Christian Rationalism - Spiritualist Philosophy.
STRENGTHEN, ENLIGHTEN SPIRITUALIZE.
Christian Rationalism 45th Edition.
The aim of this book is to enlighten readers
in a concise and simple way about the meaning
of life through a spiritualistic point of
view. Explaining the principles through which
one can coherently form an understanding of
the Whole Universe – that is the Life in
the Universe in its ample and constructive
aspects - and with it, one can identify oneself
as a participant in an evolutive process.
Since ancient times, human beings have questioned
the mysteries of life: where one comes from,
what will be one's future, what will happen
after death, and what is the meaning of life.
These are the questions that have been asked
for a long time.
Only the knowledge of spiritual life and all
beings common origin will give humanity a
glimpse of new horizons on Earth and will
assist us to find the paths towards peace,
which is achieved as a result of an established
fraternal relationship among people.
Christian Rationalism 45th Edition.
Christian Rationalism Headquarters Board of
Directors coordinated the review, updating,
translation, layout and printing of this book.
Printed in Brazil. All rights reserved. This
book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced
or used in any manner whatsoever without the
express written permission of the editor.
The addresses of Christian Rationalism's houses
are available via phone +55 21 2 1 1 7 2 1
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on Christian Rationalism website.
Christian Rationalism Headquarters – Rio
de Janeiro. Brazil.
Christian Rationalism – Science and Philosophy.
Not Religion!
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
To the reader, Page 9.
General outlines, Page 13.
Chapter 1 - Evolution, page 19.
Chapter 2 - Force and Matter, page 25.
Chapter 3 - Space, page 30.
Chapter 4 - The spirit, page 38.
Chapter 5 - Thought, page 45.
Chapter 6 - Free will, page 52.
Chapter 7 - The aura, page 57.
Chapter 8 - Incarnation of the spirit, page
61.
Chapter 9 - Disincarnation of the spirit,
page 75.
Chapter 10 - Mediumnity and mediums - Physical
and
psychic phenomena, page 86.
Chapter 11 - Psychic imbalance, page 97.
Chapter 12 - Psychic normalization, page 107.
Chapter 13 - Valor, page 111.
Chapter 14 - Character, page 116.
Chapter 15 - The family and children's upbringing,
page 120.
Synthesis of Christian Rationalism's principles,
page 128.
Conclusion, page 130.
TO THE READER.
The aim of this book is to enlighten readers
in a concise and simple way about the meaning
of life through a spiritualistic point of
view. Explaining the principles through which
one can coherently form an understanding of
the Whole Universe – that is the Life in
the Universe in its ample and constructive
aspects – and with it, one can identify
oneself as a participant in an evolutive process.
Since ancient times, human beings have questioned
the mysteries of life: where one comes from,
what will be one's future, what will happen
after death, and what is the meaning of life.
These are the questions that have been asked
for a long time.
The longing for learning about the apparently
obscure transcendental world led humanity
to create myths and fantasies. In the heart
of spiritist phenomena, myths were created
about the existence origins. Based on these,
it was determined what should be commonly
accepted and what was not allowed to be acknowledged
about the Universe.
And it was like this for a long time, until
the idea to test theories via experiments
flourished.
The experimental method, the basis of modern
science, contributed to the dismissal of myths
and taboos but created a distance between
science and the conceptions of spiritual nature.
Nowadays, therefore, the very same scientific
stance begins to divest the validity of this
distancing. A wave of interest is being formed
with respect to methods of investigating that
differ from the traditional ones. As one can
determine similarities between current physics
theory, through experimental methods, and
some metaphysics concepts, originating from
mediumistic researches, which in other words
are investigations based in perceptive capacities
that surpass the possibilities of the five
human senses.
In this context, it may be a sign of a change
in paradigm of the scientific method, which
resurges and renews itself, in an evident
way within the studies accomplished in the
spirituality sphere. In this field, the results
escape the limits sorted by science itself.
However, in a serious investigation of metaphysical
phenomena, it is not by the fact that exists
external evidences that are resistant to the
repetitious experiments screening that one
should diminish the importance of the internal
evidences that shows that the spirit's essence
is a parcel of the Whole Universe. A parcel
that is inseparable and indistinguishable
of the Whole.
The research of the extrasensorial sphere
is read as a transcendental aspect of life.
Therefore, due to being vast and deep, it
presents difficulties related to the building
of a unifying synthesis. Sometime the results
are lost in digressions of an intellectual
nature, and in many others they get fainter
within mystical and fanciful considerations.
Luiz de Mattos, humanist and expert in spirituality,
codified Christian Rationalism, an enlightening
philosophy, to answer the innermost questions
about existence and to offer a safe guide
for living in this world. He formulated the
basic postulate that Force and Matter compose
the Universe. He outlined in a clear way the
principles that should rule life on Earth,
and he established, based on study, the code
of conduct for conscious, balanced, and harmonious
living.
Without any conceit and within the phenomenal
reality of the unfolded evolutive process,
Luiz de Mattos contemplated the theoretical
aspects of spirituality, without neglecting
to provide the implications arising from this
knowledge in actual daily life.
Christian Rationalism was codified by Luiz
de Mattos between 1910, the year of the foundation
of this philosophy, and 1914, when he published
the first edition before it was named Rational
and Scientific Spiritism (Christian). In the
period between 1915 and 1926, year of his
passing, three more editions were published,
updated by the spirituality master himself.
The original name was maintained until the
fourteenth edition in 1940. From the fifteenth
edition, in 1942, this oeuvre's name changed
to the current title.
In 1939, for the first time, this book was
translated from Portuguese into English. The
current edition is available simultaneously
in both languages. The English translation
goal was to maintain the paragraphs' fluidity
and the writing style accordingly to the original
book in Portuguese, within the potentials
of each language.
In an adequate way, some expressions of some
sections of this edition were updated to facilitate
comprehension by the ones who study spirituality,
maintaining the philosophical content of fifteen
chapters of the prior edition, disposed in
an order that allows the researchers in general
to develop a line of thought that will lead
them to their own conclusions.
The Editor. November 2015
GENERAL OUTLINES.
Christian Rationalism is a spiritualistic
philosophy that cares for the evolution of
the spirit and explains, through rational
reasoning, what we are and what we are doing
in this school-planet named Earth.
Christian Rationalism expresses two guiding
concepts that assert its entire philosophical
context. Firstly, RATIONALISM is connected
to the process of reasoning, logic, and rationale.
One has to pursue being rational through reasoning
or through well-guided thought. Reasoning
is enlightening when profoundly and precisely
operated and when elevated. When its use is
carefully polished, reasoning leads to the
right conclusions about life. Reasoning with
awareness promotes a solid basis for reaching
truthful convictions. It unravels and finds
what is being looked for within the interweaving
of ideas.
Secondly, CHRISTIANITY is associated with
RATIONALISM and completes the revealing sense
of this philosophy: a code of conduct that
gathers the spiritualistic principles and
Christianity precepts. As we say “code of
conduct," we are referring to the person's
procedure to the collectivity and toward himself
or herself. To be a Christian is to be honorable,
prudent, moderate, courageous, and fair. To
be a Christian Rationalist is to live an earthly
life under the spiritualistic norms of the
highest standard. It is to know, to prepare
the spirit for the present and future life
as an enlightened being, with awareness of
self-state and self-spiritual conditions.
Christian Rationalism is a complete set of
spiritualistic teachings because it conveys
to the individuals a self-knowledge, being
able to demonstrate what is the most important
and fundamental – your own Higher self – remote,
present, and future, which depends on health,
well-being, happiness, and with this a world
less violent, less intolerant, and more just
and understanding.
Nowadays, as it was in the past, everyone
who studies human issues and conflicts knows
that spiritual education can enlighten people
to be peaceful and honorable. In this regard,
however, there is a need to erase from common
sense the unrealistic way many live. It is
indispensable that one leaves behind inaccurate
ideas and teachings about existence, about
which many who look for understanding about
transcendental facts of life end up confused.
It is sad that this still happens. Once being
in touch with such useful, necessary, valuable,
and indispensable knowledge, the individual
is wandering for a long time after protection
and aid of supposed divinities of nature,
as one would have learned to trust oneself
and seek support and security on its own vast
and invincible willpower and its own righteous
thoughts.
Readers do not think that Christian Rationalism,
with the publication of this book, is disclosing
unprecedented information. From antiquity
to the present, spiritualism is an object
of philosophical studies, researchers, intellectuals,
men and women of science eager to reveal more
about the spiritual life to humanity.
When encoding its principles, Christian Rationalism
affirms that the Universe is composed of Force
and Matter. Force incites and moves all bodies
(being organic Matter). It is the intelligent
principle that interpenetrates the entire
Universe. The Intelligent Principle is understood
by many as God, preferably named by Christian
Rationalism as Creative Power, Great Focus
or Universal Intelligence, of which we are
a parcel, an emanation, that contains the
same attributes in its latent form to be developed
and perfected in countless earthly existences.
The Creative Power maintains the Whole Universe
ruled by evolutive
laws, to which everyone is subjected. It is
not admissible by Christian Rationalism probations,
predestinations, or miracles. The Christian
Rationalist's philosophy teaches us that the
occurrences of our lives derive from the use
of our free will and spiritual faculty controlled
by the thought, reasoning, and willpower.
Thus, we are what we think; the evil we wish
for our counterparts we are wishing for ourselves.
The good we do to us will return, as we are
who we want to become. Therefore, this philosophy
teaches us to not harbor sentiments of hate,
jealousy, or ill will.
As soon as one begins to reason within the
first phases of spiritual evolution, the individual
feels, even if in a vague and confused manner,
the existence of the Universal Intelligence,
of which one is not capable of defining. This
way, it is born, a tendency to adoration,
as the spiritual unpreparedness condition
he or she lives justifies it. One can understand
perfectly that certain part of humanity that
does not have a spirituality concept can go,
for instance, further along than the worship
of natural elements, as one lacks the basis
of understanding to detach oneself from the
perplexity of adoration one lives in.
To the attentive observer, it is not difficult
to evaluate the spirituality degree of the
individuals if one manifests the tendency
of adoration, as well as the greater or lesser
intensity of this propensity. The way of adoration
and what is adored vary with the awakening
of life consciousness, until one reaches the
point of being able to detach oneself from
the adoration sentiment.
The ones that venerate abstract things, after
reaching the necessary spiritual enlightening,
will perceive how misplaced this veneration
is inasmuch as how naïve their present understanding
of this idea is, which they nourished one
day by revering natures' elements.
It is not necessary to have a lot of imagination
to understand that these incoherencies represent
during the delicate period of formation of
character throughout infancy, and how they
contribute during adulthood to dull the reasoning
and to impose difficulties in one' expansion
within the vast spirituality sphere.
When the individual begins to comprehend what
he or she really is as a spirit, force, intelligence,
and power; when one is convinced that he or
she has the spiritual attributes to rationally
succeed any difficulty; when one awakens his
or her conscious mind to the fact that one
is a parcel of the Whole harmonious Universe
- inseparable from the Universal Intelligence
- the initial conceptions of protection will
fall flat. Within its vast concept of life's
understanding, there are the clear elements
of conviction, by means of which one can free
oneself from conceptions that imprison him
or her to miracles and supernatural mysteries.
There are no privileged individuals nor are
there protections. Everyone, without exception,
is subject to the same principles, rules,
and evolutive process. Invariably, one makes
the same path and the same cycle; therefore
there is an utmost and meritorious principle
of justice. One needs to convince himself
or herself that one cannot count on others'
assistance to free him or her from the consequences
of the mistakes he or she makes. One will
have to retrieve these errors with good deeds
in many existences as necessary to accomplish
it. Therefore, one will think carefully before
committing any inadequate action.
Then what really matters is the way in which
a person processes his or her evolutive march,
conquering step-by-step spiritual independence.
The one that knows to evaluate the responsibility
that one carries in his or her acts certainly
will do his or her best to establish himself
or herself within the teachings that transmit
the spiritual factual knowledge. Christian
Rationalism, without any interest other than
to awaken humanity to the reality of life,
aims to convey the clarification that one
needs to reach a clear spiritual condition
to facilitate one's own life.
Students of Christian Rationalism learn to
trust themselves in their moral capacity and
their willpower to fight and win. Therefore,
they are not adorers, supplicants, or lamenters.
They know that there are grand obstacles surging,
at each step, in their life's path, but they
also know that they can win with the very
spiritual resources they possess. Thus, it
is necessary that each one fulfill their duties,
accomplishing the parts that one is responsible
for, with attention, with the eyes and the
soul aiming toward the key meaning of existence,
which is spiritual evolution.
Christian Rationalism's principles gather
concepts and orientations of upright behavior
for the people who desire to practice it.
Knowledge about life is a continuous process
of study. Therefore, Christian Rationalism
makes an eloquent and constant appeal to study
and reasoning in the sense that humanity would
comprehend the imperative need to surrender
itself to a perseverant effort, to become
better and better and to grow spiritually.
This book, within its natural simplicity,
is profound and should be understood by the
reader as the foundation of spiritualistic
knowledge, the basis of which is built by
one's own effort. This is a serious research
work and is elucidative for reading and investigating.
It is able to open new horizons as a panoramic
view amplification that puts right before
one's eyes perspectives that can contribute
to impressing a new orientation to life and
assisting for this life to change, at each
step, for the better, reaching a meaning more
practical, ampler, more objective, safer,
and authentic.
At this point, the reader must be interested
in knowing the findings that are conveyed
by this philosophical school that is Christian
Rationalism. Your interest will be vastly
fulfilled within the next pages, in which
one can see the life problems addressed in
candid, simple, and objective writing. One
will feel, through the reading of each chapter,
the warmth of the message given by this philosophy
to humanity, with the expectation to contribute
to peace among individuals and that the world
will become fraternal and a better one.
