3:20). Among ancient peoples, both the Egyptians and the Chinese conceived of a dual soul. "Berkouwer has a long chapter on the meaning of the soul called "The Whole Man." Sometimes the word soul signifies merely an individual person. 1. "Several Evangelical theologians suggest that the concept of man possessing an 'immortal soul' is not the teaching of the Word of God. ), "The Eerdmans Bible Dictionary", p. 518 (1987). (eds. saw man's existence as divided into the material and spiritual, or "Ideal," realms. "But the Jew did not believe that human beings consist of an immortal soul entombed for a while in a mortal body. Rudolf Bultmann writes that Paul uses the word soma (body) to refer to the whole person, the self, so that there is not a soul and body, but rather the body is the whole thing. ", "Questioning the Immortality of the Soul In the Westminster Confession CH 32 « Religible", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Soul_in_the_Bible&oldid=987039463, Articles containing Ancient Greek (to 1453)-language text, Articles lacking reliable references from October 2012, Articles with unsourced statements from February 2018, Articles with unsourced statements from April 2017, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 4 November 2020, at 14:26. We know that the human soul needs atonement (Leviticus 17:11) and is the part of us that is purified and protected by the truth and the work of the Holy Spirit (1 Peter 1:22). "Consequently Buddhist and biblical views of the self agree that there exists no immortal soul that remains self-identically permanent through time. Plato (ca. In Hinduism the atman (“breath,” or “soul”) is the universal, eternal self, of which each individual soul ( jiva or jiva-atman ) partakes. 6:6, 30:9–10, 39:13–14, 49:6–13, 115:16–18, 146:2–4). John Goldingay writes, "The life of a human being came more directly from God, and it is also evident that when someone dies, the breath (rûaḥ, e.g., Ps 104:29) or the life (nepeš, e.g., Gen 35:18) disappears and returns to the God who is rûaḥ. Human beings seem always to have had some notion of a shadowy double that survives the death of the body. The soul is basically our mind, our emotions, and our will. ", Ford & Muers, "The modern theologians: an introduction to Christian theology since 1918", p. 693 (2005). At times he argues that "creedal caution" is better than dogmatic theology, but his main thrust is against the theory of belief in an immortal soul independent of God. Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. Black Friday Sale! "Indeed, the salvation of the 'immortal soul' has sometimes been a commonplace in preaching, but it is fundamentally unbiblical. Man is a unity of body and soul—terms that describe not so much two separate entities in a person as much as one person from different standpoints. So what does this mean? In theology, the soul is further defined as that part of the individual which partakes of divinity and often is considered to survive the death of the body. "Fudge admits that belief in the immortality of the soul is the main current in church history. There is evidence even among prehistoric peoples of a belief in an aspect distinct from the body and residing in it. ", Hebblethwaite, "Philosophical theology and Christian doctrine", p. 113 (2005). ), "The Encyclopedia of Judaism", p. 1343 (2000). A soul … This understanding appears as the sparkling water of pristine Christianity.' This article was most recently revised and updated by, https://www.britannica.com/topic/soul-religion-and-philosophy, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy - Ancient Theories of Soul. The New Testament also uses the word ψυχή, but with the Hebrew meaning and not the Greek. ^ Tabor, James, What the Bible says about Death, Afterlife, and the Future, , access date: December 14, 2013. ", Vogels, "Review of "The Garden of Eden and the Hope of Immortality", by James Barr", Critical Review of Books in Religion, volume 7, p. 80 (1994).