This a rant of mine that I think is worth sharing. It’s worth noting that I don’t subscribe to any form of reincartion or transmigration of souls, but I only talk about them with the goal of finding the root of them as ideas.

One becomes immortal by the incarnation of an ideal. As Plato shows, ideas are eternal and, thus, immortal and without birth. This is a sort of “joining” of one’s soul with higher Realms of atemporality; a means of transcendence. That’s why this process is one of annihilation of the go where all “accidents” that defines our personality and “instantiate” ourselves are lost and we’re merged with the eternal ideal, where there’s no distinction between us and the idea. (That’s an idea also used by the Fathers in the opposite way, to stablish the distinct Persons of the Trinity by their distinctive relations with each other, which “instantiate” Them, i.e., the Father is not the Son, and that’s the way of distinguishing Them apart, for, apart this, They’re the same in everything.)

That idea of death of oneself to the gaining of Life is present in universal philosophy, both East and West. An apparent reduction in one’s being is what can lead them higher, for that which is superior is also simpler, following this path. From it, also, arises the notion that multiplicity and change are inferior things and, thus, evil, for they lead to non-being when amplified, i.e., for what changes ceases to be something to become another. And in such you have the inherit notion that becoming unchangeable is the ultimate goal, and the only “true” immortality.

But in it is also deducted that death is unescapable: “we’re all going to be transformed”, as St. Paul says. But there’s a determination on our death: will we go “up” or “down” in the scale of Being? The death of vices will give place to virtues? For one is unchangeable and the other is self-destructive; one always preserves the self, and the other sets it in a constant state of mutations non-stop. (Until it stops somewhere in the line, which is what a lot of traditions assume will eventually occur with one’s soul in the form of doctrines like reincarnation, Samsara’s Wheel etc., which is only logical assuming the infine cycle of mutation should reach a state of immutability eventually, i.e., what should be the Supreme Good, the true immortal state. There, too, becomes clear the connection of numbers and metaphysics, as you see in Pythagorism and, in another way, in Taoist culture.) So all must go through death to be reborn. Christ says all will be brought back to life: some for Life Eternal/ some for being judged.

The question of a final Judgement and the End of History is one to be further explored. It seems to be special to Christianity (As far as I know.) and sets more questions: if the Supreme Good is unchangeability, how the Last Judgement could yield some kind of Hell?, for if all souls’ destinies’ are going to be set, and any possibility of changing is going to be vanished, how could not all of them achieve Supreme Good? This brings down the notion that unchangeability and simplicity are the defining point for the Supreme Good. Christianity denies it at its core: the Eternal God entered creation and became a man, without ceasing to be fully God. The Saints deny that where, even covered in illness, they remain working miracles and achieve Glorification. Christianity reconciles the irreconcilible, where that which is unchanging and perfect can interact with the mutable and decaying. In the sense, God and the deified Saints are truly unmoved-movers. That, still, doesn’t answer the question of the destinity of those damned souls. If they are going to become “set”, will they become akin to evil spirits? For these are damned and have no way of repentance. That, too, shows that being unchangeable does not lead to the Goodness of oneself.