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He was a Swedish nobleman, a contemporary of
Bach, Benjamin Franklin, Kant, Wesley, and Newton, living at
the time of the first full flowering of what we now think of
as modern science. For the first two-thirds of his life, he
was deeply immersed in both the physical and biological
aspects of that science and in philosophy as well. He not
only studied these subjects but also wrote voluminously and
originally about them. His theories about some subjects,
such as brain function or cosmology, were proposed many
years ahead of those authored by the men generally credited
with originating them. He devised a heavier-than-air
aircraft and a variety of other inventions that were ahead
of their time.
Most significant, however, is not any
individual part but the phenomenal scope of Swedenborg’s
accomplishments. He lived during the last time in history
when one person could master in a lifetime the full sweep of
Western philosophic and scientific thought. And this is just
what he did, while at the same time living an active
political life and working as an engineer and mineralogist
for the Swedish Board of Mines, itself a demanding job
because the Swedish economy was largely based on mining. He
also learned a diverse array of practical skills, from
watch-making to celestial navigation. In summary,
it seems fair to say that Swedenborg was a daVinci-like
genius of the first magnitude, what would later be called a
"system" thinker. In Emerson's words (in the chapter on
Swedenborg in
Representative men), he was a man "not to be
measured by whole colleges of ordinary scholars." (See the
chart of his accomplishments.) In sheer volume,
Swedenborg’s written work is so enormous that few have read
it in its entirety. His fully Divinely
inspired theological work alone is not simply
32 volumes long, but densely packed with often profound
and theologically ground-breaking ideas.
How do you judge such a person?
How can we know if Swedenborg’s theology is the result of his own great insight or is truly
Divine revelation, in fact nothing less than the Second
Coming of Jesus Christ? The answer, of course, is that we
can't. Here again, God is seeing to it that our spiritual free will is
protected. As those who wish to do so can find reasons not
to believe that there is a God or that He came to this
planet in person, or even that a particular scientific finding is
true, so those who wish to can find reasons to credit
Swedenborg's theology to him rather than believing it to
be revelation from God.
Consider, however, some of the more obvious
aspects of Swedenborg's life and work that bear on the
believability of his revelatory claim:
1) The actual process of revelation
Swedenborg claims to have experienced was not mysterious
or occult. It was straightforward and completely in
keeping with his description of what is involved in the
death process - i.e., becoming aware directly of the
"spiritual world." The transition, the conscious
awakening directly in the spirit's plane, is something
everyone experiences when their body dies. Swedenborg,
like the Biblical prophets and seers, was simply allowed
to experience it before his actual death and then report
back to us. In free will, we may or may not choose to
believe there is such a place as the spiritual world,
but if we take Swedenborg at his own word, his
description at least provides a reasonable explanation
for how his revelation worked.
2) Swedenborg has sometimes been termed
a "mystic" and his revelation "esoteric." Yet if his
theological work is nothing else, it is certainly not
mysterious or obscure. The reader may believe what
Swedenborg writes or not, but there is certainly no
question of understanding what he writes. Indeed, the
fact that Swedenborg does not waffle or take refuge in
ambiguous prose sets him apart from some other avowed
revelators. His dispassionate philosophic-scientific
descriptions and reasoning, running on from volume to
volume in endless calmly described detail, have more in
common with a lab report than with the occult or the
visionary.
3) Was Swedenborg insane? This is a
charge that has been repeatedly leveled at him but which
has never stood up to even a brief examination of the
facts of his life. (For a detailed review of this
question, see "The
Madness Hypothesis," special issue of
The New Philosophy 1998;101: (whole number)). Swedenborg was a humble, genial man, respected and well
liked by virtually everyone who came in contact with him
(and his life, as a nobleman and scholar, is well
documented). He did not, in short, fit the diagnosis of
"antisocial behavior," one possible criterion for
insanity. Further, his measured philosophic-scientific
prose and careful reasoning make it impossible to
classify him as "irrational," another criterion of
insanity. Was he on an ego trip, trying to show off his
big intellect? If so, why did he ever venture into an
area of such controversy as he must have known his
theology would be? Swedenborg was on his way to being
famous as a result of his scientific and other work, as
he was well aware. Why did he give that up? Or why did
he claim his published work was Divine revelation, an
assertion he knew would excite nothing but opposition in
those church-dominated times? (His revelation did in
fact excite
opposition, including his books being banned in
Sweden; Swedenborg had to travel to England and Europe
to have them published.)
