Emanuel Swedenborg as a Proto-Spiritualist
Emanuel Swedenborg as a Proto-Spiritualist is an article written by Andrea Towle published in the A.C.D. - The Journal of The Arthur Conan Doyle Society (Vol. 7, 1996/7).
This scholarly article examines how Emanuel Swedenborg constructed his authority as a visionary and religious thinker, and how his theology and visionary experiences helped establish the foundations of Swedenborgian belief. It also analyzes how Arthur Conan Doyle interpreted Swedenborg as an early precursor of modern Spiritualism.
Emanuel Swedenborg as a Proto-Spiritualist
THE CONSTRUCTION AND DISSEMINATION OF A NEW THEOLOGY
As ACD readers are aware, ACD devoted much of his later work to spiritualist topics. Among these is his The History of Spiritualism, a work which encompasses approaches as varied as historical narrative, evangelic martyr and 'miracle' stories, descriptions of scientific-style experimentation, and biography. It is with this last that he begins the book, citing as one of the forerunners of the spiritualist movement Emanuel Swedenborg [1688-1772], a Swedish scientist, theologian, scholar, and visionary. Although Swedenborg never directly sought to form a new church, he felt, as spiritualists would later describe their own movement, that what had been revealed to him could, and should, serve as the basis for a new religion.
Swedenborg's visions began in 1743 in the form of dreams which he carefully recorded. The early visions were primarily of heaven, hell, and divine beings, but later included prophetic knowledge and theological guidance. ACD described Swedenborg as having been at the dawn of the spiritualist revelation, writing that 'When the first rays of the rising sun of spiritual knowledge fell upon the earth, they illuminated the greatest and highest human mind before they shed their light on lesser men. That mountain peak of mentality was this great religious reformer and clairvoyant medium...' (1)
But ACD did not believe that Swedenborg's visions or theology were more than a first step: ACD wrote that Swedenborg's theology 'seems to most people outside his chosen flock... useless and perilous'. (2) Instead of the complex symbolism and exegesis Swedenborg employed, ACD held that 'All great and true things are simple and intelligible. Swedenborg's theology is neither simple nor intelligible, and that is its condemnation.' (3)
ACD seems to have felt that the value of Swedenborg's work lay in the general principles he had identified, especially regarding the survival of the soul, his descriptions of the spiritual realms, the idea that there are progressive levels of spiritual development which correspond to different spiritual realms, and his demonstration of a kind of mediumship.
Let us then, in light of ACD's qualified acceptance of Swedenborg as a true visionary, and with the knowledge that ACD believed that Swedenborg's interpretations of his visions and the theology he based on them were faulty, examine the course of Swedenborg's visionary experiences and the ways in which they were accepted or rejected by those who came in contact with them.
For Swedenborg to establish himself as a spiritual authority, he had to demonstrate that he had access to divine knowledge. He then had to present that knowledge to an audience that he could convince of the authenticity of both the knowledge and himself as authority. After having his visions of divine knowledge, he used his position as a scholar to present his knowledge in formal Latin prose accessible only to the educated rather than attempting to form a new religion through mass evangelism. Swedenborg's strength as a visionary and a theologian was in having found means by which to convince others that his was truly direct and unmediated knowledge which he truthfully and faithfully presented in his writings, the success of which depended in great part on his fusion of religious and scientific/scholarly discourses as the basis of a dual appeal to incontestable sources of knowledge, and his construction of himself as an authority with access to both.
One way to understand Swedenborg's success in persuading others to accept his visionary knowledge is to look at the way in which he constructed himself as a religious authority. (4) Instead of using an office or title to establish his authority, he claimed that this authority derived directly from God, who had chosen to allow him access to the secrets of heavens (5) so that he could serve as the conduit for a new revelation of spiritual truth to humanity, much as a spiritualist medium would serve as the conduit for messages from the spirit world. Swedenborg, having through his visions witnessed the might of God's productive power as spiritual authority, could then claim secondary authority for himself, beyond whom appeal could be made only to God.
Alternatively, one can understand Swedenborg as pointing to God not as the ultimate authority, but rather as the ultimate knowledge articulated from the position of spiritual authority. In The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Concerning the Lord, Swedenborg writes: 'Why the Lord is said to be the Word, is little understood in the church; but he is so called, because the Word signifies divine truth or divine wisdom; and the Lord is divine wisdom itself; for which reason he is also called the light, that came into the world.' (6) In this case, Swedenborg, as the one with access to the ultimate knowledge, must himself be understood as the final authority.
Swedenborg's construction of himself as the final spiritual authority was one point to which ACD objected. ACD wrote that Swedenborg 'contends that [the Bible's] true meaning is entirely different from its obvious meaning, and that it is he, and only he, who, by the help of angels, is able to give the true meaning'. (7) He felt that Swedenborg's claim to be the only one able to interpret correctly was specious, and said so plainly: 'Such a claim is intolerable. The infallibility of the Pope would be a trifle compared with the infallibility of Swedenborg if such a position were admitted. The Pope is at least only infallible when giving his verdict on points of doctrine ex cathedra with his cardinals around him. Swedenborg's infallibility would be universal and unrestricted.' (8) For ACD, direct knowledge of God and of the spiritual realm were not sufficient grounds for a claim of exclusive right to interpret the meaning of spiritual knowledge or phenomena.
