MAN’S PSYCHOLOGICAL CONSTITUTION
All are agreed that man has both a material and immaterial nature. His material nature is his body; his immaterial nature is his soul and spirit. The question arises, is man a twofold or threefold being? Are soul and spirit one and the same, or are we to distinguish between them? Those who believe that soul and spirit are one and the same are called dichotomists; those who hold that they are not the same are called trichotomists. The Western church generally held to dichotomy, the Eastern church generally held to trichotomy.
The dichotomous theory
Strong states the theory thus:
The immaterial part of man, viewed as an individual and conscious life, capable of possessing and animating a physical organism, is called psuche; viewed as a rational and moral agent, susceptible of divine influence and indwelling, this same immaterial part is called pneuma. The pneuma, then, is man’s nature looking Godward, and capable of receiving and manifesting the pneuma hagion; the psuche is man’s nature looking earthward, and touching the world of sense. The pneuma is man’s higher part, as related to spiritual realities or as capable of such relation. Man’s being is therefore not trichotomous but dichotomous, and his immaterial part, while possessing duality of powers, has unity of substance. (Strong, Systematic Theology, p.486)
This theory is supported by a number of facts. (1) God breathed into man but one principle, the living soul (Gen. 2:7). In Job 27:3 "life" and "spirit" seem to be used interchangeably (cf. 33:18). (2) The terms "soul" and "spirit" seem to be used interchangeably in some references (Gen. 41:8 and Ps. 42:6; Matt. 20:28 and 27:50; John 12:27 and 13:21; Heb. 12:23 and Rev. 6:9). (3) "Spirit" as well as "soul" is ascribed to brute creation (Eccl. 3:21; Rev. 16:3). Though the soul or spirit in beasts is irrational and mortal, in man it is rational and immortal. (4) "Soul" is ascribed to the Lord (Is. 42:1; Heb. 10:38). (5) The highest place in religion is ascribed to the soul (Mark 12:30; Luke 1:46; Heb. 6:19; James 1:21). (6) Body and soul (or spirit) are spoken of as constituting the whole of man (Matt. 10:28; 1 Cor. 5:3; 3 Jn. 2), and to lose the soul is to lose all (Matt. 16:26; Mark 8:36). (7) Consciousness testifies that there are two elements in man’s being. We can distinguish a material part and an immaterial part, but the consciousness of no one can discriminate between soul and spirit.
The trichotomous theory
This theory holds that man consists of three distinct elements: body, soul, and spirit. The body is the material part of our constitution, the soul is the principle of animal life, and the spirit is the principle of rational life. Some add to this last statement "and immortal life". This can, however, not be made an essential part of the theory. Those who take this extreme view hold that at death, the body returns to the earth, the soul ceases to exist, and the spirit alone remains to be reunited with the body at the resurrection.
The trichotomous theory rests on the following considerations. (1) Gen. 2:7 does not absolutely declare that God made a twofold being. The Hebrew text is in the plural, "Then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life (lives); and man became a living being". We note, however, that it is not said that man became a spirit and soul. And further, "living being" is the same phrase used of animals and translated "living creature" (Gen. 1:21, 24). (2) Paul seems to think of body, soul, and spirit as three distinct parts of man’s nature (1 Thess. 5:23). The same thing seems to be indicated in Heb. 4:12, where the Word is said to pierce "as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow." (3) A threefold organization of man’s nature may be implied in the classification of men as "natural," "carnal," and "spiritual," in 1 Cor. 2:14-3:4. Though Scripture seems to point to trichotomy, is it not possible that they merely intend to include the whole man? Jesus said to the young man, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength" (Mark 12:30), but no one would build a fourfold division of human nature on this statement. Heb. 4:12 does not speak of the separation of the soul from the spirit, but of the separation itself extending to that point. The Word pierces to the dividing of the soul itself and the spirit itself. The soul and the spirit are laid open. In reference to 1 Thess. 5:27, Hiebert in The Thessalonian Epistles (p.253) states, "Students of Scripture are not agreed as to whether the distinction between spirit and soul . . . is substantial or functional. Trichotomists hold to the former, dichotomists to the latter.
It is probable that we are to think of man’s immaterial nature as composed of a lower and higher power. To the soul would belong man’s imagination, memory, understanding; to the spirit, his powers of reason, conscience and free will. This variation from the traditional trichotomous view makes it possible to conserve the arguments for the dichotomous view, and yet explain how some Christians are "carnal" and others "spiritual". It also coincides with the teaching that the present body is a natural or soul body and that the resurrection body will be a spiritual body (1 Cor. 15:44).
In other words, man’s immaterial nature is looked upon as one nature, but as composed of two parts. Sometimes the parts are sharply distinguished; at other times, by metonymy, they are used for the whole being.
(This excerpt is from Lectures in Systematic Theology by Henry C. Thiessen, p. 162-3. Copyright 1979, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.)
