Traducianism
Truducianism is the teaching that the immaterial human soul is transmitted through the natural act of procreation and is generated along with the material human body. Therefore, as the human body is generated from the life of the parents, so is the soul. This position teaches that the human soul in each individual is not generated by God‘s active hand at each conception, but is rather a continued generation from Adam who was the only soul directly made by God (Eve being taken from Adam).
Creationism is also the position held by some regarding the generation of the human soul. Where traducianism says the soul is generated along with the body at procreation, creationism would teach that God creates the soul in the person at conception.
http://carm.org/dictionary-traducianism
Traducianism
What does Traducianism mean?
- The doctrine that the soul or spirit is inherited from one or both parents.
- 2003: Augustine’s insistence on its spiritual nature made it hard for him to uphold, along with Tertullian, the doctrine of physical traducianism. — Roy Porter, Flesh in the Age of Reason (Penguin 2004, p.37n)
– See more at: http://www.wordbypicture.com/definition/traducianism/#sthash.wTk75y3J.dpuf
What does Traducianism mean?
- The doctrine that the soul or spirit is inherited from one or both parents.
- 2003: Augustine’s insistence on its spiritual nature made it hard for him to uphold, along with Tertullian, the doctrine of physical traducianism. — Roy Porter, Flesh in the Age of Reason (Penguin 2004, p.37n)
– See more at: http://www.wordbypicture.com/definition/traducianism/#sthash.wTk75y3J.dpuf
In Christian theology, traducianism is a doctrine about the origin of the soul (or synonymously, “spirit“), in one of the biblical uses of word to mean the immaterial aspect of human beings (Genesis 35:18, Matthew 10:28). Traducianism means that this immaterial aspect is transmitted through natural generation along with the body, the material aspect of human beings. That is, an individual’s soul is derived from the souls of the individual’s parents.[1] This implies that only the soul of Adam was created directly by God (with Eve’s substance, material and immaterial, being taken from out of Adam), in contrast with creationism (not to be confused with creationism as a belief about the origin of the material universe), which holds that all souls are created directly by God (with Eve’s substance, material and immaterial, being taken from out of Adam).[2]
Some Reformed Christians object to this view saying that if the father of the child is regenerate, then the soul of the child would also be regenerate which obscures the doctrine of original sin.
Traducianism is one of two biblically plausible views on the origin of the human soul (immaterial nature, spirit) following God’s initial creation and mankind’s Fall. Traducianism is the theory that human beings are propagated as whole beings, both materially and immaterially (including both body and soul). Creationism, on the other hand, is the view that God specially creates a new soul ex nihilo when a human being is conceived. Both views have their strengths and weaknesses and both have been held by notable theologians of the past.
THEN YOU HAVE THIS POINT OF VIEW
http://www.wordbypicture.com/definition/traducianism/ Definition of words on this site
What does Traducianism mean?
- The doctrine that the soul or spirit is inherited from one or both parents.
- 2003: Augustine’s insistence on its spiritual nature made it hard for him to uphold, along with Tertullian, the doctrine of physical traducianism. — Roy Porter, Flesh in the Age of Reason (Penguin 2004, p.37n)
– See more at: http://www.wordbypicture.com/definition/traducianism/#sthash.wTk75y3J.dpuf
http://www.apuritansmind.com/puritan-favorites/francis-turretin/creationism-or-traducianism/
Dr. Francis Turretin (1623-1687) The Scholastic Reformer explains how the soul is created.
Creationism or Traducianism? by Dr. Francis Turretin
Thirteenth Question: The Origin of the Soul
Are souls created by God, or are they propagated? We affirm the former and deny the latter.
I. Although there are various opinions of theologians and philosophers about the origin of the soul, yet principally there are two to which the others can be referred: one asserting the creation, the other the propagation, (traducem) of the soul. The former holds all souls to have been immediately created by God and by creating infused; thus to be produced from nothing and without any preexisting material. The latter, however, maintains that souls are propagated. The former is the opinion of almost all the orthodox (with many of the fathers and Scholastics). The latter is embraced by the Lutherans. Tertullian was the author of propagation (traducis) in Treatise on the Soul (ANF 3:181-235), whom the Luciferians and many of the Latins followed. Augustine suspends his judgment (epechei) on this point and, although often discussing the question, still would not determine anything about it (cf. Letter 166 “To Jerome” [FC 30:6-31]; Letter 190 “To Optatus” [FC 30:271@881; The Retractions 1.1 [3] [FC 60:9@101). He testifies that “he still did not know what was to be held” (ibid., 2.82 [561 [FC 60:244; PL 32.653]).
AND YET ANOTHER VIEW OR EXPLANATION
Second – The Doctrine of Creationism
There are two positions on this issue which are deemed orthodox: “Creationism,” and “Traducianism.”
By “Creationism” is not meant the creationism of the Answers in Genesis or the Institute for Creation Research or some similar agency, as valuable as their work is. We’re not dealing here with the origins of the world, or the origins of man, or the age of the earth or anything like that. Here we’re talking about the origin of the soul, and of the souls of individual people.
Where then do our souls come from? Creationism answers that God creates a new soul in each person at conception, sometimes even at birth. This view is held almost uniformly by reformed covenant theologians, though not by all of them. There are some exceptions: Jonathan Edwards, W.G.T. Shedd, Gordon Clark, Robert Reymond, and J. Oliver Buswell, come to mind; but for the most part, covenant theologians are creationists, and there is a reason for that which we will discuss as we continue.
It appears also that even though John Calvin did not express himself very much on this issue, there is a quotation from the Institutes which shows that he certainly veered toward it, (even as Augustine did – though Augustine refused to be completely drawn on the subject).
Now, the creationists derive their support from a number of passages. These passages are, I think, inconclusive:
And the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it. – Ecclesiastes 12:7
The idea here is that God gives the spirit to the human body, the body goes to the dust, and the spirit goes to God. Soul Creationism uses some reverse logic here which says that the body is propagated by the human genes but the soul is given by God to each individual body that is created. Of course the verse doesn’t say this, but it is sometimes inferred. The inference does not seem to be very sound. The verse is just a statement of the fact that material things turn back into the dust that they are from. As spirit is immaterial, then obviously it does not decay like the body does. It goes to God. But there is nothing here that says that God implants the spirit in each individual that is born.
The burden of the word of the LORD concerning Israel: Thus declares the LORD, who stretched out the heavens and founded the earth and formed the spirit of man within him. – Zechariah 12:1
Again, this is supposedly a proof that God forms the spirits of individuals, but this is an original creation verse! Note, “…Stretches out the heavens, lays the foundation of the earth, forms the spirit of man within him.” This is man generally as in Genesis 1 and 2. There God put a spirit within man, but “man” in Genesis 1:26-27 is a designation for male and female in that context.
Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? – Hebrews 12:9
Here it is supposed that God is the Father of individual spirits placed into us, just in the way that our fathers are the fathers of our genetic makeup. But that is not the subject of the verse. The verse is talking about paying respect; honor both to our earthly fathers, and then to our heavenly Father. So, it has nothing to do God implanting a soul into every human body individually whatsoever.
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