O you spirits and souls of the righteous, bless you the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.
All Commentaries on Daniel 3:86 Go To Daniel 3
Thomas Aquinas
AD 1274
spirits and souls: On account of these words, certain
people maintained that the spirit in man is one element and the soul another, thus positing two souls in man, that is, one which animates the body and another which carries on the function of reasoning. These opinions are rejected in the Church’s teaching. For it should be realized that these two elements
[which are really one] do not differ essentially, but only by reason of the powers present in them. There are certain powers in our soul which are linked to bodily organs, such as the powers of the sensitive part of the soul. And there are other powers which are not linked to bodily organs, but function apart from the body, insofar as they are the powers of the intellectual part of the soul. The latter powers are regarded as spiritual powers in that they are immaterial and separated in some manner from the body in that they are not functions of the body but are referred to as the mind. “Be renewed in the spirit of your minds” Eph. 4:23. Yet it is called the soul insofar as it animates the body, for this is proper to it. Paul speaks here in a specific sense.
