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The spirituality of the soul is often affirmed in Sacred
Scripture. 1. God is said to have formed the body of
Adam from the slime of the earth, and into this body He
breathed the breath of life, that is, the soul, which is
spiritual since man was made to the image of God, who is
a spirit.[1268] 2. Those things predicated of the
sheol presuppose the immortality of the soul, as does also
the resurrection of certain human beings. 3. The
spirituality and immortality of the soul are expressly
stated in the prophetical[1269] and sapiential
books,[1270] and in the Books of the
Machabees.[1271] 4. In the New Testament the
human soul is said to be entirely distinct from the body,
immortal, and capable of eternal life: "Fear ye not
them that kill the body, and are not able to kill the
soul: but rather fear him that can destroy both soul and
body in hell";[1272] "For what man knoweth the
things of a man, but the spirit of a man that is in
him?"[1273]
The Fathers frequently affirm the spirituality and
immortality of the soul; in general their teaching is that
the soul is incorporeal, immortal, and created by
God.[1274]
The Fourth Council of the Lateran declared that the
human creature "is constituted of a spirit and a
body."[1275]
As Denzinger notes at the end of his systematic index,
the Church has declared that the human soul is not
generated by the parents, that the intellective soul is
not evolved from the sensitive soul, that the soul is
substance, not numerically one in all but one in each
individual, that it is created by God from nothing, that
it does not pre-exist, is not a part of the divine
substance, and is immortal.[1276]
St. Thomas proves the spirituality of the soul from
reason as follows: "It is clear that whatever is
received in another is received after the manner of that in
which it is received; thus whatever is known is known
according to the form it has in the one who knows. The
intellective soul, however, knows a thing in its absolute
nature, for example, a stone, which is known absolutely
as a stone. In the intellective soul the form of the
stone is absolute according to its formal nature.
Therefore the intellective soul is an absolute form, not
something composed of matter and form. If the
intellective soul were composed of matter and form, the
forms of things would be received in it as individuals,
and the soul would know only the individual, as is the
case with the sensitive powers, which receive the forms of
things in a corporeal organ."[1277]
This demonstration becomes clearer the more our knowledge
abstracts from matter. Following Aristotle, St.
Thomas distinguishes three degrees of abstraction. In
the first degree our intellect abstracts only from
individual matter, knowing, for example, not this
mineral, this plant, or this animal, but the nature of
the mineral, plant, or animal and the reason underlying
their functions. In the second degree our intellect
abstracts from sensible matter, or from all sensible
qualities and considers the nature of the triangle,
circle, sphere, or of numbers, and deduces the necessary
and universal laws of their properties, which thus become
intelligible and not merely imaginable. Now it becomes
clear that the idea of the circle is not only a composite
image or the average of individual circles, but expresses
the nature of the circle which is verified either in the
small, or large, or average circle, and this nature
contains the reason for the properties of the circle,
which thus become truly intelligible, whereas the image of
the circle contains only the sensible phenomena without any
intelligibility. Finally in the third degree of
abstraction our intellect abstracts from all matter and
attains to intelligible being, which is not accessible to
the senses or to the imagination, either as a sensible
property (color, sound, etc.) or as something sensible
in common (as size, figure), but is accessible only to
the intellect. Such reasons for the being of things as
well as the properties of being, namely, one, true, and
good, can also be attributed to pure spirits.
Only the intellect, not the senses or the imagination,
can know the intelligible being of things and the first
necessary and universal principles of being; the senses
and the imagination know only the sensible qualities of
things and the individual, not the absolutely necessary
and universal principles of contradiction, identity, the
nature of being, efficient causality, finality, etc.,
by which all things gradually become intelligible and by
which we demonstrate the existence of the first cause and
the first intelligence, which orders all things.
In this third degree of abstraction our intellect knows
itself as essentially related to the immaterial, and
therefore it must itself be immaterial. Its object is not
color or sound or the different sensible phenomena, but
the intelligible being of things, and therefore all its
concepts presuppose the most universal concept of being.
So also in all its judgments the verb is reduced to the
verb "is," which is, as it were, the soul of the
judgment, and every ratiocination assigns the reason for
the being of the conclusion.
Our intellect is therefore essentially related to
intelligible being and to the absolutely necessary and
universal principles of being because of the abstraction
from all matter, and therefore our intellect itself is
immaterial. Consequently the intellective soul also is
entirely immaterial and intrinsically independent of the
organism, since operation follows being and the mode of
operation follows the mode of being.
This is the principal proof for the spirituality of the
soul, which St. Thomas adopted from
Aristotle.[1278]
The imagination cannot attain to the knowledge of a
necessary and universal principle, for example, the
principle of causality, nor to the first principle of
ethics, that the moral good (transcending the sensible,
delectable, or useful good) is to be done and evil is to
be avoided. In this, man is essentially superior to even
the higher animals.
This argument is corroborated by several subordinate
arguments.
1. The spirituality of the soul is also proved by the
fact that it is able to know the nature of all bodies.
"When a thing is able to know other things, it is
fitting that it have nothing of these things in its
nature, because that which might be in it naturally would
impede the knowledge of the other things, just as the
tongue that is infected with a bitter taste finds all
things bitter."[1279]
Much has been written about the validity of this
argument. If it is offered independently from the
preceding argument, it is rather difficult,[1280]
but it is comparatively simple as a confirmation of the
preceding argument.[1281] These two arguments are
taken from direct intellection.
2. The spirituality of the soul is also proved from
reflex intellection. "The action of no body is reflected
back on the agent; as was shown in Physica (Bk.
