Brief History of the Soul, summary

Perhaps the clearest book on the soul that I have read to date. I found myself discovering new truths and being challenged to think in new and creative ways about the soul. I took copious notes in the book and on any sheet of paper I could grab in the process. Three important applications stick out to me.

First, I believe that the soul is an essential doctrine for the church to know. The soul is the starting place (though not the ending place) of ethics, 'the good life', belief in God and, of course, what it means to be human. Without the soul, we are left either with deterministic naturalism or worse, absurdity. In my own ministry, it will be important to express and teach on the soul.

Second, I believe that the soul has tremendous implications on theology. Theology, in essence, is the study of God. God, as Aquinas points out, is active in particular points in time with particular people/communities. This should not surprise us in light of how He describes Himself. He is not the great “I was” or the great “I will be”. He is the great “I Am”. That means that God exists in this particular moment and in this particular place (where I am and in my community). We know, by nature of Him calling Himself the Alpha and Omega (as well as other references to His character) that He does not only exist in this moment/place. But, this should not distract us from the point that He does fully exist in this moment/place. If the name He gives Himself implies anything at all, it implies this. This must mean that theology is not merely an act of the past, though it might draw from the past for information. Theology is necessarily about the here and the now. For, in our souls, we know that we do not exist in the past and we are not guaranteed existence in the future. God exists now and we can know what He is up to now. I am working on writing this up in a clearer and more cogent way.

Thirdly, I hope to address issues of the soul in my own witnessing. I think that once someone sees that there must be a non-physical soul, it is not such a huge leap to believe in a non-physical God. Americans are naturalist by assumption and the soul appropriately and basically challenges naturalistic mindsets.

I am thankful for this book and will refer to it often.