1. What is the Hindu understanding of reincarnation?
The fundamental preoccupation of any religion, including Hinduism, is to bring all people to final salvation (heaven, moksha, nirvana). Hinduism proposes ways and means to arrive at this final goal, which requires the definitive liberation from karma-samsara or the root cause of reincarnation. The Hindu concepts surrounding Reincarnation are quite complex.
2. Did the belief in a 'transmigration of souls' exist in early Europe?
Yes, when Christianity appeared on the scene, it had to share the stage with other concurrent world views. It took the nascent Church some time to sort out compatible ideas and attitudes from incompatible ones. Some Christians felt attracted to questionable points of views, just as some non-Christians to aspects of the Christian Weltanschauung. This is eminently true of the Gnostics, the most important series of sectarian groups in the first and second centuries, many of whose members were either pagans with a veneer of Christianity or Christians won over to non-Christian way of life and of thought. Among such sectarian groups there was much wild speculation about life after death.
3. Is it true that transmigration of the soul was the prevalent view within the early Christian Church?
No, the early Church rejected the idea of the transmigration of souls. Central to Christianity was from the start the message of Christ's rising from the dead as a hope of the resurrection of all humans. This in itself excluded reincarnation, an idea more consonant with Platonic dualism, which seemed to envisage the body as a prison or a coat to be cast aside and changed when outworn.
4. Did Origen believe in the transmigration of souls?
Origen was a second-century Biblical scholar and thinker. He believed that all spirits were created to be equal. Through their choices and the exercise of free will, some sinned and so they became demons or souls. When they died would this cycle be repeated? Some of Origen's reflections led his disciples to conclusions Origen himself would probably have rejected. Such views were condemned by the Church.
The evidence from Origen's own extant works leads to the view that Origen himself did not believe in reincarnation. What was condemned in the fifth ecumenical council, the Second Council of Constantinople in 553, was not Origen, but certain Origenists (Evagrius and the Isochrists) who had exaggerated Origen's christology and turned it into a defence of reincarnation.
5. How did the present-day belief in Reincarnation spread to the West?
During the past two centuries a number of strands from both East and West came together in a new mix of ideas. Read about this in 'A phenomenology of Contemporary Syncretism. The re-interpretation of Oriental Ideas in Western movements'.
6. Is it true that belief in reincarnation is on the increase in Europe?
Yes, it is. Throughout Europe we find a rising belief in reincarnation, particularly among the younger generation.
The belief seems to be slightly more prominent among traditionally Catholic populations than among their Protestant counterparts.
About half the population of Europe still adheres to orthodox Christian beliefs, while a quarter seems to be vulnerable to a new cluster of spiritual beliefs which has reincarnation as a component. In this cluster God is more likely to be seen as a Spirit or a Life Force. Great importance is attached to the soul. Life after death is understood more as a form of immortality of the soul than as a Christian enjoyment of life with God.
For a full presentation with statistics and graphics, click here!
7. Does doctrinal reincarnation belief exist in the West?
It does, but among those people in western countries who believe in reincarnation only a small proportion do so for doctrinal reasons.
Consistent, doctrinal reincarnationist belief systems do exist in Europe and North America, but they seem to be adhered to by only a minority of those who say they believe in reincarnation. Most people who believe in reincarnation do so for pragmatic reasons (see next question). Reincarnation has not achieved respectability within the academic community. Its doctrines are usually spread by semi-academic books and pamphlets, and recently on the Internet. Read here about doctrinal reincarnation belief.
8. What is meant by 'pragmatic reincarnationism'?
We speak of 'pragmatic reincarnationism' when reincarnation is accepted as a fact which, apparently, stands on its own. One's belief system seems irrelevant. Reincarnation is then simply accepted for pragmatic reasons: for instance, because it offers healing, an escape from death, the vindication of justice or the dream of "a second chance" in life.
For a more detailed explanation, click here!
9. If people turn to belief in reincarnation for 'practical' reasons, what are the implications for the Christian ministry?
We need to develop a new language that our contemporaries can understand: regarding death, regarding our absorption into God (heaven) and self-realisation in God (the resurrection of the body).
We need to do more in preparing people for a wholesome death, in personal healing and counselling the young and in liturgies that celebrate our dead friends and relations.
For a full presentation, click here!
10. Are reincarnation and resurrection the same thing?
No. Reincarnation and resurrection are not at all the same. Belief in reincarnation implies that, when we die, our soul will be re-born with a new identity into this world. Belief in resurrection means that when we die, we pass on, once for all, to a new life with God. Belief in reincarnation derives mainly from traditional Hindu religion according to which only the SOUL, the spiritual part of a person, endures. Belief in the Resurrection is based on our Christian conviction that, in Christ, God will seal our whole personality, body and soul, in an eternal embrace of love.
11. How can we best respond to the current fascination in reincarnation?
It would help to present the doctrine of purgatory in a pastoral way, as the maturation of the Christian so as to be able to behold God's glory through an experience of '"purifying pains". Since the doctrine was developed in the West in discussion with the East, it would be useful to have a look at Orthodox eschatology, and not only on such aspects as deification, glory and unending progress. Some archaic elements contained in it, due in part to the fact that the last ecumenical council recognised by the Eastern Orthodox (=Chalcedonians) is that of Nicaea II (787), may reflect primitive Christianity more closely. Other elements are found among the Oriental Orthodox (=the pre-Chalcedonians) and the Assyrian Church of the East. Thus, Orthodox eschatology can help provide some of the missing links to better understand what the Catholic Church wanted to express by her doctrine of purgatory.
One factor that encourages the idea of reincarnation is to negative attitudes towards the body. Against this popular but dualistic anthropology the Church has to develop an anthropology which gives the body its dignity.
Read more about what the Catholic Church thinks about the message of the resurrection and contemporary culture, in this essay by Cardinal Paul Poupard.
12. Why is the idea of reincarnation so attractive at the moment?
Reincarnation seems to offer a second chance. If the circumstances of someone's life are desperate, if they suffer from depression or are very poor, reincarnation offers a break: things could be better next time round. The only problem is that reincarnation offers no guarantee of rest and certainly no assurance of eternal rest. All it offers is an endless cycle of restlessness, with a succession of 'lives', some of which will be relatively happy and prosperous and purposeful, some of which will be lives of deprivation and poverty. There is no escape.
Reincarnation does not offer any real consolation to the human spirit.
