Reincarnation in early Christianity later squelched by the Church? Hmmm. Well. I'd want a footnote, and it had better not be publised by HarperCollins
?'s religion division. Basically, Judaism believes in a one-body-per-soul thing (and I know, there is all sorts of interesting controversy about exactly what Judaism in the 1st century thought the afterlife or salvation would be like), and insofar as Christianity grew out of Judaism, that cuts that off.
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MichaelTinkler
I've read it in two or three different places, I think, so it seemed to deserve mention. I'll try to do a little more research on it.
--WillWare
One of the endless lands of controversy in Religion departments is the degree of Greekification that Christianity underwent once pagans started converting. Reincarnation is an essentially non-Judaic idea, so anyone who says that it was a belief in E. Christianity is asserting that paganism beliefs made substantive changes in ideas about the nature of the Soul. Not to mention the fact that ancient Mediterranean society was FAR from unanimous on reincarnatin. The Egyptians sure didn't believe in it (Hence, the Book of the Dead is all about getting to the comfortable afterlife), and the Romans don't seem very interested. It was, as far as I can tell, not a popular belief but a position taken by some philosophers. Oh, well - this is what a community project is for, sorting stuff like this out. --
MichaelTinkler
Hmm. That all goes well beyond my level of scholarship. I guess I'll yank it. --WillWare
Well as I understand the Jews around the 1st century didn't have that clear ideas on the afterlife at all, and most Jews still don't. Some Jews today believe in reincarnation (some Hasidim for instance), though that belief may be Medieveal in origin. As to early Christianity, the mainstream rejected reincarnation, but some Gnostic groups believed in it. (Gnostic Christianity was heavily pagan influenced.) As to reincarnation in ancient Mediterranean society, I'd agree it was far from unanimous, but it wasn't just a philosophical view: some popular movements like Gnosticism or Orphism or Hermeticism believed in it. (I am no historian, so I may be wrong.) ---
Simon J Kissane
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