Does God have a soul?

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Here’s a question that I’m hoping someone could help me with: a friend said that Christ’s body was separated from his soul after death. Is this a correct understanding? If so, does that mean that God the Father and God the Holy Spirit have souls too? Would they be distinct souls, or the same soul as Jesus Christ?

My inclination was to say that God, being spirit, has no soul – the soul would be the “animating principle” and since God is the animating principle of all creation, it would seem to me that he IS the animating principle, in a manner of speaking. If that’s the case, would Jesus’ soul have been a part of his human nature?
 
Austringer said:
Here’s a question that I’m hoping someone could help me with: a friend said that Christ’s body was separated from his soul after death. Is this a correct understanding? If so, does that mean that God the Father and God the Holy Spirit have souls too? Would they be distinct souls, or the same soul as Jesus Christ?

My inclination was to say that God, being spirit, has no soul – the soul would be the “animating principle” and since God is the animating principle of all creation, it would seem to me that he IS the animating principle, in a manner of speaking. If that’s the case, would Jesus’ soul have been a part of his human nature?
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When we use the name “Jesus Christ”, we are referring to the Second Person of the Trinity in His human incarnation. In His incarnation, Jesus had a created human soul as part of the human nature He united Himself to. It was this human soul that was separated from His human flesh at the time of His death.

As you note, “soul” is defined as the “animating principle” - thus plants have souls, animals have souls, and humans have souls. But, the souls in each of those categories are different. God, of course, is in neither of those three categories.

I’m not sure if it is proper to speak of God’s soul. But if it is, then it would be as you suggested – that God IS soul (animating principle).
 
Thanks, Nita – that’s pretty much what I thought. Funny, no one has ever asked me that question before, and it isn’t one that I’d given any thought to until asked.

Also, God doesn’t have any “parts”, nor does He have a body in need of animating. So, although sometimes in Scripture God Himself refers to His soul, I think in that usage it’s more like the meaning is that of “self” or “being”, as opposed to the understanding of the word “soul” as it relates to the animating principle.
 
Yes

Jesus is God. His soul was put into the body and transfered into the Holy Mother Mary.

When God (Jesus) died, God’s soul went to hell to preach to the condemned. Then his soul went to heaven and was reunited with God’s soul (and the Holy spirits soul) since the three are three in one.

So yes, Jesus (God) the Father (God) and the Holy Ghost (God) all have souls, the same soul but different.
 
Cashue, I’m not sure that’s right. God doesn’t have “parts”, so He doesn’t “have” or possess a soul. Jesus would have had a soul, just like all human beings, because He was fully human as well as fully divine. God’s “soul”, if you want to call it that, is His own self – not the same thing as a human soul.
 
I was just paging thru Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma’s chapter on God’s attributes and came across this quote of St. Augustine:
*“What God has, that He is.” *

BTW, if you don’t have the book “Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma” by Dr. Ludwig Ott, it would be worth your while to get it. Unbelievable the amount of concise info it contains – what the Church doctrines are, when decreed, the Scripture support for them, support in writings of early Church fathers…). A virtual goldmine. Scripture and CCC first, but third is Fundamentals.
 
Hi Nita,

Yes, I have that book, though I have to admit that I haven’t opened it for some time.
 
The Divine Nature of God does not have a soul, and is not soul or spirit.

The Divine Nature is an Act, the one Act of being everything that God is (love, justice, truth, existence, etc.) and of doing everything that God does. God is one, with no potentiality and no division, therefore He is all actuality, all Act, and He is not divided into what He is and what He does. He cannot be a spirit who acts, or a soul who acts, because then He would be divided.

At death, the body and soul of Jesus separated, and His soul visited Hell and Purgatory and opened the gates of Heaven so that all could be saved. But the body and the soul each remained entirely united to His Divine Nature.
 
Austringer said:
Here’s a question that I’m hoping someone could help me with: a friend said that Christ’s body was separated from his soul after death. Is this a correct understanding? If so, does that mean that God the Father and God the Holy Spirit have souls too? Would they be distinct souls, or the same soul as Jesus Christ?

My inclination was to say that God, being spirit, has no soul – the soul would be the “animating principle” and since God is the animating principle of all creation, it would seem to me that he IS the animating principle, in a manner of speaking. If that’s the case, would Jesus’ soul have been a part of his human nature?
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Austringer

just to add to what has been posted

If you noticed, the Lord Jesus was insistent about “Son of man” even in His statement Mat:18 11: For the Son of man is come to save that which was lost. The Perfect Word of God in the Presence of God (Holy Spirit) in the Son of man. And the Word of God comes from God. Hence man made to hear the Word of God and live it, in the Presence of God.

So what is to be understood in the Lord’s statement?
Lk:23:46: And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the ghost.

And why does this verse state this?
Lk:3:38: Which was the son of Enos, which was the son of Seth, which was the son of Adam, which was the son of God.

It’s not as complicated as we might think. Jesus is the fulfillment of what God made man to be. Thus the restoration unto God’s Will for man, God’s Choice for man. But all of God’s commandments to man must be fulfilled, in the state in which Adam found himself after the tree of knowledge, he was not able to fulfill the commandment, and live. Therefore God’s Word in God’s Presence in the Son of man fulfills and restores what was once lost. Which is God’s Word in God’s Presence which gives the power unto men to become sons of God.

Jn:1:12: But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:

As God originally made man to be.
 
All,

Jesus, as Man, has a human soul. God is a pure spirit. A spirit, by definition has no parts. GOD HAS NO SOUL. You could say he IS the infinite soul of all things, since he maintains all things in being. But he is distinct from all other beings.

Verbum
 
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