Society for Christian Psychology“Human and Christian Agency”September 2010

INTRODUCTION – ERIC JOHNSON Challenge we face in Christian community is the fragmentation of knowledge ... the

divorce of the first principles Interdisciplinary is the term usually used in dialogue ... but this leaves them separate ...

this is why we are using the term ‘transdisciplinary’ ... trying to understand human nature better via means of different methods and disciplines coming from a common source (in light of Scripture)

We want the knowledge of the specialists ... but we want them to talk in such a way that all of us can understand and unify what is said under the authority of Christian theology

Modern psychology was founded on the assumption of naturalism (everything is composed of natural entities) ... result was that notions of human agency and freedom were ignored

Recent research shows all human activity is correlated with brain activity and can be comprised by brain dysfunction and poor socialization

This seem to prove that agency is an illusion ... However, last 30 years has led to things like creativity, agency, moral engagement,

willpower, etc. ... i.e. a top-down causation Positive psychology has opened up many new areas as well Western philosophy and theology has a long history on agency ... Barth and Balthasar

made divine agency central to their theology on human agency

Definitions ... see handout Determinism ... biological and social Libertarianism ... total free will Compatibilism ... ability to choose and act according to one’s nature or wishes Agency ... ‘capacity to exercise control over the nature and quality of one’s life’ (Albert

Bandura) ... ‘deliberative, reflective activity of a human being in framing, choosing, and executing actions in a way that is not fully determined by factors and conditions other than his own understanding’

Key Issue ... in light of the abundant evidence that human activity is grounded in biological activity and shaped by social influence, hwo are we to understand the sense humans have that they are agents, free, and morally responsible for the actions

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Christian interests in this ... we are interested in both human and divine agency ... for example, how does sin impair human agency beyond the effects of negative biological and social influences ... how is the triune God involved in human agency ... is there a distinctive kind of agency that characterizes the virtuous actions of Christians?

SESSION #1 – C. STEPHEN EVANS: “WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE A BODILY SOUL?” Note: See his transcript Response by Betty Fratzke, chairperson at Indiana Weslyan ... presentation is a solid

defense of dualism, yet an unanswered question ... how does the soul communicate with God after death? ... also, must develop a way of dealing with neuro-science ... e.g. what does my brain chemistry show when I try to apply Romans 12:1-2?

Existential philosophy’s attempt to overcome dualism? ... Poteez is behaviorism ... continental philosophy is allergic to metaphysics

Difference between Murphy/Brown and your view? ... mine is more coherent though both views come to the same place ... yet among these writers Jeeves is in a different category (neutral monism)

Reference to Thomas Reid ... where did he come from in your thinking? ... my epistemology comes from Reid

Why don’t want to be classified as Thomistic? ... can say the body is part of self but not an essential part of myself ... Descarte is completely wrong in his distinction between human and animal souls (Aquinas has a continuum on soul)

SESSION #2 – PETER HAMPSON: “’BY KNOWLEDGE AND LOVE’: THE INTEGRATIVE ROLE OF HABITUS IN CHRISTIAN PYSCHOLOGY, AND SOME APPLICATIONS”

Can get his paper via email History is written by the victors it is said ... Augustine and Aquinas were victors ... but

both leaders have been misunderstood Focus of talk is on issues in moral theology and psychology ... specifically, how to

communicate the riches of Christian theology to secular psychology in a way that is understood and effective

Two Ladders for Christian Psychology ... from ground level with its problems in moral psychology ... 1) Augustine ladder and 2) Aquinas ladder

MacIntyre After Virtue ... After Justice ... Three Rival Versions Related issues in moral theology and moral psychology ... moral theology had an

approach of following the rules and propositions ... focused on sin, law, right behavior, etc. without much of focus on love

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After You Believe (Tom Wright) ... talks about the difference between the above and contemporary culture and its moral expressivism ... Kohlberg (moral understanding) and Hoffman (moral emotion) and Haidt (moral intuitionism)

Point: separation of reason and love Thomas Summa (QQ 49-54, 59-70) ... God, Creation and Humanity, Christ ... can be read

as Aristotelian (act potency) or Platonic (participation) Habitus (QQ 49-89) ... can be understood as underpinning the virtues ... it can be

understood as skill which becomes part of our ‘second’ nature (with its non-identical repetition) ... one’s own personhood changes with these repetitions ... they are not automatic but ‘flexible expertise’

Habitus includes repetition but still has a purposeful action ... it is a movement from moral potential to actuality (actualized moral goods)

We can have both intellectual and moral virtues (Haldane, 2004, p 193) ... intellect toward truth directed away from falsity ... affective and volitional virtues toward feeling and choice directed away from bad

Cognition (intellect) and Desire/wants (will) combine to produce actions which are directed toward (in pursuit of) goals

Effects of Habitus ... interconnecting of virtues ... forms beliefs, shapes emotions, underpins ‘routinised’ moral actions ... love and knowledge reconnected ... intellect has priority in specification (formal cause) but will has priority in exercise (efficient cause) ... also provides theological virtues as well as cardinal virtues

