Anthropology 3 - Man's Tripartite or Bipartite Nature

In the a previous post, I described the psyche and its parts or faculties. However, we are not isolated psyches, so we must discuss how our psyche relates to the rest of us. If we stopped our study here at what science and philosophy, logic, and apologetics, have to say, we would come up with a pretty standard Cartesian Dualism model of human nature of a soul in a body. This is what many Christians do, however, that is developed from Western philosophy, not Christianity, so it is, at best, incomplete.

How has anything in study of the psyche taught us about salvation, or our relationship with God, or anything spiritual? What do Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Descartes, Freud, Jung, and Dr. Schwarz have in common?  They are not Christian. Most Christians who hold to this simple Cartesian Dualism view must think they can choose to believe in God by their reason, or do something for their salvation, because they see no other alternative. Indeed, taking this secular view of the soul, there is no real alternative. However, even though the soul and its faculties are gifts from God, they are also corrupt in our fallen state. Our souls are totally depraved. They cannot understand anything spiritual, nor can they lead us to God. How can we have saving faith? Luther and other reformers explained how our saving faith has three parts.

1.)   Notitia (A Notion of): To have faith in something, you have to know about it. Knowledge in humans comes from the psyche (e.g. I intellectually understand what the Bible says).

2.)   Assensus (Agreement): To have faith in something, you have to not only know about it, but believe that it is true. This belief is also in the psyche. (e.g. I believe that the God of the Bible exists). These first two (Notitia and Assensus) correspond to Platos theory of Knowledge consisting of justified true belief. This kind of believe in God is necessary, but it is not sufficient for salvation.

“You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe-and shudder!” -James 2:19

3.)   Fiducia (Trust): The last part of faith is putting your trust in and committing to God. This, we have learned, the psyche cannot do in its fallen state, so we cannot do in our fallen state.

Our psyches are not spiritual, so then, something must be missing from the dualistic model of human nature. Let’s look to scripture to find out what it is.

“Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely (wholly, totally, in every way), and may your whole (integer, entire, every part) spirit (pneuma) and soul (psyche) and body (soma) be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” -1 Thessalonians 5:23

Wait, there is a difference between the soul and the spirit?

“For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul (psyche) and of spirit (pneuma), of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” -Hebrews 4:12

Is this distinction mentioned in other places in the Bible?

But Hannah answered, “No, my lord, I am a woman troubled in spirit. I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but I have been pouring out my soul before the Lord.” -1 Samuel 1:15

“Therefore I will not restrain my mouth; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.” -Job 7:11

“My soul yearns for you in the night; my spirit within me earnestly seeks you.” -Isaiah 26:9

 “And Mary said, ‘My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior…’” -Luke 1:46-47

And many other places that we will see as we continue. All of these authors are NOT just being redundant. They are not using different words for the same thing. They are discussing their non-physical reactions to their situations and to God fully by describing both spirit and soul. In fact, Luther, in his commentary of the Magnificat in Luke, says about these verses:

“The nature of man consists of the three parts--spirit, soul, and body.…To these [first] two parts of man [the soul and spirit] the Scriptures ascribe many things, such as wisdom and knowledge--wisdom to the spirit, knowledge to the soul…. Indeed, reason is the light of this dwelling (the soul); and unless the spirit, which is lighted with the brighter light of faith, controls this light of reason it cannot but be in error. For it is too feeble to deal with things divine.” -Martin Luther, Commentary on Luke

So then, the human spirit is what we were missing in our model, which brings wisdom and God’s light to the soul. Our spirit is the part of us that is spiritual that can deal with things divine. We need to have a spirit to have wisdom and a saving faith. Here are other verses that discuss the difference between knowledge and wisdom.

Whoever trusts in his own mind is a fool, but he who walks in wisdom will be delivered.” -Proverbs 28:26

For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit.” -1 Corinthians 12:7-9

Herman Sasse, in Jesus Christ is Lord: The Church’s Original Confession (1931), says,

"Spirit is a third thing in man in addition to body and soul… a divine kernel dwelling within man…. All psychology, unless it is content with a superficial analysis of the human soul, comes upon this inexplicable factor in man, a realm where things happen which psychological explanations fail to reach."

Luther also clearly believed and taught the “tripartite”, or three-part nature of man, although he still held to substance duality (that is that man is made of physical and non-physical substances). He also said that since God is a triune God, it makes sense that the pinnacle of this creation, a being created in His own image, would also have a triune nature.

I personally agree with Luther and Sasse in the tripartite model of man, based on the scripture and his reasoning above, but not everyone does. C.F.W. Walther, first president of the LCMS, and other theologians that have a proper view of salvation, do not hold to a tripartite view of man. They still believe that the pneuma is separate from the psyche, but that the pneuma is the inner most, spiritual essence of the “spiritual soul.” The psyche, then is still the intersection of the spiritual and physical, just like in the tripartite model, but it is the outer and non-spiritual essence of the “spiritual soul.”

“God’s image, they say, still shines now in the spiritual essence of our soul.” -C.F.W. Walther in a sermon in 1841

This view is not the same as Cartesian Dualism, but is referred to as a bipartite model of the nature of man. In this model the “spiritual soul” is a Holon, which is defined as simultaneously a whole and a part, made up of things that are simultaneously wholes and parts (namely, the psyche and the pneuma). Now, it is apparent, why we will use the Greek words.

Either way, man still has a substance duality (physical and non-physical components) and man still consists of a pneuma in a psyche in a soma. The LCMS CTCR has decided that scripturally, there is not enough information to decide which model is correct and functionally there is no difference in these models. Therefore, believing one or the other is not a matter of salvation and it is regarded by the LCMS as an open question.

“The Biblical language concerning man's soul does not provide the basis for constructing a clear picture of the nature of man's being…. The Scriptures describe man's being in a variety of ways. For example, they describe him as consisting of body and soul; of spirit, soul, and body; and as a unitary being. Since all these insights are Scriptural, they need to be affirmed and defended, as they have been throughout the history of the church.” -The Commission on Theology and Church Relations of the LCMS, in their “Statement on Death, Resurrection and Immortality”