Soul

General Information

Soul is a term rarely used with precise definition in philosophy, religion, or common life. It is generally regarded as descriptive of an entity related to but distinguishable from the body--the spiritual part of human beings that animates their physical existence and survives death.

Primitive religions tend to associate the soul with the vital force in humans and often identify it with particular parts or functions of the body (the heart or kidneys, the breath or pulse). Other religions show traces of such animistic ideas. In Hinduism, the Atman (originally meaning "breath") is the individual factor that is indestructible and that after death is reborn in another existence. But Atman is identified with Brahman, the Source of all things to which the soul ultimately returns when it ceases to have a separate existence. (Buddhism, on the other hand, repudiates the notion of Atman, positing the theory of Anatta, nonself.) Early Jewish thought did not conceive the soul as existing apart from the body except in the shadowy realm of departed spirits (Sheol). Greek and especially Platonic thought divided humans into two parts: body and soul. The soul, often referred to as the psyche, was considered both preexistent and immortal.

The early Christian church lived under the influence of Greek ideas about the body and soul, although biblical teachings about Resurrection were superimposed on them. Throughout the history of the Christian church, there has been no clearly defined and universally accepted metaphysical conception of the soul. Nevertheless, Christian theology and worship have adhered firmly to the conviction of personal survival after death rooted in belief in the love of God and the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

Philosophy has long been preoccupied with speculation about the existence and nature of the soul and its relationship to the body. In the 20th century many philosophers have argued, following William James, that the concept of the soul is neither verifiable nor necessary to an understanding of humankind's mode of existence in the world.

Charles W. Ranson

Bibliography
Cullmann, Oscar, Immortality of the Soul or Resurrection of the Dead? (1958); Kenny, Anthony J. P., The Anatomy of the Soul: Historical Essays in the Philosophy of Mind (1973); Laird, John, The Idea of Soul (1970); Rank, Otto, Psychology and the Soul (1961); Swinburne, Richard, The Evolution of the Soul (1986).

Soul

Advanced Information

A Soul is a living being, life principle, person, or individual spiritual nature. It may be ascribed to animals (Gen. 1:30; Rev. 8:9) and to God (Lev. 26:11; Isa. 42:1). It is often used interchangeably with spirit, although distinctions that begin to appear in the OT are carried forward in the NT. Thus while soul in the NT normally means an individual spiritual entity with a material body so that a person is thought of as a body-soul, spirit is the special gift of God which places one in relationship to him. Scripture states that Jesus gave his spirit to his Father (Luke 23:46; John 19:30), but elsewhere it is said that he gave his soul as a ransom for many (Matt. 20:28; John 10:15). In general terms then it can be said that soul in Scripture is conceived to be an immaterial principle created by God, which is usually united to a body and gives it life; however, the soul continues to exist after death in human beings (Matt. 10:28; James 5:20; Rev. 6:9; 20:4), a condition which is ended at the close of this age (I Cor. 15:35-55).

The Early Church

Speculation about the soul in the subapostolic church was heavily influenced by Greek philosophy. This is seen in Origen's acceptance of Plato's doctrine of the preexistence of the soul as pure mind (nous) originally, which, by reason of its fall from God, cooled down to soul (psyche) when it lost its participation in the divine fire by looking earthward. It is also seen in Tertullian's repudiation of Greek ideas and his insistence on the biblical teaching of the union of the soul, an immaterial creation of God, with the material body which has been made for it.

Augustine's great influence was felt in the church in his teaching about the soul as in other matters. Condemning the heathen notions that the soul was originally a part of God, an idea which he calls blasphemy, that it is corporeal, or that it becomes polluted through the body, he saw the soul as a rational-spiritual substance made "like God," and made by him, sustaining and directing the body (The Greatness of the Soul, XIII, 22). Concerning its origin and whether it was created by God or transmitted by parents, Augustine might be unsure (On the Soul and Its Origin, I, 27), but of its "proper abode" and "homeland" he was certain, and that is God (The Greatness of the Soul, I, 2).

