St Augustine'S College, Parramatta Park: Fill & Download for Free

The word “soul” has about 27 meanings including “soul food” and “the essence of something”. The origin of the word “soul” is from Aristotle who asked the question “What is Life made of?” Aristotle used the phrase “Breath of Life” or “Psuche” in Greek. From that word, we get Psychology. Aristotle wrote a book on the question called Peri Psyches or Regarding the Breath of Life where he asks the question “What is the Breath of Life made of?” The four options at the time were Earth, Air, Fire or Water. Aristotle presented each of these as a possibility and then said he felt the answers were inadequate and then he moved on to other questions such as “What is necessary for a happy life” and the characteristics wanted in a good Phikosopher/King. Aristotle was a Materialist and he was concerned about things like a just government He felt the Mind was a special case but he. couldn’t answer the question so he moved on. Aristotle’s book title is translated into Latin as De Anima or What Animates Life? Or On the Soul. Plato had some things to say about it too, mostly that our world is a shadow of a world of perfect forms similar to the Christian idea of Heaven. Some have called Plato a pre- Christian Christian.Augustine asked “How do we have eternal life?” meaning how does our Life continue on after our physical body perishes. Augustine said the greatest heresy is the resurrection of the flesh. He knew we would not have a physical body in heaven but he wasn’t sure what kind of body that would be. The notion was it was some kind of spiritual body but a spirit is not a body. We have a body and we have a spirit that is in our body. Our physical body is made of physical material like Carbon and Water which is Oxygen and Hydrogen. In Heaven we will have a heavenly body made of heavenly material and that body will contain our spirit. We are actually a part of that whole system now, we might think of our soul as our heavenly body which is being constructed in us now Many people think of the soul as being the same if our spirit but they are two different things. So Augustine was certain about what the soul was not (our physical body) but he wasn’t sure what it was. But he was using the word “soul” in the context of “How do we have eternal life?”Also I think some people are confusing Augustine who lived around 300 A.D. and Thomas Aquinas who lived about 900 years later.

I’m not sure that he ever actually took a word that we translate into English as “self” and defined it in the straightforward way you would find in a dictionary, but his works contain many discussions relevant to the question.Augustine believed that humans were made in the image and likeness of God and that our rational minds were the image of the Holy Trinity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.He thought that everything in the material world has its place in the natural order of things, and acts in accordance with its nature:“If we were stones, or waves, or wind, or flame, or anything of that kind, we should want, indeed, both sensation and life, yet should possess a kind of attraction towards our own proper position and natural order. For the specific gravity of bodies is, as it were, their love, whether they are carried downwards by their weight, or upwards by their levity. For the body is borne by its gravity, as the spirit by love, wherever it is borne.” (City of God, XI:28)Unlike inanimate things, animals perceive and react to the sensible world, but they still have no knowledge or desires not tied to their senses:“For if we were beasts, we should love the fleshly and sensual life, and this would be our sufficient good; and when it was well with us in respect of it, we should seek nothing beyond.” (City of God, XI:28).But humans have an inner knowledge that animals lack:“However, both these and all material things have their causes hidden in their nature; but their outward forms, which lend beauty to this visible structure of the world, are perceived by our senses, so that they seem to wish to compensate for their own want of knowledge by providing us with knowledge. But we perceive them by our bodily senses in such a way that we do not judge of them by these senses. For we have another and far superior sense, belonging to the inner man, by which we perceive what things are just, and what unjust — just by means of an intelligible idea, unjust by the want of it. This sense is aided in its functions neither by the eyesight, nor by the orifice of the ear, nor by the air-holes of the nostrils, nor by the palate's taste, nor by any bodily touch. By it I am assured both that I am, and that I know this; and these two I love, and in the same manner I am assured that I love them.” (City of God, XI:27)So he believed that we have a higher sense that, because it is beyond the bodily senses, can pass judgement on them in a way impossible to animals because we have an immaterial mind, and he believed that that mind is aware of itself, and it recognizes that its own existence and knowledge is good. By thinking, and being award of its thoughts, and loving its existence and activity, the human mind mirrors the three functions of the persons of the Christian Trinity, the Father, the Son who is the Word/Thought of the Father, and the Holy Spirit who is Spirit of the Father and the Son.“And we indeed recognize in ourselves the image of God, that is, of the supreme Trinity, an image which, though it be not equal to God, or rather, though it be very far removed from Him — being neither co-eternal, nor, to say all in a word, consubstantial with Him — is yet nearer to Him in nature than any other of His works, and is destined to be yet restored, that it may bear a still closer resemblance. For we both are, and know that we are, and delight in our being, and our knowledge of it.” (City of God, XI:26)This is Augustine’s understanding of what it means to be a rational being with self-knowledge, so I would think that his idea of the image of the Trinity in man is the best candidate for his definition of “self.”City of God, Book XI (St. Augustine)

The irony of proving God exists is, to a non-believer it can never be proven, but to a believer, proof of God can be seen just about everywhere.I’m going to quote Catholic Community Forum as they’ve explained it better than I can.“St. Thomas, in his Summa Theologica, sets forth five separate proofs for the existence of God, Unlike St. Anselm's proof, which deals with pure concepts, St. Thomas' proofs rely on the world of our experience-what we can see around us. In these proofs we can easily see the influence of Aristotle and his doctrine of the Four Causes.l) The Proof from Motion. We observe motion all around us. Whatever is in motion now was at rest until moved by something else, and that by something else, and so on. But if there were an infinite series of movers, all waiting to be moved by something else, then actual motion could never have got started, and there would be no motion now. But there is motion now. So there must be a First Mover which is itself unmoved. This First Mover we call God.2) The Proof from Efficient Cause. Everything in the world has its efficient cause--its maker--and that maker has its maker, and so on. The coffee table was made by the carpenter, the carpenter by his or her parents, and on and on. But if there were just an infinite series of such makers, the series could never have got started, and therefore be nothing now. But there is something everything there is! So there must have been a First Maker, that was not itself made, and that First Maker we call God.3) The Proof from Necessary vs. Possible Being. Possible, or contingent, beings are those, such as cars and trees and you and I, whose existence is not necessary. For all such beings there is a time before they come to be when they are not yet, and a time after they cease to be when they are no more. If everything were merely possible, there would have been a time, long ago, when nothing had yet come to be. Nothing comes from nothing, so in that case there would be nothing now! But there is something now-the world and everything in it-so there must be at least one necessary being. This Necessary Being we call God.4) The Proof from Degrees of Perfection. We all evaluate things and people in terms of their being more or less perfectly true, good, noble and so on. We have certain standards of how things and people should be. But we would have no such standards unless there were some being that is perfect in every way, something that is the truest, noblest, and best. That Most Perfect Being we call God.5) The Proof from Design. As we look at the world around us, and ourselves, we see ample evidence of design--the bird's wing, designed for the purpose of flight; the human ear, designed for the purpose of hearing; the natural environment, designed to support life; and on and on. If there is design, there must be a designer. That Designer we call God triskelion, I interpret proof #3 as talking about the creation of the elements; proof #2 as talking about the forming of the elements into creation; and proof #1 as creation being put into motion.”