Re: Acquisition of spirituality

Geoffrey Horton (ghorton@mail.gte.net)
Mon, 30 Dec 1996 20:00:29 -0600

The Pope seems to think that this is an important issue (the evolutionary
part; much like you, I'd really rather not sit through another abortion
discussion). His whole statement can be found at
<http://www.christusrex.org>> (if that doesn't work, try .com instead).
Since I'm an Episcopalian, I don't regard his statement as doctrinal, but
it's interesting nonetheless. As I recall, he does not accept "evolution
of the soul" as a viable doctrine.

Yours in Christ,
Geoff

> I do NOT want to resurrect the abortion question, but one of
> the issues raised was the moment at which the foetus gets a
> "soul" or become spiritual. The question I have is this.
> Is there a useful parallel to be drawn with the question of
> when mankind became spiritual? If you hold to a YEC
> position this is not an issue. But for those with a
> theistic evolution position the question seems very
> relevant. Did we suddenly become human in an instant of
> spiritual creation? Or did our spirituality develop over
> time? I think that this has been discussed by
> Glenn and others before. But, it seems to me that we have
> the same difficulty in dealing with the spirituality of the
> foetus, or rather when it becomes spiritual, albeit in a
> shorter time frame. I am also reminded of the addage
> (somewhat flawed) that ontogeny repeats phylogeny - perhaps
> this is true of the spirit as well as the body?