Chattanooga, TN, October 13, 2017 ― Religious beliefs can affect more than spiritual health. In fact, different views about God can actually lead to mental and physical changes. And when God concepts are distorted in some way, the changes can be profoundly negative.

Psychiatrist, international speaker and author Timothy R. Jennings, M.D., has treated thousands of patients struggling with fear, insecurity and unsatisfying relationships. Many of his patients, he found, had as a contributing factor — if not a primary cause — a distorted God construct.

In his enlightening book, The God-Shaped Brain: How Changing Your View of God Transforms Your Life, Dr. Jennings synthesizes theology with brain science to reveal a wealth of facts, including:

• Beliefs and choices actually change brain circuitry and alter gene expression.

• Unhealthy God concepts (such as worshipping a punitive or authoritative God) activate inflammatory pathways and contribute to physical and mental illness.

• Even if unhealthy concepts of God are practiced only in the imagination, it has damaging effects on the brain.

• Changing an unhealthy God concept to a healthy one can positively impact the mind, body and relationships.

Jennings also introduces his Integrated-Evidenced Based Approach to studying God, which intertwines and harmonizes scripture; God's laws in science and nature; and personal experiences. Jennings uses compelling, real-life stories of healing and transformation to demonstrate how a God concept of love can bring about positive changes, and he provides a methodology for separating healthy beliefs from unhealthy.

The brain is an organ that is constantly developing, and in the book, Jennings illustrates in easy-to-follow language how the brain adapts based on the choices a person makes, the beliefs that are held and the God that is worshipped.

Timothy R. Jennings, M.D., is a board-certified Christian psychiatrist, master psychopharmacologist, international speaker, author, Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and Life-Fellow of the Southern Psychiatric Association.

He obtained his M.D. degree in 1990 from the University of Tennessee College of Medicine in Memphis. He completed his psychiatric residency at D.D. Eisenhower Army Medical Center in Augusta, Georgia, and has served as the Division Psychiatrist for the 3rd Infantry Division. He is married and lives in Chattanooga where he is in private practice. Jennings is also the President and Founder of Come and Reason Ministries and has served as President of the Southern Psychiatric Association and Tennessee Psychiatric Association.

His other books include Could It Be This Simple? A Biblical Model for Healing the Mind, The Journal of the Watcher, The Remedy New Testament Expanded Paraphrase and the upcoming The God-Shaped Heart: How Correctly Understanding God's Love Transforms Us, due September 2017.

For more information about Dr. Jennings and to hear his lectures, please visit the website: www.comeandreason.com.