The Human Question

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/24/despite-everything-francis-spufford-talks-about-unapologetic/?_r=0

We find ourselves walking down a path and see that it has a trajectory which is beyond where we were aiming to go; it is toward a point that we will never reach but which we always approach... (to be continued:  hopefully, I'll work out something about the Way.

When discussing God stuff, it's more important to focus (initially) on teleology, more specifically, on human teleology, that is, on whether we have have an natural inclination for one or more activities, and what that activity or set of activities might be.  Only after talking about that and how it relates to God would it make sense to talk about immateriality and immortality.  After all, only the desire a truly human kind of fulfillment could lead one to desire to be eternally so fulfilled.

What if human practical reasoning is the point where the presence of God is most evident?

Is "soul" part of a descriptive account of human action, or is it hidden, explanatory?  Or is both? If the first-person description of my action includes a kind of identity in the manifold of my actions then the soul is given in that description. If the third-person explanation posits being or activity that is continuous in the individual even when that individual has no first-person report of activity, then that explanation gives us the soul. If we can identify soul as given in one account with soul as given in the other, then.... well, I guess we can say (with a little irony) "mission accomplished." Perhaps relevant:  I need to find that great quote in the Summa theologiae that notes that esse is to essence as action is to power: it may be helpful here...