Holy therapy: can a drug do the work of the Spirit?

Christian Century, August 9, 2003 by Ted Peters

WHAT IF SCIENCE could demonstrate that original sin is something we inherit from our families either through the genes or our upbringing or both? And if science could show us how we inherit a predisposition toward sin, might science also show us how to heal the soul and harvest fruits of the Spirit? For instance, could the laboratory produce a drug that would do the work of the Holy Spirit?

I will answer these last questions in the affirmative, but in the process I will try to clarify what Christian theology means by original sin and inherited sin. Under the hypothesis of genetic determinism or genetic influence, questions are being asked about biological factors in human behavior. This becomes especially relevant to theology when the behavior in question is either sinful or virtuous.

Let's take a look at a scientific study--we will call it the X chromosome study--that addresses the question of genetic influence in moderating environmental influence on antisocial or criminal behavior. This study examined young boys who were maltreated in their youth (Avshalom Caspl et al., "Role of Genotype in the Cycle of Violence in Maltreated Children," Science, August 2, 2002). The researchers asked: why do some male children who are maltreated in their home grow up to develop antisocial behavior traits while others do not?

The assumptions behind the research question are worth noting. First, boys were selected because the researchers were already looking for a factor on the X chromosome which only males carry; they assumed, in other words, that the antisocial behavior in question is a gender-specific phenomenon. Second, the researchers assumed that maltreatment of young boys increases the risk that they will grow up exhibiting antisocial symptoms and being violent offenders--that a social environment of victimization exerts a strong influence toward becoming a victimizer.

The researchers focused on 26-year-old males who had been severely maltreated between the ages of three and 11, and slated them for genetic testing. They examined the gene on the X chromosome for monoamine oxidase A (MAOA), a gene that governs a neurotransmitter-metabolizing enzyme in the brain. Those young men whose MAOA gene exhibited low expression levels were much more likely to exhibit aggressive antisocial behavior and become incarcerated for violent crimes than those whose gene exhibited a high level of expression. Conversely, the effect of childhood maltreatment on antisocial behavior was significantly weaker among males with high MAOA activity. Moreover, the researchers noted that maltreated males with low MAOA activity were more likely than nonmaltreated males with this genotype to be convicted of a violent crime, a finding that reinforced the environmental assumption identified above. Finally, they concluded that the association between maltreatment and antisocial behavior is conditional, depending on a child's MAOA genotype.

In sum, environmental or social influences are relevant but insufficient to explain antisocial behavior; genotype must be factored in. The DNA is decisive.

Both the beginning assumptions and research conclusions are deterministic in structure. They began with the assumption of environmental determinism--if maltreated, young boys will grow up antisocial. Then they shifted to genetic determinism--gene expression exacerbates or mitigates environmental influence. The net effect of both the assumptions and the conclusion is that some boys are born into situations in which the combination of gene expression and social context heavily determine what kind of person they will be. Do such findings contradict or complement what theologians have traditionally believed?

WE COULD imagine that a modern Pelagian might want to defy the science of the X chromosome study by asserting that we are born morally neutral, that we enter the world and grow up with the capacity to decide equally between fight and wrong. Good and evil are equal options standing before a freely deciding human psyche. Assumptions about determinism, either biological or social, would have to be dismissed as compromising this morally neutral anthropology. The theological position that we are born morally neutral will find rough sledding in this scientific environment.

An Augustinian, in contrast, might see such scientific research as partially demonstrating what most Christians have assumed all along: that we emerge from our mother's womb with a self-orientation that makes loving God and loving neighbor contradictory to our innate predisposition. We are born homo incurvatus in se, curved in upon ourselves. It takes an act of divine grace to reorient us toward loving God and loving our neighbor as we would love ourselves. It takes the inspiration of the Holy Spirit to orient our hearts and wills and minds toward expressing the fruits of the Spirit.

This theological perspective is much broader and more sweeping in scope than what appears in the X chromosome study, which does not ask about the total orientation of the human self. It deals with only one segment of human behavior, and a pattern of behavior that applies to some but not all of us. But this restriction does not obviate the value of comparing science and theology. Science is still quite relevant to theological anthropology. If genetic inheritance and social inheritance combine to predispose us to behavior with moral significance, then we can hypothesize that some level of biological and environmental determinism has an effect on everyone's life. Our genes and our family experience provide both opportunity and constraint for the kind of person we will grow up to be.