Once upon a time, it was common for people to speak of their own souls, and
talk of their own souls went together with a sense that our souls were of great value
even immortal.
But it seems we've lost touch with soul.
So let's retrieve the ancient understanding.
In the ancient world, the term soul was commonly used to signify the principle
or source of life in a living thing.
Soul was associated with the life breath, and not first of all with thinking or consciousness.
Now when we use the term soul to refer to the principle or source of life in a living
thing, then whatever is living is animated by a soul.
Trees, grass, animals--all of it has soul and lives because of its soul.
That broad usage of the term comes as a surprise to many people, but it is important to see
that soul is what makes the thing to live.
That's how Thomas Aquinas uses the term.
Now for Aristotle and Aquinas, souls come in grades of perfection.
Some things are living and have basic functions of nutrition and growth, but do not have any
sensory or rational capacities.
We're talking about plants, and we can say that they have plant souls.
Other things are living and in addition to nutrition and growth, have sensory functions
like touch or taste, but do not have any intelligence or reason.
We're talking about animals, and we can say they have animal souls.
But human beings are special and distinct from other living things because we possess
intelligence and reason, and other things do not.
To signify our human souls, we have the term rational soul.
Rational soul may also be called spirit, but we need to be careful.
Sometimes the word spirit is used to talk about the angels.
Angels are called pure spirits because they have no bodies.
The human soul or rational soul is not pure spirit.
Our spirit is different from angels.
In the human soul or rational soul, the human spirit is different from the pure spirits
precisely because our soul is the form of a human body.
What does that mean: The soul is the form of the body?
In the wisdom of Aristotle and Aquinas, the form of a thing accounts for
several features of it.
Form makes a thing to be what it is, so the soul makes us to be a living human being.
But a living human being is not just a soul.
We are also bodies.
We're made of matter.
The soul forms or informs the matter to make it a human body.
Soul is the inner organizational plan of the whole body.
Soul organizes, literally makes into organs, the matter that makes us up: eyes, ears, lungs,
heart, all of it.
Soul is the organizational pattern or form of all the parts, and all the parts
of all the parts of our bodies.
But the soul is not just a static or dead plan like the blueprints of a house.
Soul is animating.
The soul activates or energizes the many functions and operations of the body.
Soul makes the heart not only to be, but to beat.
Soul makes the eyes not only to be, but to see.
And so forth for all the operations of all the organs of our bodies.
The soul also drives development according to a plan, first through infancy then childhood,
then adulthood.
The increasing levels of complexity and unity at each developmental stage flow from the
soul.
When the soul ceases to form the matter of our bodies, when it seizes to organize and
animate everything, the person is dead.
Death is the separation of the soul from the body, and a body without a soul is a corpse.
Thomas Aquinas held firmly to Aristotle's view that human beings are not just pure spirits
imprisoned in bodies, but human beings are animals organized and energized by a soul,
a special kind of soul to be sure, a rational soul or spirit is what gives human beings
our bodies and vital activities.
But the rational soul or spirit is essentially the organizational pattern, developmental
driver, and inner source of a living biological organism, you and me.
In fact, Thomas was so insistent on the tight unity of body and soul that a very serious
question arises as to how he can account for life beyond death.
Does the human soul survive death?
It's hard to see how this can be so, since the soul is not just our consciousness or
thought life, but the very form of our bodies.
If the soul is the form of the body, how can the soul live without the body?
Thomas Aquinas sees the problem, and he answers by saying, although the human
soul is the form of the body, the soul is not just that.
In addition to organizing and animating our body, the soul also lives in a special way
beyond the body, even in this life.
The soul lives beyond the body by exercising certain special higher operations, of knowing
and loving.
Many of our vital activities or the workings of organs, circulation of the blood for example,
is the work of the heart and other organs.
Digestion is a work of the stomach, the intestines, et cetera.
Even many of our cognitive activities are the work of organs.
For example, seeing and hearing.
If damage is done to someone's eyes or ears, seeing and hearing either diminish or cease.
Aquinas thinks that even imagination, memory, and various sensory impulses, such as the
cravings for food and drink, are all workings of various organs.
That is why when a person hits his head, memory may be diminished or destroyed.
In fact, Aquinas thinks that all our vital activities are the works of organs except
for two, knowing and loving.
These two acts are the working of intellect and will, and intellect and will are properly
spiritual powers.
Why does Aquinas say so?
Let's focus on knowing.
To know something is to conceive of a universal.
When I know the formula for the area of a triangle, for example, I know something not
about this or that particular triangle, but about triangle as such.
My knowledge extends to all triangles, even though I have not and cannot either sense
or imagine all triangles.
My knowledge extends beyond all my experience of triangles and extends to all triangles
whatsoever.
This sort of abstract knowledge of universals such as triangle cannot be the working of
an organ, for cognitive organs such as the eyes and ears are limited to knowing this
or that particular thing.
For example, this dog or this cat here.
But the spiritual power of intellect is not limited to knowing this or that particular thing.
By a higher kind of knowing, I can know something of all cats or dogs, or all triangles, and
therefore the spiritual power of intellect is not just a physical organ like the brain.
Something more than the working of organs is going on in the knowing of universals
or the essences of things.
And if the knowing of universals is not one more case of the working of organs, then it
is a spiritual activity or operation.
And if the soul is carrying out a spiritual activity, the soul itself is spiritual.
That is, it's more than just the form and animating principle of a body.
The soul has a life of its own, the life within or inner life, but this life within or inner
life is not a separate thing from me or my body.
It's one more activity of my rational soul.
The same rational soul is also the form of my body.
The human soul can survive death because in addition to forming and animating
the body, the soul is spiritual and lives on this higher plane by the higher operations
of knowing and loving.
Yet Thomas Aquinas is clear.
It is unfitting for the soul to live without a body.
You can get a sense of this if you try to imagine a gradual amputation, first losing
an arm, then both arms, then both legs, then your torso, and finally your head.
A total body amputation is a very weird condition for a human soul to be in, but that is the
condition of the human soul after death.
For this reason, our Catholic faith and the resurrection of the body is very good news, indeed.
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