Range of Reincarnation Views

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Range of Reincarnation Views
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Anti-Substance Metaphysics
Substance Metaphysics
What Persists? No Thing Persists Causal
Continuity Only Person A shapes the skandhas of
Person B Classical Buddhist View
What Persists? Mental Dispositions or Aspects of
the Unconscious Mind Vedanta Hinduism
What Persists? Complete Conscious, Character and
Memory Bearing Self Vulgar Conception In
eastern and western religion and philosophy
Soul Immaterial Substance Substratum for
Consciousness or Mental Life
No Soul
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Bodily Resurrection
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The Basic Idea
For every human person P, at some time after the
death of P, God brings about the existence of a
psychophysical person P who is identical with P.
P and P have significant psychological
continuity.
P and P have significant physical continuity.
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Historical Development
Zoroastrianism (circa 1000-800 BCE)
Judaism (beginning circa 400 BCE)
Christianity (1st Century CE)
Belief in bodily resurrection begins explicitly
in Zoroastrianism, passes to Judaism (around 400
BCE), and is subsequently inherited by
Christianity and Islam.
Islam (7th century CE)
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Origins of Belief in Resurrection
Ancient Egyptian Belief The dead receive a new
body for an afterlife that resembles life on
earth, but that does not take place on earth.
Ancient Hindu Belief the dead receive a new
body after death and enter a heavenly realm
(world of the fathers) or a place of punishment
(the dark pit).
Ancient Zoroastrian Belief the one Supreme
being will physically resurrect the dead sometime
after biological death. Zoroastrianism later
developed the idea of a specific day on which
everyone will be raised from the dead, the great
day of resurrection.
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Resurrection in Judaism
No belief in bodily resurrection until the Second
Temple Period, beginning in the 6th century BCE.
Prophetic writings (Daniel, Ezekiel, Isaiah)
affirm belief in bodily resurrection. Firmly
entrenched in Jewish thought by the 2nd century
BCE (II Maccabees).
Bodily resurrection seems to have entered
Judaism as the result of Persian Zoroastrian
influence. The Jews came under Persian influence
under the rule of the Persian Empire, after King
Cyrus conquered the Babylonians in 560 BCE and
established his kingdom.
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Resurrection in Christianity
In Christian theology, the doctrine of
resurrection takes on new significance since the
Christian faith bases its vision of salvation on
the bodily resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth,
believed to be the savior of the world.
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The Gospel Narratives
Among Jesus many miracles recorded in the Gospel
Narratives are miracles of bodily resurrection.
The raising of Lazarus (John 11). Jesus comes to
the tomb of the man Lazarus, who had been dead
for four days. Jesus says, Lazarus, come
forth! Lazarus then comes out of the tomb.
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Jesus Resurrection from the Dead
The Gospel Narratives claim that on the third day
after his crucifixion Jesus raised from the dead
and thereafter appeared to his disciples, who
were initially perplexed by the discovery of the
empty tomb.
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See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself
handle me, and see for a spirit has not flesh
and bones as you see that I have." And while
they still disbelieved for joy, and wondered, he
said to them, "Have you anything here to eat?"
They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he
took it and ate before them. (Luke 2439-43)
The Physicality of Jesus Resurrection
The Gospel Narratives regard Jesus resurrection
body as a physical body. The Narratives (a)
explicitly deny Jesus was a mere ghost, spirit,
or apparition and (b) attribute various physical
properties to Jesus post-resurrection body.
In the Gospel of John, Thomas physically touches
Jesus hands, feet, and side, to confirm the
wounds suffered from the method of crucifixion.
(John 2024-28. Earlier in the narrative Mary
Magdalene was clinging to Jesus body and he
tells her Stop clinging to me. (John 2015).
Similarly, in the Gospel of Matthew, some of the
disciples take a hold of his feet. (Matthew
289)
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Gospel Narrative General Resurrection
Marvel not at this for the hour is coming, in
the which all that are in the graves shall hear
his voice, And shall come forth they that have
done good, unto the resurrection of life and
they that have done evil, to the resurrection of
damnation. Jesus, Gospel of John 528
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The Apostle Paul on Bodily Resurrection
I Corinthians 15 affirms both the bodily
resurrection of Jesus and the general
resurrection of everyone on a future day of
judgment.