Formation of character through creation of ‘second nature’ dispositions ... from habit to character through ‘behavioral mastery’ and use and elaboration of self-narratives in autobiographical memory which form part of self-identity ... identity comes at least in part through a reflection on our actions

What are the causal links between moral identity and behavior? ... How does moral identity connect with more ‘automatic’ and routinissed moral behavior? ... How does moral identity develop? ... How do the virtues and vices relate to these issues? (questions from Hardy and Carlos)

Habitus (in summary) ... knits together the key components of the system, namely our knowledge (including self knowledge), desires and action ... is better thought of as the development of moral expertise rather than ‘automatic’ behavior ... shapes character and moral identity through the creation of second order dispositions and supports the creation of self beliefts/autobiographical narratives ... underpins all repeated acts (there are moral as well as intellectual virtues and vices) ... emotions a well as beliefs and behaviors can be shaped

Moral psychology is a unifier

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Beliefs ... desires ... actions ... these are impacted by triggers, autobiographical narrative, ideals, comparisons, cultural and social moral networks

What about God and grace? ... Thomas makes a distinction between moral virtues and cardinal virtues and theological virtues on the other hand

He says all virtues involve habitus ... all virtues involve increasing degrees of ‘participation’ (faith is both a habitus and is infused) ... theological virtues involve deeper participation in God’s nature and are invitations into friendship with God

Thus ... cannot do secular psychology on some virtues and Christian psychology on other virtues

Creation allows us to participate in being ... grace allows us to participate in Trinitarian life

Christianity is not the icing on top of the moral cake ... all is a gift ... grace enables us to participate in creation and redemption

Intellect (faith, prudence, wisdom/knowledge) ... will (hope, justice, temperance/fortitude) ... caritas and habitus

Bottom line ... God does matter in psychology because we act and acts change the way we are

Eg. a soldier can have classic virtues of bravery, etc ... but he is different from a Christian martyr

Applications ... education (it is both intellectual and moral formation which sees truth as good and beautiful) ... ‘Green’ virtues (sustainability as a moral endeavor requiring application and practice, temperance and fortitude, prudence, justice) ... therapy (at a basic level it should be practiced in a virtue context ... e.g. imago dei therapy)

Waiting for Godot ... they have some good virtues (patience, perseverance, etc.) ... their waiting changed their character ... we wait in the joy of the Lord

Response by Jonathan Pennington (associate prof of NT at SBTS) ... positive psychology makes a big deal on hope but doesn’t treat virtue in a fully orbed way which takes eschatology seriously ... grace (in Aquinas) is critical and appreciated ... discipleship must take into account moral identity and desire (well-formed moral habits which demonstrate expertise ... this is wisdom)

Peter’s response ... positive psychology has no category for sin (thus Pelagian) ... rules have a point of letting you know what game you are playing, but it is practice that makes a good player

Rules/Principles and divine commands/law ... virtue ethics are not opposed to theseSESSION #3 – MICHAEL HAYKIM: “RIVERS OF DRAGONS AND MOUTHS OF LIONS AND DARK FORCES: THE HOLY SPIRIT AND THE CHRISTIAN STRUGGLE FOR HOLINESS IN MACARIUS”

See transcript

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Holy Spirit is necessary, but not sufficient! There must be the work of the human being in sanctification

Is the redeemed person more free than the unredeemed? Yes. But unredeemed does have an element of freedom (was arguing against Manicheism who were determinists) ... sinner has possibilities but is not living into actualities

Macarius does not come at things from a dualistic approach He is a contemporary of Augustine ... there are significant similarities between the two

though Augustine is a much more sophisticated theologian Purves ... “as I get older things get messier!” (when it comes to the interaction and

mathematical amount of Spirit versus human agency) ... reflection on Christian experience as one gets older results in the conclusion that things are not as neat and tidy as one thought earlier

Greek tradition had an overwhelming emphasis on freedom of the will (because they were arguing against Gnostics who were deterministic)

Western tradition developed an overwhelming emphasis on the depravity of man and power of sin

Macarius seemed to steer a middle way ... but he was not a theologian ... had a simple faith ... just recognize the experience of saints is both a great blessing and, at the same time, a great battle ... yet he thinks the building of habit the likelihood of walking away from the faith less likely ... but he still has a starkness to him

Wrestled with what does it mean to be a Christian ... answer was monasticism because of the state making Trinitarian Christianity the only recognized religion and many were coming into the church without any ‘evidence’ of change

Redemption rebuilds creation Sin is serious, very serious ... Macarius spoke of the heart as the center of who we are

and the place where warfare takes place ... he had a very positive view of the body Humans have enough freedom to walk away even from the Spirit and faith

SESSION #4 – WILLIAM HATHAWAY: “RESPONSIBILITY AND AGENCY: SIMILARITIES IN BIBLICAL THOUGHT, COMMON LAW, AND FOLK PSYCHOLOGY”

