson ascribe to the brain (or emerging from the brain) in these and other passages.  

Life Model Works (the counseling group Jim Wilder works for) published a reply to Have We Lost Our Minds? See here for my reply to continue this important conversation.