The Bicameral Brain and Theological Ethics: An Initial Exploration

Pope John Paul II called for an intense dialogue between science and theology, “a common interactive relationship,” in which each discipline is “open to the discoveries and insights of the other” while retaining its own integrity. This essay seeks to be responsive to that call and is an initial expl...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of religious ethics 2020-06, Vol.48 (2), p.222-246
Main Authors: Lawler, Michael G., Salzman, Todd A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
attention
Catholic ethics
charitable dialogue
Christianity
cognition
Dialogue
divorce and remarriage
emotion
Ethics
marital ethics
neuroscience
Theology
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Summary:Pope John Paul II called for an intense dialogue between science and theology, “a common interactive relationship,” in which each discipline is “open to the discoveries and insights of the other” while retaining its own integrity. This essay seeks to be responsive to that call and is an initial exploration of relationships between contemporary neuroscience and Catholic theological ethics. It examines neuroscientific data on the bicameral brain and theological ethical data on marital ethics, including divorce and remarriage, and asks what insight the former might provide into both the latter and the different ethical methods that respond to marital ethics. The analysis is undertaken in the hope of illuminating a pathway that opens the insights of one way of doing theological ethics to the insights of another way, thereby eliminating the unnecessary, unhelpful, and sometimes un‐Christian polarizations that presently separate them.
ISSN:0384-9694
1467-9795
DOI:10.1111/jore.12307