Swedenborg's appeal to divine choice and intervention also lent him credibility via self-effacement and an appeal to disinterestedness, the effect of which would have been lost if he had actively sought to form a new religion. By claiming an initial naïveté and innocence, Swedenborg avoided any implication of self-interest. Instead, he was able to claim that the knowledge was revealed to him and that his rôle was simply the faithful recording and relaying of that knowledge and that he was simply a conduit for God's message. This kind of claim traditionally had been made for biblical authors, and so by repeating it Swedenborg aligned himself with the tradition that 'all scripture [including the new scripture produced by Swedenborg] is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness' (2 Timothy 3:16). Through this alignment, Swedenborg positioned his knowledge as parallel to biblical knowledge in its derivation and thereby implied that it should be understood as the equal of biblical knowledge.
Swedenborg's followers and admirers have also claimed that Swedenborg was 'the ideal recipient for such a revelation [because of] his already formidably disciplined mind, his periods of solitude, his penchant for writing'. (9) Swedenborg seems to have felt that this was a component, and described the phenomenon of his visions as a fairly natural occurrence which he was able to experience not because he was innately better suited to the experience, but because he was prepared to accept it. In his Heavenly Doctrine, he wrote that 'Man is so created as to live simultaneously in the natural world and in the spiritual world. Thus he has an internal and an external nature or mind; by the former living in the spirit world, by the latter in the natural world.' (10) Swedenborg claimed that through his awareness of the dual nature of human life, that is, the physical and spiritual selves, he was able to allow the spiritual self to become dominant at times, thereby allowing the visions of the divine to manifest themselves. In the Arcana Coelestia he says
- One should not omit the practice of external worship. Things inward are excited by external worship; and outward things are kept in holiness by external worship, so that things can flow in. Moreover, a man is imbued in this way with knowledge, and prepared to receive celestial things, so as to be endowed with states of holiness, though unaware of it. These states of holiness the Lord preserves to him for the use of eternal life; for in the other life all one's states of life recur. (11)
By preparing the physical self through external worship and bodily discipline, one could, in Swedenborg's view, then become an appropriate and effective conduit for spiritual knowledge. By repressing the physical, or perhaps by balancing it with the spiritual, one could allow the spiritual side the latitude needed to access the divine and to manifest visions. Though Swedenborg claimed that his original visions came unbidden, he seems thereafter to have sought them as a means to acquire knowledge by spending time in prayer and meditation, purposely going to bed early, writing down all his dreams and visions, keeping himself in bodily readiness for spiritual activity. (12)
ACD describes the proper preparation of a medium in much the same way as Swedenborg describes his preparation for receiving visions. Of greatest importance to ACD was the sincerity of a medium's commitment to the spiritualist cause in contrast to those who simply wanted to make money or make a stir, and for that reason he preferred amateur to professional mediums. Those who were sincere in their purpose were, he believed, both more trustworthy and more likely to produce high quality manifestations and phenomena because they were focused on the proper, i.e., spiritual, aspects of psychic manifestations.
Sometimes Swedenborg's experience of the divine was explicit, other times it was more symbolic, but Swedenborg consistently felt that the direct experience gained through visions was preferable to knowledge gained through other, mediated means, such as the Bible, of which he said, 'The doctrine of genuine truth can also be drawn in full from the literal sense of the Word; for the Word in this sense is like a man clothed, whose face and hands are bare. All that concerns man's life, and so his salvation, is bare; the rest is clothed.' (13) Thus knowledge from visions was superior because it did not require interpretation.
As well as preferring new, direct knowledge to that contained in the Bible or other sources, Swedenborg also rejected 'classical thought processes based on deduction' which he felt were 'too private and specific' for general application to spiritual matters (Bergquist 228). Instead, as he described in the Journal of Dreams, he felt that the best, and perhaps the only, means to truth was through divine grace and inspiration, in other words, by means such as his visions (45-46). Insisting on visionary revelation was an important part of Swedenborg's persuasive power, for though he claimed that all human beings have a spiritual aptitude, others seemed unable contact the spirit world. By demonstrating that he was uniquely able to contact the spirit world, he established himself as a spiritual authority.
Swedenborg explained others' inability to contact the spiritual world despite their innate aptitude as a consequence of over-involvement in the material world or of impure motives. (14) He believed that the discipline of body and mind would lead to a state of receptivity in which direct contact with God did not require any special or unusual activities, but could be achieved simply through
- Prayer, [which] in itself considered, is speech with God. There is then some inward view with objects of the prayer, and answering to that something like an influx into the perception or thought. Thus there is a kind of opening of man's interiors toward God, with a difference according to the nature of the object of the prayer. If one prays out of love and faith only about and for things heavenly and spiritual, then there appears in prayer something like revelation, which shows itself in the affection of the suppliant, in hope, solace, or an inner gladness. (15)
Swedenborg believed that revelation obtained in prayerful meditation was truly direct knowledge given by God. Therefore, for him and for those who believed him his visions were an acceptable basis on which to form a theology because they constituted pure divine revelation.
