Soul and Spirit

Source: Orthodox Dogmatic Theology: A Concise Exposition by Protopresbyter Michael Pomazansky

The spiritual principle in man which is opposed to the body is designated in Sacred Scripture by two terms which are almost equal in significance: “spirit” and “soul.” The use of the word “spirit” in place of “soul,” or both terms used in exactly the same meaning, is encountered especially in the Apostle Paul. This is made evident, for example, by placing the following texts side by side: Glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s (I Cor. 6:20); Let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit (II Cor. 7:1); and, We are not of them who draw back unto perdition, but of them that believe to the saving of the soul (Heb. 10:39).

In addition, there are two passages in the writings of this Apostle where soul and spirit are mentioned side by side, and this gives occasion to ask the question: Is the Apostle not indicating that, besides the soul, there is also a “spirit” that is an essential part of human nature? Likewise, in the writings of certain Holy Fathers, particularly in the ascetic writings, a distinction is made between soul and spirit. The first passage in the Apostle Paul is in the Epistle to the Hebrews: The word of God is quick, and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart (Heb. 4:12). Another passage from the same Apostle is in the Epistle to the Thessalonians: Your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ (I Thes. 5:23). It is not difficult, however, to see that in the first passage the spirit is to be understood not as a substance that is separate and independent from the soul, but only as the inward and most hidden side of the soul. Here the relation of soul and spirit is made parallel to the relationship between the members of the body and the brain; and just as the brain is the inward part of the same bodily nature — or is a content as compared to its container — so also the spirit is evidently considered by the Apostle as the hidden part of the soul of a man.[1]

In the second passage, by “spirit” is evidently meant that special higher harmony of the hidden part of the soul which is formed through the Grace of the Holy Spirit in a Christian — the “spirit” of which the Apostle says elsewhere: quench not the spirit (I Thes. 5:19), and fervent in spirit (Rom. 12:11). Thus, the Apostle is not thinking here of all men in general, but only of Christians or believers. In this sense the Apostle contrasts the “spiritual” man with the “natural” or fleshly man (I Cor. 2:14–15). The spiritual man possesses a soul, but being reborn, he cultivates in himself the seeds of Grace; he grows and brings forth fruits of the spirit. However, by carelessness towards his spiritual life he may descend to the level of the fleshly or natural man (Are ye so foolish? Having begun in the spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh? [Gal. 3:3]). Therefore, there are no grounds for supposing that the thinking of the Apostle Paul is not in agreement with the teaching that the nature of man consists of two parts.

This same idea of the spirit as the higher, Grace-given form of the life of the human soul is evidently what was meant by those Christian teachers and Fathers of the Church in the first centuries who distinguished in man a spirit as well as a soul. This distinction is found in St. Justin Martyr, Tatian, St. Irenaeus, Tertullian, Clement of Alexandria, St. Gregory of Nyssa, St. Ephraim the Syrian, and likewise in later writers and ascetics. However, a significant majority of the Fathers and teachers of the Church directly acknowledge that man’s nature has two parts: body and soul (Sts. Cyril of Jerusalem, Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian, John Chrysostom, John Damascene, Blessed Augustine). Blessed Theodoret writes: “According to the teaching of Apollinarius (the heretic) there are three composite parts in a man: the body, the animal soul, and the rational soul, which he calls the mind. But the Divine Scripture acknowledges only one soul, not two, and this is clearly indicated by the history of the creation of the first man. God, having formed the body from the dust and breathed a soul into it, showed in this wise that there are two natures in man, and not three.”[2]

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[1] In this sense, “spirit” corresponds to the Greek word nous, which is the highest part of the human soul, and the faculty by which man knows God and enters into communion with Him. In the words of St. John Damascene, “The soul does not have the nous as something distinct from itself, but as its purest part, for as the eye is to the body, so is the nous to the soul” (Exact Exposition 2.12; FC, p. 236). —3RD ED.

[2] The Patristic consensus on this subject is that man is composed of body and soul, and the spirit (nous) is the highest and purest part of the soul. The spirit (nous) of man is created, and must never be confused with the Holy Spirit, Who is Uncreated. At Baptism, however, the Uncreated Grace of God, which man lost at the fall, is once again united with the nous. Thus, St. Diadochus of Photike writes: “The Grace of God dwells in the very depths of the soul — that is to say, in the nous” (Philokalia, vol. 1, p. 280). —3RD ED.