The Notions of Personhood and Christ in Light of Neuroscience

The Notions of Personhood and Christ in Light of Neuroscience Ino Mamic Oliver Davies’ in dialogue with Neuroscience, Self, and Jesus Christ Davies asks how we can renew domains of Christology and theological anthropology and make them a reliable background for the ethical discussion. He finds both Christology and theological anthropology weakened by the determinism of modern period that, consciously or unconsciously, penetrated theological reflection. Cf. Oliver Davies, "Neuroscience, Self, and Jesus Christ," in Questioning the Human: Toward a Theological Anthropology for the Twenty-first Century, eds. L. Boeve, Y. De Maeseneer, and E. Van Stichel (New York: Fordham University Press, 2014), 79-100. Davies finds an alternative to the classical natural law tradition and the modern conception of subject by entering into a dialogue with several disciplines. He especially relies on Godzieba’s analysis of Blondel See Maurice Blondel, Action: Essay on a Critique of Life and a Science of Practice (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2003), 3-4. and on Stephen Pope’s elaboration of Jack Mahoney’s notion on the intrinsic relation between our evolutionary adaptation and our altruism, which leads to a different understanding of evolution. See Jack Mahoney, Christianity in Evolution: An Exploration (Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 2011). Moreover, he discusses social scientists insights, such as those of Charles Taylor’s various anthropological paradigms, See Charles Taylor, A Secular Age (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2007). and those of Niklas Luhmann’s system theory, evolution and communication. See Niklas Luhmann, Social Systems (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1995). This is in addition to neurologist Adam Zeman and his reflection on complexity, See Adam Zeman, A Portrait of the Brain (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008). philosopher Paul Ricoeur and identity formation, See Paul Ricoeur, Oneself as Another (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995). and many others. Davies offers a new, integrative anthropological paradigm as one capable to deal with contemporary ethical questions. The new paradigm overcomes two previous ones, which Davies, following Taylor’s notions of porous self and buffered self, calls premodern and modern paradigm, respectively. Premodern paradigm was integrated but not elaborated, while modern is elaborated but not integrated. Davies recognizes the emergence of a new integrative paradigm, sprouting from advances in neuroscience, genetics, evolutionary biology, physics, and cosmology. A new paradigm raises awareness of the unique complexity of our body, that it incorporates mind and subjectivity; we are same as the world, with the difference that our complexity makes us self-aware, sentient, and capable to address God. Cf. Davies, "Neuroscience,” 79-100. In the first part of the paper, I present the summary of Davies’ chapter pointing to the notions I find particularly important. In the second part, I apply Davies’ integrative paradigm to the on-going refugee crisis in Europe while discerning practical implications of integrative paradigm in theological anthropology. In the third part, I pose the question of Christian identity in classical Aquinas manner, linking it back to the recent refugee crisis. Focal points of Davies’ proposal of the new integrative paradigm for theological anthropology To outline the main elements of the integrative paradigm in theological anthropology, Davies delves into the issues of Christology, freedom, action, natural law, and objectivity. Contemporary science in favour of integrative theological approach to anthropology Adam Zeman says that the human brain with its 100.000.000.000.000 neural connections is the most complex system in the universe. Zeman, A Portrait of the Brain, I. Davies asks: if it is so, and if humans are created by God, then for sure this complexity has a role in God’s plan with humans – it is not accidental. From here he draws the conclusion that our consciousness is not something ‘added’ to our body, but that body has an important role as well. In other words, boundaries between mind, spirit, and body are not so sharp as modern science and modern theology thought. It is not that we start to think, to will, or to feel emotions in our consciousness, neither in our brain, we start to think in our body. For example, when we meet another person, the encounter is not shaped only by our thinking, but by thousands other interactions, gestures, feelings, hopes, and fears, all of which constitute our ‘thinking’. Davies uses an example of encounter to show that various parts of our brain (those for intuitive knowledge in amygdala and those for verbal knowledge in other parts of the brain) function differently, and that our free will lays in the complex discernment between these two very different ways of interacting with others. The question of whether to enter into interaction with other person is influenced by the whole of us, not only on some abstract decision, but our body decides as well. The discernment occurs in our physiological ‘hardwiring’. The free will in ethical acts is not about some abstract free will, but about will continuously co-constituted in the interplay with body. For this reason, body has to be trained for ethical acts, because body significantly decides. Cf. Davies, "Neuroscience,” 