Swedenborg's contention that preparation of the mind and body through. simple life and meditation on the spiritual brings to mind ACD's admonitions to avoid materialism, that is to say, inordinate involvement or concern with things of this world. ACD also describes the way mediums worked in much the same way as Swedenborg describes his visions: ACD says that seances began with a period of hymn singing and meditation that allowed both the medium and the sitters to become open and receptive to the messages of the spirits, just as Swedenborg says that through meditation he opened himself to God to receive revelation.
Though Swedenborg preferred direct revelation as a means by which to acquire knowledge, Swedenborg believed he could obtain divine knowledge by prayerful meditation on the Bible. (16) This knowledge, however, he considered more problematic because 'The truths of the sense of the letter of the Word are in part appearances of truth, and are taken from things in nature, and thus accommodated and adapted to the grasp of the simple and also of little children. But being correspondences, they are receptacles and abodes of general truth: and are like enclosing and containing vessels, the naked truths themselves, which are enclosed and contained, are in the Word's spiritual sense; and the naked goods in the celestial sense.' (17) In other words, the truth and knowledge contained in the Bible was mediated and symbolic truth which required analysis and interpretation, whereas his visions gave him unmediated access to truth, a direct and present revelation on the basis of which he could draw his conclusions.
Swedenborg's belief that he not only had access to the divine in general, but that he actually had direct access to God were integral to his claim to be a spiritual authority. In the Journal of Dreams, he describes being granted this privilege: 'I also saw in a vision that fine bread on a plate was presented to me; which was a sign that the Lord himself will instruct me since I have now come first into the condition that I know nothing, (18) and all preconceived judgments are taken away from me; which is where learning commences: namely, first to be a child and thus to be nursed into knowledge, (19) as is the case with me now' (156). Not only did Swedenborg claim he had been allowed access to the realm of the divine, but also that he was to be by God as if he were a new apostle at the side of Christ so that the revelation which he provided to those on earth could have the highest possible degree of authority.
Swedenborg also claims that he actually sees the face of God in a vision:
- I then fell into a sleep, and at about 12:00, 1:00 or 2:00 in the night, there came over me a strong shuddering from head to foot, with a thundering noise as if many winds beat together, which shook me; it was indescribable and prostrated me on my face. Then, at the time I was prostrate, at that very moment I was wide awake, and saw that I was cast down.
- Wondered what it meant. And spoke as if I were awake; but found nevertheless that the words were put into my mouth. And oh! Almighty Jesus Christ, that thou, of so great mercy, deignest to come to so great a sinner. Make me worthy of thy grace.' I held my hands, and prayed, and then came forth a hand, which squeezed my hands hard.
- Straightaway thereupon I continued my prayer, and said, 'Thou hast promised to take to grace all sinners; thou canst nothing else than keep thy word.' At that same moment I sat in his bosom, and saw him face to face; it was a face of holy mien, and in all it was indescribable, and he smiled so that I believe that his face had indeed been like this when he lived on earth. He spoke to me and asked me if I had a clear bill of health. I answered, 'Lord, thou knowest better than I.' 'Well, do so,' said he; that is as I found it to signify; love me in reality; or do what thou hast promised. God give me grace thereto; I found that it was not in my power. Wakened, with shudderings. (20)
This indeed shows Swedenborg expressing special privilege that he has been granted as he attains toward grace and a more divinely inspired life. To see the face of God and yet live to tell about it has not, in Christian traditions, usually been granted. But Swedenborg, who is moving rapidly toward a state of grace, claims to have been granted this privilege, which authenticates his claim to speak with authority about the divine. It also advances Swedenborg's claim that God has taken a personal interest in him: he is asked about his health, and admonished to live a holy life, which indicates that Swedenborg is to fit himself to serve as an example of physical and spiritual well-being and conduct.
Just as ACD and other spiritualists believed that the spirit and personality continue on unchanged after death, Swedenborg believed that after death, the spirit leaves the body but lives on in 'a rarefied state that corresponds to the kind of love that has dominated us during our lifetime', and that the spirits of those who have already died, who are now angels, can influence those who are alive. (21) Thus our actions and attitudes during the physical life can have great import as they affect our eternal life after our physical death. Swedenborg described the process of moving from the physical to the divine world as an immediate translation:
- When the body is no longer able to perform its functions in the natural world, a man is said to die. Still the man does not die; he is only separated from the bodily part which was of use to him in the world. The man himself lives. He lives, because he is man by virtue, not of the body, but of the spirit; for it is the spirit in man which thinks; and thought together with affection makes the man. It is plain, then, that when a man dies, he only passes from one world into the other.... The spirit of man after separation remains awhile in the body, but not after the motion of the heart has entirely ceased. This takes place with a variation according to the diseased condition of which the man dies. As soon as the motion ceases, the man is resuscitated. This is done by the Lord alone. (22)
Thus the essence of the person does not change upon death, but rather simply moves to another realm in which the physical component is irrelevant. This is presumably the part of the person which has always had access to the divine through prayer and meditation, but the difference is that now, instead of the physical, the divine is the default, or perhaps the only, manifestation.
