From soul to Soul
The traditional concept of “soul” is that it is contained within the body. Our thoughts and lives are immeasurably blessed by a deeper understanding of Soul as infinite, never within matter.
While flipping through some TV channels in search of a particular news program, I paused when hearing the word “soul” spoken in a dialogue between a talk show host and her guest. I believe the guest was commenting on a more traditional view of soul in the body and the host said something like, “But I think soul is everywhere.”
Although the conversation was some years ago, the idea of Soul being everywhere was the impression I was left thinking about. And it has stuck with me.
The concept of Soul had always been a little obscure for me until a summer break in my college years, when I took a two-week course known as Primary class instruction in Christian Science. I came away inspired about a lot of things, but perhaps nothing was more enlightening than a far more expansive view of Soul.
The teacher in the class explained that Christian Science uses the term “Soul” as a synonym for God, and that all God’s children are actually spiritual, not material. They are in reality made in the very image and likeness of the one perfect Soul who is God. As the discoverer of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, writes, “Science reveals Spirit, Soul, as not in the body, and God as not in man but as reflected by man” (“Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” p. 467).
For me, this sense of Soul with a capital S has increasingly come to mean the pure and sinless nature of God. From divine Soul comes joy, innocence, and peace; harmony, health, and spiritual poise; and many other qualities.
Understanding this has a very practical impact. Learning that Soul is God, everywhere, instead of contained within a body of matter, and that as God’s expression, we manifest the qualities of Soul, has nurtured a freedom that has significantly empowered me in many ways. It has enabled me to demonstrate harmony when conflict tried to arise, moral strength when sin offered temptation, peace when doubts were felt, and health when I was sick.
The more we learn about Soul as God, and all individuals as beautiful expressions of Soul, the more spiritually strengthened we will be by this simple but expansive view. Understanding that we are planted firmly within infinite Soul brings a genuine stabilization to our lives. God gives us this assurance in the Bible: “Yea, I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will plant them in this land assuredly with my whole heart and with my whole soul” (Jeremiah 32:41).
Just as astronomy helps us see that instead of the sun rising, the Earth turns, so divine Science gives us a fresh view of Soul as not contained in, but expressed by, every individual’s true God-given nature. And this inspired conviction that Soul is not limited within us, but is manifested by us, brings amazing blessings to our lives.