What is more important to God, our body or soul?

[Robert_Sock]

I’m assuming that our soul is more important in that it can be transplanted from body to body (or can it!). It’s our soul that has value to God and to Satan. The body is just a ‘garment’ of the soul, and not vice versa.

As Saint Anthony Mary Claret suggests, our soul is a slave to the body, and not vice versa. Imagine, if you will, over seven billion souls, all awaiting God’s desire for our souls!

In Catholicism, the body and soul are one, but in Judaism they are separate. In Judaism, the soul will be united with the body in the Hereafter, but afterward will have it’s own existence.

The death of the just: Death will reach everyone, the good and the bad; but the destiny of each one is quite different. The just man sees himself in this valley of tears as a prisoner, serving a very hard term. He considers himself a slave in this world, suffering an extremely distressing servitude. He regards himself a sailor caught in a horrible storm. And as death means an end of his confinement, an end of his slavery, and is the port of his salvation, he ceases not to cry with David, “Woe is me that my sojourning is prolonged!. . .” (Ps. 119:5). He ceases not to ask with the Apostle, “. . . Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” (Rom. 7:24)
–The Golden Key to Heaven, by Saint Anthony Mary Claret

What is and what should never be.

It won’t be long before you do, exactly what they want you to.

Our value to God consists of true repentance.

 

[Robert_Sock]

What will be more valuable to God: Catholic souls or Jewish souls?

 

[dshix]

I believe the question is irrelevant to anything. God created all things, so He intended all things to exist.

To ask whether one things is “more important” to him than another would be to infer that there could be a situation where He would be forced to lose one, and thus would choose one over the other.

God created us as body-soul persons. He did NOT intended for things to be any other way. Therefore, the body-soul is “more important” to God, because that’s what He intended to create.

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Now, speaking from an entirely human standpoint, **I **would probably consider the soul more important because without it, the soul is nothing. However, I am not God, and to question God’s preferences is… ludicrous, to say the least.

 

[triumphguy]

I’m assuming that our soul is more important in that it can be transplanted from body to body (or can it!). It’s our soul that has value to God and to Satan. The body is just a ‘garment’ of the soul, and not vice versa.

As Saint Anthony Mary Claret suggests, our soul is a slave to the body, and not vice versa. Imagine, if you will, over seven billion souls, all awaiting God’s desire for our souls!

In Catholicism, the body and soul are one, but in Judaism they are separate. In Judaism, the soul will be united with the body in the Hereafter, but afterward will have it’s own existence.

Our value to God consists of true repentance.

Humans are not a dualism.

 

[Anthony_V]

You speak of the body and spiritual soul as different entities. The soul, strictly speaking, is the nexus (more accurately, the substantial union) of the individual person’s body and spiritual soul. Furthermore, the spiritual soul informs, gives form to, the body. They are inextricably linked in one hypostasis. So this question is like asking, “would God prefer my left arm or my right arm?”.

What God would most prefer is that you are all in one piece!!! Hence, our belief in the Resurrection of the body as a non-essential element of beatitude, brought forth not by necessity, but by God’s gratuity as expressed in the Atoning act of Love/Resurrection of Christ.

 

[Robert_Sock]

Humans are not a dualism.

I believe that the body and soul are separate entities, as believed in Judaism. The Jewish people also believe that Israel has a soul that is the sum accumulation of all the individual Jewish souls within this world.

 

[dshix]

I believe that the body and soul are separate entities, as believed in Judaism. The Jewish people also believe that Israel has a soul that is the sum accumulation of all the individual Jewish souls within this world.

In that case, you are contradicting Catholic teaching. The Church teaches that humans are distinctly body-soul entities, and one without the other is incomplete.

 

[Seira]

What will be more valuable to God: Catholic souls or Jewish souls?

Jewish, Catholic & any other Christian are all valuable to the Lord.

 

[Robert_Sock]

In that case, you are contradicting Catholic teaching. The Church teaches that humans are distinctly body-soul entities, and one without the other is incomplete.

I have great respect for Judaism and I feel sure that it provides insight into Catholicism.

 

[dshix]

I have great respect for Judaism and I feel sure that it provides insight into Catholicism.

I didn’t say that you didn’t.

If you wish to let Jewish doctrine override Catholic doctrine, become a Jew. You must decide which has greater authority, and follow the correct teaching accordingly.

 

[Ismael]

I’m assuming that our soul is more important in that it can be transplanted from body to body (or can it!). It’s our soul that has value to God and to Satan. The body is just a ‘garment’ of the soul, and not vice versa.

Not exactly… body and soul are one entitiy, not two as in Cartesian dualism.

The body is dead without the soul, lifeless matter. The soul is incomplete without the body, since we are by nature, spirituals and material beings (unlike angels)

No doubt that ‘temporally’ our bodies are less relevant, as their distruction does not mean our end.

But ultimately we need both, that’s why there is a resurrection of the body.

