I must Address the Problems and the Secrets of my Soul
Now that I am old, at the end of my life, I recognize my duty to dedicate myself to the soul’s study. In fact, I have a soul that is intelligent, immortal and sacred, in which I am the image of my Creator, and in this soul I attain to his likeness, which is the taste of the dignity of reason.
It seems to me advisable first of all to know myself clearly. Why am I, who am the image of God, bound to the earth?
By what divine purpose was the human race formed after all the other creatures had been brought to life? Humanity, clearly, was made to stand in the midst of the other beings, to stand between two extremes, linking high and low because it shares in the nature of each. The fusion in humanity of matter and spirit gives unity to elements which, by their nature, are very far from one another.
I also ought to investigate my faculties. What are their movements, what is their function according to the divine plan? How does the intellect work? By what means does the soul lose its way, and by what means does it return to the right road?
It is my duty to tackle these problems and many other secrets also. Right from the beginning, in fact) I can trace within me a mystery: I have been created by Goo, I have received my being from him.
Niceta Stethatus
Treatise on the Soul, I (SC81, pp.64ff.)
~ Thomas Spidlik, Drinking from the Hidden Fountain, A Patristic Breviary: Ancient Wisdom for Today’s World
The Right Use of the Word ‘Soul’
If someone shows us a real loaf, the word ‘loaf’ is used in its proper sense. But suppose instead that we are shown a loaf made out of stone, carved by an artist. The appearance is the same, it is the same size, the colour is similar, almost all its characteristics seem the same. Yet such an object cannot feed you. So, that stone can only be called a loaf improperly, not in its rightful meaning.
It is the same with the soul. Its perfection lies in its being intelligent and gifted with the power of reason. Where this characteristic is missing, the word ‘soul’ can only be used by analogy. It is referring, quite simply, to vital energy which, because it is called by the same name, is seen as like the soul. It is no more than the functioning of the animals’ senses.
I mention this by way of warning to people who love the things of the flesh. I should like to persuade them not to let themselves be deceived by external appearances, but to devote their lives to the good things of the soul. Only they possess a soul; the senses they have in common with the animals.
Gregory of Nyssa
The Creation of Man, 15 (PG44, 176)
~ Thomas Spidlik, Drinking from the Hidden Fountain, A Patristic Breviary: Ancient Wisdom for Today’s World