Perhaps Swedenborg had a messianic
complex, envisioning himself saving the world with his
great theological insight? If so, why did he both write
and publish his revelation anonymously for most of the
many years he worked on them? Why did he not attempt to
start a church of his own, as most other avowed
revelators have done? (In fact, the first "New Church"
organization was begun in England, not Sweden, after
Swedenborg's death.)
When it did become known at last that
Swedenborg was the author of the books of the Second
Coming, which caused a good deal of stir at the time, he
never took advantage of this opportunity to go on a
campaign to "sell" them. Although he circulated the
books themselves, he personally would only talk about
his work if asked and then only in the calm, friendly
way that was typical of him. Finally, there are his
repeated statements, both in the books of the Second
Coming and to those
who asked him in person, that this was not his work,
that he was but a humble scribe writing at God's
command. (Those believing in his revelation do not view him as a
saint, but only as a gifted and useful - and quite
mortal - man.) Yet even at that, Swedenborg was emphatic
in saying, in effect, "Don't take my word for it. I
state that these works are revelation from God because I
don't want anyone to think I'm trying to take credit for
them. But it is not my claim that makes them true but
the truth itself contained in them. Let everyone who is
interested examine that truth for themselves, as is done
in scientific investigations, and make up their own
mind."
4) Swedenborg’s desire that each reader
test the truth of the revelation brings up another point:
if there is a God and He made your mind, does it not
seem reasonable that, if He were sending a revelation of
truth for that mind, it would "fit?" Would He make your
mind with square holes and then send round pegs of truth
to put into it? One of the characteristics of the
Second Coming teachings that has been admitted even by Swedenborg’s
critics is the great wisdom and plain common sense they
contain, and on a wide diversity of subjects. Again,
this is not proof, but something else to think about.
5) By the same token, if God was going
to reveal the full rational explanation of His creation,
doesn't it seem likely that He would use a person with
as wide a range of knowledge as possible? Wouldn't it be
helpful to have that person be one of most brilliant who
ever lived? At the same time, shouldn't the revelator be
a humble person, someone who would avoid temptation to
misuse that truth, someone primarily
concerned with faithfully serving God and
their fellow human beings? Swedenborg may not have been
the only person in history who could have fit all these
criteria, but there seem few others who would have
filled the bill as well.
6) There were several famous incidents
late in Swedenborg's life, after it was known that he
claimed to be doing research in the spiritual world, in
which he reported things to people still on earth that
he learned from people in the other world. It should be
noted that Swedenborg only did this when specifically
asked to (and often not even then), not to show off.
These incidents are well documented - involving, in one
case, Queen Lovisa Ulrika of Sweden and in another John Wesley - and there appears
no obvious way to explain how he found out the things he
did if he was not in communication with the spiritual
world. (Swedenborg also accurately predicted the day of his own death.) Again, these facts don't prove the truth of his
claim but are something to think about.
7) Perhaps the hardest thing to explain
by nonspiritual means about Swedenborg's revelation, however, is simply how he managed to write
it
at all. He did not even begin work on it until he was
57 years old, and he began by constructing a huge Bible index
(based on the Hebrew and Greek originals). In the Second
Coming text itself many pages contained large sets
of cross-reference to other books in his revelation and
in the Bible (e.g. New Jersualem and Its Heavenly
Doctrine
306, Doctrine of the Lord
9) - all compiled without benefit of a database(!).
In the next 27 years, he not only wrote thousands of
pages - with a quill pen – but rewrote tidy copies for
the printer. He
then saw the books through publication, did the
proofreading, and attended to many other details. And,
far from doing all this in the comfort of his home, he
had to travel to England and Europe to have his work
published.