Thesis: Ordinary notions of moral responsibility requires robust moral agency (but does this require free will)

James Child ... two pre-conditions for crime ... guilty deed and guilty mind/intent ... without both one cannot have a crime

What does the law mean by an ‘act’ ... defined as ‘a bodily movement whether voluntary or involuntary’ (note: act does not mean a crime)

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But this standard legal view does not work ... e.g. negligence (guilty without bodily movement) ... thus ‘doings that are purposeful under some description’ works better for culpability

To be held accountability one must have certain capacities and abilities necessary to be an appropriate subject of punishment

Competence requires “a reasonable degree of rational understanding” ... thus there is a place for an insanity plea (Daniel M’Naghten case in Britain) ... M’Naghten rule became that every man is to be presumed to be sane ... and that to have an insanity defense one must prove one’s insanity (around cognitive standards)

Volitional standards were articulated in 1887 in case of Parsons v. State of Alabama ... “his free agency was at the time destroyed” ... mental disease produces the act

ALI standard (1962) established in the Model Penal Code both a cognitive and volitional component ... again, sanity is presumed

Thus in legal terms ... If don’t know what doing OR cannot prevent one’s self = not responsible and thus not culpable

If I could have acted otherwise then I can be held to be morally responsible POINT – can a hard determinism be allowed to enter the legal system FOLK PSYCHOLOGY ... dominant folk view is causalism which assumes that beliefs,

intentions, and desires are legitimate causal factors Does the Bible assume that humans have or can have ‘robust agency’ to include free

will? ... Galatians 5:1 ... Science and Christian Belief 16:139-156 Richmond Bible seems to incorporate the folk psychology and concepts ... we are capable of

reasoning (Isa 1), can be deprived of reason (Job 12), responsible for the light we have (Romans 2), we are to make choices (Joshua 24) , we are morally accountable (Romans 1), etc.

But ... Bible doesn’t present a systematic theology of the person ... the discussion of freedom in Scripture does not focus at the issue of the ontological status of our will, not clear ‘free will’ vs. predestination’ has any direct bearing on the extent to which we are free

Plato’s Chariot analogy for the soul ... two horses ... good horse is the spirit ... bad horse is the passion (?)

Research suggests there may be something in the brain which starts reviving up before we are aware of a willful state of wanting

Rubicon Model (Motivation and Action) ... goal striving and goal selection are two different thing ... deliberation results in goal selection ... then volitional planning (preaction) and this is a crossing of the rubicon ... then volitional action ... then evaluation (deactivation)

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Mirror neuron’s activate when watching others do something (Cognitive Neuroscience) ... pathways going from mirror neurons to empathetic neurons (same emotions in me as in you even though I’m not doing what you are doing)

Mental simulation of action ... through imagination vs. simulating actions of others through anticipation ... imagination activates certain areas in the brain ... but if I’m watching there are other areas activated (figure 7.47)

Point – activation toward an action comes before volition ... but we are volitional when it comes to inhibiting responses (not the freedom to will but the freedom to ‘won’t)

Gazzinga, Ivry, Mangun (2009) ADHD ... cannot disengage because this requires an inhibition response (which is

impaired) Michael Bratman on agency Structures of Agency: Essays ... belief/desire/intention

model of human practical reasoning To be morally responsible we must be in some sense causally responsible for our

morally significant actions ... that we should have been able to do otherwise ... such self-regulation’ would require our providential design to allow for rational self-governance, at least with regard to things that we are prepared ...

Mimesis (imitation) What Spiritual Formation things are needed at the deliberative stage, volitional stage,

evaluative stage, etc. How free are we moment to moment? To be maximally free we need to have a well

integrated telic structure, discipline behavioral habits comporting to these goals Emmons The Psycholgoy of Ultimate Concerns ... people who have spiritual strivings are

mentally healthier ... provide an all-encompassing framework to sustain motivation Must work against addiction to have better agency

Response by Dr. Warren Kinghorn (Assistant Prof at Duke School of Medicine and Divinity) ... 1) can folk psychology avoid palagianism; 2) can folk psychology give us a robust form of freedom (which comes from progressive participation in the good); 3) is culpability under civil law the same as culpability under divine law?

Response from Hathaway ... law has assumed a level of freedom that theology probably does not (but don’t know how divine law will be different from civil law ... Anthony Flew found it difficult to embrace Christianity because of loss of freedom ... father of positive psychology says western Christianity is too Augustinian and needs to be more Pelagian)

Action plan sequences Free WON’T is a very positive factor ... conscience is an inhibitor ...

