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What're we Made of???

ceaserecsceaserecs
edited December 1969 in Faith Issues
We've all heard it said that we're made of body soul mind and spirit right? but what do those four terms mean? is our body the one that makes us feel emotions, our metaphysical minds the ones that create thought processes, and our souls our personality? or do thought processes go under the soul? Or is our soul just our eternal spirit?  But then what happens when we die? Can we think while we're in heaven or hell? or is thinking part of a mortal body? help please....

Comments

  • clayclay
    Read "What is Man?" By H.H. Pope Shenouda III.

    However, I am sure more informed people can give you a succinct summary. I do encourage you to ask these sorts of questions, because as the Fathers have noted, "to know oneself is to know God".

    God bless.
  • KrazyLionKrazyLion
    .... its body soul and spirit.... mind is thought of as the soul or spirit not sure which one... but we are only catogrized into three parts sorry....
  • ceaserecsceaserecs
    Ok, the question still stands though, what attributes are categorized under which parts?
  • pp
    Body - Makes us feel emotions, thought processes

    Soul - Where all of the sins one makes are, what will be put in an everlasting body on the Judgment Day, everyone has this

    Spirit - Faith in Christ (Christian), the connection from man to God
  • ceaserecsceaserecs
    well, if that were true then the next question is obvious isn't it?  WHat happens when the body dies?  Will we just be unthinking spirits without thought or intellect?
  • clayclay
    There are two elements of man: soul and body (Gen 2:9). Man's body, although connected to mortality, remains that which the immortal soul is united. Both were created by God's command, and are essential elements of man's nature. God has given this though a union when He created man.

    The spirit and soul is as (in)distinguishable as "joints and marrow" (Heb 4:12). Joints and marrow are inseparable parts of the body, and they are not separate elements, but are considered of the same vital organ; the bone. So, soul and spirit are not distinguished from one another as separate elements, but are one element consisting of human personality. The "spirit" is the highest moral power of the one soul, which gives life to the body.

    Verse 1 Thes. 5:23, seems to refer to the spirit, as that gift given in Chrismation.

    Athenagoras said that human nature consists of "an eternal soul united with the body" (About resurrection ch 12, 15, v4). It was observed that the soul oversees the functions of the body, deciding what is proper, whereas the body moves according to the changes in its nature.

    John of Damascus said God "created man from visible and invisible nature. From the dust He formed the body, the rational and intellectual soul He gave from His own Breath (Exposition. About Man II, 26)

    All souls went to Hades after death, as can be seen by Jacob's mourning over the apparent death of Joseph, "I will go down to my son, mourning to Hades" (Gen 37:34). King David prophesied about Christ, "For You will not leave my soul in Hades, nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption."

    We know in the transfiguration of our Lord, that the two prophet's soul were able to converse with Christ (Matt 17:1-5). And Christ also assured that "God is not the God of dead, but of living", explicitly implying that life continues after "death", which we realise is merely a departure.

    It seems that the inheritance in the fallen nature is due to our souls deriving from the souls of our parents (Traducianismus).

    Also, our physical bodies will be transformed into celestial bodies in the day of the general resurrection. The present body (the natural body, psychikon) is only a seed (1 Cor. 15:38) of the body to come. The resurrection body is the fulfillment of what God intends for our present body, fulfilling the material, not dematerializing it. It is transformed from corruption to incorruption (42), dishonour to glory (43), weakness to power (43), living to life-giving spirit (45), of the earth to from heaven (47), of dust to the heavenly (48) and moral to the immortal (54).

    As our present body is Adam's, the resurrection body is that of the last Adam, Christ's (45-49), bearing no longer the image of the man of dust in which we were borne, but also bear the image of the heavenly Man (49).

    O Death, where is your sting?
    O Hades, where is your victory? (Hos. 13:14)
  • pp
    Thanks a lot Clay for the support!!!
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