Swedenborg, by claiming direct access to spiritual knowledge, established himself as a spiritual authority, but the way in which he chose to demonstrate his authority is interesting to examine. Swedenborg chose to present his revelations and theology in scholarly Latin rather than in vernacular Swedish or in spoken form as addresses, thereby drawing upon a tradition associating Latin prose with careful thinking and scholarship, which implicitly demanded serious attention from those considering his statements. In addition, as written, printed matter, his statements were constructed with relative material permanence, and therefore also made an implicit demand for serious attention as more than just fleeting statements.
Having presented his statements as serious, Swedenborg's next challenge was establishing a place for his writing in the theological canon. In part, Swedenborg overcame this problem by effectively establishing a new canon, the core of which was his own writings, for as his theological career progressed, Swedenborg determined that it was his calling to establish the doctrine and practices of a new church which would have as its central texts the writings he based on his visions and revelations. However, despite his certainty that he had access to true revelation, Swedenborg was not an evangelist, nor did he insist that his readers must agree with him: 'He never demanded that his readers should believe him, but [only and] always that they should understand him'. (23) For Swedenborg, understanding was essential, for he believed that 'arguments persuade no one, and that stating a truth is sufficient for its acceptance by those who hear it'. (24) This confidence seems to have derived from Swedenborg's belief that 'There are in man from the Lord two capacities by which the human being is distinguished from the beasts. One capacity is the ability to understand what is true and what is good. It is called rationality, and is a capacity of his understanding. The other capacity is the ability to do the true and good. It is called freedom, and is a power of the will' (Gist 13). Based on this, Swedenborg felt that simply presenting the truth should be sufficient, for it is in the power of the listener both to recognize it as such and then to act on that recognition either to accept or reject the true and good. This is another example of Swedenborg's method of removing himself from his statements in order to convince others that he was not trying to advance his own interests, but rather that he was 'simply stating the truth'. Swedenborg always insisted that he had an unequivocal commitment to the truth, claiming, '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. When you enter eternity you will see everything. ...' (25)
Swedenborg seems to have maintained his reputation as a man committed to truth even when making predictions or statements based on clairvoyant knowledge. Of course one cannot be sure that the accounts of the times when he was wrong have not simply been suppressed, but there are many striking examples of his ability to accurately see either the future or distant events currently occurring. His biographers (most of whom, it should be noted, are Swedenborgians themselves or are sympathetic) represent his statements of this sort as something he considered unfantastic; that is to say, he appears to have responded to his listeners' amazement as if the knowledge were just there — I saw; I knew it; the knowledge was revealed to me. (26) We can suppose that this was yet another means by which Swedenborg established himself as a prophet he had total confidence in what he was saying, and so inspired confidence in his listeners by acting as if his knowledge of these things was normal and expected.
Swedenborg's claim of direct access to the spirit world and his reputation as a man of science and of truth lent credibility to his reports about the spirit world. (27) For those who found themselves unable to obtain direct knowledge through visions, Swedenborg supplied clear and abundant descriptions. Jorge Luis Borges in his essay Testimony to the Invisible' describes the ability to provide clear descriptions of the spiritual realm as a key component of Swedenborg's appeal:
- ... during nearly thirty years... he led the life of a visionary, which he recorded in closely reasoned treatises written in clear, unequivocal prose. Unlike other mystics, he eschewed metaphor, exaltation, and vague, fiery hyperbole.
- The explanation is obvious. The use of any word whatever presupposes a shared experience, for which the word is the symbol. If someone speaks to us about the flavor of coffee, it is because we have already tasted it; if about the color yellow, because we have already seen lemons, gold, wheat, and sunsets. To suggest the ineffable union of man's soul with the divine being, the Sufis of Islam found themselves obliged to resort to prodigious analogies, to images of roses to intoxication, or carnal love, Swedenborg was able to abstain from this kind of rhetorical artifice because his subject matter was not the ecstasy of a rapt and fainting soul, but rather the accurate description of regions that, though ultra-terrestrial, were clearly defined. (28)
This clear description in prosaic language (29) was appropriate to Swedenborg's revelations because he firmly believed that 'The natural world corresponds to the spiritual world; not only generally, but in detail. Whatever comes forth in the natural world from the spiritual, is therefore called correspondent. The world of nature comes forth and subsists from the spiritual world, just as an effect does from its efficient cause.' (30) The language of everyday life, therefore, would be suitable to describe the spiritual world because direct comparisons and correspondences existed. Swedenborg's later writings (after the Journal of Dreams) provide descriptions of the society of heaven and the lives of those who have already experienced earthly death, even describing the reuniting of those who love each other and the reinforcement of the bonds of marriage for those who are true soulmates.
