The Life of Swedenborg

Course Objectives

• Explain who Emanuel Swedenborg was;
• Identify Swedenborg’s major contributions to the political, scientific & economic life of Sweden;
• Discuss Swedenborg’s spiritual journey;
• Question and challenge your own thoughts and feelings about Swedenborg;
• Consider applying your learnings in real life situations where you are able to engage with others about Emanual Swedenborg.

The reading and activities are organised according to the chapters of the text: Swedenborg: Life and Teaching.

Generally written responses throughout the course should be no longer than 300 words for each question asked. However longer responses are acceptable, where the student feels greater length is required to more fully address a question.

1. Ongoing assessment will comprise:

• Written responses to assignment questions
• Discussions via telephone/zoom tutorial.

2. Formal assessment will be by way of a 15 minute presentation to your tutor via phone/zoom or where possible face to face in your own words using one of the themes from the course that you would like to explore in a little more depth. You will need to decide on a title for your presentation, as well as state your intended audience and confirm this with your tutor.

Please email your assignments to [email protected].

Email title: The Life of Swedenborg: Chapter x Title: Assignemnt x.

Swedenborg’s studies were as varied and broad as his travels. As a result he grew full of ideas and ambitions, but returned to his homeland of Sweden to a wall of apathy and lack of funds for research. However, Swedenborg did not let this dampen his enthusiasm. Through a range of proposals to Sweden’s king, and via publications of scientific and speculative works, he put his learning to use in the hope that Sweden would take on successful reforms from other European countries in order to pull itself out of the economic, political and intellectual depression it had fallen into.

Instructions

View the online video Splendors of the Spirit first and work through the related revision questions. After completing this do the required reading before attempting the Assignment Work.

As a guide you should work to a 300 word response limit for each question for all assignment work throughout this course (see comments in the document Course Overview & Assessment above).

1.1 Background and Beginning

In one of his myths Plato tells of people on their way to being born into the earth -life. They pass swiftly along a dim corridor which ends in a room bill of lights. Each passing soul takes a taper to guide it in the dim country of this world. But some souls are detained longer than others in the room of light; they grasp a handful of tapers and weave them into a torch. They are the light-bringers and the way-showers of humanity. This is as good an explanation of genius as any, for outstanding greatness is always a mystery.

It has been humorously said that when Emanuel Swedenborg was born his father gazed up at the stars and said, “We shall call him Emanuel,” which means God-is-with-us, while his mother looked at the scales to see how much the baby weighed. This is one way of telling us that the scientific mind and the spiritual mind met in him, mingled, and were finally fused by the insight of profound inner experience. His mother’s side of the family had long been prominent in the mining industry. His father was a devout clergyman of intelligence and zeal. Into such a household, marked by the harmonious blending of the secular and the sacred, Emanuel Swedenborg (or more properly at this time, Swedberg) was born on the twenty-ninth of January, 1688, in the city of Stockholm.

We know very little about his mother, as she died when Emanuel was eight years old. But certainly, her quiet and practical spirit was influential in molding his character. Fortunately we have a very good picture of his father, who in significant ways foreshadows the son. It would be difficult indeed to understand the issues which Emanuel faced if we knew nothing of this forceful figure. Jesper Swedberg (the family name until it was changed to Swedenborg in 1719, when the family was ennobled) was ordained and made Court Chaplain in 1682, became a professor at Uppsala University in 1692 and Bishop of Skara in 1702, which office he held for thirty-five years. He was always close to the throne, enjoying royal favor and the intimate friendship of his sovereigns.

He was by all reports an upright and pious man, an indefatigable worker and an enthusiastic reformer. His exemplary conduct and untiring zeal made him conspicuous among his less earnest and less dedicated brethren. “If he had lived a few hundred years earlier,” wrote one of his contemporaries, “he might have increased the number of Swedish saints… . His learning, industry, exemplary life, good intentions and zeal for God’s glory deserve to be venerated even more by an enlightened century.”

He was active in the cause of education, whether as army chaplain (where he offered a bonus to every soldier who learned to read), or later as professor of theology and rector of Uppsala University. He worked to reform the teaching in the public schools, composing and editing many textbooks, and in every way possible promoted the advance-ment of learning. Although Sweden was a Protestant country, the study of the Bible was given a low priority. Bibles were in fact expensive: privileged publishers set luxury prices for them. Swedberg attempted to remedy this by provid-ing an inexpensive edition. Although he obtained official permission and expended a considerable amount of money himself, vested interests were so strong that the project failed. His efforts to revise the Swedish transla-tion of the Bible likewise came to naught, while his attempt to improve the Swedish hymn and psalm book brought upon him a charge of heresy which led to the suppression of the work.

In every direction he seems to have been thwarted by the jealously, apathy, and stolid conservatism of those who should have been his supporters. Nevertheless he persevered in these laudable efforts to the end of his long life. The bishop’s religion was of a most practical nature. In the Lutheran Church of the times, as in other Protestant bodies, “faith” (in the sense of assent to creedal formulations) had been elevated to such preeminence that good works were disparaged, and morality suffered as a consequence. He held that true faith could not be separated from a life of service and active usefulness.

He complained that “many contented themselves with the first and second paragraphs of the Great Faith but that they would have nothing to do with the third paragraph, with Sanctification and a Holy Life.” “Faith of the head” and “devil’s faith” to him were synonymous. He was a fearless preacher, denouncing the shortcomings of those in high places as well as the sins of the humbler. He was especially severe against the neglect of religious duties by the former, and against their scandalous abuse in granting church patronage.

His spirit of ecumenicity was remarkable considering the age in which he lived. He was ready to see what was good in all churches. During a visit to England he eagerly discussed the question of Christian unity with the bishop of Oxford. In Roman Catholic countries he admired the care given to the poor, and the devotion of high-born persons to the sick and destitute. He complimented the earnestness of the Pietists, although hr did not agree with all their tenets and practices. The bishop was described by Counselor Sandels as “a man full of zeal but without bigotry.”

It is not surprising that to such an earnest and devout man as the bishop the spiritual world should have seemed very real and near. He had an unwavering faith in the presence of angels and in their function as “ministering spirits.” He lived in the company of his “guardian angel,” with whom he declared he was able to speak at times. He believed that he had had spiritual experiences on several different occasions, and seems to have possessed a gift of psychic healing. Jesper Swedberg tells us that not long after his ordination he and the rest of the villagers heard loud voices singing in the church one evening.

This convinced him of the presence of angelic visitors, and caused him to feel more strongly than ever the sacredness of his calling. All of this has a bearing on the still more extraordinary experiences of his son. Strangely little is known about Emanuel Swedenborg’s childhood. We know the date of his birth, and we know that he was the third child and second son. For further information, we are largely dependent on a letter he wrote to a friend, Dr. Beyer of Gothenburg, relatively late in his life.

In this he says:

From my fourth to my tenth year I was constantly engaged in thought about God, salvation and the spiritual life. Several times I resealed things at which my father and mother wondered, saying that angels must be speaking through me. From my sixth to my twelfth year I used to delight In talking with clergymen about faith, saying that the life of faith is love, and that the love which imparts that life is love to the neighbor; also that God gives faith to everyone, but that those only receive it who practice that love. I knew, no other at that time than that God is the creator and preserver of nature, and that he imparts understanding and a good disposition to us… I knew nothing at that time of that termed faith which teaches that God the Father imputes the righteousness of his Son to whomsoever and at such times as he chooses, even to those who have not repented and have not reformed their lives. And had I heard of such a faith it would have been then, as it is now, above my comprehension.

Since direct information is lacking, we may fill in some of the blanks by inference from what we know about the family. At the time of his birth, Emanuel’s father was the court chaplain in Stockholm. The first three or four years of his childhood were spent here. Doubtless, he carried away impressions of the busy city—its lofty buildings, its rushing flood of deep green waters coming down from Lake Malaren, its shipping, its military displays, and the coming and going of royalty and nobility in their summer carriages and winter sleighs. Then, by contrast, the family moved to a quiet rural home at Vingåker, where his father served for a year as dean and pastor. Here he reveled, as all children do, in the flowery fields and delightful farmyard, being “adopted” by the good people of the parish, who were overwhelmingly kind to his father.

The next ten years were passed in Uppsala, the family residing in the cathedral square. Here is where his formal education began. His tutor was Johannes Moraeus, a cousin on his mother’s side. We hear little about his studies. Counselor Sandels speaks of “the thoughtful care which was bestowed on his education,” and that he speaks the truth we cannot doubt, knowing what we do of his father’s dedication to learning.

Uppsala, where the free, happy days of his boyhood were passed, was at that time a city of some five thousand with a cathedral which was reckoned the finest Gothic building in northern Europe. Within its walls many monarchs had been crowned and here many were buried. We can picture the boy Swedenborg wandering through the aisles and meditating on vanished greatness, or listening with other members of the family to the daily service in which is father often took part. This service was not so cold and lifeless as Protestant services generally were at this period, for the Swedish Lutheran Church retained many of the beautiful and impressive features of the Catholic liturgy.

A portrait of Dean Swedberg shows him sitting at a table with a Bible in his hands, opened at a doubtless favorite text, I Corinthians 16:22. We can imagine the interest with which young Emanuel watched the building of his father’s large new stone house in the square, and the impression made upon his youthful mind by the terrible fire which, shortly after it was finished, destroyed not only the new house but many other buildings, including the grand cathedral itself.

An account of the building of the house given in the Swedish Biographiskt Lexicon throws a very pleasing light on Swedenborg’s father. The writer says, “It is interesting to hear him speak about the building of his new house, saying … ‘I know and can testify, for I was always present, that not the least work was done, that not a stone was raised, with sighs or a troubled mind, but all was done cheerfully and gladly. No complaint, no hard or disagreeable word was heard; there were no scoldings and no curses were uttered.’ “When the house was finished in the autumn of 1698, Jesper Swedberg dedicated it by inviting all the poor of the town to dinner.

The family waited upon them, and this feast of charity was concluded with singing, prayer, thanksgiving, and mutual blessing. We can assume that young Emanuel, who was then ten years old, took part in this lovely celebration. Another event that must have left its mark was the death of his mother in 1696. This sad event was followed by the loss of his older brother a few weeks later. Of the remaining children, seven besides himself, his sister Anna (sixteen months his senior) was his favorite. At seventeen she married Dr. Erik Benzelius, librarian of the University of Uppsala, but she remained close to her fond brother. He had entered the college himself in 1699, and lived with Anna and Erik from 1703, when his father moved to Skara, until he completed his studies in 1709.

Those were thrilling times to be alive, particularly for a talented young man. The renaissance, late in reaching Sweden, was stirring the University with its fresh spirit, sweeping out the old and ushering in the new. It has been likened to opening a window in a long stagnant room, letting in therefreshing breezes. Scholars no longer pored over dusty tomes to learn what the ancients, such as the indisputable Aristotle, had laid down as to the nature of things, not to be challenged by findingsto the contrary.

Now they were bent over microscopes and were gazing into telescopes to discover the secrets of nature for themselves. Those were heady times, in which nothing seemed impossible. We can easily imagine how Swedenborg eagerly soaked up this atmosphere and thrilled to the spirit of the new. But we do not hear anything of this from young Swedenborg himself: doubtless he was too absorbed with the new learning to write about it. We do, however, learn of another side of him which augurs potently for the future. Counselor Sandels says that he made “the best use of advantages enjoyed by comparatively few,” and describes the disputation which he published on leaving his alma mater as “a clever work for a youth.” After leaving the university he published some of his Latin verses which manifested, says Sandels, “a remarkable readiness of wit, and showed that he had made good use of his time.”

He continued to exercise this talent for some years, and was looked upon in his family circle as something of a poet. His university education behind him, young Swedenborg rejoined his father, who had been made bishop of Skara, in Brunsbo, the Episcopal residence near Skara. He began to make plans for an extended foreign tour which was the custom upon graduation, and which would expose him to the more advanced centers of learning in England and on the Continent. This was not to be a “Wanderjahr,” an occasion for casual sightseeing, but a work year. Under the date of July 13, 1709, he wrote to his brother-in- law Erik Benzelius, asking his help in carrying out his plans.

He also desired his recommendation to some English university where he might improve himself in mathematics, physics and natural history. He told him that he was preparing a summary of the principal discoveries in mathemat-ics, to which he would add anything new that he might discover in his travels. In this same letter he tells his brother-in-law that he has acquired the art of bookbinding from a man who had been working for his father. This evidences a characteristic interest which could be followed throughout his life, a fascination with craftsmanship.

Wherever he went in his later travels, he used every opportunity to gain a working knowledge of useful trades. For instance, writing from London in 1711 he says, “I turn my lodgings to some use, and change them often. At first I was with a watchmaker, afterwards with a cabinetmaker, and now I am with a maker of mathemat-ical instruments; from them I pick up their trades which some day will be of use to me.” He learned to make brass instruments and to grind lenses so that he might furnish himself with equipment which he could not afford to buy. Benzelius had commissioned him to buy some globes in England for the university library.

These proved too expensive to send safely, so he was instructed to obtain the printed sheets which could afterwards be mounted in Sweden. The makers, however, refused to supply these, so Swedenborg learned the art of engraving and produced the sheets himself. It was a full year after he had asked Benzelius for help that he was able to begin his travels, a year of disappointments and impatient waiting. As he wrote to Benzelius, “I have little desire to remain here much longer for I am wasting almost my whole time. Still, I have made such progress in music that I have several times been able to take the place of our organist. But for all my other studies this place affords me very little opportunity, and they are not at all appreciated by those who ought to encourage me in them.” Some relief was found in a short visit to the great Swedish engineer and inventor, Christopher Polhammer.

With him the young man was in his element. He writes to his brother-in-law, “We were pleased and satisfied with one another, especially when I found him able to assist me in the mechanical experi-ments I have in hand I value more highly a quick and intelligent person with whom I can enjoy the discussions of subjects on which I possess some little knowledge than I do a few weeks’ board and lodging.”

The autumn of 1710 finds Emanuel Swedenborg finally in London, and his occasional letters to Benzelius give us brief but revealing accounts of his activities during the next five years. His journey had not been without perils, his life being in danger four different times. The ship in which he sailed was nearly wrecked; then they were boarded by pirates; then they were fired on by a British warship, being mistaken for those same pirates; and finally, having arrived safely in the Thames, he narrowly escaped hanging for breaking the quarantine regulations set up because of the existence of the plague in Sweden.

His first letter reveals not only his “immoderate desire” for study but also the range of his interests. I study Newton daily and am very anxious to meet him. I have provided myself with a small stock of books for studying mathematics, and also with a number of instruments which are both a help and an ornament in the study of science; an astronomical tube, quadrants of various kinds, prisms, microscopes, artificial scales and a camera obscura. This latter I admire, and you will too. I hope that after settling my accounts I will have sufficient money left to buy an air pump.

It does not appear that his desire to meet Newton was ever fulfilled, but he made the acquaintance of many notables, including Flamsteed, Halley, and Woodward, who introduced him to various members of the Royal Society and to other scientists. Among the items of information contained in this letter, dated October 13, 1710, he notes that the magnificent St. Paul’s Cathedral was finished a few days ago in all its parts. But he was more impressed by Westminster. He writes, “I happened to see the tomb of Casaubon, when I was inspired with such a love for this literary hero that I kissed his tomb and dedicated to his manes under the marble some Latin verses.”

But mathematics and astronomy seem to have absorbed most of his interest. “I daily visit the best mathematicians here in town.” He also speaks enthusi-astically about his growing knowledge and hopes of attainment. I have made such progress in astronomy as to have discovered much which I think will be useful in its study. Although in the beginning it made my brain ache, long speculations are no longer difficult for me. I have examined closely all schemes for finding the terrestrial longitude, but could not find a single one. I have therefore originated a method by means of the moon which is unerring, and I am certain that it is the best that has yet been advanced.

In a short time I will inform the Royal Society that I have a proposition to make on this subject, stating my points. If it is favorably received I shall publish it here; If not, in France. I have also discovered many new methods for observing the planets, the moon and the stars. I will publish those concerning the moon and its parallaxes, diameter, and inequality whenever an opportunity arises. I am now busy working my way through algebra and the higher geometry, and I intend to make such progress as to be able in time to continue Polhammer’s discoveries.

Swedenborg’s scientific and literary friends in Sweden often availed themselves of his assistance while he was abroad. At one time it was to buy some scarce books for the university’s library; at another, to purchase scientific instruments, or to find out the most approved way of using these. The Literary Society of Uppsala also gave him a number of commissions. He good-naturedly fulfilled these requests and added suggestions of his own. He advised the purchasing of the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, Harris’ Lexicon of the Sciences and Arts, several of Newton’s works and other books. He mentions the publication of Grabe’s Septuagint and one or two books on theology, but this is almost the only indication that he took any interest in religion at this time.

As a relief from his more demanding studies, he continued to write poetry, noting English models. He mentions as eminent poets, well worth reading for the sake of their imagination alone, Dryden, Spenser, Waller, Milton, Cowley, Beaumont and Fletcher, Shakespeare, Ben Johnson, Oldham and Benham. For a foreigner he had gained a considerable acquaintance with English literature.

Swedenborg spent nearly two years in London and Oxford, losing no opportunity to acquire knowledge. His travels and studies must have involved appreciable expense, for which his father seems to have been slow to provide; in fact the latter was spending all available money on his own projects. From time to time Emanuel raises a mild protest. He writes to Benzelius in August of 1712: I have longed to see the Bodleian Library but I ant kept back here by “want of money.”

I wonder that my father does not show greater care of me than to let me live now for more that sixteen months on 250 rixdalers, well knowing that I promised in a letter not to embarrass him by drawing on credit; and yet no money has been forthcoming for the last three or four months. It is hard to live without food or drink like the wench of Skåne. Your great kindness and favor, of which I have had so many proofs, make me believe that your advice and your letters will induce my father to be so favorable towards me as to send on the funds which are so necessary for a young man, and which will infuse into me new spirit for the prosecution of my studies. Believe me, I desire and strive to be an honor to my father’s house and yours, much more strongly than you yourself can wish and endeavor.

From England he went to Holland, but unfortunately his few letters from there are missing. All that we hear of his stay in that country is from a letter from Paris in August of 1713. During my stay in Holland I was most of the time in Utrecht where the Diet met and where I was in great favor with Ambassador Palmqvist, who had one every day at his house; I also had daily discussions with him on algebra. He is a good mathematician and a great algebraist.

He did not want me to go away and therefore I intend to return to Leyden next year. They have a splendid observatory and the finest quadrant I have ever seen, costing 2,000 guilders. They are continually making new observations. I will ask permission from the university to take observa-tions there for two or three months. Of his stay in Paris we have also only a very meager record. There he met De la Hire, Varrignon, and the Abbe Bignon, a member of the French Academy and royal librarian, besides other notables. He observes, Between the mathematicians here and the English there is great rivalry and jealously. Halley, of Oxford, told me that he was the first to examine the variation of the pendulum at the equator, but they keep silence about that here. The astronomers here also maintain that Cassini’s paper was written before Halley made his expedition to St. Helena, and so forth.

After having spent nearly a year in France, he went to Hamburg and from there into Pomerania, then a Swedish province on the northern coast of the Continent. We hear from his next letter that he is in Rostock; from there he sends his brother-in-law a long list of inventions whose designs he has either completed or projected. The first of these was for a certain ship which was to go under the surface of the sea wherever it chose and do great damage to an enemy’s fleet. Another was a device for raising ships by means of sluices where there was no fall of water. Yet another was for setting mill wheels in motion where there was likewise no falling water available—the wheel would revolve by means of fire which would put the water in motion. A magazine air gun, discharging sixty or seventy shots without reloading, and a flying machine were further projects of his active mind.

He was to return to the plan of a flying machine later. Almost two centuries later, it would be recognized as “the first rational design for an aircraft,” but at the time Polhammer responded negatively, expressing his opinion that “with respect to flying by artificial means there is perhaps the same difficulty as in making a perpetual motion machine or in producing gold from base metals.” There is now a model of Swedenborg’s design in the Early Flight Room of the Smithsonian Aerospace museum, and during the observance of the tricentennial of Swedenborg’s birth, a larger model was on display in the museum of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Swedenborg regarded his method of finding longitude by the moon as the most important of hisearly discoveries. Though it was not taken up sympathetically by his contemporaries, he always insisted that it was the easiest and in fact the only right one. His confidence in it was so great that he published it in pamphlet form several times between 1718 and 1766. It was very favorably reviewed in the Acta Literaria Sueciae for 1720, the editor stating that it was superior to all other solutions of the problem hitherto proposed. The Acta Eruditorum for 1792, published in Leipzig, also spoke highly of this little work.

In a letter from Rostock he expresses a great desire to return home to Sweden, but he remained in Pomerania for another nine months. It is hard to say what kept him there unless it was the presence of the king at nearby Stralsund and a hope that he might attract the favorable attention of the court. It was presumably to further such hopes that he composed a highly literate Latin celebration of the king’s escape from captivity in Turkey and dramatic return to his own land.

But in fact, his first trip abroad was drawing to a close. What finally put an end to it was the arrival before Stralsund of troops hostile to Sweden. Swedenborg had no wish to be caught in the fighting. He tells us, “When the siege was about to begin I succeeded, under Divine Providence, in obtaining passage home.”

1.2 Assignment 1

As a guide, aim for a response of around 300 words for each answer to the following questions:-

1. Identify what you think were the two greatest influences that impacted on Swedenborg in his early travels and studies and say something about how these may have affected his outlook and attitude to life.
2. Discuss how he wished to apply his studies in a way that could improve the economic, intellectual or political situation of Sweden.
3. Take some time to reflect on your own life journey and respond to one of the following Either:-

• Write out a brief outline highlighting 3 or 4 aspects of experience and learning you have had in your life and comment on how they have ended up being of use in unexpected ways “down the track”? Or

• Write about how you see the hand of providence in your life journey thus far, what has led you to this course for example – where might it lead in the future?

2.1 Seeking a Career

Swedenborg returned to sweden full of ideas and ambition, eager to put his knowledge and talents to work. He was confident that he would not have to wait long. But the Sweden he returned to was bankrupt and bled white by Charles XII’s wars of conquest. Its industries were in shambles. Everywhere he turned he met with lethargy, conservatism, indifference and lack of funds. It was not a propitious time to come home. His first effort was toward the setting up of an observatory, as there was none in Sweden. He wrote to his brother-in-law, Benzelius, on August 9, 1715:

The day after tomorrow I will go to Mt. Kinnchulle to select a site for a small observatory where I intend toward winter to make observations about our horizon, and to lay a foundation for those calculations by which my method of finding longitude may be confirmed. Learning that Benzelius was trying to get an astronomical observatory built at Uppsala and was meeting with nothing but opposition, he abandoned his own project and gave his brother-in-law his warm support, writing:

I wonder at your friends, the mathematicians, who have lost all energy and desire to follow up such a clever plan which you suggested to them about building an observatory. It is a fatal flaw of mathematicians that they remain mostly in theory. I have thought that it would be a profitable thing if to every ten mathematicians there were assigned one thoroughly practical man by whom the others could be led to market. In that case this one man would gain more renown and be of more use than all the ten together.

He visited the Board of Mines and observed that its models “are going to ruin as time advances. After six or ten years they will be good for only firewood, unless I choose to reverse that fate by means of a little brass, a little ink and some paper.” Ten years later, when he shared the responsibility for the property of the board, he obtained an appropriation for the repair of these models, showing that this was not just a peevish criticism by one who found his talents unappreciated.

Having traveled at length in the more technologically advanced countries of Europe, he was more impressed than ever by the backwardness of his own, and was all the more determined to devote himself to bringing Sweden up to date. He had two suggestions of how to begin to do this. One was forming a “Society for Learning and Science,” a kind of Swedish Royal Society, and the other was establishing a Chair of Mechanics at the University of Uppsala. He hammered away at this latter idea for years, but without success.

While waiting for a position to turn up in the job market, he started a scientific and technical journal with the title Daedalus Hyperboreus, “The Northern Daedalus.” This dealt not merely with scientific theory, but contained practical ideas and suggestions for industry. On the advice of Benzelius he dedicated it to King Charles XII, who professed much interest in the project. First, however, the means of publishing it had to be found, and he appealed to his brother-in-law to intercede with his father for assistance. He was always reluctant to approach the latter for money and, as he was now twenty-eight, the bishop might well think that it was time he fended for himself. He wrote to Benzelius:

A single word from you to my father will be worth more than twenty thousand remonstrances from me. You can without comment inform him of my project, and of my zeal in my studies; and that he need not imagine that in the future I shall waste my time and his money. One word from another is worth more than a thousand from me. He knows very well that you have the kindness to interest yourself in my behalf, but he knows also that I am still more interested in my own behalf. For this reason he will distrust me more than you, my dear brother.

Swedenborg’s father was using his influence with the king and court to find employment for his son. But King Charles was too busy with other matters, and it was not until the end of 1716 that Swedenborg was appointed “Extraordinary Assessor” (that is, an extra member) of the Board of Mines, the department of state responsible for supervising the mining industries of Sweden. This position entailed far more than attending a directors’ meeting once a month around a table.

The Board ruled in mining disputes, kept abreast of developments in metallurgy, suggested more efficient methods of mining and processing ore, conducted safety checks of mines and appointed inspectors, all of which was in line with Swedenborg’s interests. His fitness for this post was attested to by Polhem in a letter to Benzelius dated December 10, 1715. “I find,” the famous inventor wrote, “that young Swedenborg is a ready mathematician, and possesses much aptitude for the mechanical sciences. If he continues as he has begun, he will in course of time be able to be a greater use to the king and to his country in this than in anything else.”

It seems that the king offered Swedenborg three positions to choose from before he was finally assigned to the Board of Mines. Although no salary was attached to the post until he attained membership (and this was delayed, since the board resisted this irregular appointment), he was to find the work congenial. Two years later he refused the offer of a professorship of astronomy at Uppsala University. In a letter to Benzelius he gave the following reasons:

I already have an honorable post. In this post I can be of use to my country, and indeed of more practical use than in any other. I thus decline an appointment which does not agree with my tastes and turn of mind, by both of which I am led to mechanics and will be in the future to chemistry. Our Board is noted for having members who know little on these subjects. For this reason I will try to supply this deficiency, and I hope that my work in this direction will be as profitable to them as their own may be in another. There were also ulterior reasons which we learn about from a later letter to his brother in law.

I hope I shall be able to be as useful in the post which has been entrusted to me and also to secure to myself as many advantages. My present position is only a step to a higher one, while at Uppsala, I would have nothing more to expect; moreover I do not believe that the king would like me to give up my present position. With regard to the board, I will try most diligently to make myself at home in mechanics, physics and chemistry and, at all events, to lay a proper foundation for everything, when I hope no one will have any longer a desire to charge me with having entered the board as one entirely unworthy.

During the early part of his career at the Board of Mines he was detached at times for special services with his friend and patron Christopher Polhem. One of the most dramatic of these was connected with the siege of Frederikshald in 1718. Two galleys, five large boats and one sloop were transported overland from Strömstad to Iddefjord, a distance of fourteen English miles, under Swedenborg’s direction. Other projects were the construction of the great dock at Karlskrona and a plan for connecting the North Sea and the Baltic by canal. This latter undertaking, however, was never completed, the king’s death ending the funding.

The relationship of Swedenborg and Polhem was a very friendly one, so much so that the latter on the recommendation of the king promised his eldest daughter in marriage. It is not clear that they were formally engaged, and in the end she married someone else. There was a younger sister, however, to whom the young man was strongly attracted and who was in due course engaged to him. The girl, it seems, had not been consulted, or at any rate the match was arranged for her, and was not to her liking. Discovering this, he renounced his claim; and while we have no direct word from him on his feelings, there are indications that this was a painful decision. In a letter to Benzelius, Polhem speaks of the interruption of his correspondence with his protégé, and mentions the fact that three of his letters had been returned to him unopened. “I must beg of you,” he says, “to offer Emanuel my greeting, and also to ask him to favor me with one of his welcomed letters, which are all the more acceptable in our house seeing as he has given us sufficient cause to love him as our own son.” Swedenborg’s own correspondence took on a pessimistic cast.

He wrote to Benzelius in October of 1718:

Among all my brothers and relatives there is not one who has entertained a kind feeling towards me except you. In this I was confirmed by a letter which my brother wrote to my father about my journey abroad. If I can in any way show a due sense of gratitude I will always do so. Brother in law Unge does not withhold his hands from anyone. At least he has estranged me from my dear father’s and my dear mother’s affection for the last four years; still this will not probably be to his advantage.

Even his scientific pursuits were giving him no satisfaction. He is discouraged “to find that his mathematical discoveries were considered as novelties which the country could not stand.” He adds, “I wish I had some more of these novelties; yes, a novelty for every day in the year, so that the world might find pleasure in them. There are enough in one century who plod on in the old beaten track, while there are scarcely six or ten who are able to create novelties which are based on argument and reason.”

Among the novelties which his lethargic countrymen were slow to adopt were his plans for the extensive manufacturing of salt in Sweden; a new slow combustion stove, a new method of discovering mineral veins, and a decimal system of coinage and measures. “Projects like these,” he complains, “are left to starve in Sweden, where they are looked upon by a set of political blockheads as scholastic matters which must remain in the background, while their own supposed refined ideas and intrigues occupy the foreground.”

In another letter he writes: It seems to me there is little reward for the pains taken in advancing the cause of science, partly on account of the lack of funds which prevents our going as far as we ought, and partly also on account of jealousy which is excited against those who busy themselves more than others with a given subject. Whenever a country leans towards barbarism it is vain for one or two persons to try to keep it upright.

In sending Benzelius his treatise on the decimal system on December 1, 1719, he renews his complaint of neglect and lack of appreciation. This is the last that I will publish myself because I have already worked myself poor. I have been singing long enough; let us see whether anyone will come forward and hand me some bread in return. For he is nothing short of a fool who is independent and at liberty to do as he pleases, and who sees an opportunity for himself abroad, and yet remains at home in darkness and cold, where the Furies, Envy and Pluto have taken up their abode, and assign the rewards, and where labors such as I have performed are rewarded with misery. The only thing I would desire until that time is to find a sequestered place where I can live secluded from the world. I think I may find such a corner in the end, either at Starbo or at Skin(Skatte)berg.

If it was honour he sought, he might have been satisfied with the distinguished favor shown him by Sweden’s famous king, Charles XII. Through Polhem, he had gained frequent and intimate contact with his majesty, who condescended to read his Daedalus, to discuss mathematics with him and to accept his personal assistance in various ways. Swedenborg wrote from Wenerborg on September 14, 1718:

Every day I had some mathematical matters for his majesty, who deigned to be pleased with all of them. When the eclipse took place, I went out with him to see it, and talked much to him about it. This, however, is a mere beginning. I hope in time to be able to do something in this quarter for the advancement of science, but I do not wish to bring anything forward now except what is of immediate use. His majesty found considerable fault with me for not having continued my Daedalus (which ceased with the sixth number), but I pleaded lack of means, which he does not like to hear. I expect some assistance for it very soon.

