Spirits.

SPIRIT 'spɪ.rɪt noun. A non-physical being; a supernatural being.

2. A person’s non-physical parts (such as emotions or character), which are considered a person’s true self, survives physical death, and possibly manifests as a ghost.

3. [capitalized] The Holy Spirit.

4. Qualities, characteristics, or emotions of a person or thing, which are considered their defining attributes, like “the spirit of the plan.”

5. Emotion or mood, usually positive, as in “This’ll lift your spirits.”

6. True intentions or attitude, as in “the spirit of the law, not the letter.”

7. Liquor or another volatile liquid.

8. [verb] Taken quickly and secretly.

The bible regularly refers to non-physical beings. We call ’em spirits. Our English word comes from the Latin spirare/“breathe,” and the Hebrew and Greek words for spirit ( ‏רוּחַ/ruákh, πνεῦμα/pnéfma) likewise literally mean “breath” or “wind”—in general, air molecules pushed by an outside force.

No, the bible’s authors didn’t call ’em breath and wind because they literally believed spirit is made of wind or air. (In fact if you look at various ancient and medieval sources, a lot of ’em thought spirit is made of fire.) They figured spirit is invisible, yet we can see how things are affected by it. You know, like wind.

Of course if we wanna get scientific, the simile falls apart. Wind is made of air, which is made of atoms, and therefore is matter. In a gaseous state, and we can freeze it till it’s in a solid state, ’cause it’s a material substance. Whereas spirit is not material. Not that we know what spirit’s made of; we just know it’s not matter. Nor energy.

Therefore we can’t measure spirit with machinery, no matter what certain paranormalists might claim. There’s no way to gauge them scientifically. Science can’t speak about spirits, and spiritual things, at all. Social scientists might talk about the effects of spirits—what people claim they’ve done—and certainly an individual scientist can give you their opinion about what spirits are and what they do. But those opinions aren’t gonna be based on science. They’ll be based on personal belief—either for it, or against.

And if you wanna know what spirit is made of, you won’t find answers in the bible either. The bible’s about God’s relationship with us, not biology. Nor spirit biology.

Thing is, we live in a scientific age. (Or we’d like to imagine we do.) If we can’t study it with science, plenty of people presume it doesn’t exist at all. Nontheists like to argue if spirits can’t be measured, quantified, examined, dissected… well, they’re not real. No more real than elves and sprites.

It may surprise you to know a lot of Christians think just the same: They don’t believe in spirits either. They might believe in God—and maybe the human spirit, if they hope to survive death—and maybe angels and devils. But they refuse to go any further than that. Sometimes they dismiss angels and devils too, like the Sadducees did. Like nontheists, they figure spirits are superstition, or the fakery of false religions.

But the bible refers to all sorts of spirits. Some appear to be good. Some benign, or they have duties which have nothing to do with us. Some are unclean, the sort Jesus threw out of people. Some are evil, like the devil.

If spirits exist in the bible, stands to reason they still exist. We may not be aware of them, nor can we detect them scientifically. We may find it irritating when certain individuals and other religions emphasize them so much, and not just ’cause we think those religions are wrong. But we need to understand what Christianity teaches about spirits, and stay consistent with the scriptures.

Spirits in a material world.

Everything we detect in the universe is material: We humans and our world are made of matter and energy. Matter’s made of atoms, and energy consists of universal forces working on or within these atoms. Matter can be converted into energy and vice-versa, because both atoms and energy are made of the same thing—which theorists call “strings.” But TXAB isn’t a science blog, so I won’t delve into this further.

The bible’s authors gave us no clear definition of what a spirit is. We deduce is it’s not matter, largely based on our own personal experiences with spirits: We can’t detect ’em scientifically, but we can see real-world effects, so therefore they can’t be matter. (That, or they’re deliberately dodging our instruments.) We can detect a bird, ’cause it’s made of atoms and energy. We can’t detect a spirit, and can’t tell what it’s made of. Science only deals with matter and energy.

Since we theologians have apparently had a whole lot of time on our hands, we took a shot at defining spirit. According to Jesus, God himself is spirit, Jn 4.24 so St. Thomas Aquinas tried to logically deduce what our Lord meant by this. Thomas concluded God “is not a body… therefore he is not composed of matter and form.” Summa Theologica 1.3.2 Are spirits like God made up of component parts?—y’know, like how matter is composed of molecules, atoms, quarks, and quantum strings? Thomas figured no: God’s “altogether simple,” 1.3.7 and can’t come apart—quoting St. Augustine of Hippo, who came to the same conclusion centuries before. On the Trinity 6.6-7 And most theologians figure Thomas’s idea sounds reasonable enough… considering we ourselves haven’t come up with better.

But not every Christian agrees. (Nor do we have to!) Some of us are materialists, who believe nothing in the universe exists unless it’s made of matter and energy. Therefore spirit somehow is to be made of matter and energy. Some undetectible form of matter and energy. Some quintessence we’ve not yet discovered, and don’t know how to detect. Because if spirit’s not matter, they figure it’s not real.

