A concise introduction to Emanuel Swedenborg — the 18th-century Swedish polymath who claimed a mid-life spiritual awakening opened the afterlife to his direct perception — explaining why this largely unknown figure remains deeply influential in Western mysticism.
Transcript
So maybe you've heard or read something interesting about this Emanuel Swedenborg and you want to know more. Well, perhaps the most basic thing you should know, just for purposes of light conversation, is that Swedenborg was an 18th-century Swedish scientist, philosopher, and theologian. Born 1688. Died 1772. The next thing you should probably know is that he was brilliant. He was what people call a "universal genius," a "polymath," a "Renaissance man," ahead of his time. For instance, he was a submarine designer before there was such a thing; a psychologist 140 years before Freud; an aeronautical engineer 190 years before the Wright brothers; he was a mathematician, geologist, metallurgist, mineralogist, crystallographer, anatomist, botanist, chemist, physicist, cosmologist, astronomer—I'm not making this up! This is very well documented. He was an author, inventor, legislator, mining engineer, economist, editor; a poet and a musician. He came up with the first rational design for flight and made anatomical discoveries that were well ahead of their time. He published 14,000 pages and left another 28,000 pages in manuscript. So he was one of those types. But perhaps the most important but also controversial thing about him was he claimed that in his mid-fifties he had a spiritual awakening that opened the afterlife to him while he was still alive in this world—and he was not just alive but functioning with indefatigable energy. You could think of him as having a near-death experience that went on for 29 years while he was living his daily life—seeing friends, participating in the Swedish government, and writing more books. After his spiritual transition, he wrote and published 25 volumes that contain 3.5 million Latin words. (Why Latin? Because it was the equivalent then of English today—it was the most universal language at the time.) He wrote and published with an urgency because he had a message for the whole human race. What he wrote draws on the Bible, reasoning, and his own spiritual experiences to present a refreshing take on Christianity and spirituality. His works give unique perspectives on the nature of God, the spiritual world, the Bible, the human mind, and the path to salvation. They have been a source of inspiration to many great thinkers and artists since. So where in all those volumes, that embarrassment of riches, is one to start? Here are five recommendations, depending on what you are interested in. Heaven and Hell is Swedenborg's most popular book. It tells us what it is like to die—Swedenborg says the actual experience of death is a beautiful and peaceful transition, arand all people are met and welcomed by angels. He says that world is more real than this one. There is a kind of geography of love in that world—everyone is placed according to what they truly love the most. Our choices in this world and the state of our own hearts determine our eternal outcome there. Infants and children who die grow up into young adults there, while older folks grow younger and regain their health and vigor. Swedenborg gets into the language and writing and music in that world, what the homes and environments look like, and even how things look and sound and smell. Check it out. Divine love and Wisdom is a book about the essence of things. In it, Swedenborg describes in detail the nature the two fundamental properties of God: love and wisdom. He examines what might be called the philosophy of creation--including the goal behind creation itself: "an eternal union of the Creator with the created universe." He explores the relationship between the physical and spiritual worlds, asserting that in the way our sun brings light and heat to our world we can see an image of how God's love and wisdom radiate throughout the spiritual world, bringing life wherever they are received. An unusual feature of the book is an extended look at the way the heart and lungs in the human body relate symbolically to the faculties of love and wisdom in the heart and mind. Divine Providence, despite being one of his shorter works, takes on what might be the most daunting challenge in spirituality: solving the so-called "Problem of Evil"--that is, reconciling the notion of a loving God that runs the universe with the existence of the evil, hardship, and suffering that so many have to endure. If God is truly all-loving and all-powerful, why aren't we all rich, happy, and living the life of our dreams? Swedenborg's response contains numerous insights, including the point that God is constantly acting with our eternal welfare in mind. Just as a young child with parents who take them to get a painful shot or limit their access to candy perhaps couldn't see the love behind these actions, it can be hard for us in life to discern which things are good not just for our bodies, finances, and reputations, but good for our souls. Divine Providence is also something of a "self-help" book, showing what the individual needs to do in order to change inwardly. True Christianity, as the name suggests, is Swedenborg's effort to correct, repair, and rejuvenate the Christian church of his time. Throughout his works, he often laments what he saw as the violent, divisive, condemning, empty nature of the Protestantism that held sway in much of Europe at the time, while simultaneously casting a grand, uplifting, transcendent vision of what organized religion could be. In this, his final book, he provides insights regarding the nature of God and of the Trinity; how and why Jesus redeemed the human race; the nature of the Bible; how faith and good works contribute to salvation; the true nature of repentance and how to practice it, and the Second Coming; and the New Jerusalem. The tone of the work is often blunt and confrontational and, when it resorts to reducing opposing arguments to absurdity, devastatingly biting and witty. It is recommended for those with a particular interest in exploring Swedenborg's theological views and seeing the biblical support he offers for them. It also includes extensive accounts of Swedenborg's spiritual experiences. In his multivolume work Secrets of Heaven, Swedenborg, in an unexpected, intriguing, and elegant way, offers a solution to what could be called "the problem of the Bible." Although the Bible may well be the most widely circulated book on the planet, providing comfort, inspiration, and serving as a sacred text to millions, it has come under fire, particularly recently, for its self-contradictions, the seemingly immoral actions committed by people and God, and its conflict with modern science. Swedenborg's thesis, spelled out in staggering detail over the course of fifteen volumes, is that just as Jesus often spoke in parables concealing a deeper meaning, the Bible itself holds a deeper, spiritual meaning that deals not with warring peoples and travels through the desert, but with the struggles and journeys inside our own minds. The creation story in Genesis is not a six-day assemblage of the physical universe, but is the story of our rebirth--how God leads us from the dark, formless void of self-centeredness and materialism into a living, growing mindset, where true ideas and altruistic actions thrive. Secrets of Heaven also includes accounts of Swedenborg's visions, his spiritual anthropology (specifically, his descriptions of the spiritual states of the earliest people) and much more. It is truly an epic journey to take, and a bedrock on which stands much of the rest of Swedenborg's worldview. So Swedenborg was a fascinating and productive author. If you want to see for yourself, click on any title here that appeals to you and download a free e-book. There's no gimmick, no bait-and-switch. We're the Swedenborg Foundation and our mission is to make this information more widely known.