The soul, accordingly The Fathers
objected to Aristotle’s definition of the soul as the ἐντελέχεια
πρώτη
σώματος
φυσικοῦ
ὀργανικοῦ
taking it to imply that the soul had no independent existence but
was dissolved with the body. Cicero explains it otherwise,
Tusc. Quæst., bk. 1., is a living essence, simple,
incorporeal, invisible in its proper nature to bodily eyes, immortal,
reasoning and intelligent, formless, making use of an organised body,
and being the source of its powers of life, and growth, and sensation,
and generation Maxim., opus de
Anima., mind being but
its purest part and not in any wise alien to it; (for as the eye to the
body, so is the mind to the soul); further it enjoys freedom and
volition and energy, and is mutable, that is, it is given to change,
because it is created. All these qualities according to nature it
has received of the grace of the Creator, of which grace it has
received both its being and this particular kind of nature.