Soul, Spirit, Mind, Heart
Today I glanced at yet another well-intentioned article drawing sharp lines of distinction between body, soul, and spirit, based loosely on a few proof-texts. There are many such articles, some of which at least note that these terms are often figures of speech and not a dissection of human life. But since such articles/sermons/questions keep arising, I went in search of a deeper and more scholarly treatment. And as I’ve come to expect, Christian Thinktank did not let me down.
In the long and technical article here, which admittedly I did not read in its entirety, the author (Glen Miller) painstakingly examines from philosophy, biology, and theology the questions about what, if any, sharp lines there are differentiating the various terms. While I may quibble over his use of the term “sinful nature”, I don’t think you’ll find a better examination of these terms without at least a semester in college. So if you are curious about these things or someone asks you about them, be sure to reference this excellent article. In fact, this site is an excellent resource for apologetics on any topic.
ADDED: An excellent quote:
Today, on the brink of the twenty-first century, we can see that Ryle was right to dismiss the notion of the ghost in the machine--not because there is no ghost, but because there is no machine.This is actually not far from the premise of the Matrix movie (“there is no spoon”). And I’m sure it’s no accident that the “program” in charge of the whole thing was called The Architect, a significant term used by Freemasonry for “God” (which to them is whoever or whatever you imagine God to be). Last year I posted something about theoretical physics running into a brick wall between laws that govern the very large (astronomy) and the very small (quantum physics), and this may lend more weight to the idea that the material world is less “set in stone” than we think. Many fascinating implications flow from this.