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Swedenborg experienced the spiritual world for the first time in 1743. He published his first theological work anonymously in 1749. The church was established in London, England in1787 when eleven individuals, men and women, received the holy supper, and five men were baptized into the faith of the New Church based upon Swedenborg's religious writings.
The Bible remains the foundational text for the New Church writings, and is referred to as the Word. Swedenborg wrote a number of books drawing on his visionary experience which are now commonly known by New Church members as the "Writings." Swedenborg did not call his theological books the "Writings;" it is the name given them in the church to distinguish them from the other books he wrote.
The primary theological works written by Swedenborg are:
Spiritual Diary (sometimes called Spiritual Experiences) 1747-1763 The personal notebooks kept by Swedenborg of his experiences in the Spiritual World and reflections upon them. They were unpublished until the mid 1800s.
Heaven and Hell 1758. A description of the structure and phenomena of the Spiritual World.
Earths in the Universe 1758. Conversations Swedenborg had with people in the Spiritual World who said they were from other planets in the universe.
The Last Judgement 1758. Description of events in the Spiritual World preparing the way for the establishment of the New Church.
The White Horse 1758. A brief explanation of the meaning of the white horse with its rider from the Book of Revelation chapter 19 as the Divine truth of the Lord's Word.
The New Jerusalem and Its Heavenly Doctrine 1758. A brief summary of the fundamental doctrines of the New Church with extensive references to the Arcana Coelestia for further reading.
The Doctrine of the Lord 1763. A brief work summarizing the teachings about God -- His Divinity and Humanity - with extensive references to the Old and New Testaments.
The Doctrine of the Sacred Scripture 1763. A brief work summarizing the teachings on the nature of revelation.
The Doctrine of Life 1763. A brief work describing the qualities, which comprise a life of good, which leads to heaven.
The Doctrine of Faith 1763. A brief work explaining the nature of faith and its role in the life of regeneration.
A Continuation Concerning the Last Judgement 1763. A continuation describing various erroneous beliefs about the Divine and the path of spiritual development.
Divine Love and Wisdom 1763 A philosophic treatment of creation -- how the Divine finited Himself to produce the natural world and the human race.
Divine Providence 1764. A thorough explanation of how the Lord leads people in freedom to become angels in heaven; also, why He allows evils to occur.
Apocalypse Revealed 1766. Two volumes.
Conjugial Love (or Marriage Love ) 1768. An explanation of the sources of love in marriage and a practical guide for husbands and wives.
A Brief Exposition of the Doctrine of the New Church 1769. A point by point comparison of fundamental Catholic and Protestant doctrines with the teachings of the New Church.
Inter-relationship of the Soul and Body 1769. A brief description of the relationship and interaction between the spiritual and natural realms.
True Christian Religion 1771. A comprehensive overview of the fundamental doctrines of the New Church, including the Lord, the Ten Commandments, Faith, Charity, Repentance, Reformation, Regeneration, Holy Supper, Baptism, and the Second Coming.
The New Church exists in larger and smaller groups throughout the world. There about 30 000 members currently around the world. The current sizes of the four groups are:
The most recent membership figures for the Four Church Organizations 2000:
The four different New Church organizations have their own mission statements and their own visions for the future. The Convention and the Conference are Congregational, and majoritarian, whereas the Lord's New Church and the General Church are Episcopal, hierarchical with counsel or house of National Bishops.
The Conference has yet to develop their own mission statement. But the Convention's mission is to help people to be open to the Lord's presence and leading. The General Church's mission is to cooperate with the Lord in building the New Church in the hearts and minds of all people through fostering first the belief that the Old and New Testaments and the Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg are the Lord's Words, and second, a love for and obedience to that Word. The Lord's New Church's mission is to promote ideas that the Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg are the Third Testament of the Word of the Lord. They believe that the Doctrine of the Sacred Scripture must be applied to all three Testaments alike.
In the General Convention the vision is very local and often very community focussed. Each congregation has its own perspective and vision. In the General Convention their vision is to support formation and growth of groups who support each other in understanding, loving and living the life that leads to heaven, and commitment to growth in the number of active members.
In the General Church their vision is to announce the teachings of Swedenborg more widely to the world than before and to nurture and develop congregations of the New Church to foster the worship of the Lord.
In the Lord's New Church their vision is to improve the New Church in Southern Africa -- to overcome the injustices of the past.
Emanuel Swedenborg, the son of a clergyman and professor of theology, grew up in a household filled with moral, political, intellectual and philosophical dialogue. After his formal education at Uppsala University, at the age of twenty-two, Swedenborg began to travel. While in England and Holland he immersed himself in studying many subjects, including: physics, astronomy, mathematics, anatomy, physiology, economics, metallurgy, mineralogy, geology, chemistry, watchmaking, bookbinding, and lens grinding.
Following this period of travel and study, Swedenborg began his career of public service. In 1716, the King of Sweden appointed him Assessor in the Royal College of Mines. Then, in 1719, he took a seat in the House of Nobles (a part of the Swedish legislature), in which he served the Swedish government for some fifty years. Also, the King of Sweden, impressed with Swedenborg's contributions as editor of Daedalus (a periodical dedicated to the discussion of natural sciences), asked Swedenborg to serve as his engineering advisor. In that capacity, Swedenborg devised numerous feats of engineering to aid the military and industry.
