Mere Orthodoxy | Christianity, Politics, and Culture

Hart on the Soul - Mere Orthodoxy | Christianity, Politics, and Culture

Written by Matthew Lee Anderson | Apr 5, 2005 5:00:00 AM

Eastern Orthodox theologian David Hart on the Christian view of the soul:

This is not to deny that, for Christian tradition, the soul transcends and survives the earthly life of the body. It is only to say that the soul, rather than being a kind of “guest” within the self, is instead the underlying mystery of a life in its fullness. In it the multiplicity of experience is knit into a single continuous and developing identity. It encompasses all the dimensions of human existence: animal functions and abstract intellect, sensation and reason, emotion and reflection, flesh and spirit, natural aptitude and supernatural longing. As such, it grants us an openness to the world of which no other creature is capable, allowing us to take in reality through feeling and thought, recognition and surprise, will and desire, memory and anticipation, imagination and curiosity, delight and sorrow, invention and art.

Read the whole thing (ht Wittingshire).