Thoughts on the soul

I think the problem arises when we think of the soul as something — certainly it is a 'thing' of sorts, something that can be lost, can be found, can be saved, but what order of 'thing' is it? The soul, we believe, is immaterial. Its substance is spirit, not matter. But his doesn't really help us. The spirit of a thing is not an empirical category of a thing, but a category of relation. The spirit of a thing cannot be determined by observation of the thing in isolation as itself. If the spirit is immaterial, it cannot be subject to any material measure.

(Although Scripture uses such material determinations in speaking of God, but always in a metaphorical sense, by analogy. God is thus great, good on the one hand, jealous or angry on the other. These determinations call for contemplation within a theological exegesis and epistemology.)

It is observed in the interaction of a thing with other things (even by the reaction of a thing to the withdrawal of all stimuli, in a negative reaction). It is not subject to objective measure or quantitative determination as itself. The spirit of something is an immaterial quality, as we say, the spirit of the occasion cannot be categorically predicated of a particular substance of that occasion. The spirit of a thing then describes not what it is, but how it is.

Scripture says "God (theos) is spirit (pneuma)" (John 4:24). Scripture also says "for love (agape) is of God (theos)" (1 John 4:7)

Old Greek had the verb theoô, but it was only a derivative from theos, and meant "to make someone a theos". The related noun thea meant "a seeing", "a looking at", "a view". Theama meant "that which is seen", "a sight", "a show", "a spectacle". Thus, theaomai (thaomai) meant "to gaze", "to contemplate", "to wonder" and so on. Theaô and theaomai also referred to "being an onlooker", "watching as a spectator".

The word theôros meant, among other things, "a spectator". But, theôroi could also refer to persons who were sent on special missions related to the Greek idol-religion, such as to offer a sacrifice or to consult an oracle. This important latter point will be picked up later, in discussing the two principle aspects of religion as sacrifice.

A theôria meant such things as "a looking at", "a viewing", "a beholding". (Thence the English word "theory", originally with the meaning "a view", referring to the way someone saw or viewed a particular matter.) The related verb theôreô meant "to look at", "to view", "to behold". A theatês was "one who sees". In Christianity, creation is a theophany (from Late Greek theophaneia : Greek theo-, theo- + Greek phainein, phan-, to show".

Theos then might be defined as "he who sees". That agrees quite well with Greek mythology as well; there, the theoi, who were many, were often considered to be "watchers".

The soul is created, breathed in to man: "And the Lord God formed man of the slime of the earth: and breathed into his face the breath of life, and man became a living soul" (Genesis 2:7). The living soul is animated by the breath of God, and man, created in that image and likeness, was made a watcher, a theoi of theos, and set to watch over the earth. To see it as his Creator sees it, as good.