Enhancing Christian Life: How Extended Cognition Augments Religious Community by Brad D. Strawn & Brad D. Strawn & Warren S. Brown

Author:Brad D. Strawn & Brad D. Strawn & Warren S. Brown
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: neuroscience;psychology;spiritual formation;practical theology;congregational life;cognitive extension;extended cognition;brain science;neuroscience and faith;mind;brain;spirituality;technology;embodied;relationships;church community;community of believers;social network;extended cognition and Christianity;religious tradition;local network of believers;Christian community
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
Published: 2020-07-03T07:18:07+00:00

EXTENSION IN LITURGIES OF WORSHIP

The primary event of the life of a congregation is, of course, worship. The shared liturgies of prayer, Scripture, singing, Eucharist, and preaching provide opportunities for extension into a corporate cognitive and spiritual space. Although the events of worship are to a greater or lesser degree prescribed in a liturgy, they can nevertheless offer opportunity for joining (coupling into) a wide network of congregational interactivity. Elements of worship actively engaged in unison by a group of people constitute extensions into something greater than the individual worshiper. People who genuinely engage in (soft couple with) corporate worship extend their minds and Christian lives outside of themselves into the interactive space of worship. Engagement in the liturgies of corporate worship also extends the individual into the “mental institutions” of the Christian faith—that is, into the accumulated expressions of the church over many centuries.

In chapter four we talked about a hammer as offering the opportunity for physical extension. However, we noted the difference between soft coupling and mere handling of a hammer. If one merely carries a hammer from here to there, no coupling or extension occurs. But if one begins to drive a nail with the hammer, the hammer soon becomes an extended part of the body, transparent in its contribution to goal-directed activity (to a greater or lesser degree depending on one’s hammering expertise). Similarly, involvement in worship can constitute genuine extension and coupling when we are interactively engaged in (extended into) the events of the worship. Alternatively, if one attends church to merely watch and listen (or watches a televised worship service) without actually becoming interactively engaged, there is little, if any, enhancement of Christian life. Perhaps in watching and listening we can pick up an element or two that is useful for our individual life and thought—which is not useless, just relatively puny.

It would seem that the move to extend into worship (or any other object or social interaction) must involve an act of the will, even if it is an unconscious act. The mere presence of an object or social situation that affords the possibility of extension does not automatically elicit the sort of interactivity that would constitute soft coupling, cognitive extension, and enhancement. There must be a move on the part of the individual to engage the opportunity. Similarly, there must be a reciprocal move on the part of other members of the community to engage the individual. Woody Allen was off the mark in saying, “Showing up is 80 percent of life.”12 Just showing up is insufficient.

In thinking about the possibility of extension and enhancement through corporate worship, it is instructive to consider more specifically the various elements in a typical worship liturgy.

Prayer. Individual prayer is a powerful practice in which a believer may sense the presence of God, voice concerns, intercede on behalf of others, receive a word from God, and even experience transformation. (We will discuss in the next chapter the degree to which private devotional prayer is not entirely understandable as a private and individual event.

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