Origin of the Soul

Augustine's reluctance to take sides in the debate on the origin of the soul was not shared by his contemporaries. Some Greek church fathers shared Origen's theory that the soul preexisted with God and that it was assigned to a body as a penalty for its sin of looking downward. Most, however, accepted the creationist view that God created each individual soul at the moment that he gave it a body, while some, like Tertullian, held the traducianist theory that each soul is derived, along with the body, from the parents.

Arguments cited in favor of creationism were (1) that Scripture distinguishes the origin of man's soul and body (Eccl. 12:7; Isa. 42:5; Zech. 12:1; Heb. 12:9); (2) that creationism preserves the idea of the soul as a simple, indivisible substance better than traducianism, which requires the idea of the division of the soul and its derivation from the parents; and (3) that it makes more credible Christ's retention of a pure soul than does traducianism.

In behalf of traducianism it was said (1) that certain Scripture supports it (Gen. 2:2; Heb. 7:10; cf. I Cor. 11:8); (2) that it offers the best theory for the whole race having sinned in Adam; (3) that it is supported by the analogy of lower life in which numerical increase is obtained by derivation; (4) that it teaches that parents beget the whole child, body and soul, and not just the body; and (5) that it was necessary for Christ to have received his soul from the soul of Mary in order to redeem the human soul.

Augustine carefully weighed the arguments on each side of the controversy, leaning toward traducianism for a time even while he saw the difficulty of retaining the soul's integrity with this hypothesis; later he admitted that he was perplexed and baffled by the question.

A contemporary theologian who takes essentially the same stance is G. C. Berkouwer, who calls the controversy "unfruitful," inasmuch as it wrongly assumes that the issue is one of horizontal or vertical relations. "Such a way of putting it is far too feeble an attempt to render adequately the greatness of the work of God" (Man: The Image of God, 292). The God of Israel does not create only in the distant past, but he is constantly active in human history, the Creator in horizontal relationships as well as others. To speak about a separate origin of the soul he sees as impossible biblically, inasmuch as this creationist theory sees the relationship to God as "something added to the 'essentially human,' which later is defined independently as 'soul' and 'body.' Both soul and body can then be viewed in different 'causal' relationships without reference to some intrinsic non-causal relationship to God. If, however, it is impossible to speak of the essence of man except in this latter religious relationship, then it also becomes impossible to introduce duality into the origin of soul and of body within the unitary human individual" (303).

M E Osterhaven
(Elwell Evangelical Dictionary)

Bibliography
G. C. Berkouwer, Man: The Image of God; A. Dihle et al., TDNT, IX, 608-66; C. A. Beckwith, SHERK, XI, 12-14; C. Hodge, Systematic Theology, II; L. Berkhof, Systematic Theology.

Soul

Additional Information

There are four theories of the origin of the individual soul:

The soul, as well as the body, comes from the parents. This is called Traducianism. It is believed by the Lutheran and the Eastern Orthodox Churches. Tertullian favored traducianism. God created the Soul of Adam, and everyone afterwards has had a soul as a result.

Pre-existence of all souls, It is believed by Mormons. Origen favored pre-existence of souls.

Creationism, whereby God creates a fresh soul for each body. Roman Catholics and most Reformed and Calvinist Churches favor creationism.

Reincarnation is the belief that an individual human soul passes through a succession of lives. No conventional Christian Denomination believes in reincarnation, but Hindus, Buddhists and Jainists do. Some Western groups DO believe in reincarnation, but they limit it to human form, where Eastern religions feel that reincarnation could involve any living creature.

Genesis 2:7 tells of God's breathing into man the breath of life (a soul) implying that He never repeated doing that after Adam. This seems to favor Traducianism, but arguments for the other alternatives have sometimes been offered based on that same Scripture.

The concept of Soul is so esoteric that there are some scholars who deny the very existence of it, partly because there has never been any concrete evidence that proves its existence. Of course, in that event, any discussion regarding the origin of the Soul becomes meaningless.

Also, see:
Traducianism
Origin of the Soul

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soul

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