heres my take on it, and if im wrong, please tell me. the soul is basically a fancy poetic term for the mind (the brain) and we have an immortal immaterial spirit. am i way off? because in the bible it says that animals “have a material soul” as do we humans. but we humnas also have an immortal immaterial spirit (as it says in the bible) so my question, is soul the same thing as brain or mind? therefore different from spirit? thats always confused me.
There is no **universally **accepted distinction between the soul and the spirit but in the Catechism it is stated that:.
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.236 The Church teaches that this distinction does not introduce a duality into the soul.237 “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.238
The Church regards “spirit” as a more fundamental term than “soul” because Jesus referred to God as “Spirit” and not “Soul”!
Nor is there a corresponding adjective for “spiritual”…
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