Are we inherently "spiritual" from the very beginning?
Sacred minds
Though spirituality may be inherent, connections of doctrine and biology create the whole person
By Julia C. Keller
(December 16, 2005)
Catholic theology says that all people - including children - are considered spiritual. And now neurological evidence shows that inherent brain biology and neuron connections formed during childhood may greatly influence how people develop spiritually.
The research says that even though spirituality may start out as biology and develop through learning, these connections inevitably work together over a lifetime to create the whole person.
"The child's spirituality cannot be dissected from the cognitive, emotional, moral or behavioral," said Dr. Judith Hughes, a former psychiatry professor at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.
All these factors contribute to spiritual development in order to get a complete picture, but currently the information isn’t shared across disciplines, said Dr. Daniel Siegel, a psychiatry professor at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Medicine.
Understanding children’s spiritual development is much like the story of the blind men describing an elephant, said Siegel. Even agreeing on basic definitions for words like "mind" is difficult because each of scientific discipline has a clear idea of what reality is, Siegel said.
"The anthropologist might understand the tail, and the neuroscientists might be convinced of the trunk," he said. Siegel said that pinning the tail on what he called "the entire elephant of human existence" couldn't be attributed to just genetics or environment but the interplay of both.
In the beginning …
The mind first develops as the "genetically programmed maturation of the nervous system is shaped by ongoing experience," Siegel said. This gene-environment interaction happens as early as gestation in the womb, he said.
The environment in the womb affects how proteins from the genes are transcribed, Hughes said — beginning with the start of the protein's code called the promoter region. "Every gene has a promoter region which the maternal environment influences," she said.
As fetuses develop, almost one-third of our genetic material is involved in the formation of the brain, according to Siegel. "For a little organ, that’s a huge amount of real estate to be devoted to one thing," he said.
As the brain forms, "the major thrust of the architecture in the womb is genetic," Siegel said, adding that by seven months, the fetus begins to make connections in the brain that are driven not only by genes but also by sensory experience.
Therefore, spirituality may be hard-wired, said Hughes, quoting Dr. Herbert Benson, founding president of the Mind/Body Medical Institute in Chestnut Hill, Mass. "Spirituality is seen as an innate human trait that is very much like a drive. It's a longing, a hunger for a connection with the transcendent and the divine," Hughes said.
David Fagerberg, a Catholic liturgical theologian at the University of Notre Dame, reinforced the idea of inherent spirituality.
When theologians talk about being "made in the image of God," Fagerberg challenged that the phrase should really be stated as "I am as imago Dei." That language conveys that people exist in a dependent relationship with God, he said. "But for being imago Dei, I would not be."
People innately have aspects of God, said Fagerberg, pointing to the writings of Gregory of Nazianzus, a fourth-century Catholic theologian. "The human being is microcosmic," Fagerberg said. Being a microcosm of God, he said, "does not mean a fraction of the whole, it means that everything in the whole can be found here in a smaller scale."
However,"spirituality can never be limited to just the intrinsic," said Hughes, who is an educator in the Catholic theology-inspired Montessori school system.
Free will method in Catholic liturgy supports this idea, Fagerberg said. "The unique qualities of reason and free will are given to man and woman so they can fulfill their unique ministry."
Neurology, too, confirms the idea of nature as well as nurture in spiritual development, Siegel said. Before birth, the brain stem is the site of much of the neuron development. But the brain’s cortex and neocortex, where complex-level functions like cognition occur, have little integration of neurons. "At the time of birth what this means is that our brains are incredibly immature. The connection among the neurons hasn't been established," he said.
Growing spiritual from birth
"In the first three years of life, the cortex is developing with a giant push for the creation of synapses" that are based on underlying genetics interacting with new experiences that cement them into the neural network, according to Siegel.
Evidence in biology also resonates with theology, said Fagerberg. "We are incomplete by God’s design so we can cooperate with God in our own development," he said, referring to Gregory of Nyssa’s metaphor of spiritual development as coloring in a sketch. "We cooperate with God in finishing our portrait,” Fagerberg said. “This allows for maximum individuality, as each human being colors his portrait with virtues."
Because humans are relational beings, Fagerberg said, children's spirituality must be developed within loving relationships with the people in their worlds. "For the person to reach his final potential, divine love must bring forward a divine existence," he said.
But even with the right mix of spirituality, biology and environment, Hughes cautioned that satisfaction is not guaranteed. "I wish I could say if you provided the child with the perfect environment you would get a perfect child," she said.
Parents may feel this imperfection most acutely with their teenagers, said Siegel. This in part has to do with a teenager’s biology. The brain undergoes another intense neural connection formation during puberty, he said. "It isn’t so much hormones that make adolescents insane, it's that their prefrontal cortexes become a reconstruction site," said Siegel, adding that this reconstruction may continue through the mid to late 20s.
Throughout their lives people continue to learn, Siegel said. Therefore, “we create new synaptic connections throughout the seasons of our life.” Continual interpersonal interactions over lifetimes, :create the neural connection from which the mind emerges," he said.
This concept of continual growth resonates with what Catholicism describes as homo viator — a being on the way. "You’re never done, you’re always on the way," said Fagerberg. "By the correct exercise of free will, we progress toward a greater and greater likeness of our creator with maximum individuality."
