Soul

[Cagrl]

I have been wondering. Where is exactly is one’s soul? And where is one’s spirit? Is the spirit in the heart and the soul in our conscience? Thanks in advance.

I hope this is the correct forum

 

[RedSoxFan]

I always thought the spirit and soul were the same thing, being infused in the human body to be released at death and joined together again with the body at the last day.

Though that is more a less my guess.

 

[jprioli]

I have been wondering. Where is exactly is one’s soul? And where is one’s spirit? Is the spirit in the heart and the soul in our conscience? Thanks in advance.

The word, “soul” has a broad semantic range. It can refer to the whole person, and it can refer to the “essential form of the body” (as the Schoolmen say)… that is, what most people would think of when the hear the word.

“Spirit” refers to the “stuff” our souls are made of, much in the way that “flesh” refers to the “stuff” our bodies are made of.

Though the words spirit and soul are not exactly synonyms, their meanings do overlap. As you are using them here, they mean the same thing, as humans have spiritual souls.

Not all souls are spiritual. Animal souls and plant souls are not spiritual.

You cannot locate the soul anatomically. Since it animates our bodies, it is present wherever life functions are taking place… in every cell, in the interstices, through-in and through-out.

Regards,
Joe

 

[Popes_Soldier]

I have been wondering. Where is exactly is one’s soul? And where is one’s spirit? Is the spirit in the heart and the soul in our conscience? Thanks in advance.

I hope this is the correct forum

I know this much: The soul is the animating force of a body. In fact the Latin word for “soul” is “anima” (where we get the word “animation”). All living things - animals, plants, bugs - have a soul. But MAN’S soul is a spiritual soul, which makes man’s soul unique. Think about it: The word for spirit in Hebrew meas “breath”, right? God “breathed” life into Adam, and thus provided him with the animating force of his body: his soul. (I don’t know if I expressed that very well). Here is what the Catechism says:

CCC 365 The unity of soul and body is so profound that one has to consider the soul to be the “form” of the body (Cf. Council of Vienne (1312): DS 902): 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.

CCC 366 The Church teaches that every spiritual soul is created immediately by God - it is not “produced” by the parents - and also that it is immortal: it does not perish when it separates from the body at death, and it will be reunited with the body at the final Resurrection (Cf. Pius XII, Humani generis: DS 3896; Paul VI, CPC # 8; Lateran Council V (1513): DS 1440).

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 (1 Th 5:23). The Church teaches that this distinction does not introduce a duality into the soul (Cf. Council of Constantinople IV (870): DS 657).7 “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 (Cf. Vatican Council I, Dei Filius: DS 3005; GS 22 # 5; Humani generis: DS 3891).

source link
vatican.va/archive/catechism/p1s2c1p6.htm#II

 

[Ron_Conte]

The soul of any living thing is its ‘first principle of life’. (St. Thomas, Summa, I, 75, 1).
The soul of man is immortal and is also the first principle of will and intellect. (cf. ibid)
The body of man is the physical part of human nature.
The soul of man is the spiritual part of human anture.
Body and soul are united so closely that they form one human person.

Spirit is the close cooperation of body and soul, as St. Thomas also says (can’t find the reference).

 

[Cagrl]

I guess now I have another question. I thought I had heard on Catholic Answers Radio that dogs had no soul and that’s why they don’t go to heaven. But some here are saying that animals do have a soul. So do they have a soul and just not a spirit? Sorry…just a little confusing for me.

 

[Popes_Soldier]

I guess now I have another question. I thought I had heard on Catholic Answers Radio that dogs had no soul and that’s why they don’t go to heaven. But some here are saying that animals do have a soul. So do they have a soul and just not a spirit? Sorry…just a little confusing for me.

Partially correct. Only humans go to heaven. But all living things have an animating force (soul), but only man has a spiritual soul - a spiritual soul which is immortal and will return to God after death.
icatholicism.net/reference/summa-contra-gentiles/book-ii-god-the-origin-of-creatures/arguments-against-the-truth-of-the-conclusion-last-drawn-with-their-solution.html

 

[Ron_Conte]

According to St. Thomas Aquinas, all living things have some type of soul, but only human persons have an immortal soul, with free will and intellect (reason).
cf. St. Thomas, Summa, I, 75

[Genesis]
{1:20} Dixit etiam Deus: Producant aquæ reptile animæ viventis, et volatile super terram sub firmamento cæli.
{1:20} And then God said, “Let the waters produce animals with a living soul, and flying creatures above the earth, under the firmament of heaven.”

{1:21} Creavitque Deus cete grandia, et omnem animam viventem atque motabilem, quam produxerant aquæ in species suas, et omne volatile secundum genus suum. Et vidit Deus quod esset bonum.
{1:21} And God created the great sea creatures, and everything with a living soul and the ability to move that the waters produced, according to their species, and all the flying creatures, according to their kind. And God saw that it was good.

{1:24} Dixit quoque Deus: Producat terra animam viventem in genere suo, iumenta, et reptilia, et bestias terræ secundum species suas. Factumque est ita.
{1:24} God also said, “Let the land produce living souls in their kind: cattle, and animals, and wild beasts of the earth, according to their species.” And so it became.

So, according to Genesis, all animals, birds, fish, have souls. Interestingly, plants are not spoken of by Gensis as having souls. However, plants are alive, therefore they have a soul in the most basic sense of a first principle of life. In addition, we should distinguish between the souls of plants versus the souls of animals versus the immortal souls of human persons.

 

[Cagrl]

Got it! Very good!! Thank you. Now it makes sense!