I was asked this question after Sunday Mass by a friend of mine and the question goes like this.
Does God actively will to create animative souls (souls not immortal and for plants) or does He passively will to create animative souls.
Pretty interesting question
All creatures have souls ( that animate their bodies) but only human’s have souls that are also spririt.
Spirit is being which has the power of knowing and willing.
Matter is being which has not these powers. There is a more
obvious but less important distinction between them: matter
can be perceived by the senses, spirit cannot.
Of God’s creatures there are some that are pure spirits–
angels–with no material part. There are some that are
purely material–animals, plants, stones and the rest–with
no spiritual part. Between them is man. In him alone spirit
and matter are united: by his soul he is a spirit as the
angels are: by his body he is part of the material universe.
And, as has already been said, he belongs to both worlds by
his essence. He is not simply a spirit who is for the moment
tied down to, or tied up in, a body. It is of his very
nature to be a union of matter and spirit.
The soul of man is not more essentially a partner in the
human compound than his body: but it is the more important
partner. For in the first place it is the principle of life
in the body: it remains with the body so long as the body is
capable of being animated by it: the body corrupts whereas
the soul continues in existence; and in the second place it
knows and wills: that is, it has the two faculties of
intellect and will by which it can enter into conscious and
determined relationship with all that is.
Sheed