Julia C. Keller is science editor at Science & Theology News, web site.
Though spirituality may be inherent, connections of doctrine and biology create the whole person
By Julia C. Keller
(December 16, 2005)
Catholic theology says that all people - including children - are considered spiritual. And now neurological evidence shows that inherent brain biology and neuron connections formed during childhood may greatly influence how people develop spiritually.
The research says that even though spirituality may start out as biology and develop through learning, these connections inevitably work together over a lifetime to create the whole person.
"The child's spirituality cannot be dissected from the cognitive, emotional, moral or behavioral," said Dr. Judith Hughes, a former psychiatry professor at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.
All these factors contribute to spiritual development in order to get a complete picture, but currently the information isn’t shared across disciplines, said Dr. Daniel Siegel, a psychiatry professor at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Medicine.
Understanding children’s spiritual development is much like the story of the blind men describing an elephant, said Siegel. Even agreeing on basic definitions for words like "mind" is difficult because each of scientific discipline has a clear idea of what reality is, Siegel said.
"The anthropologist might understand the tail, and the neuroscientists might be convinced of the trunk," he said. Siegel said that pinning the tail on what he called "the entire elephant of human existence" couldn't be attributed to just genetics or environment but the interplay of both.
In the beginning …
The mind first develops as the "genetically programmed maturation of the nervous system is shaped by ongoing experience," Siegel said. This gene-environment interaction happens as early as gestation in the womb, he said.
The environment in the womb affects how proteins from the genes are transcribed, Hughes said — beginning with the start of the protein's code called the promoter region. "Every gene has a promoter region which the maternal environment influences," she said.
As fetuses develop, almost one-third of our genetic material is involved in the formation of the brain, according to Siegel. "For a little organ, that’s a huge amount of real estate to be devoted to one thing," he said.
As the brain forms, "the major thrust of the architecture in the womb is genetic," Siegel said, adding that by seven months, the fetus begins to make connections in the brain that are driven not only by genes but also by sensory experience.
Therefore, spirituality may be hard-wired, said Hughes, quoting Dr. Herbert Benson, founding president of the Mind/Body Medical Institute in Chestnut Hill, Mass. "Spirituality is seen as an innate human trait that is very much like a drive. It's a longing, a hunger for a connection with the transcendent and the divine," Hughes said.
David Fagerberg, a Catholic liturgical theologian at the University of Notre Dame, reinforced the idea of inherent spirituality.
When theologians talk about being "made in the image of God," Fagerberg challenged that the phrase should really be stated as "I am as imago Dei." That language conveys that people exist in a dependent relationship with God, he said. "But for being imago Dei, I would not be."
People innately have aspects of God, said Fagerberg, pointing to the writings of Gregory of Nazianzus, a fourth-century Catholic theologian. "The human being is microcosmic," Fagerberg said. Being a microcosm of God, he said, "does not mean a fraction of the whole, it means that everything in the whole can be found here in a smaller scale."
However,"spirituality can never be limited to just the intrinsic," said Hughes, who is an educator in the Catholic theology-inspired Montessori school system.
Free will method in Catholic liturgy supports this idea, Fagerberg said. "The unique qualities of reason and free will are given to man and woman so they can fulfill their unique ministry."
Neurology, too, confirms the idea of nature as well as nurture in spiritual development, Siegel said. Before birth, the brain stem is the site of much of the neuron development. But the brain’s cortex and neocortex, where complex-level functions like cognition occur, have little integration of neurons. "At the time of birth what this means is that our brains are incredibly immature. The connection among the neurons hasn't been established," he said.
Growing spiritual from birth
"In the first three years of life, the cortex is developing with a giant push for the creation of synapses" that are based on underlying genetics interacting with new experiences that cement them into the neural network, according to Siegel.
Evidence in biology also resonates with theology, said Fagerberg. "We are incomplete by God’s design so we can cooperate with God in our own development," he said, referring to Gregory of Nyssa’s metaphor of spiritual development as coloring in a sketch. "We cooperate with God in finishing our portrait,” Fagerberg said. “This allows for maximum individuality, as each human being colors his portrait with virtues."
Because humans are relational beings, Fagerberg said, children's spirituality must be developed within loving relationships with the people in their worlds. "For the person to reach his final potential, divine love must bring forward a divine existence," he said.
But even with the right mix of spirituality, biology and environment, Hughes cautioned that satisfaction is not guaranteed. "I wish I could say if you provided the child with the perfect environment you would get a perfect child," she said.
Parents may feel this imperfection most acutely with their teenagers, said Siegel. This in part has to do with a teenager’s biology. The brain undergoes another intense neural connection formation during puberty, he said. "It isn’t so much hormones that make adolescents insane, it's that their prefrontal cortexes become a reconstruction site," said Siegel, adding that this reconstruction may continue through the mid to late 20s.
Throughout their lives people continue to learn, Siegel said. Therefore, “we create new synaptic connections throughout the seasons of our life.” Continual interpersonal interactions over lifetimes, :create the neural connection from which the mind emerges," he said.
This concept of continual growth resonates with what Catholicism describes as homo viator — a being on the way. "You’re never done, you’re always on the way," said Fagerberg. "By the correct exercise of free will, we progress toward a greater and greater likeness of our creator with maximum individuality."
Julia C. Keller is science editor at Science & Theology News, web site.
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