Page 117 - Orthodoxy Zizioulas

I S T H E S O U L I M M O R TA L
Is the Soul Immortal?
Although the idea of the immortality of the soul is not of
Christian origin, it has undeniably entered into the life of
the Church. Our hymnography is permeated with it, and no
one can simply reject it without distancing themselves from
the Church’s living worship.
Yet it is equally clear that the Church did not receive this
idea uncritically. From the earliest centuries, it was accepted
only with decisive qualifications—qualifications that safe-
guard the truth of the human person and the meaning of sal-
vation.
Three such qualifications are fundamental.
First, the soul is not eternal. It is created. The notion of its
pre-existence, as taught by Origen, was rejected and formally
condemned by the Fifth Ecumenical Council.
Second, the soul must never be identified with the human
being. The soul is not the person. It is a part of the human be-
ing, but not the whole. As the Fathers—from Irenaeus of Ly-
ons to St. Athanasius and St. Maximus the Confessor—con-
sistently affirm, the human being is a unity of soul and body.
This point is crucial. If taken seriously, it transforms en-
tirely the question of immortality. For even if the soul is im-
mortal, the human being is not, unless the body also lives. At
death, the unity of the human being is broken. The body dis-
integrates, and the human person, as such, ceases to exist in
its fullness.
This is why St. Athanasius can speak of death as a return to
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