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Chariot illustration ... one horse is reason, prudence is the charioteer, other horse is passion/eros (?) ... neuroscience is pointing toward virtue as central to our motivation (lured by them)

Evans ... cautioned against using folk psychology because it is misunderstood ... the things you listed are very clear to us and we don’t want them thrown out ... also try to pull out agency from Pelagianism

SESSION #5 – ERIC JONES: “INTENTIONAL SLAVERY: SOCIAL INFLUENCE, AUTOMATICITY, AND FREE WILL”

Choice about Agency ... which narrative do we choose? ... naturalism (world lacking purpose or intended meaning ... survival oriented) or Christianity (world full of transcendent purpose and meaning, representative of our Creator)

Divine origin of agency ... Johnson ... agency has a divine origin Scripture points out the need for self-control (Gal 5:23; 2 Pet 1:6) and the problems

associated with lack of self-control (1 Cor ) ... if we are to do this we must have agency Must have self-control for sake of community (helping and being with others) ... love is

our goal ... this is a long-term, life-long goal Social cognitive literature has shorter term goals Me and My TheoSocial Context ... Self (agentic, fallen condition, created as

interdependent, intended for Trinitarian theology-based community) ... TheoSocial context (Trinitarian, fallen, multiple goals and goal levels, hierarchy of goals, contains both pro-Christian and anti-Christian influences)

Gist of it All ... agency, free will, volition, intention, self-control, self-regulation, self-reflexivity, metacognition, choice

Role of Psychological Science ... to what degree does humanity possess agency? ... is this question outside the boundaries of the scientific method? ... basically ‘yes’ ... but Libet’s study speaks of beginning of action as pre-volitional, simple vs. complex tasks, Dan Wegner’s views of cognitive reporting (Illusion of Will ... when we report the reports are clouded)

What starts behavior? ... silly question ... behavior is a stream that is always going ... conscience just tries to redirect the stream

Science and Christianity do not conflict ... but cannot swallow uncritically Guiding Questions ... Individual consequences (can we use agency in such a way as to

protect future agency or to enhance future agency ... i.e. can I decide to decide better in the future) ... community consequences (can intentional use of agency result in the kind of individual necessary for God’s intended community (Christian Intentional Agents)?)

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If we are just reacting to stimuli as we get older we cannot contribute to community (love) as we are called and want to do

We can use agency to enhance agency by becoming more restrained ... we can constrain ourselves to become free ... we become enslaved to something (we have goals and we limit the option of other goals) ... we can be co-creators with God to facilitate agentic flourishing ... it is a question of depth and breath ... when we constrain it limits the influence of others ... this makes us more free within our area of constraint (i.e. what we are committed to) ... this constraint needs to start sooner rather than later

We can use agency to result in the kinds of people we want to be in community ... yes ... we can use unconscious

Facilitation of Agency ... We will possess greater potential agency to the degree we do these three ... purpose (align ourselves with our intended purpose) ... others (align ourselves with the more numerous and stronger others) ... self (intentionally use automaticity and intentionally cultivate self-control)

Bandura ... to be an agent is to influence intentionally one’s functioning and the course of environmental events ... ‘influence’ suggests other factors ... ‘intentionality’ suggests origin of intent ... ‘one’s functioning’ (but differences between kids pushing a ball and a poker player)

Self control ... long of discussion on internal control (me) and external control (environment) ... e.g. going to wedding ... want to wear nice dress which will require shedding a few pounds (but people to see me /external ... but because I had no self esteem /internal ... but might be because I was a bully to others /external) ... but I love cake and eat it as often as I can

This shows us that internal and external are difficult words Self-control ... long discussion around conscious and unconscious thought as to which is

involved in self control ... again the labels are difficult ... internal conscious quadrant is often said to represent agency ... external conscious quad is a gun to the head ... internal unconscious is where a lot of research is ... external conscious

Personal determinants ... behavioral determinants ... environmental determinants ... the chair you will sit in depends on when the music stops!

Thus focus on process and outcomes rather than a specific model ... use terms like facilitators and impeders

Self-determination theory ... types of motivation move from a-motivation to extrinsic motivation to intrinsic (autonomy, relationships, competence are the three big needs) ... regulation moves from non, external, introjected, identified, integrated, intrinsic regulation

There are things within us which we are not aware of which move us over a long period of time

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Automaticity ... involves inevitable evocation, incorrigible completion, efficient execution, parallel processing

Malcolm Gladwell ... touts the virtues of thinking without thinking (Blink) ... this is where a lot of automaticity researchers land

Daniel Wegner (Illusion of Conscious Will) ... consciousness merely alerts us to the difference between what we do and what others do (at Harvard)

John Bargh (Social Psychology and the unconscious) ... we will soon conclude the conscious system doesn’t do anything (at Yale)

Timothy Wilson (Strangers to Ourselves) ... conscious processing may be maladaptive Cognitive researchers take into account BOTH conscious and unconscious (as opposed

to some extreme automaticity researchers) Automaticity does not always proceed automatically ... there is a rhetoric beyond the

research because of their naturalism philosophy (no God, no purpose or intention, thus no purposeful response, behaviorist)

Duplex Mind ... i.e. the automatic system and the conscious system ... simple, well-learned can be handled by the automatic side

NOTE: when can’t think of someone’s name ... you quit trying ... 30 minutes later the name comes ... why? ... because automatic mind didn’t stop when you moved on

NOTE: we have habitual goals as well as chronically pursued goals ... these things are at work in our automatic thinking (versus agency)

