Reincarnation – an original Christian doctrine

53 first that recognised God, the first to be wrenched from sinning, the first to have separated from the devil.” 91 Clement of Alexandria, Stromata IV, 160, 3 “As one birth follows the next, they will gradually progress us towards immortality.” 92 Augustinian, Confessions 1, 6, 9 “Tell me God, I who entreat you, tell me, your poor child merciful whether I have lived some kind of life before, one that my present childhood preceded…But what was before this time my blissfulness, my God? Was I anywhere and was I anyplace?” 93 Hieronymus, Epistula ad Demetriadem “The doctrine of recurrence was proclaimed at the very beginning to the few as a traditional faith, but it was not openly proclaimed.” 94 Synesius, About Dreams “Philosophy talks about the soul that achieves unfoldment on the path of re-embodiment. The soul that does not immediately return to the heavenly realm must pass through many lives.” 95 Nemesius “All Greeks that declare that the soul is immortal have one thing in common, namely the belief in their migration from one body to the next .” 96 (What is meant here is not the transmigration of the soul in the Buddhist sense [or also animals], but reincarnation.) Hieronymus, Epistula 98, 11 “But what is the meaning when (Origen) explains that souls were repeatedly chained to a body in order to be separated from it again…?” 97 d) Patristic evidence in regards to the Law of Cause and Effect (Law of Karma) Philo of Alexandria, Life of Mosis I (Moses), 326 “In your haste to commit sins you also expedite your punishment. Just punishment tends to move very slowly, but once is has begun to move, it very rapidly grasps the escaper.” 98 Gregory of Nyssa, Catechetic Oration XXVI, 3 “Justice shows itself in that the cheater is paid according to merit, namely through deception. The intent of the process does however verify the charitableness of its originators. It happens to be the nature of justice to allot everyone their own, namely the things they started and the causes from it. The Earth also provides the fruits of the seeds sown. Wisdom demands that the retribution through something similar is not trumped with something better.” 99 Clement of Alexandria, Stromata VII, 81, 6 “Poverty and diseases and other such tests are naturally imposed as admonitions so that one atones for past deeds and so that one contemplates any future action more carefully.” 100 Clement of Alexandria, Stromata IV, 83, 2 “But Basilides starts with the assumption that the soul must have sinned in another life and that it suffers the punishment for it here and that the chosen soul does this honourably through martyrdom, whilst others 91 Clement, Dunning Oration, see P. 159f. 92 Clement, Stromata IV, see P. 108 93 Augustinian, Confessions, see P. 23f. 94 According to Schmidt K. O. see P. 42 95 According to Schmidt K. O. see P. 44 96 According to Schmidt K. O. see P. 35 97 According to Görgemanns-Karpp, Origen, see P. 279 98 Philo, Volume I, see P. 295 99 Gregory, Catechetic Oration, see P. 69 100 Clement, Stromata VII, see P. 85