His Words on the Origin of Souls

But what follows about the state of souls can in no way be excused. He says: “Next I am told that some stir has been made over the question of the nature of the soul. Whether complaints on a matter of this kind ought to be entertained rather than set aside, you must decide for yourself. But if you wish to know my opinion on this subject, I will state it frankly. I have read a great many writers on this question, and I find that they express various opinions. “Some of those I have read hold that the soul is infused together with the material body through the channel of the human seed, and they give such proofs of this as they can. I think this was the opinion of Tertullian or Lactantius among the Latins, and perhaps of a few others. Others assert that God is making new souls every day and infusing them into the bodies that have been formed in the womb. Still others believe that the souls were all made long ago, when God made all things out of nothing, and that all he does now is send out each soul to be born in its body as seems good to him. This is the opinion of Origen, and of some others among the Greeks. “For myself, I declare in the presence of God that, after reading each of these opinions, I am unable to hold any of them as certain and absolute. The determination of the truth on this question I leave to God, and to anyone to whom it may please him to reveal it. My profession on this point, then, is first, that these several opinions are the ones I have found in books; and second, that I still remain ignorant on the subject, except for this: that the church hands down as an article of faith that God is the creator of souls as well as of bodies.” [a]