These fond hopes were never realized. The king was busy with warlike undertakings, which were brought to a sudden end by his death at the siege of Frederikshald the following November. Despite the loss of his royal patron, the failure of his hopes for marriage, his estrangement from his family and his sense of being surrounded by indifference, he did not go abroad to live. He left Sweden in the summer of 1721 not to stay, but on an extensive foreign tour for the purpose of researching mining and manufacturing, to strengthen his credentials for service on the Board of Mines.

His original plan was to visit Holland, England, France, Italy, Hungary and Germany, but the tour was mainly confined to Holland and Germany. He visited all the mines in Saxony and the Harm mountains, and was entertained in a princely manner by Duke Ludwig Rudolf von BrunswickLuneburg. The Duke not only paid all his expenses but presented him on parting with a gold medal and a large silver coffee pot, besides bestowing on him other marks of favor.

At Amsterdam he published several scientific and speculative works: Prodromus Principiorum Rerun Naturalium, a treatise on chemistry and physics; Nova Observata et Inventa circa Ferrum et Ignem, new observations on iron and fire; and a second edition of his New Method of Finding the Longitude. At Leipzig, Miscellaneous Observations on Geology and Mineralogy was seen through the press. It is indicative of the backward state of things in Sweden that he found it necessary to publish most of his books abroad. This was partly on account of expense, partly that they might be better printed and partly to escape the criticism of the press censor whose views were apt to be narrow. When he published his Rules of Algebra (the first in the Swedish language) he questioned his brother as to whether there was anyone in Uppsala who knew enough of the subject to read his proofs for him.

In July, 1719, Swedenborg was home again; full of new projects for furthering the material prosperity of his native land projects to be met as before with scant encouragement and not a little opposition from self interested parties, easy going conservatives and jealous officials. Among the latter was Urban Hjärne, vice-president of the Board of Mines, who had an old quarrel with Swedenborg’s father and made his son uncomfortable at times as a consequence.

As a result of his investigations abroad, Swedenborg laid before the board, and also before King Frederic, proposals for increasing the yield of copper, for improvements in the manufacture of steel and for giving encouragement to the production of iron “the interest of copper being protected at the expense of the iron interest.” On these, as on other such matters, he held broad and liberal views, as witness his opinion about trade secrets. Referring to the difficulty he sometimes had in gathering information abroad, he wrote, “According to my simple notions, there ought to be no secrets at all in metallurgy, for without such knowledge it is impossible for anyone to investigate nature.”

On July 15, 1724, Swedenborg, being then thirty-six years old, was appointed a regular member of the Board of Mines with a yearly salary of 800 silver dalers. It was not until 1739 that he received the full salary of 1200 dalers. He was, indeed, poorly paid for his unique services. From the records of the board he appears to have been assiduous in his duties, and the value of his work was recognized on several occasions by his colleagues. But he occupied himself with a great deal more than his official duties. He was constantly gathering material for further publications, and by the beginning of 1733 he had the manuscripts of several important scientific and philosophical works ready for the press. He petitioned for nine months’ leave of absence so that he might get them printed at Dresden and Leipzig. The leave was granted by royal decree.

The books in question were his philosophical and mineralogical works, three heavy folio volumes with numerous copper plates, and The Infinite and the Final Cause of Creation. The expense of publishing the former, which must have been very great, was borne by his former patron, the Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg. The work was very favorably received and portions of the second part, dealing with the production of iron and steel, were reprinted separately and translated into French. The publication of these works won for Swedenborg a European reputation and brought him into correspondence with some of the leading scientists and philosophers of the day.

The Academy of Sciences of St. Petersburg invited him to become a corresponding member in 1734, and he was one of the first elected members of the Royal Academy of Sciences in his own country. Swedenborg has left us a somewhat detailed account of his travels at this time, a matter-of-fact document presenting many points of interest. It proves the truth of what Counselor Sandels said, that “nothing ever escaped him that merited the attention of a traveler.” “It would be prolix,”

Swedenborg noted, “to mention all the learned men I visited and with whom I became acquainted during these journeys, since I never missed an opportunity of doing so.” His observation ranged from such important matters as the fortifications of a town to the method of constructing fences in Schonen. Wherever he went he visited the libraries, museums, picture galleries, churches, monasteries, asylums, theaters and especially factories. He made comments on mining and blast furnaces; vitriol, arsenic and sulphur works; naval architecture; copper and tin production; paper mills; plate glass and mirrors; as well as on anatomy, astronomy, magnetism, hydrostatics, literature and the social conditions of the people among whom he found himself.

His experience under Charles XII had taught him how culture and science languish under a military regime. The condition of the Royal Library in Berlin, therefore, could have given him no surprise. “The books,” he says, “are mostly old, not many being purchased at the present time, for no money is available for this purpose.” He remarks that most of the books are old in the Ambrosian Library at Milan, in the Vatican and in the library of San Lorenzo, Florence, but without the same explanation. He was essentially a modern man whose stature was to look forward rather than backward, and so he took little interest in things from an antiquarian point of view.

He was inspired by his newborn love of science and progress, and was eager to study all the latest developments. Hence he cared little for missals and breviaries and rare editions. The Ambrosian Library, he said, “is of little value as it contains only old books.” He made one exception, however, in favor of Bible codices which he examined with interest.

In matters of religion he was naturally observant. He visited churches, both Catholic and Protestant, orthodox and unorthodox, and conversed with monks and laymen about religious developments and movements. He frequently remarked on the impressiveness of the Catholic ritual, at the same time noting its sensuous nature. He was fully alive to the evils of forced religious sentiment. “The city of Copenhagen,” he remarks, “is infected with pietism or Quakerism, and they are crazed enough to believe that it is well pleasing to God to do away with oneself and other, of which many instances are on record.”

In many ways Swedenborg showed a broader and more open mind than his father. The latter looked with little favor on the stage, and complained to the king on one occasion that money was being paid to actors which might have been devoted to the restoration of his ruined cathedral. His son, on the other hand, continually visited the theaters and opera houses, and discussed the performances. He even goes into such details as to tell us that the best harlequins come from Bergamo. Still he was in no sense a hedonist. Wherever he went he had humanity in view and, in a sense, the theater was as much a proper object of study to him as the church. In all his comments, we do not find the marks of a connoisseur of art. His remarks on painting and sculpture reveal an ignorance of the great artists and of the fundamental principles of art criticism.

This ignorance he shared with most of his contemporaries, or rather derived from them, for his judgment was chiefly formed by reading. He was also a man of his time in that he showed little appreciation of natural scenery. He tells of the hidden wealth of the mountains but not of their outward beauty and majesty. He describes his journeys by sea and river, but never a word of the dancing waves and the ever changing light. He carefully notes the construction of the fence, but does not see the flowers of the field they enclose. He is struck by “an extraordinary fine illumination of fireworks” at Leghorn, but is oblivious to the rising and setting of the sun. His thoughts were engaged with the nature and origin of things rather than with their appearance. He was full of awe and reverence for the wonders of creation, but his aesthetic faculty was dormant or untrained. He was at this period essentially a man of science and practical affairs, though new faculties were rapidly developing within him.

2.2 Assignment 2.

1. Write about two or three experiences that on reflection have had a major impact on your life.
2. How do you see the hand of providence in your life journey ?

3.1 Travels and Observations

On July 10, 1736, Swedenborg left Stockholm for an extended tour of Holland, France and Italy. His purpose was to gather material for his proposed work on the soul. He read the best available authorities in libraries, attended lectures, watched dissections, and even used the scalpel himself but he still had time for sightseeing and for gathering technological information that might be of value to Sweden. He visited many places of interest such as the great dry dock, then in process of construction, at Copenhagen and the porcelain works at Hamburg. Although he was preparing for flights into the highest regions of human thought, he maintained his old interest in scientific and mechanical happenings. An important note announces that he has commenced the study of Christian Wolff’s philosophical works, and he remarks with obvious satisfaction that the author seems to make reference to himself in one of them. He had made the acquaintance of Wolff shortly before this and the two philosophers corresponded from time to time. We get a curious bit of information about Osnabruck, a town which had three Roman Catholic and two Evangelical churches, to the effect that they have alternately a Catholic and an Evangelical bishop, an extraordinary and impossible arrangement one would have thought.

At Amsterdam he was struck by the avarice of the people: “the whole town breathed of nothing but gain,” and he speculates on the cause of the wonderful prosperity of the Dutch. When in Rotterdam a few days later he recorded his thoughts in his diary. I have considered why it is that it has pleased our Lord to bless such an uncouth and avaricious people with such a splendid country; why he has preserved them for so long a time from all misfortune; has caused them to surpass all other nations in commerce; and made their country a place whither most of the riches not only of Europe but also of other places flow.

The principal cause seems to me to have been that it is a republic in which the Lord delights more than in monarchical countries. The result is that no one deems himself obliged to accord honor and veneration to any human being, but considers the low as well as the high to be of the same worth as a king, as is also shown by the native bent and disposition of everyone in Holland.

The only one for whom they entertain a feeling of veneration is the Lord, putting no trust in flesh. When the highest is revered, and no human being is in his place, it is most pleasing to the Lord. Besides each enjoys his own free will, and from this his worship of God grows. Each is, as it were, his own king under the government of the Highest. From this it follows that they do not, out of fear or timidity or excess of caution, lose their courage and their independent rational thinking but in full freedom they are able to fix their souls upon the honor of the Highest, who is unwilling to share his worship with any other.

At all events those minds which are borne down by a sovereign power are brought up in flattery and falsity. They learn how to speak and act differently from what they think, and when this condition has become enrooted by habit it engenders a sort of second nature so that even in the worship of God such persons speak differently from what they think. They extend their flattering ways to the Lord himself, which must be highly displeasing to him. This seems to me the reason why the Dutch above other nations enjoy a perfect blessing. Their worshipping mammon for their God, and striving only after money, does not seem to be consistent with a constant blessing; still there may be ten among a thousand or among ten thousand who ward off punishment from the others, and cause them to be participants with themselves in temporal blessings.

These are remarkable thoughts for one who had enjoyed the confidence of several monarchs and to whom “Their Majesties at Carlsberg” had been “very gracious” only a few weeks before on his taking leave of them, and whose father had been a staunch upholder of the “divine right.” But Swedenborg always formed his own judgments and did not fear to express them.

From Rotterdam, he went to Dort and Antwerp, and from there by canal boat to Brussels, a journey which rallied his enthusiasm. “It was a splendid and more beautiful trip. During the whole journey, we had plantations of trees on both sides; people also were more civilized, so that in contrast with their politeness, the boorishness and heaviness of the Dutch became very evident.” It was pleasant travelling and he was quite comfortable. Among his fellow passengers were two monks, one of whom “stood on deck for hours in one position, and during the whole of this time said his prayers devoutly.” This might have seemed to some to be excessive piety, but Swedenborg viewed this with his usual charity. He presumed that the prayers were for those travelling in the boat, and remarked, “Such prayers most certainly be agreeable to God, as far as they come from an honest and pure heart, and are offered with genuine devotion and not in the spirit of the Pharisees.”

While he was prepared to find good in everyone and in every church, he did not close his eyes to ugly facts of inconsistency. He speaks approvingly on several occasions of the spirit of devotion apparent in Roman Catholic churches; however, he could not help observing the contrast between the wealth of the church and the wretchedness of the people. Everywhere the convents, churches and monks are the wealthiest and possess most of the land. The monks are fat, puffed up and prosperous.

A whole proud army might be formed of them without their being missed, and most of them lead a lazy life. They try more and more to make all subject to them. They give nothing to the poor except words and blessings, and insist on having everything from the needy for nothing. Of what use are these Franciscan monks? Others again are slim and lean. They prefer walking to riding on horseback or in a carriage; they are willing that others should enjoy themselves with them, are witty and quick at repartee, etc.

Later in his journal he explains the cause of the general poverty and gives some statistics about the ecclesiastical bodies. and that the great revenue of France obtained by the system of taxation called tithing amounts to 32 million lires, or nearly 192 tons of gold, and that Paris on account of its rents contributes nearly two thirds of this sum. In the country towns this tax, it is said, is not properly collected, as the rents are reported at a lower figure than they amount to in reality, to that scarcely three per cent is collected. I am told besides that the ecclesiastical order possesses one fifth of all the property and that the country will be ruined if this goes on much longer.

In France there are 14,777 convents and from 300,000 to 400,000 members of religious orders who possess 9,000 palaces or mansions. There are 1,356 abbots, 567 abbesses, 13,000 prioresses, 15,000 chaplains, 140,000 pastors and curates, 18 archbishops and 112 bishops: 776 abbots and 280 abbesses are appointed by the king. There are also 16 heads of orders.

Swedenborg notes that with all this apparatus, religion does not appear to have had much influence in public or private affairs. In enumerating the various departments of the country he tells us that “The Comte de Maurepas, Secretary of State, transacts almost everything that concerns the affairs of the interior and exterior except what has reference to war; the Comte de Florentin, that which concerns religion, transacts very little.”

The theology in vogue is reflected from an entry in his journal dated October 17, 1736. “I was in the Sorbonne and heard their disputations in theology which were carried on pretty well; the whole discussion consisted of syllogisms.” He visited many churches and monasteries, heard the king’s chaplain preach, discussed the adoration of saints with an abbot, visited hospitals, attended the opening of Parliament, and lost no opportunity of studying the life and religion of the people. He was frequently at the opera and theatre, and comments on the plays and mentions the distinguished actors and actresses who took part in them.

He left Paris in March 1738 and went by stagecoach and canal boat to Lyons, attentively observing everything on the way. Ten days later he started for Turin by way of Mont Cenis, an arduous journey in those days and at that season of the year. We had to undergo great fatigue, and our lives were endangered by the snow that had fallen the previous night which was so deep that our mules fairly had to swim in it, and we were obliged to dismount. It was fortunate that our party consisted of twelve persons besides six monks of the Carmelite Order, and that we had an attendance of from fifty to sixty porters who paved a way for us.

Other dangers were encountered during this Italian tour. On the way from Turin to Milan, Swedenborg was abandoned by his guide and forced to travel in the sole company of another described as something of a desperado. This fellow flourished a stiletto from time to time in a menacing manner, and probably would have used it if he had thought Swedenborg had any money. Then on the sea journey from Leghorn to Genoa, he ran into danger again, this time from pirates. He was in Turin on Easter, 1738, and described the Maundy Thursday and Good Friday processions.

I saw their magnificent processions carrying a great number of large wax tapers. Six of the marchers flogged themselves so that blood streamed from their bodies. Others bore a cross of great weight, and others bore the insignia of crucifixion. Lastly there was a float with a large number of candles on which Christ was represented with Mary. On Good Friday there was another great procession, with a float carrying Christ in a shroud, the head of John the Baptist, and Mary with a sword through her heart.

In Milan, he visited the Ospedale Maggiore, which he described as one of the finest and largest in existence. The service in this hospital is performed entirely by bastards, because foundlings in great numbers are received here. There are special halls for the wounded, for there is a great number of them on account of the many attempted assassinations. He also visited the principal monasteries. One which belongs to the order of Ambrosio is splendidly decorated with paintings. One of those may be called a masterpiece. If you are twelve or fifteen steps away from it, it is impossible to think other than it stands out from the wall. In the garden a fig tree was pointed out where it is said Augustine was converted about 1400 years ago. Each of the fathers has his servant and his valet, for they all belong to the aristocracy. At the large convent for young ladies I conversed in the parlor with two nuns, I saw their procession and bought their flowers .

On leaving Milan he joined company with five Carmelite monks who were about to visit Venice on their way to Rome. They can hardly have shared all his activities because at Verona he visited the opera. He is enthusiastic as he describes what he saw. “A new theatre,” he says, “has been built with a hundred and forty boxes. In respect to the shifting of scenery in the theatre, with their decorations which represent beautiful palaces and other fine views, and also in respect to the singing and dancing, they surpass the French opera to such a degree that it seems to be mere child’s play in comparison with these.”

He seems to prefer modern to ancient buildings, and speaks more of the precious materials of the latter than of the art displayed in their construction. Thus, at Pisa, he tells us, “Much marble is displayed in chapels, churches and also in some private houses. Their cathedral is entirely of marble on the outside, and in the interior are many handsome pictures, sculptures and ornaments. The cathedral of Florence he describes as having “a dome which is of marble on the outside and cost eighteen million francs. Close by is the Church of St. Giovanni Battista where there are sculptures in marble and statues in bronze.”

Swedenborg brought to architecture the eye of the geologist rather than that of the connoisseur. At Padua he remarks, “the town hall and other public buildings are old fashioned”; while of the churches at Vicenza we learn that the “more recent” churches are especially celebrated for their architecture. His favorite sculptor seems to have been Bernini, and he is apparently oblivious of the very greatest artists. He admires the frescoes in the church of Santa Croce in Florence because they are “so lifelike that they seem to be in relief.”

Swedenborg’s imagination, however, was fed by his knowledge of science and classical literature rather than by outward impressions from the beauty of nature. Swedenborg observed with equal diligence the life of the body politic, and we have many notes on social, political and religious matters. At Florence, he witnessed “the consecration of seven nuns who were in white from head to toe. The archbishop performed the ceremony and changed his head covering five times. He addressed questions to them which they answered in musical cadence. They then lay down on the floor under a black covering for a long time, after which they received rings, crowns and other things. They partook of the sacrament and then went out in procession with crowns on their heads. Many ladies in bridal array were present, and fine music was played.”

Two days later he writes, “I witnessed in a convent for the third time the consecration of nuns and all the ceremonies differed.” He tells us about a remarkable monastery in Rome of which “its fathers are called Jerusalemites. Twelve of them are confined during the whole year, obtaining their food through a trap door. One day a year they come out. The others meanwhile drive about in carriages.

Swedenborg describes relics and other treasures in the churches in a matter of fact way, without raising any questions about their authenticity or of their value as aids to devotion. In the church of San Giovanni in Laterano he tells us: “Many relics are near the altar: the heads of Peter and Paul under a rich shrine; a famous column of metal filled with stones from the sepulchre of Christ.”

In Rome he “saw the prison of St. Peter and St. Paul”. It was not only ecclesiastical matters that interested him. At Leghorn he visited the galleys, and in Venice joined the expedition which accompanied the Doge when he performed the annual ceremony of “Wedding the Adriatic”. Nothing escaped his attention or was outside the scope of his interest. The old Roman saying could well, indeed, have been applied to him, “Nothing concerning mankind is without interest to me.”

The diary of this journey ends abruptly on March 17, 1739, but from other sources we learn that Swedenborg returned to Paris about the middle of May. We know nothing of the time period till November 3, 1739, when he reported for duty again at the Board of Mines except, he published Economy of the Soul’s Kingdom in Amsterdam.

In the early part of 1743 Swedenborg again applied to the king for leave of absence to go abroad to publish a new book. The leave was graciously entertained, but a point of order required that it should first be submitted to the Board of Mines. Accordingly on June 17 he addressed a letter to its governing body. This letter is especially important as evidence that at this period Swedenborg had no idea of his future mission, no intention of devoting himself to theology and that the allurements of worldly honor were still before him.

I can assure you that I should a thousand times prefer to stay at home in my native country, where it would be a pleasure to me to serve on so illustrious a board and to contribute my own small share to the public good; at the same time to watch opportunities for improving my condition and to attend to the little property I have acquired, and thus live at home and have pleasant times which, as long as my health and means with God’s help continue, nothing would disturb than to travel abroad, exposing myself at my own by no means inconsiderable expense to danger and vexation, especially in these unquiet times, and undergoing severe brain work and other hard labor with the probability of meeting in the end with more unfavorable than favorable judgments.

But notwithstanding all this I am influenced interiorly by the desire and longing to produce during my lifetime something real which may be of use in the general scientific world and also to posterity, and in this way to be useful to and even to please my native country and, if my wishes are realized, to obtain honor for it. It is my own chief desire to bring this work to a close and to return to my country, to my office and to my property, where I shall in tranquility and ease continue my larger work, the Mineral Kingdom, and thus be of actual use to the public at large in those matters which properly belong to the Royal Board.

Apparently the Mineral Kingdom was a work which he hoped to undertake after he had completed the publication of the Kingdom of the Soul for which he was not going abroad. This must have been only an intention for no trace of such a manuscript has been found. Swedenborg started on his new journey in July, 1743. His journal, however, does not extend beyond August 20 and contains nothing of special interest. He met many persons of note, and at Hamburg was presented to Prince Augustus and to Prince Adolphus Frederic, the recently elected Crown Prince of Sweden.

The latter was pleased to look at the manuscript of his new book and at the reviews of his former one. At the various places he visited he inspected churches, fortifications, water works, public buildings, etc, as was his want. However, his travels played an important role in understanding the fabric of society and the abuses in it. What happened later in this journey, making an unexpected change in his life, will now be told.

3.2 Assignment 3.

Trobridge uses Swedenborg’s travels to provide a fuller picture of his character.

1. Provide a summary listing of the various character traits and attitudes he attributes to Swedenborg
2. Comment on your sense of how some of these might find expression there.

Trobridge states that “his travels played an important role in understanding the fabric of society and the abuses in it.”

3. Select two instances from Swedenborg’s travels that illustrate this and comment on their significance.

4.1 In Search of the Soul

It seems very strange for Swedenborg to abandon his chosen field and to set off in pursuit of the soul. He did so at the height of his fame as one of the world’s leading scientists. He must have been aware of what this would cost him in terms of popularity and standing, both of which he had been ardently seeking. We must assume that there was an irresistible drive within him, for he describes what a terrific struggle it was for him to give up his beloved science. In the light of subsequent events, this inner drive can only be seen as the surfacing of Swedenborg’s deep religious convictions. In response to the spiritual challenge of the times, we begin to see Swedenborg the mystic, the other side of his genius.

Swedenborg lived in a time of unbelief and immorality, an era which has been called “The Midnight of the Church.” It was an age in which it was quite fashionable to deny the existence of God, to poke fun at the Bible and to ridicule the idea of heaven and its angels. Given his own strong religious moorings, we can well understand how he was appalled by all this. What weighed the heaviest upon him was knowing that his brother scientists were unbelievers. According to Swedenborg, they should have been the champions of religion because of their greater knowledge. For him, to look in a microscope was to worship; to gaze through a telescope was to praise the further glory of God. From deep within he felt the call to try to turn back the rising tide of unbelief. We can almost hear Swedenborg saying, “If I can just discover where the soul actually resides in the human body, people will be forced to acknowledge its existence and to believe in God.”

To those who might disapprove of such prying into spiritual mysteries and who held that all those things which transcend our present state are matters for faith and not for the intellect, he replied:

I grant this, nor would I persuade anyone who comprehends those high truths by faith to attempt to comprehend them by his intellect. Let him abstain from my books. But these pages of mine are written only for those who never believe anything but what they can grasp with their minds, and who consequently deny the existence of anything higher than themselves, such as the soul and heaven. For these individuals alone I am concerned, and to them I dedicate my work.

Swedenborg’s quest of the soul was all consuming until his actual entrance into the spiritual world solved for him the mystery which neither science nor philosophy could fathom. This quest apparently had been the goal of the Principia, and more clearly of On the Infinite, which had won him acclaim as a scientist. We are not sure whether Swedenborg was aware at this early period of the direction his labor was to take, but it is certain that he proceeded from one level of study to another. Swedenborg soon concluded that knowledge of the soul was unattainable by using present methods and efforts.

He writes:

I do not think it is possible that the soul and its various faculties can be explained or comprehended by any of the known laws of motion. Our present state of ignorance is such that we do not know if the motions by which the soul operates on the organs of the body can be reduced to any rule or law either similar or dissimilar to those of mechanics.

Any good scientist might have left it at that, but not Swedenborg. He returned to his study and research of the structure of the human body again and again. The laws of physics and chemistry, not being able to reveal the mystery of life, turned him to the “kingdom” of the soul, the human body, which responds to every command and suggestion of the indwelling spirit. He persisted in trying to discover this vital essence by studying anatomy and by using certain philosophical principles which he had formulated.

Between the years 1734 and 1743 he accumulated a great mass of material, summaries of the findings of the best anatomists of Europe, plus the results of his own dissections of the human body. He notes in his introduction to Dynamics of the Soul’s Domain:

In the experimental knowledge of anatomy our way has been pointed out by men of the greatest and most cultivated talents, such as Eustachius, Malphighi, Ruysch, Leeuwenhock, Harvey, Morgagni, Vicussens, Lancisi, Winslow, Ridley, Booerhaave,Wepfer, Heister, Steno, Valsalva, Duverney, Nuck, Bartholin, Bidloo and Verheren. Their discoveries, far from consisting of fallacious, vague and empty speculations, will forever continue to be of practical value to posterity.

Assisted by the studies and elaborate writings of these illustrious men and fortified by their authority, I have resolved to commence and complete my plan, to open some part of those things which it is generally supposed nature has involved in obscurity. Here and there I have taken the liberty of throwing in the results of my own research, but this only sparingly, because on considering the matter deeply I have deemed it best to use the facts supplied by others.

There are some who seem born for research and are endowed with a sharper insight than others, such as Eustachius, Ruysch, Leeuwenhock, Lancisi, etc. There are others who enjoy a natural faculty for contemplating facts already discovered and for tracing their causes. Both are unique gifts and are seldom combined in the same person. Besides I have found that when I am intently occupied in exploring the secrets of the human body, as soon as I discovered anything that had not been observed before, I began to grow blind to the most penetrating research of others, probably seduced by self love. I then began to originate a whole series of inductive arguments from my particular discovery alone. Consequently I was unable to view and comprehend the idea of universals in particulars and particulars in universals. Indeed, when I attempted to form principles from these discoveries I thought I could detect in various other phenomena much to confirm their truth, although in reality they were fairly susceptible to no such construction. I therefore laid aside my instruments and, restraining my desire for making observations, determined rather to rely on the research of others.

I am strongly persuaded that the essence and nature of the soul, its influx into the body and the reciprocal action, can never be demonstrated without these principles of mind combined with a knowledge of anatomy, pathology, psychology and physics. It is for this reason that I have investigated the anatomy of the human body with such intense application. On the basis of his accumulated data Swedenborg sets to work writing his Dynamics of the Soul’s Domain. The book deals with the composition of the blood and its circulation; with the heart, arteries and veins; with the fetal circulation; and with the brain, especially in regard to its cortical substance and motion.

Swedenborg said, “We are told in the Bible that the blood is life,” and so he regarded it as of primary importance because “it is the common fountain and general principle of the kingdom of the soul.” He dealt with the blood at such length because he believed that “the essential vital principle” was contained in it. He described this as “a spirituous fluid which is immediately connected with the soul.” The blood is “a mixture of substances of various kinds, and more especially of the fluid in which the soul resides and from which is its life.” He thought that this spirituous fluid must be the soul itself. It has its origin in the brain, and is driven to all parts of the body by pulsations, for Swedenborg concluded that the brain has a regular motion as well as the heart.

If this fluid is regarded as the purest organ of the body and the one most exquisitely adapted to receive life, then it does not use from itself but from him who is self life, that is, from the God of the universe without whom nothing in nature could live. This is still a materialistic view. It is obviously clear that Swedenborg at this time, because he saw the necessity of the soul being organic, could not but think that it was a sublimated form of matter. He knew nothing as yet about a spiritual substance. However, he was not satisfied with his conclusion. The more he investigated the more the soul seemed to evade him. Its activities were evidenced in every movement of the body, yet it eluded his grasp.

I could not but think that all knowledge must be obtained either by pure philosophical reasoning or purely through anatomical research. But on making the attempt I found myself as far from my goal as ever. No sooner did I seem to have succeeded than I found it again eluding my grasp, though it never completely disappeared from my sight.

Swedenborg was not discouraged. Dissatisfied with his recent work, he would search more deeply. He continued his study and research in preparation for a still more ambitious book to be entitled The Soul’s Domain. The original plan called for seventeen parts, dealing with the anatomy of the whole body with many philosophical suggestions. He published two parts at The Hague in 1744 and a third in London the following year. The work was never completed for reasons that will appear later.

In the introduction to this great work, he says:

Not long ago I published Dynamics of the Soul’s Domain. In traversing the whole field in detail, I made a rapid passage to the soul. But on considering the matter more deeply I have found that I directed my course thither too hastily. I intend to examine physically and philosophically the whole anatomy of the body. The goal I propose is a knowledge of the soul, since this most knowledge will constitute the crown of my studies. In order to follow up the investigation and to solve the difficulty I have chosen to approach by the analytic way. I think I am the first who has professedly taken this course. To accomplish this grand goal I enter the arena designing to consider and examine thoroughly the whole world which the soul inhabits, for I think it is in vain to seek her anywhere but in her own kingdom.

I am determined to give myself no rest until I have run through the whole field to the very goal, until I have traversed the whole soul’s kingdom to the soul. Thus I hope that by bending my course inward continually I shall open all the doors that lead to her and at length, by the divine permission, contemplate the soul herself. Swedenborg’s present effort enabled him to get a more definite grasp of the problem. He now concluded that the brain is the center of the soul’s activity. Here sense impressions from the world are received, and here conceptualizing originates.

There is in the cerebrum an exalted sensory apparatus to which the bodily impressions ascend and where they can ascend no further. Here the soul resides, clad in the noble garments of its organization, to meet the incoming ideas and to receive them as guests. This high and noble place is the boundary at which the ascending life of the body ceases, and is the boundary from which that of the soul, considered as a spiritual essence, begins. One evidence of progress which we can observe in The Soul’s Domain is Swedenborg’s clearer recognition of the value of using analogy in pursuing spiritual truth. Not only does he perceive that the body is the perfect instrument and analog of the soul; but he has clearer intimations of the principle of correspondence which plays such an important role in his later works.

The blood is continuously making the circle of its life, and is in constant evolution of birth and death. It dies in old age and is regenerated or born anew, as the various organs of the body restore its purity and youthfulness. The human being, who lives at once in the body and in the spirit, must undergo the same process in general, and in the course of his regeneration must daily do the same thing. There is the same perpetual symbolic representation of spiritual life as there is in that of the soul in the body.

Those who read Swedenborg’s books chronologically, from his scientific works to his theological, see a profound change taking place in him which can only be interpreted as scientist becoming mystic. Indicative of this change is the strange book, The Worship and Love of God, published in 1745, which he wrote while finishing The Soul’s Domain. The title is provocative. Was this a subconscious projection of his thoughts in midstream? The work is a splendid prose epic, a half-scientific and a half poetic paraphrase of the story of creation, reminiscent of his youthful poetry. It is not unconnected with The Soul’s Domain but a fulfillment of it; for in introducing the former Swedenborg had indicated that its concluding part would deal with “The City of God” seen as the culmination of all created things.

With such an all-embracing purpose, it is not strange that all the resources of his mental world should have been integrated into this work. Any summary of its contents gives but a poor idea of the book; however, a few selections may convey something of its literary charm and the depth of its wisdom. It begins with an account of creation, first describing the birth of the planets which have broken away from the nebulous ring which surrounded the sun. Our earth, we are told, gradually receded from the sun, its rotations occupying an increasing length of time as it moved further and further from its parent orb. At the time when life appeared, the year was no longer than our present month, and the day not more than two hours. The effect of this was to equalize the climate, the seasons merging into one another so as to form a perpetual spring. These halcyon days are described in a passage which may serve as an example of the poetical style of the book.

