Changing your Mind: The Bible, the Brain, and Spiritual Growth

by Victor A. Copan

Overview

This book takes you on a journey that unpacks and demystifies what spiritual growth is and how it unfolds. The aim is to set you on your own path toward genuine, personal spiritual transformation. The book provides all the tools you need--biblical, scientific, and practical--so that you can develop your own pathway for spiritual growth. What is unique about Victor Copan's approach to spiritual growth is that he explores recent findings of brain research as well as scientific research on habit formation and brings them into conversation with the process of spiritual formation. Research on the brain and on habit formation has uncovered significant insights about the process and dynamics of human transformation that can be fruitfully incorporated into our own pursuit of spiritual transformation. Tapping into this research allows us to work in concert with how God designed humans to function--body, soul, and spirit.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781498274050
Publisher:	Wipf & Stock Publishers
Publication date:	04/11/2016
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	312
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Victor Copan is chair of the Ministry Leadership Studies Department as well as Associate Professor of Biblical Studies at Palm Beach Atlantic University in West Palm Beach, Florida. He is the author of Saint Paul as Spiritual Director (2001).
Victor Copan is chair of the Ministry Leadership Studies Department as well as Associate Professor of Biblical Studies at Palm Beach Atlantic University in West Palm Beach, Florida. He is the author of Saint Paul as Spiritual Director (2001).

Table of Contents

List of Tables and Figures
Acknowledgements
Abbreviations
Introduction
1 Spirituality: What It Is and What It Isn’t
PART 1: Biblical Foundations of Spiritual Formation
2 The Biblical Backdrop of Spiritual Formation
3 The Goal of Spiritual Formation, Part 1: Overview
4 An Aside: But Can We Really Become Like Christ?
5 The Goal of Spiritual Formation, Part 2: Getting Specific
6 The Dynamics of Spiritual Formation
7 The Process of Spiritual Formation
PART 2: Brain Research, the Bible, and Spiritual Formation
8 Insights for Spiritual Formation from Brain Research
9 The Bible and Neuroscience: Friends or Foes?
PART 3: Changing From the Inside Out
10 The Dimensions of Human Life: An Overview
11 Our Heart (Will and Spirit)
12 Our Thoughts
13 Our Feelings
14 Our Bodies
15 Our Relationships
contents
PART 4: Developing Our Own Spiritual Formation Plan
16 Spiritual Formation is Habit-Forming
17 Putting It All Together: Laying Out a Process for Spiritual Growth
A Closing Word
Appendix: Sample Action Steps for the
Personal Spiritual Growth Plan
Bibliography
Name/Subject Index
Scripture Index

Editorial Reviews

What makes Changing your Mind exceptional is that Copan not only explores scientific research on habit formation but also engages with the advances made in brain research since the ‘nineties. This interface, then, between spirituality, psychology, and neuro-science marks out Copan’s book as a must-read for spiritual directors as well as anyone who seeks to develop their spiritual life. … So many books on spiritual development can be so dense that it is difficult to see the wood for the trees. Changing your Mind looks at the subject holistically and is a model of clarity.

Volume 58 Issue 5 Sept 2017 - Luke Penkett