"To attain any knowledge about the soul is one of the most
difficult things in the world."1 Aristotle’s frustration
has been experienced by all who have attempted to comprehend the
complexities of the human soul. What it is (or even that it
is), how it came to be, when its existence begins, and how it comes to be
present in a particular human are just some aspects of ensoulment that
continue to call forth dialogue among theologians.
From a Christian perspective, that is a
biblical perspective, it is the soul that differentiates humanity from the
rest of creation. It is only into man that God breathes the breath of life
so that he becomes a living soul.2 Though the human body was
fashioned from pre-existing materials ("dust"), the soul
originated ex nihilo. This is integral to the second creation
distinction concerning mankind: that they (male and female) are created in
the image of the triune God, according to His likeness.3 All
the other living creatures were created after their kind; man in or
according to the image of God. Calvin points to the relation between the
two distinctives when he states that the "proper seat of [God’s]
image is in the soul"4 and that the image of God "is
an inner good of the soul."5 Thus, the creation
distinctives point to humanity as the pinnacle of creation as the image of
God, and the soul as the pinnacle of man as the locus of the image of God
in man.
The constitution of humanity has been
represented throughout church history as either tripartite (consisting of
body, soul and spirit), or bipartite, that is, body and soul. Berkhof sees
the "prevailing representation of the nature of man in
Scripture" as "clearly dichotomic."6 He admits
that Scripture uses the terms "soul" and "spirit," but
denies that this in any way conclusively establishes a trichotomic
constitution of man. These two words are used almost synonymously or
"interchangeably." They both refer to the "higher or
spiritual element in man . . ."7
Calvin, similarly, refers to the soul
("sometimes it is called ‘spirit’") as man’s "nobler
part."8 This dichotomic view gained the ascendancy it now
holds in the church by the Middle Ages, being firmly established by
Augustine. Before him, early Greek or Alexandrian Church Fathers such as
Origen, Clement of Alexandria and Gregory of Nyssa held to trichotomic
conceptions of man (though not all identical).9
The dichotomic relationship between body and
soul "remains to a great extent a mystery."10 There
are two important approaches to this relationship, monistic and dualistic.
This difference can be traced back to the Greek philosophers and finds
clear distinction in the musings of Plato and his student, Aristotle.
Plato’s Idealism held that "for each thing there is an entity which
has the same name and exists apart from the substances."11
This being true also for man, Plato is traditionally viewed as seeing the
soul as distinct from the body, an intermediary between substance and
form, nearer the divine form. Partee suggests that "the so-called
‘Platonic dualism’ of soul and body" evolved over time, with the
focus remaining on the soul as intermediary.12 Aristotle, on
the other hand, understood the soul and body to exist only in combination.
Monistic theories build on the presupposition
that body and soul are of the same essential substance. Within monism,
there are two perspectives. Materialism holds that this substance is
matter, and any "spirit" or "soul" is derived from, a
product of, or an aspect of this matter. The most common working out of
this monism today is the materialistic reductionism of scientism that sees
man merely as stuff. As will be pointed out below, this has significant
impact on the valuation of embryonic life. According to Idealism or
Spiritualism, the essential substance is spirit. This "becomes
objective to itself in what is called matter."13 Rather
than all being matter, matter itself is a product of spirit. This is seen
in pantheistic Eastern religions and in modern philosophies that deny the
existence of anything outside the mind itself. Attractive in such monistic
thinking is the unity of the individual over against dualism. The objection
to a monistic view "is that things so different as body and soul
cannot be deduced the one from the other."14
Over against monistic theories are those of
dualism which build on the assumption that there is an essential dualism
of matter and spirit, worked out to greater or lesser extents of dualism.