In the Journal of Dreams, however, he is far less sure of himself and of the way to grace. For example, in the entry marked as the night before Easter 1744, he describes his vision thus:
- Found nothing during the whole night, though I often wakened. Believed all was away, and settled, and that I was left, or driven off. About the morning it seemed that I rode, and it was shown me where to go; but when I looked, it was dark. Found that in the darkness I had gone astray; but then the light came, and I saw that I was astray. Saw the way, and the forests and groves to which I ought to do [sic], and behind them the sky. Wakened. Then came the thought of itself about the first life and, in consequence, about the other life; and it seemed to me that all is full of grace. Began weeping because I had not loved at all but had instead continually angered him that had led me and had shown me the way that leads at last to the kingdom of grace; and because I had grown unworthy to be taken to grace. (31)
It is clear here that Swedenborg does not yet feel that he has attained the enlightenment and grace which he seeks; rather he feels that, though he has been seeking, his efforts have been counterproductive. But his belief that the loves of our physical lives determine our eternal lives and that our access to grace is clearly already developing, for he says that he has gone astray because 'I had not loved at all but had instead continually angered him'.
Nevertheless, he later claims that God has allowed him a glimpse of heaven, even though he is still imperfect and lacks understanding:
- Afterwards I slept, and it seemed to me that the whole night in various ways I was brought into association with others, through the sinfulness that existed. Afterwards, that I was bandaged and wrapped in wonderful and indescribable courses of circles; showing that during the whole night I was inaugurated in a wonderful manner. And then it was said, 'Can any Jacobite be more than honest?' So at last I was received with an embrace. Afterwards it was said that he ought by no means to be called so, or in the way just named; but in some way which I have no recollection of, if it were not Jacobite. This I can by no means explain: it was a mystical series. (32)
He has not yet developed his ability to describe spiritual events in the clear language described by Borges, in fact he calls these events and sights simply 'wonderful and indescribable'. But it seems that he feels it is a transitional experience, for he says he has been 'inaugurated in a wonderful manner', as if he has now received his commission to be the receiver of spiritual knowledge and to then impart that knowledge to those in need of spiritual enlightenment. He also, in the reference to himself as a Jacobite, emphasizes his honesty, which we have already seen was of utmost importance. In the same night, Swedenborg describes another vision of heaven:
- Afterwards I wakened and slept again many times, and all was in answer to my thoughts, yet in such wise that there was such a life and such a glory in all that I can give no account of it in the least; for it was all heavenly; clear for me at the time; but afterwards I can explain nothing of it. In a word I was in heaven and heard speech that no human tongue with the life in it can utter; nor the glory and innermost delight in the train of speech.
Except this I was in a waking state, as in heavenly ecstasy, which is also indescribable. (33)
In this second vision, his language is a bit clearer: he says definitely 'I was in heaven', and indicates that while he was there, his abilities of understanding were augmented, for he understands the speech of the angels, or at least understands the sense of what they say. And this vision, he says, occurs while he is 'in a waking state', which indicated to him that his ability to access the realm of the divine was expanding beyond visions that come in dreams to an ability to commune with the divine even while awake.
Swedenborg not only claimed to have experienced heaven in his visions, but also claimed that he was allowed a look into hell when he resisted the will of the divine: 'How I set myself against the power of the Holy Spirit, what happened thereupon; how I saw hideous spectres, without life horribly shrouded and moving in their shrouds; together with a beast that attacked me, but not the child'. (34) Having seen the inhabitants of hell, Swedenborg felt that he could then more completely appreciate the grandness and goodness of heaven. It seems also that even though he was only a visitor to hell, he was still vulnerable, at least in spirit, to its dangers, for he says that 'a beast... attacked me', though he does not mention whether he is saved by God, by angels, by having awakened, or by some other means.
Since Swedenborg used his visions as the knowledge on which he based his authority, it is appropriate to consider how he constructed such experiences as sources of knowledge. By describing spiritual realms that had already been defined and constructed in the discourse of Christian theology, namely heaven and hell, and by describing the same sorts of beings-God, angels, and beasts of hell-that were expected in those realms, Swedenborg fit his descriptions into the parameters of spiritual knowledge already defined by Christian theology. Swedenborg simply gave new and more concrete, and therefore more compelling, descriptions of these already accepted phenomena, and so fitted his visionary observations into the pre-established discursive field.
By describing already accepted realms and beings, Swedenborg freed himself of the need to establish their existence. He had simply to assert that, unlike others, he had first-hand knowledge as he had been given access to these realms, and so could provide new, more accurate descriptions. These new descriptions, of course, were distinct from those which had preceded them, and so there was conflict between those two views. However, when new knowledge is being pursued, conflict and indeterminacy are often tolerated, until a new synthesis can be formed or until one view predominates, in this case resulting in the eventual formation of a separate Emanuel Swedenborgian (35) church.
