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The Immortality of the Soul: Could Christianity Survive Without It? Part 2 Avondale College ResearchOnline@Avondale School of Ministry and Theology (Avondale Theology Papers and Journal Articles Seminary) 5-2011 The Immortality of the Soul: Could Christianity Survive Without it? Part 2 Bryan W. Ball Avondale College of Higher Education, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://research.avondale.edu.au/theo_papers Recommended Citation Ball, B. W. (2011). The immortality of the soul: Could Christianity survive without it? Ministry: International Journal for Pastors, 83(5), 14-17. This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the School of Ministry and Theology (Avondale Seminary) at ResearchOnline@Avondale. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theology Papers and Journal Articles by an authorized administrator of ResearchOnline@Avondale. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Bryan W. BALL bryan w. ball, phd, is a retired professor and administrator living in Martinsville, New South Wales, Australia. The immortality of the soul: could christianity survive without it? (Part 2 of 2) Editor’s note: In part 1 of this two- of biblical interpretation. This meant absolute truth and the very word part series, the author traced the that the Bible should be interpreted of God.”3 mortalist viewpoint through the literally, unless it was self-evident Third, and even more important, continental and English Reformation. from the text itself that it was not is the place of reason in the interpre- He concluded the first part by to be so understood. An important tation of Scripture. Richard Overton listing theologians, scholars, and case in point was the parable of believed that the subordination of philosophers throughout the sixteenth the rich man and Lazarus (Luke reason in biblical interpretation had to eighteenth centuries who believed 16:19–31), frequently advanced by contributed to the development of in the mortalist viewpoint. immortalists as textual evidence the innate immortality doctrine. The of the soul’s existence beyond the existence of the soul as an entity hroughout the sixteenth, grave. Mortalists argued that the separate from the body, able to think seventeenth, and eighteenth story was inadmissible since a and feel apart from the body, and its centuries a succession of parable cannot form the basis of supposed departure either to heaven able and prominent writers doctrine. Henry Layton says, “We or hell at the moment of death, are T 4 were persuaded of the essential cor- take it not for proof, because it all contrary to reason. The subtitle rectness of the mortalist viewpoint was but a parable, spoken without of Layton’s compendious work, A and felt strongly enough about it to design to teach anything concern- Search after Souls, emphasized the publish their convictions for their ing the State of Man after death.”1 importance of reason in theological contemporaries and posterity. What, Overton likewise insists, “There and philosophical inquiry as well as then, did they believe? Constraints of was never such a man as Dives in the debate over the soul, “The time and space will permit us to note or Lazarus, or ever such a thing Immortality of a Humane [sic] Soul, only three or four of the main planks happened, no more than Jotham’s Theologically, Philosophically, and in the mortalist platform. trees did walk and talk.”2 Rationally Considered.” Similarly, Second, no doctrine should while Milton regards Scripture as The authority of Scripture, be established on a single text or the final authority, as his Treatise correctly interpreted passage, but the whole weight of on Christian Doctrine repeatedly Fundamentally, they believed in biblical evidence should be taken demonstrates, it is not Scripture the Bible, that is, in the authority of into consideration before any con- read blindly or subjectively. Thus Scripture as the source of revealed clusion was reached. Mortalists to the “testimonies of Scripture” truth, and the final court of appeal were highly suspicious of doctrines Milton contends “may be added in all controverted matters. But so formulated on less than all the . arguments from reason” in did those whom they opposed, evidence available. Layton con- “confirmation” of biblical doctrine.5 the immortalists. Wherein lies the tends that he is no “idolizer of the John Locke, perhaps, shows difference? We may detect three Scripture,” but holds that “what- the best example of mortalism’s points of emphasis and divergence soever doctrines or opinions can insistence on reason as necessary in mortalist theology. be proved by a strong current or to biblical interpretation. His great First, they insisted that what they stream of Scripture texts, ought theological treatise on the rational believed was a correct methodology