Three Christian Views on the Origin of the Soul

The Pre-existence view, held by Justin Martyr and Origen, states that the souls of men were created by God before the creation of the world, but this contradicts Genesis 1:27 which explicitly teaches that Adam’s soul was created after the creation of the world.

The Creationist view, held by Thomas Aquinas and Charles Hodge, holds that God individually creates each soul at some point between conception and birth. This view has great difficulty explaining inherited sin and also fails to take into account that creation was completed on the sixth day (Gen. 2:2; Deut. 4:32; Mt. 13:35) and that God is resting since (Heb. 4:4-6).

Finally, the Traducian view, held by St. Augustine, William G. T. Shedd, and Lewis Sperry Chafer, maintains that both the body and the soul are generated by the human parents. This view is preferable for several reasons. First, while the soul of Adam was created directly by God (Genesis 2:7), the soul of Eve was produced through Adam (2:21-22). Second, Adam had children in his own image (5:3), suggesting strongly that the soul, and not just the body, is produced by human procreation. Third, the Traducian view better accounts for imputation of sin from Adam to the rest of the human race (Rom. 5:12; 1 Cor. 15:22). It is difficult, if not impossible, to account for the biblical teaching of man’s universal inclination to sin (Rom. 3:23) with any other view other than Traducianism. Finally, the psycho-somatic unity of man is best explained by the Traducian view. Man is a soul/body unity, not merely a soul who has a body. Neither the Pre-existence nor the Creationist view can adequately account for this truth because both view the soul as a separate creation that is simply implanted in the body at some point.