{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/105/1050792.htm","path":"chr/ecf/105/1050792.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/105/1050792.htm","text":"Chapter 36 [XXII.]\u2014He Passes on to the Second Question About the Soul, Whether It is Called Spirit.\nIt now remains for me to show how it is that while the designation spirit is rightly predicated of a part of the soul, not the whole of it,\u2014even as the apostle says, \u201cYour whole spirit, and soul, and body;\u201d 2507 or, according to the much more expressive statement in the Book of Job, \u201cThou wilt separate my soul from my spirit,\u201d 2508 \u2014yet the whole soul is also called by this name; although this question seems to be much more a question of names than of things. For since it is certainly a fact that there is a something in the soul which is properly called \u201cspirit,\u201d while (this being left out of question) it is also designated with equal propriety \u201csoul,\u201d our present contention is not about the things themselves; 2509 mainly because I on my side certainly admit, and you on your part say the same, that that is properly called spirit by which we reason and understand, and yet that these things are distinguishingly designated, as the apostle says \u201cyour whole spirit, and soul, and body.\u201d This spirit, however, the same apostle appears also to describe as mind; as when he says, \u201cSo then with the mind I serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.\u201d 2510 Now the meaning of this is precisely what he expresses in another passage thus: \u201cFor the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh.\u201d 2511 What he designates mind in the former place, he must be understood to call spirit in the latter passage. Not as you interpret the statement, \u201cThe whole mind is meant, which consists of soul and spirit,\u201d\u2014a view which I know not where you obtained. By our \u201cmind,\u201d indeed, we usually understand nothing but our rational and intellectual faculty; and thus, when the apostle says, \u201cBe ye renewed in the spirit of your mind,\u201d 2512 what else does he mean than, Be ye renewed in your mind? \u201cThe spirit of the mind\u201d is, accordingly, nothing else than the mind, just as \u201cthe body of the flesh\u201d is nothing but the flesh; thus it is written, \u201cIn putting off the body of the flesh,\u201d 2513 where the apostle calls the flesh \u201cthe body of the flesh.\u201d He designates it, indeed, in another point of view as the spirit of man, which he quite distinguishes from the mind: \u201cIf,\u201d says he, \u201cI pray with the tongue, my spirit prayeth, but my mind is unfruitful.\u201d 2514 We are not now, however, speaking of that spirit which is distinct from the mind; and this involves a question relating to itself which is really a difficult one. For in many ways and in divers senses the Holy Scriptures make mention of the spirit; but with respect to that we are now speaking of, by which we exercise reason, intelligence, and wisdom, we are both agreed that it is called (and indeed rightly called) \u201cspirit,\u201d in such a sense as not to include the entire soul, but a part of it. If, however, you contend that the soul is not the spirit, on the ground that the understanding is distinctly called \u201cspirit,\u201d you may as well deny that the whole seed of Jacob is called Israel, since, apart from Judah, the same appellation was distinctly and separately borne by the ten tribes which were then organized in Samaria. But why need we linger any longer here on this subject?\n[Compare On the City of God, xiv. 2, 6, and On the Trinity, x. 11, 18. Augustin denied the trichotomy of the Greek Fathers before Appollinaris, and held that the soul and spirit constituted a single substantial unity, and this one spiritual essence was \u201csoul\u201d (anima) so far as it was the informing and vivifying principle of the body, and \u201cspirit\u201d (spiritus) so far as it was the power of rational thought.\u2014W.]\n369:2510 369:2511 369:2512 369:2513 369:2514","title":"Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Vol. V: A Treatise on the...","type":"page"}