In the name of the Father, the Son, & the Holy Sprit, One God, Amen!
And this passage clearly describes a dichotomy. Likewise, in the second letter of Clement of Rome to the Church in Corinth, he writes…
By the inside he means the soul and by the outside the body.
And this passage also reflects a dichotomy when thinking about human nature. St Justin Martyr was one of the first to make some distinction between the human soul and spirit, though he is himself a very early writer, and was born in about 100 AD, as the Apostle John finally reposed. He says in his work On the Resurrection…
But, in truth, He has even called the flesh to the resurrection, and promises to it everlasting life. For where He promises to save man, there He gives the promise to the flesh. For what is man but the reasonable animal composed of body and soul? Is the soul by itself man? No; but the soul of man. Would the body be called man? No, but it is called the body of man. If, then, neither of these is by itself man, but that which is made up of the two together is called man, and God has called man to life and resurrection, He has called not a part, but the whole, which is the soul and the body.
This would seem to be entirely a dichotomy being described. He is insistent that man is not just the body, and is not just the soul, but is body and soul together. Yet in the same work he writes…
The resurrection is a resurrection of the flesh which died. For the spirit dies not; the soul is in the body, and without a soul it cannot live. The body, when the soul forsakes it, is not. For the body is the house of the soul; and the soul the house of the spirit. These three, in all those who cherish a sincere hope and unquestioning faith in God, will be saved.
Here we see that the soul and body are described, but as the body is the house of the soul, so it is said that the soul is the house of the spirit. Now this spirit which is spoken of cannot be the Holy Spirit in this case, since St Justin Martyr speaks of it being saved together with the body and soul. It is therefore necessary to see what St Justin could mean. In his Dialogue with Trypho, which records his conversation with a Christian teacher who led him to faith, he remembers him saying…
For the truth is so; and you would perceive it from this. The soul assuredly is or has life. If, then, it is life, it would cause something else, and not itself, to live, even as motion would move something else than itself. Now, that the soul lives, no one would deny. But if it lives, it lives not as being life, but as the partaker of life; but that which partakes of anything, is different from that of which it does partake. Now the soul partakes of life, since God wills it to live. Thus, then, it will not even partake of life when God does not will it to live. For to live is not its attribute, as it is God’s; but as a man does not live always, and the soul is not for ever conjoined with the body, since, whenever this harmony must be broken up, the soul leaves the body, and the man exists no longer; even so, whenever the soul must cease to exist, the spirit of life is removed from it, and there is no more soul, but it goes back to the place from whence it was taken.’
This is a lengthy but important passage. In the first place he recognises that the soul must either be life itself or have life. But only God is life in himself without any other cause. And God does not live, rather he is the source of life in others, just as motion is not movement in itself but gives movement to those it acts upon. Therefore, St Justin concludes, whether he is describing what he was taught or using this as a literary device, the soul has life because it partakes in life as the gift of God, and therefore, contrary to some pagan ideas, the soul is not divine itself. Indeed, the soul receives life only as long as God wills that it does so, since it does not have life itself, but receives and partakes of life. Therefore, he is able to say that when man dies the union between body and soul is disturbed, and the soul leaves the body, and this is the meaning of death. But he also considers that if the soul were to cease to exist – and it is not clear if he has something in mind, such as the state of the wicked after punishment – but if the soul were to cease to exist, according to St Justin, this would be because the spirit of life had been removed from it.
All of this would seem to suggest that St Justin has in mind a synthesis of the two aspect and three aspect language. In this model he seems to indicate that the body and soul are created by God and that man is composed of these two elements. But that man also receives the spirit of life, which is not created, but is a participation in the life of God, and is that which gives the soul energy and allows the soul in turn to energise the body. This would seem to suggest that man is body and soul, but that he also receives the ‘spirit of life’, so that he is body, soul and spirit.
