Embodied Faith #2: The Making of a Mature Disciple

Geoffrey Holsclaw, Jim Wilder
Podcast
Connection With
God

(I wish this talk had been called “The Making of a Mature Human Being.” The word “disciple” has mixed connotations and this podcast is about becoming the beautiful human beings early Christianity envisioned.)

Jim Wilder is a clinical psychologist who works at the intersection of neuroscience and theology, exploring how ancient Biblical wisdom is confirmed by 21st-century findings about the brain. One of his research questions has been: How are mature persons created?

Wilder’s answer is this: there are some human relational capacities that need to develop in order for spiritual maturity to occur. When a person has been deprived of the sense that people are glad to be with them, and that they have value without doing anything, they cannot have a great connection with God. Relational health prepares us for spiritual formation.

I (James) am fascinated with this overlap of spiritual and relational maturity, with what the brain needs for transformation, and with the reasons some brains and bodies get stuck and others flourish.

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