Is the body a prison for the soul?

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ON THE PRISON OF (OR TO) THE SOUL

“Unhappy man, who will liberate me from this body of death (lit.- the body of this death)?” Certainly, he does not wiish to exit prison, who does not wiish to exit the body, for the body is the prison of the soul. Of which says the Psalmist: “Lead my soul from prison, to confiding in your name.” Never is there quite and tranquillity, never is there peace and security, everywhere is fear and tremor, everywhere labor and pain. “While it (the soul) lives it shall mourn, and the soul over itself self shall weep.”
–A saint and a pope, Innocent III, from De Contemptu Mundi (XIX)

My intuitions always thought this.
 
Robert_Sock said:
ON THE PRISON OF (OR TO) THE SOUL

“Unhappy man, who will liberate me from this body of death (lit.- the body of this death)?” Certainly, he does not wiish to exit prison, who does not wiish to exit the body, for the body is the prison of the soul. Of which says the Psalmist: “Lead my soul from prison, to confiding in your name.” Never is there quite and tranquillity, never is there peace and security, everywhere is fear and tremor, everywhere labor and pain. “While it (the soul) lives it shall mourn, and the soul over itself self shall weep.”
–A saint and a pope, Innocent III, from De Contemptu Mundi (XIX)

My intuitions always thought this.
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No, it is the bodiless state of the “pure spirit” that would be the prison.

How can something be a prison that enables you to move, see, smell etc?

If Saint Paul meant what you think he did, why, in 1 Corinthians, does he long for **bodily ** resurrection so badly?

ICXC NIKA.
 
At the end of this age when we are living in eternity we will have glorified bodies, similar to that of Jesus after the resurrection, or of Elijah and Moses on the mount of transfiguration. If the body were the soul’s prison, I don’t think God would imprison us for all eternity. Moreover, the idea of the body as a prison in this life smacks a little of the heresy of Manichaeism, which (according to Wikipedia) “taught an elaborate dualistic cosmology describing the struggle between a good, spiritual world of light, and an evil, material world of darkness”.
 
seagal said:
At the end of this age when we are living in eternity we will have glorified bodies, similar to that of Jesus after the resurrection, or of Elijah and Moses on the mount of transfiguration. If the body were the soul’s prison, I don’t think God would imprison us for all eternity. Moreover, the idea of the body as a prison in this life smacks a little of the heresy of Manichaeism, which (according to Wikipedia) “taught an elaborate dualistic cosmology describing the struggle between a good, spiritual world of light, and an evil, material world of darkness”.
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👍👍
 
GEddie said:
No, it is the bodiless state of the “pure spirit” that would be the prison.

How can something be a prison that enables you to move, see, smell etc?

If Saint Paul meant what you think he did, why, in 1 Corinthians, does he long for **bodily ** resurrection so badly?

ICXC NIKA.
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“Man is not a soul bound in a transient body. If that were the case, resurrection would have little significance other than representing the soul’s return to its bodily prison…The Rambam says there will be no eating, drinking or sleeping in the World to Come (Rambam, Mishneh Torah, Laws of Repentance 8:2). This statement was the focal point of a dispute between Maimonides and Nachmonides, and has been deeply misunderstood. In the World to Come, the body will not be resurrected and then die. Maimonides says that after resurrection, the body will cease to be a body as we know it (ibid.). This cessation implies that the body will instead become so holy that it will become spiritual, transcending the physical limitations imposed upon it in this earthly world. Nevertheless, it will retain its sense of self-existence, its sense of being.”
aish.com/sp/ph/48929597.html

This is Jewish, but is consistent with what we know about the glorified body of Christ after His resurrection.
 
Because we live in a fallen world, our bodies are imperfect and can cause us a great deal of suffering. Because of that, our bodies can often feel like a prison, but that isn’t the way God intended it. Our souls were designed for our bodies and one day, when we receive our glorified bodies, we will be more free and content than ever.
 
Robert_Sock said:
ON THE PRISON OF (OR TO) THE SOUL

“Unhappy man, who will liberate me from this body of death (lit.- the body of this death)?” Certainly, he does not wiish to exit prison, who does not wiish to exit the body, for the body is the prison of the soul. Of which says the Psalmist: “Lead my soul from prison, to confiding in your name.” Never is there quite and tranquillity, never is there peace and security, everywhere is fear and tremor, everywhere labor and pain. “While it (the soul) lives it shall mourn, and the soul over itself self shall weep.”
–A saint and a pope, Innocent III, from De Contemptu Mundi (XIX)

My intuitions always thought this.
Click to expand...
I have generally thought of the body as being the cab that gets us along the journey of life. It is a journey that requires attention to both the passenger [soul] and the means of transport [body].
 
