So what does the word "soul" mean to you?
What does it do for us? What are we supposed to do for it?
We talk about "soul music" and "soul food," about "having soul" and "soulfulness," as though we know what we mean. But can we define it?
If the soul is not simply the divine spark, the spirit that animates each human being, and if it is more than just a well-developed and balanced sense of ego and superego, what is it?
Perhaps the best comparison we might try to look at is the Hebrew concept of "heart" - a reference that includes within it both the tumult of human emotions and urges the workings of the human mind. The "heart" was the center of the human person, the common residence for all we think and feel. Likewise the "soul" has come to represent the seedbed of all those facets of our being that make us both uniquely, and yet typically, human.
Perhaps the best comparison we might try to look at is the Hebrew concept of "heart" - a reference that includes within it both the tumult of human emotions and urges the workings of the human mind. The "heart" was the center of the human person, the common residence for all we think and feel. Likewise the "soul" has come to represent the seedbed of all those facets of our being that make us both uniquely, and yet typically, human.