VII, chap. I); no body is moved by itself except
with respect to a part, so that one part of the body moves
and another is moved. Our intellect, however, acting on
itself reflects back on itself by complete reflection, it
understands itself not only with regard to a part but with
regard to its totality. Therefore it is not a
body."[1282] In other words, the intellective
soul is entirely devoid of integrating parts and
extension.
Moreover, as St. Thomas says: "Our intellect
reflects on its own act, not only inasmuch as it knows its
act but also inasmuch as it knows its relation to the thing
(the extramental thing that is known), which is
something that cannot be known unless the nature of the act
itself is known together with the nature of the intellect
itself."[1283] Thus our intellect knows itself as
ordered to the cognition of truth, just as the feet are
ordered to walking and wings are ordered to flying. But
the cognition of truth is not something corporeal like
walking; it is spiritual, revealing the spirituality of
the soul.
3. Through the intellect the soul conceives immaterial
and spiritual things, among these the eternal, infinite,
holy God, the first cause of all being; it conceives
even revealed mysteries, which entirely transcend the
capabilities of the sensitive faculties, such as the
infinite value of the Redemption and of the love of the
Son of God, dying on the cross.
4. The spirituality of the soul is confirmed by the
object of the will, inasmuch as the will follows the
intellect. Our will, specified by the universal good as
known by the intellect, is ordered not only to the
delectable or useful sensible good but also to the moral,
or reasonable, or spiritual good, according to the
various virtues of temperance, fortitude, justice, and
equity. We know from experience that, while the same
material goods, the same house, the same field, cannot
be possessed entirely at the same time by many persons,
the same spiritual goods, such as the same truth or the
same virtue, can be possessed entirely and at the same
time by many persons, as St. Augustine and St.
Thomas frequently point out. Lastly, our souls by their
natural desires are attracted more to spiritual objects
than to corporeal things; indeed the soul naturally is
drawn to God the author of nature, the principle of
truth, of goodness, and of beauty, who is to be loved
above all things and even more than ourselves.[1284]
5. Further confirmation is had from human freedom
inasmuch as our will, specified by the universal good,
remains free with regard "to every object that is not good
in every respect."[1285] This reveals the
universal scope and immeasurable depth of our will, which
cannot be filled except by the clear vision of
God.[1286]
6. In man we find a moral conscience, which threatens
him when he is about to do wrong and torments him with
remorse if he commits the wrong. Only an immaterial and
spiritual nature is capable of such a conscience. Moral
laws are not imposed on blind matter.
From all this we conclude that, although the human soul
is dependent on the senses for the presentation of its
proper object, which is the intelligible being of sensible
things, it is not dependent on an organism in its specific
operation, or in its being (since operation follows
being, and the mode of operation follows the mode of
being), or in its production, that is, the soul is not
educed from matter.
Therefore, as we shall see in the next chapter, the
human soul and the body unite in the one being of man in
such a way that the soul does not depend on the body in
being but communicates its being to the body.
The incorruptibility of the soul follows from the
spirituality of the soul, or its intrinsic independence of
matter.[1287] Every simple and subsisting form
(that is, immaterial and intrinsically independent of
matter) is incorruptible "per se" and "per
accidens". But the human soul is not only simple,
like the soul of the animal, it is also subsisting and
intrinsically independent of matter. Therefore it cannot
be corrupted either "per se" (because of its
simplicity) or "per accidens" when the composite
is corrupted (because of its intrinsic independence of
matter both in being and in its specific operation).
By God's absolute power, of course, the soul can be
annihilated, since annihilation is not repugnant and since
the soul needs to be preserved by God. But by His power
as directed by His wisdom God does not annihilate a
creature which is both "per se" and "per
accidens" incorruptible according to the laws
established by God Himself. God does not annihilate the
soul even miraculously or by an extraordinary use of His
power, because, from the viewpoint of the end, there is
no motive for such action; such an action is not good in
itself, nor can it be directed to a greater good. On the
other hand God can permit sin for a greater good,
namely, for the manifestation of mercy and justice. The
soul, therefore, is immortal by its very nature.
We see from this, in opposition to Scotus, that the
immortality of the human soul is not only known by faith
but can also be demonstrated by natural reason.
St. Thomas adds the following argument: "In cognitive
beings desire follows knowledge. The senses know being
only under the aspect of the here and now, but the
intellect understands being absolutely and as it is in all
time. Hence every being that possesses an intellect
naturally desires to be at all times. A natural desire
cannot be futile. Therefore every intellectual substance
is incorruptible."[1288]
The brute animal does not desire to be always but only
here and now, for example, at the moment when it is
threatened with death, because the animal does not know
being absolutely in all time. Man himself does not
naturally desire the immortality of his body, which is
naturally mortal, but the soul of man, which knows being
absolutely as in all time, naturally desires to be
always, and this is a sign that the soul is naturally
immortal. This desire of the soul is not a conditional
and inefficacious desire, like the desire for the beatific
vision, which is essentially supernatural and gratuitous;
this desire is for the natural being of the soul to be
preserved continually.
Finally, from the fact that the human soul is spiritual
it follows that it is not in the potency of matter like the
soul of the animal, nor can it be produced by generation.
It can be produced only by God by creation from nothing,
that is, from no pre-existing subject.[1289] That
which operates independently of matter also exists and
becomes, or rather is produced, independently of matter.
Hence we find among the twenty-four propositions approved
by the Sacred Congregation of Studies (1914):
"Intellectuality necessarily follows immateriality, and
the degree of intellectuality depends on the degree of
remoteness from matter" (no. 18).
The human intelligence, therefore, is the lowest of all
the intelligences, and correspondingly its proportionate
object is the lowest intelligible being, namely, that of
sensible things, in which as in a mirror the human
intelligence knows higher things.
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