Mind, body, spirit is an expression used by St. Paul: "May the God of peace himself make you perfectly holy and may you entirely, spirit, soul, and body, be preserved blameless for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Thess. 5:23).

From a footnote on the same passage: "Another possible translation is, 'May the God of peace himself make you perfectly holy and sanctify your spirit fully, and may both soul and body be preserved blameless for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.' In either case, Paul is not offering an anthropological or philosophical analysis of human nature. Rather, he looks to the wholeness of what may be called the supernatural and natural aspects of a person’s service of God."

As for a philosophy of man, man is comprised of body and soul. The body is flesh, the soul is spirit. They are opposed to one another in so far as both have different desires. Since the spirit is the part of man that is most like God, who is pure spirit, it de...