First established during modern times by Descartes, and perfected by Kant,
dualism of matter and spirit or body and soul was absolute. There was no
discernible interaction between them. For some, such as Leibnitz, the
seeming correspondence between body and soul is explained by the theory of
"pre-established harmony." According to this theory, "God
wrote the definition or life history of each so that they would all work
in perfect conjunction to produce the world we know." 15
A biblical perspective sees an essential
unity of the person, but within an understanding of substantial (or
realistic16) duality. As Berkhof describes,
Body and soul are distinct substances,
which do interact, though their mode of interaction escapes human
scrutiny and remains a mystery for us. The union between the two may
be called a union of life: the two are organically related, the soul
acting on the body and the body on the soul. . . . The operations of
the soul are connected with the body as its instrument in the present
life; but from the continued conscious existence and activity of the
soul after death it appears that it can also work without the body.17
Calvin saw a union of body and soul as a
union without confusion analogous to the two natures of Christ. But along
with this he held a distinction between body and soul.18
In the dichotomy of body and soul related
through substantial duality, man is distinguished from the rest of the
created order by the possession of a soul in which is seated the imago
Dei. Though much has been opined about the meaning of the imago,
there is no precise definition of it in the Scriptures. For the purposes
here, however, revelation is clear that, as Henry has written,
From the beginning, man in the Bible is
depicted not as an evolved animal but as a uniquely endowed creature
specifically distinguished from the lower animal world and specially
related to God by the divinely bestowed image.19
Calvin agrees with this elevation of the
human creature above all others: [W]e may gather that when [God’s] image
is placed in man a tacit antithesis is introduced which raises man above
all other creatures and, as it were, separates him from the common mass.20
As seen above, Calvin ties his understanding
of the imago very closely to that of the soul. It is not
unexpected, then, that he seeks to "know of what parts this image
consists" by looking to "the faculties of the soul."21
These he condenses to two: "the human soul consists of two faculties,
understanding and will."22 The purpose of understanding is
"to distinguish between objects, as each seems worthy of approval or
disapproval . . ."23 That of the will is "to choose
and follow what the understanding pronounces good, but to reject and flee
what it disapproves."24
Others see a greater diversity of aspects of
the imago – though, perhaps, Calvin would subsume them all under
his duality. Henry sees rational and moral aptitude, capacity for
self-transcendence, exercise of will, and immortality as elements of the
divine image. "The divine image, a cohesive unity of interrelated
components that interact with and condition each other, includes rational,
moral and spiritual aspects of both a formal and material nature."25
It is important to note, though it will not
be developed, that this image remains in man even in the fallen state.
Whether, or better, to what degree it is spoiled by the Fall and just
which of its faculties are lost or weakened is not of importance here. That
the image remains in man even after the Fall is the significant point. The
purpose here of reflection on the imago Dei is to see that man,
because of ensoulment as the image of God, has significance beyond all
other creation. Thus, the linking of ensoulment to sacredness provides
moral spectacles through which the inherent value of the earliest human
existence can be recognized. It remains to consider the mechanism of
ensoulment (origin of the individual soul) and its timing, and then to
relate these to how we ought to approach the embryo.
The Origin of the Soul in the Individual
There are three historically significant theories about the origin of the
soul in the individual. A very limited acceptance of the Platonic
pre-existence of the soul was associated primarily with the Alexandrian
school in the early Church.26 Championed by Origen, this theory
taught that the souls of men existed in a state prior to that of the
embodied, and in that previous state certain things occurred that account
for the state in which the embodied soul is found. Specifically, this
theory was used to provide for the fallenness of man – original sin.
According to Origen, the "inequalities and irregularities, physical
and moral" are "a punishment for sins committed in a previous
existence."27 But the Church for several reasons quickly
rejected this theory.28 First, it had no Scriptural basis
whatsoever, being chiefly derived from Plato by Neo-Platonic thinkers.
Also, it tended to propose a lowered view of the body since the soul was
seen as without the body initially and, therefore, not essentially lacking
in its existence at death without the body. This is in contrast to
Paul’s description in 1 Corinthians 15. This pre-existence destroys the
concept of the unity of the human race in Adam, as all souls pre-existed
him. Finally, as man has no consciousness of any pre-existing state and no
idea of his soul being imprisoned in his body (but, in fact, "dreads
the separation of body and soul as something that is unnatural"29),
this theory finds no support in man’s consciousness.
A second theory was closely tied to "the
Stoic concept of an ethereal yet corporeal soul and the Aristotelian
perception of it as the interpenetrating form of the body . . ."30
This theory, known as traducianism,31 claims that the soul has
its origin either "through the material act of generation out of the
animate or inanimate matter (‘material traducianism’), or . . . as an
offshoot of the substance of the parental soul (‘spiritual traducianism’
or ‘generationism’)."32 In the early Church,
Tertullian is most closely associated with this school, having said that
the soul "is ‘handed on’ from parent to child," but Gregory
of Nyssa and Jerome were also well-known proponents.33 It was
the leading theory in the Western Church until well into the Middle Ages.
