Reincarnation in early Christianity
"The doctrine of reincarnation was banished because it gives power and authority to the people. Reincarnation contradicted the aspirations of a few bishops and deacons who felt they alone should dispense the truth to the multitudes. This authoritarian strangle-hold is strengthened by the doctrine of"one chance-one life"because a person who wrongly chose to think for themselves, dismissing the authority of the hierarchy, would not get another chance to put things aright if they guessed wrongly. The position of the hierarchy is that eternal damnation without parole would be the irrevocable fate of those who dared to question the hierarchy's authority.”
“In the first five hundred years of Christianity, reincarnation was
most certainly on the main stage. It was a prominent and well-
respected merchant in the bazaar of Christian theology.
A significant number of early church pillars such as St. Augustine,
Clement of Alexandria, St. Gregory of Nyssa, Justin Martyr, and St.
Jerome believed in the doctrine of reincarnation. In his Confessions,
St. Augustine ponders the common sense viability of reincarnation:
Did my infancy succeed another age of mine that dies before it? Was
it that which I spent within my mother's womb? ... And what before
that life again, O God of my joy, was I anywhere or in any body?
Confessions of St. Augustine, Edward Pusey, translator, Book I.
There is one early church father who is the central figure in this
complex story of intrigue and deception. According to the
Encyclopedia Britannica, Origen (C.E. 185-254) was the most
prominent, most distinguished and most influential of the early
church fathers. We would do well to consider the enormity of this
statement. The Encyclopedia Britannica also declares that he was the
most prolific writer and theologian of early Christianity with works
numbering around 6,000. St. Jerome asks," Which of us can read all
that he has written?”It is important to understand that Origen's
story, is not about the trials and tribulations of an obscure
backwoods rogue theologian. How such an important and prominent
luminary receded into the blackness of obscurity is a fascinating
story and underscores the ego's perennial effort to have its own way.
The Encyclopedia Britannica describes Origen as both a Neo-Platonist
and a Gnostic. Socrates and Plato were arguably the most important
bearers of the doctrine of reincarnation to the Western world. The
first clear presentation of reincarnation by these two is in Plato's
Meno and later in the Phaedo where the concept is fully articulated.
In the Phaedo, Socrates (under the pen of Plato) goes to great
lengths to explain the philosophy proposing that the soul is immortal
and does not cease to exist when the body expires. In Plato's
Republic, the character Er describes the after death journey of the
soul in graphic detail before"coming back.”These ideas are expanded
in the Timaeus and the Phaedrus in which Socrates presents
reincarnation in the strongest terms.
Aristotle emphasized a more empirical materialism which focused on
the here-and-now; the observable. It should be pointed out that
through the centuries many philosophers have strongly disagreed with
Aristotle's"logic of categories"Axiom which proposes a tidy
compartmentalization of all aspects of existence both cosmic and
human. This theory supposes no overlapping connection of the various
categories of knowledge such as science, history and religion. Thomas
Aquinas, who played a large role in shaping Christianity as we know
it today, based his entire view of life on Aristotelian logic thus
abandoning the mystical experiential traditions altogether. In this
light we can understand more clearly the Encyclopedia Britannica's
categorization of Origen as a Neo-Platonist with a decidedly Gnostic
flavor. The Gnostics, as described earlier, believed that truth could
be gained only through"Gnosis"or direct experience of God. They
emphasized ecstatic communion and the inward path toward God. About
reincarnation, Origen has this to say:
If it can be shown that an incorporeal and reasonable being has life
in itself independently of the body and that it is worse off in the
body than out of it, then beyond a doubt bodies are only of secondary
importance and arise from time to time to meet the varying conditions
of reasonable creatures. Those who require bodies are clothed with
them, and contrawise, when fallen souls have lifted themselves up to
better things their bodies are once more annihilated. They are thus
ever vanishing and ever reappearing. Origen, from A Select Library of
the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, P. Schaff
and H. Wace editors.
By some inclination toward evil, certain spirit souls come into
bodies, first of men; then, due to their association with the
irrational passions after the allotted span of human life, they are
changed into beasts, from which they sink to the level of plants.
From this condition they rise again through the same stages and are
restored to their heavenly place. Origen, On First Principles, B. W.
Butterworth, translator.
As with many great saints of the past, there was nothing lukewarm
about Origen. While his supporters were passionate in heralding his
views, his detractors passionately pursued his destruction. Origen
was banished forever from official church recognition at the Second
Council of Constantinople (the Fifth Ecumenical Council) amidst a
back drop of swirling political intrigue and dissension that was so
severe it leaves many students of the event to question whether or
not Christians are bound by the edicts and anathemas that were
adopted there.
