INTRODUCTION
The concept of reincarnation seems to offer one of the most attractive explanations of humanity’s origin and destiny. Not only adherents of Eastern religions or New Age spirituality accept it, but also by many who don’t share such esoteric interests and convictions. To know that you lived many lives before this one and that there are many more to come is a very attractive perspective from which to judge the meaning of life. On the one hand, reincarnation is a source of great comfort, especially for those who seek liberation on the exclusive basis of their inner resources. It gives assurance for continuing one’s existence in further lives and thus having a renewed chance to attain liberation. On the other hand, reincarnation is a way of rejecting the monotheistic teaching of the final judgment by a holy God, with the possible result of being eternally condemned to suffer in hell. Another major reason for accepting reincarnation by so many people today is that it seems to explain the differences that exist among people. Some are healthy, others are tormented their whole life by physical handicaps. Some are rich, others at the brink of starvation. Some have success without being religious; others are constant losers, despite their religious dedication. Eastern religions explain these differences as a result of previous lives, good or bad, which bear their fruits in the present one through the action of karma. Therefore reincarnation seems to be a perfect way of punishing or rewarding one’s deeds, without the need of accepting a personal God as Ultimate Reality.











REINCARNATION
It is known that the Egyptians believed in reincarnation or the transmigration of the soul. They thought the soul transmigrated from body to body and this was a reason why they embalmed the body in order to preserve it so that it could journey along with ka, an animating force that was believed to be counterpart of the body, which would accompany it in the next world or life. Ka might be considered equivalent to the term of soul. This establishes the dating of the concept of reincarnation back to the ancient Egyptian religion but many think it dates beyond antiquity.
The belief is thought to have been an necessity among primitive peoples. Certainly long before ancient Egypt peoples believed in transmigration of the soul. If they were not sophisticated enough to understand the concept of a soul, then they may have simply called it life. An individual or object, which moved, had life, and the one, which did not, did not have life. This is analogous to the belief of animism.
Gradually the concept of a soul developed with a further realization that the soul departed the body at death and entered the body at birth. Soon it was thought the soul leaving a dead body would seek another body to enter, or enter an animal of a lower life form. It was also thought the soul left the body during sleep. This soul was pictured as vapors that entered and left through the nostrils and mouth.
Later grew the notion the soul transmigrated to an infant of one of dead person's kin. This helped to explain family resemblances.
The terms reincarnation and transformation of the soul, especially when applied to humans, are about synonymous. However reincarnation is not accurately synonymous with either metamorphosis or resurrection. Metamorphosis is roughly the changing of one life form into another life form. Resurrection, in the Christian sense, means the rising again of the body after death.
About the first definition of soul transmigration came from Pythagoras, the Greek philosopher and mathematician, who taught that the soul was immortal and merely resides in the body; therefore, it survived bodily death. His further teachings held the soul goes through a series of rebirths. Between death and rebirth the soul rests and is purified in the Underworld. After the soul has completed this series of rebirths is becomes so purified that it can leave the transmigration or reincarnation cycle.
Plato, another Greek philosopher, shared similar views as Pythagoras in that the soul of man was eternal, pre-existence, and wholly spiritual. In Plato's view of the transmigration of the soul from body to body, however, there is a difference. Plato claimed the soul tends to become impure during these bodily inhabitations although minimal former life knowledge remains. However, if through its transmigrations the soul continues doing well and eliminates the bodily impurities it will eventually return to its pre-existence state. But, if the soul continually deteriorates through its bodily inhabitations it will end up in Tartarus, a place of eternal damnation. This appears to be an origination of both the concept of karma and the Christian concept of hell.
It was around the first century AD that both the Greek and Roman writers were surprised by the fact that the Druids, a priestly caste of the Celts, believed in reincarnation. The Greek writer Diordus Siculus (c. 60 BC - 30 AD) noted that the Druids believed "the souls of men are immortal, and that after a definite number of years they live a second life when the soul passes to another body." The Greek philosopher Strabo (c. 63 BC - 21 AD) observed the Druids believed that "men's souls and the universe are indestructible, although at times fire and water may prevail."
Even Julius Caesar wrote of the Celts "They wish to inculcate this as one of their leading tenets, that souls do not become extinct, but pass after death from one body to another, and they think that men by this tenet are in a great degree stimulated to valor, the fear of death being disregarded." Elsewhere Caesar complained the Druids were a troublesome people. They were difficult to destroy.
There is little evidence of reincarnation among the early Hebrew people but it later became a part of the Kabbalistic teaching. The teaching occurred among the early Christians, especially the Gnostics, Manichaeans, and the Carthari, but was later repudiated by orthodox Christian theologians. When asked by college students why Christianity does not teach reincarnation Patricia Crowther, a witch, answered, "...The early Christians taught it (reincarnation), and this can be proved by the words of Saint Gregory, Bishop of Nyssa: 'It is absolutely necessary that the soul shall be healed and purified, and if it doesn't take place in one life on earth, it must be accomplished in future earthly lives.'"