It was not until the close of the fifth century (498) when Anastasius II
condemned traducianism as heretical34 that creationism
supplanted traducianism as the favored theory of ensoulment in the Western
Church. Though it is easy to see why some would see traducianism as
closely aligned with modern scientific "facts," this is really
because it is amenable to materialistic reductionism rather than because
it is logically apparent or empirically evidenced. On the other hand,
materialistic traducianism finds least contemporary support among
theologians.35
Philosophically, traducianism is favored by
the argument that a child cannot really be called the parents’ child
unless her soul is transmitted from her parents. In response, the
philosophical argument from the indivisibility of the soul disallows the
transmission of part of the parents’ souls in any essential way. Also,
that a material substance could effect a spiritual one proposes a
disproportion between the cause and the effect.36
Scripturally, traducianism is supported in
that God breathed into man the breath of life (the soul) and then left it
to man to propagate; that Eve’s soul must have been transmitted from
Adam as she was "from man" (1 Corinthians 11.8); that
descendants are described as being in the loins of their fathers; and that
God’s creating ended after the sixth day and He rested from His creating
work. Finally, the idea of original sin is easily accounted for in the
passing of substance from the sinful souls of parents to the child.37
In response, there is no Scriptural
preclusion to God continuing to breathe into man the breath of life
(including Eve), that is to create ex nihilo each individual’s
soul. That God only acts mediately in His creation after the original
creation is refuted by the doctrine of regeneration. This theory
ultimately results in a numerical unity of the substance of all human
souls. As such it fails to explain why man is responsible only for
Adam’s first sin and not for all his sins and the sins of the rest of
their ancestors. Finally, it raises questions about why the human nature
of Christ is not sinful.38
The third theory of historical significance
is creationism. This view holds that each individual soul is a direct
creation of God ex nihilo. It does not necessarily hold that the
soul is created outside and therefore separate from the body, but that the
source of the soul is not the substance of the parents – of their souls
or their matter – but is immediately from God. Berkhof gives the
following as the important arguments in favor of creationism: (1) The
original account of creation gives a clear distinction between the origin
of Man’s body and that of his soul. The body comes mediately, taken from
the dust; the soul comes immediately from God’s breathing it into the
body of Man. (2) Creationism is more consistent with the immaterial and
spiritual – and therefore indivisible – nature of the soul;
traducianism, in holding that the substance of the soul derives from
parents, necessitates a breaking off (or division) of the parental soul.
(3) Only creationism preserves the high Christology, understanding that
Christ, though possessing a real human nature, did not share a numerical
unity with the sinful Adam.39
Creationism has its critics as well. Two
strong criticisms hold that creationism necessitates a commitment to
dualism wherein the created soul is regarded as higher than the body that
is derived from the parents; and that creationism makes God the source of
sin since He either puts a sinful soul into the individual, or puts a
"clean" soul into a body that will surely defile it. Other
criticisms have been alluded to in the discussion of traducianism: that
God ended His creative activity after the sixth day of creation and now
acts through secondary causes only; and that if the earthly parents beget
only the body of their children, this does not allow them to fully claim
the child as theirs, and it does not explain the mental and moral
similarities between parents and child.
A final theory of soul origination will be
mentioned for completeness. It is based on emergentist theories of the
mind, such as emergentist materialism which holds that mental states form
a subset of brain states.40 Similarly, at conception the
genetic endowment of parents lead to the gradual development of a complex
nervous system, generating a "soul-field" that progresses toward
soul maturity. This evolvement wherein matter produces spirit is directly
from God as primary cause.41
Through the influence of Aquinas in the Roman
Church and the Reformers (for the most part, Luther excepted) in the
Protestant Church, creationism has held dominance in the Western Church
since the end of the Middle Ages. But that does not indicate a simple
solution to the origin of the soul. Augustine, for example, whom many of
the Reformers held in high esteem, never settled the issue in his mind. In
fact, just two years before his death he wrote that "he did not know
with certainty whether each soul comes from the first man (traducianism)
or whether it is created directly by God (creationism) [Retractationes
1.1.3]."42 But it is not the purpose of this paper to
decide the mechanism of the origin of the soul.
The Timing of Ensoulment
The ethics of abortion, reproductive technologies, genetic manipulation
and contraception are all closely tied to when a human embryo is
recognized as having significant dignity. It is the presupposition of this
paper that the presence of a soul, as the seat of the imago Dei,
renders that dignity as that which separates humanity from the rest of
creation. Therefore, it is necessary to reflect on when the soul is
present, for its presence proclaims sacredness for the individual.