His disciple, Tatian, who later fell away from the faith, also wrote on this topic, particularly in response to pagan ideas about the soul. He says…
We recognise two varieties of spirit, one of which is called the soul, but the other is greater than the soul, an image and likeness of God: both existed in the first men, that in one sense they might be material, and in another superior to matter.
Here we perhaps see that he wishes to describe the soul as the material spirit of man. We might consider this the psychological aspect in some sense, and even shared with other creatures who also have a material soul and spirit. But there is something else, a higher spirit, which represents the image and likeness of God and which is more than created, as St Justin also seemed to indicate. Indeed, elsewhere, Tatian says…
For the soul does not preserve the spirit, but is preserved by it, and the light comprehends the darkness…. Now, in the beginning the spirit was a constant companion of the soul, but the spirit forsook it because it was not willing to follow. Yet, retaining as it were a spark of its power, though unable by reason of the separation to discern the perfect, while seeking for God it fashioned to itself in its wandering many gods, following the sophistries of the demons.
This gives us some sense that the spirit of life, of which St Justin speaks, and which Tatian describes as the image and likeness of God, was that which was given by God to Adam, as the breath of life, and which Adam lost through his turning away from God. But Tatian does not believe that man has entirely lost this divine breath, this spirit of life, and speaks of a spark remaining which leads the soul always to be seeking after God, yet easily lost in the worship of idols and demons.
If the spark of life, the spirit, is the image and likeness of God, much diminished in man, then it is possible to understand how it is able to also participate in salvation. Not as if the image and likeness of God was itself corrupt, but that the participation in this image and likeness in the spirit of life can be renewed, restored and perfected in those who seek after God with all their heart.
Clement of Alexandria describes the various aspects of human nature, including the parts of the body and the senses. But his description of the non-material elements is most interesting and useful to this study. He says…
We accordingly assert that rational and ruling power is the cause of the constitution of the living creature; also that this, the irrational part, is animated, and is a part of it. Now the vital force, in which is comprehended the power of nutrition and growth, and generally of motion, is assigned to the carnal spirit, which has great susceptibility of motion, and passes in all directions through the senses and the rest of the body, and through the body is the primary subject of sensations. But the power of choice, in which investigation, and study, and knowledge, reside, belongs to the ruling faculty. But all the faculties are placed in relation to one — the ruling faculty: it is through that man lives, and lives in a certain way.
This is rather complicated. But he is saying that there is a rational and ruling principle in man, but there is also an irrational and animal principle. He calls this the carnal spirit, which we can consider as operating the body and senses. The ruling faculty he considers that which wills and reflects and knows. This gives us a trichotomy of the body, the irrational spirit and the ruling faculty, which can be considered as expressing the idea of body, soul and spirit. The thinking and willing aspect of man, which bears the image and likeness of God, uses the animal soul, but is not identical to it, and this animal soul in turn uses and inhabits the human body and mind.
St Irenaeus of Lyons, writing on this subject in his extensive work, Against the Heresies, says…
They do not take this fact into consideration, that there are three things out of which, as I have shown, the complete man is composed-flesh, soul, and spirit. One of these does indeed preserve and fashion the man-this is the spirit; while as to another it is united and formed-that is the flesh; then comes that which is between these two-that is the soul, which sometimes indeed, when it follows the spirit, is raised up by it, but sometimes it sympathizes with the flesh, and falls into carnal lusts. Those then, as many as they be, who have not that which saves and forms us into life eternal, shall be, and shall be called, mere flesh and blood; for these are they who have not the Spirit of God in themselves. Wherefore men of this stamp are spoken of by the Lord as “dead; “for, says He, “Let the dead bury their dead,” because they have not the Spirit which quickens man.
Here again we see a trichotomy which helps us to understand the language of dichotomy. In the first place St Irenaeus describes man as composed of body, soul and spirit. He states that it is the spirit of a man which preserves and fashions him. This seems to mean that he considers that the spirit is what makes a man a particular person. While it is the body to which the spirit is united. But in between these two there is the soul which can either be made spiritual or fleshly. Yet there appears to be another element, the Spirit of God, which is not the same as the human spirit, but which works to give life to those who have this Spirit of God, while those without the Spirit of God are called dead because even though they have an animal life they do not have the life of the spirit, or rather the life of the flesh dominates over the life of the spirit.
