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CHAPTER V - CONFLICT RESPECTING THE NATURE OF THE SOUL.—DOCTRINE OF EMANATION AND ABSORPTION

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 August 2010

John William Draper
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Summary

European ideas respecting the soul.—It resembles the form of the body.

Philosophical views of the Orientals.—The Vedic theology and Buddhism assert the doctrine of emanation and absorption.—It is advocated by Aristotle, who is followed by the Alexandrian school, and subsequently by the Jews and Arabians.—It is found in the writings of Erigena.

Connection of this doctrine with the theory of conservation and correlation of force.—Parallel between the origin and destiny of the body and the soul.—The necessity of founding human on comparative psychology.

Averroism, which is based on these facts, is brought into Christendom through Spain and Sicily.

History of the recession of Averroism.—Revolt of Islam against it.—Antagonism of the Jewish synagogues.—Its destruction undertaken by the papacy.—Institution of the Inquisition in Spain.—Frightful persecutions and their results.—Expulsion of the Jews and Moors.—Overthrow of Averroism in Europe.—Decisive action of the late Vatican Council.

The pagan Greeks and Romans believed that the spirit of man resembles his bodily form, varying its appearance with his variations, and growing with his growth. Heroes, to whom it had been permitted to descend into Hades, had therefore without difficulty recognized their former friends. Not only had the corporeal aspect been retained, but even the customary raiment.

The primitive Christians, whose conceptions of a future life and of heaven and hell, the abodes of the blessed and the sinful, were far more vivid than those of their pagan predecessors, accepted and intensified these ancient ideas. They did not doubt that in the world to come they should meet their friends, and hold converse with them, as they had done here upon earth—an expectation that gives consolation to the human heart, reconciling it to the most sorrowful bereavements, and restoring to it its dead.

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History of the Conflict between Religion and Science , pp. 119 - 151
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2009
First published in: 1875

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