Yet all this still does not fully make clear
Swedenborg’s accomplishment. His revelation was not
simply large in page-count terms. It was also of staggering scope, complexity, and
originality, especially in the context of Swedenborg’s own
time. (One reason some of his ideas no longer seem so
original is that, in the 200 years since he wrote them, many
of those ideas have worked their way into our culture by
indirect means, notably in the works of the many influential
people who read his work, ranging from the Brownings to Emerson and Helen Keller.) Could a man, even a
genius like Swedenborg, have accomplished all this and so
late in life? The experience of other people, geniuses or
not, suggests it would be impossible for a person on his
own. But, once again, we just don't know. Whether Swedenborg
was simply another theological commentator like Luther or
Calvin, or the last and greatest of the prophets, is a
matter of belief, just like the question of whether there is
a God and whether He reveals Himself to us in the first
place. If, as the teachings of the Second Coming state, you
are living in spiritual freedom, all you can do is to search
for the explanation of reality that makes the most sense to
you - with the cautionary note that we all have the
tendency, under the affirmative and negative principles (Arcana
Coelestia 2568,
2588), to relate to that which confirms what we already
believe.
A final thought from Swedenborg, made in the
last moments of his life:
"Then, in preparation for the Communion, Ferelius
[a priest friend of Swedenborg's]....observed that in as much as quite a
number of people thought that his sole purpose in giving out his new
theological system had been to make a name for himself, Swedenborg would
do well, if that were so, to deny either the whole or part of what he had
presented.
"Upon hearing these words [Swedenborg] half rose in his bed and,
placing his... hand upon his breast said, with great earnestness:
"'As truly as you see me before your
eyes, so true is everything that I have written; and
I could have said more had it been permitted.'" (The
Swedenborg Epic, p.
432)
After all the huge range of remarkable
teachings that had been revealed to him - "I could have said
more had it been permitted." What other amazing
things might that "more" have included? We will only
discover the answer, presumably, when we ourselves
experience the "revelation" of passing into the spiritual
world at death.
Biographies of Swedenborg:
An Introduction
Swedenborg’s claim to have received the
revelation of Jesus Christ in His Second Coming has been,
not surprisingly, a controversial one. The diversity
of opinion about it is reflected in the various biographies
of Swedenborg, which range across the spectrum from giving
full credence to his claim to outright dismissal of it.
There is a similar range of treatment in reviews of the
books of Swedenborg's theology. Some biographies primarily
cite the works that Swedenborg published himself, which
appear to be authoritative Divine revelation, and others
quote his
unpublished work, typically The
Spiritual Diary (Spiritual Experiences in more
recent translation) and The Apocalypse Explained,
which do not appear to be based on
authoritative revelation.
(The latter work should not to be confused with
The Apocalypse Revealed. For a list of the authoritative works, see
The Second Advent Christian™ Canon of Scripture. For
a review of this issue, see "Which of Swedenborg's books are Divine revelation?")
The
"outright dismissal"
approach is of course a perfectly valid position.
Indeed, it would appear to be an inescapable one for a
non-believer. As Jonsson notes in his biography (listed
below), "Those who do not share his belief [i.e.
Swedenborg's belief that he had a true revelation] can
only try to fit him into the traditional pattern, and
support can be found in the religious-historical view
that the assumption of a religious role is always
dependent on the entire makeup of the individual,
including his level of education." (p. 16).
There is
also no question that many ideas similar or identical to
those of the Second Coming are to be found in earlier
work, such as
Origen of Alexandria's
(ca.185-254 A.D.) concepts about there being an inner
spiritual sense of the Bible (e.g. see "The Theology of
Origen" New Church Life, 1903, pp. 132-137,
206-210),
Pelagius' teachings on free will, and the Neoplatonists' subscription to the
ideas of a spiritual sun and what Swedenborg would later term
correspondences (see C. Sigstedt The Swedenborg Epic,
New York: Bookman 1952, p.
179). The Neoplatonists' leader
Plotinus
also had the
idea of creation coming out of God, as opposed to the traditional Christian idea
of creation
ex nihilo.
However,
the critical point missing from proposals that
Swedenborg took ideas from such sources is consideration
of the extent to which those ideas in turn could be
traced back to earlier revelations, ultimately to the
teachings of the Ancient Church (True Christian
Religion
264-266).
