Psychology and the Soul: A New Perspective on an Old Interpretation
This article presents a new perspective on the nature of the human soul, the human body, and the body-soul unity of the person. It is proposed that the material coded structure of what we are naming DNA/RNA plus more includes other relevant coded information that has been or might be found (e.g., co...
| Main Author: | |
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| Contributors: | |
| Format: | Print Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | |
| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
2022
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| In: |
Journal of psychology and christianity
Year: 2022, Volume: 41, Issue: 2, Pages: 130-139 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Body
/ DNA
/ Transcendence
/ Psychology
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| IxTheo Classification: | AE Psychology of religion NBE Anthropology ZD Psychology |
| Further subjects: | B
DNA structure
B Soul music B Abstract thought B Moral agent (Philosophy) B Personality B Aristotle, 384-322 B.C B THOMAS, Aquinas, Saint, ca. 1225-1274 |
| Summary: | This article presents a new perspective on the nature of the human soul, the human body, and the body-soul unity of the person. It is proposed that the material coded structure of what we are naming DNA/RNA plus more includes other relevant coded information that has been or might be found (e.g., context). This material code serves as an analogy of a transcendent structure that represents the perfect, ideal, or spiritual soul of the person. Moreover, the actual, material, and formal structure of DNA/RNA plus more has no physical similarity to the structure of the body; nevertheless, the material code represents and gives form to the physical body. Similarly, it is assumed that the transcendent DNA/RNA plus more, or soul, also represents and gives form to the body, but in its perfect, spiritual, and immortal sense. This paper, thus, presents the analogy that the soul is to the body as the spiritual DNA/RNA plus more code is to the material DNA/RNA plus more code. Despite birth defects, we argue that there is a perfect non-material code. Such a perfect code, we propose, actually exists at a spiritual, transcendent level. It is the material code that has non-normative defects, resulting from imperfect material expression. However, the perfect transcendent code, or soul, continues to animate the person throughout life and provides distinctively spiritual capacities (e.g., reason and will). At the death of the body, the immortal soul continues. In a Christian perspective, the soul represents the form of the glorious body of each person existing in heaven after death. The understanding of a transcendent soul is supported by current research on the human brain and mind and by our capacities for syntactic language, abstract thought, self-consciousness, and moral agency. A supporting analogy is made on how persons practice certain embodied actions expressing non-material forms as they exist in the performer's mind, for example, in the performance of classic sonatas or pieces of jazz. In addition, the connections and similarities to traditional older interpretations of the soul, identified by Aristotle and Aquinas, are addressed. Implications for this body-soul unity for reintroduction into personality theory and the virtues are briefly discussed. |
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| ISSN: | 0733-4273 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Journal of psychology and christianity
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