SCRIBE of HEAVEN The New Century Edition of the Works of Emanuel Swedenborg Jonathan S. Rose Series Editor Stuart Shotwell Managing Editor EDITORIAL COMMITTEE Wendy E. Closterman Lisa Hyatt Cooper George F. Dole David B. Eller Robert H. Kirven† Sylvia Shaw Alice B. Skinner SC RIBE of HEAVEN Swedenborg’s Life, Work, and Impact Essays contributed by George F. Dole, David B. Eller, Olle Hjern, Robert H. Kirven, Jean-François Mayer, Frank S. Rose, Jonathan S. Rose, Alice B. Skinner, Richard Smoley, and Jane Williams-Hogan Edited by Jonathan S. Rose, Stuart Shotwell, and Mary Lou Bertucci SWEDENBORG FOUNDATION West Chester, Pennsylvania © Copyright 2005 by the Swedenborg Foundation, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any informa- tion storage or retrieval system, without prior permission from the publisher. Printed in the United States of America ISBN (paperback) 0-87785-474-2 Excerpt from “The Tuft of Flowers” from The Poetry of Robert Frost, edited by Edward Connery Lathem. Copyright 1962 by Robert Frost, Copyright 1934, © 1969 by Henry Holt and Company. Reprinted by permission of Henry Holt and Company, LLC. Permission to translate “Emanuel Swedenborg” by Jorge Luis Borges courtesy of the estate of Jorge Luis Borges. Façade for Tomb of Sarah Morley courtesy of The Conway Library, Courtauld Institute of Art, London. Headpiece illustration from the foreword of The Garden behind the Moon: A Real Story of the Moon Angel by Howard Pyle courtesy of the Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, Delaware. Jacob’s Ladder by William Blake copyright The Trustees of the British Museum. Photograph of Helen Keller courtesy of the American Foundation for the Blind. Used with permission of the American Foundation for the Blind, Helen Keller Archives. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Emanuel Swedenborg. Scribe of heaven : Swedenborg’s life, work, and impact / essays contributed by George F. Dole . [et al.] ; edited by Jonathan S. Rose, Stuart Shotwell, and Mary Lou Bertucci. p. cm. — (The new century edition of the works of Emanuel Swedenborg) Also published as: Emanuel Swedenborg. "A Swedenborg bibliography": p. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-87785-474-2 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Swedenborg, Emanuel, 1688–1772. I. Dole, George F. II. Rose, Jonathan, 1956– . III. Shotwell, Stuart, 1953– . IV. Bertucci, Mary Lou. V. Title. VI. Series: Swedenborg, Emanuel, 1688–1772. Works. English. 2000 BX8748.E46 2005b 289'.4'092—dc21 [B] 00-048255 This book is printed on acid-free paper that meets the American National Standards Institute Z39.48-1992 standard. Additional editorial assistance by Alicia L. Dole Cover, diagrams, and map designed by Caroline Kline Text designed by Joanna V. Hill Index compiled by Bruce Tracy Typeset by Alicia L. Dole A hardcover edition of this book was published simultaneously under the title Emanuel Swedenborg: Essays for the New Century Edition on His Life, Work, and Impact (ISBN 0-87785-473-4). For information contact: Swedenborg Foundation 320 North Church Street West Chester, PA 19380 USA Contents Preface Jonathan S. Rose and Stuart Shotwell vii Swedenborg’s Life The Inner Journey of Emanuel Swedenborg Richard Smoley 3 Theological Works Swedenborg’s Garden of Theology: An Introduction to Swedenborg’s Published Theological Works Jonathan S. Rose 53 Swedenborg’s Modes of Presentation, 1745–1771 George F. Dole 99 Swedenborg’s Manuscripts Frank S. Rose 117 Cultural Impact The Influence of Emanuel Swedenborg in Scandinavia Olle Hjern 151 Swedenborg and Continental Europe Jean-François Mayer 167 Selected Examples of Swedenborg’s Influence in Great Britain and the United States Robert H. Kirven and David B. Eller 195 v vi ESSAYS on EMANUEL SWEDENBORG Organizational Impact Swedenborgian Churches and Related Institutions in Great Britain, the United States, and Canada Jane Williams-Hogan and David B. Eller 245 New Church (Swedenborgian) Societies in the United States and Canada, 1790–2003 311 Examples of Internationalization: The New Church in Africa Jane Williams-Hogan 317 An Alternative Approach to Studying Swedenborg’s Impact Swedenborg’s Influence: The Power of Three Selected Ideas Alice B. Skinner 339 Bibliographies and Index Recommended Works David B. Eller 375 Annotated Bibliography of Swedenborg’s Writings Jonathan S. Rose 385 Works Cited 521 Index 559 Preface JONATHAN S. ROSE AND STUART SHOTWELL HIS volume is a companion to the New Century Edition of the Tworks of Emanuel Swedenborg.1 Although the New Century Edition translations have prefaces, introductions, and notes to provide background information and to set the works in the context both of Swedenborg’s other writings and of their intellectual milieu, the editorial committee per- ceived a need for a companion volume that would explore Swedenborg’s biography, writings, and influence more intensively. The volume has been divided into parts in accordance with this purpose: biography is treated in the section titled “Swedenborg’s