386、⑹人的心智就是他的灵，灵就是这个人，而身体是心智或灵在世界进行感觉和活动所借助的一个外在工具。人的心智就是他的灵，灵就是这个人，这一事实几乎无法进入那些以为灵就是风，灵魂就是某种空气，就像从肺里呼出的一股呼气之人的信仰。因为他们会问：当灵就是灵时，它如何成为人？当灵魂就是灵魂时，它如何成为人？这与他们思想神的方式是一样的，因为神被称为一个灵。他们从以下事实获得对灵和灵魂的这个观念：在某些语种中，灵和风是同一个词；还有，当一个人死亡时，人们就说他咽下最后一口气，交出了灵或灵魂；而当窒息或昏迷的人又恢复呼吸或肺呼吸时，人们就说他们又活过来了。因此，在这些情况下，人们只会将灵或灵魂理解为风或空气，于是就根据肉眼和身体感官的经验断定：死后，人的灵或灵魂不是一个人。各种理论、假设就是从关于灵和灵魂的这种肉体化结论产生的，而这些理论、假设又产生了这样一种信念：人死后不会成为一个人，直到最后审判之日；在此之前，他的灵在某处停留，等着与他的肉身重新结合，正如《最后的审判续》一书(32-38节)所说明的。由于人的心智就是他的灵，所以天使也是灵，被称为“心智”。
386, 6. Our mind is our spirit, and the spirit is a person, with the body being a covering through which the mind or spirit senses and acts in its world. It is hard for people to accept with any trust the notion that our mind is our spirit and that the spirit is a person if they have thought that the spirit is a wind and that the soul is something ethereal, like the breath breathed out from our lungs. They ask how the spirit can be a person when it is a spirit, or how the soul can be a person when it is a soul. They say the same about God because God is called a spirit.
They have gathered these concepts of spirit and soul from the fact that in some languages there is only one word for "spirit" and "wind," so when someone dies, they talk about "the last breath" or "giving up the ghost" and that when someone has suffocated or fainted, life comes back when the spirit or life comes back into the lungs. Since this seems to be nothing but wind and air, they conclude on the basis of their eyes and their physical senses that after death our spirit or soul is not a person.
Various theories have sprouted from this materialistic assessment of the spirit and the soul, resulting in the belief that we are not persons until Judgment Day comes, that until then we are in some undefined place waiting for the reunion [with our bodies]. This is discussed in Supplements on the Last Judgment [and the Spiritual World] 32-38.
It is because the human mind is our spirit that angels, who are also spirits, are called "minds."
386. (6) A person's mind is his spirit, and the spirit is the person, the body being the outward instrument by which the mind or spirit senses and acts in the physical world. The fact that a person's mind is his spirit, and that the spirit is the person, is something that can hardly be accepted and believed by people who have thought of the spirit as a gust of wind, or of the soul as something ethereal, like a puff of breath exhaled from the lungs. For they ask how the spirit can be a person when it is a spirit, and how the soul can be a person when it is a soul, thinking in the same way as they do of God because He is called a spirit. 1
They have acquired this idea of the spirit and soul from the fact that the word for spirit and wind in some languages is the same; and also from the fact that when a person dies he is said to breathe his last and yield up the spirit or soul, while life is said to return to people suffocated or fallen into a faint when they recover their breath or the respiration of their lungs. Consequently, because people apprehend by this then nothing but wind and air, they have judged on the evidence of the eye and bodily senses that a person's spirit or soul after death is not a person.
From this physical judgment regarding the spirit and soul various theories have arisen, and out of these has grown the belief that a person does not become a person again until the day of the Last Judgment, and that in the meantime he tarries somewhere, awaiting reunion with his body, in accordance with what we said in A Continuation Concerning the Last Judgment 32-38.
Since a person's mind is his spirit, therefore angels, who likewise are spirits, are called intelligences.
