The Physicalized Mind and the Gut‐brain Axis: Taking Mental Health Out of Our Heads

Abstract

As it becomes increasingly plausible that the mind–brain is explicable in naturalistic terms, science‐and‐religion scholars have the opportunity to engage creatively and proactively with facets of brain‐related research that better inform our understanding of human well‐being. That is, once mental health is recognized as being a whole‐body phenomenon, exciting theological conversations can take place. One fascinating area of research involves the “gut–brain axis,” or the interactive relationship between the microbiome in the gastrointestinal tract (i.e., gut bacteria), the central nervous system, and mental health. A growing body of literature explores the immensely significant interactions between the gut microbiome and mental health issues involving depression, anxiety, gene expression, and stress responses. One's mental health does not occur in a disembodied state, but in a complex physical environment that is strongly influenced by environmental factors, many of which we can control. This article argues that science‐and‐religion can welcome scientific research in this area, creatively incorporating such insights into a theology of mental health and physical well‐being.

Energies and Personhood: A Christological Perspective on Human Identity

“…The contemporary scientific view of the human body is that it is not only constantly changing, but it is not even wholly ours, as much of what enables our body to function comes from foreign bacteria. For example, scholarship that has attempted to ground mental properties in neurological structures is currently being undercut by recent scientific research into the gut‐brain axis, in which the gut microbiome is now understood to have a significant impact on a person's mental states (Bruce and Ritchie 2018, 370). As such, an individual's mental well‐being—or lack thereof—is constituted by full‐body processes, and influenced by numerous environmental factors, many of them foreign to the body (Bruce and Ritchie 2018, 357)—much of the gut microbiome are even separate bacteria that do not share our DNA, and so our own body is increasingly understood to be even more complex and interdependent than previously might have been thought.…”

“…For example, scholarship that has attempted to ground mental properties in neurological structures is currently being undercut by recent scientific research into the gut‐brain axis, in which the gut microbiome is now understood to have a significant impact on a person's mental states (Bruce and Ritchie 2018, 370). As such, an individual's mental well‐being—or lack thereof—is constituted by full‐body processes, and influenced by numerous environmental factors, many of them foreign to the body (Bruce and Ritchie 2018, 357)—much of the gut microbiome are even separate bacteria that do not share our DNA, and so our own body is increasingly understood to be even more complex and interdependent than previously might have been thought. If one places theological weight on the body as a stable source of personal identity, this could be problematic—but if one views the body as a dynamic energy, an expression of a moving and participating nature, then the scientific view is not only acceptable, but almost compellingly compatible.…”

The Gut

“…Sections 2 and 3 examine gut feelings and the beings that reside in the belly. Section 4 considers possible West and Central African precedents for the Afro-Diasporic "gut-brain axis" (Bruce and Lane Ritchie 2018). Section 5 discusses the offering of guts to gods and ancestors as the object of racist fantasy and ordinary material reality.…”

The Sin of Being Human? Christian Theological Response to Mental Illness

“… 4. Significant research suggests that biological factors in mental health involve the gut–brain axis. For a theological response to the significance of mental health as a “whole-body phenomenon,” see Bruce and Ritchie (2018). …”