It has been said by many of the Eastern Orthodox that the "Body and soul together constitute a human being. If one lacks the other, then it ceases to function. I'll quote only three of a dozen or more Fathers on this subject:
"Behold how both the soul and the body attest to one another: even as the body must have the soul as to live, so must the soul have the body to see and hear." St. Ephraim the Syrian, Hymn Eight on Paradise
"Accordingly, when the soul is separated from the entire body, it no longer is able to operate, because it operates through the members of the body." St. Athanasios of Sinai, Answer 89
"For as in the case of a yoke of oxen, if one or other is loosed from the yoke, neither of them can effect anything, if they be unyoked from their communion...For what is man but the rational animal composed of body and soul? Is the soul by itself man? No; but [only] the soul of a man. Would the body be call man? No; but is called the body of a man...neither of these is by itself man, but that which is made up of the two together is call man." St. Justin Martyr, On the Resurrection
The soul is not a prisoner of the body, as Plato and the Gnostics suggest. Nor does the soul wander alone under its own power without the body, as this too is gnostic and against the teaching of the Fathers."
This is frightening. Does this mean that some fathers believed the soul to be unconscious and inactive after death?
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Please pray for me,
LiD
This is frightening. Does this mean that some fathers believed the soul to be unconscious and inactive after death?
If this is true, how in the world do the spirits of the saints continue to communicate with us? And why would we still have their relics!!!
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