concept of the soul

• Jewish thinking:

  • the physical body is infused with the 'breath of life' which comes from God
  • life is not only a quality of humans - everything that breathes has the spirit of God within them
• Plato's theory of the Forms:

  • there are two spheres of reality: the imperfect reality which humans live + have only a partial understanding of reality + truth; and the world of Forms
  • the body perishes at death but the soul is immortal + after death is returned to the world of Forms before experiencing reincarnation
• modern thinking

  • many Christians think of the soul as the moral + spiritual dimension of human life - distinct from the physical body
  • concept of dualism: the soul is given by God before birth, and after death it returns to God
  • others view humans in a holistic sense, so both physical and spiritual dimensions are inextricably linked + perish at death