# Westminster Divines and the Meaning of 'Soul'



## Romans922 (Sep 26, 2007)

What did the Divines mean by 'soul' and/or 'reasonable soul'?


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## SRoper (Sep 26, 2007)

I believe "reasonable soul" is synonymous with "rational soul." It is used in contrast with the souls of the brute animals.

I'm not sure about the answer to your main question. I guess you want more than the soul is the immaterial part of man. Did they agree with Greek dualism? Cartesian dualism? I don't know.


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## Romans922 (Sep 26, 2007)

I'm sure they didn't agree with Greek thought. I want more than 'rational soul' also. What would a 17th Century Reformed Christian think when they heard 'soul'. What is the soul, what does soul do, nature...


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## Archlute (Sep 26, 2007)

Romans922 said:


> I'm sure they didn't agree with Greek thought. I want more than 'rational soul' also. What would a 17th Century Reformed Christian think when they heard 'soul'. What is the soul, what does soul do, nature...



Study their proof texts. If you take them all together then you will come to the conclusion that the Westminster divines took this term to mean:

a) that "reasonable" is to be distinguished from the lower nature of the beasts as being made in the image of God and with intellegence far above any other creature (see especially on this point their citation of Job 35:11 in the WLC), and 

b) that, regardless of one's fear of "Greek thought" somehow entering into Christianity, they did hold the soul to be a spirit (immaterial, by definition), something apart from the body the could pass into paradise with Christ before the final resurrection (see their citation of Luke 23:43 regarding this particular point), and something that exists on its own, while yet having been unified with, and animating, the body in this life (see also their citation of Matthew 10:28, Eccl. 12:7, and Gen. 2:7).


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