But the soul falls ill when its right judgment is impaired and
it is overcome by the passions which cause disease (St. Neilos
the Ascetic, Philokalia I). Those of the Fathers of the Church
who wrote about the spiritual life were keen observers of human
behavior and because of that emphasized the need for “right
judgment,” as in St. Neilos’s words, to control and direct human
“passions,” or what we now call emotions. Our understanding of
man created by God is that he is composed of body, mind and
soul-spirit. While not apprehending the complexity and nuances
of brain-behavior relationships, our Church Fathers spoke about
the different types of knowledge that was related to each
component of mankind. St. Maximus the Confessor (Philokalia II)
notes: “Since man is constituted of soul and sentient body, he
is limited and defined and he himself imposes limits and makes
definitions by virtue of the natural and distinctive reciprocity
that exists between himself and these two aspects of creation.”
The saint goes on t