WHY A SOUL

In his Sermon VII, entitled “Outward and Inward Morality,” the medieval theologian, philosopher, and mystic Meister Eckhart said, “Towards this union with God for which it is created, the soul strives perpetually.” 

This answers the question of why we humans have a soul to begin with.  In Vedanta the soul is called the Atman.   A soul, Meister Eckhart is saying, is what enables a person to unite with God; without a soul, a person could not know God.  And the purpose of life is this union with God.