Do angels have souls?

[RaiseMeUp]

Do angels have souls?

And what scripture/writings would we use to support the answer?

No. We have physical bodies (external), Souls (internal), and Spirit (Eternal). Sometimes soul & spirit are used interchangeably even though they are separate and different things.

1 Thessalonians 5:23
Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

[thistle]

I don’t know the answer to the OP’s question but for those who claim angels do have souls is there any Church document to support such a position? If not, I assume that means angels do not have souls or the Church does not know the answer.

 

[JerryZ]

As precise and accurate as that sounds, I really believe it falls short of the truth. It seems to somehow make angels appear to be lacking something humans have. In other words, we have a spiritual soul and a body, whereas the angels only have a spiritual being, and almost seem to lack a soul as well in that definition.

In my thinking, the angels are a far more sublime creation than man. They can “take on” a body when they desire (as they have done in Scripture.) and they can easily affect changes in the physical world as well. They are powerful and mighty, with an exalted intelligence, and all this is beatified with an extraordinary holiness and virtue, along with what may be a far more clear vision of God than man may ever be capable of, even in heaven.

So getting back to our original debate, I know we think of souls as not just a spiritual “part” of us that receives (name removed by moderator)ut from our body, but also that it is the most individual part of us, that is uniquely created directly by God, and gives us our special character and attributes. This idea of a soul, although it may not be a “part” of an angel like it is in a lowly human, yet it may be united substantially with his spiritual nature, and so does indeed have a soul, but not in the human sense, or in the “part” sense.

So to sum, I’m not averring a component soul, but more a “heart” or inner distinction, comparable to our soul.

Yes Ron, I’m just saying what you did, but using more words.

I would agree with most of your comment with the caveat that where I bolded your quote. Angels CANNOT take a human appearence by themselves only through God’s allowing them to do so. My reasoning is that if they could take a “body when they desire” well so could the devil and his minions.
Remember 1/3 of the Angels that where created where cast from Heaven.
So taking a body must be something they cannot do by themselves but through the intervention of GOD.
Others have noted that in Scripture we have indications that Soul and Spirit are distict characteristics of the human condition flesh being the other part.

Peace

 

[Blue_Horizon]

Since the middle ages the Church has used the philosophy of scholasticism to explain this topic. Its 99 percent Aquinas. He is pretty clear on the matter.

There are only two tpes of existant substances. Spiritual and corporeal.
Corporeal subs are understood as compsites of matter and form.
Living corp beings are defined a little more as body (matter) and soul (form).
The soul is not a pure spiritual substance, it is made to have a body abd without one it is not complete. Unlike animals human souls survive death.

God, and angels, are pure spirits with no inherent intrinsic relationship or need for a body. Hence they are not souls. They do have some form of power or stewardship over the aspects of material creation, that is all.

God is a pure spirit, but qualitatively different from angels because his intrinsic power/essence/dominion is over the power of existence itself. As his essence is to exist He is obviously eternal and creator. Angels cannot create.

All spiritual entities are necessarily persons having intellects and free will.

The Church has very little to say about disembodied souls, but they are certainly not angels. Without a body they shoulnt really exist. Yet christian faith belives we somehow live beyond death and before the resurrection of the body. How, noone has yet convincingly explained.

The one exception to all this are the celestial spheres. Aquinas allowed the possibility of them following Aristotle but didnt think they existed.
These perfect corporeal entities were sort of half material half angelic. Sort of robot non personal spiritual angels united to a sublime crystal material sphere that rotated on the extermites of the material universe and held the stars. This spherical firmament divided heaven from earth.

 

[Blue_Horizon]

Forgot to mention. Anything material is considered less perfect noble than pure spirits. The fewer parts an entity has the more perect it is.

 

[NHInsider]

I thought angels were souls without bodies, but that’s only my speculation. Does that qualify as a “maybe”?

A soul without a body is a ghost, I believe. A body without a soul is a corpse. (Or a zombie, depending on the context . . . )

A soul is what animates a body - it is the “life” of the creature.

Angels were not created as bodily creatures.

We find it difficult to conceive of soul and spirit distinctly, I think that’s why this is hard to sort out.

 

[Texas_Longhorns]

Angels aren’t composite beings, like man. They do not possess both matter and form). For a man, the soul is the substantial form of the body (his matter). But angels do possess a spiritual life principle very similar to man’s soul, but of a higher order.

So, I am not sure if it is proper to call their life principle a soul (since the term soul might only be used for composite beings), but whatever the correct name, the life principle of an angel is certainly similar to man’s soul: it is a spiritual substance with an intellect and will, just like the human soul.

 

[Blue_Horizon]

So, I am not sure if it is proper to call their life principle a soul (since the term soul might only be used for composite beings)

No doubt at all TL. In Church definition we cannot say angels have souls…to say so would suggest they have an intrinisic relationship with matter which they do not.

but whatever the correct name, the life principle of an angel is certainly similar to man’s soul: **it is a spiritual substance **with an intellect and will, just like the human soul.

Just to clarify, man’s soul is not properly a “spiritual substance.”
It is the spiritual component of his corporeal substance.