Other Church Fathers on Reincarnation
“The church of Rome in declaring Origen and his teachings heresy declared:
“If anyone assert the fabulous pre-existence of souls, and shall assert the monstrous restoration which follows from it: let him be anathema.” (Anathema I, 5th Ecumenical Council)
Other prominent figures in the Church affirmed that reincarnation was a part of early Christian doctrine:
Rufinus assured Anastasius in a letter that belief in repeated lives was a matter of common knowledge among the church fathers and had always been imparted to the initiated as an ancient tradition. (Reincarnation and Karma, Pfullingen 1962, p. 41)
According to Jerome (340 – 420 AD):
“The transmigrations (reincarnation) of souls was taught for a long time among the early Christians as an esoteric and traditional doctrine which was to be divulged to only a small number of the elect.” (Jerome, Letter to Demetrias)
According to Origen’s predecessor, Clement of Alexandra (150 – 211 AD):
“The Gnosis itself is that which has descended by transmission to a few, having been imparted unwritten by the apostles.” (Miscell. Book VI, Chapter 7)
St, Gregory (257 – 337 AD) wrote:
“It is absolutely necessary that the soul should be healed and purified, and that if it does not take place during its life on earth, it must be accomplished in future lives.” (Trinick 1950: 38)
Gregory of Nyssa (330 – 400 AD) wrote:
“The resurrection is no other thing than ‘the re-constitution of our nature in its original form’”, and states that there will come a time “…when the complete whole of our race shall have been perfected from the first man to the last.” (On the Soul and Resurrection)
Justin Martyr (100 – 165 AD) wrote the following to Trypho the Jew:
“And what do those suffer who are judged to be unworthy of this spectacle? said he. They are imprisoned in the bodies of certain wild beasts, and this is their punishment” (Dialogue with Trypho)
Jerome wrote in a letter to Demetrius that among the early Christians, the doctrine of reincarnation had been passed on to the elect, as an occult tradition. (Reincarnation and Karma, Pfullingen 1962, p. 41)
According to Origen, Basilides (117 – 138 AD) held a doctrine of reincarnation that was identical to the Pythagorean belief that human souls may take on the bodies of animals in future lives (i.e. transmigration). (Basilides, “Fragment F,” in Layton, Gnostic Scriptures, p. 439.)”
all from http://www.near-death.com/experiences/origen07.html
