8 - The Ancient Sense of the Soul

The Ancient Sense of the Soul 

Early eastern Christian theology, indebted to Greek metaphysics and epistemology, had a clearly and widely shared sense of the soul. It was sharpened by their experiences of religious persecution. This sense of soul was preserved among the desert fathers and mothers, and eventually communicated to Latin Christian monastics. I think it tended to bypass established diocesan Christianity as the institutional church emerged in the 4th century. Each followed divergent paths in their understanding of sin and salvation, a topic I hope I remember to take up later. 

Early Christian understood the soul to be composed of three parts: mind or reason, memory, and will. Notice that there is no reference to “heart” or “passion”, which tended to be viewed with some suspicion. This is because “passion” has so little depth and durability. Passion arises from egotistical desires, flourishes primarily to satisfy ego needs, and vanishes when faced with a responsibility for sustainable moral behavior. Of course, this is precisely what modernity has most cherished. Since the ego is the center of the universe, the key question asked is always: What is your passion? One hears this constantly in the church. “Calling” is translated incorrectly as “passion”. Outreach is reduced to pet projects. Popularity for “Fresh Expressions” in ministry actually celebrates the non-sustainability of social service projects. Emotion is too changeable and insubstantial to be included in the soul. 

Contemporary psychology and neuroscience also talk about mind, memory, and will … but not the soul. I think there are two reasons. 

First, mind, memory, and will are quite narrowly defined. “Mind” refers to the analytical reason of the left brain; “will” is grounded in the sensory impressions of the right brain and has more to do with instinct or intuition rather than moral choices; “memory” is the record of what analytical reason has concluded based on the predictability of sensory impressions. In other words, pleasant or unpleasant impressions will positively or negatively analyzed and repeated or avoided. 

The ancient understanding of the soul is much broader and comprehensive. “Reason” is not only analytical but also metaphysical in the sense that the orderliness of the mind mirrors the orderliness of the universe. The reasonableness of the soul encourages both science and art, because the orderliness of the universe is expressed not only in truth but also in beauty. Music, for example, is mathematical. Portraiture captures both the disposition and purposefulness of a human being. The Greek philosophers might say that the soul qua mind is a microcosm of the universe. Christians would go further and say that reasons is a two-way portal between the human and the divine. Just as reason allows humans to explore the truth and beauty of the universe, so also reason allows the Creator of all truth and beauty to enlighten the human soul. 

Therefore, the ancient understanding of “memory” is much broader and deeper than the record of pleasant or unpleasant circumstances and behavior patterns. Memory recalls the origin and destiny of humans and all creation. It includes the recollection of the moral imperative that humans must be regarded as persons rather than objects. The soul is concerned with justice, not convenience. Some things pleasant to the ego must not be repeated, and some things unpleasant to the ego must be repeated. The memory of right and wrong, like the memory of where we have been and where we are going, may be incomplete. Plato might see these as shadows in the cave cast by an unseen sun shining into the darkness. Origen or Augustine might see these as approximations of perfect love. 

Finally, the ancient understanding of “will” is broader and deeper than expressions of desire. “Will” is not only about what is good for me, but what is good for all. The soul has a conscience. It acknowledges accountability not only in human relationships, but to the Creator of the universe with whom we exist in a divine relationship. There is no “prophetic” element in modern psychology. There is no real place for “conscientious objection”. There is only the power struggle between multiple wills that, hopefully, can result in compromise. The soul, however, has the power to say “no” even when this is not in its own self-interest. It can object to evil, and sacrifice itself for the good, in ways that would seem “irrational” to the modern mind. 

I think the second reason modern psychology and neurology can talk about mind, memory, and will without mentioning the soul is that its analysis of the human psyche is merely horizontal. There may be a neural pathway between the right brain and the left brain, which trauma may disrupt, and send negative and unhealthy signals to the body. That is “horizontal”. But there is a second pathway between mind, memory, and will that connects to a larger essence and greater purpose beyond human comprehension that Christians might call “Spirit”. “Spirit” is what bonds mind, memory, and will together in a broader and deeper sense of “being human”; and it is what links mind, memory, and will to a deeper awareness of truth, beauty, and goodness (the “divine”). 

This larger perspective offers hope to victims of violent trauma. People with PTSD may feel that their soul has been stolen, in the sense that the horizontal neural pathway has been twisted or corrupted beyond repair. Trauma has literally and physically changed the structure of the brain. However, there is another “vertical” pathway that links the soul to God. So even though the soul may be fractured and broken, all is not lost. For there is hope that the soul can be healed by Spirit which links the human to the divine and forms the spiritual bond that unites mind, memory, and will once more.