With Yates’ emergent ensoulment theory,
there is a gradual evolution of the soul from conception until soul
maturity. In this schema, "there is no single point at which an
individual may be said to have ‘received’ his soul. The soul like the
body develops gradually."43 But it is obvious that the
presence of soul depends entirely (Yates’ obliging recognition of God as
primary cause notwithstanding) on the maturity of the body’s central
nervous system of which it becomes a derivative. Therefore, the timing of
ensoulment (or rather, soul maturity) depends on what level of functional
central nervous system one arbitrarily chooses as defining soul maturity.
In all likelihood this would not attain any earlier than the appearance of
brain waves in the first trimester, but probably much later.
The theory of the pre-existence of souls
would place ensoulment simultaneous with conception, that is at the time
the material self first appears. However, since souls pre-exist such
ensoulment, "souled" existence antedates even this.
For traducianists, ensoulment takes place
likewise at conception. Though the substance of derivation is
not agreed upon (whether from the material or soul-stuff of the parents),
the timing is not in dispute. There is no need, then, to discuss
attainment of personhood, primitive streaks, totipotency, implantation,
twinning or placental tissue. The totality of the individual – body and
soul – is present from the moment of ‘dual conception.’
It is not so simple or straightforward for
the creationist. For here the question becomes, when does God infuse the
soul into the human individual? "Is it possible that there is a human
intellectual soul in the embryo from conception, or must there be time
enough for the development of the body before God infuses such a
soul?"44 One possibility is immediate hominization which
holds that the soul is infused at conception. Delayed hominization sees
the soul’s infusion occurring later, depending either on its ability to
act through a suitably developed body or on some point wherein the embryo
is deemed simple and distinct as an individual (after the possibility of
twinning and differentiation of placental tissue, for example).
The Aristotelian-Thomistic view is typically
characterized as delayed hominization, based on such statements as that of
Aquinas, "Aristotle defined soul as that which actuates an
organized physical body with the potential of life, a potential not
existing apart from the soul."45 Some see in this (an
organized physical body is one that has organs46) that Aquinas
is "saying that all the organs necessary for the proper operations of
the human soul must be in place for a human rational soul to be infused in
the body."47 So Aquinas opines, "at the end of the
process of human generation, God creates an intelligent soul . . ."48
Aquinas’s acceptance of Aristotle’s theory regarding ensoulment is
tied very closely to ("totally dependent on") Aristotle’s
understanding of biological generation.49 Heaney opines that if
Aquinas possessed knowledge of modern embryology, his thoughts on
ensoulment would be much different: "Faced with the facts as we
know them, however, he probably would have worked out a different theory
to explain human development."50 The importance of this is
that "there is no power other than the embryo’s own soul which can
perform the formation of the organs necessary for the operations of the
soul . . ."51
Reformers such as Philip Melanchthon and John
Calvin held that "the infusion or inbreathing of the human soul takes
place at conception rather than at birth"52 as Aquinas had
claimed. Showing himself as a proponent of immediate hominization, Heaney
surmises that the soul
"must be a human intellectual soul
from the beginning of the embryo’s being; and . . . from the time of
fertilization the conceptus is matter properly disposed to be the
subject of such a form as the rational soul. Thus, it is reasonable to
say that infusion of this soul by God takes place at conception and
that we are from conception human persons."53
He adds,
"A one-celled conceptus with the
specific human genotype . . . is matter well enough disposed to be the
proper subject of the human intellectual soul in regard to first act,
to be matter for which such a soul is the substantial form."54
The basic disagreement seems to be that
proponents of delayed hominization maintain a necessity for an ontological
human individual before a rational soul can be joined. They characterize
the immediate animation position as requiring a rational soul to be joined
to a potential human body (or virtual human body). The fact is, "when
a rational soul is joined to matter, you no longer have a potential
human body but rather an actual human body with potential,
potential to develop in certain ways."55 It is, in other
words, the soul that makes matter to be a human ontological individual.56
Aristotle himself saw that it was the soul that was "the ‘cause and
principle’ (aitia kai archê) of the living body."57
In concluding the discussion on timing of
ensoulment, the relationship of ensoulment to twinning and placental
differentiation will be addressed as these two issues continue to be
foundational for many theories of delayed hominization. That is, these
types of occurrences prove convincing for many with the assumption that
human existence or personhood appear some time after conception.