He continues to say…
Now the soul and the spirit are certainly a part of the man, but certainly not the man; for the perfect man consists in the commingling and the union of the soul receiving the spirit of the Father, and the admixture of that fleshly nature which was moulded after the image of God. For this reason, the apostle declares, “We speak wisdom among them that are perfect,” terming those persons “perfect” who have received the Spirit of God.
Here again St Irenaeus describes the soul and spirit, which is united with the body, but even while he speaks of the spirit as being part of the human nature, he again refers to the receiving of the Spirit of the Father, that is, the Holy Spirit, as a necessary aspect in man becoming perfected in the image of God. Perhaps it can be said that it is the spirit of man which is the aspect of human nature in which reception and participation in the Holy Spirit of God takes place in those who have received the Spirit. Just as it is the spirit of man which is the breath of life, the gift of God, the image and likeness of God, the spark of life even in humanity after the Fall, and which requires the Spirit of God, and participation in the Spirit to come be restored and perfected.
These discussions were taken up by later theologians. St Athanasius, for instance, in his Contra Gentes, says…
The rational nature of the soul is strongly confirmed by its difference from irrational creatures. For this is why common use gives them that name, because, namely, the race of mankind is rational. Secondly, it is no ordinary proof, that man alone thinks of things external to himself, and reasons about things not actually present, and exercises reflection, and chooses by judgment the better of alternative reasonings. For the irrational animals see only what is present, and are impelled solely by what meets their eye, even if the consequences to them are injurious, while man is not impelled toward what he sees merely, but judges by thought what he sees with his eyes. Often for example his impulses are mastered by reasoning; and his reasoning is subject to after-reflection. And every one, if he be a friend of truth, perceives that the intelligence of mankind is distinct from the bodily senses. Hence, because it is distinct, it acts as judge of the senses, and while they apprehend their objects, the intelligence distinguishes, recollects, and shews them what is best.
We see here that St Athanasius wants to distinguish between rational and irrational. Man has the unique ability to reflect on himself, and on circumstances that perhaps do not even exist in reality. He has imagination, and reason, and these are other and different to the simple experience of the senses. He draws attention to the distinction between the proper concerns of the body and those of the soul and concludes that they are not the same, and that the soul is not merely an aspect of the body. He says…
How is it, that whereas the body is mortal by nature, man reasons on the things of immortality, and often, where virtue demands it, courts death? Or how, since the body lasts but for a time, does man imagine of things eternal, so as to despise what lies before him, and desire what is beyond? The body could not have spontaneously such thoughts about itself, nor could it think upon what is external to itself. For it is mortal and lasts but for a time. And it follows that that which thinks what is opposed to the body and against its nature must be distinct in kind. What then can this be, save a rational and immortal soul?
The soul has a preoccupation with transcendence. It wants to go beyond itself, beyond the immediate experience provided by the body. St Athanasius continues…
For this is the reason why the soul thinks of and bears in mind things immortal and eternal, namely, because it is itself immortal. And just as, the body being mortal, its senses also have mortal things as their objects, so, since the soul contemplates and beholds immortal things, it follows that it is immortal and lives for ever. For ideas and thoughts about immortality never desert the soul, but abide in it, and are as it were the fuel in it which ensures its immortality. This then is why the soul has the capacity for beholding God, and is its own way thereto, receiving not from without but from herself the knowledge and apprehension of the Word of God.
