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| §33. The soul immortal. Proved by (1) its being distinct from the body, (2) its being the source of motion, (3) its power to go beyond the body in imagination and thought.
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§33. The soul immortal. Proved by
(1) its being distinct from the body, (2) its being the source of
motion, (3) its power to go beyond the body in imagination and
thought.
But that the soul is made immortal is a further
point in the Church’s teaching which you must know, to show how
the idols are to be overthrown. But we shall more directly arrive at a
knowledge of this from what we know of the body, and from the
difference between the body and the soul. For if our argument has
proved it to be distinct from the body, while the body is by nature
mortal, it follows that the soul is immortal, because it is not like
the body. 2. And again, if as we have shewn, the soul moves the body
and is not moved by other things, it follows that the movement of the
soul is spontaneous, and that this spontaneous movement goes on after
the body is laid aside in the earth. If then the soul were moved by the
body, it would follow that the severance of its motor would involve its
death. But if the soul moves the body also, it follows all the more
that it moves itself. But if moved by itself150
| 150 Cf.
Plato Phædr. 245 C–E., Legg. 896, A, B. The
former passage is more likely to be referred to here as it is, like the
text, an argument for immortality. Athan. has also referred to
Phædrus above, §5. (Against Gwatkin, Studies,
p. 101.) | , it
follows that it outlives the body. 3. For the movement of the soul is
the same thing as its life, just as, of course, we call the body alive
when it moves, and say that its death takes place when it ceases
moving. But this can be made clearer once for all from the action of
the soul in the body. For if even when united and coupled with the body
it is not shut in or commensurate with the small dimensions of the
body, but often151
| 151 Cp.
xxxi. 5, and ref. | , when the body lies
in bed, not moving, but in death-like sleep, the soul keeps awake by
virtue of its own power, and transcends the natural power of the body,
and as though travelling away from the body while remaining in it,
imagines and beholds things above the earth, and often even holds
converse with the saints and angels who are above earthly and bodily
existence, and approaches them in the confidence of the purity of its
intelligence; shall it not all the more, when separated from the body
at the time appointed by God Who coupled them together, have its
knowledge of immortality more clear? For if even when coupled with the
body it lived a life outside the body, much more shall its life
continue after the death of the body, and live without ceasing by reason of God Who
made it thus by His own Word, our Lord Jesus Christ. 4. For this is the
reason why the soul thinks of and bears in mind things immortal and
eternal, namely, because it is itself immortal. And just as, the body
being mortal, its senses also have mortal things as their objects, so,
since the soul contemplates and beholds immortal things, it follows
that it is immortal and lives for ever. For ideas and thoughts about
immortality never desert the soul, but abide in it, and are as it were
the fuel in it which ensures its immortality. This then is why the soul
has the capacity for beholding God, and is its own way thereto,
receiving not from without but from herself the knowledge and
apprehension of the Word of God.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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