Christian View of the Soul

Question 1

What is the soul according to Christianity?

Answer 1

• God given
• Immortal
• Unique to humanity
• Seen as the spiritual element of humans.
• Jeremiah 1:5 suggests that the soul was part of humans before they were even created
• Eternal
• non-physical entity
• From Genesis it translates from ‘breath of life’ given from God into Adam

Question 2

What is the Daniel Quote?

Answer 2

‘… many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.’ (Daniel 12:2)

Question 3

What did Plato think of existence?

Answer 3

That there were two modes of existence in the

1) Physical world we see around us
2) Deeper reality, which he called the Forms.

Question 4

What is the World of Forms?

Answer 4

Plato’s idea that everything in the physical universe is an imperfect reflection of ideas from the metaphysical World of Forms.

Question 5

What did Plato think about the soul after death?

Answer 5

• Separates from the body and goes to the world of forms
• Contemplates the form of Good (like God)
• Reincarnated into the human womb

Question 6

So what is Plato’s world view?

Answer 6

• Dualism
• The soul having two aspects in the body which perishes in the physical world and the soul which is spiritually immortal
• The soul has eternally pre-existed human life
• He stated we know what things are as the soul has experience in the world of forms of each thing

Question 7

What do Christians made of dualism?

Answer 7

• Greek and Jewish ideas of soul closely linked so Christians kinda combined them
• Baby gets soul from God before birth
• This soul is an inner experience for humans giving a moral and spiritual dimension
• Some see the soul makes a person what they are
• For others just a physical part of life like Richard Dawkins thought

Question 8

Who was Duncan McDougall?

Answer 8

Concluded the famous 21 Grams Theory where through several experiments concluded that the human soul weighed 21 grams and that only humans had a sole.

His experiments were proved false and the testing he did was greatly flawed.

Question 9

What is the significance of Freud?

Answer 9

• Psychologists reframe from using the term ‘soul’
• They call is psyche
• Freud divided the psyche into 3 sections ID, EGO, SUPEREGO
• Psychologists tend not to focus on spiritual matters of before birth or after death