Reincarnation – an original Christian doctrine

3 is deposited within the human psyche. 7 The religious appreciation of ancient races might have been even more closely tied to the basic truths about the human existence than the religious forms of the present times that were created with the help of present day people’s intellect. A lot of major esoteric groups also promote the idea of reincarnation, like for instance Anthroposophists, Theosophists, Rosicrucians and the Lorber-Groups . Walter Brugger, SJ., (Societas Jesu),whose essay “Re-embodiment” is continuously cited from by opponents of the doctrine of reincarnation, complains therein that a lot of people have distanced themselves from Christendom and – due to the lack of criticism, due to secondary spiritual education and due to the curiosity spurred on by our modern lifestyle – find the old truths unattractive. He also condemns sects, popular occultism, belief in miracles and the doctrine of reincarnation in one fell swoop. His deprecatory and fixed line of argumentation is typical of lots of theologians trapped by their religious dogmatism who go into battle against reincarnation. He introduces his argumentation with the following words: “The following expositions about reincarnation or transmigration of the soul are not primarily designed to convince ardent proponents of this doctrine of its untenability. They mostly locked their fantastic ideas within a system so that a singular examination is ineffectively deflected because it cannot pursue all their intertwined byways. They are so full of their confabulated higher insights that they find it difficult to think and assess things clearly.” 8 Just how small and superficial the knowledge of this Church representative is about the subject of his rejection is shown by the fact that he mentions reincarnation and transmigration of the soul as if they were the same, even though both concepts say something completely different. The mass media has now adopted the theme of reincarnation and presents it to a public that numbers in the millions. The same arguments that Brugger raised against re-embodiment decades ago do however pop up over again. It is therefore not something Catholics and Bible believing Christians can or will accept. Let us portrait the belief doctrine of the Christian Churches, particular that of the Roman-Catholic Church, in order to allow unbiased readers to form their own opinion. A comparison with the doctrine of reincarnation ought to establish that the possibility of repeated lives on Earth can be absolutely compatible with the Christian doctrine of salvation, provided that theologians distance themselves from the “infallibility” status of many dogmas and resolutions by ecumenical councils. These expositions deal, amongst other things, with questions like: • What do Church dogmas have to say about the origin of human beings and their souls? • What is the meaning and the aim of a life in the physical world? • What happens after death? • What is this salvation all about? • How pertinent is the system of Christian dogmas? 7 See Glasenapp “Seelenwanderung” in: The Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart V. Band, B. 1637ff, (Herausgeber Kurt Galling), Mohr 1972. 3.Auflage. 8 Brugger SJ, see P. 252