The atmosphere itself breathed the most grateful temperature in consequence of receiving so copious a light and heat, at the same time being warned by fruitful dews exhaled from the bosons of the earth. As yet there was no furious wind, no Boreas to disturb the air with his stormy whirlwind, nor as yet did the smallest cloud intercept the splendor of the sun. But the face of everything was serene, and zephyrs only, with their gentle fannings, appeased the murmurs of the winds. The earliest forms of vegetable life were herbs and lowly flowers, which clothed the earth with beauty; after these, shrubs and plants, and finally trees. From the vegetable world proceeded the primal forms of animal life, the first being insects. From the shrubs were produced eggs which were nourished among their branches, and eventually hatched into birds. Lastly came humankind.

In the midst of a grove was a fruit tree which bore a small egg, most precious, in which, as in a jewel nature concealed her highest posters. In that egg, pendant on the Tree of Life and vivified by the Supreme Mind, all things had been prepared in orderly stages for the Firstborn. In the course of time the fetus broke through the bars of its enclosure and drew air into his nostrils. Around the natal couch stood the inhabitants of heaven, gladdened by the sight of the infant, the hope of the whole human race. He moved his little lips as if to venerate his Supreme Parent, giving thanks that the workmanship of the world was now completed in himself.

His meeting Eve and his wooing her are beautifully described. In the course of time the Firstborn wanders to a distant grove and sees in a dream a Nymph, his future bride. He recognizes her as the original of the dream vision which he had a thousand times recalled. He tenderly woos her and makes her his bride. In the midst of all that is imaginative and lovely, there runs a deep wisdom which foreshadows that which is to come.

Nothing exists in nature which does not in a symbolic way resemble its origin or soul. If we unfold natural things, and in their place transcribe spiritual ones, congruous truths result. The soul is really a substance that all the substances of the body enjoy life from it. It is impossible for anything to exist from what has no being. Out of nothing, nothing can be made. All truths are focused upon goodness, and consequently expand themselves, as it were, into circumferences from goodness as from a center. We really here live and walk as little universes, carrying both heaven and the world, consequently the kingdom of God, in ourselves.

Without love there is no life, and life is of such a quality as its love is. What is life? Is it not to understand what is true and to love what is good? With the writing of this book one phase in Swedenborg’s life ends and another opens. Here his mingled physiological and psychological efforts terminate. From now on he was to discern the soul, not through the dark glass of science nor through the mists of philosophy nor through the curtains of nature, but in a way rarer and plainer: by spiritual sight and experience rightly grasped by a prepared and spiritual mind.

4.2 Assignment 4.

1. Provide outline of the features/stages of Swedenborg’s efforts to establish “where the soul is housed in the body”?
2. How would you use this information to explain/answer a query from someone wanting to know about the existence and purpose of the soul?
3. Reflect on your own developing sense of religion/spirituality over the course of your life in your search for a deeper spiritual connection. What would you say is of most value for you in bringing a sense of the Divine into your life?

5.1 Between Two Worlds

The period 1743 AND 1745 were critical years in Swedenborg’s life and marked a turning point in his career. He gradually became aware that the inner world of spirit was breaking in upon his consciousness. This was attended by strange and troubling psychic experiences. He sensed that his work was taking a new direction and that he was somehow being called to serve a higher purpose.

Except for a day to day account of his inner experiences, which he left among his papers, we would know very little about these critical years and what was taking place within him. This record covers the most decisive part of that period, March 24 to October 27, 1744. It was of course for Swedenborg’s eyes alone, and was not published until many years after his death, when it appeared under the title, Journal of Dreams. We learn from this that as he finished The Soul’s Domain and was beginning The Worship and Love of God he sees inner lights and hears the muttering of voices. He indicates that his first awareness of spirits was by a sensation of obscure sights, and that he senses their presence, approach and departure.

He is enough of a scientist to know that experiences such as his are abnormal, and questions whether or not he is becoming mentally unbalanced, as he writes: “I begin thinking whether all this was not mere fantasy.” He was well aware that people are subject to hallucinations and imagine all kinds of things, but we find him watching and studying his own case with the eye of a scientific observer. He notes:

“How easily human beings may be led astray by evil spirits who represent themselves to us according to the quality of our love.”

He tells of being surrounded by a crowd of spirits who had died many years before. He is made aware that the other world is full of malignant forces and evil spirits. He feels his utter helplessness, and experiences being abandoned. He awakes one night from a troubled sleep and, trembling, perceived that he is surrounded by a “column of angels.” The thought comes to him that these angels constitute a “wall of brass” whose duty it is to defend him against evil.

The Journal of Dreams has mainly to do with his vivid, and often terrifying dreams, together with his interpretations of them. They picture the grim struggle that was taking place unconsciously in Swedenborg’s mind between abandoning the scientific philosophical course which he had been following and giving himself to pursuing the spiritual sensings which were insistently knocking on his consciousness. He seemed to have somehow realized that this direction of his work would not be possible unless he was willing to subordinate his self assertiveness to this inner guidance. Still, not knowing what this new field of endeavor was nor what it would entail, he was naturally loath to give up his accustomed procedure.

In his dreams immaterial things appeared under symbolic forms, and it was only as he came to perceive the meaning of the symbols that the intent of the dreams became clear. For example, his gross thoughts were represented to him as heaps of rags. He saw himself living in an untidy hovel into which he had invited the Highest to visit him, and he thought that he ought to be punished for his presumption.

Long before the age of psychoanalysis he was forced to prove and examine himself because he discovered that his dreams were the heavenly sent means of revealing himself to himself. He has an overwhelming sense of his unworthiness. I found myself more unworthy than others and the greatest of sinners because the Lord permitted me to go deeper into certain things. The very fountain of sin lies in this thought. Therein I found my own unworthiness and sins greater than others. For it is not enough to make oneself out to be unworthy, which may consist in something from which the heart is far away, and may be counterfeit. But to find out the fact that one is unworthy belongs to the grace of the spirit.

Now while I was in the spirit I thought and sought how I might by thinking attain the knowledge of how to avoid all that was impure. Still I noticed that the impure put itself forward on all occasions. I found that it was dwelt upon in thought from the standpoint of self love. For instance, if any person did not regard me according to the estimate of my own imagination, I discovered that I always thought to myself, “Ah! If you only knew what grace I have you would think differently.”

This was at once impure, and had self love for its basis. At last I found this out, and prayed to God for his forgiveness. And then I asked that others might enjoy the same grace – which perhaps they had and do receive. Thus I have observed clearly in myself one more of the horrible apples still remaining, entirely unconverted, which are the root of Adam and the original sin. Yes, and endless roots of sin belong to me besides.

Intellectual pride seems to have been one of his besetting faults. A few years before he had given up research because he had found that the pride which he took in making new discoveries obscured his perception and prevented him from drawing the proper deductions from his data. Casting aside scalpel and knife he had become reconciled to relying on the research of others so that he might see the interrelatedness of things. It was to be so again but now on a much deeper level and at far greater cost. He saw that ridding himself of pride must go as far as letting go of all his preconceived ideas, the abandoning of his reliance on his store of worldly knowledge, and going to the point of humbly acknowledging that he knew absolutely nothing.

He had caught such a glimpse of wisdom in comparison with which his own was as nothing. I saw a bookstore and immediately the thought struck me that my works would have more effect than those of others. Yet I checked myself at once, for one serves another. Our Lord has more than a thousand ways by which to prepare a person, so that each and every book must be left to its own merits. Still arrogance at once crops up. May God control it, for the power is in his hands! I have now learned this about spiritual things: that there is nothing for it but to humble oneself and to desire nothing else than the grace of Christ, and this with all humility. I attempted on my own to get love, but this is arrogant.

When one has God’s grace, one leaves oneself to Christ’s good pleasure. I was obliged with humblest prayers to beg for forgiveness before my conscience could be at peace, for I was still in temptation until this was done. The Holy Spirit taught me this; but I, with my foolish understanding, left out humility, which is the foundation of all. His consciousness of the divine leading became stronger as time advanced. He recognizes himself “simply as an instrument”.

I discovered that I know nothing on this subject. I have no knowledge about religion, but have lost all. I have for my motto God’s will be done. I am thine not mine, as I have given myself from myself to the Lord. He may dispose of me after own pleasure. I pray to God that I might not be my own, but that God might please to let me be his.

This have I learned, that the only thing is in all humility to thank God for his grace and to pray for it, and to recognize our own unworthiness and his infinite grace. Very often I burst into tears, not of sorrow, but of inmost joy at our Lord’s deigning to be so gracious to so unworthy a sinner. This whole day I spent in prayer, in songs of praise, in reading God’s Word, and in fasting; except in the morning when I was otherwise occupied.

There is something touching and beautiful in seeing this middle aged scientist renouncing his life’s ambitions and, in child like obedience to what he saw to be a call from God, turning his back on the wisdom of the world. A friend of kings and princes, and an intellectual prince himself, we see him now, a stranger in a strange land, all alone in the darkness of the night pouring out his soul in prayer. In the midst of dangers and testings we hear him finding comfort in singing the simple hymn which he had learned at his mother’s knee.

Jesus is my friend, the best one, Never has his equal been. Shall then I, like most, forsake him? Shall I, too, abandon him? No one has the power to sever Me from his most tender love, One with his, my will, forever Here below, as there above. It was Easter 1744, and Swedenborg had partaken of the Lord’s supper. In the evening his mind was beset with temptations. He dreamed of meeting an acquaintance who tried in vain to induce him to join his company. He took this to mean indulgence, riches, vanity. An indescribable state of heavenly bliss succeeded this state of temptation, with full consciousness of God’s love and with a willingness on his part give to up his life for Him.

I had in my mind and body the feeling of an indescribable delight, so that had it been in any high degree my whole body would have been, as it were, dissolved in pure joy. In a word, I was in heaven and heard speech which no human tongue can utter, with the life that is there, with the glory and inmost delight that flow from it. The next day he travelled to Delft, and that night he experienced the climactic event of his life.

He read about God’s miracles wrought through Moses, and went to bed at ten o’clock. Half an hour later he heard a roaring noise as of many winds rushing together, and was immediately seized with powerful trembling from head to foot. He felt the presence of something “indescribably holy” which shook him and threw him upon his face. He wondered what it meant, and found himself exclaiming, “O, Almighty Jesus Christ! Thou who of thy great mercy deignest to come to so great a sinner, make me worthy of this grace!“.

He kept his hands folded and prayed, and then there came forth a hand which strongly pressed his hands. He found himself lying in the Lord’s bosom and beheld him face to face. “His countenance cannot be described, and was such as when he lived on earth. He spoke to me and asked me if I had a bill of health. I answered, “Lord, thou knowest it better than I”. He said, “Well, then do”.

Swedenborg interpreted this as meaning “Love me truly,” or “Do what you have promised,” and he adds, “O God, impart to me the grace for this! I find that it is not within my power.”

In a condition of neither sleeping nor waking, he reflected on what had happened. I perceived that it was the Son of God himself who descended with such a sound of roaring and who threw me to the ground and caused me to pray. I said, “It was Jesus himself!” I then prayed for grace and love, since this was the doing of Jesus Christ and not myself. Every now and then I burst into tears, not of sorrow but of inmost joy, because our Lord has been willing to show such great grace on so unworthy a sinner. And so we have a new call to service, a new commitment for Swedenborg” for the former things have passed away”. The unseen reality of the spiritual world had now forcibly worked its way into Swedenborg’s consciousness, and with it a new realization of a far more arduous task ahead. He could not ignore it; he could not run from it. He had to me all his powers of researching to investigate this new phenomenon, his exposure to spiritual realities.

5.2 Assignment 5.

1. Have you ever defended Swedenborg to sceptics regarding his travels between the natural and spiritual world?
2. Provide an example of how you responded?
3. Did you feel satisfied with the explanation/answer you gave? Why/why not?
4. Give an example of how you would respond?
5. Would you feel comfortable doing so? Why/why not?

6.1 Seer and Theologian

Two sources of truth opened to swedenborg: one through his study of the Word of God, and the other through his otherworld experiences. He lived in both at one and the same time. For some years he had been keeping a daily record of his contact with spirits. This covered the period of 1746 to 1765. These were at first scattered notes, which he finally gathered together and expanded. They amounted to several volumes which he kept on file as basic source material to be drawn on and reworked for inclusion in his later theological works. These were never published by Swedenborg. They were, however, published in 1843 by Dr. Immanuel Tafel and are now available in English in five volumes under the title, The Spiritual Diary.

This diary is entirely different from his Journal of Dreams. Instead of strange dreams or symbolic and dimly comprehended visions, it is a sober account of things clearly seen and heard. The following quotations show something of the character of its contents.

While I was thinking about the inmost heaven it occurred to me to wonder whether the angels there are holy, and thus the “Holy Spirit.” Then a voice reached me from that heaven, through intermediate angels, saying that they are not holy, but that the Lord alone is holy and that he himself is their holiness; further, that no one is holy from himself except the Lord alone, and that they are averse to being called holy.

I spoke with certain spirits who had been learned theologians on earth about faith and good works, to the effect that they maintained that faith apart from good works is saving, and that works condemn. I said that such statements, without explanation, are dangerous, especially for the unlearned. For it is faith that saves because in faith there is life, that is to say, the Lord, who alone is Life.

While Swedenborg was busily treading the pathway of the spirit he was at the same time absorbed in the exploration of the Bible. He read and reread it through repeatedly. He set himself to review his Hebrew and Greek so that he could read it in the original. He wrote copious Bible indexes so that lie could have words and passages at his fingertips.

He made several attempts to interpret the contents of Genesis before his efforts began to bear fruit in his book, The Word of the Old Testament Explained, written between 1745 and 1747. Swedenborg himself did not publish this work. When it was published at Tubingen between 1842 and 1854, it filled nine volumes. Dr. Rudolph Tafel has said of it, “Swedenborg did not follow this exegesis of the literal sense further than the third chapter of Genesis. At that point he turned back to the first chapter with a view of discovering there, not the creation of the natural world, but the creation and establishment of the Kingdom of God. He had now come to recognize the existence of an inner meaning in the Word of God”.

Everywhere in the account of creation there is a double meaning in the words, namely, a spiritual as well as a natural meaning. This clearly appears from “the tree of life and the tree of knowledge.” Life and knowledge are spiritual, yet they are attributed to a “tree” because whatever originates in the ultimate parts of nature, on account of deriving its origin from heaven, involves something spiritual in what is natural. It does so on the ground that everything that is represented in the divine mind cannot but be carried out in nature and be formed there according to the idea of heaven. From this there results a correspondence of all things.

Though Swedenborg had discovered a deeper meaning in the Bible than his contemporaries had, he nevertheless said that it was not “a spiritual sense” but rather an “inner historical sense.” In this book he was still the questing student. He was frequently in the dark, at a loss as to the meaning of things. “I cannot understand these words,” he says, or “This is as yet obscure.” The inner sense was seen, though only as it were through a screen. The real breakthrough to the spiritual sense was yet to come.

During these two years Swedenborg was absent only twelve times from his post at the Board of Mines. He had faithfully taken part in discussing the problems in metallurgy, in settling disputes between mine owners, in passing on appropriations and appointments, in supervising the safety checking of mines and frequently, as senior member, had presided at the sessions in the absence of the chairman or councillor. It was therefore not unexpected that when Councillor Bergenstjerna retired in 1747 the board should have recommended Swedenborg for that vacant post. Instead he, too, announced his plan to retire, addressing a memorial to the king in the following terms:

Your Royal Majesty’s Board of Mines, at your behest, have sent in their humble proposal regarding the vacant post of Councillor and have recommended me for this office as senior member. But as I feel it incumbent on me to finish the work on which I ant now engaged I would most humbly ask Your Royal Majesty to select another and most graciously release me from office. It is my humble wish that you graciously release me from office, but without bestowing upon me any higher rank, which I most earnestly beseech you not to do. I further pray that I may receive half of my salary, and that you will graciously grant me leave to go abroad, to some place where I may finish the important work on which I am now engaged.

A Royal Decree releasing Swedenborg from his office, and agreeing to continue to pay him half salary, was issued on June 12. All the members of the Royal Board regretted losing so worthy a colleague, and they asked him kindly to continue attending the sessions until all those cases should be settled which had been commenced during his attendance at the Board, to which Swedenborg kindly agreed. Minute of the Board, June 15, 1747 The final leave taking was on July 17. In the minutes for that day the following entry appears:

Assessor Swedenborg, who intends as soon as possible to commence his new journeys abroad, came up for the purpose of taking leave of the Royal Board. He thanked all those for the favor and kindness he had received from them during his connection with the Board, and commended himself to their further friendly remembrance. The Royal Board thanked the Assessor for the minute care and fidelity with which he had attended to the duties of his office up to the present time; they wished him a prosperous journey and a happy return; after which he left.

So ended Swedenborg’s long service on the Board of Mines. His reason for retiring, while still in the vigor of life, was not only that he might have more time to give to his new work, but that his mind might not be distracted unnecessarily by worldly matters. We come now to the culminating chapter in Swedenborg’s life, that of theologian and revelator. He has retired at the height of his powers to give all his time and energy to the mission to which he believes the Lord has called him. He has sufficient means to live on and to publish. His insight into the hidden depths of the Bible, along with his sight into the world of spirit, has now become clarified. He is ready.

The first fruit of his theological period was the Arcana Coelestia, the first volume of which was published anonymously in 1749. Seven more volumes appeared year by year until 1756, giving the inner spiritual meaning of Genesis and Exodus. Between the chapters Swedenborg incorporated many of his spiritual experiences, which he considered as important as the exegesis. A brief preface affirmed the presence of the inner meaning in the Bible and showed that without a knowledge of this it was like a body without a soul. As long as the mind dwells in the literal sense only, it is impossible to see that the Bible is full of spiritual content. In these first chapters of Genesis nothing is discoverable from the literal sense but that they treat of creation, the Garden of Eden and Adam as the first man. Hardly anyone supposes that they relate to anything else.

But they contain secrets which have never before been revealed, as still appear from the following pages. There it will be seen that the first chapter of Genesis, in its inner sense, treats of the new creation of man, or of his regeneration in general. It does this in such a way that there is not a syllable which does not represent, signify and involve something spiritual.

As the Arcana will be discussed at length in the chapter on the Bible there is no need to say more here except to point out the striking differences between the character of its statements and that of The Word Explained. Here there is no uncertainty or hesitation, but a calm and straightforward unfolding of the truth. As Benjamin Worcester, in Life and Mission of Swedenborg, observes:

The style here differs drastically from that of the earlier Word Explained. It is no longer that of an explorer just discovering or just hearing things entirely new to him.

It is now that of a master, full of the knowledge that has become familiar to him. He no longer doubts whether what he writes is quite correct and is to be printed. We notice a change in some of the terms he uses, which are now crystallized into the forms they will hold throughout his subsequent theological works. Thus the name of the Savior in The Worship and Love of God was the “Only Begotten” or the “Son of God;” in the early part of The Spiritual Diary and in the greater part of The Word Explained, it is “God Messiah,” whereas here and all following works the term “Lord” is used. In beginning his exposition here he wrote:

In the following work by “the Lord” is solely meant Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world, who is so called without other names. He is acknowledged and adored as the Lord throughout all heaven because he has power in heaven and earth. This teaching of the one God, Jesus Christ Risen and Glorified, is the keynote of all Swedenborg’s theology.

The second volume of the Arcana was issued in 1750, in Latin and in English, and was announced in a lengthy advertisement by the publisher. This work is intended to be such an exposition of the whole Bible as was never attempted before in any language. The author is a learned foreigner who wrote and published the first volume of the same work last year. He has struck out a new path through this deep abyss which no one ever trod before. He has left all commentators behind. His thoughts are all his own, and the ingenious and sublime turn he has given to all the Bible has been copied from no one. The work is printed in a grand manner, and is sold at an extremely low price.

Meanwhile Swedenborg was planning and writing further works. He was an indefatigable worker. Imagine writing all those thousands and thousands of pages with a quill pen! And not only that, but writing two copies of everything he printed: one for the printer who would discard his copy as soon as it was set tip in type; one copy for himself, for correcting and proofreading. Thanks to this, most of his original manuscripts are preserved in the library of the Royal Academy of Sciences in Stockholm.

He lived for the most part in Stockholm , sending his manuscripts from time to time to his printer and went about as usual among his friends. Few, if any, knew of his extraordinary experiences or guessed that he was the author of these remarkable works. In 1758 he again went to London , where he published these four small works:

• The Earths in the Universe
• The Last Judgment
• New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine
• The White Horse of the Apocalypse

Here he also published what is perhaps the best known of all his books, Heaven and Hell. These were all remarkable books, and excited considerable interest and curiosity. Between 1757 and 1759 he began a voluminous exposition of the Book of Revelation on similar lines to the Arcana. It was to be titled Apocalypse Explained, but it was never completed, being replaced in 1766 by a smaller work, Apocalypse Revealed. In the spring of 1762, now seventy-four years old, he set out on another journey, this time to Amsterdam, where he was about to transfer his printing. Here the following works were published:

• 1763 Four Doctrines: The Lord, Sacred Scriptures, Life, Faith; Divine Love and Wisdom
• 1764 Divine Providence
• 1766 Apocalypse Revealed
• 1768 Conjugial Love (Marriage Love)
• 1769 Brief Exposition of the Doctrine of the New Church
• 1771 True Christian Religion, his crowning masterpiece

Two other publications, of a different character, must be mentioned because they show that with all his spiritual preoccupation he had not stopped taking an interest in the things of this world. The transactions of the Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences for April-June, 1763, contain a paper by Swedenborg on The Inlaying of Marble. In 1766 he republished his treatise on A New Method of Finding the Longitude.

All these publications necessitated many journeys between Sweden and Holland or England, which were undertaken alone and without mishap. Nothing but a strong conviction of his divine mission could have induced him, at such a time of life, to risk the perils and discomforts inseparable in those days from travel by sea and land. It is documented in 1703 it took fourteen hours to travel by stagecoach from London to Windsor, a distance of only twenty-five miles.

When he started on his last trip to Holland he was in his eighty-third year, yet he fearlessly undertook the journey, confident that God would protect him and preserve his life until his work was finished. He lived to see his True Christian Religion off the press, and to write an appendix to it. For some reason, possibly at the invitation of English friends of his teachings, of whom there was now a growing number, he crossed over to London in July, 1771, and remained there until he died.

The closing scenes of Swedenborg’s life are in keeping with its peaceful course throughout. He had no fear of death, but rather a joyful anticipation. He wrote to a friend:

If anyone is conjoined with the Lord he has a foretaste of eternal life in this world, and if he has this he no longer cares so much about this transitory life. Believe me, if I knew that the Lord would call me to himself tomorrow, I would summon the musicians today in order to be once more really gay in this world.

Sometime before his death he told his landlady and her servant the exact date on which this would occur, March 29, 1772. The latter remarked to a friend that he seemed as pleased at the prospect “as if he was going to have a holiday to go to some merry-making”. This was no pretending on his part, nor did it indicate that he was weary of his earthly life. He was always content with his lot, and he had spent a full life which was in every respect happy. He wrote in his diary:

Some think that those who are in the faith should deny themselves all the delights of life and all the pleasures of the body. But I can affirm that delights and pleasures have never been denied me. I have been permitted to enjoy not only the pleasures of the body, but I have also been permitted to enjoy such delights of life as I believe no person in the whole world ever enjoyed before, and which store more exquisite than anyone could imagine.

Shortly before Christmas in 1771 Swedenborg suffered a stroke which confined him to bed for some three weeks in a state of unconsciousness. He recovered, but one arm was paralyzed. Two days before he died his friend Eric Bergstrom visited him. Swedenborg remarked to him that since it had pleased God to take away the use of his arm by palsy, his body was good for nothing but to be put into the ground.

Bergstrom asked him if he wished to take Holy Communion and on receiving an affirmative reply, he sent for Pastor Ferelius, who had visited Swedenborg several times during his illness. When Ferelius entered the room, Swedenborg greeted him with a smile, saying, “Be welcome, reverend sir. God has now delivered me from the evil spirits with whom I have had to struggle for several days. Now the good spirits have come back again.”

In preparation for Communion Pastor Ferelius asked him, “Have you any idea that you are going to die?” Swedenborg said, “Yes.” The minister than suggested that inasmuch as quite a number of people thought that his sole purpose in giving out his new theological system had been to make a name for himself, Swedenborg would do well, if that were so, to deny either the whole or part of what he had presented. Upon hearing these words, Swedenborg half rose in his bed and, placing his sound hand upon his breast, said with great earnestness: As truly as you see me before your eyes, so true is everything that I have written. When you enter eternity you will see everything, and then you and I shall have much to talk about.

The minister then asked whether he acknowledged himself a sinner, to which Swedenborg replied, “Certainly, as long as I carry this sinful body.” Asked whether he was willing to receive the Lord’s Supper, he replied, “With thankfulness.” Thereupon, with much devotion, folding his hands and uncovering his head, he recited the Confession of Sins, and received the Sacrament.

That was Friday. The afternoon of March 29, the predicted death date, his landlady and her maid were seated at his bedside. It was the close of a peaceful springtime Sabbath. Swedenborg heard the clock strike, and asked what time it was. When answered, “Five o’clock,” he said, “That is good. I thank you. God bless you.” He heaved a gentle sigh, and peacefully passed away.

The Lord’s servant had completed his mission. On the table beside him lay the pen that had run so fast and plowed so deeply. Beside it lay an unfinished paper: An invitation to the New Church addressed to the whole Christian world, and an exhortation that all people should go to the Lord. Hereafter they are not to be called Evangelical, the Reformed, and still less Lutherans and Calvinists, but Christians. Swedenborg’s body lay in state until Sunday, April 5, 1772, when the burial service was conducted by Pastor Ferelius in the Swedish Church in Princes Square. Following the service, the casket was placed in a vault under the altar.

In Sweden all the newspapers carried notices of his death, and the Academy of Sciences called on the Councillor of Mines, Samuel Sandels, to write a eulogy in honor of their departed member. The address was delivered in the Great Hall of the House of Nobles in October 1772. It expressed the deep affection and the high regard in which the great man had always been held.

When the little church where Swedenborg was buried was torn down, the Academy of Sciences moved to bring Swedenborg’s remains back to his native land. On April 7, 1908, the casket left England with stately ceremonies, and was carried homewards on the cruiser Fylgia. On May 18, with solemn rites, the casket was placed in Uppsala Cathedral, and two years later was encased in a magnificent granite sarcophagus, the gift of Sweden to her illustrious son.

6.2 Assignment 6.

Work with one of the following and share your reflections:

1. Give an example from your own experience of a spiritual “crisis”
2. Give an example on the time when you experienced a significant shift in your sense of the spiritual
3. Have you had a sense of “calling” to serve some higher purpose?
4. Describe any significant dreams in your life
5. Describe any “psychic” experience.

7.1 The New Theology.

We have to picture what religion was like in the Eighteenth Century in order to appreciate the theological contribution of Swedenborg and the scope of his restatement of our Christian faith. That century has been called the Age of Reason and characterized as the coldest and most depressing time recorded in human history. It indeed rendered a remarkable service in questioning what had long been accepted as tradition, in sweeping away ancient superstition and in demanding a factual basis of authority.

But in the name of reason it tended to deny the truth of anything that could not be experienced and proved by the human mind. Only within the church was reasoning not tolerated. Here, instead, blind obedience to dogma was required. The truths of faith were held to be “mysteries,” far beyond human comprehension but which were nevertheless to be unquestionably accepted. It was an age which required the worshipper to leave his rationality at the church door, as “faith alone” was the hallmark of churchmanship. Charity, love of one another in action, was regarded as a source of pride because of its implication that the lost sinner might do something of his own will to win salvation.

Today we cannot understand how in the name of religion God’s infinite love was turned into a curse. Babies who died unbaptized were summarily consigned to the eternal flames of hell. The Doctrine of Predestination made a mockery of human freedom and responsibility. The Doctrine of the Elect explained why some people were chosen for heaven while others were destined for hell. This decision was made by the whim of an inscrutable God before the people in question were even born. Is it any wonder that this was an age of growing atheism and unbelief?

It was also a period of the grossest immorality, conduct at best being governed by the hope of a heavenly reward or by fear of eternal hell fire. Sexual promiscuity was the accepted lifestyle, and the marriage vow openly laughed at. It was an age insensitive to human feelings and needs. Insane asylums were literally “mad houses” which pious church-goers visited for entertainment on Sunday afternoon.

Prisons were sinkholes of moral and physical filth, with guards wringing what they could from helpless inmates. Innocent debtors were thrown in among hardened criminals. Public executions, often for what we would consider slight offenses, afforded a welcome spectacle to a curious and unfeeling populace. A noted church historian has called this age, “the midnight of the church.”

Swedenborg presents four reasons why few in his day had religion: First, because it is not known that the Lord (i.e. Jesus Christ) is the only God in person and in essence, in whom is a Trinity: when yet the whole of religion is based on the knowledge of God, and on his own adoration and worship. Second, because it is not known that faith is nothing else but truth; and because it is not known whether that which is called faith is truth or not. Third, because it is not known what charity is, nor consequently what good and evil are. Fourth, because it is not known what eternal life is.

Swedenborg’s theological teachings are found scattered throughout his writings, but the following are devoted to a systematic statement of them:

• True Christian Religion
• New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine
• Doctrine of the Lord
• Doctrine of the Sacred Scripture
• Doctrine of Life
• Doctrine of Faith
• Divine Providence
• Brief Exposition of the Doctrine of the New Church

It is impossible to examine each of these in detail, so a general summary is presented here, with particular references where needed. The foundation stone of the whole system is the doctrine of the supreme divinity of Jesus Christ. Although Paul asserted that “in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily,” and the early Christians accepted that view implicitly, this doctrine was not clearly understood, and consequently had not been adhered to for fifteen hundred years. The stumbling block of a trinity of persons had blinded the eyes to the absolute truth.

Swedenborg teaches that, instead of Jesus Christ being only the second member of a divine trinity of persons, the whole Trinity is centered in one Divine Person. The Father is the inmost principle of the Divine, which no man has seen or can know the exhaustless, ineffable Love of God; the Son is the manifestation of the Divine, the Divine Wisdom revealed to us in “the Word” as it has come to mankind in different forms, especially as “the Word made Flesh”; and the Holy Spirit is the out flowing energy of Divinity, proceeding from the Father through the Son, that is, from Divine Love through Divine Wisdom, and operating in man to inspire, to console and to sanctify.

All these constituents were embodied in the person of the Divine Savior, as he himself taught when he declared that the Father dwelling in him was the doer of his beneficent works; and when he breathed on his disciples and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” (John 20:22) Again, speaking of the promised Comforter, he said, “I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.” (John 14:18).

The teaching of any church as to the nature and character of God forms the central principle of its theological system. Upon our ideas of God will depend our conception of his relationship to us and of our obligation to him. In consequence of separating the Divine Trinity into three persons, each of which is declared to be God and Lord. A sort of frenzy has infected the whole system of theology as well as the Christian church, so called from its divine founder.

People’s minds are reduced by it into such a state of delirium that they do not know whether there is one God or whether there are three. They confess but one God with their lips, while they entertain the idea of three in their thoughts; so that their lips and their minds, or their words and their ideas, are at variance with each other. The consequence whereof is that they deny the existence of any God. This is the true source of the naturalism which is now so prevalent in the world. For I appeal to experience, while the lips confess but one God and the mind entertains the idea of three, whether such confession of the lips and such an idea in the mind do not mutually tend to destroy each other?