Swedenborg published many books on a vast number of subjects. Two subjects that he made particular advances in were metallurgy and biology. Especially impressive is the work he did in connection with the nervous system; he is generally credited with being the first to accurately understand the significance of the cerebral cortex and the respiratory movement of the brain tissues.
Despite all these accomplishments, Swedenborg was not satisfied with a purely physical approach to studying humanity and the universe. In particular, he wanted to comprehend more fully the nature of the soul and to develop a new, more accurate cosmology than had ever before been proposed.
Based upon his conviction that underlying all matter in the universe was the divine force, he wrote of the relationships between matter and energy, between the finite and the Infinite, and between God and humanity. Among the books he wrote on these topics were: The Economy of the Animate Kingdom , The Brain , The Senses , and Rational Psychology . The last three he left in unpublished manuscripts.
In 1743, Swedenborg experienced a revelation in which he was able to view the spirit world unhindered by physical perception. He writes it was, "... in the year 1743, when he opened my sight into the spiritual world, and enabled me to converse with spirits and angels...." Then, in 1744, he had unusual dreams and visions. Not knowing what to make of these odd experiences, he revealed them nowhere but in his personal journals. Moved partially by the need to understand his own recent experiences, and partially by the direction his studies in cosmology and the human soul were taking, he began a meticulous study of the Bible.
In the month of April 1745, Swedenborg says the Lord appeared to him and told him that a human person was needed to serve as the means by which God would further reveal Himself to humanity, somewhat in the manner of the Biblical visions of the Old Testament.
So began Swedenborg's life as a spiritual revelator. For the remainder of his life, Swedenborg continued to visit the other world and published books revealing the truths he believed God had summoned him to write. (His spiritual writings are listed above under "Sacred or Revered Texts.")
He also maintained an active life in this world, taking part in political discussions in the House of Nobles, of which he was a member, and writing on such diverse topics as Sweden's monetary policy and how to inlay tables. Then, on Sunday, March 29th, 1772 at five o'clock in the afternoon, Emanuel Swedenborg entered into the Spiritual World for the final time, never to return again (incidentally, he died exactly when he had predicted he would). Since then, his Writings have affected hundreds of thousands of people, both directly and indirectly. The universal theology put forth in his works has contributed to the development of religion throughout the world.
As early as 1784, James Glen began giving speeches in America about Swedenborg's ideas. In 1787, Robert Hindmarsh in London founded the first New Church organization. Currently there are four major internationally known New Church organizations and a variety of local, unaffiliated ones. These four are: The General Conference of the New Church founded in London, England in 1787; The General Convention of the New Jerusalem Church founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1817, (today known as The Swedeborgian Church of North America); The General Church of the New Jerusalem founded in 1897 in Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania; and The Lord's New Church which is Nova Hierosolyma founded in 1937 in Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania.
The New Church also believes that:
The Swedenborgian Church
This is the home page of The Swedenborgian Church in Newton, MA. The general
contentsexplore brief coverage of history, beliefs and the life of Emanuel Swedenborg.
A set of links offer access to other Swedenborg sites as well as other materials including
an online version of Swedenborg's book
Heaven and Hell
. Also of possible interest are Sermons of the Week that are archived from 1997.
http://www.swedenborg.org
Swedenborg Movement on
the Web
This Swedenborg Movement page is published by The General Conference of The New
Church. It explores various teaching of The New Church.
http://www.skipem.force9.co.uk/index.html
Swedenborg Foundation Publishers
The Swedenborg Foundation is independently incorporated at the publishing house for
Swedenborgianliterature. In addition to a catalogue of Swedenborg materials, this site
includes a brief history of Emanuel Swedenborg and a glossary of key Swedenborgian
concepts and teachings.
http://www.swedenborg.com/
Emanuel Swedenborg
Web site of the journal Arcana, a journal devoted the teachings in Emanuel
Swedenborg's works.
http://www.swedenborg.net/
The New Church Home Page
This home page of the New Church is a valuable site which covers Swedenborg's
teachings, links to New Church congregations and The Bryn Athyn College of the New
Church.
http://www.newchurch.org/
The New Earth Swedenborg BBS
NewEarth Swedenborg BBS is an independent information provider maintained by Michael
David ofBryn Athyn, PA. The site does not have a lot of original material, but it is a
good collection of material available on other sites, organized in an attractive and
accessible manner.
http://swedenborg.newearth.org/
New Church Outreach
This page, maintained by the Rev. Jan H. Weiss, contains a description of abooklet
about The New Church, a series of short talks, and a description of3 computer programs,
two programs with the Bible and all of Swedenborg'sTheological Writings, and sacred
texts of Hindu and Buddhist Scriptures, theKoran, the Old Testament, the New Testament
and five of the TheologicalWritings of Swedenborg.
http://www.secondadvent.net/index.html
Bryn Athyn College of the New
Church
http://www.newchurch.edu/college/
New Jerusalem Church
http://www.njchurch.org/
Created by Thando Tshabalala
For Independent Studies with Professor Jane Williams-Hogan
Bryn Athyn College of the New Church
Spring Term, 2000
Last modified: 07/25/01