FACTS AND FACTORS OF DEVELOPMENT 41 



souls are neither made nor destroyed, but at 

 birth a soul which had once tenanted another 

 body enters into the new body. This doctrine 

 was generally repudiated by the Fathers of 

 the Christian Church. Jerome and others 

 adopted the view that God creates a new soul 

 for each body that is generated, and that every 

 soul is thus a special divine creation. This has 

 become the prevailing view of the Christian 

 Church and is known as creationism. On the 

 other hand Tertullian taught that souls of 

 children are generated from the souls of par- 

 ents as bodies are 'from bodies. This doctrine, 

 which is known as traducianism, has been de- 

 fended by certain modern theologians, but has 

 been formally condemned by the Roman 

 Catholic Church. 



Traducianism undoubtedly comes nearer 

 the scientific teachings as to the development 

 of the mind than does either of the other doc- 

 trines named, but it is based upon the preva- 

 lent but erroneous belief that the bodies of the 

 parents generate the body of the child, and 

 that correspondingly the souls of the parents 

 generate the soul of the child. Now we know 



