Profiles of Roothbert: Fr. Bryan Spoon
“I want to give people tools to help draw themselves toward resources for love, joy and peace.”
A Roothbert Fellow (2014), a Board Certified Chaplain, and an Episcopal priest, Father Bryan Spoon bridges an ideological gap between neuroscience and spirituality. Fr. Bryan’s ambitions are not only uniquely interdisciplinary, but have led him towards experiences across the world. Born and raised in Washington, DC, Fr. Bryan has received degrees from Georgetown University and Virginia Theological Seminary. A fluent Spanish speaker, Fr. Bryan has lived in Spain, Mexico, and Guatemala, later serving a predominantly Bolivian community at his church.
Currently, Fr. Bryan resides in Kansas City, MO, where he has committed to “affirm the spirituality of all different types of people and encourage them in their journey” towards a life led by love, joy, and peace. As a pediatric staff chaplain, Fr. Bryan’s experience speaks to his framework for better understanding resiliency, spirituality, and mortality. Fr. Bryan utilizes his background as Christian minister as well as his expertise in neuroscience to promote a holistic approach towards embracing the fruits of the Spirit.*
“Neurology and faith are so intertwined”, commented Fr. Bryan. “People are sometimes intimidated by neuroscience. If we can tie these concepts together, it is a mind-changing and life-changing occurrence for ourselves and others.”
Fr. Bryan has recently published Neuroscience and the Fruit of Spirit to illuminate the corporal effects of “a life centered on love, joy, and peace”. As knowledge of neuroscience continues to grow and enter our mainstream vernacular, the ability to better understand ourselves and one another on an emotional, spiritual level can only grow. “Our spirituality affects our physiological health,” stated Fr. Bryan, “and if we can acknowledge this connection, it is a life-changing occurrence for ourselves and others.”
Fr. Bryan organized Neuroscience and the Fruit of the Spirit into a series of chapters that explore neurological processes in opposition to one another: love and indifference, joy and addiction, peace and anxiety, patience and desperation, kindness and hatred, goodness and ignorance, faith and falsehood, gentleness and prejudice, self-control and volatility. Fr. Bryan’s website, neurotheology.info provides further explanation and interfaith resources.
The book is Christian-centered, but speaks to universal concepts. “If our faith and spirituality aren’t drawing us toward love, joy, peace, and justice, I think there is a problem” stated Fr. Bryan. “People of all different backgrounds can benefit from how neuroscience affects our spirituality and vice versa. Fr. Bryan draws on research from Buddhist and Jewish neuroscientists, and is inspired by the likes of Andrew Newberg, Richard Davidson, Daniel Goleman, and James Carse (Roothbert Fellow, Class of 1964).
Fr. Bryan believes that with greater awareness of the self, we render ourselves more capable of understanding others. “Our brain attempts to tell us what the experience of another is like” shared Fr. Bryan. “We spread kindness with an awareness of how it feels to receive kindness. Investigate your own feelings to better understand the feelings of others.” In other words, as we work to “map feeling over our own body”, we simultaneously strengthen our ability to build interpersonal connections as well as our capacity to empathize.
Ultimately, Fr. Bryan advocates for a self-awareness and form of spirituality that “draws people into leadership and action.” “We need vocabulary to name how our spiritual processes work and how the riches of our spirituality are affirmed through acts of kindness, love, and joy.” Fr. Bryan’s work combines the secularized knowledge of neuroscience with the abstract humanity of faith and spirituality to advocate for a more nuanced understanding of ourselves and each other. As we pursue a life led by “the fruit of the spirit”, Fr. Bryan believes that “the only way we will figure this out is through collective wisdom” across academic disciplines, perspectives, and experiences.
*According to Fr. Bryan Spoon’s website, neurotheology.info, “fruit of the spirit” references “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control” (Gal. 5:22-23).
Check out Fr. Bryan Spoon’s book, Neuroscience and the Fruit of the Spirit, here. For more information on Fr. Bryan’s work, interfaith resources connecting neuroscience and spirituality, and contact information, please consult Fr. Bryan’s website here.
Furthermore, Fr. Bryan has recently put together another website, www.spiritualneuroscience.com. It offers different perspectives on the correlation between spirituality and neuroscience from scholarly, research, and diverse faith backgrounds.