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S & CB (2009), 21, 175–192 0954–4194 Book Reviews Anna Case-Winters and allows for divine action without vio- Reconstructing a Christian Theology lation of natural laws. Other panen- of Nature: Down to Earth theisms would presumably also achieve Aldershot/Burlington VT: Ashgate, 2007. this but she sees process thought’s value 183 pp. hb. £50.00. ISBN 978-0-7546- lying within its espousal of ‘panexperi- 5476-6 mentalism’, its ‘refusal of a material-spir- itual dualism in which God and the This is an attempt, from within the human being have a monopoly of spirit Reformed tradition, to contribute and the rest of nature is simply material’ towards ‘a more viable theology of (129). It lets God off the theodical hook to nature’(1). The author considers that the some extent, and provides a non-hierar- need for such a reinterpretation of exist- chical view of reality. ing theology lies in the ‘state of the world’ (the usual ecological suspects but pre- The strength of this book is its identifi- sented within a wider canvas of econom- cation of the wider issues (not just the ics and health issues) and the ‘state of ecological crisis) facing a theology of theology’. The latter includes the obvious nature and its juxtaposition of a number accusations, from Lynn White, of dualism of different approaches to dealing with between God and World leading to the problems she identifies. If you find anthropocentrism and the desacralisa- process thought a satisfying and coher- tion of nature. However, Case-Winters ent account of the world then you may expands the challenge to include attacks find her thesis convincing. I would have by both feminist and process thought on liked to see her working more with some other hierarchical dualisms within the of the promising lines of thought she Christian tradition, and the need posed identified within her own tradition, using by scientific understandings of origins the texts themselves to reshape a more and causation to reconsider our accounts robust theology of nature to counter the of creation, human distinctiveness, and weaknesses of classical theology. For divine action. A more adequate Christian instance, the material on humanity as dust and as imago Dei (119-23) is partic- theology of nature should address these ularly helpful. issues while retaining a concept of a God worthy of worship, both immanent in the The merits of this book are unfortu- world yet sufficiently distinguished from nately undermined by a degree of repeti- it (a weakness she finds in the work of tion and errors in syntax, punctuation McFague and Kaufmann); it should also and referencing, the latter being a con- establish the alterity and intrinsic value fusing mixture of Harvard style and foot- of nature and provide a model for living notes. The content as a whole would have within it (41, 131, 145). been improved by some acknowledge- ment of other contributions towards a Curiously, despite finding a number of theology of nature more adequate to our fruitful contributions within her own current situation yet situated firmly Reformed tradition, notably in the works within the Christian scriptures, such as of Calvin, Moltmann, Hall and Rolston those from Michael Northcott, Celia (Ch.3), Case-Winters does not build much Deane-Drummond and James Nash. on these but turns to process thought, more specifically process panentheism, to Despite its publication within the articulate a view of God and world which interdisciplinary Ashgate Science and maintains the distinction between the Religion Series, this is a theological two without collapsing into pantheism treatment of the topic with only enough Science & Christian Belief, Vol 21, No. 2 • 175 Book Reviews science included to convince the reader of deals with the interactions between reli- the necessity of the task undertaken and gion and science, and refutes claims that the suitability of the solutions proposed; they are inevitably in conflict, drawing in fact, the inclusion of some topics, such on the ideas of Habgood, Barbour and as ID, does not really contribute to the McGrath. overall thesis. Although some theological Having laid the foundations in the first terms are defined and explained they are half of the book, Seybold turns in the sec- not always appropriately presented (for ond half to the questions raised by mod- example, panentheism is defined on p. ern neuroscience and psychology, and 126 although occurring, according to the attempts to show that ‘it is possible to be index, on 17 different pages before then) both an honest Christian and an honest so a non-specialist reader might find it scientist’. I think he succeeds well. quite a challenging read. Chapter 6 (‘Brain and Religion’) deals Cherryl Hunt is a biblical scholar and with whether emotional and religious former cell biologist currently work- experiences can be reduced to brain ing on an AHRC funded project ‘Uses activity, as had been claimed by of the Bible in Environmental Ethics’ Persinger and others. Seybold argues in the Department of Theology at the convincingly that to explain is not to University of Exeter. explain away. Chapter 7 (‘The Self’) deals with self- hood and the nature of the soul, and sum- Kevin S. Seybold marises the philosophical debate Explorations in Neuroscience, between monists and dualists. He Psychology and Religion appears to favour the nonreductive phys- Aldershot, Hampshire, UK & icalism of Nancey Murphy and Warren Burlington, VT, USA: Ashgate, 2007. 