God made us body and soul. What does this mean? This is an important question because what it means to be both body and soul has huge implications for human flourishing. Let me unpack this by examining two ways to understand human beings.

The first way is what I call the ‘biological machine’ view. In this view, humans have no soul but are simply highly evolved animals. There’s no ultimate reason why we exist. We just happen to exist on this planet, driven to survive because our genes tell us to.

Let’s look at a second view – we will call it ‘a soul in a body’ view. This view sees the relationship between the soul and the body like the relationship that water has to a cup. On this view, our bodies simply contain our souls; what is most important to our identity is what lies in our soul – our soul is who we really are. People who hold this view often put more value on the soul than they do on the body; the body is just a container and nothing more.

Remember how I said that being made body and soul has implications for how we understand human flourishing? This is simply to say that what we think is good for us and for others depends on the stuff we think we are made of. Consider the parent whose emotional absence makes his child feel unloved. When the child complains, the parent responds, “I buy you food, I cook for you, and I put a roof over your head!” This parent doesn’t understand that his child needs more than material provision. Or consider another example: a teen who is plagued by intense fear that if she doesn’t wash her hands that she will make someone she loves seriously ill. Her hands crack and bleed due to the constant washing, and she isolates herself due to the fear. Her family tells her it’s all in her head, and her youth pastor tells her that fear is a sin, and to read the Bible and pray. But neither of these things work.

In both cases, there is a view of the human person that operates behind the scenes. The parent who believes love translates to merely providing food and shelter undervalues the need for emotional support and connection. Children are not mere biological machines, therefore there is more to flourishing than just physical survival. In the case of the anxious teen, her family and youth pastor fail to take the body seriously, thinking that anxiety simply stems from bad beliefs or a lack of Bible reading. By failing to help her get a proper diagnosis, their spiritual dismissal only compounds suffering.

Let’s consider another view: the “body-soul union” view. This view suggests that rather than being just a soul in a body, or being just a biological body, the body and soul are intrinsically related. To try and separate the two would be like separating the chemical compound of H2O from the properties of water. The body and soul are two aspects of a unified whole, each aspect influencing and shaping the other.

This view has been the dominant view in Christianity, and for good reason. God created a material world, which means that our material bodies are good. According to the Christian story, sin is more than just a bad decision – it’s also a consequence, a trauma, to our souls and our bodies. To seek to heal one without the other isn’t good enough. This is why the resurrection of Jesus is so important. Jesus demonstrates that it’s not just the soul he plans to make new, it’s also the body. 

A deficient view of human beings has negative consequences for how we understand human flourishing. Because God has made us body and soul, this means that to care for the whole person is to care for their physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being. At Full Life, our counselors take a holistic view of the human person, both body and soul, guided by the wisdom of the Gospel and use interventions and models that attend to the whole person.