79-100. The ethical self To survive, people developed shared strategies for managing complexity of reality. Luhmann, Social Systems, 34-36. One of these is of understanding and feeling other human beings. Davies holds this as a proto-ethical attitude: the process of evolution was significantly signed by development of humans capacity to cooperate. See Joshua D. Green, “The Cognitive Neuroscience of Moral Judgment,” in The Cognitive Neurosciences, 4th ed., ed. Michael S Gazzaniga (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2009), 987-1002. This capacity is manifest in our hardwired or “neurobiological self.” Davies, "Neuroscience,” 79-100. To manage complexity without reducing the decisions in a black-white fashion, Christian tradition developed terms such as wisdom and prudence. These processes are co-constituted in the brain. Davies refers to Paul Janz, who calls this process “a finality of non-resolution,” when we later or sooner come to the point when we accept that we can never know the right answer, but we must make the best judgement with our limited knowledge. Cf. Oliver Davies, Paul Janz, Clemens Sedmak, Transformative Theology. Church in the World (London: T&T Clark International, 2007), 76-86. Davies names it as “judgement in vulnerability.” Here the internal conflict emerges within us: on one hand we tend to manage complexity of life by cooperating with other people, but the same cooperation causes another kind of complexity, of interpersonal relations. Accepting this means to accept a difficult human journey which includes contingency and vulnerability. Cf. Davies, "Neuroscience,” 79-100. Imago Dei Davies argues that to understand the relation of one hundred millions of millions of neural connections in our brain with Imago Dei, we have to overcome dualistic paradigms of the modern time. To overcome the idea of mind controlling body, Davies proposes a paradigm of unity, where free subject-self, our embodiment, and a complex particularity of our own situational reality act simultaneously. Ibid., 79-100. In Davies’ words, The more integrated we are within the social and biological reality of encounter, the more fully integrated we are in ourselves as body and mind, and the more particular. Particularity itself is key to our understanding of the human in both secular and religious ways. It is our own ‘embodied particularity’ and vulnerability that can be a point of intersection between a secular account of the self and a Christian one. Ibid., 79-100. Where is Christ today? Change of anthropological paradigms influenced the understanding of Christ’s nature and presence. In the premodern paradigm, Christ was present after the resurrection in the “highest point of the heaven” Summa Theologiae, 3a, q. 57, a. 4, 5., and in such a way connected with us. In the modern paradigm, the universe in infinite, therefore it is not clear any more where is the Christ, there is no highest point any more. For today’s humanity a problem emerges: How do we reconnect Christ and humanity, historic Christ and present Christ, material Christ and spiritual Christ? Davies says that we have to ask again: Where is Christ now? This is the central question of the church from the very beginning – from the empty tomb, till the 16th century. Then, with the emergence of different cosmology, the question become redundant. Cf. Davies, "Neuroscience,” 79-100. Identity formation of Christ’s followers To discover where is Christ in the 21st century, Davies explores the nature of human acting in the name of Christ. He uses Ricoeur’s notion of ipse and idem identity. According to Ricoeur, our Christian identity is created through a series of Christ-inspired acts: what we do, in everyday life, day by day, following Christ teachings, that is our ipse identity. On a long run, it creates a habit to act in a spirit of Christ, and thus our idem, or durable identity, is created. See Paul Ricoeur, Oneself as Another (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995). Davies points out to tension between the practical dimension of our Christian faith, and the more cultural or intellectual ways in which what is called Christian identity is formed. This raises a crucial question: who is, and where is, the Christ we are referring to when we say that we are his followers, i.e. Christians? Is our Christian identity only a cultural product, or it is nurtured and continuously formed and re-formed in our situational particularity? Do we accept the complexity of the real, or we approach the real with the textbook answers? Cf. Davies, "Neuroscience,” 79-100. Christ’s presence in the Eucharist and the Holy Spirit Today science considers language to be a significantly material thing. Words are encoded in the tissue of human brain. This knowledge about materiality of the language favours the theological explanation of sacraments, especially the Eucharist. Davies analyses the Eucharist and the role of the Holy Spirit. Following the integrative paradigm of unity of mind, spirit, and body, Davies considers Holy Spirit as much more intertwined with matter, transcendental and immanent at the same time. Cf. ibid., 79-100. He says that “the living body of Christ is mediated, through the work of the Holy Spirit, into diverse material contexts and situations, beyond the purely sacramental.” Ibid., 79-100. The Eucharist is a visceral, embodied system of communication and identity formation. Cf. ibid., 79-100. Conclusion The modern anthropological paradigm was based on a Newtonian