When we cannot remember doing something it is often because we did it in the habitual pattern with automaticity ... e.g. adding flossing to brushing ... brushing is habitual ... flossing needs intention to start ... if floss long enough it becomes habitual so that you won’t think about it (i.e. the establishing of a habit)

Bargh ... “mental habits are patterns that become the deep grooves into which behavior falls when not consciously attended” (1998)

Summary ... automaticity is beneficial but not all-encompassing in that it doesn’t eliminate the need for deliberate thought ... neutral process can lead to good or bad outcomes ... only carries out goal-oriented actions ... can b directed by external

Christianity confirms human agency ... psychology describes processes and outcomes of agency

Response by Dr. Phil Jamieson (Professor of Pastoral Theology at Dubuque Theological Seminary) ... why the flight from agency? ... because imago dei requires it and the natural man does not want to acknowledge it ... it is a gift which ties us into our Creator

Also ... NT and Christians assumed many kinds of agencies (e.g. powers and principalities surround us ... some leading us closer to God and others not) ... agency always leads me either to worshipping the true God or not

The fact that we can be co-creators must call for agency

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Purves ... “why do we keep medicalizing ethics?” ... because naturalism has to go in a reductionistic direction which will have a biological rational

Automatic choices have a lot to do with the choices I have made over many years ... the pattern we look for is the one that is important to us (the allegiance affect)

SESSION #6 – ADAM GREEN: “AGNECY AND BEING MOVED BY THE OTHER” (St. Louis University) Being moved by another can sometimes be good and sometimes be bad ... humility

listens to others and fools don’t ... community and individuality What does it mean to be moved by another? ... gullibility focuses on the qualities of the

one who is moved ... disposition to believe others without a good reason ... may be adaptive for me to believe all kinds of things, thus a failure of an episotic reason ... requires me to trust another in order to listen to another

What is gullibility ... epistemic spinelessness ... disposition to be moved by another when one should be moved by the truth ... it is a defect because fails to exercise agency

Thus this is one way to be moved by another which is unhealthy ... it is a surrender of agency

Yet there is a necessity on being moved by others ... attachment theory shows infants need the attention of others ... note: video delay of 30 seconds of a mother and infant ... very difficult on infant ... interactions were not in tune!

Diatic interactions are first ... matching affects (e.g. interest to interest) ... then triadic interactions (e.g. electric toy scares kids but after looking at a calm mother the infant is calmed)

Shared attention necessary for the learning of language Infant tunes in to the perspective of the other ... how it should feel and what it should

pay attention to Infant spends time being in tune with and being moved by the other Social interaction depends on reading the emotional clues of others ... we are guided by

our emotions in social interactions ... Anthropologist on Mars Failure to attune to others can put one at risk to gullibility ... if I cannot ‘read’ others

well then I am at risk Syncrinity and mimicry are needed to become healthy ... must pay attention to what

others do and do it Being moved by others is a neurological characteristic ... responsive interdependence Theologically ... being moved by another is important ... purpose of man is loving

communion with the divine ... sin decouples us from this ... being moved by God is not limiting but freeing so that we can become who we were created to be

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Agency, grace and freedom complement each other ... vine and branch ... Ezekiel tells us of God renewing us ... both operative and cooperative grace is needed

Will of God and will of man debates still agree that being moved by another (God) is necessary for human flourishing ... this is not gullibility because part of what makes gullibility bad is the disconnect from the gullible and the truth

Divine is good and beautiful and true ... thus to be moved by the Divine is a perfection of agency ... the agents will will then be good

When the Holy Spirit takes us over do we lose our agency? I have no agency if all is due to Spirit

My relationship with God is pictured in the infant/caregiver ... infant uses limited resources on what it has already received ... mimicry ... ball room dancing is still agency even when following ... thus God is not moadic, but dyadic (I’m involved)

Agency is mind and will directed toward proper ends, even if it means trusting someone else ... we express agency through the way we accommodate ourselves to others

Need a theory on manipulation ... anti-free willers don’t want to talk in terms of manipulation ... it is different from influence ... manipulation impacts agency

One fired and one under hypnosis ... both hit boss in face ... agency is different

Response: Ken Linfield ... Adam helped fill in the continuum of NOT moved by others and MOVED by others ... many dimensions involved in the continuum ... life does not come to us in very black and white categories (e.g. moved or not moved by others ... we still wind up saying whether someone is responsible but still reasons behind this are messy)

We all give away some of our agency ... we give it away in wise and unwise ways ... in fact, agency comes through and is given away early in life

There are many powerful influences acting on the agency of the soul ... from a mega-picture (e.g. living in a technological culture versus traditional culture) to very specific influences

Response from Adam ... messy is more messy than think (e.g. wishful thinking ... not wanting to get at the truth but not being aware that I am not wanting to get to truth ... e.g. Aquinas says we are always choosing the good ... but some are lesser goods)

“giving agency away” is not a phrase I like ... e.g. taking a charge in basketball ... you are about to be moved by another but it is your choice

