The Bible explains the triple division of man: body, soul and spirit. We see this in the biblical text: "Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ" 1 Thessalonians 5:23.
The concept of soul in the biblical sense is different from that of the Greek philosophy. From the biblical vision the soul is a gift of God, the spirit is the source of life and the sense of the good. For the bible the soul alone is not capable of reaching the spiritual enligtenment by itself. The spirit redeems us from error (sacrament of baptism), and gives us the grace of integrity, the seven gifts of the holy spirit (sacrament of confirmation). It is through the spirit that we capture with the mind the perfections of creation.
According to Greek philosophy, the soul has happiness as its goal, but according to the Bible, the spirit has eternal life (contemplative activity) as its goal (spiritual illumination).
For Jesus, man does not have happiness as his goal, but he debates between the reality of the flesh and the truths of the spirit. And it is here where the concept of soul has an impact on the christian vision of the world. This opposition between the flesh and the spirit would give rise to three types of man.
The first type of man would be the spiritual man, that is, the man in whom the spirit prevails: "The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man's judgment", 1 Corinthians 2:15.
The second type of man is the rational man, in this man the soul prevails, he is the man in whom emotions such as guilt and shame prevail. These emotions are present neither in the spiritual man nor in the natural man. This man is in a intermediate state between good and evil. There is a dialogue in the bible that shows us this type of man:
"Jesus said to Simon Peter: Simon, son of John, do you ´Agape´ more than these? Yes, Lord, you know that I ´Philia´ you", John 21:15-16. Agape is the love of the spirit, the love projected to the whole creation of God; philia is the love of the soul, the love of friendship.
Finally there is the natural man in whom the body prevails. The bible teach us about the natural man: "The natural man does not accept the things that come from the spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because he is spiritually discerned" 1 Corinthians 2:14. The natural man lacks the ability to perceive the divine truths, for this hi sins. The natural man is a man deprived of maturity, like a truncated branch. The flesh and the spirit are mentalities, lifestyles, ways of perceiving reality. The rational man struggles between two extremes: wisdom and falsehood.
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