So, I was listening to a weird supernatural podcast that Old Testament scholar Michael Heiser does called Peeranormal. It's a podcast where he explores with other co-hosts, peer reviewed work on all sorts of supernatural claims that range from ghosts, to ESP, to Bigfoot and beyond. It's essentially a Christian version of Leonard Nimoy's old In Search Of... program, or Art Bell/George Noory's Coast to Coast AM (which Dr. Heiser has appeared on as a guest a number of times).
Anyhow, Dr. Heiser brought up the subject of when the soul begins to exist. He pinpointed three popular views within Christianity (I hope I'm getting this right),
Dr. Heiser seems very keen on the third view. He has mentioned this view in his other podcast The Naked Bible, and referenced a book by Mormon professor of literature, Terryl Givens, called When Souls Had Wings: Pre-mortal existence in Western Thought (a book that also cites Heiser). In Heiser's Naked Bible Podcast #189 (a recording of a live question and answer seminar he did in Boston), he states,
But that's obviously disingenuous, since preexistence of the soul is Mormonism 101.
I can think of a few reasons why Heiser appreciates this view, but I'll go into that after I see where the rest of the forum lands on the issue. I think option 2 makes the most sense, but I'm not opposed to option 1. I think option 3 is...strange, to say the least.
Anyhow, Dr. Heiser brought up the subject of when the soul begins to exist. He pinpointed three popular views within Christianity (I hope I'm getting this right),
1.) Creationism: The soul is created uniquely by God immediately upon conception out of nothing.
2.) Traducianism: The soul forms through natural means at the moment of conception when the sperm fertilizes the egg (in this way God is still the creator of the soul, but through the medium of the parents).
3.) The preexistence of the soul. This is Origen's view that all souls were created by God at some point in the distant past, and that they are placed into bodies when their time comes. This is one of a number of views that got Origen in trouble because folks thought it hinted of reincarnation (though technically that's not an accurate assessment of his view).
2.) Traducianism: The soul forms through natural means at the moment of conception when the sperm fertilizes the egg (in this way God is still the creator of the soul, but through the medium of the parents).
3.) The preexistence of the soul. This is Origen's view that all souls were created by God at some point in the distant past, and that they are placed into bodies when their time comes. This is one of a number of views that got Origen in trouble because folks thought it hinted of reincarnation (though technically that's not an accurate assessment of his view).
Dr. Heiser seems very keen on the third view. He has mentioned this view in his other podcast The Naked Bible, and referenced a book by Mormon professor of literature, Terryl Givens, called When Souls Had Wings: Pre-mortal existence in Western Thought (a book that also cites Heiser). In Heiser's Naked Bible Podcast #189 (a recording of a live question and answer seminar he did in Boston), he states,
"if you got into this book and you found out the author is a Mormon, don’t let that freak you out, because he’s not doing Mormonism in the book."
But that's obviously disingenuous, since preexistence of the soul is Mormonism 101.
I can think of a few reasons why Heiser appreciates this view, but I'll go into that after I see where the rest of the forum lands on the issue. I think option 2 makes the most sense, but I'm not opposed to option 1. I think option 3 is...strange, to say the least.
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