The concept of the "Vanishing Soul" in Francis of Assisi's time and in the context of the church today

Diskussionsbeitrag / Streitschrift aus dem Jahr 2017 im Fachbereich Theologie - Vergleichende Religionswissenschaft, , Sprache: Deutsch, Abstract: In this write-up, our aim is two-fold: on the one hand, pointing out the existing divergent views of the human person in Francis¿ time, based on his writings, to present his view of the human person, and on the other, to explore its relevance, giving a Franciscan response to the discussion about the "Vanishing Soul" in the context of the Church of our time.

Francis of Assisi viewed the human person always in relation to the Triune God. From his writings, we come to know that he considered the human person as an Image of the Son of God, a view in a stark contrast to many contemporary moderate and absolute dualistic views. These perspectives, borrowing from the pagan sources, held to the belief of the human person as a so-called "Vanishing Body".

As in Francis¿ time, today there are different views of the human person which treat body and soul separately and/or as one and the same reality, thus paving the way for the monistic concept of the human person and the acceptance of the theory of the so-called "Vanishing Soul". Today, the approaches of neuroscience and physicalists challenge the traditional religious and Christian way of understanding and speaking of the soul and consider them in general as promoters and supporters of dualistic views of what a human person is.