Editing Reincarnation (section)

===Christianity===
In a survey by the [[Pew Forum]] in 2009, 22% of American Christians expressed a belief in reincarnation,<ref>{{cite web |author=ANALYSIS |url=http://pewforum.org/Other-Beliefs-and-Practices/Many-Americans-Mix-Multiple-Faiths.aspx |title=Pewforum.org |publisher=Pewforum.org |date=9 December 2009 |access-date=6 December 2011 |archive-date=10 December 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111210074029/http://pewforum.org/Other-Beliefs-and-Practices/Many-Americans-Mix-Multiple-Faiths.aspx |url-status=dead }}</ref> and in a 1981 survey 31% of regular churchgoing European Catholics expressed a belief in reincarnation.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.spirituale-wholeness.org/faqs/reinceur/reineuro.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010425113340/http://spiritual-wholeness.org/faqs/reinceur/reineuro.htm |archive-date=25 April 2001 |title=Spiritual-wholeness.org |publisher=Spiritual-wholeness.org |access-date=6 December 2011 }}</ref>

Some Christian theologians interpret certain Biblical passages as referring to reincarnation. These passages include the questioning of Jesus as to whether he is [[Elijah]], [[John the Baptist]], [[Jeremiah]], or another prophet ([[Matthew 16]]:13–15 and [[John 1]]:21–22) and, less clearly (while Elijah was said not to have died, but to have been taken up to heaven), John the Baptist being asked if he is not Elijah (John 1:25).<ref>Rudolf Frieling, ''Christianity and Reincarnation'', Floris Books 2015</ref><ref>Mark Albrecht, ''Reincarnation, a Christian Appraisal'', InterVarsity Press, 1982</ref><ref>Lynn A. De Silva, ''Reincarnation in Buddhist and Christian Thought'', Christian Literature Society of Ceylon, 1968</ref> [[Geddes MacGregor]], an Episcopalian priest and professor of philosophy, has made a case for the compatibility of Christian doctrine and reincarnation.<ref>{{cite book |last=Cranston |first=Sylvia |title=Reincarnation in Christianity: A New Vision of the Role of Rebirth in Christian Thought (Quest Books) (9780835605014): Geddes MacGregor: Books |isbn=0-8356-0501-9|year=1990 |publisher=Quest Books }}</ref> The [[Catholic Church]] and theologians such as [[Norman Geisler]] argue that reincarnation is unorthodox and reject the reincarnationist interpretation of texts about John the Baptist and biblical texts used to defend this belief.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Part One Section Two I. The Creeds Chapter Three I Believe In The Holy Spirit Article 11 I Believe In The Resurrection Of The Body II. Dying In Christ Jesus |url=https://www.vatican.va/content/catechism/en/part_one/section_two/chapter_three/article_11/ii_dying_in_christ_jesus.html |access-date=2024-05-13 |website=www.vatican.va}}</ref><ref name=":5">{{Cite book |last1=Geisler |first1=Norman L. |title=The reincarnation sensation |last2=Amano |first2=J. Yutaka |date=1986 |publisher=Tyndale House Publishers |isbn=978-0-8423-5404-2 |location=Wheaton, Ill}}</ref> Infact, Elijah is clearly used as a [[metaphor]] for John the Baptist in {{bibleref2|Matthew|11,14|NKJV}} ("For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John. 14 And if you are willing to receive it, he is Elijah who is to come.").<ref>{{cite web|author=Cardinal [[Gianfranco Ravasi]]|url=https://www.famigliacristiana.it/blogpost/la-reincarnazione-nella-bibbia.aspx|title=La reincarnazione nella Bibbia|language=it|trans-title=The reincarnation in the Bible?|website=[[Famiglia Cristiana]]|access-date=October 23, 2024|date=April 25, 2024}} Quote: "Elijah's death had been described as an assumption into heaven for perfect and eternal fellowship with the Lord (2 Kings 2:11-13). Thus had arisen the conviction that the prophet, living forever with God after his ascension to heaven, would be the divine messenger destined to announce to the world the coming of the Messiah: in the Judaism of the 3rd-2nd centuries B.C.E. it was above all an apocrypha (i.e., a text that was neither 'canonical' nor “inspired”), the Book of Enoch, that introduced this hope, which remained ever alive acquiring various forms and applications."</ref>

====Early====
There is evidence<ref>''The Big Book of Reincarnation'', by Roy Stemman, p. 14</ref><ref name="autogenerated1"/> that [[Origen]], a [[Church father]] in early Christian times, taught reincarnation in his lifetime but that when his works were translated into Latin these references were concealed. One of the epistles written by [[St. Jerome]], "To Avitus" (Letter 124; Ad Avitum. Epistula CXXIV),<ref name="mlat.uzh.ch">{{Cite web|url=https://mlat.uzh.ch/browser?path=MLS/text.php|title=Corpus Corporum|website=mlat.uzh.ch}}</ref> which asserts that Origen's ''[[On the First Principles]]'' (Latin: ''De Principiis''; Greek: Περὶ Ἀρχῶν)<ref name="Cross">Cross, F. L., and Elizabeth A. Livingstone. ''The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church'' (Second Edition). New York: Oxford University Press, 1984. p. 1009.</ref> was mistranscribed:

{{Blockquote| About ten years ago that saintly man [[Saint Pammachius|Pammachius]] sent me a copy of a certain person's [ [[Tyrannius Rufinus|Rufinus]]'s<ref name="mlat.uzh.ch"/> ] rendering, or rather misrendering, of Origen's ''First Principles''; with a request that in a Latin version I should give the true sense of the Greek and should set down the writer's words for good or for evil without bias in either direction. When I did as he wished and sent him the book, he was shocked to read it and locked it up in his desk lest being circulated it might wound the souls of many.<ref name=autogenerated1>{{Cite web|url=https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3001124.htm|title=Church Fathers: Letter 124 (Jerome)|website=www.newadvent.org}}</ref>}}

Under the impression that Origen was a heretic like [[Arius]], St. Jerome criticizes ideas described in ''On the First Principles''. Further in "To Avitus" (Letter 124), St. Jerome writes about "convincing proof" that Origen teaches reincarnation in the original version of the book:

{{Blockquote|The following passage is a convincing proof that he holds the transmigration of the souls and annihilation of bodies. 'If it can be shown that an incorporeal and reasonable being has life in itself independently of the body and that it is worse off in the body than out of it; then beyond a doubt bodies are only of secondary importance and arise from time to time to meet the varying conditions of reasonable creatures. Those who require bodies are clothed with them, and contrariwise, when fallen souls have lifted themselves up to better things, their bodies are once more annihilated. They are thus ever vanishing and ever reappearing.'<ref name=autogenerated1 />}}

The original text of ''On First Principles'' has almost completely disappeared. It remains extant as ''De Principiis'' in fragments faithfully translated into Latin by St. Jerome and in "the not very reliable Latin translation of [[Tyrannius Rufinus|Rufinus]]."<ref name=Cross />

However, Origen's supposed belief in reincarnation is controversial. Christian scholar [[Dan Schlesinger|Dan R. Schlesinger]] has written an extensive monograph in which he argues that Origen never taught reincarnation.<ref>{{Cite thesis |title=Did Origen teach reincarnation? a response to neo-Gnostic theories of Christian reincarnation with particular reference to Origen and to the Second Council of Constantinople (553) |url=https://eleanor.lib.gla.ac.uk/record=b3269054 |publisher=University of Glasgow |date=2016 |place=Glasgow |first=Dan R. |last=Schlesinger}}</ref>

Reincarnation was taught by several gnostics such as [[Marcion of Sinope]].<ref name="Bjorling 2013 p. 96">{{cite book | last=Bjorling | first=J. | title=Reincarnation: A Bibliography | publisher=Taylor & Francis | series=Sects and Cults in America | year=2013 | isbn=978-1-136-51133-2 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mdeAAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA96 | language=de | access-date=2023-06-27 | page=96}}</ref> Belief in reincarnation was rejected by several church fathers, including [[Augustine of Hippo]] in [[The City of God]].<ref>{{cite book | author = Augustine of Hippo |translator=Marcus Dods |translator-link=Marcus Dods (theologian born 1834) | url = https://archive.org/details/cityofgodtransla01auguuoft | title =The Works of Aurelius Augustine, Bishop of Hippo |volume=I: The city of God | via = [[Internet Archive]] | location = Edinburgh |publisher=T. & T. Clark | year = 1913 | pages = [https://archive.org/details/cityofgodtransla01auguuoft/page/508 508]–509 | archive-url = https://archive.today/20181225012037/https://archive.org/stream/cityofgodtransla01auguuoft/cityofgodtransla01auguuoft_djvu.txt | archive-date = 25 December 2018 | url-status = live | access-date = 25 December 2018 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Reincarnation - Did The Church Suppress It? |url=https://www.issuesetcarchive.org/issues_site/resource/archives/gudel.htm |access-date=2024-05-13 |website=www.issuesetcarchive.org}}</ref><ref name=":5" />

====Roman Catholic Church====
Citing {{bibleref2|Hebrews|9,27|NKJV}} ("27 And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment, 28 so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation."), the [[Catechism of the Catholic Church]] completely rejects any doctrine of reincarnation.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.usccb.org/sites/default/files/flipbooks/catechism/266/|title=Catechism of the Catholic Church|quote=There is no "reincarnation" after death|publisher=[[United States Conference of Catholic Bishops]]|page=264}} (n°. 1913).</ref>