The Ideas of Resurrections in Ancient Polytheism, Early Christian Theology and Cambridge Platonism

The chapter examines the evolution of beliefs about the immortality of the soul and resurrection starting from ancient polytheistic religion and Christianity and finally to the English rational theology during scientific revolution. The doctrines of immortality of the soul and resurrection incorporated into philosophical and scientific representations of their time serve as a distinctive marker of the mindset of the historical epoch. They encompass the whole complex of historical, philosophical, religious and cultural problems of civilizations. The whole Christian culture stems from the psychological phenomenology and the concept of resurrection. Many earlier polytheistic sources can be found here, parts of which are incorporated into the ideology of Christianity. Ancient Orphism, Platonism and Neo-Platonism are the most important historical stages in the formation of this mythological and philosophical complex. Origen’s teaching on apocatastasis is considered within the latter, which is different from orthodox dogmatics. This teaching was undergoing a renaissance in various eras of history. The philosophical doctrines of Cambridge Platonists including R. Cudworth, H. More, A. Conway, J. Rust, etc., represent a vivid revival of Origenism, its concept of the immortality of the soul, metempsychosis and resurrection. These teachings become the theoretical basis for a kind of political nonconformism with the key idea of personal inner freedom. These sources continue to represent more than just historical curiosity; they are seen as an important aspect of our psychology, though which is not often comprehended rationally. In the seventeenth century, in the era of widespread religious devotion, they served as the primary basis for the ideas of theodicy, predestination and freedom of conscience.