kwebtransPreview
Open in TheBrain

Swedenborg

Emanuel Swedenborg

Nickname/Alias: Emanuel Swedberg

Achievements: Laid the theological foundations for the New Church

Born: January 29, 1688, Stockholm, Sweden

Died: March 25, 1772; London, England

Field & Discipline: Philosophy; Religion; Theologist; Philosopher; Scientist

Language: Swedish

Father: Jesper Swedberg

Mother: Sarah Behm

Siblings: eight

Spouse: None

Children: None

Education: Uppsala University

Major Work:

“De Coelo et ejus Mirabilibus et de Inferno”

Life & Times:

Swedenborg lost his mother in an epidemic in 1696. He graduated from Uppsala University in 1709 and the following year traveled to England to study mathematics and astronomy.  After working with astronomers [ met ] Flamsteed* and [ met ] Halley* he became fascinated with the problem of finding longitude at sea and in 1718 he published a method which demanded exact lunar tables.

Swedenborg traveled through France and Holland, spending a year in Rostock, Germany, and creating a total of fourteen inventions before returning to Sweden in 1715. After this he served as an assistant to the Swedish scientist and engineer Christopher [ assistant to ] Polhelm*.  He also founded the scientific journal “Daedalus Hyperboreus” to spark the interest of the general public in scientific inquiry.  In 1716, Swedenborg was appointed Extraordinary Assessor of the Board of Mines by King Charles XII but the position was contested when the King died in 1718. “Daedalus Hyperboreus” proved to be a commercial failure and was discontinued in 1718. However, it is regarded as the forerunner of the Royal Society of Sciences of Uppsala. Swedenborg also published the first work in Swedish on Algebra in 1718.

In 1720 an inheritance from a rich stepmother allowed him to become an independent scholar. He traveled to Holland where he published three works. He returned to Sweden in 1722  and then developed a new method to smelt copper as well as writing a memorial on coinage and six memorials on Sweden’s economy which were read in the House of Nobles.  Part of his solution to Sweden’s economic problems was to stop the debasement of coinage.  His appointment as Extraordinary Assessor was also finally recognized as valid and in 1724 he was awarded a salary.

Swedenborg published his first philosophical work, consisting of three volumes and entitled “Opera Philosophica et Mineralia,” in Leipzig in 1734.  Aiming to understand the process of creation and the nature of matter he presented the first nebular hypothesis, contemplated the relation of the finite to the infinite, and concluded that man completed creation. He decided that all creation must return to the infinite.

His second philosophical work, “Prodromus Philosophiz Ratiocinantis de Infinito, et Causa Finali Creationis,” was published the same year, in Dresden. In this work, he set out to demonstrate that the infinite exists and that it is the beginning and the end of creation. Man plays a unique role in creation because he is the mechanism through which creation returns to the infinite. The connection between man and God is love.

His third work was “Oeconomia Regni Animalis,” published in Amsterdam in 1740 or 1741. He began and published two parts of a fourth work called “Regnum Animale” in 1744 and 1745, but never finished it.  In both of these works his aim was to understand the soul by the way it operated through the body. In the process he explored psychology and anatomy, but eventually abandoned even philosophy because he became too theological.

Around 1743 Swedenborg experienced a spiritual awakening in the form of a vision of the Lord. He felt that this visitation heralded the Second Coming and that his purpose was to share his experience with the world.  He began several (uncompleted) theological manuscripts. In 1747 he was appointed Councilor at the Board of Mines and  resigned his position as Extraordinary Assessor of the Board of Mines.

Between 1749 and 1756, he published the eight volumes of “Arcana Coelestia,” anonymously, in London.  “Arcana Coelestia” discussed Genesis, Exodus and the Apocalypse.  Evil was a product of the misuse of free will, and redemption depends on acceptance of the truth rather than a resistance to evil. Christ had destroyed the power of evil through his embodiment of the spiritual in the physical, and man had only to accept the truth to be saved.

In 1758 Swedenborg published his best known work, “De Coelo et ejus Mirabilibus et de Inferno.”  Between 1749 and 1771 he published eighteen works including “Arcana Coelestia.”  He gained a reputation as a clairvoyant in 1759 after discussing a fire in Stockholm at a dinner party three hundred miles away.  In 1769 he finally publicly acknowledged authorship of his writings.

Swedenborg’s last published book “Vera Christiana Religio,” detailed his views that the spiritual world and the physical world were separate, just like the soul and the body.  He claimed that in the spiritual world the last judgment of Revelation had occurred in 1757.  Swedenborg laid out the details of a new church to establish a new heaven in the spiritual world and a new church in the physical world.  After the publication of “Vera Christiana Religio” in Amsterdam in 1771, Swedenborg traveled to London, where he suffered a stroke in December and died March 25, 1772.

The first New Church opened in 1788 in Great Eastcheap, London. The followers of the New Church are called Swedenborgians.  The first American society was established in 1792 in Baltimore. Disagreements within the church led to the formation of a separate sect called the General Church of the New Jerusalem in 1897.

Swedenborg’s writings influenced and inspired many inside and outside of the New Church and the Church of the New Jerusalem*, including [ influenced ] Pitman*, [ influenced ] Sweet*, [ influenced ] O’Connor*, [ influenced ] Bryant*, [ influenced ] Bigelow*, [ influenced ]  Geissler*, [ influenced ] Emerson*, [ influenced ] Markham*, [ influenced ] Strindberg*, [ influenced ] William James*, Helen [ influenced ] Keller*, and [ influenced ] William Blake*.

Assessment: Swedenborg contributed to philosophy and theology and influenced leading thinkers in many fields for centuries after his death.

Oneliner: Emanuel Swedenborg, influential philosopher and theologian.

Bibliography:

Wikipedia