The Spirit

General Message of the Lecture

His Holiness Pope Shenouda III explains the nature of the body, spirit, and soul, clarifying many misunderstandings about the body, correcting philosophical and religious errors regarding the spirit, and emphasizing the need to rely on biblical and patristic teaching in all spiritual matters.

1️⃣ The body is not evil in itself

• His Holiness explains that the body was created good, and if it were evil, God would not have created it, nor would Christ have taken a body, nor would the body rise in the resurrection.
• The body participates with the spirit in worship and service, and it has noble physical feelings such as mercy and compassion.
• Evil does not lie in the body itself, but in misusing it and in its deviation toward material desires.

2️⃣ The relationship between spirit and body

• The biblical struggle between body and spirit refers to the deviated body, not the body working with the spirit.
• The body can behave spiritually when it submits to the spirit and joins it in doing good.

3️⃣ What we do not know about the spirit

• There are matters about the spirit that God has not revealed, and spiritual humility is to say: “We do not know.”
• True knowledge is based only on what Scripture reveals, such as the return of the spirit to God at death.

4️⃣ False ideas about the spirit throughout history

• Ideas appeared such as reincarnation, multiple incarnations, pre-existence of the spirit, the etheric body, and spiritual projection.
• These concepts came from Eastern and Greek philosophies, affecting some thinkers such as Plato and Origen.
• The Pope clarifies the errors of these ideas because they lack biblical or patristic foundation.

5️⃣ The ancient spread of reincarnation teachings

• The ideas of “returning to life” or “transmigration” were common in the time of Christ, as shown in people’s and disciples’ questions, but Christ rejected and corrected them.

6️⃣ Primitive belief in the spirit

• Early humans believed in the spirit due to the difference between the living and the dead, and from dreams they thought were actions of the spirit.
• The Pope clarifies that dreams come from the subconscious mind, not from the spirit leaving the body.

7️⃣ Other philosophical errors about the spirit

• Some philosophers saw the spirit as an emanation from the divine essence, or as an etheric body, or claimed spirits move through beings—teachings rejected theologically.
• His Holiness affirms that the spirit is created by God, not a part of Him, and has its own human nature.

8️⃣ The necessity of discernment and returning to the correct source

• The Pope warns against using Scripture to support non-Christian concepts.
• He stresses that teaching must be rooted in Scripture, apostolic tradition, and the sayings of the Fathers.

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