Other responses ... Purves ... agency and convictional experiences ... acted on in a life-changing way (Acts 9:5 Paul on the road) ... this is not gullibility or manipulation ... but what is it? ... not bad even though it violated Paul’s agency ... Paul not responsible for this experience but goes along with it because he was zealous for God even before

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this ... so the life-changing situation was more of a moving toward truth ... Paul’s response is ‘Lord’ so he knows this is the One he has tried to serve

Not everyone responded like Mary and Paul to the impact of God showing up ... yet Romans 9-11 shows not everyone responds well ... yet all remain free including Mary but unable to choose any other because came face to face with ultimate good/beauty

Will always chooses the good, beautiful ... job of intellect is to say what is good (prioritizing good) ... God enters and helps the intellect see what is truly good and the will opens up to say ‘I do’ ... still free even though God has freely given us

Mary’s response has been said to be she is not free ... Scotus said you are free even in heaven to turn away

Agency needs to be transformed into being a slave of Christ ... Bartimaeus was asked what he wanted ... when healed he followed Jesus

Tim O’Conner says we need two notions of freedom Perechoresis ... all three in joint attention and intention (not monadic of each agent) ...

irreducible transparency to the others ... Trinity has this unbreakable bond ... it is this to which we have been invited not only with the Divine but also with God’s people

Does God ordinarily work on us through others? ... yes ... when others are working on us God is there working on us ... Augustine makes this case in Confessions ... there salvation is pictured holistically ... one of the places we are in need of salvation is in our sociality with each other

Religious Studies Reading the Mind of God without Hebrew Lessons (Adam Green) ... Coercion ... D-Day ... a cowering soldier whose sergeant ‘moved’ him and this role is not

purely bad ... coercion thus does not take away responsibility (e.g. what so many Germans did in light of their government) ... yet there are gradations ... to the extent you are manipulated you are not responsible

SESSION #7 – WILLIAM STRUTHERS: “CASE STUDIES IN THE NEUROSCIENCE OF AGENCY” Trained in modern positivistic mindset ... yet a person of faith and thus find that I must

believe in agency ... how could there be sin without choice and moral weight When an agent chooses to go against the will of God then one is disobedient ... we

cannot reduce agency to relativism BUT ... moral agency is nervous with neuroscience ... ‘my brain made me do it’ approach

... this goes against a dualistic view of human nature ... but we must let science ask us questions in light of its findings

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Neuroethics: Mapping the Field reveals two categories ... theory and then practical ... DANA Foundation and Stanford in 2002 sponsored a conference on ethical questions in light of neuroscience

Dividing Neuroethics ... Neural basis of Morality and Ethics (neural basis of the self, theory of mind, mirror neurons, behavioral inhibitions, rationality and affect in decision making) ... Neuroscience Advances on Evaluatiing Moral Systems (public policy therapy, enhancement through drugs, education, etc.)

Chester Barrett says the idea of God is the mind run amuck Note: your activity is mirrored in me (i.e. that part of the mind is activated) though it is

often, rightfully, inhibited Wolves will engage in acts of repentance and forgiveness! Note: People will take an article much more seriously if there is a picture of the brain on

it! Ontological terms ... mind/body problem (monism vs dualism, both positions should be

keen on understanding the neurological data), theological anthropology ... majority of scientist has no recognition that the things they are doing are really theological anthropology ... they throw out Descartes two systems ... much more comfortable talking about correlates (won’t say brain state is causing the minded state ... but both are going on at the same time)

Mechanism of Agency Neural Correlates of Agency Neurals Correlates of moral decision making Point – agency is looked at as an embodied, neurological process Most Agent Definitions are anthromorphic (ignoring God), perception, reason for

interpretation and inference, means to act on the environment, problem solving, communication and socialization, self-rule (agent has ability to determine what it wants to do)

Free will ... vs ... acting in a willful fashion What is the data? ... philosophical issues, first person data (subjective experience ... this

is where psychologists started) Neuroscientist say our agency emerges out of brain activity ... and they are most

comfortable dealing with third person data (behavior, brain processes) Genes are constantly being turned on and off .... we alter each other’s genes when we

react to each other ... so genes don’ just set the hardware What gives us our notion of self-agency ... what are the mechanisms by which this

agency might be exercised? Case Study #1 – pornography issue ... 40 yr old experiencing interest in child

pornography ... onset of pedophilia impulses ... felt uncontrollable sexual impulsivity ...