Prior to the separation of the Swedenborgian church, Swedenborg's writings and theology were subject to assessment by the predetermined conditions and principles of acceptability of Christian theological discourse. Since theological discourse had already validated visionary revelation as a means of acquiring knowledge, Swedenborg had only to appeal to this precedent in demanding a hearing. Although the majority verdict was negative, Swedenborg's writings nevertheless did receive the attention of scholars and theologians, even to the extent that, because of their perceived revolutionary character, Swedenborg was, late in his life, tried for heresy. (36)
Stephen Larsen in 'Swedenborg and the Visionary Tradition' points out that Swedenborg spoke to the concerns of his time because '. Imany of the inner conflicts Swedenborg experienced and worked on in his visionary process-such as that between science and religion are also core conflicts for Western society....' (37) Swedenborg described the evolution of religion as a teleological process in which humanity, attaining ever closer to spiritual perfection, served as the basis for an angelic heaven by allowing God in us to be fully realized. (38) There was, then, for Swedenborg, both an evolution of the world, or of humanity, and an evolution of self, both of which tend toward the same goal of preparing humanity for a rôle in the divine. This was a basic component of Swedenborg's philosophy because of his belief that 'Everything conspires to realize a single goal, namely the ongoing expansion of divine Creation'. (39)
A key event in Swedenborg's developing concept of himself as a spiritual authority seems to have occurred in visions described in the Journal of Dreams: on several occasions he describes interactions with priests, (40) which seems to signify that he should become officially involved in theology and that he is being embraced as a colleague by religious authorities. Because of these visions and the knowledge he gains through them, he feels it is his responsibility to help reform the church through writing about his visions and his theology. This reform was not to be accomplished through a religious revolution, but by Swedenborg's new theology gradually superseding the old: 'At this day nothing but the self-evidenced reason of love [i.e., Swedenborgian beliefs] will re-establish the Church'. (41) Just as the soul is transformed after death, the church is to be transformed through Swedenborg's revelations and by the 'self-evidenced reason of love', the clear truth of which should, according to his belief in the compelling power of truth, be sufficient to spark the transformation.
Through his many visions, Swedenborg had been shown that, in heaven, the Apostolic Church had been replaced by the 'Church of the New Jerusalem', and that the same replacement was to occur on earth through the 'last and perfect revelation of the nature of Jesus Christ as the "Divine Humanity"; a mystery hitherto imperfectly understood, but which was, in the New Church, to be fully revealed in the epiphany of the "Divine Human". This new church was also to have a new scripture, provided by God through Swedenborg's writings. He saw the history of the church as comprised of twenty-six previous incarnations, each of which had been superseded by a progressively more accurate and divine form in a series which extended from the time of Adam, through a succession of prophetic revelations made to the patriarchs, to Noah, Abraham, Moses, Solomon, and within the Christian era the churches of Paul, (42) Constantine, Charlemagne, and Luther; each of these representing some new realization or revelation-which is to reach its term and perfect fulfilment in a total affirmation of the humanity of God and the divinity of man and their unity and identity'. In The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Concerning the Lord, Swedenborg writes that the Word (understood both as divine truth and as the essence of God) was made manifest consecutively 'by Moses, the prophets, and the evangelists'. He says also that the angels possess the same Word, but as a 'spiritual' Word, for not only does the Word proceed from the Lord, but it in fact is the Lord. (43) The church founded by Swedenborg, then, was to be the final of this series, for 'Since in [the] teaching [of the Church of the new Jerusalem] the oneness of the human and the divine is total, it follows that the Christian revelation can go no farther, man and God being one, not only in the historic person of Jesus Christ but totally for Christ within the whole human race'. (44) Raine argues that the significance of this change in theology is that it is an ... inner event [in which] a new kind of realization, a new kind of consciousness, began to dawn on Christendom, following the interiorization of the Apostolic teaching. This Last Judgment was not an outer event, in time and history, but an inner event, which would, not dramatically, but gradually, make itself apparent also in the outer world of history. A new church is thus a new consciousness. Without invoking the idea of 'evolution' (as understood by materialist science), we are to understand Swedenborg's concept of the twenty-seven churches as a progressive revelation in time and history. (45)
Thus Swedenborg was able to incorporate from his scientific background and research concepts of evolution and of progress that made his formulation of a new church appealing to a post-deistic but still scientifically-minded audience because this new incarnation was the final expression of spiritual truth. In The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Concerning the Lord, Swedenborg states the progressive principle thus: 'For as it is with the gradual increase of natural light, from the shadows of evening to the full brightness of day; so it is with the spiritual light of revelation, which in one period is clouded with the shades and uncertainty arising from types and figures, and in a succeeding period shines with all the splendor of truth'. (46) So Swedenborg characterized previous periods of Christianity not as 'wrong', but rather as having been as accurate as possible in the dark state they were in, and as each have been progressively more illuminated, therefore more able to see clearly the truth.
The concepts of spiritual progress and of a new incarnation for a new era resonate with ACD's descriptions of spiritualism, which he describes as a spiritual revelation appropriate to a more scientifically-minded age. The contemporariness of the phenomena was for ACD as well as Swedenborg an important part of this new revelation, for it averts the problem that 'Religions are most petrified and decayed, overgrown with forms and choked with mysteries'. (47) For ACD, it also answered the problem of faith, which he describes as having ‘a very two-edged quality' because of the disagreements and even wars it incites among those of opposing faiths. (48)
Surely it is also significant to note that Swedenborg's church was to be not simply the next revelation, but the final culmination of the series of divine revelations. Swedenborg claims for his era the position of the pinnacle of development, and for himself as the prophet of this revelation the position of the most learned, pure, enlightened, and blessed prophet of history. If his audiences accepted his claims both about the era and about Swedenborg himself, it would be a nearly incontestable argument for joining his movement. As mentioned above, this claim to supremacy was one of ACD's major objections to Swedenborgianism.
