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WesleyF
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Could someone explain clearly what the difference between soul and spirit is?
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smichhertz
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Hey WesleyF,
Could you provide some context? I generally use the words interchangeably as they both come from the same Latin word “anima”. Is there something more specific that you are referring to? It would help me understand you question better.
Could you provide some context? I generally use the words interchangeably as they both come from the same Latin word “anima”. Is there something more specific that you are referring to? It would help me understand you question better.
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GEddie
Guest
Actually, no. “Spirit” derives from Latin “spiritus,” whence we also have words like “respiration” and “inspire.” “Spiritus” is the Latin translation of Greek “pneuma” meaning breath or wind, in the NT, and Hebrew “ruach”, meaning breath, in the OT.Hey WesleyF,
I generally use the words interchangeably as they both come from the same Latin word “anima”.
So spirit has to do with breath. One could say it is the breath from GOD that made us. It wasn’t until GOD breathed life into Adam that he became a human being.
ICXC NIKA.
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WesleyF
Guest
Soul and spirit are different.Hey WesleyF,
Could you provide some context? I generally use the words interchangeably as they both come from the same Latin word “anima”. Is there something more specific that you are referring to? It would help me understand you question better.
“For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” (Heb 4:12)
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smichhertz
Guest
Wow, didn’t know that. I guess I stand corrected. Thanks for the info!Actually, no. “Spirit” derives from Latin “spiritus,” whence we also have words like “respiration” and “inspire.” “Spiritus” is the Latin translation of Greek “pneuma” meaning breath or wind, in the NT, and Hebrew “ruach”, meaning breath, in the OT.
So spirit has to do with breath. One could say it is the breath from GOD that made us. It wasn’t until GOD breathed life into Adam that he became a human being.
ICXC NIKA.
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SunnaB16
Guest
Whether animal or plant, every living thing has a soul; it
It`s the spirit “which” elevates us above the other animals. “Man is a rational animal.”
The spirit is the seat of the intellect and the will. No other animal has those.
In almost all literature and preaching, the fact that we human beings have an immortal spirit as well as a soul isn`t mentioned; the soul and the spirit are lumped in together. It causes confusion!
s the life force that makes the organism what it is. It doesnt survive the organism when it dies.It`s the spirit “which” elevates us above the other animals. “Man is a rational animal.”
The spirit is the seat of the intellect and the will. No other animal has those.
In almost all literature and preaching, the fact that we human beings have an immortal spirit as well as a soul isn`t mentioned; the soul and the spirit are lumped in together. It causes confusion!
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thistle
Guest
From Father John Hardon’s Modern Catholic Dictionary:Could someone explain clearly what the difference between soul and spirit is?
SOUL. The spiritual immortal part in human beings that animates their body. Though a substance in itself, the soul is naturally ordained toward a body; separated, it is an “incomplete” substance. The soul has no parts, it is therefore simple, but it is not without accidents. The faculties are its proper accidents. Every experience adds to its accidental form. It is individually created for each person by God and infused into the body at the time of human insemination. It is moreover created in respect to the body it will inform, so that the substance of bodily features and of mental characteristics insofar as they depend on organic functions is safeguarded. As a simple and spiritual substance, the soul cannot die. Yet it is not the total human nature, since a human person is composed of body animated by the soul. In philosophy, animals and plants are also said to have souls, which operate as sensitive and vegetative principles of life. Unlike the human spirit, these souls are perishable. The rational soul contains all the powers of the two other souls and is the origin of the sensitive and vegetative functions in the human being.
SPIRIT. That which is positively immaterial. It is pure spirit if it has no dependence on matter either for its existence or for any of its activities. God is uncreated pure Spirit; the angels are created pure spirits. The human soul is more properly called spiritual. Although it can exist independent of the body, it nevertheless in this life depends extrinsically on the body for its operations, and in the life to come retains a natural affinity for the body, with which after the resurrection it will be reunited for all eternity. (Etym. Latin spiritus, breath, life, soul, mind, spirit, power.)
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Nita
Guest
vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P1B.HTM
CCC 367 Sometimes the soul is distinguished from the spirit: St. Paul for instance prays that God may sanctify his people “wholly”, with “spirit and soul and body” kept sound and blameless at the Lord’s coming. The Church teaches that this distinction does not introduce a duality into the soul. “Spirit” signifies that from creation man is ordered to a supernatural end and that his soul can gratuitously be raised beyond all it deserves to communion with God.
I find sort of a parallel between the 2 expressions:
“spirit and soul” (immaterial) and
“body and blood” (material).
CCC 367 Sometimes the soul is distinguished from the spirit: St. Paul for instance prays that God may sanctify his people “wholly”, with “spirit and soul and body” kept sound and blameless at the Lord’s coming. The Church teaches that this distinction does not introduce a duality into the soul. “Spirit” signifies that from creation man is ordered to a supernatural end and that his soul can gratuitously be raised beyond all it deserves to communion with God.
I find sort of a parallel between the 2 expressions:
“spirit and soul” (immaterial) and
“body and blood” (material).
K
Kyrby_Caluna
Guest
The only difference between the two when used together is that the spirit is an adjective to the noun soul. We have a PHYSICAL body with a SPIRITUAL soul. Get it? Just as the body is physical so the soul is spiritual. And because the soul is spiritual, that is, a spirit, it is immortal. That is the teaching of the Catholic Church regarding the HUMAN soul. The soul is a spiritual component of man. Spirit is what describes a soul. Separating the spirit from the soul is a PROTESTANT idea not a Catholic one. Again, just as man has a physical body, so he also has a SPIRITUAL SOUL.
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Kyrby_Caluna
Guest
Remember this, it is a heresy to think that the HUMAN soul will cease to exist when the HUMAN body dies. The Church has constantly affirm that the Soul is immortal. Again, Spirit is the nature of the soul just as physical is the nature of the body.
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Nita
Guest
Trichotomism was an earlier heresy going around. It held that humans are composed of three essential parts, a body, an animal soul, and a spiritual soul. This heresy was condemned at the 8th General Council of Constantinople (869-870 AD). The Council “laid down the Catholic dogma that man possesses only one single spiritual soul:… The spiritual soul is the principle of the spiritual mental life, and at the same time, the principle of the corporeal (vegetative and sensitive) life.”
In Scripture passages (eg. Luke 1:46-47; 1 Thess. 5:23) where “spirit and soul” are used, Dr. Ott says that the expression “serves on occasion as a designation of the higher and the lower soul-life, without involving the distinction between two principles. …”
Source for above is “Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma” by Dr. Ludwig Ott.
catecheticsonline.com/Fundamentals-BookTwo-PartOne-II.php
Scroll about 1/5 of the way down to the following section:
~** 14. The Essential Constituent Parts of Human Nature **
In Scripture passages (eg. Luke 1:46-47; 1 Thess. 5:23) where “spirit and soul” are used, Dr. Ott says that the expression “serves on occasion as a designation of the higher and the lower soul-life, without involving the distinction between two principles. …”
Source for above is “Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma” by Dr. Ludwig Ott.
catecheticsonline.com/Fundamentals-BookTwo-PartOne-II.php
Scroll about 1/5 of the way down to the following section:
~** 14. The Essential Constituent Parts of Human Nature **
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