Reframing Paul's Anthropology in Light of the Cognitive Sciences: Exercising Care in Interdisciplinary New Testament Scholarship

Susan Eastman's recent contribution to scholarship on Paul's anthropology is a welcome example of authentic interdisciplinarity. The book highlights core themes in recent work from the cognitive sciences and shows how these themes might guide readings of the Pauline corpus. At the same time, there are useful warnings about confusing the aims of the sciences of the person with the anthropological aims that motivate theological interpretations of sacred texts. In this review article I explore Eastman's emphasis on the Pauline project's grounding of personhood in categories of spiritually-morally formational-relational constitution; I highlight difficulties with the current status of mirror neuron theory and of imitation in early childhood development and emphasize the importance of primary literature for interdisciplinary scholarship in religious studies and theology.