Christianity & Jainism
The Soul: Jiva and the Image of God
Jainism holds one of the most exalted views of the soul in any religion. Every living being, from a human to the smallest insect, has a jiva: an eternal, conscious soul whose true nature is pure, blissful, and even omniscient, obscured only by the karmic matter clinging to it. Freed, the soul reaches a perfection so complete that liberated souls are themselves worthy of veneration, with no separate Creator over them. Christianity also holds the soul precious and eternal, but says something different about where it comes from: not a divinity in its own right waiting to be uncovered, but a person created by God, made in his image, whose glory is to know and love the God who made it. A soul divine by nature, or a person made in God's image, is the difference.
What Jainism teaches
For Jainism the universe is full of jivas, souls, each eternal and conscious, each in its pure state possessing infinite knowledge and bliss. Souls are not created; they have always existed, and are bound to one another in a web of mutual dependence:
The soul's true nature is already perfect; the spiritual task is not to become something new but to remove the karma that hides its innate divinity, until it shines as it always was. A perfected soul (a siddha) is omniscient and free, and needs no God above it.
What Christians believe
Christianity holds the human soul as precious and enduring too, but as the creation of God, made in his image, not divine in itself.
Where they meet
Both hold that there is more to a living being than the body, that the soul or self is of immense worth, and that its destiny is not extinction but fullness. Both call us to reverence the life in others and to seek a purity that is more than skin-deep.
Where they differ
Jainism teaches that the soul is uncreated and divine by nature, needing only to shed its karma to shine as the perfect, omniscient being it always was, with no Creator above it. Christianity teaches that the person is created by God, made in his image, and finds its glory not in its own latent divinity but in knowing and loving the God who made it. A soul divine in itself, or a person made in God's image and destined for God, is the difference we name plainly.
Jain sources: the Tattvartha Sutra (Umasvati) and the Acaranga Sutra (Hermann Jacobi, 1884, public domain, Sacred Books of the East vol. 22); renderings vary, compare others. Bible: King James Version. Every reference on this page was checked against its source.
The word itself
Jiva (jiva) → the living soul → the soul, the living self
In Jainism the jiva is the eternal, conscious soul present in every living being, pure and omniscient in its true nature, obscured only by karmic matter; uncreated and, when perfected, needing no God above it. Christianity holds the soul precious and eternal too, but as created by God and made in his image (Genesis 1:27), whose fulfillment is to know its Maker.
Frequently asked questions
- What is the jiva in Jainism?
- The jiva is the soul: an eternal, conscious self present in every living being, from humans to the smallest creatures. In its true nature it is pure, blissful, and omniscient, obscured only by the karmic matter clinging to it. Souls are uncreated, and a perfected soul is fully free and needs no Creator above it.
- How do Christians view the soul differently?
- Christians hold the soul precious and eternal, but as the creation of God, made in his image (Genesis 1:27), not divine in its own right. Its glory is not a latent divinity to be uncovered but the calling to know and love the God who made it. A soul divine by nature, or a person made in God's image, is the difference.
Come and see
Jainism calls you to harm no living thing and to free the soul by your own effort; the Gospel tells of a God who came to bear your burden and to give what could not be earned. The most direct way to know Jesus is to read his words for yourself. There is no pressure here.
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