Attaching to God: Neuroscience-informed Spiritual Formation · Geoff and Cyd Holsclaw

120 The FISH Model: Beyond Modern Impasses to Spiritual and Emotional Health (with Dr. Marcus Warner)

·39 min·10 clips

Jeff Holzclaw frames the podcast as attachment-based, relationship-focused, and Jesus-centered spiritual formation, tying the best of brain science to Bible study. He welcomes Dr. Marcus Warner and opens with questions about how neuropaths connect to spiritual pathways, whether brain wiring and spiritual warfare are opposed, and how all of that relates to identity in Christ. Warner says the stronger attention to brain science is partly because it is newer and less familiar: people feel like they have plenty of places to hear Bible teaching, but fewer places to ask questions about neuroscience. He compares that to his own spiritual warfare ministry, where people often ask him mainly about that topic because few people can explain it well. For Warner, brain science has worked like a filter. It changed what he noticed in Scripture. Under a voluntarist perspective, he says, he naturally emphasized choice and reason and overlooked attachment; the neuroscientific lens adjusted his reading so attachment became harder to miss. He treats brain science as a helpful lens on Bible study rather than a replacement for it. The conversation stays tied to identity in Christ and then moves through spiritual formation, spiritual warfare, discipleship, parenting, emotional healing, and the obstacles that get in the way of a deeper walk. Warner points listeners to deeperwalk.com, notes the podcast he hosts with his daughter, and references the books discussed in the episode.

As heard by us

A grounded look at attachment, brain science, and discipleship.

Dr. Marcus Warner and Jeff Holzclaw work through a discipleship question that does not lend itself to easy shortcuts: how brain science, attachment, and spiritual warfare can sit together without crowding each other out.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

If you want neuroscience to serve discipleship, not replace it.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from Attaching to God: Neuroscience-informed Spiritual Formation