Save our Souls

By George Davis in Sermons

reflections on the meanings of soul

Save Our Souls - George Davis
The term ‘soul’ has shifted from its original religious rand metaphysical
contexts to an incorporation within everyday language with meanings
around a person “John is a good soul”, or a feeling or emotion “her
soul was torn with distress”, to authenticity or central contexts “the
soul of the matter ” or even as a poetic metaphor for life
–“his soul was taken”.
Other more familiar uses are found in statements like “Not a soul was
seen in the village green” or “a small rural town of 80 souls,” or “300
souls were aboard the vessel.” In some European languages such as
Russian “dusha” can be found in phrases meaning per capita. In
Armenian and Kazakh languages how, many people is translated how
many souls. Other variations are found in statements like “he was the
life and soul of the party” or “to search one’s soul” meaning an in-
depth self-reflection. In French “to have a soul in pain” means the
same as heartache.
Modern humans have turned away from the conventional religious
uses of the word ‘soul’. It comes with the rejection of mainstream
churches and teaching of Christianity. The widespread breakdown of
expected social norms such as understanding parental duties in raising
children and consequent loss of family groups attending church on a
Sunday has caused a breakdown of Church-based education in the
young: much of my early education was found in Sunday School and
Bible Class attendance in the late 1940s and 1950s. This formative
experience has largely disappeared. Nowadays, many churchgoers
seem to accept the inevitable decline in numbers and see the trend as
an end point or the moment for a needed resurgence.
Strangely, one of the prime factors is found in the liturgy used by
churches today. Let us look at what has happened over time. The 1611
King James version of the Bible references the word ‘soul’ 458 times
and the plural ‘souls’ 78 times. The original Hebrew word ‘nephesh or
nepes’ as found in the Old Testament 750 – 780 times. The New
Testament in Greek seems to also follow the trend but the word was
also written as ‘psyche’. Different bibles show differing rates of
appearance for ‘soul’ King James Bible 537 times. The New American
Bible of 1986 171 times, New International Version of 1984 – 139
times the English Standard Version (2001}) 281 times.
The numbers seem to waver, but the trend is inexorably downwards.
Can we explain some of this? (a) modern scholarship has been
gradually and more precisely defining words and (b) some words
translating Latin terms for example ‘anima’ as ‘soul’. (c) a closer
distinction between ‘anima’ for non-human creatures Caution where
Greek versions seem to amalgamate ‘soul’ with ‘life’.
The famous lexicographer / translator Samuel Johnson (in 1768) the
meaning of ‘soul’ as the immaterial and immortal spirit of man while
William Shakespeare in the 1610s saw it as the Vital principle, the
interior power or spirit.
Is it time to revive the ‘soul ‘of mankind/womankind with this term?