Abstract

While the concept of the human soul was always central to Christian thought, as to the origin of the soul Christian thinkers felt uneasy and did not hesitate to declare themselves ignorant. For once, Augustine did not point the way and found himself “beset with great trouble and utterly lost for an answer” in view of some of the difficulties that the issue raised. Of course, man's soul was universally believed to be created by God, but the questions “how”, “when” and “where” did not admit of straightforward and unambiguous answers. Very broadly speaking, medieval thinkers could either argue that the soul is transmitted from parents to their children, rather like the conception of a new body out of the parents' “bodies”, or that God creates new souls daily.