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tumor found in his right orbitofrontal cortex ... after removal he had no inappropriate impulses of a sexual nature ... point: he has lost his ability to control himself ... but still were consequences to his actions ... but the moral weight ascribed to him is not the same as someone without a tumor ... thus the question of addiction is impacted by neuro stuff ... Romans 7 (don’t want to do what I’m doing ... no longer I doing it but sin in me) ... dualistic way of thinking about ourselves is very common in addiction ... brain is built in a way to have habits which impact the brain itself

Case Study #2 – Deep Brain Stimulation ... 56 yr old woman with Parkinson’s disease (which has problems initiating movement because of a lack of dopimem which ‘releases’ the brake of the subthlamic neucleus) ... got a deep brain stimulation device ... had three leads to different parts of the brain ... it restored her agency by restoring the brains mechanisms

Case Study #3 – Spindle Cells ... they are found in the anterior cingulated cortex ... they make new memories permanent ... i.e. they contribute to mindedness, conscience ... layer five in cortex has unusual shape of the cells ... agency is here understood in terms of spindle cells (in a reductionary approach) ... this is the cell that makes agency possible ... interestingly they are postnatal in development (there are few of them in a newborn ... greatly increased in the 4 year old which is when our memories begin and when moral development begins as well as language development ... don’t get many more of these cells into adulthood but they become more integrated), heavily influenced by environment, these cells are under attack in autism and alsheimers diseases

Mirror neurons is also a very important Thus ... agency for scientists is a systematic capacity within the brain involving

autonomy, functionality , intentionality, meaning, interactivity, asymmetric (unified) which is all dependent on spindle cells

Both top-down and bottom-up effects which go thru frontal cortex) ... agency is developed in degree more so than kind ...

Thus ... agency viewed as a legitimate object of neuroscience

Response by Brent Slife (Prof of Psychology at BYU) ... concerns about how neuroscientist think about this ... ADHD kids do not see themselves responsible for their bad behavior because my brain makes me do it ... the brain seeing itself as automistic ... but is agency ONLY on the inside (e.g. Habitus seems to show context and even God is important for agency) ... pleased that agency is a legitimate inquiry, but how is it is possible (is possibility possible?) ... also the issue of addiction ... is it the absence of self control but the wrong self-control (i.e. the result of a pattern

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Response of Struthers ... addiction does have a cultural baggage (e.g. Lindsey Lohands) ... it is used to get away with a lot ... BUT ... God’s desire is not that we get rid of our desires/impulses ... recast this as mastering impulses which is a more free state ... yet this is a freedom is a certain slavery to what is beautiful and good

Reductionistic concerns around possibilities are legitimate ... physicists are in a quadroon around Newtonian and quantum ... psychology is Newtonian and neuroscience is quantum ... want these two to go together but that is not possible right now (just haven’t gotten to that synthesis so far) ... both Newtonian and quantum can explain only so much because looking at different things and using different language

Need a choir singing the song of humanity

SESSION #8 – ANDREW PURVES: “VICARIOUS AGENCY: THE HUMANITY OF GOD IN OUR PLACE” See handout ... complete notes of his paper Response by Jim Spiegel (Prof of Phil at Taylor) ... this is the way to end this

conference ... it all comes to focus in Christ ... my questions are philosophical questions which have dogged me a long time ...

1) Our union with Christ as individuals ... what is this union with Christ ... what does it mean metaphysically speaking to say we are united with Christ ... what is the nature of this particular union ... is the ‘in Christ’ (164x) talk just a metaphor or a reality ... and if a metaphor the question remains what is it a metaphor for ... is this a way to speak of our vicarious participation (but how then is this union) ... what is the relationship

2) what is the means, metaphysically speaking, by which our union with Christ is achieved ... how is Christ’s atoning work applied to me ... what are the necessary conditions for this to happen ... how does God’s decree work

3) what are implications of our union with Christ when it comes to agency ... if our union with Christ accounts for our good works, how can we be rewarded for them (well done good and faithful servant) ... how is positive moral responsibility possible

Response from Andrew ... the older I get the quicker I hit walls ... think but quickly get stuck ... we are persons in relation but not sure I can do the metaphysics ... so I am creation, incarnation, resurrection get NO metaphysical explanation ... great epistological restraint ... just worship! ... so I will tell you a true story which never happened

Pastor gets a call at 4:00 a.m. ... Bob and Mary been married 10 years ... she is newly pregnant ... going to hospital because she is bleeding ... Bob meets you in the hospital and tells you the baby is dead but we want you to baptize the baby ... can I baptize a dead baby ... you enter room where Mary is and cannot figure out what to do ... pastor remembers: our ascended Lord prays for us ... and sends us the Spirit to be with us in

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what we are doing ... and He lifts us up to the Father ... so take the baby and tell parents you want to show them what Jesus is doing ... hold the baby up to say Jesus is lifting baby up to the Father

POINT – we are valued as persons through union with Christ whether we like it or know it or not ... we are received by the Father

Union with Christ is organic rather than ascent ... metaphors from marriage are good but break ... relationship not of duty and faithfulness is a result of that

Lots of Scriptures which are a pain in the rear ... preach as close to anti-nomianism as you can without going there ... not a universalist but believe God is drawing

Bonhoffer ... thrust into world because am in union with Father through Son ... no Christianity without sarkos in the world

Believes in dynamic agency ... Don’t have a Puritan bone in my body so guilt doesn’t work ... but big on gratitude and

thus generosity Question from Warren ... Protestants have made gospel a mediation of word, but not

body (embodiment of sacraments) ... Calvin and Knox both asked the question and failed ... could not separate word/proclamation and sacrament ... almost became an Episcopalian ... then Orthodoxy

We don’t celebrate Ascension Day and thus keep Jesus in the past tense

SESSION # 9 – PANEL DISCUSSION Peter Hampson ... enjoyed the fellowship and the wide variety of converging

elements ... but ... hard to speak yet of how it has impacted ... yet ... may be different models of agency which make it hard to speak to each other even though they have a lot to say to each other ...