deterministic universe. It significantly shaped theological anthropology as well. According to the modern paradigm, the body is almost completely unfree, while mind and spirit are completely free. Davies considers such a paradigm misleading, and shows that scientific advances confirm that mind and body are much more interrelated. Such a dualistic view does not correspond to the truth of human being. Davies asks if we can consider the proto-ethical structure that emerges through neurobiological self as a form of natural law? His answer is conditional. On one side, we are obliged to deal with a complexity of the real in our ethical judgements. It means that fully-fledged textbook answers often do not work. On the other side, our consciousness, the locus of the act of judgement, tends to use our faculties of intellect and will to reduce complexity of real. Davies asks how these two opposite directions, which, on the physiological level, occur at the same place and at the same time, in interconnections of our brain cells, can go together? He proposes the integrative theological anthropology that integrates mind and body, that is our subjectivity and our embodiment, considering both as a condition for ethical acting. Davies opts for the normativity that comes from the authenticity of Christian life, not from the ready-to-use solutions from the textbook. Objectivity, according to Davies, cannot be verified with the comparison of a single act with the written rules. Rather, Christian objectivity lies in the capacity of a Christian believer to live a life which itself communicate a meaning of what is he believing to the world. He opts for a radical practice of our humanity in the spirit of Christ, where our human faculties are overtaken by higher power that Christ’s resurrection emanate through space and time by the Holy Spirit, which is a transformational force materialized in us, in our neurobiological self. Cf. Davies, "Neuroscience,” 79-100. Critical remarks on Davies’ integrative paradigm Characteristics of Davies’ new paradigm As it has been said in the first section, the prevalent paradigm in theological anthropology is still very modern therefore epistemologically biased, Eurocentric, and colonial. Davies proposes a more universal and integrative approach. To conceptualize it, he seeks for an alternative to the classical natural law tradition and to the modern conception of subject. To overcome modernist determinism and linear thought, Davies enters in conversation with various disciplines, such as theology, philosophy, neurosciences, genetics, evolutionary biology, physics, and cosmology. New paradigm understands human person as an integrated whole, continuously re-constituted through encounters with other humans and the whole of creation. The boundaries between mind, body, and soul are blurred, as such separate entities do not exist in reality. They have been petrified as categories in the modern period. The emerging subject of Davies’ integrative paradigm is continuously reconfigured through encounters with everything within and without it. An important part of one’s subjectivity is the inner life, the relation with immanence and transcendence, its deepest self. Here is the locus of one’s identity as a Christian. My inner and outer life are intrinsically connected. My actions shape my Christian identity and my Christian identity emerges through my actions. It means that the identity is a material thing. It is not an oral proclamation of belonging to this or that confession, but something very incarnated, sacramental, and material. My Christian identity is not separated of my physicality, of my body and its processes. On the contrary, my body, my daily actions constitute my Christian identity. To see how Christian identity of individuals and societies is constituted, re-constituted and co-constituted within world events, we are going to take a look at the recent migrant crisis in Europe. Refuge crisis in Europe European refuge crisis is a decades long phenomenon, but only in 2015 it became a concern on the public level all around Europe. With masses of people fleeing war and poverty in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia and many other countries, Europe faces unprecedented humanitarian and social crisis. According to the United Nations Refugee Agency about one million of people has already arrived at European outer borders, and several millions are still to come. Many of them sunk into the Mediterranean Sea (about 4000 people lost their lives only in 2015) and almost all of them face serious health and safety risks. UNHCR, The UN Refugee Agency, “Refugees/Migrants Emergency Response – Mediterranean,” http://data.unhcr.org/mediterranean/regional.php [access 23 December 2015]. The ongoing conflicts in several Middle East and African countries caused more than 60 millions of displaced people in 2014. UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Global Trends: Forced Displacement in 2014 (Geneva: UNHCR, 2015). Such mass movement found European governments unprepared, and a variety of views emerged, from those willing to accept refuges as much as possible to those who try to stop the influx at every cost. Christian theological anthropology and the refugee crisis In the recent migrant crisis, a clash between two anthropological paradigms occurred. On the one hand, there is a traditional modern paradigm of buffered self-centred self, and on the other, there is an emerging integrative paradigm. The proponents of