Pre-Existence Doctrine
The doctrine of pre-existence says that a person's soul existed before his body was created .
Pre-existence doctrines exist in various philosophical and religious schools of thought. Basically, these are based on the idea of a soul that is not mortally and firmly bound to the body ( body soul ), but that is only temporarily incarnated in the mortal body . Such a free soul does not necessarily need the body, it can already have existed before and continue to exist after the death of the body . Sometimes it is taught that the soul returns to the same existence on the other side in which it was already before birth (or conception ). Sometimes it is taught that the soul goes through or can go through incarnations several times ( reincarnation ).
The assumed body-independent existence of the soul before the incarnation is also called pre-life (in English beforelife , by analogy with the term afterlife for life after death). However, depending on the context, the word “past life” can also refer to an earlier incarnation, as well as to an earlier period of human life, so “pre-existence” is a more appropriate term.
In early Christianity, the doctrine of pre-existence was initially one of several controversial teachings about the origin of the soul. She was eventually condemned as heresy by the Catholic Church in the 6th century . In other religions it is still valid today.
In Greek philosophy
The occidental root of the doctrine of pre-existence lies in ancient Greek philosophy. Pythagoras already postulated that man consists of body and soul, and assumed that the soul is fundamentally independent of the body in its being. It was implanted in the body and existed before the body, but without a body only led a cloudy dream life. After death, they can continue to exist and migrate to new bodies even after a cleansing process.
In the Platonic philosophy, this concept was greatly developed and is closely related to Plato's theory of ideas . In Platonism, the soul alone is the perceiving and acting subject and the bearer of all life functions, the body is nothing but an instrument that is temporarily available to the soul. The soul is immortal and exists both before the formation of the body and after its death. God created all human souls at the same time. Each of these souls is the realization of a divine idea and was originally in an ideal state. Their prenatal existence consisted only of thinking . When a soul is embodied, a feeling and a willing principle are added to the thinking principle, so that the soul of the embodied person consists of three parts. However, only the thinking part is immortal, while the other two parts of the soul, including the body, are perishable. The incarnated soul has a possibility of remembering its prenatal existence: when a person learns something, his soul actually remembers knowledge from the world of ideas ( anamnesis ).
Christianity
Origen's doctrine of pre-existence
The doctrine of pre-existence in early Christianity goes back to the church writer Origen (185 - around 254). This was clearly influenced by Platonism through his training. He transferred many concepts from the Greek world of thought into Christianity, including the three-part division of the human being into body ( soma ), soul ( psyche ) and spirit ( nous ). Origen taught that God created all souls at the beginning of creation and that so soul and spirit are pre-existent in man. The pre-existing souls incarnate as human beings after they fall away from God. Origen rejected the Platonic doctrine of the three parts of the soul, as well as the doctrine of Numenios , according to which man has two souls, one divine and one lower, bad.
The origin of the soul from the immaterial, divine world and the possibility of its return to this homeland subsequently became a key point of the Neoplatonic philosophy, as it was represented by Plotinus , among others .
Pre-existence of the soul of Jesus
Origen also asserted a pre-existence of Christ in the form of a pre-existence of the soul of Jesus . Unlike the souls of men, however, the soul of Jesus was united with the divine Logos , the “Word of God” as it stands in the Gospel of John , even before his incarnation . In this way Origen established the human and at the same time divine qualities of Jesus.
Origen adhered to a strict monotheism in which Jesus Christ as the incarnate Son of God was not equal to the Father , but subordinated ( subordinatianism ). This view was also represented by Tertullian (after 150 - after 220), who used the term monarchianism for it, and later Arianism . The First Nicene Council banned these teachings in 325.
Other Christian teachings
With his doctrine of pre-existence Origen stood in opposition to the generatianism , which was represented by Tertullian and teaches a mediation of the soul from the parents through the conception . Later the church father Laktanz (around 250 - around 320) postulated a third doctrine about the origin of the soul, according to which the soul is created by God at the moment of conception, namely creatianism .
With the doctrine of original sin formulated by the Church Father Augustine of Hippo (354-430), the doctrine of preexistence cannot be combined well, because if all souls were created at the beginning of creation, they cannot plausibly have inherited Adam's sin.
