Audiobook12 hours
Anatomy of the Soul: Surprising Connections between Neuroscience and Spiritual Practices That Can Transform Your Life and Relationships
Written by Curt Thompson, M. D.
Narrated by Sean Pratt
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5/5
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About this audiobook
Do you want to improve your relationships and experience lasting personal change? Join Curt Thompson, MD, on an amazing journey to discover the surprising pathways for transformation hidden inside your own mind. Integrating new findings in neuroscience and attachment with Christian spirituality, Dr. Thompson reveals how it is possible to rewire your mind, altering your brain patterns and literally making you more like the person God intended you to be. Explaining discoveries about the brain in layman's terms, he shows how you can be mentally transformed through spiritual practices, interaction with Scripture, and connections with other people. He also provides practical exercises to help you experience healing in areas where you've been struggling. Insightful and challenging, Anatomy of the Soul illustrates how learning about one of God's most miraculous creations-your brain-can enrich your life, your relationships, and your impact on the world around you.
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Reviews for Anatomy of the Soul
Rating: 4.663265326530612 out of 5 stars
4.5/5
49 ratings10 reviews
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5While the book offers some interesting insights, I do not recommend it because of its promotion of Spiritual Formation and other serious issues which are contrary to the Word.
PROS
- He is knowledgeable in his field.
- He makes an honorable attempt to reflect Christianity in the light of psychology.
CONS
- He over and over recommends mindfulness meditation (of buddhist origin), specifically the 'body scan'. He further recommends to practise Tai chi and yoga, which are mind-body practices that involve movement, meditation, and breathwork.
- He promotes Contemplative Prayer and Centering Prayer, an unbiblical and problematic practise. Quote: "How on earth do you 'center' when the centrifugal forces of the moment seem so overwhelming? It helps to begin by focusing on your body. Remember that even before inviting the Romans to transformation by the renewing of their minds, Paul encourages them to offer their bodies as holy, pleasing and living sacrifices." This is a twisting and misuse of Scripture in order to justify practises which are contrary to the Bible and very close to New Age practises.
- It is to no surprise that he spoke at 'The Apprentice Gathering', a movement dedicated to Spiritual Formation and promoting a hall-of -fame of problematic teachers including Jesuits.
- He endorses twice Henri Nouwen and his books (Jesuit; Taught Contemplative / Centering Prayer, Hesychasm and the Egyptian Desert Fathers and Mothers. Desert mysticism included cave-dwelling, starvation, and, at times, bodily mutilation; Universalist. Taught Kenosis meaning to empty one's mind, being very similar to New Age/ Eastern meditation, but with Christian words; Collaboration with Richard Rohr).
- He endorses Walter Brueggemann and his books.
- He endorses the Spiritual Formation books of Richard Foster and Dallas Willard as "excellent, in-depths discussions". Foster clearly teaches New Age and very often quotes its teachers, is part of the Emerging church / Contemplative Prayer / Mysticism movements and wrote the 'Spiritual Formation Study Bible' together with Eugene Peterson. Willard was his partner in crime for the creation of this Bible, was a founding member of Renovaré, held to either 'Christian Universalism' or the Wider Mercy doctrine, and was also part of the Emerging church / Contemplative
Prayer; he is also described as the 'spiritual twin' of Richard Foster)
- He quotes Leo Tolstoy who was not a Christian and excommunicated due to his opposition against the church.
- Recommendation of Rob Bell's material.
- There is no sense of holiness in the book. "I never thought of God as singing to me. Is he a tenor, a bariton or a soprano?" He even compared God with the band 'U2' and asked us to imagine to be in a stadium where God sings for us alone. He repeatedly reflected on the prefrontal context of Jesus and projected all kinds of thoughts and words on Him. The chapter with the fall of Adam and Eve is particularly marked by a creative license not seen before in any other books to such an extent. He claims that Eve felt shame before the fall, but shame is a product of a fallen world and could therefore not have existed before the fall.
- He leaves his denomination in the dark, but uses words such as 'mass' instead of service, and 'parishioners'.
- He is (or was) elder at a church, where 4 out of 8 elders are female.
- He promotes the Enneagram outside this book. He got into it through Dan Siegel, who provided the main inspiration for this book. - Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Dr. Curt Thompson’s book is an excellent treatment of the subject's soul health and its eternal implications. The insights shared in this book are invaluable.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A perfect integration of science and the truth of God Who created it all. Excellent!
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This is an excellent book to understand the crucial dynamics of healthy relationships with one another and a listening, hearing relationship with God.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5SUCH an awesome book! Thompson does an amazing job of linking majorly impactful one-liners, Scripture, and stories from his years of being a therapist. Most definitely made me do some major life reflecting. Absolutely recommend! It does get a tad slow in the second half, but not enough to make me stop reading.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A great synopsis of how psychology, contemplative spirituality, and Christian theology can be integrated to develop mature faith.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This was an exceptional convergence of interpersonal neurobiology and the Christian faith.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5At times the reading is more difficult than need be and not as accessible as I would like. The content, however, is very helpful and not easily found elsewhere. I recommend this book regularly to clients and friends.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5It gave me a clear explanation to why I had difficulty feeling God’s love in the past.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I found Anatomy of the Soul: Surprising Connections between Neuroscience and Spiritual Practices That Can Transform Your Life . . to be an interesting, engaging, enlightening, and insightful look into the connection between mind and spirituality. This book is not a light read, but it is engrossing and well worth making your way through. The excercises and suggestions for making the mind-faith connection are beneficial and certainly offer the reader a helpful path towards enriching spirituality in our lives. Thompson's uses Scripture effectively throughout the book to illustrate the incredible love God has for us and to offer us guideance towards become the person God intended us to be. Though this is not a self-help book, there is "help" within the pages. Words of wisdom that inevitably lead the reader through many "ah-hah" moments. This text is meant to be digested, lived, and celebrated!