The Production of Man's Soul

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

The human soul, being rational, is a spirit; it cannot be generated; it cannot come from matter, which is a thing inferior to 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 one single act of creation God produces the soul and joins it with matter, and the soul constitutes this matter as a living human being. The human body is generated by parents, but it is made a living human being by the soul which God creates, and, by an actindivisible from creation, joins to matter within the body of the human mother.