closed borders are heirs of the former, while those willing to keep the doors open are children of the latter. An exemplification of the latter is pope Francis. He encourages Christians and non-Christians to welcome refugees and migrants. His pastoral attitude finds its expression in the encyclical Misericordiae Vultus, a Bull of Indiction of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy, promulgated in April 2015. Although the bull itself does not elaborate on theological anthropology, its tone and aims are concordant with Davies theoretical elaboration of integrative paradigm. Pope Francis insists on considering incarnational aspect of reality, that is of taking body and flesh seriously, especially in ethical regard. In Misericordiae Vultus, the pope says that “in each of these ‘little ones,’ Christ himself is present. His flesh becomes visible in the flesh of the tortured, the crushed, the scourged, the malnourished, and the exiled… to be acknowledged, touched, and cared for by us.” Francis, Misericordiae Vultus, n. 15. The body’s particular status, as Godzieba puts it, is “radically particular and yet open to universal solidarity ... singular and yet open to others; finite and yet open to infinite grace; vulnerable, and yet redeemed, not in spite of but because of its vulnerability.” Anthony J. Godzieba, “Incarnation in the Age of the Buffered, Commodified Self,” in Questioning the Human: Toward a Theological Anthropology for the Twenty-first Century, eds. L. Boeve, Y. De Maeseneer, and E. Van Stichel (New York: Fordham University Press, 2014), 101-114. Rosemary P. Carbine considers this approach as beneficial distancing from a “modern rationalist view of public life ... constituted by autonomous, self-interested individuals” Rosemary P. Carbine, “Public Theology: A Feminist View of Political Subjectivity and Praxis,” in Questioning the Human: Toward a Theological Anthropology for the Twenty-first Century, eds. L. Boeve, Y. De Maeseneer, and E. Van Stichel (New York: Fordham University Press, 2014), 148-163. towards the view of person constituted through continuous negotiations of its relations with the others. Cf. Carbine, “Public Theology,” 148-163. On the other hand, there are proponents of the closed borders. This group insists on protection of European material interests and of its Christian identity. I find this situation very contradictory as a rather selfish desire to protect proper richness and well-fare at all costs, and is closely linked with the identity based on Jesus Christ. In practice it means that European Christians should turn a blind eye to millions of people living in appalling conditions in order to continue to be Christians. Here we have a rather strange mixture of a self that exists as “disengaged from any possible transcendence that lays ‘beyond the boundary,’ and rather gives its own autonomous order to its life” Godzieba, “Incarnation,” 101-114. but nevertheless claiming its Christian identity. Such self creates its own social imaginary that consists of “the generally shared background understandings of society, which make it possible for it to function as it does.” Taylor, A Secular Age, 38-41. Taylor considers contemporary social imaginary as a fruit of Enlightenment covered by the term humanism and reluctant to accept any form of transcendence. Cf. ibid., 323. What occurs in 2015 is all of a sudden use of religious – therefore transcendence orientated – language and concepts to justify self-sufficient social imaginary of significantly secularized society. Reading the events in light of Davies’ discussion we see that the paradox emerges from the inconsistency of the modern anthropological paradigm. This paradigm relies on the modern distinction of mind and body as two separate entities and allows for a formation of self whose thoughts, ideals, and concepts are disconnected from what he or she really does in its embodied existence. The integrative paradigm, on the other hand, by understanding a human person as an integrated whole of mind, body, and soul, where three continuously emerge from one another, helps the formation of the more authentic and balanced subject. The subject formed on integrative paradigm becomes capable of intensive living in flesh while being deeply immersed in transcendence, simultaneously. Personal question on theological anthropology I investigate if the term ‘crucified people’ See Jon Sobrino, The Principle of Mercy: Taking the Crucified People from the Cross (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1994). as understood by Jon Sobrino can be applied to Muslim refugees fleeing war and destruction. I develop my question on the level of popular theology according to Clodovis Boff’s systematization. Clodovis Boff, “Epistemology and Method of the Theology of Liberation,” in Mysterium Liberationis: Fundamental Concepts of Liberation Theology, ed. Ignacio Ellacuría and Jon Sobrino (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1993), 57-85. Therefore, I primarily rely on the sources that illustrate the public debate arouse by refugee crisis and only secondary on classical theological reflection. The goal of such formulated question in Aquinas’ style is to show its applicability in public debates. Question Should the Muslim refugees to Europe be treated as ‘crucified people’ and be helped in the spirit of Christian mercy? Objection 1. No, they should not, because Europe has to preserve its Christian identity. As Viktor Orbán, the Hungarian Prime Minister says, “those