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Biographies Emmanuel Swedenborg Spiritist
Group of Despite
his obvious impact, Swedenborg's name is still not well-known three hundred
years after his birth. He was an inventor, a scientist, a civil servant, and a
philosopher before he accepted God's call to be a rational revelator during the
Age of Enlightenment. While Swedenborg's genius may be found in all his works,
it is his claim to be a revelator, and his spiritual vision, which truly set him
apart. Historically it has been this claim which has attracted interest in him;
and it is his theological writings that have been the source of his greatest
influence. Swedenborg stands apart from other revelators because of the means
through which he received revelation, its substance, and the process of its
transmission. Because
his Writings are exclusively a written revelation, Swedenborg was able to
integrate in them elements which in traditional religious movements have been
distinct; for contained within the Writings are both the charismatic vision and
the rational codification of its development. In offering only a written
revelation to the world, Swedenborg dramatically decreased the probability of
its discovery. However, by widely distributing his books, he made discovery a
permanent possibility; but it was a possibility over which Swedenborg himself
would have no personal control. Swedenborg left completely open who would
respond to his vision, under what conditions, and at what time and in what
place, or whether anyone would respond at all. In
presenting a vision counter to the prevailing religious and secular paradigms of
the day, he invited ridicule; and, in not organizing a group of followers to
carry his vision into the future, his ideas did not become part of the
mainstream in the development of modern western thought. However, the scope of
his influence, as documented in this book, suggests the unfolding of another
reality, because Swedenborg's legacy has endured. A
biography of Swedenborg and a chronological list of his major works are included
in this anthology because a knowledge of the man and the substance of his
writings may provide some insight into the persistence of his influence.
Background Emanuel
Swedenborg was born in While
all these changes were taking place at one level in Jesper
Swedberg, Swedenborg's father, was born into this reality. Born at "Sveden"
in 1653, the family homestead not far from Falun, Swedberg's life fortunes were
dramatically altered when the new mining techniques imported from abroad made a
family-owned mine once again productive. These additional resources enabled
Swedberg to attend the
Early
Life Emanuel
was the third of nine children and the second son born to Jesper and Sarah Behm
Swedberg. While living in Swedenborg
wrote very little concerning his early life, and except for the following, which
was written in a letter to a friend in 1769, what little else is known comes
from public records and his father's autobiography: From my fourth to my tenth year, I was constantly engaged in thought upon God, salvation, and the spiritual sufferings of men, and several times I revealed that at which my father and mother wondered.... From my sixth to my twelfth year my delight was to discourse with clergymen concerning Faith—that the life thereof is love, and the love that gives life is the love of one's neighbor.... After
his family moved to Both
Swedberg and Benzelius were important influences in shaping Swedenborg's aims
and interests. Swedenborg himself acknowledges this in dedications that he wrote
to both men. Swedenborg dedicated his thesis "Selected Sentences from
Publius Syrus Mimus and L. Annaeus Seneca" to his father with the following
words: "May I grow, with increasing years, in the imitations of those deeds
which have covered the name of my parent with honor and Fame. May I resemble him
in his writings as well as in mind and character." In
1734 Swedenborg dedicated his Infinite and Final Cause of Creation to Benzelius.
In that dedication he states: In
you I acknowledge the source of personal benefit, inasmuch as it was by your
advice and wishes, that my mind, then ripening and eager for study, though
hesitating and ignorant, nevertheless, as at that early age it is wont to be, to
what pursuits to turn, was directed to the present and similar subjects, which
were auguries of a personal career in literature.... And as it was at your
instigation that I applied myself to these studies, so I hope you will in a
measure acknowledge this offspring of my powers, poor though it be, as in some
part your own; and therefore allow that of right it should be dedicated to no
one but yourself. Although
Swedenborg's interest in the natural sciences and mathematics may be attributed
to Benzelius' influence, his fascination with the factual and the concrete also
seems quite similar to Swedberg's vigorous concern for a "down to
earth," living, practical theology; and Swedenborg's distaste for the
abstract in the realm of science is reminiscent of his father's animosity toward
cerebral faith and dogmatics in religion. Therefore, it is possible to see
evidence of his father's character in his scientific career as well as seeing
Benzelius' more rational and universal concerns echoed in his theology.