Hence if there isƒ any conception of God left in the understanding, it is that of a mere word or name, destitute of any true perception which implies a knowledge of him. The restoring of a true doctrine of the Trinity necessitated a restatement of the doctrine of the Atonement. If there are not three persons in the Trinity, it is impossible for one of these to offer himself as a sacrifice to the demanding justice of another. The doctrine of the Atonement as taught by Swedenborg is that set forth by Paul, when he wrote to the God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself”.

God is ever waiting to be gracious and needs no reconciling to mankind; they, however, need to be reconciled to him before they are fit to dwell in his presence. It was to effect this reconciliation to bring back the wandering sheep to the fold that God came into the world as Christ. He took upon himself human nature that he might be “tempted in all points like we are,” and so might conquer and subdue the spiritual enemies that kept mankind in bondage. He overcame the hells and so delivered mankind. In this view of the Atonement there is no substitution of the innocent for the guilty Still, all the power and merit belong to the Savior.

Swedenborg rejects all schemes of salvation that do not involve reformation of character. However, he is emphatic in his teaching that man has no power to procure his own salvation, though gifted with significant freedom to choose the good and reject the evil. Good actions should be done by man “as if of himself; but it should be believed that they are done by the Lord in man and through man”.

The necessity of freedom in spiritual matters is central to Swedenborg’s theology. He states that we are subject to influx from both good and evil spirits, but the Lord preserves a perfect equilibrium between these influences, which only we ourselves can overthrow. In this equilibrium everyone is kept as long as he lives in the world. By means of it he is kept in that liberty of thinking, of willing, of speaking and of doing in which he can be reformed.

No spiritual attainment can be permanent that is not gained in freedom, hence salvation is impossible without our voluntary cooperation. Otherwise “a person would have nothing whereby one could reciprocally conjoin oneself with the Lord”.

The acceptance of the doctrine of our spiritual freedom dispels many common misconceptions in regard to the process of salvation. Hope of reward or fear of punishment, though they may set our thoughts towards higher things, can produce no real spiritual change; no more can miracles, visions, or communication with the dead, because they may force belief against the will and the reason. We often hear of persons being brought to a knowledge of sin and their need of salvation on a bed of sickness. It will therefore surprise many to learn that no one can be “reformed in states of bodily disease” for them the mind is withdrawn from the world and is not as rational as during active life.

The whole question is summed up in the statement that, “No one is reformed in states that are not of rationality and liberty”, a statement which has many consequences. If this statement is true, those who forfeit their reason to priests and only believe dogmas for the sake of peace of mind are woefully misled. The peace they attain is a spurious peace and their hope of salvation by these means is illusory. Equally deluded are those who seek the seclusion of the cloister, the hermit’s cell, or in any way withdraw themselves from active lives in the world, for their soul’s benefit. They are simply paralyzing spiritual growth, and endangering their hoped for happiness.

The life which leads to heaven is not a life withdrawn from the world, but one lived in the world. A life of piety without a life of charity or goodwill to others does not lead to heaven. But a life of charity does if it consists in acting sincerely and justly in every duty, engagement and is from a heavenly motive. Since salvation is attaining spiritual health, it is clear that eternal rewards and punishments cannot be arbitrarily bestowed. Before we can go to heaven, heaven must have come to us. Likewise, no one will go to hell who has not first received hell into one’s soul. The states of the interiors make heaven, and heaven is within everyone, and not out of him.

It can in no case be said that heaven is outside of anyone, but that it is within him. This plainly shows how much he is deceived who believes that to come into heaven is only to be elevated among angels, without any regard to the quality of the inner life, and thus that heaven may be conferred on anyone by an act of unconditional mercy; when the truth is that if heaven is not within us, nothing of the heaven which is around can flow in and be received.

Swedenborg’s descriptions of the other life are so important and enlightening that they demand our extended attention in another chapter. We shall refer here to only one other point. Swedenborg states that the future life is ongoing, and that there is but a short semi conscious interval between the death of the body and the commencement of the spiritual existence.

This disposes of the idea that the dead lie in the ground waiting for a last judgment to be held at the end of the world. What, then, is the Last Judgment which we read about in the Bible? It has been commonly taught that, in fulfillment of his promise, Christ would come again in the clouds of heaven and summon all mankind, “both the quick and the dead,” before him for judgment. After the judgment had taken place, the saints would be carried up into the clouds with their Lord, and the world would be destroyed by fire. A new heavers and a new earth would then be established in which Christ should reign forever and ever. Swedenborg shows that this is a misconception of the teaching in the Gospels and is due to a literal interpretation of figurative language.

Swedenborg makes the astounding statement that the Last Judgment has already taken place! This stupendous event took place, “without observation,” he tells us, in the year 1757. It was not seen because it was a spiritual occurrence. In the world of spirits, or intermediate state, there were many spirits who had not yet transferred to their eternal homes. The majority of these were diabolical or hypocritical, and their influence on the inhabitants of this “lower earth” was such that, if they had not been brought into order, they would have quickly destroyed all spiritual life.

To avert such a catastrophe a general judgment or reordering took place in that intermediate world. Swedenborg affirms that he was permitted to witness this judgment, and that the prophecies of the Gospels and the Book of Revelation were fulfilled before his eyes. The powers of evil were placed under restraint, and the influx of new spiritual forces among mankind was made possible. The remarkable progress of the world since that time is a direct outcome of this judgment.

Those who would deny this to be the case must be prepared to suggest some better reason for the unprecedented changes that have been occurring for well over two centuries. In his work entitled The Last Judgment, Swedenborg shows, by logical argument and Scriptural proofs, that the Last Judgment and the End of the World could not take place as many people have anticipated. It would be physically impossible for all mankind who had lived from the beginning of time to be assembled on this earth at Christ’s appearance where “every eye should see him.”

The only place, therefore, where a general judgment could take place is in the “World of Spirits,” in which those who have passed from this world are assembled together, awaiting transfer to their final destination. The “end of the world,” so often mentioned in the authorized version of the New Testament, is a mistranslation of the Greek term, and should be rendered “the end or completion of the age.” This rendering puts a new construction upon the passages in question. The consummation of an age, Swedenborg tells us, is the end of a Church or spiritual era which takes place when it has become corrupted to such an extent that “there is no faith because there is no charity.”

That was the condition of the Christian Church in the middle of the eighteenth century, and therefore its consummation was then brought about. What evidence do we have that this Last Judgment has really taken place? Swedenborg declares himself to have been an eyewitness.

It is impossible for anyone to know when the Last Judgment is accomplished, for everyone expects it to occur on the earth, accompanied by a change of all things in the visible heaven and on the earth and with the human race. Lest therefore the man of the Church from ignorance should live in such a belief, and lest they who think of a last judgment should look for it forever, whence at length the belief in those things which are said of it in the sense of the letter of the Word must perish, and lest haply, therefore, many should recede from a faith in the Word, it has been granted me to see with my own eyes that the Last Judgment is now accomplished: that the evil are cast into the hells and good elevated into heaven, thus that all things are reduced into order, and consequently the spiritual equilibrium, which is between good and evil or between heaven and hell, is restored.

If the Last Judgment was a spiritual event, it is needless to say that the Second Conning of Christ is to be interpreted spiritually also. The Church has been looking for a physical reappearance of its founder for nearly two thousand years. It has looked in vain because it has misunderstood the prophecies. As the Jews looked for a conquering messiah and did not recognize the promised deliverer in the meek and gentle Jesus, so Christians have rested their faith on the appearance of a visible judge and have been disappointed in their expectations. Both erred in reading the prophecies too literally. Christ, indeed, has come, but not as people have expected.

His first advent was the revelation of the Divine in human nature. “The Word was made flesh.” His second coming is in the spirit, a revelation to mankind of the inner glory of the divine Word. The “clouds of heaven,” from which else manifestation comes forth, are appearances truth which obscure the clear shining of the wisdom of God. The literal sense of Scripture is full of such appearances, arising from the limitations of the mental and moral condition of those through whom the scriptures were given.

Thus, to the evil, God appears angry and vengeful; simple minds think of God and Christ as separate persons, and so on. There are other appearances, also, which arise from the metaphorical style in which the Scriptures are written, spiritual things being embodied in natural images. The Second Coming of Christ is thus something inward and spiritual a coming “not with observation” as he himself foretold.

It is an unfolding of the inner meaning of the first advent and of all divine revelations. Of this second coming Swedenborg declared that he was the instrument. Through him was revealed the spiritual sense of the divine Word, shining through and illuminating the letter, dispelling its obscurities and mysteries.

Thus according to Swedenborg, true religion involves the whole person: heart and mind, motives, words and deeds. In most religious systems the intellect is subordinated to a faith in mysterious dogmas, but Swedenborg championed the emancipation of the intellect in spiritual matters. He taught that reason is the inseparable handmaid of faith. At the same time he enlarged our conceptions of love and good works. Charity is not a mere sentiment nor is it limited to the service of the poor and needy. It consists in doing good to our neighbor daily and continually, not only to our neighbor individually, but to our neighbor collectively. Our family, our community, our country and the nations of the world are larger neighbors.

Our church, other churches, all religions making up the Lord’s kingdom on earth, are still larger neighbors. Greater still is the Lord’s kingdom in heaven, and our highest neighbor is the Lord himself. Thus the larger the group and the larger the good it serves, the greater our obligation to it. In a true Christian religion, as taught by Swedenborg, rewards and punishments have no place as incentives in living the good life. All goodness vanishes from deeds, regardless of how beneficent they may appear, when the thought of merit or reward enters.

A good person only desires to be a channel of the divine beneficence, and humbly acknowledges that all the impulse, all the power, and all the will to do good comes from the Lord. We may expect to find self fulfillment in heaven as a result of our good deeds, but should only look forward to greater opportunities for usefulness in the higher life.

Swedenborg was not just a mere critic of the current theology. While he attacked the corruption that had marred and mutilated the pure gospel of Christ, he was commissioned to reveal its spiritual truth as it is known in heaven. This system is consistent, rational, practical, and in many ways new. Theology with him was truly a science, based upon revealed knowledge and the facts of human experience, confirmed by reason and serving the practical needs of life. We shall see how this came to pass in his philosophical approach to life.

7.2 Assignment 7.

1. Give a brief summary of the “Age of Reason”.
2. What impact do you think the “Age of Reason” had on the acceptability (or otherwise) of Swedenborg’s writings?
3. What aspects of today’s religious/social/political context parallel those described in Chapter 7
4. What makes wedenborg’s theology difficult to accept/understand?
5. Comment on what you find works for you when trying to explain spiritual concepts.
6. List the major points of difference between the “old” and “new” Christian theologies.

8.1 The Philosopher

Swedenborg’s philosophical method was distinctly his own. It has been called a synthesis of Aristotle and Bacon, with ladders leading from the mind to the senses and from the senses to the mind. It is thus a procedure which combines the inductive and the deductive methods. Commencing with observation, his mind seized on certain high philosophical axioms and from them reasoned downwards to the nature and uses of particular objects. It is perhaps the only attempt that the world has seen at rising upwards to purely philosophical ideas from positive and concrete facts. He explained his method in a paper which he read before the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

There are two ways by which to trace out those things in nature which either lie open before us or are hidden, namely, the a priori or synthetical method and the a posteriori or analytical. Both are necessary, because light is needed a priori and research a posteriori. The ancients followed the former path; those of today, the latter. Some of the learned seem to ignore theorizing and stop with experimenting. But observation deprived of insight into the nature of things is knowledge without wisdom. Research merely furnishes data and gives information about things which the understanding ought to investigate. The distinctive quality of a rational being lies in being able to exercise the understanding in matters acquired by experimentation.

Swedenborg saw the advantages and deficiencies of both systems, and by combining these was able to frame one of his own that would lead to sound conclusions. Knowing without reasoning does not make a philosopher. It is a heap of things in the memory without judgment to separate and distinguish them, and without being able to deduce the unknown from the known by rational analysis.

The scientist who is skilled in research only has taken but the first step to wisdom. He is acquainted with what is posterior but is ignorant of what is prior. On the other hand synthesis, which begins its thread of reasoning from causes and principles and which follows this until it reaches the resulting phenomena, it is nothing but a poor and vague analysis. Those who set out relying on bare reasoning, not fortified by the sure support of observation, will never, I think, reach their goal.

Swedenborg firmly believed in the importance of a sound basis of facts for any true system of philosophy. He painstakingly gathered his facts before he began theorizing, or if he began with theorizing, carefully checked the theory with his facts. Yet he never allowed his data to enslave him, but took a sweeping view which enabled him to see their implications. Still he believed that neither science nor reason, alone or together, enables us to arrive at true ideas. He believed that there is a higher faculty which has been neglected, in that the mind can see truth as well as learn it be observing and reasoning. He restored this faculty, our intuition, to its proper place and excelled in its use.

The rational mind instinctively distinguishes the truths of things which are in agreement with the order of nature and with that of the intellect itself. Therefore, whenever a truth shines forth, the mind exults and rejoices. He believed that there is a higher truth which comes to us by perception, or intuition, and a lower truth which reaches the mind through the senses.

These are so different in quality that they cannot possibly come together without some uniting medium. Our rational mind is that uniting medium, where mystic meetings are carried on and sacred covenants ratified. Since worldly things flow into it from the lowest sphere through the gates of the senses, and heavenly things from the highest through the portal of the soul, the latter is thereby the center of the universe.

We are organic subjects through which the lowest things ascend and the highest descend, the human mind being the receiving room of both these guests. He adds this bit of wisdom from his experience: To observing and reasoning we must add an innate love of truth. This is the eager desire to explore truth, the delight in finding it, the possessing the faculty of meditating thoughtfully and clearly on it and of connecting reasons together discerningly. We must also add the ability of disentangling the mind from the senses and of keeping it in its own higher sphere until it has summed up its reasons and has carried its thinking to its conclusion.

To the degree that we operate in this way, we ascend to the truth, and to the same degree truth descends to us. Above all things it behooves the mind to be pure and to look to universal goals, such as the happiness of the human race and thereby to the glory of God. Truth is then infused into our minds from its heaven, from where it flows forth as from its true fountain.

The fundamental principle of Swedenborg’s philosophy is the substantial reality of spiritual things. Judging by appearances we speak of the physical world as real and substantial, but this is a fallacy of the senses. But living in this phenomenal world, we cannot help being misled by outward appearance. It is difficult to believe that the things we see and touch are less real than those which are unseen.

Appearances are the first things out of which the human mind forms its understanding, and the mind cannot shake off these appearances except by the investigation of cause. If the cause lies deep, the mind cannot trace it unless it keeps the understanding for a long time in spiritual light. But it cannot keep it long in that light became of the natural light which continually drags it down.

The great spiritual realities are love and wisdom. The idea which most have about love and wisdom is as something flying or floating in subtle air or ether, or as an exhalation of something of the kind. Scarcely anyone thinks that they are actually substance and form. Nevertheless, the truth is that love and wisdom are real and actual substance and form which constitutes the object itself.

Love and wisdom in the human being are not self derived but are a reflection of the essential attributes of deity itself. The Divine Love and Divine Wisdom are Substance and Form in itself, thus Very Reality and the One Only Reality. He who by some stretch of thought can keep in his mind and comprehend Esse (being) and Existere (form) in itself, will certainly also follow and comprehend that it is the Very Reality and the One Only Reality. Very Reality is predicated of what alone is, the One Only Reality of that from which every other thing is.

Now because this Very and this One Only is Substance and Form, it follows that it is the Very and One Only Substance and Form. Because this Very Substance and Form is Divine Love and Divine Wisdom, it follows that it is the very and only Love and the very and only Wisdom; consequently that it is the very and one only Essence as well as the very and one only Life, for Love and Wisdom is Life. In explanation of the apparently ungrammatical character of the last sentence it should be noted that, according to Swedenborg, Divine Love and Wisdom proceed from the Lord as one, just as the heat and light of the sun are inseparably united. God being thus the One and Only Substance, all created things derive their being and nature from him.

The idea that the Almighty in the beginning created everything out of nothing is unphilosophical and childish. Everyone who thinks from clear reason sees that the universe was not created out of nothing because he sees that it is impossible for anything to be made out of nothing. Nothing is nothing, and to make anything out of nothing is contradictory, and what is contradictory is against the light of the truth which is from Divine Wisdom.

Everyone who thinks from clear reason also sees that all things have been created out of substance which is substance in itself, for this is very Esse out of which all things that are, can exist. Because God alone is Substance in itself, and thence very Esse, it is clear that the existence of things has no other source.

Swedenborg is careful to point out that nothing of pantheism is involved in this teaching. Many have seen this because reason makes it to be seen. But they have not dared to assert it fearing that they might perhaps be led to think that the universe is God because it is from God, or that nature is from itself, and that therefore the inmost of nature is what is called God.

In what follows it will be seen that, although God has created the universe and everything in it from himself, yet there is nothing at all in the universe which is God.

God in his inmost essence is incomprehensible and unapproachable by either angel or mortal. To the former he manifests himself as a spiritual sun. This spiritual sun is the origin and center of life in the spiritual world in the same way that the sun of our solar system is the origin and center of life in the physical planet. This might seem to imply that God is impersonal. But although he is thus objectively manifested to the angels, they are also conscious of an intimate communion with him.

The appearance of the heavenly sun is in accordance with the law that all the inner states of spiritual beings are reproduced in corresponding outer objects. Thus since the Lord is the source and center of their spiritual life, the Divine Love and Wisdom appear outwardly embodied in a magnificent heavenly luminary. From this spiritual sun, the first proceeding of the Divine Love and Wisdom, there emanate atmospheres which are the media of life to spiritual beings and, by influx and correspondence, to the lower world also. These atmospheres are of diminishing intensity the farther they are removed from their origin and give rise to several degrees of life essentially distinguished from one another.

There are three discrete degrees of spiritual life to which the three kingdoms of nature correspond. Creation proceeds from the spiritual sun, operating on the physical plane through the natural sun, that is, from spiritual forces acting through natural forces. We might say that the spiritual sun is the soul of the natural sun which in itself has no life, like all matter being dead and inert. Life and force are spiritual, matter being but a medium which enables them to exhibit themselves on the physical plane.

Creation can in no way be ascribed to the sun of the natural world, but all to the sun of the spiritual world, since that sun is alive. It is the first proceeding of the Divine Love and Wisdom. What is dead does nothing whatsoever of itself but is acted upon. Therefore to ascribe any work of creation to it would be like ascribing the work of an artisan to the Nothing in nature exists except from a spiritual origin. What does not have an essence in itself does not exist. It is a nonentity because there is no we or being as the ground of its existence.

Thus it is with nature. Its essence from which it exists is spiritual because this has in itself the divine Esse, and also the divine power of acting & creating. There is not a hair or thread of wool on any beast, nor a filament of a quill or feather on any bird, nor a point of a fin or scale on any fish, which is not derived from the life of their soul, thus which is not from a spiritual origin clothed by the natural.

Creation, according to Swedenborg, was not simply an initiatory act but is a continuous operation. The reproductive powers of plants and animals are not from any life that is in nature herself but are simply the means of successive new creations. It matters not that continuation is carried on by means of seeds, it is still the same creative force which produces.

Seeds are impregnated by the most subtle substances which cannot be from any but a spiritual origin. All life being thus derived from the spiritual world, and every material object having behind it a spiritual force or soul which produces and sustains it, it follows that spiritual and natural stand to each other as cause and effect. There is a constant and intimate relationship between the two.

This is the basis of Swedenborg’s “doctrine of correspondence,” as he calls it. The natural world is an image or mirror of the spiritual world every object, fact and phenomenon representing or corresponding to sonic immaterial reality which is its spiritual counterpart.

Spiritual life is not monotonous and uniform in character, but presents as great a variety as life does on the physical plane. If the latter is derived from the former, it follows that there must be a corresponding order and arrangement in the manifestations of both planes. The divine life, as it descends through the spiritual world, is received according to the state and capacity of the subject, and thus presents infinite variety. Broadly speaking there are three great classes of minds that embrace and manifest the divine influences according to their character. These three classes correspond to the three kingdoms of nature.

In the other life they form three distinct heavens, termed by Swedenborg celestial, spiritual and natural, together with three corresponding hells. Within these degrees there are as many varied types as there are of animals, plants and minerals in the three kingdoms of nature.

The “doctrine of degrees” is also far reaching and is peculiar to Swedenborg. Degrees, he tells us, are of two kinds:

discrete and continuous. Discrete degrees are distinct orders of life or capacity, like the three kingdoms of nature, and are related to each other by correspondence. Continuous degrees are varieties of the same order of life, natural and spiritual, and may be illustrated by the classification of animals, plants and minerals into genera and species.

In each kingdom of nature the various forms are connected in a continuous series, but each of the three kingdoms is only related to the others by analogy. The correspondence which exists between natural and spiritual things enables us to understand the degrees that mark the development of our mental and moral nature. The human mind is not the simple entity that it is sometimes thought to be but is a threefold structure both in its intellectual and moral aspects.

Truth may be grasped in three different ways: by learning fact, by reasoning, and by perception. These three different modes are characteristic of the three degrees of the mind: the “scientific” or the faculty of memory; the rational, or cognitive; and the intellectual, or perceptive faculty. To these three mental degrees belong three corresponding classes of moral qualities. There are good deeds which are done from a sense of duty in a spirit of simple obedience; others which the doer performs from principle or from a conviction of what is right; still others which are prompted by feelings of love, kindness and generosity.

Swedenborg does not support the idea that new forms of life evolve merely by accidental variation, by change of environment and by natural selection, or by all of these together. New forms indicate new characteristics and therefore new spiritual causes. Development is spiritual in the first place, outer influences being at best but secondary causes. contrary to order. Therefore to think that it does so is contrary to the light of sound reason. The dead thing or the natural thing, may indeed in many ways be perverted or changed by outer accidents but still it cannot act upon life. But life acts into it according to the change of form which has been induced.

The gradual evolution of the higher from the lower apart from spiritual influx is therefore impossible. Swedenborg has important observations on instinct and reason, and the difference between animals and human beings. Instinct is not simple habit that is hereditarily transmitted, as materialists maintain, but is spiritual in origin. Man is man because his understanding can be raised above the desires of his will. Thus, from above, he can know, see, and control these. An animal, on the other hand, is driven to do whatever it does because of its desire.

Man is spiritual and at the same time natural, whereas an animal is but natural. Man is endowed with will and understanding. His will is the receptacle of the heat of heaven, which is love; and his understanding is the receptacle of the light of heaven, which is wisdom. The animal is not endowed with these, having affection in place of will and in place of understanding has knowledge pertaining to its life. Man’s will and understanding may or may not act as one because from his understanding he can think what is not of his will, and will what he does not think. But in the animal affection and knowledge make one and cannot he separated. Therefore an animal cannot destroy the order of its life. This is why it is born is to all the instincts of its affection.

But the case is different with man. His two faculties, understanding and will, can he separated. He can therefore destroy the order of his life. That is why he is born into mere ignorance so that from it he may be introduced into order through knowledge by way of the understanding. The order into which man was created is to love God above all things and his neighbor as himself. But the state into which he has come since destroying that order is to love himself above all things and the world as himself.

Because man possesses a spiritual mind he has the power to think rationally and also has the faculty of speech. The ability to speak belongs to thought from the understanding which can see truth in spiritual light. An animal which does not have any thought from the understanding, but only knowledge from affection, is only able to utter sounds and to vary the sound of its affection according to its appetites. Swedenborg’s philosophy is so totally different from anything else of its kind that on the first reading one finds oneself in a strange land. But if we sojourn there long enough to accustom his eyes to the new scenery, we will be richly repaid.

8.2 Assignment 8

1. Write on the effectiveness of the use of scientific method to explain things pertaining to the spiritual realm.
2. Drawing from the text in Chapter 8, list some of the observations made by Swedenborg about the spiritual world.
3. Why do you feel these observations may have been controversial?
4. Do you feel that any of these observations may still be controversial?

Reflection

Make a conscious effort to find an opportunity to talk about a meaningful spiritual principle with someone and comment on how you felt, how it was received, and what you might do differently next time.

9.1 Biblical Exegesis

Swedenborg’s major exegetical works are Arcana Caelestia and Apocalypse Revealed. The exposition covered by these include only the books of Genesis, Exodus and Revelation, but incidentally they touch upon almost every part of the Bible. The Arcana, in English, runs to twelve volumes; Apocalypse Revealed, two. Besides the latter work, Swedenborg left in manuscript form an earlier treatment of the Book of Revelation which stopped at the nineteenth chapter. This was published many years after his death and is available in English (six volumes) under the title, Apocalypse Explained. Some scholars have assumed that because it was left unfinished it is not as definitive as the published works; however, it contains explanations not found elsewhere in Swedenborg’s works of innumerable passages from other books of Scripture.

Swedenborg regards the Bible in the strictest sense as a divine revelation. It is truly the Word of God, although outwardly it appears like any other human book, reflecting the times and ideas of its various writers. Within the historical narratives about individuals and nations, the gospels, the prophetical and poetical books, however, there is enshrined an inner spiritual sense, or rather levels of spiritual meanings. One is contained within the other, like the various unfoldings of a flower. It is this spiritual sense that makes the Bible truly the Word of God, setting it apart from all other books.

In its literal sense the word is natural; in its inner sense, spiritual; and in its inmost sense, celestial. It is divine in every, sense. It is the Divine Truth taking its form as it descended from God through the heavens to earth.

In its origin the Word is purely divine. When this passed through the heavens of the Lord’s celestial kingdom it became divine celestial, and when it passed through the heavens of the Lord’s spiritual kingdom it became divine spiritual and when it came to man it became divine natural. This is why the natural sense of the Word contains within it the spiritual sense, which in turn contains the celestial sense, and why both of these contain a sense which is purely divine not open to man or angel.

The spiritual sense can be grasped by us in some degree but not the highest or celestial sense. This can scarcely be unfolded because it does not fall so much into the thought of the understanding as into the affections of the will. It is adapted to the perception of the celestial or highest angels, by whom the divine law is received “in their inward parts,” and written “on their hearts.”

In attributing a heavenly meaning to the Bible, Swedenborg does not detract from the sacredness or value of the literal sense. In fact, he raises this to a much higher degree of esteem than is given it even by fundamentalists. He teaches that the Bible is not merely a human composition but is the very embodiment of the wisdom of God, its actual author. Its truths cannot be exhausted by the highest angels while yet being adapted to the understanding of the simplest minds.

He tells us that everything needed for salvation is contained in the literal sense, and that from this the doctrine of the church should be drawn and confirmed. In the literal sense “the Word is in its fullness, its holiness and its power.” What is the need, then, to supplement this with a spiritual sense? The reasons are twofold: the natural sense is written according to natural appearances and is often obscure and misleading; and the spiritual sense amplifies and emphasizes the truth of the letter by explaining its mysteries and apparent contradictions.

In no part of the Bible is a knowledge of the spiritual sense more helpful than in dealing with the early chapters of Genesis. Skeptics charge that these contain false science and imaginary history, while they present an unworthy idea of God as an unjust, resentful and arbitrary being. In the spiritual sense this criticism disappears. No better example of Swedenborg’s exegetical method can be given than his explanation of these early chapters of Genesis. Instead of treating the opening chapter as an account of the beginning of all created things, he takes us at once into the spiritual meaning and interprets the record as describing the new creation or regeneration of every human being.

The unregenerate condition, when one is immersed in the things of sense and self and is oblivious to one’s better nature, is pictured by the dark and formless void over which “the Spirit of God brooded” to bring order and life. The purpose and goal of the spiritual creation is the formation of people in the image and likeness of God. The spiritual person is the human soul when all its faculties are fully developed and when one lives according to divine laws. To reach this state the soul needs to pass through various stages of development. This process is represented by the six days of creation.

The times and states of man’s regeneration, in general and in particular, are divided into six and are called “the days of his creation.” By degrees he is raised out of a state in which he possesses none of the qualities which properly constitute a human being until little by little he reaches the sixth day when he becomes an image of God.

The first state is a condition of darkness and emptiness, as man is born in total ignorance of all that belongs to his spiritual life. The creating of light and the separating it from darkness represent the first dawning of spiritual knowledge when the human being recognizes the difference between worldly and heavenly life the state which Bunyan describes when a Christian is first aroused to a sense of sin and the necessity for a change of life.

The second state is when a division takes place between those things which are the Lord’s and those belonging to humankind. There is thus a separation between the things which belong to the inner person and those belonging to the outer. The term “earth” throughout the Bible symbolizes the outer person or the natural degree of life; “heaven,” that of the inner person or the spiritual degree.

The third state is that of repentance in which the regenerating person begins to talk piously and devoutly, and to do good actions, such as the works of charity. These nevertheless are inanimate because they are thought of as originating in himself. These good actions are called “tender grass,” “the herb yielding seed,” and afterwards “the tree bearing fruit”.

The “gathering together of the waters” pictures the storing up of spiritual knowledge. Water in its various forms is an apt symbol of truth. Seas and oceans, the great reservoirs of water, stand for the memory which is the hungry receptacle of knowledge of all things. It is a storehouse which the intellectual faculties constantly draw on to stimulate the growth of ideas which, with the practical uses which result front them, are the spiritual counterparts of the various forms of vegetable life.

In the fourth state life is ruled by the great principles of love and faith, symbolized by the sun and the moon. The stars are the lesser knowledges of spiritual truth which serve to guide life when those greater lights are obscured. In this stage of regeneration the indefinite ideas of the earlier states have now given way to clear and distinct conceptions of truth and duty.

The correspondence of the heavenly bodies to the guiding principles of the higher life is almost self-evident. The sun is constantly used in the Bible as a symbol of the Lord, especially of his divine love. The moon, receiving her light from the sun and shining upon the world when the rays of the latter are withdrawn, is a fitting representative of faith which cheers and illumines the nighttime of the soul. The stars, although they give little light but because of their fixed position, serve to guide the sailor or wayfarer. We have guiding stars to direct us on our heavenward road also.

The fifth day of creation is marked by the creating of fish and birds, while that of the higher mammals is assigned to the sixth.

After the great luminaries are kindled and placed in the inner man, with the outer man receiving light from this, then he who is being regenerated first begins to live. Before this he can scarcely be said to have lived, inasmuch as the good which he did was supposed by him to have been done of himself, and the truth which he spoke to have been spoken by himself. Since man of himself is dead and there is nothing in him but what is evil and false, therefore whatsoever he produces from himself is not alive because he is unable to do good which is good in itself.

Now that he is made alive by love and faith and believes that the Lord initiates all the good which he does and all the truth which he speaks, he is compared to the “creeping things of the water” and to the “fowl which fly above the earth” and also to “beasts.” All these are animate things and are called “living souls”.

Fish and birds represent a comparatively low grade of spiritual life in which faith is the predominate element; the higher animals symbolize the life in which love is more active. Man, the crown of the whole creation, stands for the regenerated soul, perfect in its degree, as reflecting the image and likeness of the Creator and exercising dominion over its own powers and capacities (the lower animals) by God-given strength and authority.

This is a very brief summary of the spiritual meaning of the first chapter of Genesis as explained by Swedenborg. However, this is an excellent example of what is meant by an inner, spiritual sense. It applies to both a specific case and humanity in general. All that is applied here to an individual person applies equally to the human race historically.