arriving have been raised in another religion, and represent a radically different culture. Most of them are not Christians, but Muslims. This is an important question, because Europe and European identity is rooted in Christianity.” Ian Traynor, The Guardian, http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/03/migration-crisis-hungary-pm-victor-orban-europe-response-madness, 3 September 2015, [accessed 23 December 2015]. Objection 2. No, they should not, because Europe is not legally obliged to help. As Corinna Ferguson writes, the “Geneva conventions state that those fleeing must seek asylum in the first safe country they come to,” and that is not the case in the European migrant crisis. Corinna Ferguson, The Guardian, http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/libertycentral/2010/sep/21/claim-asylum-uk-legal-position, 21 September 2010, [accessed 23 December 2015]. Objection 3. No, they should not, because the majority of refugees who come do not appear to be in serious problems. As Guy Millière writes, many of refugees “do not seem to have left in a hurry. Many bring new high-end smartphones and large sums of cash.” Guy Millière, Gatestone Institute, http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/6721/muslim-invasion-europe, 22 October 2015, [accessed 23 December 2015]. On the contrary, Christian mercy, properly understood, should be applied universally, regardless nationality, race, or religious affiliation. I answer that the term crucified people, as developed by Sobrino, regards all poor and oppressed of our world. Our Christian identity, rather to be threatened, can be reinforced by merciful practice. Accepting refugees from the countries afflicted by war and destruction is an occasion for participation in God’s mercy. As pope Francis says, “behind these statistics are people, each of them with a name, a face, a story, an inalienable dignity which is theirs as a child of God.” Ann Schneible, Catholic News Agency, http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/refugees-are-gods-children-pope-says-in-wake-of-paris-attacks-27455/, 17 November 2015, [accessed 23 December 2015]. People who come are the test for our being Christian. In this regard, Davies points to the nature of human acting in the name of Christ by using Ricoeur’s notion of ipse and idem identity. According to Ricoeur, our Christian identity is created through a series of Christ-inspired acts: what we do, in everyday life, day by day, following Christ teachings, that is our ipse identity. On a long run it create a habit to act in a spirit of Christ, and thus our idem, durable, identity is created. See Paul Ricoeur, Oneself as Another (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995). Davies emphasizes a tension between the practical dimension of our Christian faith and the more cultural or intellectual ways in which what is called Christian identity is formed. In critical situations such as the mass influx of people fleeing from war and destruction, our concrete acts here and now shape our Christian identity much more than inherited Christian cultural traditions. Cf. Davies, "Neuroscience,” 79-100. Reply to objection 1. The Christian identity consists of hospitality and not of xenophobia. Donald Tusk, a President of the European Council, says that “Christianity in public and social life means a duty to our brothers in need ... Referring to Christianity in a public debate on migration must mean in the first place the readiness to show solidarity and sacrifice. For a Christian it shouldn’t matter what race, religion and nationality the person in need represents.” Robert Mackey, The New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/04/world/europe/hungarian-leader-rebuked-for-saying-muslim-migrants-must-be-blocked-to-keep-europe-christian.html, 3 September 2015, [accessed 23 December 2015]. Reply to objection 2. Geneva conventions do not correspond to the reality of today’s globalised world. The number of Syrian refugees in neighbouring countries has already passed 4 million at the end of 2015. António Guterres, UN high commissioner for refugees, says that “this is the biggest refugee population from a single conflict in a generation. It is a population that needs the support of the world." UNHCR, The UN Refugee Agency, “Syria's neighbours now host 4 million of its refugees,” http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/refdaily?pass=52fc6fbd5&id=559e24f65, [accessed 23 December 2015]. Reply to objection 3. According to James O'Malley, the journalist of the Independent, the complaint that people fleeing war in Syria are not poor because they all have smartphones is absurd. He asks if “owning a mobile phone should render one ineligible for help when trying to stop themselves and their families from dying in a war.” James O’Malley, The Independent, http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/surprised-that-syrian-refugees-have-smartphones-well-sorry-to-break-this-to-you-but-youre-an-idiot-10489719.html, 7 September 2015, [accessed 23 December 2015]. O’Malley adds that “Syria ranks as a lower middle income country according to the World Bank,” Ibid. and that ownership of smartphone in such countries is completely normal. Ibid. Common sense urges refugees to take things that can help them to survive in extreme conditions, and a smartphone is one of these. Bibliography Aquinas. Summa Theologiae. 3a, q. 57, a. 4, 5. Blondel, Maurice. 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