Reincarnation – an original Christian doctrine

52 c) Patristic evidence in regards to the re-embodiment of the soul Philo of Alexandria, The Inheritor of the Divine § 282f. “Every one of us has also been put together from the four elements, borrowed parts from each substance… (Missing text)…and repays the loan at certain intervals by returning the dry back to earth, the wet back to water, the cold back to the air and the warm back to the fire. This in itself only applies to the physical; the spiritual and heavenly nature of the soul will achieve the purest ether of the Father.” 84 Philo of Alexandria, About Dreams I, 138f. “Some of these souls will descend in order to allow themselves to be locked up in a transient body, they are most friendly with the earth and the body, the others wander upwards, once again isolated from numbers and times determined by nature. Some of those that yearn for the relationship and the familiarity of mortal life rush back, but those that see in the whole conceitedness called the body a dungeon and a crypt, escaped like from a prison or a grave and transformed, are raised up to the ether on ethereal wings, for eternity up on high.” 85 Justinian, Dialogue IV, 5 “Does the soul view God whilst still residing in the body or only once it is free from it? For as long as it lives in human form, its mind should be able to achieve this. But above everything else, when it is free from the body, existing on its own, it will completely partake of the things it yearned for all this time. But will it remember God when it returns to being a human being? I do not believe so, that’s what I say.’ 86 Justinian, Dialogue LXXXV, 7 “Jesus ordered us to also love our enemies, something Isaias also preached in a number of places and this is where the secret of the re-birth of us can be found, well actually the secret of the re-birth of all of those that expect Christ’s arrival in Jerusalem and strive to please him through their work.” 87 Gregory of Nyssa, Macrina § 11,4 (The lord wants to teach us) “That we, when living in the flesh, still endeavour to separate and detach ourselves as much as possible from our addiction to the flesh through a change of virtue, so that we do not require a second death to cleanse our carnal adherences, but that the soul, after it has torn its fetters apart, can easily and freely run to the Land of Goodness, without being dragged down by the burdens caused by the body.” 88 Gregory of Nyssa, Macrina § 14, 2 “Others however hold the opinion that it (the soul) only moves from one person to another and that human life (throughout all centuries) was lived by the same souls whereby the same souls inhabit one person and then another without interruptions.” 89 Gregory of Nyssa, Catechetic Oration XV, 8f. “ There exists a certain accord between body and soul, a common participation in the evil that accompanies sin and the death of the body has a certain likeness to the death of the soul. The way we call being separated from the flesh and from carnal life, death, we also call the separation of the soul from real life, death…But the outcome of this is that death, consisting of dissolution, does not affect the soul. But as the soul has to be cleansed from the maculation produced by sin through certain healing therapies, it will have to apply the means of virtue in this life in order to heal these wounds. If they remain incurable in the present life, the healing therapy is reserved for a future (one?) life.” 90 Clement of Alexandria, Dunning Oration IX, 82, 4, 7 “If you do not become like children again, as the scriptures say, ( Matthew 18, 3; John 3, 5 ) you will not find your true Father and never enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Because how can a stranger be allowed to go home? But we are firstborn children, God’s foster children, true friends of the firstborn, amongst the 84 Philo, Volume V, see P. 287 85 Philo, Volume VI, see P. 201 86 Justinian, Dialogue, see P. 8 87 Justinian, Dialogue, see P. 141 88 Gregory, Macrina, see P. 289f. 89 Gregory, Macrina, see P.302 90 Gregory, Catechetic Oration, see P. 47