Rewired: Exploring Religious Conversion: 2 (Distinguished Dissertations in Christian Theology)

Rewired begins with the claim that contemporary views of Christian spirituality particularly in the American evangelical tradition concentrate too exclusively on the interior and individual nature of spiritual experience. Paul Markham argues that a reexamination of the doctrine of religious conversion is needed within American evangelicalism and finds resources for such a model in the Wesleyan theological tradition and from philosophical and scientific insights into a nonreductive physicalist view of human nature. In considering data from theology and science this book represents an integrated work in science and religion. The amazing thing about the human nervous system is its plasticity--it is readily rewired by experience. Paul Markham offers a view of Christian conversion as an embodied process by which we are constantly and significantly rewired by our participation in a converting community--we are progressively becoming new creatures. In Rewired Markham helps us hear the resonance between modern scientific views of human nature biblical Christianity and Wesleyan practical theology. --Warren S. Brown Professor of Psychology Graduate School of Psychology Fuller Theological Seminary The importance of this new book by Paul Markham lies both in his constructive proposal concerning the nature of Christian conversion and in the process by which he achieves his proposal. Working at the interface of neurophilosophy and Wesleyan theology he presses for a more fully integrated theological method at the same time that he demonstrates its fruitfulness. The resulting portrait of a fully embodied and ecclesially centered Christian conversion is a welcome contribution to our understanding of spiritual life. --Joel B. Green Professor of New Testament Interpretation Fuller Theological Seminary This is a timely book--where the question of what it means to be human stands alongside questions of conversion and Christian mission in contemporary culture.Paul Markham brings these questions together with a depth that takes seriously both modern neuroscience and pastoral sensitivity.A book for theologians in the field of science and religion as well as a book for preachers evangelists and pastors. --David Wilkinson Principal of St. Johns College University of Durham It is frequently assumed by both Christian and non-Christian alike that science must be in conflict with religion and that religious conversion must be a matter of salvation of the soul. Paul Markhams impressive work of interdisciplinary scholarship demonstrates the flaws in both these assumptions showing how recent writing in cognitive science can be seen to point towards a more biblical picture of human beings and a more holistic understanding of Christian discipleship. --Robert Song University of Durham Paul N. Markham is Assistant Professor at Western Kentucky Universitys Center for Community Partnerships. He also holds adjunct faculty positions in WKUs Department of Philosophy and Religion and at Asbury Theological Seminary.