Table of Contents

Preface
1. What Is Psychology, and How Should We Approach It?
2. What Is the Relationship Between the Mind and Brain?
3. How Free Am I? Free Will and Determinism
4. Determinism, Genetics and the "God Gene"
5. Have Benjamin Libet?s Experiments Exploded the Free-Will Myth?
6. But Is It All in the Brain? The Emergence of Social Neuroscience
7. But What About the Soul?
8. If I Don?t Have an Immortal Soul, What Makes Me Human?
9. Don?t Parapsychology and Near-Death Experiences Prove the Existence of the Soul?
10. Are Humans Different? What About Morality in Animals?
11. What Is the Difference Between Altruism, Altruistic Love and Agape?
12. Does Language Uniquely Define Us As Humans?
13. Does My Brain Have a "God Spot"?
14. Does God Guide and Direct Us?
15. Does Neuropsychology Have Anything to Offer Psychotherapy and Counseling?
16. Are Religious Beliefs the Twenty-First-Century Opium of the People? What About Placebo Effects?
17. What About Spirituality? Is It in the Soul or the Brain?
18. Can Science "Explain Away" Religion?
19. Where Next? Taking Stock
Appendix
Further Reading
Notes
Name Index
Subject Index

About the Author

Malcolm Jeeves (CBE, Hon DSc, FPRSE) is emeritus professor of psychology at the University of St Andrews, where he established the department of psychology in 1969. He was formerly president of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and editor-in-chief of the journal Neuropsychologia. He was made Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1992 for his services to science and to psychology in Britain. He is the author most recently of Neuroscience, Psychology, and Religion: Illusions, Delusions, and Realities about Human Nature (with Warren S. Brown), published in 2009 by Templeton Press.

Reviews

"In this capstone to his distinguished career, Malcolm Jeeves--a pioneering cognitive neuroscientist and our wisest thinker about the interplay of psychological science and faith--helps a student wrestle with big questions. The student is fictional, but the issues are real, and these insightful 'letters from Malcolm' speak to the heart of Christian students' engagement with today's science."--David G. Myers, Hope College, author of Psychology, 10th Edition

"No one is better qualified to lead a conversation on Christian faith, psychology and neuroscience than Malcolm Jeeves. As lecturer, author and practitioner, he has been central to the discussion for decades, and he brings to this book uncommon wisdom, practical insight and a rare combination of expertise and humility. For anyone interested in what recent innovations in brain science might contribute to our understanding of what it means to be human, this is a must-read."--Joel B. Green, Fuller Theological Seminary, author of Bodies, Souls, and Human Life: The Nature of Humanity in the Bible

"While this volume is remarkably wide-ranging in the questions it asks, it also engages in profound and deep-thinking (yet always lucid) analysis. For those cynics who would dismiss Christianity with uninformed or superficial references to the scientific state of play, this volume is bad news. For those Christians, of any age, who fear lest their faith may require them to put intellectual rigor or scientific integrity to one side, it is exceedingly good news. This is a superb book which I vehemently hope--and, indeed, fully expect--will become a bestseller. Every Christian student interested in the fundamental questions of human nature and scientific inquiry must buy it, read it and pass it on to their friends!"--Alan J. Torrance, St Mary's College, University of St Andrews