I've been reading an amazing collection of essays by this title. These essays are written by scientists, psychologists, and philosophers who are trying to understand the implications of contemporary science for Christian belief. It prompts me to ask, what is at stake for the Christian when it comes to the belief in a soul that is separable from the body? This view is sometimes called "substance dualism", or the idea that the body and the soul are separate substances, though they may be inexorably interrelated (in other words, this is not Gnostic dualism, or the belief that mind and body do not substantially affect each other).
Right now I agree with Malcolm Jeeves, who writes that it does not lessen the significance of the mind, soul, spirit (or whatever you want to call it) to argue that it is necessarily dependent upon, but not reducible to, the brain. Read these essays and see what you think.
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Not that you need more recommended reading, but check out these books on the topic: In Search of the Soul: Four Views of the Mind-Body Problem, edited by Joel Green and Stuart Palmer (IVP) - the four views represented are substance dualism (Stewart Goetz), emergent dualism (William Hasker), nonreductive physicalism (Nancey Murphy) and constitution view of persons (Kevin Corcoran). Also Body & Soul: Human Nature and the Crisis in Ethics by J. P. Moreland and Scott Rae (also IVP), which takes a Thomistic substance dualist view.
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