Sect. 127Essential Constitution of ManEssential Constitution of Man
The words of Gen. 2:7, in which the creation of the first man is described, contain the essential constitution of human nature: “And the Lord God formed man from the slime of the earth, and breathed into his face the breath of life, and man became a living soul.” Man is composed of a body taken from the earth, and of a spiritual soul breathed into the body by God. The body is made for the soul and the soul for the animation of the body: from the union of both results a living nature, akin alike to the living things on earth and to the living God.
I. As to the body of man, the Church, basing her doctrine on its revealed origin, teaches that it is composed of earthy or material elements; that its organization as a human body is not the result of either chance or the combined action of physical forces, but is formed after a clearly defined Divine Idea, either directly by Divine action, as in the case of the first man, or indirectly through the plastic force of generation. Hence we cannot admit the descent of man from ape-like ancestors by a process of gradual organic modification, even supposing that God directly created the soul when the organism had acquired a sufficient degree of perfection. Even apart from Revelation, sound philosophy will never admit that such a transformation of the types of organic beings is possible as would be required to arrive at the human organism. The astonishing unity in the immense variety of organisms is conclusive evidence of the Divine Wisdom of the Creator, but it is no evidence whatsoever of a successive transformation of the lower into higher organisms.
II. As to the other component part of man, the soul, Revelation confirms the teaching of natural reason, viz. that the soul of man essentially differs from the vital principles of animals in its acts, its faculties, and its substance. It is neither a body nor matter composed of extended parts; its existence and activity are not, like the life-principles of animals, dependent on union with an organism. Over and above the life which it imparts to the body, the soul, as νοῦς, or mens, possesses a spiritual life of its own, independent of, and different from, the life of the body. Its substance, unlike that of other vital principles, is entirely incorporeal and immaterial. The soul is a spirit. The spirituality of its substance causes it to be naturally immortal: it cannot perish, either by decomposition, because it has no parts, or by separation from a substratum necessary to its existence, because it is independent of such substratum. Compared to lower vital principles, the human soul is more independent or self-sufficient, more simple or refined in substance, and altogether more perfect.
The immortality of the soul, being easily conceived, and being of immediate practical importance, is the popular characteristic of its substantial character. The spirituality of the soul has been defined in the Fourth Lateran Council and repeated in that of the Vatican; the immortality of the soul is asserted in a definition of the Fifth Lateran Council. The soul, in the two first-mentioned Councils, is called “spirit” and “spiritual creature,” even as in the Vatican Council God is called a “spiritual substance,” in opposition to “corporal creatures.” The word “spirit” is not explained by the Councils, and consequently it is to be taken in its ordinary sense. The Fifth Council of the Lateran condemned as heretical the doctrines of Averroes and his school concerning the mortality of the soul.
III. The spiritual substance, which is the life-giving principle of the body, is also the sole principle of all life in the body; besides the soul, there is no other principle of life whatever in man. The Church has upheld the unity of the vital principle in man against the Apollinarists, who, in order to defend their doctrine that in Christ the Logos took the place of the rational soul, pretended that the life of the flesh was dependent on another principle distinct from the rational soul. “Whoever shall presume to assert that the rational or intellectual soul is not directly and essentially (per se et essentialiter) the form [that is, the life-giving principle] of the body, shall be deemed a heretic” (Council of Vienne against the errors of Peter of Oliva).
IV. The soul, being the principle of animal and vegetative life in the body, constitutes with the body one nature. Soul and body are, at least in a certain respect, the common and direct principle, or subject, of the functions of the animal and vegetative life of man, and therein consists the unity of nature. This unity, however, presupposes a union of both substances by which they become real parts of one whole, become dependent on each other, belong to the complete and entire essence of which they are the parts, and lose, when separated, the perfection they had when united. Soul and body united form one complete nature in which the soul is the vivifying, active, determining principle, and the body the passive element. In the language of the Schoolmen this doctrine is expressed by the formula, “The soul is the substantial form of the body.” See the definition of the Council of Vienne, quoted above.
Holy Scripture clearly indicates the unity of nature in man when it calls the soul and body together a “living soul”—that is, a living thing or animal; and, at the same time, it frequently applies the term “flesh” (caro, σὰρξ) to the whole man, which could not be done unless body and soul together constituted one nature and essence.
V. Body and soul, united so as to form one nature, also constitute one hypostasis, or person. All the attributes of man which give him the dignity of personality spring from and reside in his soul; besides, the soul can exist and live independently of the body, whereas the organization and life of the body are entirely dependent on the soul. Whence it may be said that, although man as a whole is a person, yet personality belongs more properly to the soul. In the human person, not less than in the human nature, the soul is the dominating principle. The prominent position of the soul in the human person ought not, however, to be urged to the extent of destroying or endangering the unity of the human nature, as Bishop Butler has done in his Analogy; for it is precisely to its place in the nature of man that the soul owes its dignity in the human hypostasis.
