-How is the objection that the nature of the soul, as of real things, is material, to be met? -Thus; the truth of this doctrine would involve the truth of Atheism; whereas Atheism is refuted by the fact of the wise order that reigns in the world. In other words, the spirituality of God cannot be denied: and this proves the possibility of spiritual or immaterial existence: and therefore, that of the soul. -But is God, then, the same thing as the soul? -No: but man is “a little world in himself;” and we may with the same right conclude from this Microcosm to the actual existence of an immaterial soul, as from the phenomena of the world to the reality of God’s existence. -A Definition of the soul is then given, for the sake of clearness in the succeeding discussion. It is a created, living, intellectual being, with the power, as long as it is provided with organs, of sensuous perception. For “the mind sees,” not the eye; take, for instance, the meaning of the phases of the moon. The objection that the “organic machine” of the body produces all thought is met by the instance of the water-organ. Such machines, if thought were really an attribute of matter, ought to build themselves spontaneously: whereas they are a direct proof of an invisible thinking power in man. A work of Art means mind: there is a thing perceived, and a thing not perceived. -But still, what is this thing not perceived? If it has no sensible quality whatever—Where is it? -The answer is, that the same question might be asked about the Deity (Whose existence is not denied). -Then the Mind and the Deity are identical? -Not so: in its substantial existence, as separable from matter, the soul is like God; but this likeness does not extend to sameness; it resembles God as a copy the original. -As being “simple and uncompounded” the soul survives the dissolution of the composite body, whose scattered elements it will continue to accompany, as if watching over its property till the Resurrection, when it will clothe itself in them anew. Gregory of Nyssa, “On the Soul and the Resurrection,” in A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, Second Series: Gregory of Nyssa: Dogmatic Treatises, Etc., ed. Philip Schaff and Henry Wace, trans. William Moore, vol. 5 (New York: Christian Literature Company, 1893), 428.
Posted on: Sun, 26 Jan 2014 06:48:55 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015