What is the Soul? An Interview with Joshua Farris

What is the Soul? An Interview with Joshua Farris January 8, 2025

This episode of the Theology and Ethics podcast takes a deep dive into theology and metaphysics with Dr. Joshua Ryan Farris, who contributed to and co-edited a recent book “The Origins of the Soul” (Routledge) which lays out five competing views on the origin and nature of the human soul from a Christian worldview. This book was discussed by the authors (Joshua Ryan Farris, J.T. Turner, Bruce Gordon, Joanna Leidenhag, and William Hasker) at the 2024 Evangelical Philosophical Society Annual Conference in San Diego.

Joshua Ryan Farris, Rev, Ph.D, is Humboldt Experienced Researcher Fellow at the University of Bochum, Germany, 2022-2023; Mundelein Seminary Chester and Margaret Paluch Professor, 2020-2021, March 2020 Center of Theological Inquiry; Director of Trinity School of Theology; International Advisor, Perichoresis, The Theological Journal of Emanuel University; Associate Editor, Philosophical and Theological Studies for the Journal of Biblical and Theological Studies; Associate Editor, European Journal of Philosophy of Religion.

What is the Soul?

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00:00:00-Introduction
00:02:16-A Brief History of the Soul
00:05:37-What is Substance Dualism?
00:12:54-The Assumption of Substance Dualism in History
00:17:18-Why So Many Books on The Soul NOW?
00:27:37-J.T. Turner’s Animalism
00:35:00-Creationism vs. Traducianism
00:43:00-Hasker’s Emergent Self View
00:45:55-Leidenhag’s Panpsychist Traducianism
00:55:57-Farris’s Creationist Dualism/Theistic Neo-Cartesianism
01:09:29-Original Sin and The Soul
01:14:50-Bruce Gordon’s Theistic Quantum Informational Idealism
01:22:22-The Soul and The Scriptures
01:33:50-Abortion and The Soul
01:42:35-Outro

About Anthony Costello
Anthony Costello is a theologian and author. He has a BA in German from the University of Notre Dame, an MA in Christian Apologetics, and MA in Theology from Talbot School of Theology, Biola University, where he was awarded the 2018 Baker Book Award for Excellence in Theology. He has published in journals such as Luther Rice Journal of Christian Studies, the Journal of Christian Legal Thought and the Journal of Christian Higher Education. He co-authored two chapters in Josh and Sean McDowell's Evidence That Demands a Verdict (2016), and has published apologetics' resources for Ratio Christi Ministries and in magazines such as Touchstone. He has made online contributions to The Christian Post and Patheos. Anthony is a US Army Veteran, former 82D Airborne paratrooper and OEF veteran. Currently, he is the president of The Kirkwood Center for Theology and Ethics (kirkwoodcenter.org), a ministry dedicated to helping the local church navigate culture, and is the host of the Theology and Ethics Podcast of the Kirkwood Center. You can read more about the author here.
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