Studies
Abroad In
1710, on the advice of Benzelius, Swedenborg left for While
in England Swedenborg studied with the astronomers John Flamsteed and Edward
Halley and, perhaps during conversations with them, became intrigued by the
competition seeking a reliable means to find the longitude at sea. He devoted
considerable time and energy to solving the problem, and it is clear from his
letters that he discussed his solution with both Flamsteed and Halley. His
method required exact lunar tables, which were unavailable at the time. In spite
of the criticism his method received, he continued to have confidence in his
idea, perhaps because the problem was not finally resolved until the 1740s,
"when John Harrison perfected a chronometer, successfully used by James
Cook." Swedenborg
published his method in 1718 and again in 1769. At the time of his second
publication, he presented his method to the Royal Society in Swedenborg
remained abroad until 1715, spending considerable time in During
his year-long stay in The
fourteen inventions Swedenborg described to Benzelius were the most obvious but
not the only intellectual fruits of his first trip abroad. He left Upon
his return to
Search
for a Career Swedenborg
had gone abroad to learn everything he could about the practical sciences of his
day. His interest was both personal and civic, for he had dreams of assisting
the modernization of Immediately
upon his return, Swedenborg threw his energy into introducing a journal which he
called Daedalus Hyperboreus, dedicated to practical scientific inquiry. He had
conceived the idea for the journal while he was abroad, and he saw it as a means
of stimulating the development of mechanics and manufacturing in The
question of a career appeared to be resolved when Charles XII appointed him
Extraordinary Assessor of the Board of Mines in 1716. Although the King's
warrant was initially accepted and he was seated on the Board, after the King's
death in 1718 and a shift in the political climate, the regularity of the
appointment was questioned and the Board denied him the seat and a salary.
Swedenborg refused to accept the decision of the Board and continued to insist
on the legitimacy of his appointment. The matter was settled to Swedenborg's
satisfaction in 1723. From
1715 until he was officially recognized by the Board of Mines, besides
publishing Daedalus Swedenborg threw his talent and energy into three other
areas: he worked as an assistant to Christopher Polhem working on a variety of
mechanical inventions and various military projects under the direction of
Charles XII; he wrote several books and treatises including some reflections on
theology and anatomy; and, after his ennoblement, due to his father's position,
he wrote and submitted to the Riksdag a variety of memorials on important
political and economic problems which were plaguing Sweden. Throughout this
period he received no retainer or salary in any position, and every enterprise
was begun and sustained exclusively through personal relationship—with
writers, printers, the mercurial inventor and engineer Christopher Polhem, and
the strong-willed King. During this period Swedenborg was both frustrated and
discouraged about his ability to find a stable position through which he could
serve In
Holland he published three works: A Forerunner of the Principles of Natural
Things, commonly known as Chemistry; New Observations and Discoveries Respecting
Iron and Fire; and A New Method of Finding the Longitude of Places on Land and
at Sea, by Means of the Moon. These works contained a collection of articles
addressing old interests and new ideas. In the work on Chemistry Swedenborg
articulated for the first time one of the principles of his philosophy:
"The first conception is that all things are in series; there is a series
of particles, beginning with mathematical points and ending in water, salt and
earth." Although
he wrote on a variety of different subjects during his stay abroad, it is clear
that the issue of the assessorship was still on his mind and that one of his
objectives in publishing was to become an authority on mining. He dedicated
Parts I through III of his Miscellaneous Observations to Count Gustaf Bonde, the
new president of the Board of Mines, and he published some new observations and
research on mining techniques in Part IV. He also sent a prospectus entitled The
Genuine Treatment of Metals to a variety of learned journals. It was published
in the Nova Literaria. Swedenborg
was called home by his father in the midst of his trip to help settle another
inheritance dispute within the family. After arriving in Sweden in June of 1722,
he quickly helped to settle the family problem and then turned his attention to
two other important matters, one private and the other public—his career and
Sweden's dire economic situation. To further his career he proposed a test of a
new method to smelt copper; and to address Upon
assuming the assessorship, Swedenborg brought to a close one phase of his life
and began another. During this period Swedenborg had touched base with all the
major concerns to which he was to devote the rest of his life: cosmology,
anatomy, and even theology. These efforts notwithstanding, perhaps his major
accomplishment during this period was his persistence in pursuing what he
thought was the right and legitimate course, without much external recognition
and support.