Presenting his knowledge and views to the public was not, however, a simple process in mid-eighteenth century Sweden, for in the theologico-political climate of the time,... visionaries surfaced, delivered their message, and were either burned or canonized, depending on its reception'. (49) However, Swedenborg's beliefs were not vastly different from the predominant views of his day: ... belief in "the Lord" and a literal heaven filled with winged angels above, and Satan's pit yawning beneath was the commonplace belief system of the day. Swedenborg differed from the cultural norm only in that he claimed to visit and experience visitants from those worlds.' (50) Larsen argues that whether one is classified a visionary or instead as 'mad' depends upon whether one can find an audience for one's visions: 'It is as if the transpersonal levels of energy are too powerful for a single individual and must be diffused into a group. And we may well ask, even at the inception, when the visionary first opens himself or herself to vision, with whom, how, and for what is it to be shared when it comes?' (51) Larsen states that the cultural role of visionary is essential to dealing effectively with visionary experiences: 'The visionaries in traditional societies are healers, diviners, celebrants of ritual. The "power" of their vision flows through them to their people. Their dark brothers are institutionalized modern visionaries, out of synchronization with their community, burst by a vision of power with nowhere to go. ... That Swedenborg has such a community is evident.' (52) But Swedenborg's community was not, at least in the beginning, a community of like-minded individuals with whom he could share his visions and beliefs, so, 'Lacking a culture with which to share these [visionary insights], he wrote for whoever would read'. (53) But writing did not only provide Swedenborg with an outlet for his visionary insights and revelations: as discussed above, by presenting his experiences in scholarly Latin prose, he claimed a seriousness for them would have been difficult to establish by other means. In addition, those who read about his visions were themselves (by virtue of knowing Latin) educated, so those who first believed in and popularized his thought themselves had the authority of education to defend against accusations of lunacy.
Also critical to Swedenborg's reception as visionary rather than madman was that during his "hallucinations" or extrasensory experiences, Swedenborg was clearly able to distinguish his visions from waking consciousness', (54) so that 'His psychic development... in no way interfered with his mental activity. ...' (55) His ability to continue to participate in normal life was not only beneficial in preventing him from being classified as mad, but also seems to have served as an effective argument in persuading others that his visions should be accepted as true knowledge.
Swedenborg's strengths as a visionary and as the chief theologian of a new religion seem to have lain mainly in his ability to convince his audiences, whether they were listeners or readers, that he was, to the best of his ability, faithfully expressing truths obtained directly from God. Key to his ability to convince people of his true access to divine knowledge was his successful construction of himself, a spiritual authority speaking about actual spiritual knowledge. Swedenborg also incorporated the interests that people had in progress by describing the church as having evolved through time and claiming that the new revelation, that is, the information revealed to him, was the final and most accurate revelation. By claiming that he had direct and authoritative knowledge that had been revealed to him directly by God, Swedenborg could claim that his revelations and his theology were incontestable because they derived directly from the ultimate source of knowledge, that is to say, God. He was also careful to describe his beliefs and revelations in concrete, prosaic language that clearly stated his beliefs, and which was therefore were compelling because it evoked distinct ideas and images for his audiences. Swedenborg's ability to persuade others to believe in his revelations and his theology can be seen to have derived from his successful manipulation of theological discourse, assumptions about knowledge, authority, and scholarship, and claims based on ultimate, divine, and incontestable revelation.
Notes
1. Arthur Conan Doyle, The History of Spiritualism, Vol. 1. London: Psychic Press, 1926, p. 2
2. Ibid, p. 3
3. Ibid, p. 4
4. A similar analysis to that which follows here could be formed by employing Foucault's description of the power of those occupying subject positions within discursive fields as described in his Archaeology of Knowledge (Translated by Rupert Swyer. New York: Pantheon, 1971.
5. On this point it is interesting to note that one of Swedenborg's major works was the multi-volume series Arcana Coelestia (The Secrets of Heaven).
6. Emanuel Swedenborg. The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Concerning the Lord. Cambridge: Hilliard and Metcalf, 1821, p. 21.
7. Arthur Conan Doyle. The History of Spiritualism, Vol. 1. pp. 3-4.
8. Ibid. p. 4.
9. Stephen Larsen. 'Swedenborg and the Visionary Tradition' in Emanuel Swedenborg: A Continuing Vision. New York: Swedenborg Foundation, 1988, p. 189
10. Emanuel Swedenborg. The Gist of Swedenborg. Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1920, p. 12.
11. Ibid. p. 27.
12. Emanuel Swedenborg. Swedenborg's Journal of Dreams 1743-1744, edited from the Swedish G.E. Klemming, translated by J.J.G. Wilkinson (1860), edited by William Ross Woolfenden, commentary by Wilson Van Dusen. New York: Swedenborg Foundation, 1986.
