Heart of Flesh: Orthodoxy, Science, and the Soul-Body Problem

Science-engaged theological anthropology is currently dominated by a movement known as Christian physicalism, which considers evidence from neuroscience to have rendered the notion of a soul obsolete, even in theological discourse. This dissertation offers an Orthodox response to this movement in two ways. First, it suggests a new methodological framework for science-engaged theological anthropology that draws from Gregory of Nyssa’s insistence on the incomprehensibility of the human being and on a models framework inspired by recent work in the philosophy of science. In this framework Christian physicalism can be recast as an improper regulation of anthropological models since models that eliminate the soul can and should be used in scientific contexts without thereby entailing their usefulness in theological contexts. Second, this dissertation seeks to retrieve, develop, and defend a specifically Orthodox model of the human being: the holistic cardiocentrism inspired by the Bible but uniquely cultivated by the hesychasts.