C.S. Lewis fr’instance. In his Space Trilogy novels, he has these aliens called eldils. (In the language he invented for the books, the plural of eldil is eldila, but I’ll stick to English today.) They’re meant to be angels; they work for Maleldil, who’s meant to be God. Lewis described an eldil as a multidimensional energy being, vibrating at a frequency beyond our senses. Now, I’ve no idea whether Lewis really believed angels are like this, or whether he was just being science-fictiony. But Lewis fans have let this idea leak into their theology, and I’ve caught ’em describe angels the very same way—as multidimensional energy beings, vibrating beyond our vision and hearing. They’ll claim spirits are made of matter, but too fast to detect. Or in a state of matter beyond solid, liquid, gas, or plasma.

And as I said, on the opposite extreme we have Christian materialists who refuse to believe in spirits whatsoever. So when they read about spirits in the bible, they insist they’re metaphors: Satan’s not a literal being, but a representation, a personification, of the evil in the universe, or the problems God should have with humanity and our sin. Devils aren’t real beings, but a symbol of illness, and when Jesus threw ’em out of people, this only means he cured ’em. Angels are God’s activity, or God’s messages, but anthropomorphized; made to look like creatures instead of messages. (And since the Holy Spirit is everywhere, and indwells his prophets, why on earth does he need angels to pass along his messages? He’s almighty; he can do it himself.)

Problem is, the idea of God himself doesn’t work within a purely materialist universe. He doesn’t fit. First of all, matter is limited to space and time, and God’s not. Secondly, matter—even “spiritual matter,” even energy—is composed of other things, and if God’s made of other things, he got made. Somebody put this ’n that together and composed God; he’s not the First Cause. Which is a belief Latter-day Saints are totally fine with; they think Heavenly Father is only the god of our planet, and other planets have other gods, and when you ask ’em about the God of the universe they dismiss such a being as irrelevant. But the rest of us monotheists figure only the First Cause, the Creator, can be the only true God—and if somebody created God, he ain’t God. This is why Thomas insisted God isn’t made of anything.

There are more than two problems, but those two are biggies. Some materialists come to realize them, and either try to juggle the paradoxes, or quit being materialists, or quit believing in God. Probably the most popular materialist view is deism: They figure God exists outside our universe, doesn’t interact with it, and doesn’t get involved in it. He made it… and left it for another universe, where he can be as almighty as he likes. When we die we can go visit him there. Till then, our universe is functionally godless. It’s a really depressing idea, but they like it.

Anyway, whenever you come across Christians who try to limit what God or spirits can do, materialism is usually the culprit.

Immaterial beings.

As I (and St. Thomas) said, spirits are immaterial. Not matter, not energy.

As to whether they’re made of anything else: I don’t know whether Thomas or Augustine were right in saying they’re not made of anything, and that they’re entire in and of themselves. To be blunt, I’m really skeptical of their pre-scientific logic. Both these saints had the bad habit of beginning with a conclusion, then illogically and unscientifically stretching the “proofs” till they fit. Aristotle wouldn’t be pleased.

Unless we come up with devices which can measure spirit, or unless Jesus explains it personally, I don’t think there’s any way to know what spirit’s made of. Claiming it’s one way or another, strikes me as presumptuous. Even my previous statements that spirits aren’t made of energy: That’s presumptuous too. ’Cause I don’t know. Neither the bible nor my experience informs me. But since the writers of the bible were using “wind” to describe spirit, I can at least say immaterial is on the right track.

As for the idea spirits are living beings, rather than impersonal forces, or personifications of ideas: The scriptures describe ’em as beings. So I’m going with the scriptures.

1 Kings 22.19-23 KJV

19 And [Micaiah] said, Hear thou therefore the word of the LORD: I saw the LORD sitting on his throne, and all the host of heaven standing by him on his right hand and on his left. 20 And the LORD said, Who shall persuade Ahab, that he may go up and fall at Ramothgilead? And one said on this manner, and another said on that manner. 21 And there came forth a spirit, and stood before the LORD, and said, I will persuade him. 22 And the LORD said unto him, Wherewith? And he said, I will go forth, and I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And he said, Thou shalt persuade him, and prevail also: go forth, and do so. 23 Now therefore, behold, the LORD hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these thy prophets, and the LORD hath spoken evil concerning thee.

The prophet Micaiah described this one confounding spirit as self-aware—it called itself “I”—and with the ability to act upon its own will, offering to do something for God. Wind can’t do either of those things. Breath depends on a breather. Clearly ruákh in this story means “spirit.”

Yeah, a materialist will insist this is just a parable, and Micaiah was just assigning human qualities to an inanimate object; this didn’t literally happen. But Micaiah isn’t the only one to describe spirits this way. Jesus did as well. He described self-willed evil spirits which possess, then re-possess, a person. Mt 12.43-45 He ordered spirits to obey him, and not tell on him. Mk 3.12 He spoke extensively what the Holy Spirit—sent by his Father—would do among his followers.

True, Jesus used a lot of analogies and hyperbole to teach his ideas. But what he taught on spirits, and his acts of driving them out of people, do not fit that genre. He clearly believes in spirits—and expects us followers to take authority over them, same as he did. Mk 6.7