Reply To: Anthropology 2024/2025 Discussion Board 1

[VictorKachi]

Scholars and various religious traditions hold divergent perspectives regarding the origin of the soul. It is evident that God breathed life into Adam, resulting in his transformation into a living soul. However, several question arises concerning the source of souls for subsequent generations. This essay aims to examine three theological viewpoints regarding the origin of the soul.

1. Creationism
This view holds that God creates a new soul into each individual at the moment of conception or birth (Ps 139:13) . This theory teaches that the human body is transferred from the parents, but the soul, since it is immaterial, comes from God. Their Support for this is found in the fact that after creating Adam, God breathed life into his body—giving him a soul (Gen 2:7).
This theory does face some challenges. How is the sinful nature passed on if God provides each person with a soul?
The soul, often seen as the centre of activities and the essence of our mind, is referred to in the Bible as “desperately wicked.” This raises another intriguing question; if God is the creator of the soul, when does it become corrupted? Because this seem unlikely, some reject this view

2. Traducianism
This view suggests that the soul is transmitted from parents to children through the process of reproduction. This view emphasizes the fact that both the body and soul are inherited from the parents (Ps 51:5). Supporters of this idea believe that God’s act of creating things from nothing ended after the sixth day of creation, which is backed up by the fact that God took a break on the seventh day.
Paul Enns said it this way, “If the parents pass on the nonmaterial nature then it explains the propagation of the sin nature and the tendency, from birth, of every human being to sin”.
I contest this viewpoint by asserting that accepting it implies the belief that Jesus inherited the sinful nature of Mary, which is not accurate. Neither do I propose that sin was exclusively associated with the male genetic lineage, since Mary did not inherit this gene because Jesus was born without sin.
One additional strength of the traducian theory lies in its emphasis on hereditary influences; individuals not only inherit physical traits from their parents but also often share similarities in personality, intelligence, and emotional responses. If the soul were to be directly imparted by God, independent of parental influence, such resemblances would likely be less pronounced.

3. Pre-Existence
 This third view is devoid of biblical backing, as it suggests that God created all human souls simultaneously and “assigns” a soul to an individual at the point of conception. According to this view, there exists a kind of “warehouse of souls” in heaven, where God keeps souls in anticipation of being connected to a human body.

Conclusively, In accordance with Perlman’s suggestion of cooperation between creator and parent as discussed in our prior course session, I am inclined to support a partnership instead of contradiction between creationism and traducianism. This perspective is rooted in the belief that God’s power governs and infuses the world, ensuring that all beings come into existence in accordance with the divine laws established by God. Consequently, even the natural process of reproduction activates these divine principles of life, resulting in the birth of a human endowed with a soul.Adam fathered a son in his own likeness, as noted in Genesis 5:3, suggesting that Adam’s offspring are also “living souls” without the necessity of divine breath being bestowed upon them. Romans 5:12 appears to indicate that we all sinned “through one man,” which points to everyone’s connectedness to Adam and his original sin. The commencement of a new existence and the innovative application of means are initiated by a Creator God (Jhn 1:3)