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State of the question. With regard to the body the human
race is propagated by generation. But what is the origin
of the intellective soul of the infant? Some say that the
soul emanates from God; others like the Origenists and
Priscillianists, teach the pre-existence of human
souls, or that the human soul is a spirit "per
se" and that God created all souls in the beginning.
According to the traducianists, the human soul is
produced from the substance of the parents; according to
some from the corporeal semen, according to others
directly from the souls of the parents. This latter
theory is called generationism, taught by Tertullian.
At one time St. Augustine inclined to this theory. In
our day Frohschammer held that the soul is created by the
parents by a special power given them by God; Rosmini
held that the sensitive soul is created by the parents and
that this soul by the illumination of being later becomes
intellective.
The Catholic doctrine, called creationism, is that
human souls are created by God when they are infused in
the body. Peter Lombard said: "The Catholic Church
teaches that souls are infused in the bodies and are
created in the infusing."[1383] St. Thomas, in
presenting three opinions: generationism,
pre-existentianism, and creationism, said: "The first
two were condemned by the judgment of the Church and the
third was approved."[1384] Other Scholastics use
similar language.
Sacred Scripture supplies the basis for this teaching:
"And the dust return into its earth, from whence it
was, and the spirit return to God, who gave
it."[1385]
The Fathers in general hold the doctrine of
creationism.[1386] Their teaching is that the soul
does not exist prior to the body, that it is not educed by
generation, but that it is created by God.
The Church condemned as heretical the teaching that the
soul is produced by the parents from the seed,[1387]
as well as the doctrine that "the human soul of the son is
propagated from the soul of his father."[1388]
Origen's teaching of the pre-existence of the soul was
condemned by the Fifth Ecumenical Council of
Constantinople (553): "If anyone shall assert the
fabulous pre-existence of souls, let him be
anathema."[1389] Finally Frohschammer's opinion
was condemned by Pope Pius IX on December 11,
1862, and Rosmini's teaching was condemned by Pope
Leo XIII.[1390]
Taking these declarations together we see that the human
soul is not derived from the substance of God, is not
generated by the parents, does not evolve from a sensitive
soul to an intellective one, but is created by God from
nothing, not prior to the formation of the body but when
it is infused into the body. The Church has also
declared that the human soul is a substance,[1391]
that it is not one in all individuals,[1392] but one
in each individual,[1393] and that it is not
naturally good or evil.[1394]
Proof from reason.[1395] I The soul is not a part
of the divine substance. Some have advanced the theory
that God is a certain corporeal light and that a part of
that light is the soul bound to the body. This is
impossible because God is pure act and purely spiritual,
having no diversity in Himself, and therefore there is
nothing in Him from which the soul could be produced as
from a material cause. God cannot be a material cause to
be perfected, nor an informing and participated formal
cause; He is only an extrinsic cause, that is, an
efficient and final cause.[1396]
2. The soul cannot come from the human seed. "It is
impossible that the active power that is in matter can
extend its activity to produce an immaterial effect. It
is obvious that the intellective principle in man is a
principle that transcends matter, for it has an operation
in which the body does not communicate."[1397] In
other words, the human soul is intrinsically independent
of the organism in its specific operation, and therefore
in its being, and also in its own production.
3. The soul of the infant cannot come from the souls of
the parents by emanation because the soul is a simple
substance, without parts, from which nothing can be
taken. Nor can the soul come from the parents by creation
because the creative power belongs to God
alone.[1398]
4. The soul of the infant therefore is directly created
by God from nothing, that is, from no presupposed
being, at the time it is infused.[1399] The
parents are not even the instrumental cause of this special
creation; they only dispose the matter of the embryo to
receive the spiritual soul. The ultimate disposition is
produced in the instant when the soul is created and
infused, and this ultimate disposition is from God. But
the parents are rightly said to generate a human being
because from their own substance they produce the body of
the infant disposed in such a way (the penultimate
disposition) that by virtue of a law of nature the
creation and infusion of the soul necessarily follow. The
parents are said to generate a human being because in this
way by generation they transmit human nature.
Nor can it be admitted that intellective souls were
created at the beginning of the world and that the soul is
accidentally united to the body as a punishment for some
fault. As St. Thomas says: "From this it would
follow that man constituted by such a union would be a
being "per accidens", or that the soul is the
man, which is false.[1400] That the human soul is
not the same in nature as the angels is seen from the fact
that they have different modes of
intellection."[1401] The human soul has the lowest
kind of intellection, corresponding to the lowest kind of
intelligible being, namely, that which is in the shadow
of sensible things.
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