Twinning raises questions for those who time
ensoulment at the point of conception. What does the appearance of two
human individuals indicate about the solitary being who pre-existed the
twinning? Can a single ensouled being become two ensouled humans? Does the
original being persist (survive) twinning as one of the two beings?
Proponents of delayed hominization answer these last two questions
negatively. But are they on such firm ground in doing so that immediate
hominization is totally debunked?
There is no logical necessity in such an
argument, nor any empirical evidence of such an overwhelming nature as to
establish immediate hominization as a dead theory. It is not known whether
the cause of twinning is genetically determined or the basis is some
somatic structural effect. Neither is it illogical that one ensouled being
could give rise to two.
This may be more difficult for the
traducianist, but really raises no additional questions than those dealing
with the soul’s indivisibility (because the immaterial is indivisible)
or the derivation of the spiritual soul from the matter. These the
traducianist must deal with even without twinning. Twinning merely shifts
the "parental" role to the original embryo in the case of
twinning.
For the creationist who holds to ensoulment
at the time of conception, twinning presents no problem of potency to an
Omnipotent Ensouler. The difficult question – though not one that must
be solved in order to sustain immediate hominization – is whether or not
the ensouled being presupposed to pre-exist twinning continues existence
after twinning. Again, there is no logical necessity in either direction.
If the original living being ceases to exist, he or she has essentially
shared the life span of the majority of all embryos: they experience
spontaneous abortion prior to implantation.58 That each twin is
a uniquely ensouled being is obvious in time, and this is not because of
genetic peculiarity. The basis must be due to distinct ensoulment and the
creationist is on firm ground here. Whether one embryo is the "older
sibling/parent" is currently undetectable.
Differentiation of placental tissue from the
"embryo proper" also leads proponents of delayed hominization to
argue for ensoulment only after this distinctive is established. However,
this is to assume that the placenta is "other" to the
embryo. Modern forensic techniques would establish the placenta as
belonging to the embryo "beyond a shadow of a doubt" on the
basis of DNA testing. That the placenta serves a chronologically limited
– though vitally important – purpose does not give credence to
its being other to the embryo proper any more than the fate of the
umbilical cord and vessels and the ductus arteriosis do. To look forward a
short time, the scalp hair in a man with male-pattern baldness has an
analogous fate, yet is recognized as "same" in relation to the
man. Placental tissue is embryo proper and does not testify in any manner
regarding ensoulment.
Conclusion: Ensoulment and the Sacredness of
Human Life
Man, because of ensoulment as the image of God, has significance beyond
all other creation. The linking of ensoulment to sacredness provides moral
spectacles through which the inherent value of the earliest human
existence can be recognized. As alluded to previously, scientific
reductionism denies that there is anything other than the stuff of matter
comprising human beings. For those holding such a presupposition (which
cannot be documented on its own criteria), theories of ensoulment are of
no interest. But there is a growing understanding in the field of
psychology that mind is something more than can be explained by brain
activity. Ensoulment, especially in light of the understanding of the soul
as the seat of the imago, is pertinent to such thinking. The soul
provides for a non-material understanding of the mind.
All three of the historically significant
theories of ensoulment are compatible with this recognition of the
sanctity of human life from the completion of conception. Only the
emergentist theory of ensoulment is incompatible with this understanding.
Some creationist understandings of ensoulment, however, see
"personhood" attained at later development based on arbitrary
guideposts. If the soul is derived from the body(-ies) or soul(s) of the
parent(s), then that which gives humanity overarching significance – the
imago Dei – is present at conception. The conceptus, then, has
attained sanctity. If God creates the soul ex nihilo, and infuses
it simultaneous to conception, then the same conclusion is reached.
Holding to a later ensoulment based on function or capacity is not
mandated by either understanding of ensoulment and should be seen for what
it is: presuppositional.
The analogy inherent in the idea of man as
the image of God is instructive. Holding to a later attainment of worth in
human beings leads inevitably to an absolute transcendence of value of
"mature" man over his embryonic being. Thus, man is to embryo as
God is to man. Yet if God treated man as man treats the human embryo, then
Nietzsche was right. There is only the self-serving will to power. But God
does not treat man as man currently treats the human embryo. God is
concerned more with that man is and what man is than with how
he is or will be (meaning the level of man’s ability). Remove the
fixation on ability (or, perhaps better, disability), and the
sacredness of the conceptus is recognizable.