to be accepted and believed as nature of authentic Christian faith, MINISTRY 14 MAY 2011 The Reasonableness of Christianity, be.” After death, Overton says, “Man the dead, and has no other founda- begins with a lengthy and reasoned is void of actual Being . he absolutely tion whatever.”13 exposition of the thnetopsychist IS NOT.”10 Priestley similarly affirms view of man, commencing with the that God made the whole man from Origins of the immortal assertion, “To understand therefore the dust of the ground, arguing “God soul doctrine what we are restored to by Jesus made this man, who was lifeless Almost as important in mortalist Christ, we must consider what the at first, to breathe and live . the minds as the biblical teaching on Scripture shews we lost by Adam.” substance which was formed of the human nature and destiny, were the The process is one of rational con- dust of the earth became a living origins of the immortal soul doctrine. sideration. From that point on, he soul, that is, became alive, by being Once again there was widespread assumes that true Christian faith made to breathe.”11 concurrence among mortalist writers is essentially reasonable, that is Priestley, like all other mortalists, in relation to this question, and once to say, it is always consistent with returns to the resurrection at the again Layton and Priestley may be reason, sometimes beyond reason, last day as the key to the future taken as representative spokesmen. but never contrary to reason. It was and immortality, for once again the Layton’s collected works were reason applied in the interpretation process of death is then reversed. published posthumously in two of the divine revelation in Scripture Although life ceases at the moment volumes, in 1706, under the title A that led Locke to an unequivocal of death, this is not the end for the Search After Souls, or the Immortality thnetopsychism.6 Human nature and destiny Approached from these stand- points, the Bible led to a mortalist the Genesis account eschatology. In this context, the Genesis account of human origins is crucial to a correct understanding of human origins is of human nature and destiny. A key text was Genesis 2:7: “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils crucial to a correct the breath of life; and man became a living soul.”7 Overton’s interpretation of this text is representatively mortal- understanding of human ist. When God imparted the breath of life to the lifeless form of Adam, the man became “a living soul.” Overton says, “That which was formed or nature and destiny. made of the earth became a living soul, or creature, by breathing . the breath of life (and) that lifeless lumpe became a living soul.”8 Overton then adds an important rider, “that which believer, for the temporary extinc- of a Humane Soul, Theologically, was breathed before it was breathed, tion of life at death is not the same Philosophically and Rationally was not a living soul.”9 It was merely as annihilation. When we say a Considered. Layton’s search began breath which, when infused into the candle is extinguished “we surely late in life, in 1690, after reading body, caused a living soul, a man, do not mean it is annihilated, that Richard Baxter’s Dying Thoughts, in to exist. there is nothing left to light again.”12 which Baxter re-affirmed the soul’s Death, as the reversal of this This illustrates “precisely” what Paul ascent to heaven to be with Christ, process, occurs when a person had in mind by the resurrection stressing “the necessity of believing ceases to breathe, when the breath of the dead. Priestley maintains, it.” Layton remarked, “It seemed an leaves the body. When that happens, with Tyndale and all other mortal- over-great morsel to swallow all this the person dies. He or she ceases to ists, that Paul consistently stresses together,”14 embarking on a tireless exist. The “soul” is no more because the resurrection as the gateway campaign of clarification and refuta- the living person is no more. Overton to immortality. So he concludes tion that lasted for the rest of his life. states death “returns man to what that human hope of a future life Layton came to believe early in this he was before he was, that is, not to “depends upon the resurrection of search that the idea of an immortal MINISTRY 15 MAY 2011 Bryan W. BALL soul ante-dated Christianity by sev- a way to eternal life contrary to that that he could not redeem them eral centuries and that it could be set forth in Scripture. The debate from that state in which they found in many pre-Christian Greek came to focus on the classic Pauline were not, nor give them that philosophers, noting in particular passages in 1 Corinthians 15 and life and immortality which they Pythagoras, Anaxagoras and Plato, 1 Thessalonians 4, which deal with already possessed.
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