Better copy of Tafel documents now online
By Swedenborg Project | April 7, 2013
A copy of the Documents is now online in several formats
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Rotch Edition of Swedenborg’s inspired works now online
By Swedenborg Project | March 22, 2013
The Rotch Edition is unique since it was produced under the auspices of a major publisher, the Riverside Press of Houghton Mifflin. This presumably produced an editorially polished piece of work. It is thus of interest to compare the Rotch with completely in-house editions.
Topics: Issues, Theology | No Comments »
Kirven’s “A Concise Overview of Swedenborg’s Theology” is now online
By Swedenborg Project | February 10, 2013
A scholarly but highly readable study guide, with discussion questions and organized readings.
From the Introduction:
“ This course is an “overview”that it involves a somewhat cursory view of the theology found in the whole body of Swedenborg’s theological writings, and also in the sense that this content will be seen as much as possible as a whole—with some attention to the structure of the theological system that is found in those volumes. It is something like a map-maker’s photograph of the earth from a high-flying plane or a satellite: it should provide a perception of enough detail that every part of the system can be recognized for what it is, but at the same time all the parts can be seen together, emphasizing their relationships to one another.”
Topics: Issues, Theology | No Comments »
Full Swedenborg Concordance now on line
By Swedenborg Project | July 3, 2012
The Swedenborg Concordance is now completerly online in a variety of formats.
Topics: Issues, Theology | 1 Comment »
The Swedenborg Project is Relaunching New Church Now
By Swedenborg Project | June 30, 2012
The Swedenborg Project acquired New Church Now in June and relaunched it as an open community of people around the world that read and believe what Emanuel Swedenborg wrote.
New Church Now is a multi-denominational, non-denominational, any/every tradition place where people from any local church or no local church can connect and invite their friends into the global network of people who read and believe what Emanuel Swedenborg wrote. It is an independent social network of affirmative New Church and Swedenborgian people where users can stay connected, update their friends on their status, form groups, invite friends, write blogs, live chat with people worldwide, participate in forum discussions, schedule or attend local events, share photos and videos, and stay connected with their walk of faith, congregational life, and love for all things Swedenborg in a positive community environment.
Every person who joins New Church Now is asked to confirm that they are affirmative towards what Emanuel Swedenborg wrote (a simple “Yes” to a Yes/No question, nothing too deep) in order to provide a friendly community environment that people will be excited to be a part of.
The site is, and always will be, structured as a Pay-If-You-Want-To site, where users can join for FREE or DONATE if they want to support the expansion and development of the community and forward the mission of The Swedenborg Project, Inc.
It’s simple to JOIN TODAY by simply visiting http://www.newchurchnow.com/main/authorization/signUp and signing up. And once you are a member its easy to invite your friends.
PLEASE NOTE: NEW CHURCH NOW IS PART OF THE SWEDENBORG PROJECT, ALL DONATIONS ARE TAX DEDUCTIBLE TO THE FULLEST EXTENT ALLOWED BY LAW.
New Church Now is owned and operated by us, The Swedenborg Project, Inc., which is registered in the state of Maryland and has been classified by the Internal Revenue Service as a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt non-profit foundation; gifts to the organization are deductible as charitable contributions for federal and Maryland income tax purposes. You can also support The Swedenborg Project by sending a check or money order to
The Swedenborg Project, Inc.
PO Box 6382
Lutherville, MD 21093
The Swedenborg Project is registered with Guidestar
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Kingslake’s “Inner Light” is now online
By Swedenborg Project | May 30, 2012
Brian Kingslake’s superb introduction to the teachings of the Second Coming, Inner Light; Swedenborg Explores the Spiritual Dimension, is now online on the Swedenborg Digital Library. The text is lively and covers a lot of territory in a remarkably short space. One of the few introductory works that I’m aware of that you can hand to almost anybody.
Topics: Theology | No Comments »
New Church Now
By Swedenborg Project | November 12, 2011
New Church Now is a multi-denominational, non-denominational, any/every tradition place where people from any local church or no local church can connect and invite their friends into the global network of people who know about and use what Emanuel Swedenborg wrote. It is an independent social network of affirmative New Church and Swedenborgian people where users can stay connected, update their friends on their status, form groups, invite friends, write blogs, live chat with friends, participate in forum discussions, schedule or attend local events, share photos and videos, and stay connected with their walk of faith, congregational life, and love for all things Swedenborg in a positive community environment.
New Church Now is by-invitation-only to increase its reach and support its mission of providing a positive online community for its user base through increased visitor engagement and participation. Every person who registers is asked to confirm that they are affirmative towards what Emanuel Swedenborg wrote (a simple “Yes” to a Yes/No question, nothing too deep) in order to provide a friendly community environment that people will be excited to invite their friends to join.
The site is, and always will be, structured as a Pay-If-You-Want-To site, where users can join for FREE or pay up to $99.95/month if they want to support the expansion and development of the community. It’s simple to join and once you are a member its easy to invite others.