Emperor Justinian wrote a letter to the Patriarch of Constantinople
naming Origen as one of the pernicious heretics. To be a heretic is
bad enough but pernicious means"1. insidious harm or ruin; 2. deadly
or fatal.”In other words, there are no human beings worse than this.
Justinian then convened a synod at Constantinople in 543 C.E. which
issued an edict refuting Origen. Pope Vigilius opposed the edict and
promptly suspended all communication with the Patriarch of
Constantinople. When the Pope arrived in Constantinople he reversed
himself issuing a document supporting the Justinian edict. Many
speculate that this document was issued at the gunpoint of intense
political pressure. These speculations are confirmed by the fact that
Pope Vigilius withdrew the document seven years later in 550 C.E.
After much rancorous discussion and many maneuvers, Justinian called
for a meeting of the entire Church in 553 C.E. known as the Fifth
Ecumenical Council or the Second Council of Constantinople. The
Church was geographically divided into East and West with these lines
of division also extending into religious and philosophical matters.
In general, the West was supportive of Origen while the East was not.
Justinian himself presided over the meeting because Pope Vigilius had
boycotted the gathering as an act of protest over irregularities such
as stacking the arrangements for attendance against the West. It was
highly irregular for Justinian and not the Pope to preside over this
conclave. Of the 165 bishops who signed the acts of the Council not
more than six were from the West because they were not in attendance.
Let us recap for emphasis. The Pope refused to attend, Justinian ran
the meeting and half of the bishops, the ones most likely to support
Origen, did not attend the Council meeting.
In the long run, Pope Vigilius accepted the Council but the West did
not recognize the Council as legitimate for some time. Several
Western dioceses even broke off communication with Rome. Milan was so
righteously indignant over this blatant skewering of propriety that
they did not rejoin Rome until the end of the sixth century. To add
to the vagary of Origen's demise, it should be noted that in the end
of the Fifth Ecumenical Council's fourteen anathemas, Origen's name
is mentioned in only one of them nestled in a list of heretics. There
is some evidence that even this was an error. The tragedy is that
Christians have been led to believe that the doctrine of
reincarnation has never been part of Christian faith. Others have
supposed that the question of reincarnation was forever closed at the
Fifth Ecumenical Council.
To further clarify the picture of Origen's crucifixion, it is
important to understand his principle antagonist, emperor Justinian.
The Encyclopedia Britannica has interesting things to say about him.
The truth seems to be that Justinian was not a great ruler in the
higher sense of the word, that is to say, a man of large views, deep
insight...
Justinian was quick rather than strong or profound; his policy does
not strike one as the result of deliberate and well-considered views,
but dictated by the hopes and fancies of the moment.
In contrast, no previous ruler had taken such an interest in church
policy as did Justinian. In what way is a man who is a shallow-minded
opportunist (to summarize the Encyclopedia Britannica's
characterization) interested in deeper spiritual matters? This
question has left many to speculate that Justinian saw the Church as
a means of control and exploitation with the whip being his"one life
then heaven or hell"policy.
While Justinian is portrayed as soft and indecisive, his wife the
empress Theodora, was an indomitable freight train of decisiveness
and strength. It should be clearly understood that she was not merely
his consort but was empress regnant which means she had the legal
right to interfere and run the empire. Officials took an oath to her
as well as to Justinian. In the great Nika insurrection of 532, her
courage alone saved her husband from being overthrown.
According to Procopius the historian, Theodora was the daughter of a
bear feeder of the amphitheater at Constantinople, and she began
working as an actress (regarded as an extremely low vocation) while
still a child. Later she became a well-known courtesan and eventually
met Justinian in Constantinople. Justinian's aunt, who was the
empress at the time, forbade the marriage but upon her death
Justinian repealed a law which prohibited senators from marrying
women of the stage. In 527, at the death of Justinian's uncle the
emperor Justin, Justinian and Theodora became rulers of the Roman
Empire. He was forty-four and she was twenty-four.
According to Procopius as written in the Encyclopedia Britannica,
"She surrounded herself with ceremonious pomp, and required all who
approached to abase themselves in a manner new even to that half-
Oriental court. She constituted herself the protectress of faithless
wives against outraged husbands, yet professed great zeal for the
moral reformation of the city, enforcing severely the laws against
vice, and confining five hundred courtesans, whom she had swept out
of the streets of the capital, in a 'house of repentance' on the
Asiatic side of the Bosphous strait. Procopius portrays her as acting
with the greatest cruelties. The Encyclopedia Britannica goes on to
state that we are able to gather from other writers that Theodora was
indeed extremely harsh and tyrannical.”