This oversight is particularly surprising in view of the
explicit detailing of this history of revelation in the
Second Coming teachings, such as:
"I have
been informed that Enoch (who is mentioned in Gen.
5:21-24) and those associated with him collected
correspondences from the lips of [the] men [of the
Most Ancient Church, and transmitted this knowledge
to their posterity; and that from this it came to
pass that in many of the kingdoms of Asia the
knowledge of correspondences both existed and was
cultivated, especially in the land of Canaan, in
Egypt, Assyria, Chaldea, Syria, Arabia, Tyre, Sidon, and Nineveh, and that it was thence carried into
Greece; but was there turned into myths, as can be seen from the writings of the ancient Greeks."
(True Christian Religion
202,
see also
275)
"Do you believe that the ancient sages, such as Aristotle, Cicero, Seneca and
others, who wrote about God and the immortality of the soul, got this idea first
from their own understanding? No, they derived it by borrowing from others, who
learned it first from the ancient Word,...." (True Christian Religion
273)
The
important point to note here, however, is that - from a
"believer" perspective - it really
doesn't matter what the apparent origins of the
teachings of the Second Coming are. The rules
of the Ten
Commandments were not original, having appeared in such
places as the
Code of Hammurabi (see
also L. Boadt
Reading the Old
Testament: An Introduction New York: Paulist Press
1984) long prior to their being given on Mt. Sinai. What distinguished the
Commandments from earlier such lists was that God put His
seal of approval on them at Sinai, giving them Divine
authority. Similarly, whether a given teaching
of the Second Coming was - under the guiding hand of
Providence (i.e. Jesus) - derived from something
Swedenborg had read earlier in life or from material he received
for the first time as revelation, it
is the Divine imprimatur of inclusion in Swedenborg's
inspired works that gives the Second Coming
teachings their authority.
The
Biographies
E. Benz. Emanuel Swedenborg. Visionary
savant in the age of reason. (West Chester: Swedenborg
Foundation 2002. Translation of the German original,
published in 1948) - An extensive consideration by the noted
German scholar, basically, though not completely,
affirmative to Swedenborg’s claims. Review of
Swedenborg's theology is for the most part taken from
Swedenborg's published work.
L. Bergquist. Swedenborg's Secret.
(London: Swedenborg Foundation 2005. Translation of
the Swedish original.) Long and scholarly, with
some attribution to
"inspiration" but basically in the Lamm tradition (see below), e.g., with Swedenborg's
"interpretations" seen as influenced by
experience ranging from his father to Pietists and Moravians
to Swedenborg's knowledge of anatomy
and his political experience. Cites both unpublished and
published works.
M.B. Block,
The New Church in the New
World. A Study Of Swedenborgianism In America
(New York: Henry Holt 1932;
reprinted New York: Octagon 1968). A brief and readable overview of
Swedenborg and his revelation, presented as introductory
material to a social history of the individuals and
organizations that were affected by the revelation's
teachings. Objective but affirmative, cites published
works.
G.F. Dole, R.H. Kirven. A scientist
explores spirit. A biography of Emanuel Swedenborg with key
concepts of his theology. (West Chester: Swedenborg
Foundation, 1997) - Brief and readable, basically
affirmative but also ambivalent about the extent to which
the Swedenborg's theological works are Divine revelation and the extent to which
they are a product of Swedenborg’s own thinking. Cites both
unpublished and published works.
I. Jonsson. Emanuel Swedenborg. (New
York: Twayne 1971, reprinted by the Swedenborg Foundation in
1999 under the title Visionary scientist. The effects of
science and philosophy on Swedenborg’s cosmology. ) -
This biography falls squarely in the Lamm tradition (see
below), attempting to demonstrate that the source of
Swedenborg’s ideas was his culture rather than revelation.
Cites both unpublished and published works.
M. Lamm. Emanuel Swedenborg. The
development of his thought. (West Chester: Swedenborg
Foundation 2000. Translation of the Swedish original,
published in 1915) - Lamm was the original proponent of the
idea that Swedenborg’s work was not based on revelation at
all but simply a recycling of ideas taken from other
sources in the history of ideas. This
position has been echoed in more recent work, such as the Jonsson and Bergquist biographies, and the Lang introduction to the New
Century Edition of Heaven and Hell (West Chester:
Swedenborg Foundation 2001). Cites both unpublished and
published works.
