The Parts Of Human Nature
From the standpoint of psychology human nature is divisible into parts.
The division must not be taken as absolute; for the whole is a unity,
and the parts are not discrete quanta. The division is rather a
classification of psychic states according to predominating features.
The classification corresponds, however, to the facts of experience,
and so psychology is justified in making use of it. We shall adopt it
in ou
investigation of the psychology of Christ. The sharpest
dividing line is that between immaterial and material, between soul and
body. The states of the soul fall into three well-marked groups,
thought, will, and feeling. The physical and the psychic are not
always distinguishable. Still more uncertain and tentative is the
identification in the psychic of cognitive, volitional, and emotional
faculties. But in every man these parts are found. They are
constituents of human nature. There may be other elements as yet
unanalysed; but there can be no complete humanity that is deficient in
respect of any of these parts. We propose to take them singly in the
above order, to show their existence in the historic Christ, and to
expose the monophysite attempts to explain them away.