English L'Abri Living Faith with Both Sides of the Brain (Jim Paul, L’Abri Worker)
Nov 10, 2025
A lecture linking brain hemispheres to spiritual life, exploring why poetry and story shape faith more than systematic theology. It contrasts narrow, analytic attention with wide, contextual perception and warns of reducing God to a map. Practical suggestions include imaginative Scripture reading, embodied worship practices, and habits to cultivate wonder and openness to lived encounter.
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Metaphor Carries Living Meaning
- Metaphor, story and narrative are right-hemisphere phenomena that open meaning beyond precise propositions.
- Reducing parables to single statements shrinks their truth into inert concepts.
Belief As Relation, Not Just Assent
- Left-hemisphere 'belief' equates to cognitive assent; right-hemisphere belief is relational trust and lived disposition.
- McGilchrist: true faith involves living as if God exists, not just asserting propositional truths.
History As Hemisphere Pendulum
- McGilchrist reads Western history as pendulum swings between right-left cultural balances, with modernity favoring left-brain reductionism.
- Technology and scientism amplify left values, producing a disenchanted, utilitarian world.
