Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- 1 God and the Self
- 2 On the Self and the Divided Self
- 3 Mechanisms and Dynamics of Decentering
- 4 Neurology of the Self
- 5 Neurology of Religious Experiences
- 6 Neurochemistry of Religiosity
- 7 Self-Transformation as a Key Function of Performance of Religious Practices
- 8 Self-Transformation through Spirit Possession
- 9 God Concepts
- 10 Religious Language
- 11 Ritual
- 12 Life-Span Development of Religiosity and the Self
- 13 The Evolution of Self and Religion
- References
- Index
2 - On the Self and the Divided Self
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 30 October 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- 1 God and the Self
- 2 On the Self and the Divided Self
- 3 Mechanisms and Dynamics of Decentering
- 4 Neurology of the Self
- 5 Neurology of Religious Experiences
- 6 Neurochemistry of Religiosity
- 7 Self-Transformation as a Key Function of Performance of Religious Practices
- 8 Self-Transformation through Spirit Possession
- 9 God Concepts
- 10 Religious Language
- 11 Ritual
- 12 Life-Span Development of Religiosity and the Self
- 13 The Evolution of Self and Religion
- References
- Index
Summary
15: For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.
16: If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good.
17: Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
18: For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.
19: For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
20: Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
21: I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.
22: For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:
23: But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
24: O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
– St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans, Ch. 7The act of coming upon oneself in being for one endowed with consciousness and freedom, if the light of being has not been fully obscured, is experienced as a good bestowed upon one without one's doing or merit.
von Balthasar, 1997, p. 64- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Neuroscience of Religious Experience , pp. 21 - 43Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009