The words of Gen. 2:7, in which the creation of the first man is described, contain the essential constitution of human nature: “And the Lord God formed man from the slime of the earth, and breathed into his face the breath of life, and man became a living soul.” Man is composed of a body taken from the earth, and of a spiritual soul breathed into the body by God. The body is made for the soul and the soul for the animation of the body: from the union of both results a living nature, akin alike to the living things on earth and to the living God.
I. As to the body of man, the Church, basing her doctrine on its revealed origin, teaches that it is composed of earthy or material elements; that its organization as a human body is not the result of either chance or the combined action of physical forces, but is formed after a clearly defined Divine Idea, either directly by Divine action, as in the case of the first man, or indirectly through the plastic force of generation. Hence we cannot admit the descent of man from ape-like ancestors by a process of gradual organic modification, even supposing that God directly created the soul when the organism had acquired a sufficient degree of perfection. Even apart from Revelation, sound philosophy will never admit that such a transformation of the types of organic beings is possible as would be required to arrive at the human organism. The astonishing unity in the immense variety of organisms is conclusive evidence of the Divine Wisdom of the Creator, but it is no evidence whatsoever of a successive transformation of the lower into higher organisms.
II. As to the other component part of man, the soul, Revelation confirms the teaching of natural reason, viz. that the soul of man essentially differs from the vital principles of animals in its acts, its faculties, and its substance. It is neither a body nor matter composed of extended parts; its existence and activity are not, like the life-principles of animals, dependent on union with an organism. Over and above the life which it imparts to the body, the soul, as νοῦς, or mens, possesses a spiritual life of its own, independent of, and different from, the life of the body. Its substance, unlike that of other vital principles, is entirely incorporeal and immaterial. The soul is a spirit. The spirituality of its substance causes it to be naturally immortal: it cannot perish, either by decomposition, because it has no parts, or by separation from a substratum necessary to its existence, because it is independent of such substratum. Compared to lower vital principles, the human soul is more independent or self-sufficient, more simple or refined in substance, and altogether more perfect.
The immortality of the soul, being easily conceived, and being of immediate practical importance, is the popular characteristic of its substantial character. The spirituality of the soul has been defined in the Fourth Lateran Council and repeated in that of the Vatican; the immortality of the soul is asserted in a definition of the Fifth Lateran Council. The soul, in the two first-mentioned Councils, is called “spirit” and “spiritual creature,” even as in the Vatican Council God is called a “spiritual substance,” in opposition to “corporal creatures.” The word “spirit” is not explained by the Councils, and consequently it is to be taken in its ordinary sense. The Fifth Council of the Lateran condemned as heretical the doctrines of Averroes and his school concerning the mortality of the soul.
III. The spiritual substance, which is the life-giving principle of the body, is also the sole principle of all life in the body; besides the soul, there is no other principle of life whatever in man. The Church has upheld the unity of the vital principle in man against the Apollinarists, who, in order to defend their doctrine that in Christ the Logos took the place of the rational soul, pretended that the life of the flesh was dependent on another principle distinct from the rational soul. “Whoever shall presume to assert that the rational or intellectual soul is not directly and essentially (per se et essentialiter) the form [that is, the life-giving principle] of the body, shall be deemed a heretic” (Council of Vienne against the errors of Peter of Oliva).
IV. The soul, being the principle of animal and vegetative life in the body, constitutes with the body one nature. Soul and body are, at least in a certain respect, the common and direct principle, or subject, of the functions of the animal and vegetative life of man, and therein consists the unity of nature. This unity, however, presupposes a union of both substances by which they become real parts of one whole, become dependent on each other, belong to the complete and entire essence of which they are the parts, and lose, when separated, the perfection they had when united. Soul and body united form one complete nature in which the soul is the vivifying, active, determining principle, and the body the passive element. In the language of the Schoolmen this doctrine is expressed by the formula, “The soul is the substantial form of the body.” See the definition of the Council of Vienne, quoted above.
Holy Scripture clearly indicates the unity of nature in man when it calls the soul and body together a “living soul”—that is, a living thing or animal; and, at the same time, it frequently applies the term “flesh” (caro, σὰρξ) to the whole man, which could not be done unless body and soul together constituted one nature and essence.
V. Body and soul, united so as to form one nature, also constitute one hypostasis, or person. All the attributes of man which give him the dignity of personality spring from and reside in his soul; besides, the soul can exist and live independently of the body, whereas the organization and life of the body are entirely dependent on the soul. Whence it may be said that, although man as a whole is a person, yet personality belongs more properly to the soul. In the human person, not less than in the human nature, the soul is the dominating principle. The prominent position of the soul in the human person ought not, however, to be urged to the extent of destroying or endangering the unity of the human nature, as Bishop Butler has done in his Analogy; for it is precisely to its place in the nature of man that the soul owes its dignity in the human hypostasis.
Seção 44% da obra, de A Manual of Catholic Theology (Wilhelm & Scannell, sobre a Dogmatik de Scheeben). Ver o original.