oa [The Creation of the Human Soul, De schepping van de menselijke ziel]

The author offers a reconstruction of the discussion on the creation of the human soul between Lutheran and reformed theologians in the period of orthodoxy (ca. 1550-1700). Most Lutherans defended the traducianist view that the soul is transferred from parents to children. Their Reformed opponents supported the creatianist view that the soul is created ex nihilo. Both views depend heavily on dualistic, (neo-)platonistic assumptions about the ontological status of the human soul. The conceptual problems caused by these presuppositions form an incentive for contemporary theologians to develop alternatives for these dualistic approaches.