The Conditionalist Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 2

II. Princeton’s Ramsey-Immortality Derivative, Not Inherent

Methodist scholar PAUL RAMSEY, ¹⁵ professor of Christian ethics at Princeton University, in his Basic Christian Ethics says the early Christians regarded the “Platonic doctrine of the inherent, ¹⁶ substantial immortality of the soul” a “species of robbery of God”—because immortality is “derivative,” not inherent.”’ We do not possess divinity. This is clearly brought out in chapter $ (“This Human Nature”), in the sections “The Image of God” and “After His Kind.” CFF2 845.2

Here Dr. Ramsey alludes to the deceptive concept of the “divine spark” in man—the “eternal fire”—and the fact that man has been regarded as “a fragment of God,” a “part of Him.” Ramsey repeatedly speaks of the part Platonism played in it—influencing Augustine, for instance ¹⁷—and how “immortal life” was one of the alleged attributes emphasized. There has, he says, been a “proneness to blur the distinction between man and God.” ¹⁸ But Ramsey immediately goes on record with this clear statement: “The third [alleged] image of God, immortality, man possesses neither by creation nor by acquirement. Man is not inherently immortal, as he is now inherently rational and as he was completely happy as long as he remained obedient. Immortality comes as an eschatological gift, always more God’s possession than man’s even when it is given him.” ¹⁹ CFF2 845.3

1. PLATONIC ERROR V. CHRISTIAN TRUTH

After touching upon the various claims and the deceptive fallacies of the positions assumed, Professor Ramsey discusses this “attempt to view man in the light of God”:
“In the first place, from viewing man as a theological animal we are driven to regard all truly human worth as derivated, not inherent. Christian interpretations of man’s dignity affirm something about man in relation to God, not just something about man per se. The Platonic doctrine of the inherent, substantial immortality of the soul endowed the soul with such power of outwearing bodies as to amount to divinity, and the early Christians quite properly regarded this viewpoint as a species of robbery of God. The same is true of many of our notions of the inherent sacredness of human personality. For the Christian both ‘the immortality of a mortal’ and his personal worth are derivative, derivative from God’s appointment.” ²⁰ CFF2 846.1

Such is Ramsey’s faith. CFF2 846.2