Robert_Sock said:
ON THE PRISON OF (OR TO) THE SOUL

“Unhappy man, who will liberate me from this body of death (lit.- the body of this death)?” Certainly, he does not wiish to exit prison, who does not wiish to exit the body, for the body is the prison of the soul. Of which says the Psalmist: “Lead my soul from prison, to confiding in your name.” Never is there quite and tranquillity, never is there peace and security, everywhere is fear and tremor, everywhere labor and pain. “While it (the soul) lives it shall mourn, and the soul over itself self shall weep.”
–A saint and a pope, Innocent III, from De Contemptu Mundi (XIX)

My intuitions always thought this.
Click to expand...
Yes!
Its like wearing a rusty suit of heavy armour, or a heavy spacesuit, with holes in it! And it always gets stuck in the mud.
 
God made the human body and said it was good; so, who am I to say that the human body is a prison and imply that God may not have told the truth? :confused:
 
tabycat said:
God made the human body and said it was good; so, who am I to say that the human body is a prison and imply that God may not have told the truth? :confused:
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No, God called it “very good,” which in Judaism is “evil.”

NATURAL IMPULSE
THE good impulse (yetser tov) and the evil impulse (yetser ra) are pictured in Jewish literature as wrestling in perpetual conflict within the heart of man. Satan is usually identified with the yetser ha-ra, the evil impulse. In the book of Job, Satan’s function is described as that of testing the sincerity of men’s characters. In Talmudic literature, Satan’s function is to strengthen man’s moral sense by leading him into temptation. It has been said that every man living shall assuredly meet with an hour of temptation, a certain critical hour, which shall more especially try his mettle.

According to a midrashic statement (Genesis Rabbah 9:9), the existence of the yetser ha-ra in the heart of man and the struggle to overcome it lends high value to the good that emerges from the inner battle. The two conflicting impulses, the good and bad tendencies, are said to be implanted in man as a consequence of his having been formed from the dust and endowed with a soul (Genesis 2:7).

According to rabbinic thinking, the evil impulse is to be found in man at birth; the good impulse begins to develop when he is thirteen years old. The teachings of the Torah are referred to as the antidote to the yetser ha-ra. Similarly, Ben Sira (21:11) states: “The man who keeps the Law controls his natural tendency.”

In commenting on the two yods in the word " ", (Genesis 2:7), the rabbis declare that God created both the yetser tov and the yetser ra (Berakhoth 61a). The command to love God “with all your heart” they interpret to mean “with both your impulses” (Berakhoth Ma), since both human elements can be employed in the service of God. “Were it not for the yetser ha-ra, no man would build a home or get married or follow an occupation” (Genesis Rabbah 9:9). The phrase “very good” (Genesis 1:31) is therefore explained, as alluding to the yetser ha-ra, frequently used in the sense of the productive urge.

Taken from the Encyclopedia of Jewish Concepts

Genesis 1:31
And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, a sixth day.
 
Robert_Sock said:
No, God called it “very good,” which in Judaism is "evil.
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GOD called it ‘very good’, therefor it is good and not evil. If others want to call the human body ‘evil’ they can, but I am going to take God’s word for it. 🙂
 
Robert_Sock said:
ON THE PRISON OF (OR TO) THE SOUL

“Unhappy man, who will liberate me from this body of death (lit.- the body of this death)?” Certainly, he does not wiish to exit prison, who does not wiish to exit the body, for the body is the prison of the soul. Of which says the Psalmist: “Lead my soul from prison, to confiding in your name.” Never is there quite and tranquillity, never is there peace and security, everywhere is fear and tremor, everywhere labor and pain. “While it (the soul) lives it shall mourn, and the soul over itself self shall weep.”
–A saint and a pope, Innocent III, from De Contemptu Mundi (XIX)

My intuitions always thought this.
Click to expand...
The soul is not a prisoner of the body.

CCC said:
365 The unity of soul and body is so profound that one has to consider the soul to be the “form” of the body:234 i.e., it is because of its spiritual soul that the body made of matter becomes a living, human body; spirit and matter, in man, are not two natures united, but rather their union forms a single nature.
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The body and the passions are to follow the rule and judgment of the Power of God–the Gospel.
 
“Just as a blind man is unable to form any idea about colors, or a deaf person to fathom what it means to hear sounds… so the body cannot comprehend the delights of the soul… For we live in a material world, and the only kind of pleasure we can understand is that experienced through our body. But the joys of the spirit are everlasting and ceaseless. There is no resemblance of any kind between the enjoyments of the soul and those of the body.”
–Maimonides

This is from a Jewish mystic, but seems to suggest that the body and soul are separate. Maimonides also suggests that the glorifies bodies will be spiritual, not physical. The body of the resurrected Christ seems to be consistent with this notion in that He was able to walk through locked doors.
 
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