The
Philosopher It
would appear that securing a position of public employment freed Swedenborg to
focus his intellect on what was for him the essential problem of
philosophy—the relationship between the Creator and the world of creation. For
twenty years from 1724 he investigated, reflected upon, and wrote down his
understanding of this problem—both how to approach it and what the structure
of the relationship might be. Although on the surface his published works appear
to be investigations of widely divergent topics, his works during this period
form a series. His first work, the three-volume Philosophical and Mineralogical
Works, was published in Swedenborg's
desire to understand the order and purpose of creation first led him to
investigate the structure of matter and the process of creation itself. In the
Principia he outlined his philosophical method, which incorporated experience,
geometry (the means whereby the inner order of the world can be known), and the
power of reason; and he presented his cosmology, which included the first
presentation of the nebular hypothesis. In 1734, satisfied that he had
understood the mechanics of the unfolding of the natural universe from the first
natural point or the first finite, he turned his attention to the problem of the
nature of the infinite and its relation to the finite. In
the Principia Swedenborg concluded his presentation of his cosmology with a
discussion of man, because in his view man completes creation. In ending this
work with a discussion of the place of man in creation, Swedenborg was pointing
to the focus of his philosophical endeavor for the next ten years of his life.
The completion of his philosophical system required Swedenborg to move precisely
in this direction. Without a consideration of man, who alone of all creation can
worship the Creator, and who can thus return what has been created to the
Creator, his system would be incomplete. However,
before he could examine the manner in which the human body is animated and
functions and is thereby connected to the creator, it was necessary for him to
address the essential or pivotal question of his entire philosophical
system—the existence of "the Infinite itself." At the beginning of
the Principia the infinite was identified as that from which all of creation
proceeds, and at the end of that work, Swedenborg indicated that it is to the
infinite that all of creation must return. However, before he could explore how
that return is made possible, he found it necessary to demonstrate that the
infinite does, in fact, exist and that it is both the first and final cause of
creation—the Alpha and the Omega. In this essay he also found it necessary to
demonstrate why man's place in nature should be examined at all. According to
Swedenborg, "Since man resembles nature as to his body and organs, or as to
means, if he is undifferentiated from the rest of nature as to ends as well,
then the principles which explain the 'least of creation' would likewise explain
man"—making any further philosophical examination of nature unnecessary.11 In his treatise on The
Infinite Swedenborg demonstrated the existence of the Infinite, and the unique
role of man in the order of creation. Mankind is the means whereby the final
cause is effected, and the medium of conjunction between the Creator and man is
love. In this essay Swedenborg emphasized that all man's faculties—his
sensual, his rational, his freedom, and his capacity to love—serve in the
realization of the final cause of creation, each in its proper place. In
The Infinite, Swedenborg for the first time drew together truths from reason and
revelation for the sake of man's understanding. Revelation, as he employed it in
this work, was not a "stopgap" for reason, but an independent and
necessary source of truth. At
the end of this work Swedenborg set as the next task of his philosophical
inquiry "to demonstrate the immortality of the soul to the very
senses."12 This is what he
attempted to do in The Economy of the Soul's Kingdom and in the Soul's Kingdom.
In these works, he was seeking to discover the world of cause from a detailed
examination of the world of effects, or to understand the rules of government
whereby the soul operates in its kingdom, the body. Ultimately, he was
interested in understanding the principal cause whereby the microcosm operated,
or "to trace out the nature of the human soul" itself.13 While
pursuing this goal Swedenborg wrote several remarkable treatises, including his
work on the brain and his rational psychology. Ultimately, however, he gave up
his endeavor, as he yearned to go where the methods of philosophy could not take
him. At the beginning of his quest he was animated by a desire to seek immortal
truth both for its own sake and for the sake of banishing mere appearances of
truth—a desire which is compatible with the pursuit of science and
philosophy—whereas in the end he stated that he was engaged in his labors for
the sake of those who can only comprehend high truths by way of the intellect,
and not by faith. As he said in his introduction to The Soul's Kingdom,
"For these persons only am I anxious...and to them I dedicate my work. For
when I shall have demonstrated truths themselves by the analytical method, I
hope that those debasing shadows will be dispersed; and thus...that an access
will be opened and a way laid down, to faith. My ardent desire and zeal for this
end is what urges and animates me."14
This
passage highlights the transformation of Swedenborg's motivating love or
purpose. Scholarship and a love of truth for its own sake have become
transformed from ends in themselves into means. Faith has become the primary
end, with his philosophy serving as the means. Such an end is ultimately perhaps
more compatible with the love of saving souls, which is a priestly rather than a
philosophic love. It is at this point in Swedenborg's life, in 1743, that he underwent a profound spiritual crisis which is documented in The Journal of Dreams. In his journal Swedenborg recorded his dreams and visions which were dramatizations of his temptation to determine his own way rather than choosing God's. It is important to realize that once the process was begun the outcome hung in the balance. To continue his search to understand the relationship between the Divine and man required more than intellectual passion and clarity—it required his absolute devotion. That devotion could only come about through the subordination of his self-love to the love of God. What may have activated the necessity of temptation at this time, and to this depth, was Swedenborg's joining the love of saving souls with his own philosophy as the means. Prior to his spiritual crisis, Swedenborg had experienced "a certain cheering light and joyful flash" darting through his brain when he was in the presence of truth.15 Thus, whenever he felt any lack of clarity or mental confusion he took that as a sign not to go on immediately. As he proceeded with his investigations he came closer to passing over the abyss between matter and spirit and between philosophy and revelation. His journal of dreams not only documents his spiritual crisis, but also serves as a record of his personal call. I
saw also in vision that fine bread on a plate was presented to me; which was a
sign that the Lord Himself will instruct me since I have now come first into the
condition that I know nothing, and all preconceived judgments are take away from
me; which is where learning commences; namely, first to be a child and thus be
nursed into knowledge, as is the case with me now.16 With
this realization, Swedenborg was ready to put aside his philosophical studies in
order to focus all his attention on the spiritual. But how? It was not
absolutely clear to him what he ought to do. At this time he began a manuscript
entitled The Worship and Love of God, of which he published the first two parts
in The
third part of this work Swedenborg left unfinished in manuscript form, abandoned
in mid-sentence; in this section he intended to move beyond a poetic summary of
his published philosophical works to present a treatise on the Sun of Life. A
consideration of both man's freedom and the fall were to be incorporated in the
discussion. The literary metaphor with which he chose to illustrate these things
was a vision of the spiritual sun, seen by the first married pair as they awoke
from the conjugal bed. But perhaps he became concerned that this direction was
based too much on his own private vision, and violated his own concern that the
rules of evidence be followed. It became apparent to him that the more objective
path was to be found in the study of the Holy Bible or the Lord's Word.
The
Revelator In
his study of the Word, Swedenborg interiorly heard the Lord calling. In a small
unpublished manuscript entitled The Messiah About to Come, he wrote down
passages that held special meaning for him—perhaps they are the passages in
which he could hear the Lord most clearly speaking to him. At the end of the
manuscript is a brief note written in Swedish on Desiring
to direct his life to serving the Lord, Swedenborg saw no further need to remain
abroad, and he abandoned his projects and returned to In
1747 he was appointed first Councillor at the Board of Mines. Swedenborg,
realizing that the responsibilities of such a promotion would hinder the more
important spiritual work he was doing, asked to be passed over for this
appointment and then he submitted his resignation from the College. The
King accepted his resignation with mixed feelings: gratitude for Swedenborg's
steadfast and faithful service to As
he grew to understand it, that commission required both intellectual and
spiritual preparation. The need for such preparation, according to Swedenborg's
own testimony, lay in the nature of the revelation he was to receive. As he
stated in Arcana Coelestia, internal revelation, or revelation from perception,
requires preparation of the mind and soul, in order to create a foundation for
it. External revelations through dreams, visions or hearing a voice, on the
other hand, such as those received by the Jewish prophets, do not require a
similar foundation. Revelations of this kind are revelations without perception
or understanding. That
Swedenborg's understanding of scripture deepened and changed from the time he
felt his call until his first theological work (Arcana Coelestia) was published,
is made obvious through comparison. The Arcana was his fourth effort to unfold
the hidden meaning of Genesis. According to Swedenborg himself, it was begun
only after a change of state had occurred within him which permitted him to view
"the heavenly kingdom in an image."18
With this change of state the last veil had been removed and he had achieved the
degree of perception necessary to be an instrument of a rational revelation.
From seeing Genesis first as cosmology, as he did in "The History of
Creation as Given by Moses," and then as historical prophecy as he had in
both in the "Biblical Index" and The Word Explained, he was ultimately
led to see that Genesis treats primarily of the process of the Lord's
glorification and man's regeneration. With reference to man, the story of
creation refers not to man's first creation an earth, but rather to his second
or essential creation—his spiritual birth.
Swedenborg's
Public The
eight quarto volumes of the Arcana Coelestia were published anonymously in Because
Swedenborg was an instrument of an internal revelation, his spiritual mission
took place in both the spiritual and natural worlds. He believed that his
commission to the natural world entailed only that he should faithfully write,
publish, and disseminate the heavenly truths that were revealed to him by the
Lord. This is all that he did during the twenty-three years of his public
mission. He never put any effort into direct proselytizing or into organizing a
new church, nor did he personally attempt to convert anyone to his views.
Throughout this time he underwrote all of the expense necessary to fulfill this
mission, and whatever income he received from the sale of these books he
directed his printer to reinvest in their publication. He sold his books below
cost and he also sent many copies of his works to libraries, prelates, and
various other notable individuals. During this time from 1749 to 1771 he
published eighteen separate theological works. The
scope of Swedenborg's theological writings is immense. Two of his works, Arcana
Coelestia and Apocalypse Revealed, expound the internal sense of Genesis, a
portion of Exodus, and the Apocalypse, utilizing the doctrine of correspondences
to do so. In some of the other works he published he discusses such topics as:
life in heaven and bell, the Last Judgment, Divine providence, the doctrine of
the Lord, the doctrine of the Sacred Scripture, life in the universe, marriage
love, and the essentials of the true Christian religion. Swedenborg's
religious teachings provide a new vision of God, new insight into the nature of
the relationship between the spiritual and natural worlds, and a universal and
rational ethic to guide men to a useful life. It is a radical and rational
Christian religion: radical because it breaks with both Catholic and Protestant
traditional interpretations of the Trinity, original sin, the atonement, and
imputation and justification; and rational because the focus of its theology is
the penetration and clarification of the mysteries of faith, through which a new
understanding of salvation emerges which grants man cooperative efficacy in
spiritual things. While engaged in making known these new spiritual truths,
Swedenborg was able to maintain his anonymity for only the first ten years of
his mission. An extraordinary experience that he had while attending a dinner
party in Göteborg in 1759, in which he reported a fire in As
knowledge of his authorship of these religious books increased, men began to
seek him out to discuss them with him. Swedenborg almost always obliged;
however, by this time had gained notoriety in some circles as a mad visionary.
This was due to his reputation as a clairvoyant, the nature of his claim to be
able to see into the spiritual world, and to his descriptions of that world.
Many people who sought him out did so more from curiosity than for
enlightenment. He refused to demonstrate his spiritual prowess but was always
delighted to discuss religious issues with sincere seekers. Because
of restrictions on the freedom of the press in It
would be over one hundred years before an official
Swedenborg's
According
to Swedenborg, the purpose of spiritual and natural creation was to form a
heaven from the human race. However, this required free response on the part of
man, and provision for his salvation. The spiritual world, of which heaven is a
part, is the world of causes, while the natural world is that of effects.
Therefore, for a new revelation to be truly new and universal, it must reveal
the world of causes which was for so long hidden from man, and it must
essentially address the question of order at that level; for so far as the world
of causes is ordered, so will be the world of effects. Thus, the major events
which surround the formation of this new church occurred in the spiritual world,
according to Swedenborg. Thus, the last judgment which is referred to in the
book of Revelation, was an event which took place in the spiritual world in
1757. Once that judgment took place, this world of causes was prepared for the
establishment of a new heaven there. Both this new heaven and new church were to
be founded on a more interior or essential vision of the conjunction of good and
truth in the Divine Human of the Lord Jesus Christ. The new heaven would be
established among the good departed souls who had not received a clear
understanding of the Lord as a result of their experiences in the Christian
church before their death, or who at death knew little or nothing about
Christianity. Swedenborg's
role in the spiritual world was to serve as an instrument whereby the world of
cause could be conjoined to the world of effect, not just for the sake of his
own salvation, but for all men. For in The True Christian Religion, his last
published work, Swedenborg details the universal theology of the new church, and
informs mankind that with the advent of the The
publication of The True Christian Religion inscribed by the "Lord's
command" with the words "Servant of the Lord Jesus Christ,"
marked the culmination of Swedenborg's dual mission—to serve as an instrument
for the establishment of a new heaven, and a new church on earth. These, he
believed, would be established by the Lord alone among those who freely
acknowledged His sovereignty and led a good life. Shortly
after the publication of The True Christian Religion in Jane
K. Williams-Hogan, Ph.D.
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Endearing
Gems From Francisco C. Xavier And
for the rest of our lives
Heaven
and Hell
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