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H. Wheeler Robinson, The Christian Doctrine of Man, pp. 4-150; Delitzsch, System of Biblical
Psychology; Dickson, St. Paul’s Use of Terms Flesh and Spirit.]
3. THE RELATION OF BODY AND SOUL TO EACH OTHER.
The exact relation of body and soul to
each other has been represented in various ways, but remains to a great extent a mystery. The
following are the most important theories relating to this point:
a. Monistic.
There are theories which proceed on the assumption that body and soul are of the
same primitive substance. According to Materialism this primitive substance is matter, and
spirit is a product of matter. And according to absolute Idealism and Spiritualism the primitive
substance is spirit, and this becomes objective to itself in what is called matter. Matter is a
product of the spirit. The objection to this monistic view is that things so different as body and
soul cannot be deduced the one from the other.
b. Dualistic.
Some theories proceed on the assumption that there is an essential duality of
matter and spirit, and present their mutual relations in various ways: (1) Occasionalism.
According to this theory, suggested by Cartesius, matter and spirit each works, according to
laws peculiar to itself, and these laws are so different that there is no possibility of joint action.
What appears to be such can only be accounted for on the principle that, on the occasion of the
action of the one, God by His direct agency produces a corresponding action in the other. (2)
Parallelism. Leibnitz proposed the theory of pre-established harmony. This also rests on the
assumption that there is no direct interaction between the material and the spiritual, but does
not assume that God produces apparently joint actions by continual interference. Instead it
holds that God made the body and the soul so that the one perfectly corresponds to the other.
When a motion takes place in the body, there is a corresponding movement in the soul,
according to a law of pre-established harmony. (3) Realistic Dualism. The simple facts to which
we must always return, and which are embodied in the theory of realistic dualism, are the
following: body and soul are distinct substances, which do interact, though their mode of
interaction escapes human scrutiny and remains a mystery for us. The union between the two
may be called a union of life: the two are organically related, the soul acting on the body and
the body on the soul. Some of the actions of the body are dependent on the conscious
operation of the soul, while others are not. The operations of the soul are connected with the
body as its instrument in the present life; but from the continued conscious existence and
activity of the soul after death it appears that it can also work without the body. This view is
certainly in harmony with the representations of Scripture on this point. A great deal of present
day psychology is definitely moving in the direction of materialism. Its most extreme form is
seen in Behaviorism with its denial of the soul, of the mind, and even of consciousness. All that
it has left as an object of study is human behavior.