Cerebral subjectivity—the identification of the individual self with the brain—is a belief that has become firmly entrenched in modern science and popular culture. In The Care of the Brain in Early Christianity, Jessica Wright traces its roots to tensions within early Christianity over the brain’s role in self-governance and its inherent vulnerability. Examining how early Christians appropriated medical ideas, Wright tracks how they used these ideas for teaching ascetic practices, developing therapeutics for the soul, and finding a path to salvation. Bringing a medical lens to religious discourse, this text demonstrates that rather than rejecting medical traditions, early Christianity developed by creatively integrating them.

"This book makes two important contributions: it illuminates early Christian engagements with ancient medicine and shows how these medical theories shaped early Christian theological anthropology. Scholars of early Christianity and the history of medicine will find this an engaging read." - CHOICE

"Highly original... [a] beautifully written study of the concept of the brain as a powerful and multi-functional tool." - Bryn Mawr Classical Review

"This is a valuable study, carefully and comprehensively researched, beautifully written and well produced, of importance to many fields including the history of science, psychology, western culture and Christianity. It deserves a wide readership."  - THE CLASSICAL REVIEW

"While this book will be of interest to scholars of early Christianity and the history of medicine, the monograph’s implications are more far-reaching." - Reading Religion

"The fusion of ideas about reason and governance in the brain within early Christian thought forms an unexplored but crucial stage in the history of the brain as the putative key to what it means to be human. The book describes how this process unfolded in the images and arguments of early Christian texts from ca. 200 to 600 c.e." - New Testament Abstracts