Saint Augustine in His Study (detail), Sandro Botticelli

Augustine of Hippo, On the Soul and its Origin I.5: Another of Victor’s Errors, that the Soul is Corporeal

Sandro Botticelli, Saint Augustine in His Study (detail), c. 1480 · Ognissanti, Florence · Public domainSandro Botticelli, Saint Augustine in His Study (detail), c. 1480, Ognissanti, Florence

SectionAugustine of HippoPublic domainBook I

But as regards his contention, “that the soul is not spirit, but body,” what else can he mean to make out, than that we are composed, not of soul and body, but of two or even three bodies? For inasmuch as he says that we consist of spirit, soul and body, and asserts that all the three are bodies; it follows, that he supposes us to be made up of three bodies. How absurd this conclusion is, I think ought rather to be demonstrated to him than to you. But this is not an intolerable error on the part of a person who has not yet discovered that there is in existence a something, which, though it be not corporeal, yet may wear somewhat of the similitude of a body.

Reproduced in full. Translation: Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 5 (Schaff, 1887), public domain (Public domain).

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