Republished from the Bible Standard 1880.

What is the soul? This is a question which has been asked in all ages; but the answers which they often gave or got have in many cases failed to convey the correct idea, if not  an altogether erroneous one. Before proceeding to answer the question for ourselves, we will glance at one or two answers which have been already made to this question.

Hodge defines the soul as being “unextended and indivisible.” ¹ Now it follows that a thing which is without extension, must necessarily be without substance, and hence must be immaterial. The same argument has been adopted by Drew, who defines the soul as being “a single unextended indivisible atom.”  ²   The question before us thus resolves itself, do humans have souls? To this we answer humans are souls.  Since  humans are souls, the soul must be a real existence capable of extension and division, and also composed of, not one atom, but of all the atoms which go to make up the body. [Read more...]

1. Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, Vol. 2. {New York: Scribner, Armstrong & Co., 1873}, 46. [↩]
2. Samuel Drew, An original essay on the Immateriality &Immortality of the Human Soul, Founded Solely on Physical and Rational Principles {7th Edition} {Baltimore: A Neal, 1810}, 129. [↩]