Chis Gousmett has translated a number of significant works of Janse on the theme of anthropology. Janse' work was very significant in the developed of reformational philosophy. He had a particularly strong influence and interaction with Vollenhoven on a biblical understanding on being human which helped move him away from scholastic notions of the soul and towards a much more biblical emphasis of the unity and fullness of human life lived before the face of God.
These works are now avaliable on the All of Life Redeemed website.
Here is the preface to Man as a "Living Soul":
The most current popular meaning of the word “experiential” is this, that the Christian experiences something in the “soul,” which was seen as a separate pious part of a human being.
“Soul” is then a more pious word than foot and hand.
The Biblical meaning of “experience” is this, that a child of God in the whole of his life as a whole person, as a whole “living soul” from the crown of his head to the soles of his feet and in all things of life, experiences the blessings or the threats of the God of the Covenant. So, there is no morsel of the terrain of life in or round him that would stand outside the Covenant with God.
So as to be able to understand this point of the Holy Scriptures the Lord must also open our eyes for the language of the Holy Scriptures, where they speak of the “soul.”
Up until now the Greek philosophers have supplied us with the foundational concepts for Christian anthropology.
This book is an attempt to restore the terms of the Holy Scriptures to a place of honour, so that every Bible reader knows what the Scripture says about human beings as living souls and so that the popular misconceptions concerning a number of texts were debated.
I give therefore first a more historically oriented chapter about the concept “soul,” and after that a more systematic overview of “the living soul.”
The Author
Biggekerke,
February 1934.