Struther ... at Wheaton doing a faith and learning seminar that has forced a lot of reading outside my field ... learning the scholarship we do is filtered through who we are ... and that demands we become more like Christ so that we will be better heard ... at the end of the day, have we become more like Christ

Brent (BYU) ... the fellowship has been wonderful ... lot of grace here (in contrast to focus on works and having to perform) ... have felt a freedom which encourages and enhances my agency

Eric Johnson ... any first impression connection themes? ... No answers! ... SO Eric asked what Andrews talk did to shine light on all the previous talks ... what I heard is that agency in its fullness is participation in Christ ... in what way are psychological, social, biological aspects of agency fulfilled in participation in Christ ... in what way is agency in Christ hindered?

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Philip Jamieson ... the structure of these conferences puts us into a place where we don’t know things ... but abiding in that place allows Christ’s agency to shine forth in humility (and thus in power) ... thus personal experiences of blessing around fellowship are tied to blessing around community

Eric Jones ... we all pulled out points around agency were points in time around a particular facet of agency ... but with time it will be good to see how they come together

Philip Jamieson ... does Paul’s brain look different after his Damascus road experience ... Struthers ... yes ... but it looked different after his first imprisonment ... thus it is better to think of ourselves as human BECOMINGS rather than BEINGS ... what does it mean to us for God to speak to us through frontal lobes? ... everything God does, whether through reading of Scripture or fellowship, have neurological results ... as a result we can think thoughts that we could not think before ... the majority of God’s work is through natural means

Hillary ... many struggle with guilt over the poor exercise of agency ... how can we help them ?

Struthers ... neurologically what happens we must remember that brains don’t exist apart from bodies ... the things which happen to us impact our brains which impact our bodies which impact brains ... significant social justice issues ... most of us have not been deprived since young and they are not as free as we are ... our embodied nature means we will scream out over the consequences of what we call sin

Brent ... how is agency created with the good life? ... the good life is an essential question ... but little discussion about this in university ... one way to reach our full agency is through our Christian commitment ... Case Study ... young woman abused by her uncle who was a returned missionary (Mormon) for seven years ... lots of things surrounding it ... but health ultimately came through forgiveness of herself (didn’t seduce him) and uncle and parents, etc.

Eric Johnson ... agency requires certain conditions ... relatively well-functioning brain, good enough socialization, etc. to realize a baseline platform which enables us to act with some form of freedom (which is always conditioned by socialization, neurons, etc.) ... Holy Spirit brings this agency into the presence of Christ which enhances the agency ... when biology and socialization compromise our agency, to some extent our responsibility is lowered ... God understands to whom much is given much is required

Warren ... trauma is a matter of the world being broken (not my brain broken) ... all successful trauma therapy involves navigating the world as it is ... theologically, one condition for agency is, not just a good enough brain, but also a world constructed to self in a meaningful enough way for me to have responsibility to it (i.e. my world is not simply crazy randomness)

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Adam Green ... my grace sufficient because my power perfected in weakness ... Greek philosophy had a harsh approach (perfect parents, perfect city state, perfect circumstances ... Plato) ... Christians have all good things flowing from God ... and we can surrender to this in small ways

Eric Johnson ... how do you do research on agency? Eric Jones says there is a lot of work on self-control ... it works like a muscle ... can

deplete it and restore it and can build it up (Roy Baumyster) ... research also looked at the situation when people feel they have no agency, responsibility ... when people feel they have no agency there is much more negative behavior (though it is not intentional ... seems to suggest unconscious suggestion is enough to redirect our behavior)

Adam Green ... Wake Forest has a project on Character (funded by Templeton) Eric Johnson ... an unrealized goal is research which requires money (grants) ... can we

do research on what Purves was talking about (i.e. participation in grace, resting in God, etc.)

Phillip Jamieson ... Barth says God’s movement toward us is grace ... our response is gratitude ... thus ... could there be research done around Christians who are participants who are grateful as opposed to Christians who are activists who have to do in order to keep what they have ... unfortunately, in churches there is a conspiracy of silence as to what is really happening in their lives ... Steve Standish Forgiveness

Adam Green ... his wife is doing research on forgiveness and post-traumatic growth ... maybe a study could be done on gratefulness and post-traumatic growth

Eric Johnson ... Emmans has done a lot of work on gratitude Peter Hampson ... would rather live in a world which teaches forgiveness from a

Common Grace perspective than being put on the fringe because doing ‘Christian’ research

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