Theology of the Soul

In the tradition of the world, there are conflicting claims about the soul. The soul is defined by all as an immortal, moral being of spirit. But a controversy rages over this one doctrine, important to all: Do mortals have souls?

According to the Saints of the Ecclesia, all things immortal have souls. But the controversy is based around whether mortals have no souls and at what time (if any) they will receive their souls. According to the teaching of the old Aman Ecclesia, mortals do not have souls and either receive souls at the moment of their death, or are denied one and perish forever. In many monastic traditions, it is believed that all men exist in two forms: A physical body and man a spiritual self who is merely an aspect of the godhead. But these being are separated by the mortal body’s imperfection. At the moment of death, you will be united with your spiritual self if you attain perfection. Otherwise, you would be banished to oblivion. However, the belief in the Crespian view eventually developed that you could become one with your soul by enlightenment or by purging yourself of your flaws. This belief system competes with the traditional view and the controversy has come to a head in the form of the 17th Ecclesiarch since the saints. He declared that all mortals had a soul, separate from the godhead. He also dictated that all men have souls that can be damned or enlightened. This controversy remains unresolved as the doctrine had never been codified before he spoke, and the Ecclesiarch is considered by some to be the word of the Godhead by many Ecclesians. Overturning it would lead to the lessening of Ecclesian Authority. Moreover, the Reya of Laurë and many Crespianians hold this view, and would object to its overturning. A civil war is brewing in the Ecclesia and the best case scenario would be a less controversial Ecclesiarch.

Aveyan taught that all men were the children of the Godhead and Creator of the Universe. As a result, all of us have a bit of divinity bound within us called the soul. When we died, this fragment is put through a purging process and assigned to a heaven that it is fit for or into damnation. Other traditions (such as the Tarisian Heresy) dictate that all men are God, and merely deceive themselves into believing that there is a separation between each other and veil between them and God. This belief occurs in many of the monotheistic traditions, and is considered heresy.

The ancients believed various things about the soul. Many believed themselves to be the physical children of divine ancestors and that your soul was within you and was a fragment of your ancestor. Others believed that all men were the shattered remains of the Creator (a belief some Ecclesians hold) and that all men and gods were different individual aspects of him. A common belief is that there is no particular reward or punishment in this life, and that once your body died, it was freed to do as it wished and wandered the world eternally.

A modern belief, born from the old Aman Ecclesia is that mortals do not have a soul at all and that there is no afterlife. This view is held by the Seclorum, who are a new philosophy based in the traditions of the Old Palatinate. They are a minority among the nobility of the Palatinate.

-       The Nature of the Soul, Adanë Laurë Caerom, Priest of the Ecclesia