spirtuality

The Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg

 

New Christian Bible StudyNew Christian Bible Study

A new philosophy for a new church in a new world

Photograph of quill pen on desk by Ross Pollack

Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772) was a Swedish scientist, engineer and philosopher who spent his last three decades writing theological works, both Biblical interpretation and more philosophical works on the nature of God, humanity, reality, and life after death.

We offer his major works here (see links in the left column. Or, if you would like to search/sort by language, here’s a link to help you do that. You will see translations in English, Portuguese, French, Spanish, Norwegian, Swedish, Dutch, German and Korean.

If you don’t see a particular work offered in your preferred language, make sure to check our More Swedenborg Translations page where we have collected an additional 70 translations in a wide variety of languages. The translations are readable and searchable here while they wait in the queue to be imported and connected to the site’s Scripture study features.

For Latin scholars and those interested in comparing and studying translations, the original Latin of each work is also available throughout the site.

Swedenborg wrote that he was allowed to visit heaven and hell and talk to people there, gaining insight into the spiritual plane of existence. He also said that what he wrote came directly from the Lord, and that it was revealed to him so that the Lord could establish a new Christian church in the world, correcting errors that had arisen in the Christian churches at that day. Despite these extraordinary claims, Swedenborg himself lived humbly, avoided public speaking, and stuck to publishing books, making no attempt to organize a church.

This site is being created to share those theological works and ideas drawn from them, so people can see and judge for themselves the nature of the insight Swedenborg had.

If you’re new to Swedenborg, here are some works you might consider tackling first.

“Heaven and Hell”: This offers a unique and detailed vision of life after death, with people choosing heaven or hell based on the things they love most in life.

“Arcana Coelestia (Heavenly Secrets)”: This 12-volume work offers a phrase-by-phrase analysis of the symbolic spiritual meaning of Genesis and Exodus. It’s a large undertaking, but if you want to understand the Old Testament, it is a treasure trove.

“Conjugial Love”: This describes how male and female minds and spirits are designed to interlock, creating a whole that is truly human. Some modern readers struggle with its being written from a male perspective, but one can see through the 18th-century language to embrace a vision of eternal marriage as the source of all joy in heaven.

“Divine Love and Wisdom”: If you’re into science, this could have definite appeal. The most philosophical book of the Writings, it starts with the premise that the Lord is love itself and traces the impact of that idea on spiritual reality, physical reality and the relationship of God and humanity.

“Divine Providence”: This work describes how the Lord operates into our lives, keeping us in freedom while working constantly to draw us toward love and heaven.

For a complete and detailed list of Swedenborg’s works and the translations of each that are available on this site, please take a look at our bibliography of Swedenborg’s theological works.

http://newchristianbiblestudy.org/

The Second Coming Is NOW!

 

I am deeply involved in the growing movement of theologians and scientists who are seriously attempting to unify science and religion. In fact, the results of my own labors will become available later this year in an ambitious book entitled “Proving God.”

The Apostle John (1:1-3) tells us that everything in the manifest universe was created from the Holy Word. However, a mere literal interpretation and exegesis of Scripture is inadequate for providing us with the rational evidence for such a belief (beyond simple faith).

The Holy Word is a multidimensional document with layers of meaning that are abstracted from any involvement with time and space. These rarefied narratives transcend the spatio-temporal arena and describe events taking place in the psycho-scape of the human heart and mind. In other words, they refer to spiritual realities creatively concealed within our ordinary language.

Even historically correct events in Scripture portray these deeper scenarios (so archeological discoveries are not the way one goes about proving or disproving the authority or inerrancy of Scripture).

This “layering of meaning” is the patterning principle behind the hierarchical scaffolding of the universe and solves many of the touchy issues arising from our post-modern world-view. For instance, the deeper narratives contained within Scripture offer concepts that are timeless and thus more personally relevant to contemporary life (as opposed to addressing the simple needs of ancient goat-herders).

Without this multidimensional architecture, God’s Infinite Wisdom could not be contained within a finite Book. Nor could it offer us any coherent explanation of how the laws of nature could have logically emerged from our Lord God’s Divine Nature.

The hidden “quantum” vocabulary of Scripture is what will be revealed at the Lord’s Second Coming. The reason I can tell you of these things is because the Second Coming is taking place NOW!

Do these ideas seem anti-intuitive to you? Why?

P.S. If you would rather not wait for my book to come out, you can gain some additional information from several of my previous posts. Better yet, seek out the Swedenborg Foundation. Emanuel Swedenborg’s scientific and theological writings have provided me with the inspiration for my own projects.

Posted on April 12, 2008 by

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