The days of creation not only speak of the regeneration of the individual soul but also describe the same process as the race experienced it. This is to follow the creation account in its inner, historical sense. Swedenborg states, and science confirms his assertion, that mankind in primitive times was little different from the lower animals. The spiritual principle which mostly differentiates man from beast was implanted gradually during successive generations. This development of the higher consciousness in the race is thus also shadowed in the account of the creation of the world.

The work of creation having been completed, God “rested on the seventh day from all his work.” God is said to rest when our life has been brought into harmony with the divine life and when there is no longer opposition or conflict. Although it is for each individual to work out his own salvation, the truth is that every effort towards righteousness is the Lord’s work. When this work is over and the individual no longer resists the divine will, the Sabbath state has been reached in which both God and the person enter into rest.

This Sabbath state of humankind is symbolized by the Garden of Eden. Creation being finished and everything having been declared to be “very good,” we are told that “the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east; and there he put the man whom he had formed”. There has been much speculation as to the probable site of this garden, but all such speculation is futile. It is a “garden of the soul,” not an earthly paradise, that is described. Under a variety of beautiful symbols the happy condition of humankind is pictured as they followed the appointed order of their lives and delighted to do the divine will. It was a child like condition of absolute dependence on God, but one not destined to last as the sequel of the story shows.

We are given to understand that everything in Eden was good: the trees were “pleasant to the sight and good for food,” and the animals were gentle and harmless. Yet one tree and one animal appear to have been evil. The “tree of knowledge of good and evil” was forbidden to be even touched, and the wily “serpent” was the cause of transgressing this commandment. What do these things mean?

The temptation of Eve, and through her of Adam, was not the work of a crafty snake temporarily endowed with speech, but was a picturization of the nature of all human temptation. “Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am tempted by God’; for God cannot be tempted with evil and he himself tempts no one; but each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire” (James 1:13-24). The serpent is the symbol of this lust, our lower sensuous nature that delights to grovel on the earth. If listened to, this serpent can talk very seductively! this inevitably leads to a fall from grace.

The tree of knowledge of good and evil, again, was no earthly tree, but represents worldly knowledge and sense impressions. This kind of nourishment is dangerous to our higher life when it comes to be regarded as being in the “midst of the garden.”

As everything in this story is symbolic, it follows that Adam and Eve are not to be regarded as two actual individuals, but as two representatives of the race, or of human nature in the abstract, Adam standing for its intellect and Eve for its emotions. We can see now why the woman was tempted first and through her the man: it is the desire that leads astray and warps the judgment to its wishes. Man’s desire for independence led him to trust in his own self derived intelligence, rather than in the divine guidance represented by the tree of life.

After the Fall, access to the tree of life was denied him. This was not because the highest blessings were arbitrarily withheld, but because man’s own actions rendered him incapable of receiving them.

Among other misconceptions that have arisen from interpreting these parabolic stories literally is the idea that the need to work for our daily bread was laid upon humankind as a curse because of Adam’s disobedience. Work, the source of the truest satisfaction, the greatest blessing in life next to love, was a curse sent by God. Nonsense! No one but an idler by name could really entertain such a thought. Then, too, life in the Garden of Eden was not one of ease and idleness: Adam was placed in the garden “to till it and keep it.” What, then, is the meaning of the curse? God never curses anyone; the solemn curse pronounced here is but a truthful statement of the condition to which man had reduced himself by his rebellious action.

The blasted ground is the human heart which was no longer honest and good. So from that time on progress in the spiritual life has only been through much toil and struggling.

The story of Cain and Abel also presents many difficulties if we regard it as describing actual history. We cannot help feeling that the treatment of Cain, prior to his fratricidal act, was not altogether just. He offered what he had to the Lord, yet he was rejected and his brother accepted. In the spiritual sense this injustice does not appear. There we see that Cain represents a merely intellectual faith separated from charity because the fruits of the earth symbolize the things of the intellect. Abel, on the other hand, pictures love or charity. His offering is the worship which springs from the good affections of the heart, the “firstlings of his flock.” Where only faith and formalism prevail, love is slain.

The story of the Flood presents endless impossibilities if read as having actually occurred, but when it is interpreted spiritually all objections fall. It is not a physical deluge that we have to consider, but a flood of monstrous evils and falsities that overwhelmed the church in ancient times. Noah and his family represent those who had not succumbed to the prevailing heresies and immoralities. They picture a “little remnant,” such as is found in all times of spiritual decadence, among which a revival of religion takes place. These were supported in the midst of the general demoralization by holding to true doctrine and godly living. Noah, we are told, was “a preacher of righteousness.” Right principles or doctrines form the spiritual ark which bears us up when the floods of iniquity threaten to overwhelm us.

Literalism sees in the account of the Tower of Babel an instance of divine jealousy as well as an attempt to account for the diversity of languages. We know now that the many different languages did not originate in this way, but by gradual evolution from the earliest forms of speech. If the story has any basis of truth, it must be read in some other way. It is really a divine parable telling of the efforts of evil and misguided people to circumvent the divine order of life, and to climb up to heaven some other way. The Tower of Babel is a citadel of false doctrine, having the “brick” of manmade schemes of salvation and the fiery “pitch” of unholy passions, instead of the solid stone of divine truth and the firmly setting of mortar of uniting love.

Up to the time of Abraham the Biblical account consists of myths or allegorical stories. Beginning with him, there is a basis of historical fact, but the events are so selected and recorded as to convey a continuous meaning. The history of the patriarchs, the sojourning of the Israelites in Egypt, their miraculous deliverance, their wanderings in the wilderness and their final settlement in the promised land, convey deep spiritual lessons for all times and peoples. Not only this, but in their inmost sense they describe the great work which the Savior did in redeeming mankind.

The Book of Revelation is the most puzzling and controversial book in the Bible. Scholars have not been able to fathom its striking visions and bizarre imagery. Many have expounded this prophetical book which is called the Apocalypse, but none have understood the inner or spiritual sense of the Word. They have therefore applied the various particulars in it to the successive states of the church with which they have become acquainted from history and to civil conditions.

Therefore those expositions are for the most part conjectures which never can appear in such light as would admit of their being established as truths, and accordingly as soon as they are read they are laid aside as mere opinions. All things which are written in the Apocalypse are expressed in a style similar to that in which the prophetical parts of the Old Testament are written and in general, of the whole Word. The Word in its letter is natural, but in its inward content it is spiritual. Therefore it contains a sense within it which does not at all appear in the letter.

What, then, does the spiritual sense in the Book of Revelation tell us? The book opens with a wonderful vision of the glorified Savior as seen by John on Patmos. We cannot accept this as a picture of the actual person of the deity, but rather as a comprehensive representation of the divine perfections. The head of dazzling whiteness, the feet like glowing bronze, the glistening garment, the golden sash or belt, the sword proceeding from his mouth, the seven stars in his right hand all these have a definite significance and represent some quality of the Divine or some form of divine activity.

The seven churches are not primarily seven particular Christian centers, although the author’s message may have been addressed to these at first, but stand for all classes of those who receive the Gospel. Their various imperfections describe the different heresies and evils which have worked corruption in the church, for the Apocalypse is the book of judgment upon the first Christian era.

Protestant scholars have tended to regard Babylon as a symbol of the perverted Church of Rome. Swedenborg gives it a spiritual meaning. The judgment pronounced upon Babylon is not alone upon a particular section of the corrupted church, but upon all who pervert the truths of religious for the sake of gaining dominion over others. There are many such outside the Roman communion, but the subjection of the laity to the priesthood and the assumption if almost divine powers by the latter are such striking characteristics of eighteenth century Roman Catholicism that they cannot be overlooked.

Protestant heresies of that day are equally condemned in the Book of Revelation. The great red dragon stands for the immoral doctrine of faith alone which, as destructive of all spiritual enlightenment, is represented by the monster drawing down the stars with his tail. This dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth to a child, that he might devour it as soon as it was born. Women in general correspond to affection, and the woman here represents those in the decadent church who still retained love for what is good and true, among whom a new church would arise. The spiritual dragon vehemently opposes the pure doctrine of this new church, symbolized by the man child.

The triumph of the good and true and the inauguration of a new religious age are pictured in the glorious vision of the holy city, New Jerusalem, descending from God out of heaven. Cities in the Bible always represent systems of doctrine, true or false. As a great city, Babylon symbolizes the corrupt system of the Roman Church at that time, so the New Jerusalem describes the beauty and consistency of the doctrines of a true Christian religion.

The foundations of precious stones are the great fundamental principles of religion, full of light and beauty; the wall great and high, truths that protect from the assaults of evil; the gates of pearl, introductory truths, like the two great commandments which lead the soul to the heavenly state represented by the golden street of the holy city; the river of the water of life flowing from the throne through the street of the city, the continuous influx of living truth from the Lord. So it is with all the other objects described in the Book of Revelation.

Stated in this brief manner, it might seem that this interpretation of these divine symbols is arbitrary. However, further study will show that it is based upon a principle that is universal and by creation is built into the very nature of things. Swedenborg has not invented an ingenious system but has revealed the facts of an unalterable law under which, ever since creation, the Lord’s invisible nature, namely, His eternal power and deity, may be clearly perceived in the things that have been made.

9.2 Assignment 9.

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Trobridge likens the importance of Swedenborg’s biblical exegesis to “discovering the key to understanding Egyptian hieroglyphics … or Assyrian cuneiforms…”.

1. Do you feel this is a useful way to explain Swedenborg’s use of correspondences to people?

2. There are some very difficult parts of the Word to understand if they are read literally. Imagine your tutor is a “seeker”, asking questions about the Word. Give two examples of the more difficult sections in the Word and use Swedenborg’s correspondences to explain them/make them clearer.

3. Trobridge describes some important aspects about correspondences. List these here as a useful reference tool.

4. What do you understand by the claim that the Word is divine revelation?

5. Comment on how gaining an understanding of the inner meaning of a verse or passage from the Scriptures transformed it into something much more meaningful for you?

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10.1 Correspondences

THe concept of correspondences is based on the fact that everything outward and visible has an inward and spiritual cause. Speech or written language, for example, is the outward embodiment of thought. Without this, speech and writing would never have come into existence. That is why the lower animals have no language beyond a limited range of expressive sounds. There is an exact correspondence between thought and expression, whether the latter took the form of articulate speech, writing, art or music. Where a knowledge of this correspondence is lacking, the outward form loses its meaning as, for example, a foreign language. For many ages the Egyptian hieroglyphics and the Assyrian cuneiform tablets were meaningless signs until the discovery of the key to them restored the lost correspondence between the inward idea and the outward expression.

Written signs and even verbal speech are in some degree arbitrary. It would be possible to invent a language in which symbols that are absolutely arbitrary are alone employed, although no actual language has arisen in this way. In this artificial language there would still be a correspondence, but a purely conventional one. The forms used in natural languages have originally been derived from the ideas they have endeavored to convey. Thus they are truly symbolical. There is a form of language, however, in which correspondence is perfect and which is understood by all the language of emotion.

We need not be familiar with his language to know when a foreigner is angry or pleased. Though we may not understand a word he is saying we can read the expression on his face and can know his feelings from his gestures and tone of voice. In a sincere person the face is a perfect index of one’s mind, and even a hypocrite cannot prevent his true character from appearing to some extent.

As the bodily form expresses the character of our spirit, so also do the works of our hands declare our inward nature. No history is so true as that which is written in the art of a people. Architecture is a reflection of the national life, and even the fashioning of everyday utensils reveals something of the character and ideals of a people. In fact every human action is the outcome and expression of our soul and corresponds to the latter in a more or less perfect way.

If our actions and work thus reveal our inward character, so also is God’s wisdom and goodness shown in his works. This is shown not only in a general way as ministering to the needs and pleasures of his creatures, but also in a detailed manner, every object being an embodiment and mirror of some quality in the Divine. It is generally recognized that things in nature are in some way symbolic of spiritual things. The whole universe is, indeed, the “Time vesture of the Eternal,” as Carlyle says in his Sartor Resartus, symbolical in every detail. All visible things are symbols because they are created in correspondence with divine ideas. A knowledge of this correspondence enables us to understand their inner reality.

There is not only a correspondence between the outward creation and the spiritual world, but there is also an intimate relationship between the world of nature and the spirit of humankind. The ancients described a person as a microcosm or as a universe in miniature. The full significance of this comparison has been made known to us by Swedenborg. As outward nature is the embodiment of divine ideas, and as humankind was “created in the image and likeness of God,” there is a correspondence of all things in humans with all things in the physical universe.

There is a mental or spiritual heaven and earth; there are spiritual sun, moon and stars; there are mountains, hills and valleys of the soul; there are spiritual trees and flowers, also thorns and poisonous plants; there are spiritual animals, birds and insects—in fact everything we see around us has its counterpart in our spiritual natures.

Without going into great detail let’s see how this concept of correspondence works. The heavens and the earth what is above us and what is beneath our feet—clearly exhibit our dual nature, our spiritual part and our earthly part. In our spiritual heavens are the lights which enlighten our souls and enable us to walk without stumbling: the greater lights of love and faith, and the lesser lights of knowledge and precept.

Light and darkness themselves are symbols of truth and error, as everyone clearly sees. The earth is our lower nature, the natural person, barren and unproductive apart from the higher influences which are continually operating upon it, but fruitful and beautiful when these are given free scope. The sunshine of love and the light of truth bring forth beautiful thoughts, ideas and perceptions which, together with their practical realizations in good works, are the analogues of vegetable life with its trees, plants, blossoms and fruits.

The animals which inhabit this mental earth are the various affections and desires of our nature, good or bad. We have within us, potentially if not actually, all the good and bad animals that range the world—innocent lambs and mooing cattle, swift and strong horses, gentle doves and sweet singing birds; also fierce and destructive creatures such as rapacious tigers and venomous snakes.

The three degrees of the human mind are strikingly presented in the three kingdoms of nature. The mineral kingdom, with its rocks, earths, minerals, fluids and gases, stands for all that is inert and lifeless in human nature: mere sense knowledge on the intellectual side, and animal instincts and propensities on the moral side.

The vegetable kingdom aptly pictures intellectual processes, a fact which we recognize in our every day language. We talk about “sowing the seeds” of truth and about the “germination” of ideas. We say they “take root” in the mind and grow into orderly systems of truth, ultimately bearing fruit in practical purposes.

The animal kingdom presents a series of expressive symbols relating more especially to moral qualities. All things which exist in the created universe have such correspondence with all things of man in general and in particular that it may be said that man also is a kind of universe. There is a correspondence of his affections, and thence of his thoughts, with all things of the animal kingdom; of his will, and thence of his understanding, with all things of the vegetable kingdom; and of his ultimate life, with all things of the mineral kingdom.

The things in the animal kingdom are correspondences in the first degree, because they are “alive”; those in the vegetable kingdom are correspondences in the second degree, because they “grow”; and those in the mineral kingdom are correspondences in the third degree, because they are neither alive nor grow. Besides these, whatever man prepares from them for his use are correspondences; such as food, garments, houses and so forth.

The correspondence of outward nature with the human mind and life is only a limited example of this great law which extends throughout the universe, both spiritual and natural. The divine life descends by various degrees to the material plane in every world, and every plane of life is related to all the others by correspondence. Creation, indeed, takes place by a successive unfolding of the divine, first in the spiritual world and then by influx front that into the world of nature. A knowledge of correspondence is therefore one of the universal knowledges essential to a true understanding of creation.

The universal heaven is so formed as to correspond to the Lord, to his Divine Human. Man is so formed that all things in him correspond to heaven, and through heaven to the Lord.

There is a correspondence of sensuous things with natural ones; there is a correspondence of natural things with spiritual ones; and there is a correspondence of spiritual things with celestial ones; and finally there is a correspondence of celestial things with the Lord’s Divine. Thus there is a correspondence from the Divine down to the ultimate natural.

Let us take another example that may seem, at first glance, arbitrary. Swedenborg tells us that a “horse” represents the human understanding. Before attempting to see the correctness of this interpretation, let us recall that we speak of a person “riding a hobby horse,” or possessing “horse sense.” The intellect adds to our spiritual power in much the same way as a horse increases our physical ability. It gives us a more commanding view of the world and enables us to progress more swiftly in our undertaking. In spiritual warfare the war horse is a frequent symbol in the Bible does not the intellect enable us to run down our enemies in the same way that a mounted warrior does his foes? Our power is increased with our insight.

There are many remarkable passages in the Bible referring to the horse. What is the meaning of the adder biting the heels of a horse, so that its rider falls backwards? The serpent tribe represents the lowest, sensuous nature of man, while a horse represents high intelligence. We fall from our high state when we allow sensuality to mar our intellectual capacities. How often do we see a bright intellect overthrown by the indulgence of sensual appetites! The “heel” here is the vulnerable part, as in the myth of Achilles and in the prophecy about the serpent and the seed of the woman in Genesis 3:15. What is the spiritual heel but that part of the human being which is especially open to temptation, the animal or carnal mind? It is to this that the allurements of the senses appeal.

The most remarkable reference to horses and riders in the Bible is the vision seen by John in the Book of Revelation. He sees four riders who appeared at the opening of the first seal. Swedenborg tells us that this represents the gradual decline in the understanding of the Word of God during the successive eras of the church’s history. The white horse, with its rider crowned and armed, going forth conquering and to conquer, symbolizes the irresistible poster of unadulterated truth.

The red horse, whose rider wielded a great sword and had power to take peace from the earth, represents the true understanding of truth destroyed by passion and hatred. The black horse is clearly the antithesis of the white horse, and stands for truth falsified and perverted. The pale horse, which was ridden by death and had hell in its train, pictures a total lack of spirituality and the consequent extinction of all true knowledge and perception of higher things.

Then there is the vision of another rider upon a white horse who was called, “Faithful and True,” the “Word of God,” “King of Kings and Lord of Lords,” and who was followed by the armies of heaven also mounted on white horses. This latter vision strikingly confirms Swedenborg’s interpretation, for it had not been clear up to this point that this vision is a demonstration of the power and purity of essential truth.

There is another aspect of the concept of correspondences that has an important and practical bearing. Not only is there a correspondence between the natural and the spiritual worlds, between the several degrees or planes of each, and also between outward nature and the mind of man; there is a like correspondence between the internal and external of the person himself, and between the inflowing life of God and the human soul which receives it. The process of regeneration is the bringing about of a correspondence between what is inner and spiritual, and what is outward and natural.

The work of regeneration is mainly concerned with making the natural man correspond to the rational man. When it obeys, then it corresponds, and in proportion as it corresponds man is regenerated. But mortals, spirits and angels are so full of iniquity that absolute correspondence can never take place to eternity, yet the Lord is always making it more perfect.

Since there is only One who is perfectly holy, Swedenborg states:

In him alone [Christ] was there a correspondence of all things which belong to the body with the Divine, and such a correspondence as was most perfect, or infinitely perfect. Thus he is the Perfect Man, and the Only Man.

As divinity and humanity are united in the person of Jesus Christ our Lord, so must our humanity be brought into harmony with the divine spirit operating within us, that the prayer of Jesus may be fulfilled: “Holy Father, keep through your own name those whom you have given me, that they may be one, as we are.” “I in them, and you in me, that they may he made perfect in one.” (John 17:11,23).

The Divine descends also into material matter, for everything is created and constantly sustained by an inflowing of the divine life. “The natural world and all that it contains exists and subsists from the spiritual world, and both from the Divine”. It may be useful to note that the term “natural” in this passage refers to the natural degree of a person’s life.

Since the divine life descends to humankind through the celestial, spiritual and natural heavens, the revelation of God’s will and wisdom comes to us in the same way. The Word of the Lord that came to “holy men of old” was the ultimate expression of divine wisdom accommodated to the low state of humanity. Therefore its form is imperfect and apparently full of blemishes. However, it has within it a deeper meaning, or rather, a series of meanings comprehended by the several categories of angels.

The celestial angels perceive the truth more interiorly than the spiritual angels; the spiritual angels in turn have a clearer comprehension of it than those of the lowest heaven; those in the lowest heaven are in a spiritual light far exceeding that of mortals. These several degrees of intelligence are distinct from one another but are united by correspondence.

Divine revelation comes to them all and is ultimated or “brought down the earth” in the written Word of God. The key to the interpretation of the latter is therefore a knowledge of correspondences, for the histories, biographies, prophecies, etc, of the Bible are couched in language that is intimately related to spiritual ideas.

The Word is so written that every single thing therein even to the most minute corresponds to the things in heaven. Therefore the Word has divine power, and conjoins heaven and earth.

One of the clearest correspondences is that of light to truth. We speak of the “light” of truth and the “light” of reason, of throwing “light” on a subject, and of the mind being “enlightened” by ideas. The first created thing was light, and the first manifesting of the divine power in the new creation, or the regeneration of humans, is the letting in of light into the chaos and darkness of the natural mind.

Light is the constant symbol of truth throughout the Bible. The lamp which burned continually in the temple is a beautiful symbol of true worship. It was light which Jesus enjoined his disciples to let shine before men. He declared himself to be the “the light of the world” that shone in uncomprehending darkness. He restored sight to the blind, both physically and spiritually. He is, indeed, “our light and our salvation” and is constantly trying to lead us from darkness into light.

His Word is “a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path”, and will lead us if we follow its guidance “in the way everlasting.” As the Bible opens with the declaration, “Let there be light”, so it closes in the Book of Revelation with the promise of light for the righteous in the Holy City .

Accepting this spiritual meaning of light unlocks the meanings of many dark places in the Bible. When we read, for instance, that the sun shall be darkened, the moon shall withdraw her shining, or be turned into blood, and the stars shall fall front heaven, we need to think correspondentially not in terms of physical catastrophes, but spiritual catastrophes: love growing cold, faith forsaking our minds, and knowledge ceasing.

10.2 Assignment 10.

Probably by this time in your studies and involvement in the New Church, you will have been asked about Swedenborg – in particular, how it is that he was able to travel between the natural and the spiritual world.

Give a brief account of how you have answered this particular query – whether you questioned this situation yourself when you first became involved in the New Church, or whether you answered someone else’s queries.

List any helpful resources you may have referred to – and briefly state why/which section of the resource was so useful.

Your response should be about 250 – 300 words long.

11.1 The World of Spirits

The bible pictures “the world beyond” symbolically. It portrays heaven with gates of pearl and streets of gold, with angels engaging in a ceaseless round of adoration and hymn singing. Hell is portrayed as a place of “outer darkness where there is weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth” where souls burn forever in fiery sulphur and brimstone. Until Swedenborg’s time there was no method of deciphering these symbols, no imagination capable of capturing the reality of heaven or hell.

On the basis of firsthand observation, Swedenborg presents us with a clear picture of the spiritual world and life there. He reports that it is a real world and is as objective to the people there as ours is to us. The main difference is that it is made of spiritual substance instead of material substance. Thus, it is more alive because it is closer to the source of life. Because that world is so much like our own, many of those who enter it are not immediately aware that they have died.

Swedenborg goes on to tell us that the people there are human beings much like ourselves, and that they had previously lived on this or some other earth. They have bodies as we have, but theirs are now spiritual ones, as Paul said, “There is a natural body and there is a spiritual body; the one is put off and the other is put on”. Swedenborg explains how we need to use a set of spiritual senses to apprehend the reality of the spirit world, just as we use a physical set here.

However, because we are essentially spiritual beings from birth, we are really using our inner spiritual eyes and ears to see and to hear right now. The physical organs of sight and hearing are but the extension and added means of apprehending our physical environment. In exactly the same way, we use a microscope to see what cannot be seen with the naked eye. Our physical organs serve our physical body.

When we experience what we call dying, everything belonging to the physical body is left behind. In Swedenborg’s case, both the inner and outer sets of senses were operative at the same time, and consequently he could be fully conscious in both environments simultaneously. He observed life in the world of spirits, and shared that experience with us in words of our language.

The questions which naturally arise in our minds about life further on have definite answers now. Will those who have died remember us? Yes, just as surely as we remember them. Will we recognize and love them? Certainly, for thinking and loving are imperishable qualities of the human being.

In his introduction to Heaven and Hell Swedenborg explains why he was privileged to be conscious in both worlds at the same time. The secrets which are revealed in the following pages are about heaven, hell and our life after death. The average Christian at this day knows scarcely anything about these, although they are clearly described in the Bible. In fact many who are born within the church ask these things, saying in their hearts, “Who has come from that world and told us?”

Lest therefore such a negative attitude, which prevails especially among those who have much worldly knowledge, should also infect and corrupt the simple in heart and mind, it has been granted me for thirteen years to associate with angels and to talk with them person to person, and also to see the things that are in the heavens and in the hells. It is now granted me to describe these from experience in the hope that ignorance may be enlightened and unbelief dispelled.

Swedenborg asserts at the very beginning the principle of the unbrokenness of human experience. All of life is one; it is not interrupted by dying. What we call “life after death” is the extension and continuation of life as we know it.

In order that I might know that we live after death it has been given me to speak and be in company with many who were known to me on earth; and this not merely for a day or a week, but for months and almost a year, speaking and associating with them, just as in this world. They wondered exceedingly that while they lived in the body they were, and that very many others are, in such incredulity as to believe that they will not live after death; when in fact scarcely a day intervenes after the death of the body before they are in the other life, for death is a continuation of life.

On the basis of firsthand observation, Swedenborg states that spirits have bodies which are real and substantial. They see, hear, touch and smell. They possess all the faculties and powers that we have as human beings. As would be expected, all these are now heightened and sharpened because they are living on a higher plane of existence.

We should be careful not to give credence to the erroneous conception that spirits do not possess far more exquisite sensations than they did on earth. I have been convinced to the contrary by experience repeated thousands of times. Spirits not only possess the faculty of sight, but they live in such great light that our noonday light can scarcely be compared to it. They enjoy the power of hearing also, and that in so exquisite a degree as vastly to exceed what they previously had experienced.

In my conversation with them, now for some years, I have had repeated opportunity of making sure of this. They also possess the power of speaking, and the sense of smell. They have, besides, a most exquisite sense of touch, whence come the pains and torments endured in hell.

Their desires and affections are incomparably stronger than those they had on earth. People think more clearly and distinctly after death than during their previous lifetime because in a spiritual state of being more is involved in one idea than in a thousand here. In short, we lose nothing by dying. We are still a person in all respects, although more perfect than during earth life.

Not only do we take with us all our faculties and powers, but also our ways of thinking, our assumptions and prejudices. Therefore, many arrive in the new world with gross misconceptions about the nature of the happiness of heaven which they desire to enjoy. These erroneous ideas have to be corrected. This is done in a most effective way: by allowing them to test their own ideas of bliss. We have a most interesting description of such experiences.

We are told of spirits who had looked forward to being constantly in the company of the wisest and best angels, believing this to be their idea of happiness. They were therefore allowed to meet such, but in a few days they grew weary of talk and begged to be excused. This was permitted after they had become thoroughly convinced of the error of their preconception, and had been instructed as to the true nature of heavenly joy. Others sought satisfaction in feasting with the patriarchs and apostles and were granted a semblance of such delight, but were quickly satiated.

Still others had thought of heaven as a place of perpetual worship and adoration, “where congregations never break up, and Sabbaths have no end.” They were permitted to enter a church and join in the worship taking place there. At first they were in ecstasy, but after a long period of devotion their fervor began to wane. Some nodded and slept, others yawned and cried out to be released, and all were wearied with the excess of their pious efforts.

These different groups were instructed that heavenly joy is the delight of doing something that is of use to oneself and others, and that delight derives its essence from love and its existence from wisdom. They were told that the delight of use, originating in love through wisdom, is the soul and life of all heavenly joys.

But is not the absolutely main purpose of humankind to “glorify God, and enjoy him forever?” The glorification of God, however, is something more than psalm singing. It means bringing forth the fruits of love, that is, doing one’s work faithfully, sincerely and diligently, for this is love of God and love of the neighbor. This is the bond of society, and its’ good. Thereby God is glorified.

Of course there is formal worship in heaven; to worship is as natural for the human being as breathing is. Divine worship in heaven is outwardly rather like divine worship on earth, but inwardly it is different. They do have teachings, services, and church buildings. The teachings are consistent in essentials, and the services are in keeping with the teachings. In actual fact though, divine worship does not consist in going to church and paying attention to the service, but in a life characterized by love, charity and faith, according to the teachings.

Church services function simply as a means for instruction in matters pertinent to life. The services are characterized by such wisdom that none on earth can be cited in comparison; they are in the heavens, in a more inward light. The teachings which the service follow focus without exception on life as their goal none on faith apart from life. The teachings are adapted to the grasp of the angels of each heaven, and the essential element of all the teachings is the acknowledgment of the Lord’s Divine Human.

Swedenborg was taught about our resurrection from death by actually experiencing the process. In this connection it is interesting to read the results of the research of Dr. Kubler-Ross and Dr. Raymond Moody into the psychic experiences of people who have been pronounced clinically dead and who have been resuscitated. Here is Swedenborg’s account of his own experience.

I was brought into a condition of unconsciousness as far as my physical senses were concerned, practically into that of dying people. However, my more inward life, including thought, remained unimpaired so that I perceived and remembered what happened. I noticed that physical breathing was almost taken away; the more inward breathing of the spirit kept on.

Next, a communication was set up between my heartbeat and the celestial kingdom, and I saw angels from there. Two sat at my head and were silent, only their thoughts communicating with mine. They wanted to see if I were thinking about eternal life, which is normal, and they wanted to keep me in this thought. I then felt that there was a pulling, a kind of drawing of the more inward elements of my mind hence of my spirit out of my body.

I was told that this was done by the Lord and is the source of resurrection. The celestial angels now withdrew, as it were, and spiritual angels attended, through whom the spirit is granted light. Something bright but hazy is visible, like light seen through half open eyelids when awakening. This seemed to me to be of a heavenly color. Then the angels tell a person that he is a spirit.

It is a spiritual law that persons of different natures cannot remain together for long; even here we have the saying, “birds of a feather flock together.” To those who have not reached the celestial degree of development in their earthly life, the presence of celestial angels who are the first to approach them is found unendurable after a time.

These angels then retire and give way to spiritual angels. These spiritual angels remain with the person as long as their presence is congenial to him. They instruct him in heavenly knowledge and introduce him to the wonderful scenes of his new stage of existence. They, in turn, withdraw if their presence proves to be distasteful.

If he dissociates himself from these, he is welcomed by good spirits who likewise render him all kind offices while he is in their company. But if his life in the world was such that he cannot remain with the good, he desires to be rid of these also.

This process is repeated over and again until he associates himself with those who are in full agreement with his former life, and among these he find his home. With them he then leads the kind of life he had led on earth. After sinking back into such a life it appears to him that he is making a new beginning. Some after a longer or shorter time are borne from this stage toward hell, while those who have lived in faith to the Lord are led from it step by step toward heaven.

Thus, at the very threshold of this new state of existence a person becomes his or her own judge, and his or her own eternal company. It is an inspiring thought, and one which gives us an exalted idea of the divine kindness. Here everyone, high or low, saint or sinner, is offered an opportunity of entering the loftiest sphere of heaven. If we refuse this offer, we are shown all the other possibilities of heavenly living and are invited to choose our own dwelling place.