The following is an excerpt from the Anecdota by Procopius describing
Justinian. I think this is as good a time as any to describe the
personal appearance of the man. Now in physique he was neither tall
nor short, but of average height; not thin, but moderately plump; his
face was round, and not bad looking, for he had good color, even when
he fasted for two days. To make a long description short, he much
resembled Domitian, Vespasian's son...
Now such was Justinian in appearance; but his character was something
I could not fully describe. For he was at once villainous and
amenable; as people say colloquially, a moron. He was never truthful
with anyone, but always guileful in what he said and did, yet easily
hoodwinked by any who wanted to deceive him. His nature was an
unnatural mixture of folly and wickedness. What in olden times a
peripatetic philosopher said was also true of him, that opposite
qualities combine in a man as in the mixing of colors. I will try to
portray him, however, insofar as I can fathom his complexity.
This Emperor, then, was deceitful, devious, false, hypocritical, two-
faced, cruel, skilled in dissembling his thought, never moved to
tears by either joy or pain, though he could summon them artfully at
will when the occasion demanded, a liar always, not only offhand, but
in writing, and when he swore sacred oaths to his subjects in their
very hearing. Then he would immediately break his agreements and
pledges, like the vilest of slaves, whom indeed only the fear of
torture drives to confess their perjury. A faithless friend, he was a
treacherous enemy, insane for murder and plunder, quarrelsome and
revolutionary, easily led to anything, but never willing to listen to
good counsel, quick to plan mischief and carry it out, but finding
even the hearing of anything good distasteful to his ears.
How could anyone put Justinian's ways into words? These and many even
worse vices were disclosed in him as in no other mortal: nature
seemed to have taken the wickedness of all other men combined and
planted it in this man's soul. And besides this, he was too prone to
listen to accusations; and too quick to punish. For he decided such
cases without full examination, naming the punishment when he had
heard only the accuser's side of the matter. Without hesitation he
wrote decrees for the plundering of countries, sacking of cities, and
slavery of whole nations, for no cause whatever. So that if one
wished to take all the calamities which had befallen the Romans
before this time and weigh them against his crimes, I think it would
be found that more men had been murdered by this single man than in
all previous history.
He had no scruples about appropriating other people's property, and
did not even think any excuse necessary, legal or illegal, for
confiscating what did not belong to him. And when it was his, he was
more than ready to squander it in insane display, or give it as an
unnecessary bribe to the barbarians. In short, he neither held on to
any money himself nor let anyone else keep any: as if his reason were
not avarice, but jealousy of those who had riches. Driving all wealth
from the country of the Romans in this manner, he became the cause of
universal poverty.”
Now this was the character of Justinian, so far as I can portray it.
Translated by Richard Atwater, in Procopius, Secret History,
(Chicago: P. Covicii; New York: Covicii Friedal, 1927), reprinted by
University of Michigan Press, 1961
"The historian Procopius, who wrote the above narrative, was appointed secretary to General Belisarius in 527 C.E. The General was Justinian's right-hand man and personal confidant. Procopius also wrote the well known Histories in eight books, the Buildings of Justinian in six books and the Anecdota. For obvious reasons, the Anecdota was not published until after the death of Procopius. As a historian and chronicler of Justinian and his court, he was constrained to write only positive accounts while everyone concerned was still alive. Secretly he wrote the Anecdota to expose the utter immorality and disregard for decency expressed in the lives of Justinian and Theodora. The Encyclopedia Britannica says:
Owing to the ferocity and brutality of the attacks upon Justinian, the authenticity of the Anecdota has been called in question, but the claims of Procopius to the authorship are now generally recognized. In other words, the Anecdota reflected so badly on Justinian and Theodora that it was difficult to believe it could be true. It is not the intent of this book to serve as an indictment of these two souls - may they find peace and love wherever they are. The information about Justinian and Theodora and the demise of Origen is printed here as an aid to understanding that the fortunes of the Holy Scriptures and Christian doctrine in general have not always been in the hands of God's servants. The removal of the doctrine of reincarnation may not have been God's doing. God may have originated or inspired the scriptures that we have now accepted to be Christian but since then, they have, on occasion, been placed in the hands of those with little understanding. Because of this, we should abandon the expectation that these scriptures would arrive in the twenty-first century unscathed.
The doctrine of reincarnation was banished because it gives power and authority to the people. Reincarnation contradicted the aspirations of a few bishops and deacons who felt they alone should dispense the truth to the multitudes. This authoritarian strangle-hold is strengthened by the doctrine of"one chance-one life"because a person who wrongly chose to think for themselves, dismissing the authority of the hierarchy, would not get another chance to put things aright if they guessed wrongly. The position of the hierarchy is that eternal damnation without parole would be the irrevocable fate of those who dared to question the hierarchy's authority.”