(From New Church Now document)
Topics: Issues, News | 2 Comments »
Jesus and Paul on the Eternity of Marriage
By Swedenborg Project | August 22, 2011
The relationship between male and female, the Bible tells us, is a “very good” (Genesis 1:31) component of creation, and God even created them in His “image” and “likeness” (Genesis 1: 26, 27). Positive marriage-related teachings or images are also cited repeatedly throughout the Bible (e.g. Genesis 2:18, 24, 29:22 Mark 10:9, Matthew 19:5-6, Psalm 19:5, Isaiah 61:10, 62:5, Jeremiah 25:10, 33:11, Joel 2:16, Matthew 9:15, 25:6, 11, 2 Samuel 17:3, Psalm 19:5, Revelation 21:9). Why then would Jesus apparently turn around and say to the Sadducees that there is no marriage in heaven (Luke 20: 34-37, Matthew 22:29-30; Mark 12: 24, 25)? The picture clarifies when the audience Jesus was talking to is made clear. In the culture of that time, women and marriage both had a very low status. Women could be “given” in marriage (Luke 20:34) like a piece of property (Genesis 24). They could be bought and sold (Genesis 29, Ruth 4:10, Hosea 3:2) and they were subject to polygamy (Genesis 26:34; 28:9, 36:2; 36:3). So marriage as the people of that time understood it does not exist in heaven.
Direct evidence that true marriage does occur in heaven is provided by Swedenborg’s experience there, where he saw weddings (e.g. Marriage Love 1,19-21, True Christian Religion 746-748) and spoke with married couples (e.g. Marriage Love 42, 137, 208, 355), wives (e.g. Marriage Love 293, 55) and husbands (e.g. Marriage Love 156c, 355).
Paul taught an apparent limitation on marriage in heaven. He said that that the laws of marriage no longer applied to a woman whose husband had died so she could then marry again (1 Corinthians 7:39, Romans 7:2). The problem with this teaching is that it appears to have been extrapolated into the teaching of “til death us do part” from the 1789 edition of the wedding service of the Book of Common Prayer. (The current edition of the Book offers that version or the alternative “until we are parted by death”.) According to these teachings, death ends the marriage relationship. The teachings revealed through Swedenborg, however, tell us that, on the contrary, a variety of outcomes are possible. Couples who have true spiritual marriage love in this life will find each other after death and live happily ever after. If, however, only one of the partners has such a love, or if a person never met the right person here, then in heaven they find new partners with whom they will live happily to eternity. But the main point is that there is no imposed separation of partners at death because there is marriage in heaven.
Paul also recommended celibacy as an ideal (1 Corinthians 7:1; 1 Corinthians 7:8; see also 1 Corinthians 7: 27) and said that, in a broader context, it was bad for a man to touch a woman (1 Corinthians 1). Such celibacy is by definition opposed to all marriage, including marriage after death. So which teaching is correct, Paul’s celibacy or Swedenborg’s marriage love? As noted at the outset, above, the whole Bible repeatedly celebrates marriage, not celibacy. The teachings of Swedenborg’s revelation say that what makes a book of Scripture part of the Word and Divine is that it contains a continuous internal, spiritual sense (Doctrine of the Sacred Scripture 1) In the New Testament only the four gospels and the book of Revelation have this continuous spiritual sense (Arcana Coelestia 10,325, White Horse 16). Thus, Paul’s Epistles are not Divinely authoritative.
In sum, the great body of authoritative evidence in both the Bible and the teachings of the Second Coming support the idea of marriage on earth and in heaven.
Topics: Issues, Theology | 2 Comments »
Do angels fly?
By Swedenborg Project | July 21, 2011
It has long been thought, and illustrated in many biblical paintings, that angels have wings and fly. This interpretation appears to be inspired by the representational, or symbolic, images of a flying angel mentioned in the book of Revelation (8:13, 14:6), though there is no mention of wings. Swedenborg cites these passages in several places in his published works (Arcana Coelestia 1925, Apocalypse Revealed 245, 387, 415, 626). More significantly here, he personally saw angels fly at least twice (Marriage Love 2, 136, True Christian Religion 731) , one of whom flew down and landed right next to him (Marriage Love 2). Swedenborg also mentions seeing “a number of young people …, flying down as if from heaven” (True Christian Religion 736). The “as if” makes the statement somewhat ambiguous, however, as to whether it is merely symbolic or representational rather than being a report of “real” flying. In any case, in Heaven and Hell 183 Swedenborg says that “angels are men, they have homes and dwellings, and do not fly about in the air.” The tone of this statement is admonitory, also indicated in the rest of this sentence – “It might be known …that as angels are men they have dwellings and places of abode, and do not fly about in air, as some think in their ignorance, which the angels call insanity.” So it seems plausible that the point of this statement was to dismiss any idea of the fantastic here.
One question that arises here is, Why would angels need to fly? There is no time or space as we know it in heaven (Heaven and Hell #162, 191). Change is controlled by the mental state a person puts themselves in. If, for instance, a person thinks about seeing a friend, that friend appears, instantaneously. (Heaven and Hell #92) No change of position is involved. In summary, there would appear no need for angels to fly since they have a much more rapid means of travel available.
Topics: Issues | 1 Comment »
Market Driven Churches
By Swedenborg Project | May 26, 2011
“So, when it comes to churches, what is that key element that causes some to succeed where so many fail?”
For details, see Market Driven Churches
Topics: Issues, Theology | 2 Comments »
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