Bodies and Souls, or Spirited Bodies? (Current Issues in Theology) [Paperback]

Nancey Murphy (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0521676762 | ISBN-13: 978-0521676762 | Publication Date: February 20, 2006

Are humans composed of a body and a nonmaterial mind or soul, or are we purely physical beings? Opinion is sharply divided over this issue. In this clear and concise book, Nancey Murphy argues for a physicalist account, but one that does not diminish traditional views of humans as rational, moral, and capable of relating to God. This position is motivated not only by developments in science and philosophy, but also by biblical studies and Christian theology. The reader is invited to appreciate the ways in which organisms are more than the sum of their parts. That higher human capacities such as morality, free will, and religious awareness emerge from our neurobiological complexity and develop through our relation to others, to our cultural inheritance, and, most importantly, to God. Murphy addresses the questions of human uniqueness, religious experience, and personal identity before and after bodily resurrection.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"When this book turns from dealing with our inward, metaphysical relationship to God and addresses instead God's dealings with us, Murphy offers fsome useful reminders. She suggests that physicalists anthroplogy 'requires Christians to pay adequate attention to incarnation--if humans are purely physical, then there is no getting around the scandal of enfleshment' (25)...These statements ring true for believers who understand teh importance of our Lord's incarnation, our own resurrection to life on the Last Day, and the very tangible means of grace that sustain us between those two great physical events." - Carol Geisler

"Elegantly written volume, her book provides an eloquent and valuable stimulus to further theological research on this topic"
Matthew Levering, Ph.D., The National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly

Book Description

Are humans composed of a body and a nonmaterial mind or soul, or are we purely physical beings? In this clear and concise book, Nancey Murphy argues for a physicalist account, but one that does not diminish traditional views of humans as rational, moral, and capable of relating to God.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 164 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press (February 20, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521676762
• ISBN-13: 978-0521676762
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #619,450 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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37 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Exciting new development in Christian anthropology, June 24, 2006

By 

J. D. Walters "Heyzeus7" (Burlington, NJ) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Bodies and Souls, or Spirited Bodies? (Current Issues in Theology) (Paperback)

What conception should Christians hold about human nature? It is safe to say that most Christians think of the human person in terms of a body 'animated' by a soul which detaches from the body at death. There are a variety of theological and scriptural reasons for thinking this, but then again it is not the only option consistent with Christian belief. In her book Bodies and Souls, or Spirited Bodies? Nancey Murphy makes a compelling case for a nonreductive physicalist account of human nature, which in her words is the thesis that "first, that we are our bodies-there is no additional metaphysical element such as a mind or soul or spirit. But, second, this 'physicalist' position need not deny that we are intelligent, moral, and spiritual" (p. ix). There are a variety of reasons for adopting this position, including the fact that there is no specific Biblical stance on the subject anyway, recent advances in cognitive neuroscience and the importance in Christian spirituality of recognizing our embodied, social and relational aspects. With regard to this last reason, theologian John Garvey pointed out recently that:

"We find it hard, especially in a culture that stresses individualism, to accept the idea that the self exists only in relationship. In fact, who we are is formed by the family we are born into, the language we learn, the culture we are immersed in. Finally, we are, we exist, because we are loved by God, who wills us to be. Even within the Trinity, the persons exist separately only in relation to one another. The moment we think that our being is in any way independent of relationship, we fall into the trap Genesis warned us about: We want to be like Gods."

Nancey Murphy's critics at the Secular Web accuse her and her collaborators of trying to have their cake and eat it too with a 'nonreductive' as opposed to a 'reductive' physicalist account, but the moment you accept any sort of physicalist understanding you face the problem C.S. Lewis identified many years ago in his argument against naturalism:

"Unless our conclusion [about some proposition arrived at through logical argumentation] is the logical consequent from a ground it will be worthless and could be true only by a fluke. Unless it is the effect of a cause, it cannot occur at all. It looks therefore, as, in order for a train of thought to have any value, these two systems of connection must apply simultaneously to the same series of mental acts. But unfortunately the two systems are wholly distinct. To be caused is not to be proved."

If Nancey Murphy wants to have her cake and eat it too, her critics are trying to discredit their opponent by sawing off the epistemic branch they themselves are standing on when they argue that a nonreductive physicalist account is incoherent. As Murphy says at another point in her book, "In fact, if reductionism were true, no rational person could accept it because there would be no rational persons!" (p. 109).

To get around this difficulty Murphy develops a concept of 'top-down' causation, in which higher emergent processes have some causal efficacy over lower-level processes, without violating the laws of physics. I think that more work needs to be done to give a satisfying account of this concept, but very broadly I think something like this is required to account for the richness of human experience. We are not just biological machines, if we were we would never know it. This also opens up a way for God to act in the world, on the human nervous system in order to communicate to us His Will and also to perform miracles. Murphy also gives a satisfying account of how personal identity can be maintained in different bodies, before and after the resurrection, so this central Christian doctrine emerges unscathed from a physicalist treatment.

