4. The Spirit, Soul, and Body of Man

Anyone who picks up a popular or scientific book today in search of information about the relationship between the human spirit and soul and the external physical organization will usually encounter something like the following analogy: That the sensory impressions that humans receive from the outside world are, in a sense, telegraphic messages that are transmitted via the nerves, like wires, to the central station of the nervous system, the brain, and from there are sent out again into the organism to evoke the impulses of the will, and so on. As appealing as such a parable or a similar one may seem to some today, it can nevertheless be said that such a parable is basically only intended to conceal the helplessness in the face of the great mystery of the soul and spirit, which can be summed up in the words that characterize the subject of today's consideration: the spirit, soul, and body of the human being.