Remembering the Future, Imagining the Past: Story, Ritual, and the Human Brain

Brain research is opening up our understanding of not only what role the different areas of our brain play in making decisions or in recognizing the faces of those we love, but even in experiencing God. As a pastoral theologian and counselor, Hogue values and utilizes the significant resources of the brain sciences for the work of the church in guiding, healing, and challenging persons and systems informed by our current understanding of the central nervous system. His latest book, Remembering the Future, Imagining the Past, is an especially useful resource for all those persons concerned with the practical theological arts of preaching, worship, pastoral care, and counseling, as well as those interested in how our increasing knowledge of the ways in which our brains work can help us understand and tailor our spiritual and pastoral practices in the church.

David A. Hogue is Professor of Pastoral Theology and Counseling at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston, Illinois. He is co-author of Promising Again: Family Living in Pastoral Perspective, No. 4 (1995) and a minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA).