Everything about Incarnation totally explained
Incarnation which literally means
embodied in flesh, refers to the
conception and birth of a
sentient creature (generally a human) who is the material manifestation of an
entity or force whose original nature is immaterial.
In its religious context the word is used to mean the descent of a divine being or the Supreme Being (God) in human form on Earth. While
Christianity,
Hinduism and
Buddhism are perhaps the most widely-known traditions to employ this concept within the context of their respective belief systems, they're by no means the only ones to do so.
Christianity
The doctrine of the Incarnation of
Christ is central to the traditional Christian faith as held by the
Roman Catholic Church, the
Eastern Orthodox Church, and most
Protestants. Briefly, it's the belief that the Second Person of the
Holy Trinity, also known as the Son or the
Logos (Word), "became flesh" when he was miraculously conceived in the womb of
the Virgin Mary. In the Incarnation, the divine nature of the Son of God was perfectly united with human nature in one divine Person. This person,
Jesus, some churches believe was both
truly God and truly man. This doctrine is specifically referenced in the Bible in John 1:14 and Colossians 2:9. It is known as the
hypostatic union.
Hinduism
The term avatara literally means "descent" and usually implies a deliberate descent into lower realms of existence for special purposes. It isn't a synonym of incarnation, as the incarnation presumes taking a material body, but the word avatara also assumes descent in the original form.
Many denominations of Hinduism, such as
Vaishnavism and
Saivism, teach that occasionally God comes to Earth as a human being to help humans in their struggle toward enlightenment and salvation (
moksha). Such an incarnation or discent of God is called an
avatar. In some respects, the Hindu concept of avatar is similar to the belief found in
Christianity that God came to the earth in the form of
Jesus. However, whereas most Christians believe that God has assumed a human body only once, Hinduism teaches that there have been
multiple avatars throughout history and that there will be more and doesn't assume material body, thus some disagree with this assumption.
The most famous of the divine incarnations are
Rama, whose life is depicted in the
Ramayana, and
Krishna, whose life is depicted in the
Mahabharata and the
Bhagavata Purana. The
Bhagavad Gita, which contains the spiritual teachings of
Krishna, is one of the most widely-read scriptures in Hinduism.
Buddhism
In the Buddhist tradition, an incarnation is a person believed to be the next rebirth of someone deceased, in most cases a
lama or other important master/teacher. This concept differs from
reincarnation in Hduism, however, since the
Buddhist teaching of
anatta (non-self) implies that there's no fixed soul that could move from one life to another.
Islam
Islam rejects the doctrine of the incarnation of God in any form. In Islam God is one and neither begets nor is begotten. Islam specifically rejects the Christian idea of Jesus as a divine incarnation, but rather sees Jesus as a prophet (
nabī) and messenger (
rasūl) of God.
Judaism
Rabbinic Judaism rejects this doctrine.
Rastafari
The
Rastafari movement views
Haile Selassie as God incarnate, in much the same way as Christians view Jesus, and deals with the same problem of how someone can be human and God at the same time.
Ancient Egyptian
The
Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt were sometimes said to be incarnations of the gods
Horus and
Ra.
Further Information
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