Modern thinking

• many christian think of the soul as the moral and spiritual dimension of human life- distinct from the physical body. the soul is given by god before birth, and after death it returns to god. this is known as dualism
• others think of humans in a holistic sense, the physical and mental/spritual dimensions being inextricably linked and both perishing at death
• psychologists use the term 'psyche' to refer to what makes a person an individual
• dualistic= in relation to the concept of the soul means that the soul is thought of as a totally separate entity from the body, from which it separates at death