Even so, many Christians find the idea that there is no metaphysical 'soul' troubling and continue to hold to some form of body-soul dualism. John Garvey gives what I think is the main reason:

"Belief in the immortality of the soul attracts us because we hope that something about us is less contingent than the body, less creaturely, something that possesses an inherent immortality. For much of history, people believed the mind was somehow separate from the body, consciousness was somehow spiritual in a way that the meat soup of the brain was not."

Seen in this light, belief in the immortality of the soul is just wishful thinking. It is more in keeping with Christian faith to place all our hope for immortality in the faithfulness of a loving God. As Montaigne said centuries ago, "...it was truly for good reason that we were held to God alone and to the favor of his grace for the truth of so noble a belief, since we receive from his bounty alone the fruit of immortality...Let us confess ingenuously that God alone has said this, together with faith: for it is not a lesson of nature and our reason. And anyone who will investigate his own being and his powers, both internal and external, without that divine gift, will see in him neither efficacy nor any faculty that smells of anything but death and earth. The more we give and owe and render to God, the more we act with greater Christianity."

For me this is a very exciting development in Christian theological anthropology. There does not have to be any conflict between Christian belief and new neuroscientific discoveries, we regain an emphasis of the importance of the body, which we should offer as "living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God" and which is "the temple of the Holy Spirit". The risen Christ was no phantom. He ate with his disciples and communed with them by the sea. He invited the doubting Thomas to touch and see for himself. And as He is now, so shall we all be at the Last Day. A Christian can hope for no more. It is already much more than we deserve or can even imagine.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Concise Statement on Christian Physicalism, September 17, 2007

By 

Ryan Mullins (Deerfield, IL) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Bodies and Souls, or Spirited Bodies? (Current Issues in Theology) (Paperback)

In this book Murphy provides an excellent concise statement of the Christian Physicalist position. In fact I would say it is one of the clearest statements on the subject that I have read. Her arguments are strong and clear for the most part. There are only a few down sides that I can find with this book.

1) I found her Biblical arguments to be very thin. Part of that is due to the length of this book. It would be hard to give an exhaustive survey of Biblical anthropology in such a limited space.

2) Her account of Nonreductive Physicalism ultimately fails. She notes in the introduction that she herself is not satisfied with her arguments for this position.

3) If you have read her other works then you will not find many new things here. There is a lot of repeat material taken from some of her other writings which she also admits in several footnotes.

I am not convinced that dualism is false after reading this book, but I will admit that I became convinced of the defensibility of the Christian Physicalist position. Murphy's clarity and fairness in her arguments make this book worth reading.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Murphy Revisits Substance Dualism and Trichotomism, December 14, 2008

By 

Edgar Foster (United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Bodies and Souls, or Spirited Bodies? (Current Issues in Theology) (Paperback)

I used Murphy's Bodies and Souls, or Spirited Bodies for two classes this past semester. I then had my classes to compose reviews that outlined their basic impressions of this book. Certain remarks were common in these reviews. I will list some of these comments in this review of the book. First, let me say that I was surprised at how many students recommended this book for future courses. Nancey Murphy explicitly advocates and offers arguments for a thoroughgoing form of non-reductive physicalism. She does not denigrate opposing positions, but her view of the body and soul is not the popular or traditional religious view of the body or soul. Murphy ultimately contends that we ARE spirited bodies (i.e. we do not have souls, but we are purely physical). Now I thought that my students (attending a Lutheran university) would immediately say that this book should not be used in future courses at Lenoir-Rhyne University. Boy, was I mistaken!

Along with their enthusiastic recommendations for using Murphy's book, whether they hated or loved it or felt lukewarm about it, some oft-heard criticisms regarding the text were as follows:

Murphy's work is too detailed for those who are just beginning to undertake a study of philosophy or theology. Moreover, it is too redundant, inconsistent, and unclear at points. The least favorite part of the book (for the professor and students) was the information-engineering diagrams that Murphy included on pages 86, 89, and 101. These diagrams were supposed to shed light on non-reductive physicalism. Unfortunately, they left most students scratching their heads and wonder what was the point of the diagrams. Even I had to read those pages three times to understand what each thing stood for in the diagrams. However, I understand why Murphy included those diagrams. But in my opinion, they were only helpful to a point.

In addition to the numerous criticisms of Murphy's book, there were statements that reflected praise for her work. Some students wrote that her text contained a clear statement of her physicalist thesis, they thought the book was well-written, and they expressed praise for her efforts to substantiate her general thesis by the employment of manifold scholarly sources. Most students offered a hearty recommendation for the book, although most took issue with her thesis or felt that she relied too much on science or reason as opposed to relying on Scripture. Finally, while most students did not find Murphy's arguments compelling enough to make them change their minds, certain students did begin to entertain non-reductive physicalism, and others at least began to question the traditional body and soul view. My overall goal was achieved. I wanted to critique dualism, trichotomism and physicalism for a semester with my students help. I believe that we all walked away with a deeper knowledge of the issues. Furthermore, they now are more familiar with an alternative worldview vis-a-vis human nature.