But many, many people (I'm afraid they are in the millions today) are incomparably more trusting of the postulates of occult propaganda. As a matter of course, tabloid newspapers write: "The concept of reincarnation was recognized by the Christian Church. Later, in the sixth century, at the Council of Jerusalem, the hierarchs of the church removed from Christian doctrines the postulate of the transmigration of souls, which survived only in Hinduism.

I hope that there is still a tendency in intelligent people who are interested in questions of religious philosophy to listen to both sides in any dispute before making a personal choice. Arguments in favor of the karmic worldview are easily available today: "introductions to esotericism" and instructions for "diagnosing karma" are simply littered with all the book trays. The Christian answer is still barely audible. Strangely, people prefer to trust the interpretations of Christianity given by non-Christians, stubbornly refraining from studying the understanding of Christianity given by the bearers of this tradition themselves.

Of course, it can be assumed that modern Christians have lost the wisdom and spirituality of the early Christians. I would not even dispute this thesis. It is not customary for Christians to justify oneself when one is accused of sin.c But on this particular issue, the question of the transmigration of souls, the Christian tradition can be traced from decade to decade through all twenty centuries. And it will be found that, contrary to the assurances of occult propaganda, our rejection of reincarnation is not a betrayal of ancient Christianity.

The theosophy of Blavatsky, the Roerichs and many other occult teachers claims to be, on the one hand, a synthesis of all religions, and on the other hand, a synthesis of religion and science. And claiming to be the "new science," the occult doctrine penetrates into schools and government agencies, into universities and into the press. Since the field of my professional scientific activity is the study of the history of Christian thought and the history of religion, I decided to see how scientifically the "synthesis" proclaimed by occultists is carried out in a field with which I am familiar firsthand.

There is a completely understandable line between religious conviction and scientific conclusion. To say "I believe in the resurrection of the dead" or "I believe in reincarnation" is to express a religious view. To say that "the Christians of the first centuries believed (or did not believe) in the transmigration of souls" means to express a judgment about a certain historical fact. This fact can be established and verified. In this book, quite ordinary scientific work is carried out with historical sources, that is, such work, each step of which can be checked and understood by a person of any religious views.

On the whole, the proposed work does not aim at comparing occult-theosophical and Christian ideas about man, his fate and death. I am not raising the question here whether there is really a transmigration of the human soul into many bodies, or whether what is promised in the Gospel will take place: the resurrection of the dead. I do not enter into a detailed consideration of the karmic doctrine, just as I do not try to substantiate the Gospel proclamation.

I have simply tried to consider as historical, and not as religious, the already mentioned extremely fashionable belief. Helena Roerich formulated it as follows: "The doctrine of reincarnation was abolished only in 553 A.D. at the Second Council of Constantinople. Thus, the doctrine of the pre-existence of the soul and its successive returns to Earth did not become a "heresy" among official Christianity until the sixth century A.D.; Up to that time it had been tolerated and accepted by those churchmen who were especially close to the Gnostics... But the spiritual fathers are carefully silent about this. After all, they cannot but know that the law of reincarnation was abolished only in the sixth century at the Council of Constantinople!" 2. Nicholas Roerich expresses himself even more radically: "As for reincarnation in general, one could say to a poor pastor that in the Philokalia one can hear about reincarnation from the time of Anthony the Great. After all, this truth was abolished only at the Council of Constantinople in the five hundredth years of our era. This means that all the holy ascetics who lived in the first half of the millennium seemed to understand nothing, and yet among these founders were the most remarkable figures. Suffice it to recall Anthony the Great."3

So, I will just try to show that the world of religions is more diverse than it seems to Theosophists. The belief in the transmigration of the soul from one body to another is not at all generally accepted There are religions that are not at all ashamed of human physicality. It seems natural for them to assume that the break in the relationship between the soul and the body is just a temporary nuisance, and then their union will resume forever. Therefore, the soul, as it is believed in such cases, does not seek other bodies, but waits to be reunited with the former one – when it will be miraculously awakened and restored. There are religions from the point of view of which, on the contrary, life in the body seems to be such an insignificant episode that the soul, having broken with the body, goes forever, as they believe here, into the world of spirits and gods, and will never again squeeze itself into any body, neither into its former one, nor into any new and alien ones. There are religions that assume that the soul, if it acquires a body, will not be the body of Ivan or Zhuchka: the soul will become part of the universal Body, living the One Life of the Divine...

However, I will not be able to cover all the diversity of religions. Therefore, I propose to consider only five questions in this work:

The first is whether the theory of reincarnation is really universal, religious, and ancient.

The second is whether the idea of reincarnation was recognized by the prophets of the Old Testament.

The third is whether there is an idea of the transmigration of souls in the books of the New Testament.

The fourth is whether the early Christian writers before the Fifth Ecumenical Council (especially "all the ascetics" and "founders", and, in particular, St. Anthony the Great) really recognized the idea of reincarnation.

The fifth is whether this teaching was really "abolished" in the sixth century at the Council of Constantinople.