C. Sigstedt.
The Swedenborg epic. (Bookman Associates: New York,
1952, reprinted by the Swedenborg Society in 1981) -
Affirmative and, in terms of length and historical coverage, definitive. It is written
in narrative form, as what would now be termed a non-fiction
novel. The book is not a reliable guide to the teachings of
the Second Coming, however, since much of its review is
drawn from the unpublished works, typically the Spiritual Diary
(see "Which of Swedenborg's books are Divine revelation?
for an explanation).
S. Synnestvedt. A
short biography from The Essential Swedenborg.
(New York: Swedenborg Foundation, 1976) - Concise and
neutral selection of passages quoted directly from
Swedenborg's works. All but a minority are drawn from
the published works.
S. Toksvig.
Emanuel Swedenborg: Scientist
and mystic. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1948) -
This brief biography is skeptical of Swedenborg’s claims but
relatively balanced. Cites both unpublished and published
works, but with Spiritual Diary preponderant.
G. Trobridge. Swedenborg life and
teaching. (New York: Swedenborg Foundation 1935, several
reprints) - At one time the popular biography. Intermediate length, affirmative.
Majority of citations from published works. (Most of this
book is available
online.)
Wikipedia entry, "Emanuel
Swedenborg." Diverse collection of
information, typical of Wikipedia. Also typical is the
various authors' attempt to present Swedenborg and his
theology in a fair and neutral way.
J. Williams Hogan. "Swedenborg:
A biography," in
Swedenborg and His Influence. E. J. Brock (ed.). Bryn
Athyn, Pennsylvania: The Academy of the New Church, 1988.
pp.3-27. Brief and affirmative. Cites only published
works.
For Further Reading
K. Akert, M.P. Hammond. "Emanuel Swedenborg
(1688-1772) and his contributions to neurology." Medical
History 1962 Jul;6:255-6
A brief review.
Dunér D. "[On
tremulations. Emanuel Swedenborg's iatromechanics]"
Svensk medicinhistorisk tidskrift 2005; 9:27-48.
"On the basis of his daily life
experiences of water waves the Swedish natural
philosopher Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772) could use the
wave metaphor to transfer the qualities of these waves
to other physical phenomena such as sound waves and
light waves. In the last issue of his scientific journal
Daedalus Hyperboreus (1718), he published an
overview of a new theory of tremulations. Swedenborg's
most original idea was put forward more in detail in a
manuscript of 1720. He maintained that life consists of
waves or tremors of the nerves. The body is like a
musical instrument. He was a typical follower of
iatromechanics, describing the body as a machine with
pumps, levers, bellows and so forth. Of special interest
is his use of the metaphor of the circle. There are many
different kinds of circulations in the body, such as the
blood circulation, and respiration, which are parallels
to the planetary motions." (from
PubMed)
H. Fodstad. "The neuron theory".
Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery.
2001;77:20-4
In 1740 the Swedish scientist and
philosopher Emmanuel Swedenborg described what is the
first known anticipation of the neuron (a nerve cell
with its processes). One hundred years later Ehrenberg,
Remak and Purkinje recognized the nerve cell as the
important element of the nervous system and provided its
first accurate description. Vilhelm von Waldeyer in 1891
proposed to call the unit 'neuron' from the Greek word
for 'sinew'. The 'neuron theory' or 'neuron doctrine',
which emerged at the end of the 19th century, asserts
that nerve tissue is composed of individual cells, which
are genetic, anatomic, functional and trophic units. The
pioneers of the neuron doctrine included
neuroscientists, physicians, a polar explorer and three
Nobel Laureates. The classic neuron doctrine has served
well as the theoretical basis for the great advances in
our current understanding of the cellular basis of
nervous system functions. (from
PubMed)
E. Gordh, Torsten ; G.P. Mair, William ;
Sourander, Patrick "Swedenborg,
Linnaeus and Brain Research and the Roles of Gustaf Retzius
and Alfred Stroh in the Rediscovery of Swedenborg’s
Manuscripts" Upsala Journal of Medical Sciences
2007; 112:143-164
"Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772) at the
end of his long life became famous as a visionary mystic
and founder of a new religion. However, at younger age,
he was recognized as a prominent mining engineer and
natural philosopher, particularly interested in geology,
mineralogy, cosmology, paleontology and last but not
least physiology of the brain. In his Oeconomica
regni animalis (1740) and in several posthumously
published extensive manuscripts, he described and
analyzed e.g. the structural and functional organization
of the cerebral cortex, the hierarchical construction of
the nervous system, the localization of the
cerebrospinal fluid and the secretory functions of the
pituitary gland. In these fields, he presented
remarkable insights and far reaching conclusions which
in some cases have been experimentally verified in
modern times. In spite of family relations Swedenborg
rarely met the 19 years younger Linnaeus. Linnaeus was
not only the founder of the systemic botany but as
physician a keen and to some extent original observer of
neurological symptoms; one of the first who adequately
described motor aphasia. To regard these two men, among
the few Swedish authors of the 18th century whose names
are still internationally well known, as early
precursors of neurological research, seems justified.
