Capax Humanitatis

Brilliant words from N.T. Wright:

I think it’s important that Christian theologians give a fully Trinitarian account of God’s action in the world, in which, though God may be thought of as a pure spirit, it is vital for our knowing who God is that he is the father who sends the son and who sends the spirit of the son (Galatians 4.4-7). He is capax humanitatis, because humans were made in his image. His action in the world is not to be thought of as invasive, intrusive or (still less) ‘interventionist.’ . . . God is always at work in the world, and God is always at work in, and addressing, human beings, not only through one faculty such as the soul or spirit but through every fibre of our beings, not least our bodies. . . . Why should the creator not relate to his creation in a thousand different ways? Why should brain, heart and body not all be wonderfully interrelated in so many ways that we need the rich language of mind, soul and spirit to begin to do justice to it all?

The concept of capax humanitatis is new to me and a very helpful description. This explains that God is "capable of holding all of human nature." Because God made humans in his image, God is fully capable of holding, within himself, all human nature. This is particularly useful as we consider the Son of God: Jesus. In Jesus, we see a person who holds all of human nature within himself; yet, is fully God at the same time. He holds all of human nature; he is the ultimate and complete human; and still has room to be more than human.

Galatians 4:4-7

But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship. Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir. (New International Version; NIV)

Work Cited:
"Mind, Spirit, Soul and Body: All for One and One for All Reflections on Paul’s Anthropology in his Complex Contexts" By the Rt Revd Prof N. T. Wright University of St Andrews. http://ntwrightpage.com/Wright_SCP_MindSpiritSoulBody.htm

Follow-Up to Ghost in the Machine

Two quotes from David Chalmers express the importance of studying the concept of consciousness.

Even when I was studying mathematics, physics, and computer science, it always seemed that the problem of consciousness was about the most interesting problem out there for science to come to grips with.1

I think [consciousness] provides plenty of grounds for reorientating our view of how the world might be. We think 'OK it's nice and simple' - there's biology, there's chemistry, there's physics and so on but one thing we learn from studying science is that the more and more you study science, the more and more you realise just how strange the world is. Quantum mechanics is fundamentally strange, what it tells us about the basic nature of reality. Studying consciousness tells us more about how the world is fundamentally strange. I think we have a few revolutions to go yet before we get to the bottom of it.2

1 David Chalmers, http://machineslikeus.com/biographies/david-chalmers
2 David Chalmers, http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/allinthemind/david-chalmers-on-the-big-conundrum-consciousness/3546288

Ghost in the Machine

For some time I have been a fan of Kyler England. I love her solo work but she has also written and performed with "The Rescues" and most recently has teamed up with former "Rescues" member, Adrianne Gonzalez, to create the duo: "The Fire and the Sea." Their lyric video, The Ghost in the Machine, can be seen and heard here.

Ghost in the Machine
(from the lyric video by "The Fire and The Sea") 

You are the ghost in the machine
Flickering
And I don't know what it means
You trouble me 

Behind the smoke
And the screen
I'm hiding, I'm hiding
But when the secret's out
And the wounded sing
What's lost is found
You trouble me
And it's troubling 

In the light you follow me
Shadowing
In the dark you're all I see
Surrounding
In a sweet unwanted dream
Trouble needs a place to sleep
But when the secret's out
And the wounded sing
What's lost is found
You trouble me
And it's troubling 

When the secret's out
You are the ghost in the machine
Flickering
When the secret's out
And the wounded sing
What's lost is found
You trouble me
And it's troubling

The concept of "the ghost in the machine" is a well-known philosophical term which refers to the separation of mind and body. Some, like British philosopher Gilbert Ryle1, suggest that it is a false concept while others would suggest that the difficulty we have in explaining "consciousness" indicates that there is a "ghost in the machine" or perhaps a "soul in the body." Consciousness may be a candidate for a distinction between the pure chemistry of the mind and perception; but, is consciousness sufficient to suggest a ghost in the machine?

Regarding consciousness and perception, Alva Noë has said,

Consider this; we are conscious of both more and less than affects our nervous system. Let me give you an example. I look at a tomato. It’s sitting there on the counter in front of me. It’s red and bulgy and three dimensional and I experience all that visually. I have a sense even visually of the back of the tomato, but I can't see the back of the tomato. It’s out of view and yet it’s part of my experience of the tomato that it has a back. It’s present in that sense to me, but note it doesn’t strike my retina. It’s present. It informs. It structures my visual experience without actually being an element that stimulates my nervous system.2

N.T. Wright points out that Neo-Platonic concepts of dualism have influenced our concepts of body and soul, brain and mind, and heaven and earth.3 He suggests that the Bible is much more holistic in its presentation and argues for a holistic view of body and being. David Chalmers suggests that a machine could indeed be "all machine and no ghost."4 Others speak of the Holy Spirit of God and how it interacts with humans as the "ghost in the machine." What is the truth? This question is certainly troubling.


1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_in_the_machine
2 http://bigthink.com/think-tank/the-ghost-in-the-machine-unraveling-the-mystery-of-consciousness
3 http://ntwrightpage.com/Wright_SCP_MindSpiritSoulBody.htm
4 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_problem_of_consciousness