Damnation as heresy
In the 6th century there were conflicts between different Christian groups in Palestine . Emperor Justinian I (around 482-565), who wanted to distinguish himself not only as a secular ruler but also as a doctor of the church, took measures against rebellious Origenist monks. In 543 he convened a regional synod in Constantinople , at which the edict “Liber adversus Origenem” was passed, which listed in nine points non-orthodox teachings of Origen, including the pre-existence doctrine, which were banned as heresy. Pope Vigilius refused to come to the synod, but was forced to sign the synod texts a year later. In the year 553 the pre-existence doctrine was finally condemned as heresy at the Second Council of Constantinople . All the bishops of the empire, including Pope Vigilius, agreed to the condemnation ( anathema ). Instead of the doctrine of pre-existence or generatianism, creatianism was declared to be a binding doctrine. Nevertheless, the doctrine of preexistence was always a source of ignition until the Middle Ages.
The pre-existence of Christ taught by Origen , however, was not rejected in the same way as the pre-existence of human souls. The doctrine that Christ "descended and became flesh" was already established in the Nicaea Confession , and a special addition in this confession says that the Catholic Church bans other teachings about the origin of Christ. In almost all Christian groups the acceptance of the pre-existence of Christ remained.
Reformed theology
The Reformed churches adopted the doctrine of creatianism from the Catholic Church and therefore mostly do not teach the pre-existence of the soul.
Individual Reformed theologians, however, questioned creatianism. The Protestant theologian and philosopher Immanuel Hermann Fichte suggested a pre-existence not of the soul, but of the spirit. Other Protestant theologians such as Johann Friedrich Bruch , Leopold Immanuel Rückert and Ludwig Ernesti also took up the doctrine of pre-existence.
Origen and the reincarnation
Since the 20th century, various authors have tried to portray Origen as a representative of reincarnation. However, there is no plausible evidence for this. Origen rejected the idea that souls could incarnate more than once rather in his writings like Contra Celsum as "silly and godless". He argued that such a concept "is alien to the Church of God and is neither narrated by the apostles nor appears anywhere in the scriptures".
In other religions
A doctrine of pre-existence is represented in the following religions, among others:
- Brahmanism , Hinduism , Jainism (here gods, humans and animals go through rebirths , however the concept of the atman can only be compared to that of the soul to a limited extent)
- Mahayana Buddhism (incarnations of divine beings go through rebirths, a well-known example is the succession of Dalai Lamas in Vajrayana Buddhism)
- Islam (all souls were created with Adam and have already committed themselves to God in an original contract)
- Kabbalah in Judaism (souls go through rebirths )
- Bahaitum (the souls of most people are not pre-existent, but those of the great spiritual teachers are, and God is also pre-existent)
- Mormonism (pre-existence of souls before incarnation, "pre-mortal existence")
Other forms of Buddhism , on the other hand, do not have a concept of an individual self as in Hinduism, but a concept of a "not-self" ( Anatta ) and teach a rebirth without transmigration of souls .
In modern philosophy
The German philosophers Immanuel Kant and Friedrich Schelling took up the idea of a pre-existence of the soul as a hypothesis.
literature
- Christoph Markschies: Origen and his legacy: collective studies , Walter de Gruyter, 2007
Individual evidence
- ↑ The doctrine of the pre-existence of human souls presented historically and critically . January 1, 1859, p. 7th ff . ( books.google.com ).
- ↑ Alfons Fürst, Holger Strutwolf: The commentary on the Song of Songs . Walter de Gruyter & Co KG, 2016, ISBN 978-3-11-046470-2 , p. 240 ( books.google.com ).
- ↑ Bernhard Lohse: Epochs of the history of dogma . LIT Verlag Münster, 2011, ISBN 978-3-643-11296-5 , p. 84 f . ( books.google.com ).
- ↑ Gabriel Looser: Which life after death ?: Reincarnation and Christian faith . Patmos Verlag, 2013, ISBN 978-3-8436-0340-9 ( books.google.com ).
- ↑ The doctrine of the pre-existence of human souls presented historically and critically . January 1, 1859, p. 3 ( books.google.com ).
- ↑ Gabriel Looser: Which life after death ?: Reincarnation and Christian faith . Patmos Verlag, 2013, ISBN 978-3-8436-0340-9 ( books.google.com ).