Religious views
In
Judaism and in some
Christian denominations, only human beings have immortal souls (although
immortality is disputed within Judaism and the concept of
immortality was most likely influenced by Plato).
[3] For example, Thomas Aquinas, borrowing directly from Aristotle's
On the Soul, attributed "soul" (
anima) to all organisms but argued that only human souls are immortal.
[4] Other religions (most notably
Hinduism and
Jainism) believe that all living things from the smallest bacterium to the largest of mammals are the souls themselves (
Atman,
jiva) and have their physical representative (the body) in the world. The actual
self is the soul, while the body is only a mechanism to experience the
karma of that life. Thus if one sees a tiger then there is a self-conscious identity residing in it (the soul), and a physical representative (the whole body of the tiger, which is observable) in the world. Some teach that even non-biological entities (such as rivers and mountains) possess souls. This belief is called
animism.
[5]
...
Christianity
According to some Christian eschatology, when people die, their souls will be judged by God and determined to go to Heaven or to Hades awaiting a resurrection. The oldest existing branches of Christianity, the Catholic Church and the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox churches, adhere to this view, as well as many Protestant denominations. Some Protestant Christians understand the soul as "life," and believe that the dead have no conscious existence until
after the resurrection (
Christian conditionalism). Some Protestant Christians believe that the souls and bodies of the unrighteous will be destroyed in
Hell rather than suffering eternally (
annihilationism). Believers will inherit
eternal life either in Heaven, or in a
Kingdom of God on earth, and enjoy eternal fellowship with God. Other Christians reject the punishment of the soul.[
citation needed]
Paul the Apostle used ψυχή (psychē) and πνεῦμα (pneuma) specifically to distinguish between the Jewish notions of נפש (nephesh) and רוח ruah (spirit)
[11] (also in the Septuagint, e.g. Genesis 1:2 רוּחַ אֱלֹהִים = πνεῦμα θεοῦ = spiritus Dei = "the Spirit of God").
Christians generally believe in the existence and eternal, infinite nature of the soul.
[12]
Origin of the soul
The "origin of the soul" has provided a vexing question in Christianity. The major theories put forward include
soul creationism,
traducianism, and
pre-existence. According to soul creationism, God creates each individual soul directly, either at the moment of conception or at some later time. According to traducianism, the soul comes from the parents by natural generation. According to the preexistence theory, the soul exists before the moment of conception. There have been differing thoughts regarding whether human
embryos have souls from conception, or whether there is a point between conception and birth where the
fetus acquires a soul,
consciousness, and/or
personhood. Stances in this question might play a role in judgements on the
morality of abortion.
[13][14][15]
Trichotomy of the soul
Augustine (354-430), one of Western Christianity's most influential early Christian thinkers, described the soul as "a special substance, endowed with reason, adapted to rule the body". Some Christians espouse a
trichotomic view of humans, which characterizes humans as consisting of a body (
soma), soul (
psyche), and spirit (
pneuma).
[16] However, the majority of modern Bible scholars point out how the concepts of "spirit" and of "soul" are used interchangeably in many biblical passages, and so hold to dichotomy: the view that each human comprises a body and a soul. Paul said that the "body wars against" the soul, "For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit" (Heb 4:12 NASB), and that "I buffet my body", to keep it under control.
Tota in toto corpore
According to Saint
Thomas Aquinas, the soul is
«tota in toto corpore».
[17][18][19] This means that the soul is
entirely contained in
every single part of the human body, and therefore ubiquitous and cannot be placed in a single organ (heart or brain, etc.), nor it is separable from the body (except after the body's death).
In the fourth book of
De Trinitate, also Augustine of Hippo states that the soul is all in the whole body and all in any part of it.
[20]
Views of various denominations
Roman Catholicism
The present
Catechism of the Catholic Church states that the term soul
"refers to the innermost aspect of [persons], that which is of greatest value in [them], that by which [they are] most especially in God's image: ‘soul’ signifies the spiritual principle in [humanity]".
[21]
All souls living and dead will be judged by Jesus Christ when
he comes back to earth. The Catholic Church teaches that the existence of each individual soul is dependent wholly upon God:
"The doctrine of the faith affirms that the spiritual and immortal soul is created immediately by God."
[22]
Protestantism
Protestants generally believe in the soul's existence and immortality, but fall into two major camps about what this means in terms of an
afterlife. Some, following
John Calvin, believe that the
soul persists as consciousness after death.
[23] Others, following
Martin Luther, believe that the
soul dies with the body, and is unconscious ("sleeps") until the
resurrection of the dead.
[24][25]
Adventism
Various
new religious movements deriving from
Adventism — including
Christadelphians,
[26] Seventh-day Adventists,
[27][28] and
Jehovah's Witnesses[29][30] — similarly believe that the dead do not possess a soul separate from the body and are unconscious until the resurrection.
Latter-day Saints ('Mormonism')
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints teaches that the spirit and body together constitute the Soul of Man (Mankind). "The spirit and the body are the soul of man."
[31] Latter-day Saints believe that the soul is the union of a pre-existing, God-made spirit
[32][33][34] and a temporal body, which is formed by physical conception on earth.
After death, the spirit continues to live and progress in the
Spirit world until the
resurrection, when it is reunited with the body that once housed it. This reuniting of body and spirit results in a perfect soul that is immortal, and eternal, and capable of receiving a fulness of joy.
[35][36]
Latter-day Saint cosmology also describes "intelligences" as the essence of consciousness or agency. These are co-eternal with God, and animate the spirits.
[37] The union of a newly-created spirit body with an eternally-existing intelligence constitutes a "spirit birth"[
citation needed] and justifies God's title "Father of our spirits".
[38][39][40]
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