The young Canadian, Alfred H. Stroh (1878-1922), had a
crucial importance for the research on the works of
Swedenborg, and the rediscovery of his manuscripts. His
work was supported and financed to a large extent by
professor Gustaf Retzius, at that time the most
prominent Swedish researcher in anatomy and histology.
There are many reasons to be thankful for the important
contributions made by Alfred Stroh and Gustaf Retzius to
stimulate the interest for Emanuel Swedenborg in Sweden
and internationally." (from
PubMed)
C.G. Gross. "Emanuel Swedenborg: A
neuroscientist before his time." The Neuroscientist
3: 2 (1997): 142-147 (also appears in C.G. Gross. Brain,
vision, memory. (Boston: MIT Press, 1998) and in The
New Philosophy 1999;102:429-445)
C.G.
Gross. "Twitches
versus movements. A story of motor cortex." The
Neuroscientist 2003; 16: 332-342
Review of Swedenborg's contributions to neuroscience: sensation,
movement, and cognition as functions of the cerebral cortex,
function of the corpus callosum, somatotropic organization
of the motor cortex, description of the neural pathway of
each sense organ to the cortex, functions of the frontal
lobe and the corpus striatum, circulation of the
cerebrospinal fluid, and interaction of the pituitary gland
between the brain and the blood.
Gross, C. "The
Discovery of Motor Cortex and its Background."
Journal of the History of the Neurosciences. 2007;
16:320-331.
"In 1870 Gustav Fritsch and Edvard
Hitzig showed that electrical stimulation of the
cerebral cortex of a dog produced movements. This was a
crucial event in the development of modern neuroscience
because it was the first good experimental evidence for
a) cerebral cortex involvement in motor function, b) the
electrical excitability of the cortex, c) topographic
representation in the brain, and d) localization of
function in different regions of the cerebral cortex.
This paper discusses their experiment and some
developments in the previous two centuries that led to
it including the ideas of Thomas Willis and Emanuel
Swedenborg, the widespread interest in electricity and
the localizations of function of Franz Joseph Gall, John
Hughlings Jackson, and Paul Broca. We also consider the
subsequent study of the motor cortex by David Ferrier
and others." (From
PubMed)
Gross, C. "Three
before their time: neuroscientists whose ideas were ignored
by their contemporaries." Experimental Brain
Research. 2008 Jul 19. [Epub ahead of
print]
"I
discuss three examples of neuroscientists whose ideas
were ignored by their contemporaries but were accepted
as major insights decades or even centuries later. The
first is Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772) whose ideas on
the functions of the cerebral cortex were amazingly
prescient...."
R.H Griffith. "Swedenborg in the realm of
finance." The New Philosophy 1972;75:283-289.
H. Söderberg. Swedenborg’s 1714 airplane.
A machine to fly in the air New York: Swedenborg
Foundation, 1988)
A detailed
evaluation of Swedenborg's
concept, its place in aviation history, and how a model was constructed for the National Air and
Space Museum, all under the supervision of Dr. Paul Garber,
Curator of
the Museum. (pp. 32ff.).
- Kurt
Simons
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