Life”; writings in “Theological Works”; and influence in the sections titled “Cultural Impact,” “Organizational Im- pact,” and “An Alternative Approach to Studying Swedenborg’s Impact.” The first part, “Swedenborg’s Life,” presents an overview by Richard Smoley of Swedenborg’s life and career, showing Swedenborg’s constant drive to investigate scientifically the phenomena of this world. Smoley explains the turn Swedenborg’s life took toward theological interests and spiritual experiences as an extension of this drive—that is, as stemming from a desire to see the deepest possible reality. The second part, “Theological Works,” contains three essays on the material Swedenborg wrote as the result of his spiritual awakening. Jonathan S. Rose’s essay in this section uses a comparison between Swedenborg’s theology and the plan of his garden in Stockholm as an explanatory device to survey his theological perspective and some of its many interesting features. George F. Dole then presents some thoughts on the sequence in which Swedenborg published his theological titles. Dole explains why these volumes are of greatly varying lengths, what pressures seem to have directed and shaped each work in the series, and even why individual titles seem to be aimed at widely different audiences. 1. For a list of works in the New Century Edition series, see page 98 below. vii viii ESSAYS on EMANUEL SWEDENBORG Frank S. Rose follows this look at the published theological works with an analysis of the theological material Swedenborg left in unpublished form. Rose makes the observation that although these numerous manuscripts have often been seen as authorial false starts or dead ends, they were in fact critical to the development of the works actually published by Swedenborg. After thus summarizing Swedenborg’s life and work, the volume shifts its focus to studies of his impact. It turns first to examine the great number of individuals, acting outside the organized Swedenborgian groups, who were significantly influenced by Swedenborg’s insights, and especially those among them who went on to found or participate in social, philosophical, or religious movements on which the label “Swedenborgian” does not fit well. Such individuals and movements are treated in the third part of the volume, “Cultural Impact.” Olle Hjern begins this section by describing how his homeland of Sweden and the surrounding countries of Scandinavia were affected by Swedenborg’s writings. Hjern presents little-known and surprising evi- dence for the lasting resonance of Swedenborg’s works in Swedish Lutheran culture, as well as in Swedish ecumenicism and antislavery movements. Jean-François Mayer then discusses the response to Swedenborg in the rest of continental Europe. From Mayer we learn how Goethe and Schelling took Swedenborg to heart, and thereby made his teachings a part of the Romantic movement. We learn that some see the architects of the French Revolution as moved by Swedenborg, although others deny any such connection. We also discover that Swedenborg’s teachings may have served as the basis of the Russian Project of the Holy Alliance; that they definitely had something directly to do with the emancipation of millions of Russian serfs; that they were held in high regard by Mouravieff and the Russian nobility; and that they proved significant in the develop- ment of Dostoevsky’s thought. At the close of this section, Robert H. Kirven and David B. Eller deal with the area where Swedenborg’s writings had the most visible conse- quences: the English-speaking world—especially Great Britain and the United States. Kirven and Eller point to the response of Blake, Emerson, Whitman, and others; and to the incorporation of Swedenborgian con- cepts in several nineteenth-century movements, including Shakerism, utopianism, homeopathy, and vegetarianism. From this survey of cultural impact, the topic shifts in the fourth part of the volume to what is here called “organizational impact” (in a preface ix distinction from “cultural impact” that is admittedly somewhat artifi- cial), meaning the development of institutions that are self-described as “Swedenborgian” or “New Church” in orientation. For although Swedenborg himself took no steps to institutionalize his theological perspective, his writings did lead directly to the founding of a number of churches, publishing houses, and other organizations. Institutions all over the world could have been included here, but the focus has been restricted to just two regions. The first is, once more, the English-speaking world of Great Britain, the United States, and Canada. Jane Williams-Hogan and David B. Eller survey the institutional re- sponses to Swedenborg’s works in these lands—particularly the rather tur- bulent histories of the four major branches of the Swedenborgian church. In addition, they discuss the colleges, schools, and publishing houses that have arisen there in reaction to Swedenborg’s teachings. The second re- gion is Africa, covered in a separate essay by Jane Williams-Hogan.