There is something about the character of the soul which especially seeks and respond to God, and alone has the capacity for the vision of divine things. This is why St Athanasius is able to say…
For the soul is made after the image and likeness of God, as divine Scripture also shews, when it says in the person of God: “Let us make man after our Image and likeness.” Whence also when it gets rid of all the filth of sin which covers it and retains only the likeness of the Image in its purity, then surely this latter being thoroughly brightened, the soul beholds as in a mirror the Image of the Father, even the Word, and by His means reaches the idea of the Father, Whose Image the Saviour is.
This seems to me to be saying what some of the other Fathers have described. That is to say, that the soul, and especially the higher aspects of the soul which some others have called the spirit, is created in the image and likeness of God, and this image and likeness is not lost, even in fallen man, but is obscured and hidden, and when the soul seeks to be made clean by God, then this image and likeness can be seen again in the experience of a renewed and restored humanity.
In his work, On the Incarnation, St Athanasius takes up this important theme again and places it in the context of the Fall of Adam into sin. He says, in Chapter 3…
He did not barely create man, as He did all the irrational creatures on the earth, but made them after His own image, giving them a portion even of the power of His own Word; so that having as it were a kind of reflexion of the Word, and being made rational, they might be able to abide ever in blessedness, living the true life which belongs to the saints in paradise.
What do we learn here? It is that man was not made in the same way as all other living creatures. Or rather being creatures as the rest, it was the intention of God from the beginning that man would receive more, by way of a free gift in the love of God. In the first place, man alone was created to be in the image of God, and so in some sense a participation in the divine life was granted – which we have seem called a spark, and the spirit of life. And man was endowed with rationality, which means more than simply the ability to think – since we see that even irrational animals are often able to exhibit such mental activity. Rationality has rather the sense of being able to understand and choose that which is good and perfect and divine. The word logical, which we might link with the idea of reason and rationality, comes ultimately from the word logos, and in a Christian context connects the proper working of man’s reason with the experience of participation in the Logos or Word of God.
St Athanasius says of man, as he was created in this blessed state…
But knowing once more how the will of man could sway to either side, in anticipation He secured the grace given them by a law and by the spot where He placed them. For He brought them into His own garden, and gave them a law: so that, if they kept the grace and remained good, they might still keep the life in paradise without sorrow or pain or care besides having the promise of incorruption in heaven; but that if they transgressed and turned back, and became evil, they might know that they were incurring that corruption in death which was theirs by nature: no longer to live in paradise, but cast out of it from that time forth to die and to abide in death and in corruption.
This teaches us that man was still not secure in his will, and there was always the potential for him to choose evil. The Fathers often repeat this idea of God providing a place and a law. And this was clearly not so that Adam might be trapped or tricked into sin, but that he might be preserved from it. In the Garden into which God brought him there was everything he could possibly need, and there was this one simple rule, by which he could learn maturity in the face of temptation, and firmness in obedience. There could be no sense in which Adam, and his partner Eve, could be said to have been left without a clear sense that there was required of them a choice for God, as the means of securing the benefits they enjoyed both in the present and into eternity.
What is clear is that if they did sin then they would find themselves in the corruption and death which was their own created nature. This was not a punishment being imposed, but a natural consequence of abandoning the divine gift which had been breathed into them and which preserved them from the natural mortality that belongs to all created beings. As we have learned, only God is life in himself, all creatures of God receive life from him as a gift, and are liable to the natural corruption and mortality which belongs to created beings if the gift of life is withdrawn.
He says…
But by “dying you shall die,” what else could be meant than not dying merely, but also abiding for ever in the corruption of death?
If death is both the experience of mortality, which immediately fell upon Adam and Eve, and all their descendants, and also the experience of the separation of body and soul, from which there was no obvious liberation, then this was certainly a dying which led to an even more certain death. This is consistent with St Athanasius’ argument in this work, which continues saying…
For transgression of the commandment was turning them back to their natural state, so that just as they have had their being out of nothing, so also, as might be expected, they might look for corruption into nothing in the course of time. For if, out of a former normal state of non-existence, they were called into being by the Presence and loving-kindness of the Word, it followed naturally that when men were bereft of the knowledge of God and were turned back to what was not (for what is evil is not, but what is good is), they should, since they derive their being from God who IS, be everlastingly bereft even of being; in other words, that they should be disintegrated and abide in death and corruption.