REINCARNATION IN EARLY CHRISTIANITY
http://www.reincarnation.ws/reincarnation_in_early_christianity.html
Reincarnation quotes from famous people
Benjamin Franklin
"I look upon death to be as necessary to the constitution as sleep.
We shall rise refreshed in the morning.”And," Finding myself to
exist in the world, I believe I shall, in some shape or other always
exist.”
Jack London, author, best known for book Call of the Wild
"I did not begin when I was born, nor when I was conceived. I have been growing, developing, through incalculable myriads of millenniums. All my previous selves have their voices, echoes, promptings in me. Oh, incalculable times again shall I be born.”
Mark Twain
"I have been born more times than anybody except Krishna.”
Leo Tolstoy
"As we live through thousands of dreams in our present life, so is our present life only one of many thousands of such lives which we enter from the other more real life and then return after death. Our life is but one of the dreams of that more real life, and so it is endlessly, until the very last one, the very real the life of God.”
Henry Ford
"I adopted the theory of reincarnation when I was 26. Genius is experience. Some think to seem that it is a gift or talent, but it is the fruit of long experience in many lives"
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, (German poet, playwright and scientist)
"As long as you are not aware of the continual law of Die and Be Again, you are merely a vague guest on a dark Earth.”
Freidrich Nietzsche
"Live so that thou mayest desire to live again - that is thy duty - for in any case thou wilt live again!"
Mahatma Ghandi
"I cannot think of permanent enmity between man and man, and believing as I do in the theory of reincarnation, I live in the hope that if not in this birth, in some other birth I shall be able to hug all of humanity in friendly embrace.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
"The soul comes from without into the human body, as into a temporary abode, and it goes out of it anew it passes into other habitations, for the soul is immortal.” "It is the secret of the world that all things subsist and do not die, but only retire a little from sight and afterwards return again. Nothing is dead; men feign themselves dead, and endure mock funerals... and there they stand looking out of the window, sound and well, in some strange new disguise.”
General George S. Patton
"So as through a glass and darkly, the age long strife I see, Where I fought in many guises, many names, but always me.”
Albert Schweitzer
"Reincarnation contains a most comforting explanation of reality by means of which Indian thought surmounts difficulties which baffle the thinkers of Europe.”
Walt Whitman
"I know I am deathless. No doubt I have died myself ten thousand times before. I laugh at what you call dissolution, and I know the amplitude of time.”
William Wordsworth
"Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting; The Soul that rises with us, our life's Star, Hath had elsewhere its setting. And cometh from afar.”
Jalalu Rumi (Islamic Poet of the 13th century)
"I died as a mineral and became a plant, I died as a plant and rose to animal, I died as animal and I was man. Why should I fear? When was I less by dying?”
Carl Jung
"My life often seemed to me like a story that has no beginning and no end. I had the feeling that I was an historical fragment, an excerpt for which the preceding and succeeding text was missing. I could well imagine that I might have lived in former centuries and there encountered questions I was not yet able to answer; that I had been born again because I had not fulfilled the task given to me.”
Henry David Thoreau
"Why should we be startled by death? Life is a constant putting off of the mortal coil - coat, cuticle, flesh and bones, all old clothes.”
Socrates
"I am confident that there truly is such a thing as living again, that the living spring from the dead, and that the souls of the dead are in existence.”
Jesus Christ in Gnostic Gospels: Pistis Sophia
"Souls are poured from one into another of different kinds of bodies of the world.”
Voltaire
"It is not more surprising to be born twice than once; everything in nature is resurrection.”
Josephus (most well known Jewish historian from the time of Jesus)
"All pure and holy spirits live on in heavenly places, and in course of time they are again sent down to inhabit righteous bodies.”
Honore Balzac (French writer)
"All human beings go through a previous life... Who knows how many fleshly forms the heir of heaven occupies before he can be brought to understand the value of that silence and solitude of spiritual worlds?”
Arthur Schopenhauer (Philosopher)
"Were an Asiatic to ask me for a definition of Europe, I should be forced to answer him: It is that part of the world which is haunted by the incredible delusion that man was created out of nothing, and that his present birth is his first entrance into life.”
Paul Gauguin (French post-impressionist painter)
"When the physical organism breaks up, the soul survives. It then takes on another body.”
George Harrison
"Friends are all souls that we've known in other lives. We're drawn to each other. Even if I have only known them a day., it doesn't matter. I'm not going to wait till I have known them for two years, because anyway, we must have met somewhere before, you know.”
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