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Pondering the Soul

Sometimes I think I am a sucker for soul.  What I mean by that is to confess I have a long-held interest in questions, such as what is the soul?  I can imagine this initial intrigue was focused on what happened to people at death.  Christian churches that I knew about usually talked about the soul going somewhere to be with God.  Clearly, the body was done, as death set in.  But what about the soul?  And where or how was it during a person’s lifetime? 

This intrigue only became more pronounced when people would use “soul” to talk about music, food and other things.  What made some music “soul” and other forms of music apparently not?  Often it would be used of the music and food, which African Americans played and enjoyed.  I was interested in what qualities they brought to food and music that made it soulful?  I was willing to accept the truth of that.  I simply wanted to know more.

Recently, I bumped into some thoughts by the late psychologist, James Hillman.  Hillman died in 2011.  He had studied the thought of the Swiss, C.G. Jung.  He was somewhat of a rebel among his psychology peers.  He was not a person of faith, so this was not the driver of his interest in soul.  I first became acquainted with him through reading of Thomas Moore in some of his books in the 1990s.  So running into more of Hillman was a good reminder of what I once found had interested me.  And it still does.

In attempting to offer his own take on soul, Hillman identifies four qualifications, as he puts it.  He says that soul “refers to that unknown component which makes meaning possible, turns events into experiences, is communicated in love, and has a religious concern.”  Each of these qualifications of soul is instructive.  I wanted to take a moment and ponder each one.  Doing so helps me become even more clear how I want to understand and talk about soul.

In the first place, Hillman says that soul has to do with that in us which makes meaning possible.  I have done a great deal of work over the years on the idea of meaning.  It seems conclusively to me that only people who have found a way to make some meaning in life can say that their lives were good.  I don’t know anyone who expresses a hope that life is pointless.  In fact, many people are driven to despair because they don’t see any point to life.  In tragic cases this has led to suicides.  Literally, people have nothing to live for.  They finally reach that decisive no-turn-around point when they take their own lives.  This is a radical and tragic way to solve what might be called the soul problem.

Of course, there are many different ways to make meaning.  I don’t doubt that many people actually “find” meaning.  While this has been attractive to me, I am not always sure where to look.  If we find meaning, that suggests it already exists out there; I just have to find it.  Others of us “make” meaning.  This suggests there perhaps is not just one way for us.  There is no doubt in my mind that I have made meaning by taking seriously some things people have told me.  Add to that, I have read some people who help me much more than others.  If we are Christians, surely Jesus becomes part of that meaning making.  As a disciple, I want to claim that living my life imitating what Jesus did is a way to make sense of life.

The second qualification Hillman described said that soul is that which enables us to turn events into experiences.  I know some don’t like this way of putting it, but it does speak to me.  I understand events to be simply what happens to us.  For example, two people might go to the same lecture.  That lecture is the event.  Someone spoke and we heard her.  But the event also gets interpreted by each of us at the lecture.  I find the speaker to be fascinating.  She speaks in a way that I learn and grow from having attended the event.  I pronounce it to be exciting and that I experienced growth and felt some vitality.  The other person who went to the lecture can say that she was boring and useless.  These are different experiences---different expressions of soul.

Next Hillman says that soul is communicated in love.  That makes sense to me.  True love is a communication of the deepest part of who we are.  We know words are not adequate.  If we can add a hug or kiss, more love is communicated.  To put ourselves “really” in something feels like soul.  If I don’t care, am listless or even show some disdain, I am hardly communicating love.  I want to explore this one even more.

Finally, Hillman says that soul has a religious concern.  I admit I am not fully confident I know what he means here, since I know he was not what we usually call a religious or spiritual guy.  I don’t want to get into what religion is.  Rather, I want to assume that what he means is soul has to do with the deepest part of who we are.  Personally, religion has to do with how I understand myself to be part of God’s gracious creation.  And within that creation, I am blessed with a particular and special role.  Since God is love in my definition, then we have a unique relationship with that lovingly, creative God.

Soul is my willing participation in my life with God.  It is meaningful, deeply experiential, loving and life-fulfilling.  That’s soul, as I ponder it.

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