Second, it tells us that the confusion now publicly prevailing over the

makeup of the human being may not be due to its inherent obscurity. Rather, it may be due to the fact that it is a field where strongly armed prejudices?assumptions about what must be the case, ?don't bother me with facts??prevent even well-intended people from seeing what, at l

People nearly always act on their feelings, and think it only right. The will is then left at the mercy of circumstances that evoke feelings. Christian spiritual formation today must squarely confront this fact and overcome it.

Feeling Feeling inclines us toward or away from things that come before our minds in thought. It involves a tone that is pleasant or painful, along with an attraction or repulsion with respect to the existence or possession ofwhat is thought of. How we feel about food, automobiles, relationships, positions, and hundreds of other things illustrates

We especially have in mind opinions to the effect that a human being

is purely physical, just an animal?basically, just the human brain. Or the opinion that human beings are, as such, good, or not to be forced to do anything they don?t want to do.

And heart refers to its position in the human being, as the center or core to which every other component of the selfowes its proper functioning.

The human heart, will, or spirit is the executive center of a human life.

The heart is where decisions and choices are made for the whole person. That is its function.

Now, this embattled state of human nature tells us at least two things: First, it tells us that the issue ofhuman nature is of great importance?

too important for us to leave alone. We must deal with it if we are to have anything useful to say about spiritual formation and about the spiritual life that Jesus brings.

Soul The soul is that dimension of the person that interrelates all of the other dimensions so that they form one life. It is like a meta-dimension or higher-level dimension because its direct field of play consists of the other dimensions (thought, body, and so on), and through them it reaches ever deeper into the person?s vast environment of God

Now we need to be very clear on this point: the capacity for volition,

and the acts of willing in which it is exercised, form the spirit in man. In this narrow and focused sense, the ?spiritual? is not just the nonphysical, as we explained it earlier, but it is the central core of the nonphysical part in man. In us there is much that is not physical