The Production of Man's Soul

Plant-souls and animal-souls, after first creation,come into existence by generation; they are propagated with theliving bodies they animate.

The human soul, being rational, is a spirit; it cannotbe generated; it cannot come from matter, which is a thing inferiorto itself. It cannot originate except by the direct creative act of God in each instance.

The human soul does not exist before its body. By onesingle act of creation God produces the soul and joins it withmatter, and the soul constitutes this matter as a living humanbeing. The human body is generated by parents, but it is made aliving human being by the soul which God creates, and, by an actindivisible from creation, joins to matter within the body of thehuman mother.