13. Emanuel Swedenborg. The Gist of Swedenborg, p. 55.
14. Lars Bergquist. 'Swedenborg's Journal of Dreams and Divine Knowledge', translated by Veronica Royston, Emanuel Swedenborg: A Continuing Vision; A Pictorial Biography and Anthology of Essays and Poetry. New York: Swedenborg Foundation, 1988, p. 227.
15. Emanuel Swedenborg. The Gist of Swedenborg, p. 26.
16. Ibid. p. 45.
17. Ibid. p. 42.
18. This is another instance in which Swedenborg insists that it is God who has called him to serve as a visionary and who supplies all knowledge, supporting his claim that he has no ulterior motives in presenting his visionary experiences to others.
19. It is also interesting in this passage to note that the gender of God is unclear, or dual, for he refers to the Lord as male, but also as one who can "nurse him into knowledge', an implicitly female and very physical act. This is an indication of Swedenborg's view of the divine as very concrete and correspondent to the material world. See The Gist of Swedenborg, p. 43.
20. Emanuel Swedenborg. Swedenborg's Journal of Dreams 1743-1744, p. 46-48.
21. Lars Bergquist. 'Swedenborg's Journal of Dreams and Divine Knowledge', pp. 228-9.
22. Emanuel Swedenborg. The Gist of Swedenborg, p. 67.
23. Cyriel Odhner Sigstedt. The Swedenborg Epic: The Life and Works of Emanuel Swedenborg. New York: Bookman, 1952, p. 180.
24. Jorge Luis Borges. 'Testimony to the Invisible', translated by Catherine Rodriguez-Nieto, in Emanuel Swedenborg: A Continuing Vision; A Pictorial Biography and Anthology of Essays and Poetry. New York: Swedenborg Foundation, 1988, p. 351.
25. Swedenborg as quoted in R.L. Tafel, Documents Concerning the Life of Emanuel Swedenborg. Vol. II. London: Swedenborg Society, 1875-7, pp. 557-8, as quoted in Synnestvedt 32.
26. Cyriel Odhner Sigstedt. The Swedenborg Epic: The Life and Works of Emanuel Swedenborg, pp. 321-4.
27. William F. Wunsch. 'Biographical Note' in The Gist of Swedenborg, p. vi.
28. Jorge Luis Borges. "Testimony to the Invisible'. pp. 350-1.
29. Borges did not mention Swedenborg's writings having been in Latin. Evidently he did not feel that their being in Latin and therefore inaccessible to the general population precluded his characterization of them as 'clear, unequivocal prose".
30. Emanuel Swedenborg. The Gist of Swedenborg, p. 43.
31. Emanuel Swedenborg. Swedenborg's Journal of Dreams 1743-1744, pp. 46-8.
32. Ibid. pp. 42-3.
33. Ibid. p. 43
34. Ibid. p. 21
35. 'Swedenborgian' is the common way to refer to the church based on Swedenborg's writings and theology, but Swedenborg himself called it 'The Church of the New Jerusalem', which is the official name of the movement.
36. Sig Synnestvedt. The Essential Swedenborg: Basic Teachings of Emanuel Swedenborg, Scientist Philosopher, and Theologian; Selected and Edited with an Introduction by Sig Synnestvedt. Twayne Publishers/The Swedenborg Foundation, 1970, pp. 34-5.
37. Stephen Larsen. 'Swedenborg and the Visionary Tradition', op. cit., p. 186.
38. Emanuel Swedenborg. The Gist of Swedenborg, p. 11
39. Lars Bergquist. 'Swedenborg's Journal of Dreams and Divine Knowledge', p. 227.
40. Emanuel Swedenborg. Swedenborg's Journal of Dreams 1743-1744, pp. 52-4.
41. Emanuel Swedenborg. The Gist of Swedenborg, p. xi.
42. It is interesting to note that Raine here refers to a Pauline rather than a Petrine (catholic) church. I do not know if this reflects Swedenborg's own biases, or whether it is Raine's own concept.
43. Emanuel Swedenborg. The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Concerning the Lord. Cambridge: Hilliard and Metcalf, 1821, p. 22.
44. Kathleen Raine, "The Human Face of God', in Emanuel Swedenborg: A Continuing Vision; A Pictorial Biography and Anthology of Essays and Poetry. New York: Swedenborg Foundation, 1988, p. 80.
45. Ibid. pp. 80-1.
46. Emanuel Swedenborg. The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Concerning the Lord, p. xvii.
47. Arthur Conan Doyle. The New Revelation. New York: G.H. Doran, 1918, p. 98.
48. Ibid. pp. 70-1.
49. Stephen Larsen. 'Swedenborg and the Visionary Tradition'. Op. cit., p. 189.
50. Ibid. p. 189.
51. Ibid. p. 187.
52. Ibid. pp. 187-8.
53. Ibid. p. 189.
54. Ibid. p. 189
55. Arthur Conan Doyle. The History of Spiritualism. Vol. 1, p. 3.
- Article courtesy Christopher Roden, founder of The Arthur Conan Doyle Society (1989-2003).