163 Brown, a moderate form of monism that pp. hb. £50/$99.95. ISBN 978-0-7546- accepts the mind as an emergent, 5563-3 depending on the brain but ‘nevertheless a different property that cannot be Recent developments in neuroscience viewed as consisting of nothing more and psychology raise many questions for than neurons and neurotransmitters’. Christians, ranging from the nature of And he draws on theologians such as Joel the soul to the evolution of religion, and Green to argue that nonreductive physi- the stated aim of this book is to address calism is consistent with Scripture. While these for the benefit of the ‘person in the I happen to agree with Seybold’s position, pew’. I feel he gives here insufficient attention to theologians with a contrary view such The first five of the book’s ten chapters as J.W. Cooper. In this same chapter, Sey- provide the factual and conceptual back- bold discusses the somewhat different ground for the remaining five. The initial problem of brain disorders that affect a three chapters sketch the basics of neu- person’s experience of selfhood, and their roscience and psychology, and dissect implications for Christian belief and subtle distinctions between the terms practice. ‘religion’ and ‘spirituality’. Chapter 4 summarises in a mere but masterly Chapter 8 provides a balanced survey seven pages how the philosophy of sci- of evolutionary psychology as applied to ence has changed since the days of posi- the origins of morality, altruism, sexual tivism, mentioning the ideas of Kuhn and tendencies and religion, pointing out Polanyi, and considers the issues of natu- both the explanatory power of this ralism and reductionism in relation to approach but also its relative lack of sup- psychology and neuroscience. Chapter 5 porting evidence. Problems raised for 176 • Science & Christian Belief, Vol 21, No. 2 Book Reviews Christian belief are addressed including in Austria, he writes from a Catholic the apparent contradiction between evo- background and in this book he presents lutionary psychology and the biblical some wide-ranging perspectives of physi- account of the Fall. cal science, seen from a faith-based point of view. The present volume is a transla- Chapter 9 considers the influences of tion of the original German version. religion and spirituality on health, and provides a discussion of recent research Thirring’s account focuses on the areas on the neuropsychology of forgiveness. of cosmology, astrophysics, the physics of the solar system and particle physics, Chapter 10 looks into the future and with some thoughts on how life is able to discusses ethical questions that may exist on our planet. While broad in scope, arise from the application of new tech- the discussion does not attempt to be nology to brain enhancement. exhaustive or overly rigorous, but rather I am glad I read this book. It is not par- to convey general principles to a non-spe- ticularly original, and does not claim to cialist reader, especially with regard to a be, but it provides a superbly balanced number of topics that are of particular and well-informed overview of the impli- interest to the author. All the chosen top- cations of modern neuroscience and psy- ics are important and well merit the chology for Christianity. More weight is emphasis given to them. given to psychology than to neuroscience In any book such as this, a professional (there is no discussion of neural deter- author has the problem of how to com- minism), which probably reflects the fact municate the specialist aspects of his that Seybold is a professor of psychology. subject to a non-specialist readership – in I discovered from the web site of his Col- this case the more mathematical aspects. lege (Grove City, a Christian college in Thirring includes quite a lot of equations Pennsylvania) that he gives regular and mathematical concepts in his text, courses on Science and Religion, and Psy- trying to keep it all quite elementary and chology of Religion. His experience in relegating much to a series of Appen- teaching these subjects comes out in the dices. I suspect he has not fully succeeded clarity and evenness of this book. It will in his intentions: the non-mathematical be tough going for the average ‘person in reader will still probably find this mate- the pew’, but I think it is just right for rial heavy going, even though it com- many readers of Science and Christian prises a small fraction of the text overall.

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