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The problem with reincarnation is that the belief that our souls are enfleshed again in different forms dismisses any uniqueness of personhood. Not only does reincarnation treat the body as a shell or a cast-off and the soul as recyclable, but it completely ignores the part that our gender plays in our personhood because it has no understanding of the gender of the soul, if you will.
Our bodies and our sex are not incidental. Like John Paul 2 said, they are our \”souls made visible\”. When it is said that we are made in God’s image it means that they have something to teach us about God.
If our bodies are feminine it is because our spirits are feminine and a reflection of the side of God that reflects the gifts of the feminine: life-bearing power, nurture, reception of life, softness, acceptance, fierceness, loyalty, etc.
If our bodies are male it is because our spirits are male and reflect God\’s strength and power, donation of life, enveloping protection and the call that a man seems to gravitate to so naturally to lay down his life for others.
Our bodies are not just houses for our souls, but they are our souls with flesh. It is important to realize the importance of this union and how disordered the separation which is called death is.
Our bodies are so esteemed by God that Christ went through the trouble of making sure that there will be no more separation of body and soul when He comes again. He Himself underwent death and resurrection so that our bodies would reunite with our souls and be healed of this separation once and for all in our glorified bodies.
The problem with reincarnation is that it denies that each person is a unique, once-in-a-lifetime unrepeatable gift to the universe.
© 2013. Victoria Gisondi. All Rights Reserved.
12 thoughts on “Reincarnated or Redeemed?”
“The problem with reincarnation is that the belief that our souls are enfleshed again in different forms dismisses any uniqueness of personhood.”
How are you defining “soul” and “personhood”?
“The problem with reincarnation is that it denies that each person is a unique, once-in-a-lifetime unrepeatable gift to the universe.”
In Buddhism, the unrepeatable, transitoriness of each moment is very much acknowledged.
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“We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.”
― Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
Fr. de Chardin,a French Jesuit (1881-1955) was a paleontologist, philosopher and Catholic mystic. The above quote comes from his book “The Phenomenon of Man” published in 1955. Pope Benedict 16 oft quoted de Chardin.
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Galatians 3:28
I find that humans are more evolved as they integrate the male and female components of their personality. It has long been established that humans are animus and anima (Jung) and the integration of the two makes us fully human. That’s why there are no male and female in heaven…the uniqueness is dissolved and integrated in a higher state of being.
Souls (spiritual beings) can have many human experiences; that is how the soul learns and evolves. The body does not ressurect as a body in the end. Please refer to “Introduction to Christianity” by Benedict.In Introduction to Christianity, Ratzinger explicitly denies the resurrection of the body. ‘It now becomes clear that the real heart of faith in the resurrection does not consist at all in the idea of the restoration of bodies, to which we have reduced it in our thinking; such is the case even though this is the pictorial image used throughout the Bible’. He says that the word body, or flesh, in the phrase, the resurrection of the body, ‘in effect means “the world of man” . . . [it is] not meant in the sense of a corporality isolated from the soul’ (pp 240-41).
I find nothing incompatible with re-incarnation and Christianity and I feel to glibly dismiss it to be disrespectful of religions, older than Christianity, who hold these beliefs.
Wow, this analysis is utterly wrong. Yes, there will most definitely be male and female in Heaven. And no, we are not spirits who just happen to be trapped in a body. We are integrated, body and soul. We are not like the angels with no bodies (disembodied spirits), and we are not like the animals, with a body but no eternal soul. We are both body and soul, which is why death is so unnatural. It is only in the Resurrection that we will be whole again, and through eternity.
And, way to take Ratzinger — an orthodox Catholic believer, a lifelong confessor of the Creed, and a brilliant theologian — totally out of context. Very frustrating when people make it appear that Papa is not a true believer (and ridiculous on its face).
Hi Phil
You must read Pope John Paul 2’s Theology of the Body. Our gender does not disappear in heaven, as you say. Part of Our identiy is tied up in our gender. Mary assumed into heaven with her body and she does not stop being a woman and a mother- ever. Please show me where it says we are no longer male or female in heaven in the catechism?
Secondly, we profess each Sunday in the creed that we believe in the ressurection of the body. It is very clear.
It is a doctrine of our faith. Remember at the crucificion all the bodies that raised from the dead? Ressurection is incredibly biblical.
Phil, you say (glibly, to use your word): “I find nothing incompatible with re-incarnation and Christianity.” Ah, but you are not the arbiter of Christian teaching and truth.
The Christian Scripture could not be more explicit on the matter:
Hebrews 9:27: “it is appointed for man to die once and after that judgment”
No reincarnation, sorry. And what you personally think about Christian doctrine and what is should be has no bearing on what it actually is. This will help:
http://catholicexchange.com/sorry-youre-not-allowed-to-do-that/
In context, Hebrews 9:27 actually refers to death to sin and worldliness.
Matthew and Mark also clearly allude to Elijah’s re-incarnation as John the Baptist…the man
“But I tell you, Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him…” Then the disciples understood that he was talking to them about John the Baptist.
(Matt 17:12-13)
Also there is ample scientific evidence to validate “past lives”…would be happy to provide sources?
Phil, not one scrap of Christian teaching understands or has ever understood that to be reincarnation, as much as you wish it really did “allude” to that. I think you missed this, so let me try again:
http://catholicexchange.com/sorry-youre-not-allowed-to-do-that/
We hopefully will respectfully disagree…I have done many years of research on past lives from a scientific basis. Are you interested in the resources? If not, it’s ok. But I would be happy to oblige….
Hi Phil, no thanks! I’m pretty sure of Christianity’s claims at this point. Jesus has proven Himself to me, as has His Church. I’ll take the witness of the Saints and the Blessed Mother as well.
Can we find an answer by arguments and anger .? When any doubt comes up in our mind, let us see what the Church teaches. A practicing Catholic relies on Church and Church only and not on individual interpretations or in other religions