Conatus: THIRD EDITION by Tom Wallace - HTML preview

C O N A T U S

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. Almost all traditions have the belief in the soul somehow surviving death, either to be reincarnated in a new physical body or to have some kind of non-corporeal existence after physical death. Another belief is that the soul grows with a person as they develop mentally and physically.

Many religions, of course, would have little meaning without the concept of souls that survive a physical death. Christianity accepts this on the authority of its scriptures. It is not clear, however, whether a disembodied soul is really accepted. Everyone, it seems, is resurrected and has a body which is physically recognisable but of a different substance to Earthly bodies. This points to the problem of disembodied souls, along the lines alluded to above. A physical existence of some kind seems to be necessary in order for a person to be recognisable. Also, our thoughts rely heavily on the experience of time and memory. This is itself a feature of physical existence. Nonetheless, God is said to be Spirit, and some suggest that the soul will ultimately be like God and transcend both time and space.

Delving back into the history of our understanding of soul doesn’t usually help us too much. Unless a person subscribes to a particular faith and accepts an interpretation of soul based on that faith’s scriptures, then what is known of soul is mainly speculative.

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