The lost existed, without a doubt, even before it perished, when it was something other than the lost one (I do not know what exactly); In the same way, it will exist when it is not lost: in the same way, the soul that is called lost may not have been lost at one time, and therefore was not called a soul, and will someday again be delivered from perdition, and will become what it was before perdition and being called soul. Further, from the very meaning of the name of the soul, which this name has in the Greek language, it is possible to extract an important idea, as it seems at least to some more attentive students. The Word of God calls God fire when it says, "The Lord your God is a consuming fire" (Deuteronomy 4:24). Likewise, of the substance of the angels, it says: "Thou makest by Thy angels spirits, and by Thy servants a flaming fire" (Heb. 1:7), and in another place: "And an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a thorn bush" (Exodus 3:2). In addition, we have received the commandment to burn with the Spirit (Romans 12:11), which undoubtedly indicates the fiery and fervent Word of God. Jeremiah the prophet heard from the One Who gave him the answers: "Behold, My words are in your mouth as fire" (Jeremiah 1:9 Old Ed.). Thus, just as God is fire and the angels are a flame of fire, and as all the saints are aflame in spirit, so, on the contrary, those who have fallen away from the love of God have undoubtedly grown cold in the love of God and have become cold. The Lord, indeed, says that "because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold" (Matt. 24:12). And everything that is compared in the Holy Scriptures with an opposing power is always called cold, as is the devil himself, whom, of course, nothing can be found colder. In the sea, says the Scriptures, the dragon reigns; indeed, the prophet remarks that there is a serpent and a dragon in the sea, and this certainly refers to some evil spirit (Ezek. 32). And in another place the prophet says: "The Lord will smite with His heavy sword the leviathan, the serpent that runs straight, and the leviathan, the serpent that bends, and will kill the monster of the sea" (Exodus 27:1). And he also says: "Though they hide themselves from my eyes at the bottom of the sea, and there I will command the sea serpent to bite them" (Amos 9:3). In the book of Job, the dragon is called the king of all that is in the water (Job 41:25). From Boreas, as the prophet proclaims, calamities proceed upon all that dwell on the earth (Jeremiah 1:14). In the Holy Scriptures, the cold wind is called Boreas, as it is written in the Most Wise One: "The wind of the north is cold" (Sir. 43:22). The same, no doubt, must be thought of the devil. If, therefore, the holy is called fire, light, and flame, the opposite is called cold, and it is said that love grows cold in many; then it may be asked, why is the soul called by the name of the soul, which in Greek is denoted by the word psyche? Is it not because she has grown cold from a divine and better state? Is it not because this name is transferred to it, that it seems to have cooled from that natural and divine warmth, and consequently found itself in its present state and with that name? Finally, you will hardly find that in the Holy Scriptures the name of the soul is used in a laudatory sense; in a reprehensible sense, it is often found here, for example: "The soul of evil will destroy him that has acquired it" (Sir. 6:4), and "the soul that sins shall die" (Ezek. 18:4). After the words: "All souls are Mine: as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son" (ibid.), it would seem that it would be necessary to say: "The soul that does righteousness will itself be saved; but the soul that sins will die of its own accord." But we see that He united with the soul that which is worthy of punishment; and what is worthy of praise – he kept silent about it. Therefore it is necessary to consider whether the soul (psyche), i.e., the soul, is not called because it is cooled to the zeal of the righteous and to participation in the divine fire, as is clear, we have said, from the name itself; And, however, it did not lose the ability to recover to the state of hotness in which it was at first. That is why the prophet apparently indicates something similar when he says: "Return, O my soul, to thy rest" (Psalm 114:7). All this seems to show that the mind, which has deviated from its state and dignity, has become and is called the soul; and that the soul, in case of restoration and correction, will again become mind.

(From Justinian's letter to Menas: "The present soul has come into being as a result of falling away and cooling to the spiritual life, but it can return to what it was in the beginning. This, I think, is expressed in the words of the prophet: "Return, O my soul, to thy rest" (Psalm 114:7), in order to become fully intellect. In this way, the mind has become a soul, and the soul, having been corrected, becomes the mind."

From Jerome's letter to Avitus: "The mind, as a result of the fall, has become a soul, and, conversely, the soul, having learned the virtues, will become the mind. We can find confirmation of this if we examine the soul of Esau: for his former sins he was condemned to a worse life. And of the heavenly bodies, it must be supposed that the soul (or whatever we may call it) of the sun did not begin at the time when the world was created, but before it entered into this luminous and burning body. In the same way we must think of the moon and the stars, that they were compelled to submit to vanity for previous faults: for the reward of the future, to submit not voluntarily, not of their own free will, but according to the will of Him who showed them their offices").

If this be so, it seems to me that the deviation and fall of the mind should not be the same in all beings: the mind is converted into the soul now to a greater or lesser degree, and some minds retain something of their original power, and some retain nothing, or very little. That is why some people from a very early age turn out to have brilliant mental abilities, others with more sluggish ones, and some are born extremely stupid and completely incapable of learning. However, let the reader himself carefully discuss and examine what we have said concerning the turning of the mind into the soul, and other things that seem to pertain to this subject; and we, for our part, have expressed this not as dogmas, but in the form of reasoning and research. To this reasoning, let the reader add what can be noticed about the soul of the Saviour, on the basis of the Gospel testimony, that under the name of the soul one thing is ascribed to it, and under the name of the spirit, another. When the Saviour wants to indicate any suffering or confusion of His, He indicates it under the name of the soul; thus, for example, He says: "My soul is now troubled" (John 12:27), and "My soul is sorrowful unto death" (Matt. 26:38), and "No one takes it away from Me, but I Myself give it away" (John 10:18). But into the hands of the Father He does not give the soul, but the spirit, and when He calls the flesh weak, He calls the spirit, and not the soul, cheerful. From this it can be seen that the soul is something between a weak flesh and a good spirit.

But perhaps someone will contradict us on the basis of our own propositions, and say: in what sense is it spoken of the soul of God? We will answer him as follows. Just as everything that is said about God in the corporeal sense, for example, fingers, hands, muscles, eyes, legs, lips, we understand not as human members, but as certain powers designated by these names of corporeal members, so it must be assumed that the name of the soul of God signifies something different (in comparison with the soul of man). And if we can dare to say a little more about this subject, then perhaps the soul of God can be understood as the only-begotten Son of God. In fact, just as the soul, spread throughout the body, moves and sets everything in motion, so the only-begotten Son of God, Who is the Word and His Wisdom, touches and attains all the power of God, abiding in it. And, perhaps, in order to indicate this mystery, God is called a body in the Holy Scriptures or described as corporeal. It is also necessary to consider whether the only-begotten Son cannot be called the soul of God also because He came and descended into this place of sorrow, and into this valley of weeping, and into the place of our humiliation, as it is said in the Psalm: "Thou hast humbled us in the place of bitterness" (Psalm 43:20). Finally, I know that some, explaining the words of the Savior in the Gospel: "My soul is sorrowful unto death," attributed these words to the Apostles, whom He called the soul, as the best of all the rest of the body. For the multitude of believers is called His body, but the apostles, they say, must be considered the soul, because they are better than the rest of the body. This is what we have said, as far as we could, about the rational soul. We have offered the readers thoughts for discussion rather than giving a positive and definite teaching.

As for the souls of cattle and other dumb animals, what we have said above is sufficient.

Chapter Nine

On the world and on the movements of rational creatures, both good and evil, and on their falls