“Beyond the brain”: A case study of the mother–child dyad
“Beyond the brain”: A case study of the mother–child dyad

Summary/Abstract: Where is the soul if thoughts are neurons and emotions are patterns? The life of South African social activist and missiologist David J. Bosch suggests that the answer lies not in the isolated brain but within the sacred space of the mother–child dyad. Challenging modernity’s “systematic motherlessness”, this case study connects neurobiology and theology to argue that transformative capacities are cultivated through relational security. Secure attachment, which shapes the neural architecture for resilience, combines with the anthropological concept of the “dividual” self and a Trinitarian theological framework to reconceive the soul as a dynamic, relational pattern. Testimony from Bosch’s life presents his mother’s love as the foundational source of his emotional equilibrium and prophetic courage. Ultimately, consciousness and ethical agency appear to emerge from the vulnerable, embodied dialogue of love, positioning the mother–child relationship as the crucial nexus where neurobiology and spirit converge.

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