Dualism

1
Dualism

• Where is my soul?

2
Introduction

• Many Christians assume that the Bible is clear
  about the nature of the human soul (i.e. that we
  have one and it is separate from the body).
• Yet a wide range of biblical scholars are
  questioning whether we have correctly understood
  what the Bible means when it speaks of the
  "soul."
• Dualism is the study of where the body ends and
  the soul begins.

3
3 Major Dualism Views

• Classical (Aristotle Thomas Aquinas)
• Coffee
• Cartesian (Descartes and Augustine)
• Lemonade
• Emergent (William Hasker)
• Wine

4
Cartesian (Traditional) Dualism

• Body and Soul are two separate things
• The body (or flesh) is an unthinking, material
  thing
• The soul (or mind) is a thinking, immaterial
  thing
• I Think, therefore I Am
• Humans are immaterial souls capable of
  disembodied existence
• I cannot exist without my soul, but I can exist
  without my body
• Souls are eternal, and God places a soul into a
  body at conception
• Its like Powdered Lemonade

5
Classical Dualism

• Body and soul are compounds
• Concerning all physical entities there are two
  dimensions, Matter and Form
• Matter is not be thought of physically rather it
  is something that has the potential to be
  physical
• Form, then, is that actualized potential of
  matter
• According to Aquinas, the soul is a substance in
  the manner of a form that determines or
  characterizes a particular sort of body.
• The result of this union is the existence of the
  individual person.
• Its like Coffee

6
Emergent Dualism

• We are immaterial souls however our souls emerge
  naturally through the course of ordinary,
  biological evolution.
• They are natural, not introduced or added "from
  the outside", so to speak.
• The physical brain generates its own
  consciousness (like a magnet generates a
  magnetic field)
• So, the soul emerges out of the physical body
• Its like Wine

7
Scripture and Dualism
8
Luke 1027

• Love the Lord your God with all your heart and
  with all your soul and with all your strength and
  with all your mind
• There is a distinction (at least in first-century
  Jewish thought) between these separate entities.

9
Hebrews 412

• For the word of God is living and active. Sharper
  than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even
  to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow
  it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the
  heart.
• A distinction between SOUL and SPIRIT, but that
  distinction is unnoticeable except to God

10
II Corinthians 51-5

• Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in
  is destroyed, we have a building from God, an
  eternal house in heaven, not built by human
  hands. Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed
  with our heavenly dwelling, because when we are
  clothed, we will not be found naked. For while we
  are in this tent, we groan and are burdened,
  because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be
  clothed with our heavenly dwelling, so that what
  is mortal may be swallowed up by life. Now it is
  God who has made us for this very purpose and has
  given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing
  what is to come.
• There is somehow a need for the earthly body to
  be replaced by a heavenly body.
• There is also some need for the earthly body to
  be resurrected to be rejoined(?) to the spiritual
  self.

11
Luke 1619-31

• Parable of Rich Man and Lazarus
• Infers a separation of body and soul at death
• Infers a waiting place
• May not be best place to build theological
  philosophies since it was a parable
  (illustration).

12
I Corinthians 1551-52

• Listen, I tell you a mystery We will not all
  sleep, but we will all be changed in a flash, in
  the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For
  the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised
  imperishable, and we will be changed.
• Paul tells us that our bodies will be changed
  when the final trumpet sounds. We will have some
  sort of material existencewe just dont know
  what sort.

13
I John 32-3

• Dear friend, now we are children of God, and what
  we will be has not yet been made known. But we
  know that when he appears, we shall be like him,
  for we shall see him as he is. Everyone who has
  this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is
  pure.
• We cannot understand what immortal life will be
  like, just as a fetus cannot understand what
  adult life is like, nor a blind person cannot
  understand color.

14
Matthew 171-3 (Transfiguration)

• After six days Jesus took with him Peter James
  and John the brother of James, and led them up a
  high mountain by themselves. There he was
  transfigured before them. His face shone like the
  sun, and his clothes became as white as the
  light. Just then there appeared before them Moses
  and Elijah, talking with Jesus.
• Moses and Elijah are recognizable

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Properties of the Resurrection Body of Jesus

• Jesus could be recognized as Jesus (John
  2016,18)
• Jesus could disguise his appearance (Luke 2416)
  (also could have been special intervention)
• Jesus bore the scars of his crucifixion (John
  2019-20, Acts 19, Revelation 56)
• He could be touched and he could eat
• He could appear and disappear
• He could ascend into heaven (defy gravity)

16
Pauls teaching on the Resurrection Body (I
Corinthians 15)

• We will be transformed (v. 51)
• This body will be imperishable, glorious,
  powerful and spiritual (v. 42-44, 53)
• But it will be a body, and it will have some
  continuity with the old body.

17
Dualism Physical vs. Spiritual

• God created physical matter, and it is therefore
  good.
• God did not make it just to destroy it later
• He will keep the physical world in a renewed form
  (new heavens and new earth)
• Jesus was made flesh for the purpose of redeeming
  all things (Col. 119-20)
• God is not abandoning the world but rescuing it
  (Romans 821-23)
• Our own bodies will be redeemed, not discarded

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Implications of this teaching

• We must value the physical world that God has
  placed us in and made us part of
• We are to care for His creation and for our
  bodies
• We are to have environmental concerns and health
  concerns
• We are not to abandon the world we live in
• We are to be concerned about the physical needs
  of others (homeless, poor, etc)
• We are not escapists, merely biding time until
  time ends, but we are to be involved in this
  world in a positive way.