The Conditionalist Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 2

X. Rector Davies-Immortal-Soulism Not Biblical but Greek

Under the whimsical title The Art of Dodging Repentance Anglican Rector DAVID R. DAVIES, ⁵³ of St. Mary Magdalen church, St. Leonards-on-Sea, England, delivered a series of sermons to his own congregation, and later published them. In these he flatly declares that the widespread notion of the innate “immortality of the soul is not a biblical doctrine,” but was derived instead from “Greek philosophy.” ⁵⁴ And in one sermon, interestingly titled “Dead Souls,” based on Matthew 16:26—“For what is a man profited, if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?”—Davies maintains that the text “clearly implies that the loss of the soul is a possibility.” ⁵⁵ CFF2 855.1

1. “CREATED FOR IMMORTALITY” BUT BECAME “MORTAL.”

Davies makes a series of important statements regarding the mortality of the soul, showing that it can be destroyed. He keeps emphasizing these two main points. For example: CFF2 855.2

“The soul of man is not necessarily automatically immortal. It is capable of being destroyed. The Bible offers no ground whatsoever for believing that the soul is immune from death and destruction. The soul can be destroyed. CFF2 855.3

“The immortality of the soul is not a Biblical doctrine, but Greek philosophy. The Biblical doctrine about the soul is the resurrection from the dead. Man is a created being. God created him out of nothing. Man was created for immortality, but by his own rebellion against God lie made himself mortal.” ⁵⁶ CFF2 855.4

Picture 1: Dr. William Manson, David R. Davies, Bishop Nild Frederik Bolander
Left: Dr. William Manson (d. 1958), professor, University of Edinburg—resurrection transforms mortal nature. Center: David R. Davies (d. 1958), rector, St. Leonards-on-Sea, England—immortal soulism derived from Greek phylosophy. Right: Bishop Nils Frederik Bolander of Lund, Sweden—deliverence through death not Biblical.
Page 855

2. IMMORTAL-SOULISM DERIVED FROM GREEK PHILOSOPHY

Rector Davies then quotes a supporting excerpt from the Jewish Inter-Testamental Wisdom of Solomon” ⁵⁷ concerning Conditional Immortality: CFF2 856.1

“‘For God created man to be immortal, and made him to be an image of his own eternity. Nevertheless through envy of the devil came death into the world: and they that do hold of his side do find it’ (ii. 23-4).” ⁵⁸ CFF2 856.2

Davies then comments, “Man is no longer inherently, natively immortal, but now only conditionally immortal.” This, he adds, is sustained by the clear evidence of the New Testament, that “death involves the soul as well as the body. Man —his whole being—is mortal. Just as sin has corrupted the whole of man, so, too, has mortality affected him wholly.” Concerning this, he affirms, “The teaching of Scripture is crystal clear.” ⁵⁹ This thought Davies expands, discussing the Greek hades and the Hebrew gehenna, and the Greek origin of the popular misconception, including Dualism. CFF2 856.3

“The idea of the immortality of the soul derives from Greek philosophy which conceived the after-life of Hades, a ghostly, shadowy underworld, in which the soul lived a twilight existence. We have translated the Greek word, Hades, by our English word Hell, which we think of as a place of pain and torment. But the Greek Hades was not a place of torment. Hell as torment is derived more from the Hebrew Gehenna than from the Greek Hades, which was a lower, shadowy existence, denuded of passion and suffering. It was the product of the Greek view of men as a compound of matter and soul, which death severed, releasing the soul from the prison-house of matter into an independent existence.” ⁶⁰ CFF2 856.4

3. MAN A “UNITY,” NOT “Two SEPARATE ENTITIES

“Stressing the basic “unity” of man, embracing “both body and soul,” he holds that the soul consequently partakes of “mortality”—a “unity that is mortal.” ⁶¹ Here is his full statement: CFF2 857.1

“The Hebrew view of man was entirely different. In the Bible man is regarded as a unity of ‘life’ or spirit, which manifests itself as both soul and body. Since man has made himself mortal, his soul, in consequence, also partakes of mortality. Man is not a compound of two separate entities, matter and spirit, but a unity of spirit functioning as matter and soul. It is the unity that is mortal.” ⁶² CFF2 857.2

In order better to grasp the intriguing statements of Rector Davies it is essential to understand the “catalystic experience” of his short-time pilgrimage into atheism and Communism, before his “spiritual rebirth.” Born the son of a Welsh miner, he was brought up in a Christian home—but a home of dire poverty, rigid nonconformity, and frustrations. He became a Congregationalist minister, with a passion for pressing the social gospel —hoping to translate the kingdom of God into the “political, economic and social life of his times.” But he developed more and more leftist tendencies, until for a time he became an out and out atheist and Communist. It all climaxed in a sense of utter “frustration,” “depression and disillusionment.” He even thought to end it all by suicide, when the realization came to him that “only God could bring in His Kingdom. Man’s part is to submit to God’s will and, in repentance and service, to co-operate with God for the fulfillment of divine purposes.” ⁶³ CFF2 857.3

Passing through a soul-searching spiritual crisis, Davies retraced his steps and prepared himself for the Anglican ministry. In fact, he was later ordained by none other than the late Archbishop William Temple-himself an outspoken conditionalist. This very fact doubtless had a bearing on Rector Davies’ views on the nature and destiny of man. In fact, Davies’ life is a kind of “transcript of the times.” In his In Search of Myself he tells of his intense interest in history and of his concern over the growing neglect of the Bible, until its reading and study is all too much limited to the ministry-becoming the “preserve of a profession.” And he adds earnestly: CFF2 858.1

“That part of the essence of Roman Catholicism is thus occupying —unobserved—the citadels of Protestantism. The neglect of the Bible by the layman is preparing a rich harvest for Rome, to say nothing of the present-day impoverishment of preaching.” ⁶⁴ CFF2 858.2

This return to the searching of the Word led to his stand on the nature of man. CFF2 858.3

4. NOT “TRUNCATED CREATURE” — RESURRECTION OF WHOLE PERSON

Davies took the same position in his first book,’ ⁶⁵ back in 1939. In chapter six of On to Orthodoxy he states that he believes in the “immortality of persons.” This, he maintains, is “different” from the “immortality of the soul” which, he says, is the “Greek idea” of “disembodied consciousness.” Davies immediately states that such a view is “not a Christian idea.” He insists that the “essential truth of immortality lies in the symbolism of the resurrection of the body.” ⁶⁶ He emphasizes the “unity of man,” rejecting the Oriental idea of a soul “enmeshed” in an evil, material body, having to “work out its Karma.” But matter is “not the source of sin,” but rather the “spirit.” And that which “survives death,” through resurrection, is “not a truncated creature [mutilated, with part cut off], but the whole man, who is a unity of soul and body.” ⁶⁷ CFF2 858.4

5. SIN INVOLVES “FINAL DESTRUCTION” OF SOUL

Davies goes on to state that the concept, or notion, of the immortality of the soul panders to “human pride,” and fosters the delusion of independence of God. ⁶⁸ Then he observes: “Immortality of soul makes man of infinite value in himself. This is not a Christian idea at all, but Greek.” ⁶⁹ CFF2 858.5

And now comes Davies’ concluding observations on the possibility of “final destruction” of the soul:
“Sin, then, has involved the soul, no less than the body, in the responsibility of death and final destruction. We must abandon the Greek delusion that the soul is immune from the possibility of final death.” ⁷⁰ CFF2 859.1

Such was the forthright testimony of an Anglican rector to his parish congregation in 1952. CFF2 859.2