How vastly different is the awesome judgment scene portrayed in traditional Christian thought! There we are represented as being ushered at death before the “great white throne” upon which God sits in implacable judgment. As we stand there trembling, our “book of life” is opened, an actual book upon which has been duly recorded in heaven our every good and bad deed. After a spiritual accountant has totalled up the balance between these, the divine judge either admits us to heaven or summarily consigns us to hell.

However, there is no place provided in Christian thought for such a place of judgment. In Protestant theology there is only a heaven and a hell. In Catholic doctrine there is, indeed, an intermediate state, purgatory. However, this is provided only as a place of preparation and expiation for those destined for heaven.

Swedenborg saw the spiritual world as made up of three regions: heaven, hell and an intervening place or state which he called “the world of spirits.” This is the “immigration center” into which all come at death, and where preparation for either heaven or hell takes place. It is “the great gulf” which Jesus described in the parable in Luke 16, which separates the rich man in the torments of hell from the poor beggar now in bliss in Abraham’s bosom.

Here Swedenborg describes the judgment as taking place, a self imposed judgment in which the individual is both judge and jury. Here our “book of life” is opened, the account of our stewardship of life. It is not written on some balance sheet in heaven, but inscribed by ourselves day by day on the fabric of our souls as we determine our enduring character by what we think and do and come to love. That book is opened there as we become identified outwardly to ourselves and others by exactly what we are within.

Those who have clinically died in near-death experiences and then have been resuscitated report that their entire lives pass before their eyes in a flash. Swedenborg also tells us that our lives unroll before us as on a screen. By that means, the good which we have done out of love for goodness is confirmed as our own, while that done for hope of reward or for popular applause is cut away from us as not being truly a part of ourselves.

Wrong that has been done and repented of is again brought to mind, to be again rejected and blotted out if our repentance has been genuine. Misdeeds that have been committed out of a love of evil and that are now recalled with a sense of delight, become confirmed as part of our personality.

The truth that has been learned is confirmed as our own if we have made it a part of ourselves by putting it into practice. Knowledge and professed truths kept only in our head are stripped from us. Those who have not been taught true religion, if their heart is open, have ample opportunity to learn what is true.

What a joy it is to read Swedenborg describing the heathen, whom traditional Christianity condemned as lost and damned, on their way to heaven if they had chosen what is good according to their light. On the principle that “love is the life of man,” that is, that the heart is the deciding factor, he goes so far as to say that it is easier for a good pagan to enter heaven than it is for a bad Christian, no matter how much theology he may know.

This, then, is the judgment after death as Swedenborg describes it, a final judgment based on the decisions we make every moment of life. It is a judgment in keeping with an infinitely loving God who seeks our lasting welfare and happiness, and who yearns to welcome every one of his earthly children into the joys of his heaven.

In light of the above we can readily understand Swedenborg’s remark, “the Lord casts no one into hell”. The wicked, however, naturally gravitate to it because it is only there that they can find congenial company. Not only is no one sent to hell, but no one needs to stay there who wishes to leave. We are told that evil spirits are sometimes granted their desire to enter heaven, but that as soon as they do so they are unable to endure its atmosphere.

Another striking statement is that we are not punished for our misdeeds done on earth but only for our continuing to do them there. Also, we are not punished for evil actions done out of good, though mistaken motives, still less for our hereditary tendencies to evil, except as we make them our own. There is nothing vindictive in divine punishment; in fact, there is no such thing as “divine” punishment. It only appears to be so because evil sets itself against the true order of life.

The equilibrium of everything in the other life is such that evil punishes itself, so that in evil there is the punishment of evil. Therefore everyone brings punishment and torment on himself. The Lord never sends anyone into hell but desires to bring all out of hell, still less does he lead into torment. But since the evil spirit rushes into it himself, the Lord turns all punishment and torment to some good and to some use.

The common idea that punishment in hell is continuous and unceasing is erroneous. The evil are only punished when they transgress the bounds within which they are restrained for the sake of order, and when they try to injure others. The wicked run into punishment only when their evil has reached its limits. Every evil has its limit which none is allowed to pass. When a person does pass it he brings punishment on himself, for it is a spiritual law that no one shall become worse than he had been in the world.

Angels perform important functions, serving for example as ministering angels. “Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to serve, for the sake of those who are to obtain salvation?” Hebrews 1:14.

There are communities of angels whose duties are taking care of infants. There are others whose duties are teaching and training them as they grow up. There are others who similarly train boys and girls who are well disposed because of their education in the world and who therefore enter heaven. There are others who instruct good, simple folk from Christendom and lead them into the path of heaven.

There are some which do the same for various non Christian people. There are some who protect newly arrived spirits, fresh from the world, from the attacks of evil spirits. There are some who help people who are in the hells, restraining them so that they do not torment each other beyond set bounds.

Then there are communities that help people who are being revived from the dead. Angels of a particular community are sent to people on earth to watch over them, to lead them away from evil affections and consequent evil thoughts and to instil, to the extent that the people accept them freely, good affections, thereby governing people’s deeds or words by removing evil intentions as far as this is possible.

Life in heaven is thus not a monotonous round of religious exercises, but is the scene of busy activity. Since useful service is the very source of heavenly happiness almost every occupation is found there. Every faculty of mind and heart finds employment, and idleness is not tolerated even in hell.

Occupations there differ from those on earth, inasmuch as spiritual beings do not have to “labor for the meat which perishes,” nor for clothing and shelter, these being provided automatically; nevertheless they find ample employment.

Many of the angels are employed in the administration of government and in the supervision of worship. There is art, music and literature which engage the talents of many, though their work does not involve the same intense effort and weariness which it often does here on earth.

It is interesting to note that written materials in heaven flow naturally from angels’ thoughts themselves such an effortless process that it is as though the thought implied projects itself. The hand does not hesitate in choosing a particular word, since the words correspond to their thought concepts, and all correspondence is natural and spontaneous.

Heavenly architecture surpasses in beauty and splendor the finest efforts of earthly builders. I have seen palaces of heaven so noble as to defy description. The higher parts glowed as if they were made of pure gold, the lower as if made of precious gems; each palace was more splendid than the next.

Outside there were parks where everything likewise glowed, with here and there leaves bright like silver, and fruit like gold. The flowers in their plots formed virtual rainbows. The designs of the buildings are so perfect that you would say that they represent the very essence of the art; and small wonder, since the art of architecture comes from heaven.

Science, too, has its place in heaven, and the study of their surroundings affords delight and satisfaction to the angelic mind. Trees, plants and flowers exist there in profusion and with a variety unknown on earth. Swedenborg tells of a man who had been a botanist on earth and who now found himself among the most beautiful and expansive gardens.

He strolled through the gardens and looked at the flowers one by one. He picked them and held them close to his eyes. He declared that they were in an abundance never seen on earth or could have been imagined there. He remarked on how each flower sparkles with an incomprehensible splendor because they are from the light of heaven.

Education, as we have already seen, forms an important part of the angels’ activities. All newly arrived spirits have to be instructed and initiated into their new life, especially those who, like the heathen, have lacked the means of true knowledge on earth, as well as infants and children.

The latter are taught by a beautiful system of object lessons. Everything is representative, and they are instructed in the meaning of what they see. Even their games are made interesting means of instruction. Friedrich Froebel, the founder of the kindergarten movement, drew many of his ideas from Swedenborg’s descriptions of the education of children there.

Children are instructed by representations suited to their age and understanding. It is impossible for anyone to conceive how beautiful these representations are, and at the same time how full of wisdom from what is within.

Once I was given to see children with their teacher in a paradise like garden. When the children came up to the beds of flowers at the entrance, the flowers seemed to express their joy by their increasing splendor, and hence it may appear what the nature of the children’s delight was. It may also be seen that they were introduced by what is pleasant and delightful into the good things of innocence and charity; which are continuously infused by the Lord into those delights and joys.

It will be seen from all this that heaven is by no means a place or condition of indolent ease. Eternal rest is not idleness, for that brings a languor, listlessness, stupor and drowsiness of mind, and then of the body. These things are death and not life, still less are they eternal life in which the angels of heaven are.

Since the next chapter is devoted to sex and marriage, this matter will not be gone into now. We simply note here that the spiritual world is not a sexless condition of life, as many believe. Sex is a fact of spirit far more than it is a fact of our physical body.

We have “male” or “female” stamped on our every fibre to the very core of our being. Love is God’s greatest gift, and we cannot imagine his taking it away from us after our short earthly life. In the marriage relationship, the uniting of our divinely given maleness and femaleness, we are offered the promise of our fulfilment and wholeness as immortal beings.

Heaven throbs and glistens with life and is many times more alive and living than is our world. Its light far surpasses our brightest noonday. It is closer to the Source of Life, as God pours more directly into it his love and wisdom and power.

Here the true order of life reigns in its perfection. Here there is no sickness, disease or bodily handicap, no wearing out or growing old. Those are all part of “the former things which have passed away”. As we live the life of heaven, instead of becoming feeble or diminished, our faculties and strength increase and develop.

The people who are in heaven progress steadily toward the springtime of life, and the more thousands of years they live, the more pleasant and happy the springtime. This goes on forever, with the increase keeping pace with the growth and level of their love, charity and faith.

11.2 Assignment 11.

This chapter is entirely devoted to explaining and describing Swedenborg’s mystical experiences.

1. What is your reaction to this?
2. Do you feel it is an attempt to provide credibility to Swedenborg’s spiritual travels and experiences? Why/why not?

12.1 The Mystic Presence

Swedenborg left England toward the end of June, 1759, to return to Sweden. Though he had made the journey many times, this one was to be an historic occasion. Up to this time he had succeeded in guarding his anonymity as the author of the amazing theological books, which one after the other had been published with no indication of authorship, and widely, if judiciously, distributed.

Only a handful of people knew that he was the author, and had been consciously living for fifteen years a double life as a citizen of two worlds. Now through a series of incidents which demonstrated his remarkable psychic powers, public attention was to be focused on him. The first occurred on his arrival at the port of Gothenburg on the west coast of Sweden, some three hundred miles from Stockholm.

At four o’clock on July 19 Swedenborg and fifteen others were dinner guests of William Castel, a prominent merchant of that city. What happened at that dinner has been recorded by many reliable witnesses. The following account is that of the philosopher, Immanuel Kant, who carefully researched the incident. It is contained in a letter from Königsberg to Charlotte Von Knobloch written sometime in 1763:

The following occurrence appears to me to have the greatest weight of proof, and to place the assertion respecting Swedenborg’s extraordinary gift beyond all possible doubt. In the year 1759, toward the end of July, on Saturday, at four o’clock p.m. Swedenborg arrived at Gothenburg from England, when Mr. William Castel invited him to his house to gather with a party of fifteen persons.

About six o’clock Swedenborg went out, and returned to the company quite pale and alarmed. He said that a dangerous fire had just broken out in Stockholm, at the Sodermalm (Gothenburg is 300 miles from Stockholm), and that it was spreading very fast.

He was restless and went out often. He said that the house of one of his friends, whom he named, was already in ashes, and that his own was in danger. At eight o’clock, after he had been out again, he joyfully exclaimed, “Thank God! The fire is extinguished, the third door from my house”.

The news occasioned great commotion throughout the whole city, but particularly among the company in which he was. It was announced to the governor the same evening. On Sunday morning Swedenborg was summoned to the governor who questioned him about the disaster.

Swedenborg described the fire precisely, how it had begun, in what manner it had stopped and how long it had continued. On the same day the news spread through the city, and as the governor had thought it worthy of attention, the consternation was considerably increased; because many were troubled on account of their friends and property, which might have been involved in the disaster.

On Monday evening a messenger dispatched by the Board of Trade during the time of the fire arrived at Gothenburg. In the letters brought by him the fire was described precisely in the manner stated by Swedenborg.

On Tuesday morning the royal courier arrived at the governor’s with the melancholy intelligence of the fire, of the loss which it had occasioned, and of the houses it had damaged and ruined, not in the least differing from what Swedenborg had given at the very time it happened, for the fire was extinguished at eight o’clock.

When the news of Swedenborg’s extraordinary vision of the fire reached the capital, public curiosity about him was very much aroused. They were astonished to hear that the famous Swedenborg, of all people the noted scientist, the revered member of the Board of Mines, the respected statesman of the House of Lords was possessed of the strange power of knowing things that happened far away! In time the whole town was talking about him and his second sight.

We today, on the basis of what we know about extrasensory perception, may not be particularly impressed; they were amazed. Of course, his clairvoyance would not have been associated in people’s minds with his spiritual experiences, for up to this time he had never talked with anyone about them. And only a few could possibly have known that he was the author of the Arcana Coelestia.

However, a single copy of Heaven and Hell had found its way to Stockholm during the winter and had come into the hands of Count Gustaf Bonde, He seems to have been the first person to guess, or in some way find out, that Swedenborg was the author of these amazing books. Bonde wrote to several of his friends and at last the secret was out.

Besides this, Swedenborg was presenting copies of his books to various individuals. Considerable sensation had been caused in the capital that spring when the news of Swedenborg’s communication with spirits leaked out. But public knowledge of this fact actually came through a series of incidents which could hardly be accounted for on the basis of any extrasensory perception. Again we have Immanuel Kant’s well researched investigations of these.

Madame Marteville, the widow of the Dutch ambassador, sometime after the death of her husband was called upon by Croon, a goldsmith, to pay for a silver service which her husband had purchased from him. The widow was convinced that her late husband had been much too precise and orderly not to have paid this debt, yet she was unable to find the receipt. In her sorrow and because the amount was considerable, she requested Mr. Swedenborg to call at her house.

After apologizing to him for troubling him, she said that if, as all people say, he possessed the extraordinary gift of conversing with the souls of the departed, he would perhaps have the kindness to ask her husband how it was about the silver service. Swedenborg did not at all object to comply with her request.

Three days afterwards the said lady had company at her house for coffee. Swedenborg called, and in his cool way informed her that he had talked with her husband. The debt had been paid seven months before his decease, and the receipt was in a bureau in the room upstairs.

The lady replied that the bureau had been quite cleared out, and that the receipt was not found among the papers. Swedenborg said that her husband had described to him, how after pulling out the left hand drawer a board would appear which could be drawn out, whereupon a secret compartment would be disclosed containing his private Dutch correspondence as well as the receipt.

Upon hearing this description the whole company rose and accompanied the lady into the room upstairs. The bureau was opened. They did as they were directed and the compartment was found, of which no one had ever known before. To the great astonishment of all the receipt was discovered there in accordance with Swedenborg’s description.

Perhaps the strangest story about Swedenborg’s psychic power, “The Queen’s Secret,” is recorded by Count Anders J. von Höpken, although its accuracy is attested to by other reliable people including Jung Stilling and Immanuel Kant.

Swedenborg was one day at a court reception. Her majesty asked him about different things in the other life, and lastly whether he had seen or talked with her brother, the prince royal of Prussia. He answered that he had not. Her majesty then requested him to ask after him, and to give him her greeting, which Swedenborg promised to do. It is doubtful whether the queen meant anything serious by this.

At the next reception, Swedenborg again appeared at court. The queen was in the white room, surrounded by her ladies of honor. He came boldly in and approached her majesty, who no longer remembered the commission she had given him a week ago. Swedenborg not only greeted her from her brother, but also gave her brother’s apologies for not having answered her last letter, which he wished to do so now through Swedenborg, who proceeded to do so. The queen was greatly overcome, and said, “No one, except God, knows this secret”.

The reason why she had never alluded to this before was that she did not want anyone in Sweden to believe that during the war with Prussia she had carried on a correspondence with the enemy.

Another account says that the queen nearly fainted, and that Count von Schwerin, seeing her distress, bitterly reproached Swedenborg for his conduct, at the same time trying to elicit the nature of the secret. The incident soon became known, and many were anxious to know the truth of the matter.

“The wife of Swedenborg’s gardener,” C. E Nordensköld says, “related to us that for days following the occurrence carriages stopped before her master’s door from which the first gentlemen in the kingdom alighted, desiring to know the secret of which the queen was so greatly alarmed, but that her master, faithful to his promise, refused to tell”.

Jung-Stilling reports:

This occurrence has been questioned in the public papers, but a distinguished Swede, who was by no means an admirer of Swedenborg, has assured me that it is the pure truth and cannot be called into question. He furnished me with some additional proofs which I hesitate to make known because, as usual in the case with stories dealing with the realm of spirits, some are thereby compromised who ought to be spared.

In fully confirming the truth of these stories, Kant is careful to guard himself against the charge of credulity. I am not aware that anybody has ever perceived in me an inclination to the marvelous or a weakness tending to credulity. So much is certain, notwithstanding all the narrations of apparitions and visions concerning the spiritual world, of which a great number of the most probable are known to me.

I have always considered it to be in agreement with the rule of sound reason to incline to the negative side. This is the position in which my mind stood for a long time, until the report about Swedenborg came to my notice. He then proceeds to give an account of his own investigations:

This account I received from a Danish officer who was formerly my friend and attended my lectures. At the table of the Austrian ambassador, Dietrichstein, at Copenhagen, together with several other guests, he read a letter which the ambassador about that time had received from Baron de Lutzow, the Mecklenburg ambassador in Stockholm.

In this he says that he, in company with the Dutch ambassador, was present at the Queen of Sweden’s residence during the extraordinary episode respecting Swedenborg, of which your ladyship will undoubtedly have heard.

The authenticity thus given to the account surprised me. For it can scarcely be believed that one ambassador should communicate to another for public use a piece of information about the queen at the court where he resided, and which he himself together with a distinguished company had the opportunity of witnessing, if it were not true.

Now in order not to reject blindfold the prejudice against apparitions and visions by a new prejudice, I found it desirable to inform myself as to the particulars of this surprising episode. I accordingly wrote to the officer I have mentioned, at Copenhagen, and made various inquiries respecting it. He answered that he had again had an interview about it with Count Dietrichstein, that the affair had actually taken place in the manner described, and that Professor Schlegel also had declared to him that it could by no means be doubted.

Not satisfied with this, Kant wrote to Swedenborg and, failing to receive an answer, commissioned an English friend who was going to Stockholm to make full inquiries. This friend did not succeed in seeing Swedenborg for some time, but he wrote, “The most respectable people in Stockholm declare that the singular episode alluded to (the message to the queen) happened in the way you have heard described by me”.

When at length he had made the acquaintance of Swedenborg “his succeeding letters were quite of a different purport. He had previously expressed his own incredulity in regard to the alleged facts. He had not only spoken to Swedenborg himself, but had visited him at his house. He is now in the greatest astonishment respecting such a remarkable case.

Swedenborg is a reasonable, polite and openhearted man; he is also a man of learning. He told this gentlemen, without reserve, that God had accorded to him the remarkable gift of communicating with the souls of the departed at his pleasure. In proof of this he appealed to certain well known facts.”

There are innumerable similar incidents which are not so widely known or testified to. One of these has sufficient historic interest to be noted. This refers to John Wesley and is given in detail in a letter from Mr. John Isaac Hawkins, a well known engineer and inventor, to the Rev. Samuel Noble. An extract from this letter, dated February 6, 1826 , follows.

In answer to your inquiries I am able to state that I have a clear recollection of having repeatedly heard the Rev. Samuel Smith (one of Wesley’s preachers) say, about the year 1787 or 1788, that in the latter end of February, 1772, he, with some other preachers, was in attendance upon the Rev. John Wesley, taking instructions and assisting him in the preparation for his great circuit which Mr. Wesley was about to commence; that while thus in attendance, a letter came to Mr. Wesley which he perused with evident astonishment; that, after a pause, read the letter to the company which was couched in nearly the following words:

February 1772

Sir, I have been informed in the world of spirits that you have a strong desire to converse with me; I shall be happy to see you if you will favor me with a visit.

I am, sir, your humble servant, Eman. Swedenborg

Mr. Wesley frankly acknowledged to the company that he had been very strongly impressed with a desire to see and converse with Swedenborg, and that he had never mentioned that desire to anyone. Mr. Wesley wrote for an answer that he was then closely occupied in preparing for a six months’ journey but would do himself the pleasure of awaiting upon Mr. Swedenborg soon after his return to London.

Mr. Smith further informed me that he afterwards learned that Swedenborg wrote in reply that the visit proposed by Mr. Wesley would be too late as he, Swedenborg, would enter the world of spirits on the 29th day of the next month, never more to return.

It is, indeed, unfortunate that this meeting was never held for, if it had been, subsequent religious history might well have been drastically changed.

Jung Stilling records the following story in his memorandum book for 1809 on the testimony of a certain beloved friend:

In the year 1762, on the very day when the Emperor Peter III of Russia died, Swedenborg was present with me at a party in Amsterdam. In the middle of the conversation his countenance changed, and it was obvious that his soul was no longer present in him. As soon as he recovered he was asked what had happened. At first he would not speak out, but after being repeatedly urged, he said, “Now, at this very hour the Emperor Peter III has died in prison,” explaining the nature of his death.

“Gentlemen, will you please make note of this day, in order that you may compare it with the announcement of his death which will appear in the newspapers?“. The papers soon after announced the death of the emperor which had taken place on that very same day. Such is the account of my friend. If anyone doubts this statement it is a proof that he has no sense of what is called historical faith and its grounds, and that he believes only what he himself sees and hears.

Many others have testified to the truth of the messages Swedenborg brought them from their deceased friends. An important witness of this category is Christopher Springer, a man of great political influence in his time. He wrote to the Abbe Pernety in 1782, ten years after Swedenborg’s death:

All that he had told me about my deceased friends and enemies, and of the secrets I had with them, is almost past belief. He even explained to me the manner in which peace was concluded between Sweden and the King of Prussia, and praised my conduct on that occasion. He even specified the three high personages whose services I made use of at that time (Springer was employed by the English Government to arrange the peace) which was, nevertheless, a profound secret between us.

If Swedenborg had been a charlatan, he might have achieved wealth and fame by exploiting his extraordinary powers. Far from making a public show of these, he seldom referred to them unless the occasion called for it; most certainly he refused to confirm his mission by means of them. Remarkable as the revelations he made to different people in the course of his life were, Swedenborg did not regard them as in any way miraculous. To him they were simply proofs of the reality of his communication with the spiritual world:

These must by no means be regarded as miracles. They are simply testimonies that I have been introduced by the Lord into the spiritual world, and have communication and converse with angels and spirits, in order that the church, which hitherto has remained in ignorance about that world, may know that heaven and hell really exists, and that their every man lives after death as a person as before, and that thus no more doubts may flow into his mind in regard to his immortality.

12.2. Assignment 12.

1. Reflection

Respond to one of the following:-

Reflect and comment on how your view of the spiritual world is developing and changing as you become more familiar with what Swedenborg describes. Compare your view of the spiritual world prior to coming into contact with the ideas found in the Heavenly Doctrines with those you hold now. In what way has the vision Swedenborg offers of the spiritual world impacted on your own states of life?

13.1 Sex and Marriage

If theology in swedenborg’s day needed renewal, morality shouted out for reform, especially sexual morality. Never in all of Christian history had the relationship of men and women fallen to such a low level. Sexual promiscuity inside and outside of marriage was openly accepted, and marriage itself was held up to ridicule. Perhaps the immorality of Rome at its worst can be compared to that of Europe in the Eighteenth Century. We have only to read Pepys’s Diary or the French novels of the day to get an idea of those times. It was to such an age and to such needs that Swedenborg spoke boldly, calling for a fresh evaluation of sex and a new concept of marriage.

In the face of traditional Christian teaching which held that sex is earthy, is impure and is the enemy of the spirit, Swedenborg saw it as a gift God built into us when we were structured at creation in the image and likeness of himself. As such it reflects God’s own being.

Since we are essentially spiritual beings, everything that can be said about our outer structuring is true also of our inner. Sex is a permanent fact of our total being, which is primarily spiritual and secondarily physical. For Swedenborg it extends far beyond the possession of male or female organs; maleness or femaleness is imprinted on our whole being and on every part of our body, mind and soul. It is therefore eternal and has enduring implications.

Marriage, far from being merely society’s way of expressing and of protecting the family, holds the promise of a lasting relationship. Swedenborg points out that in a true marriage human life achieves its fulfillment and its wholeness because the qualities and potentials of male and female are combined, thus forming a larger self.

In any discussion about the enduring possibility of marriage, the Lord’s words are sure to be quoted, “In heaven they neither marry nor are given in marriage,” as if that settled the matter once and for all. But if we look at the context of the words we see that the question being raised is really about the existence of life after death.

The Sadducees, a sect which did not believe in life after death, posed a trick question to Jesus. They quoted an old law, still on the books but no longer generally observed, that when a husband died, a surviving brother was duty bound to marry the widow and beget children in his brother’s stead, thus securing a kind of immortality for the deceased. Their trick question was this:

Now there were seven brothers; the first married, and died, and having no children left his wife to his brother. So too the second, and third, down to the seventh. After them all, the women died. In the resurrection, therefore, to which of the seven will she be wife? For they all had her.

They felt sure that their ridiculous story would squelch any idea of immortality. Jesus answered them,

“You are wrong, because you know neither the scriptures nor the power of God. In heaven they neither marry or are given in marriage”.

After this interchange, Jesus went on to talk about the reality of the resurrection. It is as though he said,

“In heaven there is nothing of that kind of marrying, based solely on worldly reasoning, which you are talking about”.

The main thrust of this passage is therefore clearly the question of the existence of life after death. There is indeed a deeper spiritual truth within our Lord’s words about marrying, but it is a marrying which takes place individually within us. We must wed our mind and heart, what we know and what we love, for in this way the life of heaven is formed within us.

If we do not enter upon this marriage here, it cannot be begun in heaven as it would then have no basis. Swedenborg’s Conjugial Love, or Marriage Love is a classic work. For insight into and challenge to the potential in man & woman relationships, it stands unequaled.

The fact that there are marriages in heaven cannot be credited by those who think that after death the human being, as a soul or spirit, is like ether or a breath; or by those who think that he lives as a person only after judgment day; or by those who know nothing about the spiritual world. Nothing could be revealed about marriage in heaven while ignorance prevailed about that world, especially while it was not known that the angels of heaven are human beings in every aspect.

The question would have been raised, “How can soul be united with soul there, as partner is united with partner on earth?”

And much else which, the moment is was said, would have taken away the belief in marriage there. But now that much has been revealed about that world the fact that marriage is to be found there can be proved by reason. He then goes on to show that death takes nothing away from us except the purely physical covering of our earthly bodies.

We rise in our inner spiritual bodies still possessing all our human faculties and senses. These are then activated, enabling us to function in the spiritual world. Our full human capacity and identity being thus maintained, it follows that a man rises into the spiritual world as a man, and a woman as a woman, each with his or her own contrasting and complementary nature. Sex is no mere accident or temporary endowment, nor is it a distinction of the physical body only.

Man is masculine throughout, in every least part of the body, in every idea of thought and in every particular of affection; similarly woman is feminine. As the one cannot be made into the other, it follows that after death male is male, and female is female.

Love of sex persists after death. Male and female have been so created that from two they can become one being or one flesh. When they do so, they are human life in its fullness; apart from that union they are two, each a divided and halved human being. Since something uniting lies inmostly in each, together with faculty and desire for uniting, it follows that mutual and reciprocal love of sex persists after death.

The essence and origin of true marriage is the union of love and wisdom in God, and from that union all created things exist and are sustained. With mankind these elements are unequally distributed, love usually being predominant in the woman and wisdom in the man.

A true union demands that the sexes be united in order to achieve the full development of human possibilities. Human marriage is thus the union of love and wisdom in a finite degree. This principle must exist not only between the sexes but in every individual. Actually a true spiritual marriage is not possible unless each of the partners has realized the spiritual union of good and truth in himself or herself.

The kingdom of heaven is compared by our Lord to a wedding, because none can enter it except those in whom love and faith, or goodness and truth, are joined and united. A universal marital sphere proceeds from the Lord and pervades the universe from beginning to end, from the angels to the lowest forms of life. Conjugial love, being the central and fundamental love of our life, is also the source of our fullest joy.

Every joy we feel implies a love. Marriage love is fundamental among all good loves and is inscribed on the least things in us. Therefore its joys exceed those of all other loves. It also gladdens these other loves to the extent that it is present and united with them. For it expands the inmost of things, both of the mind and of the body, as its delicious current sweeps through them and opens them.

All joys from first to last are gathered into marriage love because of the excellence of its use above that of any other love. Its service is the propagation of the human race and thence of heaven. Because this use is the end of ends in creation, all the satisfaction, joy, gladness and pleasure that can ever be conferred on us by the Lord are gathered into this human love.

All things blessed, happy, joyous and pleasant proceed and flow in from the divine love by the divine wisdom along with life into those who are in true conjugial love, for these alone are receptive of them.

We cannot question the eternity of a love like this, for it is endowed with essential life and will forever grow in perfection and power.

True marriage love increasingly unites two into one human being. Because such love persists to eternity, it follows that a wife becomes more and more a wife, and a husband more and more a husband. The ultimate reason is that in a marriage of true conjugial love each becomes a more and more interior human being. For this love opens the interiors of the mind, and as these are opened the human being becomes more and more of a human being which for the wife is to become more a wife and for the husband to become more a husband.

This love is celestial, spiritual, holy, pure and clean above every love which the angels of heaven or the people of the church have from the Lord. Given a desire for, and an effort after it, in the will, this use becomes clean and pure daily to eternity.

The separation by death of two such truly joined partners is more seeming than real. Two such partners are not really separated by the death of one of them. The spirit of the deceased one dwells constantly with the spirit of the partner still living and does so to the latter’s death, when they meet again, are reunited and love each other more tenderly than they did before, being in the spiritual world.

Swedenborg states that very few of the marriages in his day proved to be permanent unions. There is a true marriage love which is so rare today that its character is not known, and that it hardly exists.

It is to be known that inwardly conjoining marriages can hardly be entered into on earth, because the choice of inward likeness here cannot be provided by the Lord as in heaven, being restricted in many ways to equals in station and condition for instance, in the same district, city or village, and even there for the most part, external things and not internal bind the two together. Internal things emerge only after a period of marriage, and become known only as they present themselves in externals.

Two partners usually meet after death, recognize each other, associate again and live together for a while. This takes place in the first state in the world of spirits and thus while in externals as in the world. But later, when they come into their internal state, the inclination becomes clear. If it is mutually agreeable they continue their married life, but if not they dissolve it.

If marriage proves unhappy it does not necessarily follow that either of the partners is to blame, or that such marriages may not have been without benefits. It may be that the pains and trials of such marriages sometimes are an important means of strengthening character. But all the same, such relationships cannot be permanent. This mismated pair will find other partners in the spiritual world if they are desirous and capable of entering into the joys of a heavenly marriage. Needless to say, in those who revel in evil there is no such desire or capacity and there is no place in hell for conjugial love.

If there were not marriage in heaven, all those who have died in infancy or childhood, and all who have lived single on earth, would be doomed to forego the highest form of human happiness and would have to spend eternity in lonely incompleteness. But this is not so.

Swedenborg tells us that infants do not remain infants but are carefully nurtured and educated till grown to adulthood. They then enter into marriage. The same happens with those who have not married on earth; in due time, if they so wish, they meet suitable partners and are married.

Marriage love, being the highest of all loves the source of the greatest bliss, is also the cause of the perfection of beauty in female angels and of manly grace in males. In a “memorable relation” Swedenborg describes the beauty of a married pair from the highest heaven.

I observed them attentively, perceiving that they presented marriage love, both in its life and in its adornment in its life in their faces, and in its adornment in their apparel. For all angels are affections of love in human form, and the ruling affection itself shines forth from their faces.

The husband looked to be of an age between youth and early manhood. From his eyes beamed a light sparkling with the love of wisdom. His face seemed inmostly radiant from this light, and in the irradiation from it his very skin seemed to glisten. His whole face was one of shining comeliness.

But with the wife it was like this: I saw her face, and yet did not see it. I saw it as beauty itself, and did not see it because it was inexpressible. In her face was the flame-like light which is found with the angels of the third heaven, and it dazzled my sight. I was simply dumbfounded.

The ancients believed in a fountain of perpetual youth. In heaven this dream is realized. Those who leave this world, old, sick, worn out or handicapped, renew their youth in the spiritual world and live in the full vigor of early manhood or womanhood. Conjugial love, as “the fundamental love of all loves,” is the true fountain of perpetual youth.

The Masculine & Feminine Mind

13.2 Assignment 13

1. Discuss what statements/quotes or from Swedenborg’s writings about conjugial love could help to explain/promote the sacredness of relationships between men and women – particularly marriage relationships.

2. Reflect and comment on your own inner responses to the views of sex and marriage presented in this Chapter. How do the writings about conjugial love help promote the sacredness marriage relationships between men and women You may like to focus on one statement/quote and why it is so important, or you may like to draw on a series of quotes. Reflect and comment on your own inner responses to the views of sex and marriage presented in this Chapter.

14.1 The Scientist

Swedenborg has been called “the last of the universal scholars”. In the eighteenth century it was possible for a highly gifted individual to cover all the fields of known science. This is exactly what Swedenborg proceeded to do. He mastered one area after another, making outstanding contributions in each of them.

He also laid the foundations of several new sciences, including that of crystallography. In working his way through the sciences he mastered the following fields: chemistry, engineering, physics, mathematics, mineralogy, geology, paleontology, anatomy, astronomy, metallurgy, cosmology, cosmogony, and psychology. By the age of sixty one he had written more than a hundred papers, some book length, some brief in a great variety of disciplines.

In a century that was ignorant of the existence of oxygen, the composition of water, the makeup of the earth’s atmosphere, electricity, spectrum analysis, photography, the concept of the conservation of energy, and the phenomena of the atom, Swedenborg propounded many impressive theories.

Modern experimentation, particularly in the field of atomic energy, has confirmed many of his cosmological speculations. Svante Arrhenius, noted Nobel Prize chemist and founder of the 20th Century science of physical chemistry, concluded that Buffon, Kant, La Place, Wright and Lambert all set forth systems of creation which had been earlier suggested in Swedenborg’s Principia, so that rightfully the credit of formulating the nebular hypothesis belongs to him.

He held that activity permeates all three kingdoms of the world of nature, and that every material substance puts forth energy spheres which interact with surrounding matter. His studies of magnetism, crystallography, phosphorescence and metallurgy contributed to his belief in an active universe.

His writings rest on the assumption that a divine force underlies all existence. He was the first to advance the idea that pure motion constitutes the basis of physical matter a view now generally accepted.

In an entirely different field, Jean Astruc in 1753 is credited with being the first to note the composite nature of the book of Genesis, laying the basis of the science of Old Testament criticism. But Swedenborg had pointed this out several years earlier in his Arcana Coelestia, using it as the basis of his spiritual exegesis of that book.

Baron Berzelius, in a paper read before the Scandinavian Scientific Association, says:

Emanuel Swedenborg, who became famous in many respects, was the first who called attention in a printed work to a rise of the Swedish coast. In 1719 he published a little work entitled, Respecting the Great Depth of Water and the Strong Tides in the Primeval World: Proofs from Sweden.

Among the proofs that a sea in a state of great commotion at one time swept over Sweden, he quotes the ridges of our mountains whose general direction from north to south he had correctly observed, and likewise the fact that all the stones occurring therein are rolled, worn off and rounded. He was acquainted with Snäcklagren on the Kappelback near Uddevalla, and several other places of a similar kind on the western coast of Sweden.

He makes a report of the skeleton of a whale which was discovered in West Gothland, ten miles inland. He also describes the remnants of a wrecked ship which were excavated far up on the land, as well as some gigantic pots which he examined and found to have been hollowed out by other loose stones which were agitated to and fro by water in a state of great commotion. No other writer had made genuine geological examinations, and they all treated their subject from a historical geographical point of view.

A. G. Nathorst, Professor of Paleontology and Geology, wrote the introduction to the first volume of Swedenborg’s scientific works published by the Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences. In it he wrote:

Swedenborg’s contributions in the field of geology are of such significance and value that they alone would have been sufficient to have secured him a respected scientific name. One immediately notices in studying Swedenborg’s geological writings that an investigating nature of the highest rank is in question, which on a solid foundation and with sharp power of observation noticed everything, even what was apparently insignificant in order to draw conclusions from it. The wealth of observation which he collected from various parts of Europe is astonishing, and he did this at an early age.

What Anders Retzius said about Swedenborg’s Regnum Animale seems to be applicable to practically the whole of his scientific activity. “He was a mighty spirit of which our country has the more reason to be proud because it was united with a personality in every respect noble and unassuming”.

M. Dumas distinctly ascribes to Swedenborg the origin of the modem science of crystallography. He says, “It is then to him that we are indebted for the first idea of making cubes, tetrahedrons, pyramids, and the different crystalline forms by grouping the spheres. It is an idea which has since been renewed by several distinguished men, Wollaston in particular”.

Magnetism absorbed much of Swedenborg’s attention at different periods of his life, and he is credited with anticipating many modern discoveries. Professor Patterson of the University of Pennsylvania wrote to Dr. Atlee, in acknowledging a book of Swedenborg which the latter had sent him:

“Many of the experiments and observations in magnetism presented in this work are believed to be of much more modern date, and are unjustly ascribed to much more recent writers”.

Fifty years after the publication of Swedenborg’s Opera Philosophica et Mineralia, speaking to a report of a commission to Louis XV that there did not yet exist any theory of the magnet, the Marquis de Thome responded indignantly and at length, declaring that the Opera Philosophica of Swedenborg was held in high esteem in all Europe and that the most celebrated men had “not disdained to draw materials from it to assist them in their work”;

that “the theory of the Swedish author is a true theory of the magnet and all magnetism”; and that M. Camus, who performed such surprising things with the magnet before their eyes, admitted that he had “derived from this author all the knowledge he exhibited on the subject.”

Many of Swedenborg’s conclusions were reached much later by leading anatomists. In his address as President of the International Congress of Anatomists in May 1903, Professor Gustaf Retzius drew attention to some of Swedenborg’s extraordinary anticipations of modem science. There were more than a hundred of the leading anatomists of Europe present who were astonished at the facts placed before them.

They were unaware that Swedenborg had localized several functions of the brain. Dr. Retzius created a sensation by stating that in his work on the brain Swedenborg was more than a century ahead of modem anatomists. His own eyes had been opened to this fact by Dr. Max Neuberger of Vienna. This learned physician had delivered an address two years before to the assembly of German Naturalists and Physicists on “Swedenborg’s Reference to the Physiology of the Brain,” in which he had pointed out many of Swedenborg’s discoveries.

Of one of these discoveries he said: “He leaped a whole century ahead of his age by the announcement of another discovery, for he was the first to show that the cortical substance of the brain is the exclusive seat of the higher physical activity, the point of attack of the soul.” In concluding his address he remarked, “This man during the scientific period of his life exhibited a penetration in various fields of research that is nothing less than magnificent.”

Dr. Neuburger’s interest in the matter was so great that he addressed a communication to the Swedish Royal Academy of Science in which he expressed his regret that Swedenborg’s extensive manuscript on the brain which was in the possession of the Academy had not yet been published. This led to the appointment of a committee headed by Dr. Retzius. The result of the committee’s deliberations was a recommendation that the Academy should publish Swedenborg’s scientific and philosophical works. Dr. Retzius offered to bear the cost of the first three volumes himself, which were duly published.

Volume I embraces his contributions to geology and paleontology, and a mass of his correspondence on scientific subjects. The other two are on chemistry, physics, mechanics and cosmology.

Dr. J. J. Garth Wilkinson says of Swedenborg’s anatomical and physiological works:

His physiological doctrines are so new, deep and comprehensive that when presented to even a candid mind, full of ordinary notions and breathing the gross atmosphere of modern science, they will probably appear to be little more than a confused mass of assumptions. Such was my experience of their first effect on my own mind. Now, however, I am every day becoming more penetrated with the truth and consequent importance of these works.

They are the result of rigid physical induction. It is both curious and satisfying to observe that medical authorities have been for ages approximating to some of the principles put forth by Swedenborg. I cite one of these cases, the influence of the respiratory movements on and their propagation to the viscera and to the whole body.

The law that the body in general and in particular respires with the lungs that the perpetuation of all the functions and, in a word, of corporeal life, depends on the universality of this action, as a law is peculiar to Swedenborg. And yet for centuries the fragments of this truth have flitted across the mental vision of physiologists.

Glissom has declared it of the liver; Blumenbach, of the spleen; Barry and many others, of the heart; Bell, of the neck; Schlichting, of the blood in the brain; and Fortat, of the circulation in the spinal cord.

Another principle discovered by Swedenborg is the permeability of membranes, and the circulation of fluids through them in determinate channels. Some of the details of this are now grouped under the names of “Endosmosis” and “Exosmosis” two phenomena which are thought to be discoveries of the present day. With regard to the lymphatic system, Swedenborg had thoroughly anticipated the beautiful theory of Dr. Prout. And although it is as a discoverer of principles that Swedenborg is undoubtedly most valuable, yet his subordinate and theoretical details are also far superior to those of other authors”.

Jacob Berzelius, the father of modern chemistry, wrote this to Dr Wilkinson about Swedenborg’s Soul’s Domain:

I have gone through some parts of it which have interested me especially, and I have been surprised to find how the mind of Swedenborg has preceded the present state of knowledge, writing his work at the time he did. I hope the anatomists and physiologists of our day will profit by this work, both for the sake of extending their ideas and of rendering justice to the genius of Swedenborg.

I am surprised at the great knowledge displayed by him in a subject that a professed metallurgist would not have been supposed to have made an object of study and in which, as in all that he undertook, he was in advance of his age.

He was not only in advance of his age in science but in the use he made of his knowledge, for his physiological studies were only undertaker as a basis for his profound psychological speculations. Coventry Patmore truly observes, “we have had only one psychologist and human physiologist, at least only one who has published his knowledge, for at least a thousand years, namely, Swedenborg”.

Swedenborg was probably unaware that he was taking a giant step forward when he began in 1744 to describe mental experiences directly. This study is now called phenomenology. It gathers the raw data of experience and attempts to observe, understand and describe human experience itself.

He began writing down and interpreting his own dreams. His understanding of the structure of dream language two centuries ago is about what ours is today. Sigmund Freud is credited with a psychology based upon the interpreting of dreams, yet Swedenborg’s treatment of the same phenomena are on par at least with his, as witness the Journal of Dreams and the Spiritual Diary.

Since childhood Swedenborg had practiced a way of suspending breathing, and of drawing his attention inward, in what looks like Raja Yoga practice. He followed this way of intensifying inner processes. He did the most detailed and revealing study of the hypnogogic state ever done before or since.

Though the mode of approach to psychology in Swedenborg’s day was philosophic speculation, he was basically an observer of experience. He explored the inward realm perhaps more than anyone else in the western world. His works cross the psychological/spiritual boundary with the ease of one accustomed to the interrelationship of those realms.

If there is any doubt as to Swedenborg’s perceptive mind, we only need to look at his inventions. This is not meant to be an exhaustive list the impressive thing is the diversity: an airtight stove; air pump; flying machine, a model of which is in the Smithsonian Institution; a tank for testing ships; mercurial air pump; an ear trumpet for the deaf; an underwater boat, forerunner of the submarine. We are at somewhat of a disadvantage to form a just estimate of Swedenborg’s contributions in this area as many of his hypotheses, discoveries, and leading edge probings, have until recently been credited to others.

14.2 Assignment 14.

1. Take a challenging situation you can’t avoid and look to find how your presence there serves a use. Reflect on how being conscious of being of use in the situation changes your perspective of it.

15.1 The Statesman

What a propitious beginning for Swedenborg in the world of politics! Sweden had just emerged from a disastrous eighteen year war when he took his seat in the Swedish Diet’s House of Nobles in 1719. This followed the Swedberg family’s ennoblement by Queen Ulrica Eleanor, and resulting name change to Swedenborg. This entrance into government was highly symbolic in that it paralleled the establishment of freedom in Sweden by a constitutional monarch.

For the next forty-two years, Swedenborg directed much of his energy and wisdom for the welfare of his beloved Sweden. It has been widely said the he seldom missed a meeting even though he traveled all over Europe, sometimes for years at a time.

As a young man Swedenborg had seen the mounting misfortunes which an unlimited monarch had brought down upon Sweden. He had lived through the years of King Charles’ wars of conquest. He had seen the dearly bought victories and bloody defeats which had bled the country white and had bankrupted finances, bringing on famine and depression. He saw how disastrous and foolish it was for a country like Sweden, poor in manpower and resources, to attempt to play the role of a world power.

Swedenborg was concerned with the welfare of Sweden. He refused to align himself with either the political right or left. As an independent he always supported those measures which he felt would best advance the welfare of his country. He had observed first hand the benefits which constitutional government had brought to such countries as Holland and England. To the end of his life he remained a true friend of liberty, opposed alike to despotism and anarchy.

He carried this banner of freedom into all other areas of his work and research. The condition of Sweden at this time put a heavy burden on her statesmen. For example, the councillor of commerce, Anders Nordenc Rantz, issued a bulky document dealing with the financial difficulty of the country.

He was so concerned that he made some serious charges against judges, senators and civil officers. He proposed several radical changes in the form of government. Some of his ideas did not make sense to Swedenborg. So to counter the effect of his proposals, Swedenborg wrote a cogent reply in a memorandum to the houses of the Diet. It was a statesman like document, well calculated and delivered.

He defended the Swedish form of government, together with that of England and Holland, as the best in Europe. He asserted that every citizen, despite shortcomings and continual need for improvement, is safe in his life and property. In short, all live in freedom. Swedenborg’s clinching argument was this,

“It is impossible to escape all distortions of right, and all wrong interpretations of law, since most men are subject to human weaknesses and hence are inclined to one of two parties either by friendship, relationship, hope of promotion or of presents; and this malpractice cannot be uprooted under any government, however excellent it may be”.

One of Nordencrantz’s proposals was that all state offices, high as well as low, except the ecclesiastical and military, should be changed every second or third year. Swedenborg advanced weighty objections to this approach.

“What an amount of gifts and bribes would have to he given and taken in order that they might secure a livelihood for future time! From this the full absurdity of the proposal may be seen; yes, it appears almost at first glance from this consideration only that it militates directly against an institution which has been established in Sweden from time immemorial, and which is likewise one of the pillars for the preservation of our freedom, inasmuch as everyone finds himself secure in his office during his lifetime, but insecure under an arbitrary government and still more so in case such a proposal should be enacted.”

Nordencrantz complained of corrupt practices among politicians. Swedenborg countered that in free governments it is impossible to prevent corrupt practices and power being exercised by cliques. He said that corrupt practices in free governments are like small ripples compared with large waves in absolute monarchies. In monarchies, favorites and even the monarch himself is corrupted by men appealing to their passions for their own personal gain.

Swedenborg asserted that a monarch is able to do more mischief in one year than a clique or combination of many at a session of the Diet could accomplish in a hundred years because in the various houses of the Diet their influence is counterbalanced generally and individually, while in an absolute monarchy there is no such counterweight.

Nordencrantz resented Swedenborg’s sharp criticism of his document and a somewhat acrimonious correspondence ensued acrimonious on the Councillor’s part, that is to say, for Swedenborg was courteous and dignified as usual. This led to a serious breach between them. It was healed, however, only by the intervention of the President of the Board of Commerce who wrote to Swedenborg on December 31, 1761.

Herr Nordencrantz, Councillor of Commerce, invites the Herr Assessor and myself to come to church tomorrow morning at ten o’clock, and afterward to dine with him. He will send his carriage, and at the above named time. I shall call for the Herr Assessor with the carriage. I am very anxious that you two should become good friends.

Swedenborg, of course, accepted and the differences and resulting hostilities were healed. Several years later, in 1734, Swedenborg’s statesmanship was again put to the test. War fever arose among those who advocated an alliance with France against Russia to reconquer the Baltic provinces.

He used the process of listing the pros and cons in strenuously protesting such an alliance. He pointed out the limited resources of Sweden for the carrying on of a great war, the small number of men available for service compared with former years and emphasized the need of developing the material resources of the country. All this, Swedenborg argued, would be more important than the recovered territory.

At present, the possession of Danzig by Russia threatened the trade of the Baltic. However, he had the foresight to see that other countries with their navies would make certain that Russia would not enjoy its possession for long. Swedenborg was not opposed to a war of self defense, but saw no use of a war simply for the purpose of showing that one is not afraid.

Freedom, responsibility and respect for other countries was part of his foreign policy position. So he advocated neutrality as Sweden’s wisest policy, and had the satisfaction of seeing his views adopted.

However, it was financial questions which interested him most. Between 1723 and 1761 he presented various bills on currency and exchange. Count von Hopken states that “the most solid and best written bills on finance in the Diet of 1761 were presented by Swedenborg”. The earliest bill that we have is dated February 5, 1723, and relates to finances. In it Swedenborg deplored the decay of Swedish commerce which had thrown the balance of trade from the black into the red.

The causes of the decline he attributed to the loss of many Swedish provinces in the wars, the absorption of capital by war expenses and the consequent deterioration of Swedish ships during the dreadful and draining years of war. Swedenborg proposed two remedies: developing the resources of the country, especially the iron and copper industries; and improving native manufacturing so that it would not be necessary to import so much.

He introduced several bills to assist the iron industry of Sweden , but his efforts in this direction were not successful as his colleagues on the Board of Mines ignored them. An important bill advocating the setting up of rolling mills in Sweden, accompanied by drawings of the suitable machinery, was filed for future reference on September 1, 1726, and may still be seen in the Archives of the Board of Mines. In this paper he stated:

Many thousand tons of Swedish pig iron are annually exported, with great expense in freight and customs, to Holland, where it is reshipped inland to Sauerland and Liege where it is broken up, rolled and converted into iron bars or into sheet iron. Afterwards it is carried back to Holland, and to many places in Europe where it is sold at great profit; so that our Swedish iron must in this manner be ennobled in Brabant and yield them a handsome income which we, with small expense and effort, might keep at home.

He further showed that establishing such mills would give encouragement to various small industries in Sweden, and that the surplus production over and above home requirements might become an important item in exports. He stated:

The greater part of the rolled iron which is sent out of Liege consists of local iron which many countries are compelled to use for want of better, although it is cold, short and brittle. But if Sweden would furnish the same kind of iron rods and sheeting, the inferior iron would be scorned and sink in price, while the better would rise.

In 1755, the financial troubles of Sweden exercised his mind again. Intemperance was adding to the impoverishment of the people. Swedenborg regarded intemperance, which prevailed to an alarming degree among his countrymen, as one of the worst problems of Sweden. He saw it preventing her from becoming a manufacturing and agricultural nation. He was so convinced of this that he wrote on the flyleaf of one of his theological manuscripts, “The immoderate use of spiritous liquors will be the downfall of the Swedish people”.

Among the remedies that he proposed was that “all public houses in town should be like bakers’ shops, with an opening in the window through which those who desired might purchase whiskey and brandy without being allowed to enter the house and lounge around in the taproom”. Another proposition, which was subsequently adopted by the Diet, was to limit the distilling of whiskey and to increase its price by farming out the right to make it.

He said, “If the distilling of whiskey were farmed out in all judicial districts to the highest bidder a considerable revenue might be obtained for the country, and the consumption of grain might also be reduced that is, if the consumption of whiskey cannot be done away with altogether, which would be more desirable for the country’s welfare and for morality than all the income which could be realized from so pernicious a drink”. In this suggestion we have the germ of the Gothenburg system.

Swedenborg found that another cause of the decreasing wealth of the country was the ease in raising loans on all fixed and movable property. As this was an easy way to raise funds, large numbers of all classes were deeply in debt to the banks. In order to cure this situation, he proposed to call in all the banknotes advanced on mortgaged property and to restore coin payment.

Five years later he returned again to these subjects and presented a lengthy bill which displayed a confident knowledge of sound financial principles. He pointed out that the rise in exchange, which in twenty years had resulted in the value of the rixdaler jumping from thirty-five to sixty-six marks, was ruining the country.

He showed that the main cause of the rise was the displacement of a metallic currency by paper money issued by the bank in immense quantity against mortgages that greatly exceeded the deposits of coined money held by the bank. The high rate of exchange was rapidly denuding the country of the ordinary currency since “as soon as exchange rises above sixty marks the copper contained in it is of more intrinsic value than the value represented by our paper currency, and so it is either melted down or sent abroad.”

He strenuously argued for an honest currency as a cure for the evil saying, “coin alone regulates exchange. The currency of a country is like the blood in the body upon which depends its life, health, strength and defense.”

His proposals to rectify the financial situation mandated that henceforth all general loans on all fixed and moveable property cease; no other bank loan be negotiated at any bank except for the government and that only backed by gold and silver as formerly; that present mortgages be redeemed by payment of a part of the principal of the loan annually in addition to the interest; that thereafter “certificates of indebtedness” will cease to be legal tender; that the bank should increase its stock of bullion; and that the number of bank officials should gradually be reduced. Swedenborg’s bill goes to the root of the matter and shows a remarkable grasp of a difficult question, not unlike the financial concerns of today.

This is even more remarkable when we remember that its author was at this time seventy-two years old, and since 1747 had been deeply engaged in spiritual interests. The so called mystic would have made an excellent chancellor of the exchequer if Sweden had happened to need one just then.

Swedenborg followed up this weighty document with an “Appeal to the House of the Diet in favor of the Restoration of a Metallic Currency,” “Some Additional Consideration on the Exchange Rate,” and a “Memorial to the King” on the subject of exporting copper. In the first of these papers he urged:

Unless the various Houses of the Diet at the present session take steps to secure the return of paper currency to the bank, and the issuing of coin possessing an intrinsic value be put in its place, there is danger that the price of everything will continue to increase more and more until the country at last will become utterly exhausted and ready to perish.

This it assuredly will unless another remedy for its restoration be found than a general bankruptcy on all the paper currency. This bankruptcy, however, stares everyone in the face who is willing to reflect upon the subject, especially when he considers that six dalers in paper are now equivalent to three dalers in plates in our foreign commerce and two dalers in plates in our inland traffic.

He concluded his appeal with these words of wisdom: “In coined money itself lies the real value of exchange, and consequently that of all merchandising. If any country could exist by means of a paper currency, which is used in the place of money but which is not money, it would be a country without a parallel.”

Swedenborg was offered a seat on the Private Commission on Exchange, and would have been an invaluable member, but he declined to serve as he was not satisfied with its constitution. His suggestions, however, carried weight with the commission and it was resolved in January, 1762, that no more money should be advanced on movable property. The following session a law was enacted limiting the circulation of paper money to the amount of bullion held by the bank.

The last political document that we have bearing Swedenborg’s signature is an address to the Diet presented between March and July, 1761. In it he urged the reinstating of three senators who had been compelled to resign on account of the part they had taken in the disastrous war against Frederick the Great.

The bill bears the title, “Frank Views concerning the Maintenance of the Country and the Preservation of its Freedom,” and raises a warning voice against the revisal of an absolute monarchy which was in the works and which these three senators had opposed.

He was no believer in the divine right of kings, as his father had been. “No one,” he says, “has the right to leave his life and property in the absolute power of any individual, for of these God alone is master and we are merely his stewards in this world”. He again had the satisfaction of seeing his views carried out, as two of the senators were restored to their places. This ended Swedenborg’s almost fifty years of service in the Diet, marked always by clear judgment, common sense and a sincere devotion to the welfare of his beloved country.

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15.2 Assignment 15.

15. Do you think that Charity can be usefully described as an act of “self transcendence”? Give a reason for your answer?

16.1 The Man

Unfortunately, we do not have a good portrait of Swedenborg. None of the existing ones has any high artistic merit. The best picture we have of him is the steel engraving which forms the frontispiece of his Opera Philosophica et Mineralia, which shows him at the age of forty- five. Those who knew him best said that it was a very good likeness and that it remained so even in his old age.

What kind of man was he? His eyes appear to have been the most striking feature and seem to have possessed a certain magnetic power. His long time friend, Cuno said:

When he looked at me with his smiling blue eyes, which he always did when talking to me, it was as if truth itself was speaking from them. I often noticed with surprise how scoffers, who had made their way into the company where I had taken him and whose intent it was to make fun of the old gentlemen, forget all laughter and intended ridicule.

They stood open mouthed and listened to the most remarkable things which like an open hearted child he told them about the spiritual world without reserve and with full confidence. It almost seemed as if his eyes possessed the faculty of imposing silence on everyone.

Other witnesses speak of his seraphic look at times, and of the serenity of his face. Sometimes, after he had been talking with spiritual beings, his eyes were said to have been filled with a wonderful light which awed beholders; but under ordinary circumstances his appearance was peaceful and kindly.

Swedenborg is described by most observers as tall, though it appears that he was not much above average height. His landlord Shearsmith said, “Formerly he must have been a corpulent man, but by being sedentary and studious he became thin and lean, and also pale in countenance”.

The Rev. Nicolas Collin, rector of the Swedish Church in Philadelphia , who visited him in 1766, describes his personal appearance this way: “Being very old when I saw him, he was thin and pale. But there were still traces of beauty, and he had something very pleasing in his physiognomy, and a dignity in his tall and erect stature”.

Carl Gjorwell, the royal librarian of Stockholm, who had occasion to call upon him officially two years earlier tells us, “Although he is an old man, and gray hair protrudes in every direction from under his wig, he walked briskly, was fond of talking, and spoke with a certain cheerfulness. His countenance was indeed thin and meager, but cheerful and smiling”.

Swedenborg’s physical activity in his later years was much discussed. Cuno wrote: “In respect to Swedenborg’s external appearance, he is for his years a perfect wonder of health. He is of medium stature, and although he is more than twenty years older than I am, I would be afraid to run a race with him, for he is as quick on his legs as the youngest man”.

When he went out to visit he wore a suit of black velvet, with a pair of long ruffles and a curious hilted sword and a gold headed cane. From a Swedish biographer we learn that “according to the custom of the times Swedenborg wore the usual wig, not too long.

His body was usually covered by a long light blue or gray velvet coat, with an undergarment of black taffeta, and stockings and shoes with large buckles of gold”. Another account says: “His dress in winter consisted of a fur coat of reindeer skin; in summer, a dressing gown, both well worn as became a philosopher’s wardrobe. His apparel was simple but neat, but sometimes he would absentmindedly put one buckle of gems and another of silver on his shoes.

Swedenborg’s manner in society was easy, polished and agreeable. He was equally at home with high and low, dining not infrequently with royalty in his own country and living on friendly terms with his landlord in England. Robsahm says:

He was not only a learned man but also a polished gentlemen. A man of such extensive learning who, by his books, his travels and his knowledge of languages has acquired distinction both at home and abroad, could not fail to possess the manners and everything else which in those so called serious or sober times, cause a man to be honored and made him agreeable in society.

He was accordingly, even in his old age, cheerful, sprightly and agreeable in company. Yet at the same time his countenance presented those uncommon features which are only seen in men of great genius.

The Rev. Arvid Ferelius, Pastor of the Swedish Church in London, who knew Swedenborg well and ministered to him on his death bed wrote:

Some might think that Assessor Swedenborg was eccentric and whimsical but the very reverse was the case. He was very easy and pleasant in company, talked on every subject that came up and accommodated himself to the ideas of his company. He never spoke of his own views unless he was asked. But if he noticed that anyone asked him impertinent questions, intended to make sport of him, he immediately gave such an answer that the questioner was obliged to keep silence, without being the wiser for it.

Owing to a slight impediment he was not a brilliant conversationalist; nevertheless whenever he spoke, all other talk was hushed. Ordinarily he pronounced very distinctly but he stuttered a little when he tried to speak quickly. He was unwilling to enter into any disputes on matters of religion, but if obliged to defend himself he did so with gentleness and in a few words. When he was contradicted he kept silent.

Swedenborg was fond of the company of ladies, and we have several charming pictures of his conversation with them. On a visit to General Tuxen, the latter apologized for the fact that he had “no better company to amuse him than a sickly wife and her young daughters”.

Swedenborg replied, “And is not this very good company? I am always partial to ladies’ company. This old man of eighty-two entertained them very politely and with much attention. Seeing a harpischord in the room, he asked if they were fond of music.

The daughter was persuaded to play, and Swedenborg listed appreciatively, beating time with his foot, and exclaiming when he finished, “Bravo! you play very well. Do you not sing also?” Both mother and daughter sang some French and Italian airs and duets, to which he also beat time, afterwards complimenting Madame Tuxen on her tasteful singing and her fine voice, which she had preserved in spite of her long illness.

Cuno tells of a time that he took Swedenborg to dine at a friend’s house where he met several highly educated ladies. “When dinner was announced I offered my hand to the hostess, and quickly our young man of eighty-one years put on his gloves and presented his hand to Mademois elle Hoog, in doing which he looked uncommonly well. Our old gentleman was seated between Madame Konauw and the elder Demoiselle Hoog, both of whom understood thoroughly well how to talk. He seemed to enjoy very much to be so attentively served by the ladies.”

Swedenborg was never married, “but,” says Sandels, “this was not owing to any indifference to the sex, for he esteemed the company of a fine and intelligent woman as one of the purest sources of delight. But his profound studies required that there should be quiet in his house both day and night. He therefore, preferred being alone.”

Though there was no prattle of children in his house, he often sought their company outside. Himself childlike in manner, he delighted in the company of the young and innocent. His landlady in Amsterdam remarked, “My children will miss him most, because he never goes out without bringing them home some sweets. The little rogues also dote on the old gentleman so much that they prefer him to their own parents.”

Mr. Hart of Fleet Street, Swedenborg’s printer for many years, often received the great man at his house. He used to take particular notice of Mr. Hart’s little girl, a child of about three at the time of Swedenborg’s death. “Heaven lies about us in our infancy,” Wordsworth wrote, and Swedenborg had expressed the same thought years before. Their heavenly counterparts doubtless draw him toward the young. He was childlike himself “He seemed,” his landlord Shearsmith said, “to lead a life like an infant, putting little value on money, and giving what people asked for their goods when he bought them.”

A charming story is told by Anders Fryxell, the Swedish historian, about a bit of playfulness on Swedenborg’s part. “My grandmother,” he says, “grew up in Stockholm where her father lived not far from Swedenborg, whom he knew very intimately.

The pretty maiden, only fifteen or sixteen years old, had often asked “uncle” Swedenborg to show her an angel. At last he consented and, leading her to the summer house in his garden, placed her in front of a curtain that had been lowered. Then he said, ‘Now you shall see an angel,’ and as he spoke he drew up the curtain, whereupon the maiden saw herself reflected in a mirror”.

While Fryxell describes this as playfulness, we see Swedenborg’s inherent truth of the worth and dignity of all people. Are all created in the image and likeness of our God, and everyone is born for heaven. However, we must receive heaven in ourselves while here on earth.

We have many details about Swedenborg’s personal habits. He was most temperate in eating and drinking, seldom touching meat, and never taking more than two or three glasses of wine at a time, and this only in company. Shearsmith says, “As to diet, he never ate any meat. He only took milk and coffee for breakfast, and the same in the afternoon, with a few cakes, and ate no supper.

He was very fond of having much sugar in his milk and coffee, and liked sweet cakes that had much sugar in them, saying that the spirit of the sugar nourished him. He was so temperate in living that he was never known to drink any wine, or beer, or spirituous liquors whatsoever while he was at my house.

He arose generally at five or six o’clock in the morning, wrote or studied until eight when he drank about a pint of milk; afterwards, if he did not go out, he continued to study until three or four o’clock in the afternoon at which time he had another pint of milk or drank a pot of coffee for his dinner, and often went to bed at six or seven in the evening, never eating any supper.”

He doubtless accommodated himself to circumstances when traveling, for Cuno tells us, “Chocolate and biscuits served in his own room usually constituted his dinner, and of this his landlord, his landlady and the children generally received the greater part”.

If he had a better appetite he went to a neighborhood restaurant. He told General Tuxen in 1770 that for the past twelve years he had scarcely taken any other food than coffee and biscuits, as in his old age he was afflicted with a weak stomach. However, it appears that Swedenborg was addicted to snuff.

His habits seem to have been less regular in his own home than when away on trips. His natural considerateness would no doubt make him conform as far as possible to such a mode of living as would give the least trouble to those who served him. But at home, Robsahm tells us, “He worked without much regard to the distinction of day and night, having no fixed time for working and resting.

‘When I am sleepy,’ he said, ‘I go to bed.’ Often he slept for as much as thirteen hours at a stretch, and when in a trance condition would sometimes lie in bed for several days without eating.” At such time he desired to be left alone, telling his landlord not to be troubled as all would be well.

Cuno gives us a good insight into his work habits:

He works in a most astonishing and superhuman manner at his new work. Sixteen sheets, in type twice as small as those used in his former works, are already printed. Only think! for every printed sheet he has to fill four sheets in manuscript. He has now two sheets printed every week. These he corrects himself, and consequently he has to write eight sheets every week.

Swedenborg wrote all his books with a quill pen! But it was really more than that. Every published book had to be written twice. The first copy was in rough draft. He then made a clean copy for the printer, which was discarded as soon as it was set up in type. Just in terms of physical effort alone, this was a prodigious labor.

Despite his enormous productivity, Swedenborg’s work was never loose or careless. Some of his more important works went through several drafts before they appeared in final form; others were abandoned altogether, possibly because he was not satisfied with the results.

Several witnesses testify that in later years Swedenborg used no reference books except the Bible and his own carefully prepared indexes. “Although he was a learned man,” says Robsahm, “no books were ever seen in his room except his Hebrew and Greek Bible and his manuscript indexes to his own works, by which in making quotations he was saved the trouble of referring to all that he had previously written”.

He had four different editions of the Hebrew Bible. However, the one which he habitually used, and which he took with him on his travels, was that of Sebastian Schmidius with Latin translations, published at Leipzig in 1740. This was well used and underscored everywhere. Swedenborg left this Bible to Pastor Arvid Ferelius when he died.

Swedenborg published his theological works anonymously for many years and derived no profit from their sale. His London publisher, John Lewis, wrote in the advertisement of the second volume of Arcana Coelestia:

I do aver that this gentleman, with indefatigable pains and labor, spent one whole year in studying and writing the first volume of Arcana Coelestia, was at the expense of two hundred pounds to print it, and also advanced two hundred pounds more for the printing of this second volume; and when he had done this, he gave express orders that all the money that should arise in the sale of this large work should be given to the British Bible Society for the propagation of the Gospel.

He is so far from desiring to make a gain of his labors that he will not receive one farthing back of the four hundred pounds he has expended, and for that reason his works will come exceedingly cheap to the public. According to Cuno, the public did not always get his storks “exceedingly cheap,” but this was not the author’s fault.

He has published his manifold writings in England and Holland entirely at his own expense, and has never gained a farthing from their sale. All these books are printed on large and expensive paper, and yet he gives them away. The book sellers to whom he gives them for sale charge as much for them as they can get.

Indeed, they sell them dear enough, as I found out by my own experience, for I had to pay four florins and a half to the bookseller Schreuder in this town for a copy of his Apocalypse Revealed. The bookseller himself, however, mentioned to me that the author never demands an account either from himself or any other dealer.

Another little incident in connection with his publishing is worth noting as witnessing to his absolute truthfulness. He wanted to publish his True Christian Religion in Paris, and submitted it to the press censor for his approval. Consent was given with the proviso that the title page should declare, “as was usual,” that the book was printed either in London or Amsterdam.

This was not Swedenborg’s way of doing things. So he took it to Amsterdam and issued the book with an honest imprint. Most of his theological books were published in England or Holland because in those countries, he was free to print whatever he liked. This freedom would never have been granted to him in Sweden, and probably nowhere else in Christendom.

In his later years Swedenborg always traveled alone. He said that he had no need of an attendant as his angel was always with him. Wherever he went he was beloved, and people said that he brought them good luck. Even sea captains swore that they always had prosperous voyages when he was on board.

One of them is reported as saying, “If Mr. Swedenborg chooses he can always have a free passage with me, for during the whole of my experience at sea I have never sailed better”.

Shearsmith, with whom he lodged in London, remarked that “everything went on prosperously with him while Swedenborg lodged at his house”; and Mrs. Shearsmith said that “he was a blessing to the house because everything was in harmony while he was with them”.

For some years Swedenborg seldom went to church, on which account his friends sometimes upbraided him, and his enemies reproached him. Robsahm gave two reasons why Swedenborg did not attend:

1. he could not be enlightened by preaching which was so contradictory to his own revelations; and
2. because he suffered from gallstones or kidney stones.

Swedenborg told Pastor Ferelius that “he had no peace in church on account of the spirits who contradicted what the minister said, especially when he treated of three persons in the godhead, which is the same as three gods”. Some Sabbatarians protested to Shearsmith that Swedenborg could not be considered a good Christian because he did not observe the Sabbath. Shearsmith simply replied: “To a good man like Swedenborg every day of his life was a Sabbath”.

Swedenborg built a small house on the outskirts of Stockholm on a piece of ground measuring about six thousand square yards. Here he lived whenever he was in Sweden. There was a large garden decoratively laid out, with boxwood trees curiously cut in the Dutch manner and an extensive kitchen garden with choice fruit trees. There were several other structures on the property: summer houses, an aviary, and a wooden maze built for the entertainment of visitors, especially for their children.

One of the summer houses was outfitted as a study. This was where Swedenborg worked whenever the weather permitted. This little building has been preserved by the government and now stands in the public gardens of Stockholm in the midst of a beautiful rose garden. Inside can still be seen Swedenborg’s writing table and beloved organ.

He also built a clever triangular house on the northern edge of his land. It had three double doors and three corner windows. When all of the doors were opened and mirrors placed in front of a fourth wall along a board fence, three gardens were seen reflected in it, in which everything was represented as in the same order as in the original garden.

Swedenborg took a personal interest in his flower garden, finding in it relaxation from his work. A Swedish biographer tells us:

I had occasion to see one of Swedenborg’s almanacs for the year 1750 where, with the same preciseness as if it had been the beginning or close of some profound treatise, he marked down when he had planted an auricula or a pink, the time when they bloomed, how much seed he had gathered from them and so forth.

It would be impossible to imagine a more simple and more unworldly man than Swedenborg. Though he had ample means he did not spend much on himself but was content with the barest necessities. He was so trustful that he would send his landlord to a drawer in which he kept his money telling him to help himself to what was needed. At his death he left no will and little property.

16.2 Assignment 16

1. In your discussion with your tutor be prepared to share your perceptions and thoughts regarding Swedenborg the scientist, statesman, and man.

17.1 His Impact

It is curious and interesting to note that Swedenborg recorded in his Spiritual Diary on August 27, 1748, before any of his theological works were published, the following notation concerning the probable reception of the new theology:

Evil spirits sometimes infused that no one would comprehend these things, but that every one would reject them. Now, while in the street and talking with spirits, it was given me to perceive that there are five kinds of reception.

First, there are those who wholly reject; who are in another persuasion, and who are enemies of the faith. These reject; for they cannot receive it, as it cannot penetrate into their minds.

There is a second class who receive these things as matters of knowledge, and are delighted with them as such and as curious things.

There is a third class which receives intellectually, so that they receive with sufficient readiness, but still remain in respect to their life as before.

A fourth class receives persuasively, so that it penetrates to the amendment of their lives; they recur to these (truths) in certain states, and make use of them.

There is a fifth class, who receive with joy and are confirmed in them.

This foresight was quite accurate. Swedenborg’s theological presentations met with differing receptions. Dean Ekebom of Gothenburg condemned them without reading any of them. He further stated that they were heretical and highly objectionable.

The Bishop of Gothenburg described Swedenborg’s teachings as tinged with Mohammedanism and spreading like a cancer. Bishop Filenius stated that they were not grounded in sound reason or in God’s Holy Word. They were simply untruthful visions and dreams.

But some who read them were impressed and saw the truths and believed. Abbe Pernety wrote, “It is singular, or at least very remarkable, that almost all those who have read the writings of Swedenborg for the purpose of refining them have finished by adopting his views”.

Swedenborg never tried to proselytize or force his teachings upon anyone. He believed in the power of the printed word. He presented copies to the principal universities in Sweden and foreign countries. He gave them to the bishops of Sweden, England, Holland and Germany.

He fully expected them to accept his teachings and spread them throughout the world. Instead, the bishops and clergy, with some notable exceptions, treated his theological concepts with contempt and became his persecutors. But Swedenborg, living in “the midnight of the church,” was given to see that God was moving to bring a new burst of light and a fresh meaning of love to his church, and to reinspire our spiritual life. He came to see his mission as one of heralding and proclaiming a new spiritual age by being divinely inspired to reformulate traditional Christian theology.

Swedenborg was led to see that religion is like a clock: periodically it needs to be rewound and set true to time. This is what had happened to the spiritual life of mankind under Divine Providence across the millennia. It has had repeatedly its dawns, its noons, its evenings and nighttimes. Whenever needed God has rewound and set it true to time—not bringing it back indeed to what it has been, but renewing it with even deeper insight and increasing love.

Bishop Robinson, in his farewell address to the pilgrims embarking on the Mayflower said: “God has yet more truth to break forth from his Holy Word.” This conviction, only a little later, was borne out as Swedenborg was inspired to open up the hidden truths within the Bible and to set forth its literal sense in clearer light. He solemnly states:

“I have received nothing of the doctrine of the church from any angel or spirit, but from the Lord alone as I read the Holy Word. All doctrine is to be drawn from the literal sense of the Word, and is to be confirmed by it.”

Hitherto Christian theologians had formulated the doctrine of the church out of their own minds, confirmed it by “proof texts” from the Bible, and had it ratified by duly called church councils. The brightness of the Gospel was darkened and Christian love waned. The spiritual sun no longer shone as it had in apostolic times; the moon of its faith withheld its light; the guiding stars of light “fell from heaven.” It was indeed “the midnight of the church.”

Christian faith was reduced to “dogma” which said that its truths were above questioning and understanding and must be accepted “as faith.” Those regarding the Godhead, the Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, were proclaimed “holy mysteries” not to be subject to any attempt by man to be understood, but only to be accepted. Presented in a way that seemed to make three persons of God it was yet said, “It is permissible to think three with the mind, but yet commanded to say one with the lips.” And since the understanding of God was falsified, everything else of faith was out of line.

Therefore Swedenborg’s representing of true Christian religion could not be in the form of a few palliatives to be employed here and there. It was to be a new formulation of doctrine from beginning to end. Swedenborg was led back to the Bible so as to perceive directly in the Holy Word the truth about God.

The Gospels open with the stupendous announcement that God had come into the world in fulfillment of his promises in the Old Testament. He came as God and man. He was born to a virgin, to whom an angel said by way of explanation of the unique birth:

“Hail, O favored one, the Lord is with you … Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.” Luke 1:28-33

We may tend to dismiss the virgin birth. It does not seem to fit in with what we know of life. We are foolhardy enough to say what is possible and what is impossible, even for God. Yet if there were no virgin birth, Jesus Christ would have been a human being exactly like you and me, and the Incarnation of God would not have taken place. Swedenborg was directly guided to see the truth of the incarnation as revealed in the Bible. God came on earth to redeem and save us when there was no other way for him to reach us.

This was the faith of the early Christian church, which Swedenborg saw as possessing true theology. It triumphantly hailed Jesus Christ as “perfect God and perfect man.” It taught that “God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself” The Gospels are the record of what happened in and through the life and presence of the God-man. What we see is the continuing incarnating of God in the person of the Christ. Swedenborg calls this process “the glorification,” and this concept is his greatest contribution to Christian theology.

At the incarnation God made our humanness forever a living part of himself. In each of us God has his dwelling place at the depth of our being, where he finites his life and makes it over to us as if it were our own. As we welcome that life, by receiving it in the form of what is good and true, we become progressively “living souls,” more and more truly human beings.

In the case of Jesus Christ, because of his unique conception, there was no finiting of the inner life within him; at the depth of his being was God in all his fullness. This meant that if the divine life deep within him were to be perfectly welcomed and received into his outer conscious life, God could come fully into it and be incarnated in all of his being.

This is what actually happened and what the “good news” of the Gospels is all about. The perfect life lived out here before us both manifested and came to embody God in all his fullness, so that the intuitive perception of the corporate church could say, “In him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.”

What was initiated at Christmas with the coming of God into human life is completed at Easter with Jesus Christ, “risen and glorified.” His humanity is divine so that he could say, “all power is given unto me in heaven and on earth:

“behold I am with you always until the end of the age.”

But from that first Christmas to the first Easter was a long and hard way. It was accompanied by emotional and physical agony. It was accomplished step by step by virtue of struggle, unremitting trials and temptations and with doubting even to despair. We are aware that somehow God is within us and yet is apart from us.

We pray to him, cry out to him for help and strength; at other times we rejoice in the peace and sense of wellbeing which his presence brings. Christ’s experience was very much the same. Like us lie was a full human being, with a human conscience and with an awareness of his own personal identity. At times he struggled with his own human powers alone; at other times he was aware of a peculiar union with the Divine in his depths.

The former is called in the Bible “the son relationship,” referring to the two natures within him, God and man. Swedenborg calls these two states with the Christ “the state of humiliation or exinanition” and “the state of exaltation or glorification.”

When Jesus was face to face with evil and falsity, when he struggled with it in his great love to free us from its domination, he fought with his own limited human resources. He was in the state of his own human consciousness, in what Swedenborg calls his “state of humiliation or exinanition”.

God seemed far away and other than himself. Jesus would cry out to him and pray to him for help. Then, when he had conquered that particular temptation or onslaught, he would come into his “state or exaltation or glorification”; he would be conscious of his Godself, of the union of the Divine and the human within him. At such times he could say,

“the Father and I are one: he that has seen me has seen the Father”.

As Jesus held firm in his mission of salvation, as he continued to dedicate his life to the service of God and man, more and more of the Divine came to dwell within his conscious being. A wisdom more than human came to lighten his mind; a love surpassing any that the world has ever seen filled his heart; a power never before seen on earth filled his hands.

He spoke words of life. People were amazed at his teachings with their compelling note of truth and authority. The hardened Roman centurion sent to arrest him said, “never man spoke as that man spoke”.

He poured out love and compassion on all around him; and the hopeless, the outcasts and the untouchables began once again to look up and to hope. Striking miracles were attributed to him: the blind were given sight, the sick and diseased were cured, lame and crooked limbs were straightened, the demon possessed were freed, and even the wind and waves were ordered to be still.

If we are predisposed to deny or explain away these miracles, it is because we do not really believe in the Incarnation and the Gospel’s witness to God in a human life. But all this is written in the holy Word of God, and we dare not put our human wisdom in its place.

The intensity of the struggles and temptations of Jesus did not diminish over the course of time, but increased in severity and depth. It is like when one attempts to shut the door against an intruder. This was what Jesus was doing: closing the door of the human mind and heart against the inflowing powers of darkness.

The last moments are the hardest. For Jesus, the cross was the last and most dire of his temptations. It marked the surrender of the last bit of purely human assertiveness, the giving up of his merely human participation in the drama of redemption.

The passion of the cross marked the giving of the last full measure of his determination to make God everything in him and he himself nothing. Thus at the cross, with the human Jesus breathing out the words,

“It is finished; receive then my spirit,”

the incarnation was completed. God had come fully into the humanity which he had put on as a garment, had glorified it and thus came to dwell in it with his complete deity, so that “in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily”.

The risen and glorified Christ is God in his Divine Humanity, the God man dwelling within forever “with all power in heaven and on earth.”

This, very briefly, is Swedenborg’s doctrine of the Lord: the one God, now divinely human, the visible God in whom is the invisible. This is our God as he has made himself knowable, approachable and close to us; the God of infinite love, infinite wisdom and infinite power, the one person of Father, Son and Holy Spirit as he manifests himself to as in his Divine Humanness.

Swedenborg uses one term for the deity, “the Lord” that encompasses all of the being of God. When Jesus said, “He who has seen me has seen the Father” and “the Father and I are one,” it meant that in him God was revealed in his fullness.

When he said, “no man comes to the Father but by me,” he indicated that henceforth God in his humanness would be the basis of our relationship with the Divine. Since Gospel days we have had a God that is visible and can be visualized, one whom we can readily approach and with whom we can have a personal relationship.

The empty tomb of Easter meant that everything of the human Jesus was kept and maintained in the new and glorified Christ. This was further evidenced by the post-resurrection appearances of the risen Christ to the disciples they discovered that he was still their same beloved master, but appearing now in his divine glory and power.

The risen Lord’s blessing upon his disciples and his saying “receive the Holy Spirit” indicated that henceforth all sustaining and saving power would flow from God’s Divine Humanity. He would dwell among them and lead them in their efforts to build up his church in the world and his kingdom within them.

Swedenborg’s reformulation of Christianity was new from top to bottom. It was a “new Christianity.” No wonder, then, that his new presentation of Christianity proved to be a source of disquietude in Sweden. No one dared attack Swedenborg directly because of the great admiration and esteem in which he was held.

Besides, he was related to many of the bishops and had many strong friends in high places. Thus, the opposition took the form of innuendos, misrepresentation and wild claims. As strong as the opposition was, those moved by the compelling arguments of truth were just as strong.

C. F. Nordenskold was an early Swedish disciple. Johan Tybeck, a Swedish Lutheran minister, was a staunch advocate of Swedenborg’s new theology. He was prosecuted for heresy and deprived of his ministerial office. This only made him more vigorous in his advocacy of the new doctrines.

Rev. Arvid Ferelius, pastor of the Swedish church in London, was also favorably impressed by Swedenborg’s teachings but in a clandestine way. And we should note that C. W. Wadstrom, a prime mover in the anti slavery movement, was a follower of this new theology.

Wadstrom was the first in Europe to attack the iniquities of the slave traffic. On his return from Africa in 1780, he published his Observations on the Slave Trade, which attracted much attention.

The most prominent of Swedenborg’s Swedish disciples were Count Anders J. von Hopken, onetime prime minister of Sweden, Dr. Gabriel Beyer, professor of Greek at Gothenberg University and Dr. John Rosen, professor of eloquence and poetry, also of Gothenberg University.

Beyer and Rosen became acquainted with Swedenborg and his teachings quite by accident. In 1766, Swedenborg came to Gothenberg enroute to England. He secured a berth on a ship sailing for England several days hence. While waiting for his ship to sail from Gothenberg, Swedenborg met Beyer by chance. Beyer at this time did not know Swedenborg personally and only knew of his teachings only by hearsay, shared the prejudices of the times about them. He was, therefore, quite astonished to find Swedenborg quite sensible and very articulate.

The next day Beyer invited Swedenborg to dinner with him and Dr. Rosen. After dinner, Beyer expressed a desire to hear a brief statement of Swedenborg’s religious system. Both Beyer and Rosen were quite impressed and astonished when Swedenborg presented a brief and cogent sketch of his new theology.

After some further study of Swedenborg’s works, both became convinced of their truth and subscribed to this new approach to Christianity. Beyer especially exerted himself to facilitate their study. Besides several explanatory treatises he prepared a voluminous index to Swedenborg’s works, published in Amsterdam in 1779. It took thirteen years to prepare it.

Because of their wholehearted acceptance of Swedenborg’s doctrines, both Beyer and Rosen were subjected to bitter persecution. For almost a year their trial on heresy charges was before the Consistory of Gothenberg. Although their enemies, and by extension enemies of Swedenborg, did not succeed in getting them ousted from office or forcing them to recant, they received royal censure and were restricted in their duties.

Outside of Sweden there were many prominent persons tuned in to the new theology. The Danish General Tuxen was an ardent supporter. John Christian Cuno, who knew Swedenborg in Amsterdam, was also a strong supporter. The Marquis De Thome translated some of Swedenborg’s works into French and promoted their circulation. Abbe Pernety was both pro and con.

He was an open advocate of Swedenborg’s teachings but also allowed his prejudices to influence him to the extent of mistranslating, abridging and in some cases falsifying the author’s statements.

It was in England, however, that Swedenborg found most acceptance. One of the first to recognize the deep spirituality of Swedenborg’s doctrines was the Rev. John Clowes, for sixty two years rector of St. John’s Church, Manchester, a well educated man who led an exemplary life.

Thomas de Quincey in his autobiographical sketches describes him as “holiest of men whom it has been my lot to meet! Yes,” he says, “I repeat; thirty five years have passed, and I have yet seen few men approaching to this venerable clergymen in paternal benignity, none certainly in childlike purity, apostolic holiness, or in perfect alienation of heart from the spirit of the fleshly world”.

He is not forgotten; “his memory is still green in Manchester,” remarked Bishop Fraser. Clowes translated almost the whole of the theological works into English a stupendous task and openly advocated the views contained in them.

Clowes’ introduction to the study of Swedenborg was somewhat remarkable, and apparently accidental. It was in his early life, in 1773, when he was only 30 years old and he had been Rector of St. John’s Church for only four years. A friend persuaded him to procure True Christian Religion, then just recently published; but he was so little interested that he allowed it to lie for many months on his library table without opening it.

One day, however, as he was about to set out upon a visit to a friend in the country, he casually opened the volume, and his eye caught the words Divinum Humanum, a phrase of Swedenborg’s relating to the fundamental doctrine of the “Divine Humanity” of the Lord Jesus Christ.

He merely thought it was an odd sort of phrase, closed the book, and rode off to visit his friends. He awoke the next morning with a most brilliant appearance before his eyes, “surpassing the light of the sun”; and in the midst of the glory were the words Divinum Humanum. He did not recollect having ever seen those words before: he thought the whole thing to be an illusion, rubbed his eyes, got up, and made every effort to get rid of the memory of it; but in vain.

Wherever he went, or whatever he did all day, the glorious appearance was still before him, though he spoke of it to no one. He retired to rest at night and fell asleep. When he awoke the following morning, the words Divinum Humanum, encircled by a blaze of light still more glorious than before, immediately flashed upon his sight.

He then recollected that those were the words which he had seen in the book on his table at home. He got up, made an apology to his friend, and took an abrupt leave. He speedily perused the whole book; his feelings and convictions on reading it are best described in his own words. In a paper left behind he says, “The delight produced in my mind by the first perusal of the work entitled Vera Christiana Religio, no language could fully express.

It seemed as if a continual blaze of new and recreating light had been poured forth on my delighted understanding, opening it to the contemplation of the sublimest mysteries of wisdom, in a manner and degree, and with a force of satisfactory evidence, which I had never known before”.

Clowes found a coworker in the task of translation, in fact a predecessor by several years, in the person of the Rev. Thomas Hartley, M.A., Rector of Winwick, Northamptonshire, a learned and saintly man like himself, who had the privilege enjoyed by few Englishmen, of personal discourse with Swedenborg.

Another Englishmen who knew Swedenborg personally, and fully accepted his teachings, was William Cookworthy, a minister of the Society of Friends, a prominent citizen of Plymouth and the discoverer of Cornish china clay. Several memoirs of him have been published.

“On his first opening one of Swedenborg’s works,” we are told, “the book was soon thrown down in a fit of disgust. From some cause or other, not now remembered, he was induced to make another trial; and from that time forward he became gradually more convinced of the soundness of the views which Swedenborg had taken of scriptural truths.

So convinced indeed did he become of the truth and utility of his works, that he, in part, translated from the original Latin, the treatise Heaven and Hell, and under the revision of the Rev. T Hartley, had it printed in 1778, in a quarto volume by the Friend’s bookseller James Phillipps of George Yard, Lombard Street, London, at his own expense.”

Dr. Messiter, a London physician of some eminence, was an intimate friend of Swedenborg’s, and was also acquainted with Mr. Hartley. In a letter of the latter’s to Swedenborg, he communicates an offer from himself and Dr. Messiter, to provide a home for the aged theologian in England, in case persecution should make it uncomfortable for him to remain in his own country. Swedenborg declined the offer, as he did not share his friends’ fears.

Another medical man among the early receivers of Swedenborg’s doctrines in England was Dr. William Spence. He assisted in publishing the manuscript of Apocalypsis Explicata (the Apocalypse Explained) in Latin, and was one of the small party that first met together, in the year 1783, for the study of the author’s writings.

Other early disciples in England were Benedict Chastanier, a French physician who translated some of the works into French; Henry Peckitt, a retired physician and apothecary, possessed of considerable wealth and wide culture, who bore the whole expense of publishing Apocalypsis Explicata;

Peter Provo, another medical man and the translator of several of the smaller works (the doctors at this time seemed to have been especially receptive); Henry Servante, who edited the first magazine devoted to the advocacy of Swedenborg’s teachings; John Augustus Tulk, a man of independent means, which he employed freely in the dissemination of the new doctrines; and last, but not least, Robert Hindmarsh, Printer Extraordinary of the Prince of Wales, who did more than most, by preaching, writing, translating, publishing, and expending his not too abundant worldly wealth to bring them before the world.

Robert Hindmarsh’s acquaintance with Swedenborg’s writing began in 1782. “From that time,” he says, “I began to search out other readers of the same writings in London, in order to form a society for the purpose of spreading the knowledge of the great truths contained in them.

I expected at first, that almost every person of sound judgment, or even of common sense, would receive them with the same facility as I did myself, and would rejoice with me that so great a treasure had at length been found in the church.

But I was mistaken: and such was the prejudice in the minds of men of apparent candor in other respects that so far from congratulating me and their own good fortune on the acquisition of such spiritual information, I was absolutely laughed at, and set down by them as a mere simpleton, an infatuated youth, and little better than a madman, led away by the reveries of an old enthusiast and imposter.

In one whole year after my reception of the writings, I found only three or four individuals in London with whom I could maintain a friendly intercourse on the subjects contained in them.”

In order to discover what amount of general interest there was in their study, an advertisement was issued inviting all sympathizers to meet at the London Coffee House, Ludgate Hill, on the evening of December 5, 1783. The Coffee House was a well known place of entertainment for more than a century, having been first opened in May, 1731.

It was a favorite meeting place of clubs and Masonic lodges and greatly frequented by visitors to the Exeter Hall May meetings. In response to Hindmarsh’s invitation five persons presented themselves, whose names may be recorded here, as four, at least, of them took a very active part later on in the translation, publication, and circulation of our author’s works.

The five were John Augustus Tulk, Peter Provo, William Spence, William Bonington, and Robert Hindmarsh. After they were assembled, it was found that a private room could not be obtained at the Coffee House; so the meeting was adjourned to the Queen’s Arms Tavern, in St. Paul’s Churchyard, “where we had a room to ourselves and drank tea together”.

This change of place prevented a sixth person from participating in this first gathering of receivers of the doctrines, as Henry Peckitt arrived at the rendezvous after the adjournment had taken place, and failed to discover the new place of meeting.

The outcome of this private gathering was the establishment of a weekly meeting, first held in the Inner Temple, afterwards in New Court, Middle Temple, for the study of Swedenborg’s doctrines, which developed in 1784 into “The Theosophical Society, instituted for the purpose of promoting the Heavenly Doctrines of the New Jerusalem by translating, printing, and publishing the Theological Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg”.

Hindmarsh gives the names of thirty early members and sympathizers among which are several of note. No less than six are artists, sculptors, or engravers, including John Flaxman, R.A., P. J. Loutherbourge, and William Sharp, the engraver.

There was one eminent musician, E H. Barthelemon; three medical men, Spence, Peckitt, and Chastanier, above mentioned; a proctor of Doctors’ Commons; a barrister; Lieut. General Rainsford, afterward Governor of Gibraltar, and several other army officers; and various merchants, tradesmen, and others. Several clergymen, also, are said to have attended the meetings.

In Lancashire, great interest was aroused in the study of Swedenborg through the energy of the Rev. John Clowes, and reading circles were formed in many of the towns and villages, which he visited from time to time. Among the early receivers of Swedenborg’s doctrines, there was considerable difference of opinion as to the desirability or otherwise of forming a special organization for ecclesiastical purposes.

The Rev. John Clowes, who did so much to make Swedenborg’s teachings known, was strongly opposed to any secession from the established church. When he heard that there was a movement on foot in London to establish public worship on New Church lines, he made a special journey to the metropolis in order to remonstrate with the friends there.

He thought it probable, that sooner or later the bishops and other dignitaries of the Church of England would be disposed to revise their liturgy and make it conformable to the truths of the new dispensation”. Time has shown how unfounded were his anticipations and has justified the adoption of a special organization for Swedenborg’s followers. The first regular meeting of the newly constituted body was held on May 7, 1787, and the first worship service on July 31, 1787.

The enthusiasm of these early disciples was great. They gave their time, talents and money ungrudgingly to the cause of Swedenborg’s reformulation of Christian theology. They did not hesitate to express openly their delight and acceptance of these new truths.

So it was not surprising to see this new theology transported to America’s shores. In 1784, James Glen, an English owner of a South American plantation, came across a copy of Swedenborg’s book Heaven and Hell aboard ship. Convinced of its theological soundness, Glen introduced this new theology to America.

His public lecture at a Philadelphia bookstore on Swedenborg’s teachings attracted wide attention. Several converts, who are later to become important church leaders in the Swedenborgian Church, can be traced to this Glen lecture.

The Church spread throughout America and finally throughout the world. Its formal name, the Church of the New Jerusalem, is taken from the vision in the twenty-first chapter of the book of Revelation. Sometimes it is called the “New Church” in reference to the abovementioned chapter’s reference to newness. However, it is better known as the Swedenborgian Church, a clear reference to Swedenborg upon whose theology the Church’s doctrines are based.

17.2 Assignment 17.

1. Reflect on the life of Swedenborg and comment on what stood out most for you in the story of his life.
2. How has working with his story touched you personally and what aspect(s) of his life has surprised you?