The Soul and its Importance to Theology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

The Soul and its Importance to Theology - Essay Example We nourish our bodies' thorough proper diet and our minds through education and learning, but how do we nourish our souls As a society, we have been desensitized to the virtue of a human beings' soul. This is evident in the wide use of the term "soul-mate" and the over use of the word in the songs we hear on the radio. Most of us, rarely describe how we behave or the manner in which we live our lives, as nourishing our souls. Most of us, cannot even give a definition or description of a soul if asked. Throughout history, the definition, composition and purpose of the human soul have been heavily debated and are often referred to as the Mind/Body argument. In some theologies, it is believed that if the soul only exists in the mind and if the soul does in fact, exist in the mind then it too dies when the brain ceases to function at death. In other theologies, the soul is described as an immaterial part of our physical beings and is without physical bounds. It does not die when our physical bodies die, but transcends from our bodies at death. The objections raised in this theory point to the fact that if the soul is immaterial, that is to say that it is not composed of matter, how then, is it said to exist In his The Summa Theologica, Saint Thomas Aquinas attempted to answer this objection and other questions raised regarding the existence of the human soul. In part one of The Summa Theologica the section titled "The Treatise of Man" the objection to the composition of a soul is argued that "nothing gives what it is not; for instance what is not hot does not give heat" (Aquinas section 75 article 1 The Summa Theologica). This goes to say that if the soul is the force that moves the body, and then the soul is the body. Aquinas countered the objection to say that the soul is not the body, but an act of the body. Aquinas goes on to state that the body and soul work in conjunction to create one entity. The body, working through the material by way of its' physical senses, converts the material to the immaterial. For instance, by sight a human being attains knowledge through reading. Through hearing, a human being attains knowledge by listening. By reading words on paper and listening to words through conversation and lecture the mind converts the material to the immaterial. This cognitive soul is dependant upon sensory experiences in order to form mental images or what is referred to in ancient texts as phantasms. Therefore, Aquinas argued, the body and soul are one. This theology by Aquinas raised the next objection: If the body and soul is indeed one unit, what happens to the soul when the body dies It is often noted that Saint Thomas Aquinas found the basis for his theology through the study of Aristotle's philosophies. The division from Aristotelian for Aquinas' occurs when the Saint answers the questions as to what becomes of the soul when the physical human body no longer exists. Aquinas theorized that the soul and the body are separated at death. The continued survival of the immaterial soul after the death of the material body is based on God's will. Steeped in his belief that the body and soul exist as one unit, Aquinas states ""...it is better for the soul to be united to the body than not to be united to it, since it is