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Reincarnation in Plato and in the Christian Perspective

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Mantzanas M.

Peitho. Examina Antiqua

2015

vol. 6

issue 1

195-204

The present study focuses on research about reincarnation in order to formulate some preliminary conclusions concerning various philosophical theories. The overview extends over a considerable period range, from ancient Greek and up to the patristic tradition. The relevant issues include the problem of evil, the question of human decomposition and death as well as reincarnation (metempsychosis) in the Platonic thought. The problem of evil is a problem of reason that emerges from the philosophical background of ancient Greek thought but also from the subsequent Christian patristic thought and transforms itself into diverse concepts (e.g. the significance of justice). According to the original thought of Socrates, evil is associated with ignorance and good with knowledge. This point of view is given a brief review in the philosophical thought of several important representatives of the patristic tradition (e.g., Origen and Gregory of Nyssa). On the other hand, the idea of immortality of the soul, which dates to the religious movement of the Orphic mysteries (seventh century BC) means that the persistence of the immortal soul at the moment of death needs the use of a new body. This essay will try to analyze the ancient character of the myth of reincarnation through the perspectives of philosophy and religion.

The way of ἀνάλυσις: Clement of Alexandria and the Platonic tradition

58%

Jugrin D.

Studia Philosophiae Christianae

2016

vol. 52

issue 2

71-94

In Clement of Alexandria, the three ways of knowing God appear implicitly in the form: the way of analogy, the way of negation (in the mathematical version), and the way of eminence. A basic aspect of the negation appears as an expression of Clementine criticism on anthropomorphism. The Platonic traditional model of via negativa is related to the mathematical theory of abstraction and is defined as a denial of the material things in order to reach the contemplation of God through pure mind: “we start by abstracting the surface, and we are left with the line; we abstract the line, and we are left with the point; we abstract the point, or strictly speaking the monad, and we are then precipitated into the greatness of Christ” (Stromateis V.11.71.2). Clement of Alexandria is, also, one of the authors who emphasize silence and prayer as having great importance in the knowledge process. The cessation of the activity of the senses leads to the supreme state of contemplation with a pure mind. Silence becomes, in this way, a symbol of God, and knowledge – not a matter of speaking, but of being.

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1 Peitho. Examina Antiqua

1 Studia Philosophiae Christianae

1 Jugrin D.

1 Mantzanas M.

1 2016

1 2015

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Reincarnation in Plato and in the Christian Perspective

The way of ἀνάλυσις: Clement of Alexandria and the Platonic tradition