This could not be clearer. The transgression of Adam and Eve allowed them to experience unchecked the natural mortality and corruption in a life lived without the divine Spirit to sustain and enflame the human spirit. Adam and Eve had been created from nothing, and would return to nothing, since being is the natural property of God alone, and without God being turns to disintegration, death and corruption. It was not, according to St Athanasius, the loss of something that they possessed of themselves. The state in which Adam and Eve found themselves is what being a created being looks like without the grace of God. It is mortality, corruption and eternal death.
It was not that they found themselves contaminated with evil, since evil, as St Athanasius insists, does not exist. It is not a thing at all. Rather it is the lack of something else, of the good that man was intended to choose, and the gift that he had been freely given in God’s love. Just as darkness does not exist, but is the lack of light.
St Athanasius says…
For God has not only made us out of nothing; but He gave us freely, by the Grace of the Word, a life in correspondence with God. But men, having rejected things eternal, and, by counsel of the devil, turned to the things of corruption, became the cause of their own corruption in death, being, as I said before, by nature corruptible, but destined, by the grace following from partaking of the Word, to have escaped their natural state, had they remained good. For because of the Word dwelling with them, even their natural corruption did not come near them.
This passage from St Athanasius begins to help us to see what happened at the Fall. There was a rejection of eternal things and a turning to things of corruption. This represents the rejection of the divine life of the indwelling Holy Spirit, and the desire for created things, the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and the prideful desire to be like God on Adam’s own terms. It is this rejection of the life of God which is the natural cause of the falling of Adam into corruption and mortality. This is the natural state of all created things and the consequence of abandoning the special grace of God which preserved them free from this natural corruption.
The death into which Adam fell was an immediate death of his soul, which found itself without the grace of God, and the immediate experience of human mortality, concluding eventually after a long life, in the death of the body and the separation of body and soul. But Adam was already dead as soon as he ate of the fruit. But this was not a punishment, it was a consequence, and God’s commandment not to eat of the fruit of that one tree was not a statement of a special punishment, but simply what must happen if the divine life and union with God in holiness were rejected.
It was not simply the case that Adam was left without grace, and slowly experiencing his mortality leading to physical death. There was a corruption associated with his created and mortal nature. We see this in the liability to pain and suffering, to illness and disease in an increasing measure. But it is also seen in the moral corruption which seems almost unnatural in its excess. St Athanasius says of this,
For even in their misdeeds men had not stopped short at any set limits; but gradually pressing forward, have passed on beyond all measure: having to begin with been inventors of wickedness and called down upon themselves death and corruption; while later on, having turned aside to wrong and exceeding all lawlessness, and stopping at no one evil but devising all manner of new evils in succession, they have become insatiable in sinning.
The great benefits of the human rationality and intelligence, imagination and creativity, mean that beyond all other created beings, it is mankind which has used these gifts to sinful and evil ends. Having lost the presence of the divine Spirit of God which would have preserved and sustained man in holiness and obedience, instead mankind is much worse than any animal. We go beyond every natural wickedness to the committing of sins that are far beyond nature and unimaginable even to the most savage beast.
Yet man cannot say that he has been born with some innate disadvantage that is a burden imposed by God. We are certainly born into a circumstance that we did not choose. We are born mortal of mortal parents, as both St Cyril and St Severus state. But we are not born sinful. And even if we are born corruptible, we are not born corrupt. We are born into a state of separation from God, without the divine life within as anything other than a spark, and we are without that grace of God that would sustain and strengthen us in obedience and holiness. Nevertheless, even though born innocent and sinless, we will be responsible ourselves for every wrong choice we make, and for every turning away from God, and if we will become corrupted, it is because of our own actions and thoughts and desires.
Glory to God
