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B. THE ORIGIN OF THE SOUL IN THE INDIVIDUAL.
1. HISTORICAL VIEWS RESPECTING THE ORIGIN OF THE SOUL.
Greek philosophy devoted
considerable attention to the problem of the human soul and did not fail to make its influence
felt in Christian theology. The nature, the origin, and the continued existence of the soul, were
all subjects of discussion. Plato believed in the pre-existence and transmigration of the soul. In
the early Church the doctrine of the pre-existence of the soul was practically limited to the
Alexandrian school. Origen was the chief representative of this view and combined it with the
notion of a pre-temporal fall. Two other views at once made their appearance and proved to be
far more popular in Christian circles. The theory of creationism holds that God creates a new
soul at the birth of every individual. It was the dominant theory in the Eastern Church, and also
found some advocates in the West. Jerome and Hilary of Pictavium were its most prominent
representatives. In the Western Church the theory of Traducianism gradually gained ground.
According to this view the soul as well as the body of man originates by propagation. It is
usually wedded to the realistic theory that human nature was created in its entirety by God and
is ever-increasingly individualized as the human race multiplies. Tertullian was the first to state
this theory of Traducianism and under his influence it continued to gain favor in the North
African and Western Church. It seemed to fit in best with the doctrine of the transmission of sin
that was current in those circles. Leo the Great called it the teaching of the catholic faith. In the
East it found no favorable reception. Augustine hesitated to choose between the two views.
Some of the earlier Scholastics were somewhat undecided, though they regarded creationism
as the more probable of the two; but in course of time it became the consensus of opinion
among the Schoolmen that the individual souls were created. Says Peter the Lombard: “The
Church teaches that souls are created at their infusion into the body.” And Thomas Aquinas
went even further by saying: “It is heretical to say that the intellectual soul is transmitted by
way of generation.” This remained the prevailing view in the Roman Catholic Church. From the
days of the Reformation there was a difference of opinion among the Protestants. Luther
expressed himself in favor of Traducianism, and this became the prevailing opinion in the
Lutheran Church. Calvin, on the other hand, decidedly favored creationism. Says he in his
commentary on Gen. 3:16: “Nor is it necessary to resort to that ancient figment of certain
writers, that souls are derived by descent from our first parents.” Ever since the days of the
Reformation this has been the common view in Reformed circles. This does not mean that
there were no exceptions to the rule. Jonathan Edwards and Hopkins in New England theology
favored Traducianism. Julius Mueller in his work on The Christian Doctrine of Sin again put up
an argument in favor of the pre-existence of the soul, coupled with that of a pre-temporal fall,
in order to explain the origin of sin.