The word “soul” is something everyone recognizes, we may even have opinions about it, but don’t exactly know what to say. Almost all religious, philosophical, mythological, and even psychological traditions have a certain notion of the “soul” even if they wouldn’t use that exact word. 

 

The idea of a soul has confused the best minds for thousands of years. Thomas Aquinas, who is considered one of the greatest theologians in the history of the church (born 1125 AD), believed every living creature had a soul, but only human beings souls were immortal and that made us different. Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle didn’t have the word “soul” in their language and essentially called the psyche what we would define as a soul (the essence of a person).