Conatus: REVISED EDITION by Tom Wallace - HTML preview

C O N A T U S

12. A Religious Conception of Soul

‘There is nothing more powerful than the revelation of one’s own soul.’

Thomas Moore — Care of the Soul

Soul and spirit in the religious context have many different interpretations. Saint Augustine defined soul as all that is not matter. Descartes followed this on, into the dualism of mind and body, which has been touched on in earlier chapters. Soul is often seen as the link between the two — spiritual and yet connected with physical existence.

This is similar to the idea of God containing His/Her/Its creation rather than being outside or beyond it. In some traditions, including some Christian denominations, the soul is regarded as having existed for eternity or at least existing before a person's physical birth. The possible pre-existence of the soul is mostly attributed to Pythagoras. Souls therefore reside in Heaven until such times as they are incarnated in a physical birth. Other traditions, including mainstream Christendom, believe souls to be created by God at the conception of a human life. (Such a belief of course raises ethical questions regarding abortion.) Another belief is that the soul grows with a person as they

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