Body and Soul (Unity)

“When a person first comes into being, his or her soul “has committed no sin” and therefore is only culpable for later transgressions. “The soul possesses freedom; and though the devil can make suggestions, he has not the power to compel against the will.” Saint Cyril [of Jerusalem] then speaks of the body, dismissing dualists who would assert “that this body of ours is a stranger to God.” In fact, the body is not the cause of sin but rather the life that animates it is responsible. The body is the soul’s instrument, its cloak and garment. If then it is given up to fornication by the soul, it becomes unclean; but if it dwells with a holy soul, it becomes a temple of the Holy Spirit.’ ” (Fr. Joseph Lucas, St. Cyril of Jerusalem)

“Because modern people don’t see any necessary connection between the physical and the spiritual, we think we can imitate something physically without any spiritual implications. Even if someone puts on a mask of a god, we would say “It’s just a mask,” or “It’s just pretend.” But in a sacramental view, because the physical and spiritual are inseparable, to imitate something physically is also to imitate it spiritually. You can’t participate in something physically without also participating in its spiritual meaning.” (Dr. Zachary Porcu) 

“In the middle of this discussion about resurrection, the Apostle applied himself to a question that some Corinthians had apparently been asking: what will the resurrected body be like? His answer to this question occupies the middle section of the chapter from verses 1 Corinthians 15:35-49. The tricky words occur in verse 44 when St. Paul contrasts our present body with our future resurrection body. Saint Paul declares, “It is sown a natural [psychikos] body, it is raised a spiritual [pneumatikos] body.” Given the associations we have with the term spiritual (which, in popular parlance, is often used to refer to things that are nonmaterial), many readers assume that the antithesis St. Paul makes is between a physical body and a nonphysical body. The RSV version of the Bible even makes this false assumption explicit when it translates verse 44 to read, “It is sown a physical body, it is raised a spiritual body.” We can solve the problem by delving into the original Greek.” (Robin Phillips) 

“Seeing truly, seeing iconographically and iconologically, is about being in touch with Reality—with God. It means there is an unbreakable link between what goes on in our bodies, in our minds, and in our souls. The physical and the spiritual are intrinsically connected, within creation in general and in the human person in particular.” (Andrew Williams) 

“The central truth affirmed by the doctrine of the resurrection of the body is that human beings are not simply spiritual, but are constituted by both soul and body: a body on its own is a corpse, a soul on its own is one of the departed. Human beings only exist as soul-and-body…The spiritual life consists not in escaping the body, but in transfiguring the physical body so that it is also a spiritual body. We encounter God and the spiritual life in and through our transfigured bodies. In so doing we are preparing the body for the spiritual resurrection into God’s kingdom.” (Fr. Andrew Louth, Fr. Ted Bobosh)

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