ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts covered in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book concerns the dialogue between psychology and Christian theology. It deals with the evolutionary approach to human nature that is currently so much in the ascendancy. The book focuses on a specific aspect of psychological functioning, human consciousness, that is currently the focus of a vigorous multi-disciplinary debate, and seeks to offer a theological contribution. It offers a theological appraisal of one of the most controversial areas of contemporary science, the computer simulation of intelligence, an enterprise that carries heavy ideological presuppositions about the nature of human functioning. The book considers how a broad-based approach to the human person might proceed, in both theology and psychology, and discusses the concept of the self as a particularly fruitful one for the dialogue between theology and psychology. It examines approaches to religious experience from the perspective of cognitive neuroscience.
