You don't have a soul! You are a soul. You have a body.

The talk on Poverty/Social Justice went well last evening. I was particularly pleased with the number of medical students who showed up as well as new physicians who had never been to the Christian Medical and Dental Society (CMDS) meetings before. I started the talk with a quote from C. S. Lewis: "You don't have a soul! You are a soul. You have a body." meaning to direct the audience's attention to the emphasis of spiritual care as Christian physicians. The methods described by the clinical guideline for treating poverty are by and large directed towards the body. We as Christian physicians ought to treat the soul as well. And there is a wealth of resources from God's living community to help those in need.

Just out of interest, I discovered that the above quote was not from C.S.Lewis at all! It had been quoted by a number of prominent Christians attributing it to Lewis, but it took a recent graduate of history and religion to discover that the most likely source was the famous Scottish minister George MacDonald in 1892:

"A closer look at these older sources shows that many of the authors thought that concentrating on the soul would encourage proper behavior. In one instance, The British Friend, one of the two main British Quaker periodicals at the end of the 19th century, published a piece in 1892 on excessive mourning at funerals. The author believed that overly strong mourning kept people from remembering their hope in heaven. It is here, finally, where we find the quote attributed to George MacDonald.

    “Never tell a child,” said George Macdonald, ‘you have a soul. Teach him, you are a soul; you have a body.’ As we learn to think of things always in this order, that the body is but the temporary clothing of the soul, our views of death and the unbefittingness of customary mourning will approximate to those of Friends of earlier generations.”

This attribution to George MacDonald finally, perhaps, begins to unveil how C.S. Lewis came to be associated with the statement, given Lewis’ reverence for the Scottish minister."

by Hannah Peckham

There you have it! Other than misquoting the source, the quote was somewhat appropriate to bring attention to the dimension of clinical care for a Christian physician. I am still learning to see, first and foremost, that my patient is a spiritual being. I must learn to relieve the temporary suffering but not to forget the bigger job of helping my patient on his path to eternity.