Paul uses the analogy of seed and wheat,
generally the thing planted (which dies) in
contrast to the thing that emerges from what has
been planted. Paul intends the analogy to
capture the relation between the body that died
and the body that is resurrected.
Paul speaks of the resurrected body as a
spiritual body (soma pnuematikon). This means
that the former body is transformed into a state
of being incorruptible. The resurrection body
may be numerically but not qualitatively
identical with the former body.
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Lynne Rudder Baker
Three Essential Features of Christian Belief in
Resurrection
Embodiment
Identity
Miracle
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The Justification of Resurrection
Zoroastrian and Jewish Justification of Belief in
Bodily Resurrection
Christian Justification of Belief in Bodily
Resurrection
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Nature of Bodily Resurrection
Resurrection of the person as a psychophysical
unity.
A resurrected person is a bodily being with
strong physical resemblance and psychological
continuity with some formerly living person. The
resurrected person has the memories, character,
and thoughts of a formerly living person. The
resurrected person is very much like a person
waking up from a sleep.
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Since the western religious traditions accept the
idea of soul (as an immaterial substratum for
mental states), resurrection is typically
understood to involve the uniting a persons soul
with his or her body.
Can the soul support consciousness in the
absence of a body?
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The Resurrection Body
Three Views on the Nature of the Resurrection Body
Reanimation
Reconstitution
Replica
A reanimated body is a corpse that has been
brought back to life.
A reconstituted body has the same parts as the
original body.
A replica body resembles the original body, but
does not have the same parts, nor is it
numerically the same as the original body.
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A Fourth View on the Resurrection Body?
Spatiotemporal Continuity
Not a reanimated corpse. Not a reassembly of the
original parts of a body. Not a replica lacking
continuity with the original body.
The creation of a new body from a pre-existing
body.
The natural thing to say is that identity of
body consists of spatiotemporal continuity of
ever-changing constituent cells. Lynne Rudder
Baker
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In Zoroastrianism, the resurrected body is
qualitatively distinct from the persons
pre-mortem body (though perhaps numerically
identical with it). Zoroastrian texts emphasize
the transformation of the original body. The
resurrected body, though physical, is a perfected
body.
The physicality of resurrection in Zoroastrianism
and Islam is implied by the highly physical
character of the afterlife. This underscores the
physical basis for individuality and in
contrast to Greek Platonism sanctions the
sensual aspect of human nature and experience.
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In Zoroastrian and Jewish texts, God is depicted
as gathering and reassembling the bones of the
person, putting new flesh on the bones, and
breathing life into the physical structure.
In second-century Jewish texts (e.g., II
Maccabees) the basis for belief in bodily
resurrection is the omnipotent power of God. If
God created the universe out of nothing, then he
can resurrect the dead, even if their bones have
been turned to dust.
The earlier and later Zoroastrian and Jewish
texts suggest some kind of reconstitution model
of resurrection.
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The Resurrection Narrative
The Time of Bodily Resurrection Bodily
resurrection is believed to take place for the
entire human race at a particular future time,
called the Day of Judgment.
The Agent of Resurrection God is the agent who
resurrects the members of the human race. Bodily
resurrection is thus a supernatural act.
Resurrection in the western religious traditions
presupposes a monotheistic metaphysics, the
existence of a single, personal Supreme being.
The Purpose of Resurrection The purpose of
resurrection is to grant a life after death to
human persons who were originally created as
psychophysical entities. Resurrection thus
involves an ontological restoration of the human
person.
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The Moral Tier of Resurrection God not only
raises the dead, but judges them. As a
consequence of Gods moral judgment of human
persons, some are punished and some are rewarded.

In the western religious traditions, the
classical view is that the resurrected dead are
divided into two groups. The righteous
experience a pleasant afterlife in paradise or
heaven. The unrighteous experience an unpleasant
afterlife in hell or a place of torment.
However, in the pre-classical Zoroastrian view,
resurrection ultimately leads to the salvation of
the entire human race. The wicked have already
been punished during an intermediate state
between death and resurrection. They experience
only a short trial by fire immediately at
resurrection.