Failing to recognize the image of God in the
fertilized ovum results from a backward future orientation. A perspective
beginning with adult human being and his abilities and looking back from
the future on the embryo obscures the image of God in the embryo. Thus an
"it is not" understanding of the embryo is proposed. Contrast
this with the future orientation which looks forward from the viewpoint of
the embryo. Herein are the moral spectacles through which the inherent
value of the earliest human existence can be recognized. It is in the
"now she is the image of God, but she is not yet as she shall
be" perspective.
Going back to the analogy between God and man
it is clear that He has this future orientation regarding His children.
Promise holds a central place in how God looks upon man. It is in His
perspective of promise that He sees what individuals are and, then, what
they will become. His creation as well as His redemption and consummation
are closely tied to the inherent nature of man as God’s image.
"Now we are children of God, and it has
not appeared as yet what we shall be."59 Only into man
does God breathe the breath of life so that he becomes a living soul. Only
man is as the image of God. This soul, in the image of God, grants special
status in creation to the ensouled human individual, regardless of the
number of cells or the ability in the individual. Would that the imago
might grasp the centrality of the soul and therein see through the moral
spectacles from the perspective of promise.
Endnotes
- Barnes, Jonathan, ed. "On the Soul," The
Complete Works of Aristotle, Princeton: The Princeton university
Press, 1984, 64
- Genesis 2.7
- Genesis 1.26, 27
- McNeill, John T., ed. Calvin: Institutes of
the Christian Religion, Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1960,
186.
- Ibid., 190
- Berkhof, Louis. Systematic Theology,
Fourth Edition, Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company,
1941, 192.
- ibid.
- McNeill, op. cit., p. 184.
- Berkhof, op. cit., p. 191
- ibid., p. 195.
- Partee, Charles. "The Soul in Plato,
Platonism, and Calvin," Scottish Journal of Theology
22(1), 1969, 279.
- ibid.
- Berkhof, op. cit., p. 195
- ibid.
- Clark, Gordon H. Thales to Dewey, Second
Edition, Jefferson, Maryland: The Trinity Foundation, 1989, 355.
- Berkhof, op. cit., p. 195
- ibid., pp. 195-196.
- Partee, op. cit., p.291.
- Henry, Carl F. H. God, Revelation and
Authority, Volume II: God Who Speaks and Shows, Waco: Word Books,
1976, 125.
- McNeill, op. cit., p. 188.
- ibid., p. 190.
- ibid., p. 194.
- ibid.
- ibid.
- Henry, op. cit., p. 125.
- Yates, John C. "The Origin of the Soul: New
Light on an Old Question," Evangelical Quarterly 61(1),
1989, 121 (n. 3).
- Berkhof, op. cit., p. 197.
- Yates, op. cit., p. 121 (n. 3).
- ibid., p. 121.
- Billy, Dennis J. "Traducianism as a
Theological model in the Problem of Ensoulment," The Irish
Theological Quarterly 55(1), 1989, 19.
- From tradux, Latin, meaning offshoot,
sprout or branch. Traducianism teaches that an individual’s soul is
the offshoot of the parental soul(s).
- Billy, op. cit., p.18.
- Yates, op. cit. P. 123.
- Billy, op. cit., p. 21.
- ibid.
- Billy, op. cit., p. 20.
- Berkhof, op. cit., pp. 197-198.
- ibid.
- Berkhof, op. cit., p.199.
- Yates, op. cit., p. 134.
- Yates, op. cit., 136-138.
- Billy, op. cit., p 24.
- Yates, op. cit., p. 137.
- Heaney, Stephen J. "Aquinas and the Presence
of the Human Rational Soul in the Early Embryo," The Thomist,
56(1), 1992, p. 24.
- Aquinas, St. Thomas. Summa Theologiæ: A
Concise Translation (Timothy McDermott, ed.) Westminster,
Maryland: Christian Classics, 1989, p.116. (Emphasis in the original.)
- Heaney, op. cit., p.24.
- ibid.
- Aquinas, op. cit., p. 163.
- Heaney, op. cit., p. 29.
- ibid., p. 31. (Emphasis in the original.)
- ibid., p. 37.
- Billy, op. cit., p. 28.
- Heaney, op. cit. P. 37.
- ibid.
- ibid., p. 23. (Emphasis in the original.)
- ibid., p. 48.
- Barnes, Jonathan, ed. "Psychology," The
Cambridge Companion to Aristotle, Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1995, p. 175.
- Heaney, op. cit., p. 44.
- 1 John 3.2
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