ACTS OF MERCY AS MIMESIS: A NEUROSCIENTIFIC CRITIQUE OF JOHN WESLEY’S MEANS OF GRACE IN SANCTIFICATION

Abstract

Rapid advances in neuroscience during the past fifty years have dramatically altered our understanding of human nature. The recent case of a school teacher turned pedophile provides a vivid example of the intersection of neuroscience and human nature (Burns and Swerdlow, 2003). Those who knew the teacher described this person as a good family man; then he became obsessed with viewing pornographic materials. Eventually, he sexually molested children and adolescents. This man had no prior history of sexual deviance. He was arrested and convicted of child molestation and underwent therapy and group rehabilitation without success. However, the day before his final sentencing he went to the emergency room complaining of a severe headache. While at the hospital he was still unable to control himself, propositioning the nurses even as he awaited treatment. An MRI was done, revealing that a large tumor was impeding the function of the orbitofrontal cortex of his brain. Physiological abnormalities in this region have been associated with poor impulse control and altered sexual behavior. When the tumor was removed, the patient's obsession with pornography, his pedophilia and other sexually deviant behavior disappeared. A year later his impulse toward pedophilia returned. He visited doctors who discovered the tumor had begun to grow again. Once the tumor was removed, the impulses again disappeared. This account reveals how neuroscience has created a dilemma for Christians. An evangelical Christian worldview argues from Scripture that a pedophile, pornographer and a sexually promiscuous person will not enter the kingdom of heaven. The implication of this belief is that it is within that person's ability to change their behavior by God's grace, or that when the person becomes a Christian, God will supernaturally alter unacceptable behaviors. In the incident above, however, a surgery to remove a brain tumor altered this man's behavior. His sinful behavior was a symptom of a physical illness. This simply does not fit the Christian paradigm of human responsibility for sinful behavior. In fact,