it was a complete delight earlier this year to have the treat of listening to iain mcgilchrist speak on the brain. there are not many times i have sat in the presence of someone whose gift is clearly to research for their whole life and further you think that is exactly what they should be doing. he has written a book the master and his emissary which explores the brain and the two hemispheres. this book has very much reawoken interest in this area. i have been meaning to blog about it for quite some time but my notes were excessively complex so how to blog? well having delayed and delayed has proved to be a good idea because it turns out there is an RSA animation of him summarising the work. it is a bit complex in places but honestly pour a drink and sit back for ten minutes and think about what he's saying and what it might mean. i am very intersted in this idea of two kinds of attention – one that is focused and grasping and nailing things down, and one that is unknowing and broad and intuitive. what might that mean for the kinds of theologies and spiritualities we see played out in the christian church for example?
Really excellent. This fits well with what Richard Rohr says about spirituality in Falling Upward.
Thanks!
Well worth the watch – thanks for posting this. It seems to me (and I might have got the wrong end of the stick) that maybe academic theology sometimes operates a bit too much in the focussed, analytical, informational realm without allowing sufficiently for the broader, looser interplay of intuitive connections. So often one is only apparently “rewarded” for logically constructed, neat arguments rather than intuitive perception or dynamic experimentation. If this is how our key players are educated and moulded, it is little wonder that the churches they lead turn out that way too, perhaps?!