Later, in AD 533, the Council of Constantinople declared reincarnation a heresy.
The reason reincarnation was repudiated was because of the eschatological teachings of death and judgment which were established as orthodox Christian doctrine. In simplicity this doctrine states man has just one life in which to merit his eternal reward or damnation. Such a doctrine also strengthened the Church. However, many Christians still believe in reincarnation because they think Christ taught it.
In an interview the author Jess Stern asked a lady who had previously seen the late American mystic Edgar Cayce "Why do you now find it so important to believe in reincarnation -- wouldn't just being a good Christian, believing in the message of God through Christ be sufficient to get you into Heaven?"
She answered plainly, "Don't you know that Christianity embraced reincarnation for three hundred years, until the Roman influence expunged it after the Emperor Constantine recognized the Church? What do you think the early Christians were thinking when they asked Christ whether he was Elijah, who had come before? They were think reincarnation, that's what."
She continued, "If you thought of reincarnation as rebirth, I think you could understand it better. Just as the earth has a constant rebirth, so does the spirit. Don't you remember Christ saying, 'Unless man is reborn, he cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven?'"
Stern told her he thought the was a reference to baptism. She replied, "Christ was not interested in show, but substance, that was at the heart of everything he said or did."
Most occultists and witches would certainly agree with their Christian friend. Reincarnation is rebirth. Just as the earth is renewed so is the spirit or soul, which knows no death. To many, reincarnation is taught by nature herself. Some would say by the Mother Goddess. In the spring the trees give birth to new leaves, flowers bloom, new foliage springs up. In summer and fall the crops are harvested. In winter the earth rests, everything is dormant. This is the earth's life cycle, which many believe symbolizes the spirits.
The Christian lady speaking with Stern referred to reincarnation as a learning experience. Each reincarnation not only purifies the soul more, but this purification comes through opportunities to learn more in life if the soul is willing. Here is a division of thought concerning reincarnation. Eastern religions such as Buddhism and Hinduism teach each reincarnation may be different, that is, man may return as a lower life form such as a plant, tree, or animal.
Certain sects of Gnosticism held this belief too. The rationale of such a belief is that the soul has to experience all aspects of life. Western thought of reincarnation is that man just reincarnates to higher spiritual levels of life, but never returns as a lower life form. In Western philosophy it is also held if man does not reach a higher spiritual level he must repeat the cycle until he does.
Most occultists and witches believe reincarnation is a cycle of birth, death, and rebirth. As to the exact cyclical process there are divergent views. Some hold a view similar to the Buddhists the individual personality disintegrates at death with its characteristics forming in a pool with other traits which come together in new reincarnations. Others believe reincarnations only occur within a tribe, race, or family. This is Odinism. Another view is that there is a resting period between reincarnations, where the soul rests in a state of bliss in the astral plane called Summerland before it passes into the next reincarnation.
Many occultists have attempted to retrace their past lives or reincarnations by dream analysis, meditation, or occasionally hypnotic regression. The witch Sybil Leek thought she had been Madame Helena P. Blavatsky, the co-founder of the Theosophical Society. Aleister Crowley believed he traced his reincarnations from Pope Alexander VI, renowned for his love of physical pleasures; to Edward Kelly, the assistant of the Elizabethan occultist and magician John Dee; to Cagliostro; to Eliphas Levi who died on the same day as Crowley was born. Continuing back further Crowley believed he had been Ankh-fn-Khonsu, an Egyptian priest of the XXVIth dynasty. A.G.H.
Christianity
Almost all present official Christian denominations reject reincarnation mainly because they consider the theory to challenge a basic tenet of Christianity. Most philosophies associated with the theory of reincarnation focus on "working" or "learning" through various lifetimes to achieve some sort of higher understanding or state of "goodness" before salvation is granted or acquired. Basic to Christianity is the doctrine that humans can never achieve the perfection God requires and the only "way out" is total and complete forgiveness accomplished through the sacrifice Jesus made on the cross wherein He took the sins of mankind.
A number of Evangelical and (in the USA) Fundamentalist Christian groups have denounced any belief in reincarnation as heretical, and explained any phenomena suggestive of it as deceptions of the devil. Although the Bible never mentions the word reincarnation, there are several passages through New Testament that Orthodox Christians interpret as openly rejecting reincarnation or the possibility of any return or contact with this world for the souls in Heaven or Hell (see Hb 9:27 and Luke 16:20-31)
The Bible contains passages in the New Testament that seem to refer to reincarnation. In Matthew 11:10-14 and 17:10-13, Jesus says that John the Baptist is the prophet Elijah who had lived centuries before, and he does not appear to be speaking metaphorically (Tucker, 2005, p.202).
There are various contemporary attempts to entwine Christianity and reincarnation. Geddes Macgregor, wrote a book called Reincarnation in Christianity : A New Vision of Rebirth in Christian Thought. And Rudolf Steiner wrote Christianity and Mystical Fact.
Several Christian denominations which support reincarnation include the Liberal Catholic Church, Unity Church, and the Rosicrucian Fellowship.

