Skip to content
Wellsprings
christian-anthropology-ethicsfeatured in 30 works

The Human Soul

The rational, God-given spark within, made for immortality

The human soul is understood as the immaterial, rational principle of human life, created by God and destined for immortality, a theme treated by Tertullian and Augustine. Several questions were debated: whether each soul is freshly created or transmitted from the parents, and whether human nature is twofold or threefold. The notion that souls pre-existed their bodies was condemned, while belief in the soul's divine creation and immortality endured.

How it traveled

  1. 1 Corinthians
    Ephesus · 67
    explains
  2. Matthew
    Antioch · 80
    explains
  3. Dialogue with Trypho
    Rome · 165
    explains
  4. The Resurrection of the Dead
    Alexandria · 190
    explains
  5. Against Heresies: Book V
    Lyons · 202
    explains
  6. Against Heresies: Book II
    Lyons · 202
    explains
  7. A Treatise on the Soul.
    — · 220
    explains
  8. On the Resurrection of the Flesh.
    — · 220
    redefines
  9. The Soul's Testimony.
    — · 220
    explains
  10. On the Flesh of Christ.
    — · 220
    explains
  11. Address to the Greeks
    — · 220
    explains
  12. On the Workmanship of God, or the Formation of Man
    — · 325
    explains
  13. The Letters
    Caesarea (Cappadocia) · 379
    explains
  14. The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril
    Jerusalem · 386
    explains
  15. Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen
    Nazianzus · 390
    explains
  16. On the Making of Man
    Nyssa · 395
    explains
  17. On the Soul and the Resurrection
    Nyssa · 395
    explains
  18. The Great Catechism
    Nyssa · 395
    explains
  19. The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom
    Constantinople (Istanbul) · 407
    explains
  20. Homilies on First Corinthians
    Constantinople (Istanbul) · 407
    explains
  21. The Homilies on the Statues to the People of Antioch
    Constantinople (Istanbul) · 407
    explains
  22. A Commentary on the Apostles' Creed
    Aquileia · 411
    explains
  23. The Letters of St. Jerome
    Bethlehem · 420
    explains
  24. Jerome and Gennadius. Lives of Illustrious Men
    Bethlehem · 420
    explains
  25. To Pammachius against John of Jerusalem
    Bethlehem · 420
    explains
  26. A Treatise on the Soul and its Origin
    Hippo Regius · 430
    explains
  27. City of God
    Hippo Regius · 430
    explains
  28. Letters of St. Augustin
    Hippo Regius · 430
    explains
  29. On the Holy Trinity
    Hippo Regius · 430
    explains
  30. The Confessions
    Hippo Regius · 430
    redefines

Key passages(20)

Treatise on Man (qq[75]-102) — Question. 75 - Of Man Who is Composed of a Spiritual and a Corporeal Substance: And in the First Place, Concerning What Belongs to the Essence of the Soul (Seven Articles) — part 1↗explains

Treatise on Man (qq[75]-102) · Thomas Aquinas

Read in Sefaria →
Very high
A Treatise on the Soul and its Origin — Advertisement to the Reader on the Following Treatise.↗explains

A Treatise on the Soul and its Origin · Augustine of Hippo

Read in Sefaria →
Very high
A Treatise on the Soul and its Origin — Book IV. — A Twofold Question to Be Treated Concerning the Soul; Is It ‘Body’? and is It ‘Spirit’? What Body is.↗explains

A Treatise on the Soul and its Origin · Augustine of Hippo

Read in Sefaria →
Very high
A Treatise on the Soul and its Origin — Book IV. — Prophetic Visions.↗explains

A Treatise on the Soul and its Origin · Augustine of Hippo

Read in Sefaria →
Very high
A Treatise on the Soul and its Origin — Book IV. — Questions About the Nature of the Body are Sufficiently Mysterious, and Yet Not Higher Than Those of the Soul.↗explains

A Treatise on the Soul and its Origin · Augustine of Hippo

Read in Sefaria →
Very high
A Treatise on the Soul and its Origin — Book IV. — St. Perpetua Seemed to Herself, in Some Dreams, to Have Been Turned into a Man, and Then Have Wrestled with a Certain Egyptian.↗explains

A Treatise on the Soul and its Origin · Augustine of Hippo

Read in Sefaria →
Very high
A Treatise on the Soul and its Origin — Book IV. — Whether the Soul is a Spirit.↗explains

A Treatise on the Soul and its Origin · Augustine of Hippo

Read in Sefaria →
Very high
A Treatise on the Soul and its Origin — Treatise on the Soul and Its Origin — Just as the Mother Knows Not Whence Comes Her Child Within Her, So We Know Not Whence Comes the Soul.↗explains

A Treatise on the Soul and its Origin · Augustine of Hippo

Read in Sefaria →
Very high
A Treatise on the Soul and its Origin — Treatise on the Soul and Its Origin — Other Ways of Taking the Passage.↗explains

A Treatise on the Soul and its Origin · Augustine of Hippo

Read in Sefaria →
Very high
A Treatise on the Soul and its Origin — Treatise on the Soul and Its Origin — The Errors Contained in the Books of Vincentius Victor. He Says that the Soul Comes from God, But Was Not Made Either Out of Nothing or Out of Any Created Thing.↗explains

A Treatise on the Soul and its Origin · Augustine of Hippo

Read in Sefaria →
Very high
A Treatise on the Soul., Death Entirely Separates the Soul from the Body.↗explains

A Treatise on the Soul. · Apologetic

Read in Sefaria →
Very high
A Treatise on the Soul., Dreams, an Incidental Effect of the Soul's Activity. Ecstasy.↗explains

A Treatise on the Soul. · Apologetic

Read in Sefaria →
Very high
A Treatise on the Soul., Empedocles Increased the Absurdity of Pythagoras by Developing the Posthumous Change of Men into Various Animals.↗explains

A Treatise on the Soul. · Apologetic

Read in Sefaria →
Very high
A Treatise on the Soul., In Opposition to Plato, the Soul Was Created and Originated at Birth.↗explains

A Treatise on the Soul. · Apologetic

Read in Sefaria →
Very high
A Treatise on the Soul., On the Formation and State of the Embryo. Its Relation with the Subject of This Treatise.↗explains

A Treatise on the Soul. · Apologetic

Read in Sefaria →
Very high
A Treatise on the Soul., Other Platonist Arguments Considered.↗explains

A Treatise on the Soul. · Apologetic

Read in Sefaria →
Very high
A Treatise on the Soul., Spirit--A Term Expressive of an Operation of the Soul, Not of Its Nature. To Be Carefully Distinguished from the Spirit of God.↗explains

A Treatise on the Soul. · Apologetic

Read in Sefaria →
Very high
A Treatise on the Soul., The Christian Has Sure and Simple Knowledge Concerning the Subject Before Us.↗explains

A Treatise on the Soul. · Apologetic

Read in Sefaria →
Very high
A Treatise on the Soul., The Entire Soul Being Indivisible Remains to the Last Act of Vitality; Never Partially or Fractionally Withdrawn from the Body.↗explains

A Treatise on the Soul. · Apologetic

Read in Sefaria →
Very high
A Treatise on the Soul., The Soul's Parts.  Elements of the Rational Soul.↗explains

A Treatise on the Soul. · Apologetic

Read in Sefaria →
Very high