Reincarnation – an original Christian doctrine

PSYCHO-SCIENTIFIC FRONTIERS Selected publications from a variety of subjects of psycho-scientific research. Editor: Rolf Linnemann (Certificated Engineer) * Steinweg 3b * 32108 Bad Salzuflen * Tel. (05222) 6558 Internet : http://www.psychowissenschaften.de E-Mail : RoLi@psygrenz.de Translator’s email: evak30@optusnet.com.au Prof. Dr. phil. Konrad Dröse Senior lecturer Hermann Bauer Reincarnation – an original Christian doctrine. Critically analysed Greek and Latin Bible texts, council documents and scriptures of past Fathers of the Church verify this. Professor Dr. of philosophy, Konrad Dröse (1920 – 2011), worked as a high-school teacher at the Nordrhein- Westfalen Advanced Technical College in Lippe (Now called School of Higher Education, Ostwestfalen-Lippe). He taught the special subject of ”Art and History of Construction” within the Department of Architecture and Interior Design until his retirement in July 1985. ______________________________________________________________________________________________ Preface Re-incarnation – a concept that is no longer an alien word in our vocabulary. Human beings have always contemplated their existence and the meaning of life, but this seems to be happening more intensively than ever before nowadays. A survey conducted by a journal in regards to the theme “Life after Death” cites the following essay written by a pupil: “I do believe that some kind of life will continue to exist after death. A kind of invisible being of light. Once one has lived long enough in spirit form one will be born again after a certain period of time.” 1 What is astonishing here is that pupils can express thought processes that represent an abrasive contrast to the doctrines of the Christian Churches. We must therefore be even more surprised that the question about reincarnation in particular generally finds great interest in our time. “We are dealing with a question here that emotionally effects people to their core, because it is about life and death, about the genesis of our existence, the fate of this world, our existence before and after our present life, about the interpretation of suffering and guilt and the meaning of the whole cosmos.” 2 The re-embodiment of the soul, often also called “rebirth”, is obviously not just generally contemplated, because quite a lot of ideas from the East stream into the up to now dominant Christian arena; the knowledge about the soul’s repeated embodiment into a human body is actually 1 Grossenbacher, see P. 736 2 Adler, see P.. 21