Footnotes:
1. John 4:24. Cf. 2 Corinthians 3:17.
386. (vi) Man's mind is his spirit, and the spirit is the man. The body is the external through which the mind or spirit feels and acts in the world of the body. That man's mind is his spirit and that the spirit is the man can hardly be accepted in their faith by such as have deemed the spirit to be wind and the soul something ethereal, such as is breathed from the lungs; for they say, How can the spirit be the man when it is spirit, and how can the soul be the man when it is soul? And similarly concerning God because He is called a Spirit. They have derived this idea of the spirit and the soul from the fact that, in some languages spirit and wind are the same word; also, that when a man dies, it is said that he gives up the ghost or spirit; and again that in cases of suffocation or swooning life returns when the spirit, or breath of the lungs, comes back. And since they perceive nothing except breath and air, they judge from the eye and bodily sense that the spirit and the soul of man after death is not the man. From such a corporeal conclusion about the spirit and soul, various hypotheses have arisen, out of which has grown the belief that man does not become a man until the day of the last judgment, and in the meanwhile he remains somewhere or other, awaiting re-union with his body as has been related in the CONTINUATION CONCERNING THE LAST JUDGMENT, (32-38). Since man's mind is his spirit, the angels who also are spirits are called minds.
386. (6) Man's mind is his spirit, and the spirit is the man, while the body is an external by means of which the mind or spirit feels and acts in its world. That man's mind is his spirit, and that the spirit is the man, can hardly enter the faith of those who have supposed the spirit to be wind, and the soul to be an airy something like breath breathed out from the lungs. For they say, How can the spirit, when it is spirit, be the man, and how can the soul, when it is soul, be the man? They think in the same way of God because He is called a Spirit. This idea of the spirit and the soul has come from the fact that spirit and wind in some languages are the same word; also, that when a man dies, he is said to give up the ghost or spirit; also, that life returns, after suffocation or swooning, when the spirit or breath of the lungs comes back. Because in these cases nothing but the breath or air is perceived, it is concluded from the eye and bodily sense that the spirit and soul of man after death is not the man. From this corporeal conclusion about the spirit and soul, various hypotheses have arisen, and these have given birth to a belief that man after death does not become a man until the day of the last judgment, and that meanwhile his spirit remains somewhere or other awaiting reunion with the body, according to what has been shown in the Continuation concerning the Last Judgment (n. 32-38). Because man's mind is his spirit, the angels, who also are spirits, are called minds.
386. VI. Quod mens hominis sit 1 ejus spiritus, et quod spiritus sit homo, et quod corpus sit externum per quod mens seu spiritus sentit et agit in suo mundo. Quod Mens hominis sit ejus spiritus et quod spiritus sit homo, hoc aegre potest recipi fide ab illis, qui cogitaverunt, quod spiritus sit ventus, et quod anima sit sicut aethereum, quale est halitus exspirati a pulmone[;] dicunt enim quomodo potest spiritus esse homo, cum est spiritus; et quomodo potest anima esse homo cum est anima; similiter de Deo quia vocatur Spiritus. Hanc ideam de spiritu et de anima traxerunt ex eo, quod spiritus et ventus in aliquibus linguis sint una vox; tum ex eo, quod cum homo moritur, dicatur quod emittat spiritum aut animam, et quod vita redeat cum spiritus aut anima pulmonis apud suffocatos aut deliquium passos redit, et quia tunc non appercipiunt nisi ventum et aerem, judicarunt ex oculo et sensu corporis, quod spiritus et anima hominis post mortem non sit homo. Ex corporeo hoc judicio de spiritu et anima exortae sunt variae hypotheses, et ex illis enata est fides, quod homo non [iterum] fiat homo [prius] quam die ultimi Judicii, et quod interea moretur alicubi, et exspectet reunionem [cum corpore], secundum illa quae in DE ULTIMO JUDICIO 32-38 dicta sunt. Quoniam Mens hominis est ejus spiritus, ideo angeli, qui etiam sunt spiritus, vocantur Mentes.
Footnotes:
1. Prima editio: fit