HS #115 2025.2.13
The Soul
Last month at the funeral of President Jimmy Carter, several speakers mentioned that Jimmy was now with his dear wife, Rosalynn. Married seventy-seven years on earth, and now together again in heaven. Very comforting and reassuring. But true?
Everyone agrees that their bodies are buried in caskets in Plains, Georgia. Christians believe also that these bodies will one day be resurrected and their lives will then continue on. But no matter what happens in the future, are they together now? If so, how? In what way?
Some would say, “Perhaps it is their souls which are in heaven – conscious but waiting for reunion with their bodies.” Seems possible. But if so, it doesn’t conjure up quite as satisfying a picture: The souls of Jimmy and Rosalynn communicating – perhaps telepathically. No vocal cords. Obviously no embracing. No smiling at each other. No looking into each other’s eyes.
But even this raises questions for the Christian. Older Bible translations occasionally refer to the soul (newer use “being”), but give no indication that the soul is something that inhabits the body and then leaves upon death. That notion is gotten from Plato, not Jesus.
So this raises the question: Am I a soul that inhabits my physical body, or am I a physical body from which a soul emerges?
What does that even mean? I vividly remember from whom I first heard the notion of an emergent soul. It was from Professor Leon Kass, M.D. of the University of Chicago. Kass was the person chosen by George W. Bush to head the discussion of stem-cell research. But long before gaining that prominence, he was invited (in the mid 1990’s) to give a talk to the senior seminar faculty at Hope College. In that presentation, Kass posited that humans are physical beings and that our soul emerges as we (gain ability to) interact with the world – both affecting and being affected by the world. So the soul is not a thing, it is a state of being. As a person develops in the womb and then as an infant and child, one’s soul (i.e., one’s depth and breadth of interaction) grows. Then the soul diminishes as one ages, having less ability to interact – physically and mentally – with the world. I was fascinated by the simplicity of the idea. It rang true.
This conception of the soul was reinforced by Paul Davies, physicist and author who, along with Billy Graham, Mother Teresa, The Dalai Lama, and Professor Alvin Plantinga (philosopher from Calvin University), received the John Templeton Prize in Science and Religion. In his book, God and the New Physics, Davies describes the soul as being like a newspaper picture. Up close (perhaps with a magnifying glass), it’s just an arranged collection of black dots. But as you back away, an image (perhaps a familiar face) emerges.
Culture is another example of an emergent thing. What does it mean to experience the culture of Paris? One might describe the food, the wine, the music, the art, the language being spoken, the clothes, the way Parisians walk, the smells, the sound of the traffic. All of these contribute to the culture, but it’s only when all are together in a seamless whole that one experiences Parisian Culture. It’s essentially the idea of Gestalt: The organized whole greater than the sum of the parts.
Similarly, Davies explains that one’s soul (or mind) is the wholistic “YOU” which emerges as your physical body and brain interact with the world. This explains why YOU are affected by too little sleep, or too much sugar or alcohol. It explains why YOU lose awareness when your brain is in sleep mode. This perspective does not say that YOU are MERELY a body, but it DOES say that once your body is dead, your soul no longer exists. Just as the image in the newspaper or the culture of Paris disappears when all the parts are removed.
Notice that this conception of the soul provides that animals have a soul too since they also have ability to interact with the world.
Moreover, this understanding of the soul solves the conundrum: If the soul were put within the zygote at conception, then if the zygote divides into identical twins, which twin gets the soul? It also mitigates the humorous-profound charge from Matthew McConaughey’s character in “True Detective” upon hearing of a friend becoming pregnant, “The HUBRIS is must take to YANK a soul out of nonexistence.” Think about that one!
