The Mind-Body Interaction

ARTICLE GUIDE

At a Glance

This study defends holistic substance dualism against reductive physicalism while locating embodied human identity within creation and resurrection.

What This Study Explores

The article evaluates Paul Copan’s response to Jaegwon Kim’s interaction and pairing objections, considers physicalist and dualist alternatives, and integrates biblical anthropology, the image of God, the intermediate state, Christology, and bodily resurrection.

Can an Immaterial Soul Interact with a Physical Body?

A complete spatial mechanism is not required before rational causal interaction can be affirmed. The interaction problem remains a serious explanatory challenge, but it does not demonstrate that immaterial agency is incoherent. Christian anthropology is best described as holistic: the person is an integrated ensouled body whose temporary disembodiment is abnormal and whose promised destiny is bodily resurrection.

Key Claims

• Mechanistic ignorance is not disproof. Known causal relations can precede a complete account of their mechanism.
• The pairing problem deserves a real answer. Dualism must explain why a particular soul is related to a particular body.
• Biblical anthropology is embodied. The body is not a disposable shell but the organ of royal-priestly vocation.
• Personal identity cannot be reduced to present capacities. Human dignity rests in God’s creative act and covenant purpose.
• Resurrection is the canonical telos. The intermediate state is real but penultimate.

Interpretive Context

The study rejects both reductive materialism and a popular Hellenistic picture of salvation as escape from matter. It treats physicalist readings seriously while arguing that Scripture’s creation-to-resurrection arc supports an enduring personal subject united to a genuinely physical body.

Selected Scholarship

• Copan, P. (2005). How Do You Know You’re Not Wrong?.
• Kim, J. (1998). Mind in a Physical World.
• Moreland, J. P. (2009). The Recalcitrant Imago Dei.
• Cooper, J. W. (2000). Body, Soul, and Life Everlasting.
• Farris, J. R. (2017). The Soul of Theological Anthropology.

Scripture Connections

Genesis 1:26–28; 2:7; Ecclesiastes 12:7; Matthew 10:28; Luke 23:43; 1 Corinthians 15:35–55; 2 Corinthians 5:1–10; Philippians 1:21–24; Romans 8:18–25; Revelation 21–22

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The complete article remains on Rabbit Room Apologetics at Substack.

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Originally published September 29, 2026. This WordPress page is a discovery guide; the complete article is hosted on Substack.