Christianity Unshackled: Are You A Truth Seeker

Top Highlights

“The ancient Greek philosophers believed that a person has both a body and a soul; however, they considered the natural world insignificant, and being consistent with this, they saw the body as an insignificant container for the soul. Plato compared the physical body to a tomb from which the soul will someday escape to arise into true life. The Hellenized Jewish philosopher, Philo (circa 10 B.C.-A.D. 50), echoed Plato’s ideas writing that the soul is a prisoner sentenced to confinement in the body until death.” (source)

“The concept that the soul is the mind, will, and emotions is so deeply seated in the thinking of most Western Christians that it is difficult to challenge successfully. Yet, it is nowhere in Scripture. It is simply Aristotle’s understanding of human nature inserted into Christian doctrine. To develop a biblical view we must begin by erasing the line between spiritual and the natural realms.” (source)

“And that problem often involves our worldview. We don’t always see why we think the way we do, nor do we realize the long-term effect of that perspective.” (source)

“Christians with a Western worldview are not as critical of the body, but they are still profoundly influenced by Aristotle’s view of human nature. They typically think of the soul as a separate entity from the body, and they will say that the soul of a person consists of the mind, the will, and the emotions. Although they have changed Aristotle’s intellect to mind and his appetites to emotions, they are still assigning all of the core functions of a person to the soul. Hence, they are agreeing with Aristotle that the invisible soul is the real person. Although Western Christians would not say that the body is insignificant, they tend to see it as a temporary container.” (source)