I believe that the body and soul are separate entities, as believed in Judaism. The Jewish people also believe that Israel has a soul that is the sum accumulation of all the individual Jewish souls within this world.

I am not sure that is actually what Jews think, not all Jews at least.

Judaism as far as I remember correctly is not strictly dualist in a cartesian sense. Of course if there are some Jews here they might explain it further and better.

 

[meltzerboy]

I believe that the body and soul are separate entities, as believed in Judaism. The Jewish people also believe that Israel has a soul that is the sum accumulation of all the individual Jewish souls within this world.

Not exactly. First of all, there is some difference of opinion on this in Judaism (no surprise there). Secondly, even those Jewish sages who believe the body and soul are separate (some Hasidim, for example) still maintain there is an indivisible link between them. Since mankind is made in the image of G-d, care of the body, which incorporates the soul just as the soul breathes life into the body, must be provided.

 

[Robert_Sock]

Not exactly. First of all, there is some difference of opinion on this in Judaism (no surprise there). Secondly, even those Jewish sages who believe the body and soul are separate (some Hasidim, for example) still maintain there is an indivisible link between them. Since mankind is made in the image
of G-d, care of the body, which incorporates the soul just as the soul breathes life into the body, must be provided.

How would you explain the following:

“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

 

[Ismael]

Not exactly. First of all, there is some difference of opinion on this in Judaism (no surprise there). Secondly, even those Jewish sages who believe the body and soul are separate (some Hasidim, for example) still maintain there is an indivisible link between them. Since mankind is made in the image
of G-d, care of the body, which incorporates the soul just as the soul breathes life into the body, must be provided.

Indeed. I read (quite some time ago) some works on the Khabbalah and I thought that the Jewish and Classical Christian view on the soul is quite similar in many aspects.

Of course I am sure that in the details there might be differences too… Also SOME Christians are dualists, some denominations even come close to gnosticism…

 

[Ophelia23]

I believe the question is irrelevant to anything. God created all things, so He intended all things to exist.

To ask whether one things is “more important” to him than another would be to infer that there could be a situation where He would be forced to lose one, and thus would choose one over the other.

God created us as body-soul persons. He did NOT intended for things to be any other way. Therefore, the body-soul is “more important” to God, because that’s what He intended to create.

---

Now, speaking from an entirely human standpoint, **I **would probably consider the soul more important because without it, the soul is nothing. However, I am not God, and to question God’s preferences is… ludicrous, to say the least.

 

[microvelo]

I believe that He loves both as He did create both our soul and body. Also on judgment day, if I’m correct, our bodies will come to meet us in Heaven or Hell.

 

[Ismael]

How would you explain the following:

“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

I think you are confusing “hylemorphic dualism” (or something similar in the case of Maimonides, although he certainly knew Aristotle ad was influenced by him) with monism.

Chrtistians and Jews, I suspect, do not claim, sould and body are not indistinguishible, rather they are components of the same thing (actually even that is a strong statement).

As Edward Feser explains Hylemorphism (better than me):

The view holds both that the soul is the substantial form of the living human body (that is the “hylemorphic” part) and that it is unique among the forms of material things in being subsistent, that is, capable of surviving beyond the death of the body (that is the “dualism” part)… (edwardfeser.blogspot.it/2011/08/vallicella-on-hylemorphic-dualism.html)

Also this article by Oderberg:
docs.google.com/file/d/0B7SKlRTfkUieRWJGMzRadUVaXzg/edit

 

[mommy_k]

I belive that the soul is our essense and the body or flesh is a component of ourselves. When the two combine for Gods glory, this is what He wants. The holy spirit guides our souls as Catholics. Not many people are “whole” in body and soul. I beiieve the saints are a great example of this wholeness.This is the goal. When our soul is perfected by prayer etc., and overrides fleshy desires that may be sinful, then we are spiritually mature.
I believe God gave us a body because the body is tangible and we can see it.
Just as when Jesus’ body rose from the dead- it was seen. For many, seeing is believing. God knows this, and a persons body is very important to that person and God knows that too. He loves us so he gave us both. It is up to us to bring it all together.
Just my opinion.

 

[meltzerboy]

How would you explain the following:

In Maimonides’ “Treatise on the Resurrection,” there is much heated debate regarding whether he believes in a physical resurrection or a spiritual resurrection and when exactly that resurrection is meant to take place. However, in his “Thirteen Principles of Jewish Faith,” he seems to be in accord with the Orthodox Jewish viewpoint of a bodily resurrection.

 

[Robert_Sock]

In Maimonides’ “Treatise on the Resurrection,” there is much heated debate regarding whether he believes in a physical resurrection or a spiritual resurrection and when exactly that resurrection is meant to take place. However, in his “Thirteen Principles of Jewish Faith,” he seems to be in accord with the Orthodox Jewish viewpoint of a bodily resurrection.

I’m not too sure where I got that quote, but I do know that it’s consistent with the Tanya, which states that our end-state of existence is after the Hereafter, and only the soul participates in it. This encompasses a large block of Judaism, that of Chabad.