The God who inspired the writing of scripture is also the same One who designed the brain.

If you’ve poked around the Life Model Works website or been to one of our events, you have probably come across the term neurotheology. You may be thinking, Is that a word? Not only is it a word, it is a central concept of the Life Model. We believe the God who inspired the writing of scripture (the Bible) is also the same One who designed the flesh, bones, tendons, nerves, and everything else making up the human body… including the brain. 

The basic theories and practices of the Life Model are augmented by recent brain science, especially from Dr. Allan Schore’s decades of research at UCLA. He pioneered the neurobiological basis for attachment theory, which posits that the human brain grows and thrives on the experience of relational joy more than the drives for mere pleasures, survival, sex, or power.

Since attachment is the most powerful force in the human brain, the Life Model simply affirms that God does not bypass this inbuilt organizing force to help people mature and become more like His Son. As we come to know more profoundly how God designed the brain to operate, we can more effectively cooperate with His Spirit to mature as humans and be transformed as followers of Jesus. 

As brain scan machines opened a window into the internal functioning human brain, scientists started discovering how the brain grows and how character is formed. It turns out that the relational and spiritual growth that we as Christians call “discipleship” must be learned and processed in the magnificent human brain. Understanding the brain also revealed that much of what we promote and teach in churches about how we grow as Christians is incomplete.