Did the clergy rewrite the Bible, so that the passages teaching reincarnation were removed?
Another hypothesis is that the Bible contained many passages teaching reincarnation in an alleged initial form, but they were suppressed by the clergy at the fifth ecumenical council, held in Constantinople in the year AD 553. The reason for this would have been the spiritual immaturity of the Christians, who could not grasp the doctrine at that time, or the desire of the clergy to manipulate the masses. However, there is no proof that such "purification" of the Biblical text has ever occurred. The existing manuscripts, many of them older than AD 553, do not show differences from the text we use today.
That the Christian Church teaches that we live only once is beyond doubt, as surely as it teaches that Jesus had to die only once for our sins. In other words, the unique historical act of Jesus’ crucifixion and the teaching that we live only once are equally affirmed and cannot be separated. The judgment that follows death is obviously not the judgment of the impersonal karma, but that of the personal almighty God, after which man either enters an eternal personal relation with him in heaven, or an eternal separation from him in hell.
Did the early Church fathers believe in reincarnation?
Early Christianity spread in a world dominated by Greek philosophy. Many important figures of the early church had this spiritual background when they became Christians. Could they have been influenced by the doctrine of reincarnation? In order to answer this, we first have to understand the actual teaching on reincarnation at that time in the Greek world.

Reincarnation according to Platonism
The dominant form of reincarnation known by Greek philosophy during the first three Christian centuries belongs to Platonism. Unlike the Eastern spiritual masters, Plato taught that human souls existed since eternity in a perfect celestial world as intelligent and personal beings. They were not manifested out of a primordial impersonal essence (such as Brahman) or created by a personal god. Although the souls lived there in a pure state, somehow the divine love grew cold in them and, as a result, they fell in physical bodies to this earthly, imperfect world. Plato writes in Phaedrus about this:
But when she (the celestial soul) is unable to follow, and fails to behold the truth, and through some ill-hap sinks beneath the double load of forgetfulness and vice, and her wings fall from her and she drops to the ground, then the law ordains that this soul shall at her first birth pass, not into any other animal, but only into man; and the soul which has seen most of truth shall come to the birth as a philosopher, or artist, or some musical and loving nature.
In the same work, Plato states that "ten thousand years must elapse before the soul of each one can return to the place from whence she came." Only the soul of the philosopher or of the lover can get back to its original state in less time (i.e., in three thousand years). The souls that fail to aspire to perfection and live in ignorance are judged after their earthly life and then punished in "the houses of correction, which are under the earth." One lifetime is not enough to return to the original celestial state of purity. For this reason "the soul of a man may pass into the life of a beast, or from the beast return again into the man." This is the Platonist idea of reincarnation. It does not represent a voyage of an impersonal essence (as atman) toward an impersonal union with the Absolute (Brahman), but only a temporary punishment on the way back towards a purified personal existence (the state of pure being). Between Platonism and Eastern religions there is a big difference concerning man’s identity in general and reincarnation in particular.

CONCLUSION
The idea of reincarnation has never been accepted by Christianity because it undermines its basic tenets. First, it compromises God’s sovereignty over creation, transforming him into a helpless spectator of the human tragedy. But since he is sovereign and omnipotent over creation, God can punish evil and will do it perfectly well at the end of history (see Matthew 25,31-46; Revelation 20,10-15). There is no need for the impersonal law of karma and for reincarnation to play this role.Second, belief in reincarnation may affect one’s understanding of morality and motivation for moral living. An extreme application of reincarnationist convictions could lead to adopting a detached stand to crime, theft and other social plagues. They could be considered nothing else but normal debts to be paid by their victims, which originated in previous lives.Third, reincarnation represents a threat to the very essence of Christianity: the need for Christ’s redemptive sacrifice for our sins. If we are to pay for the consequences of our sins ourselves in further lives and attain salvation through our own efforts, the sacrifice of Christ becomes useless and absurd. It wouldn’t be the only way back to God, but only a stupid accident of history. In this case Christianity would be a mere form of Hindu Bhakti-Yoga.As a result, no matter how many attempts are made today to find texts in the Bible or in the history of the Church that would allegedly teach reincarnation, they are all doomed to remain flawed.










BIBLIOGRAPHY

Semkiw, Walter. Return of the Revolutionaries: The Case for Reincarnation and Soul Groups Reunited. 2003.
Shroder, Tom. Old Souls: The Scientific Evidence for Past Lives. 1999.
Steiner, Rudolf. Reincarnation and Immortality.
Steiner, Rudolf. Reincarnation and Karma: Two fundamental truths of existence.
Steiner, Rudolf. A Western Approach to Reincarnation and Karma : selected lectures and writings; ed. and intr. by René Querido. Hudson, NY : Anthroposophic Press, c1997.















Polytechnic University of the Philippines
College of Arts
Department of Humanities




In partial fulfillment of the Requirements in
PH 330: Philosophy of Religion



Reincarnation and Christianity





Rikka Joy K. Decella
ABP IV-1


Prof. Baygan