True Christian Religion

by Emanuel Swedenborg, John C. Ager

Swedenborg Foundation Publishers is celebrating 150 years of publishing activity in America, a milestone we have dubbed our Sesqui, short for Sesquicentennial. You will see a whole new dynamic, honoring both our 150th anniversary and the new millennium, as you examine the books on the following pages. We have our largest, most dynamic publication schedule ever -- 15 titles for 2000, including a number of compelling trade books in our Chrysalis line, treating topics such as partnership as spiritual practice, gardening for spiritual sustenance, and the mystical emergence of a feminist baby-boomer. What else is new at the Swedenborg Foundation in its 150th year? We have begun a momentous, twelve-year project to retranslate Swedenborg's entire corpus, offering a contemporary expression of his thought that provides meaningful access for today's reader. Each volume will contain a contextualizing preface and scholarly annotations. The first two volumes -- Heaven and Hell, and Scribe of Heaven, an introductory volume of scholarly essays on Swedenborg's work and influence -- will be published in the fall of 2000. This translation project is the first to be undertaken with unified standards by a single entity, and we intend it to ignite a renaissance of interest in this brilliant thinker and potent visionary, one of the world's three greatest intellects -- along with Goethe and John Stuart Mill -- according to Stanford University researchers who created a data program to calculate the IQs of history's great minds.

Genres: Religion, Nonfiction

Paperback

First published December 31, 1969

About the author

Emanuel Swedenborg (born Emanuel Swedberg; February 8, 1688–March 29, 1772) was a Swedish scientist, philosopher, Christian mystic, and theologian. Swedenborg had a prolific career as an inventor and scientist. At the age of fifty-six he entered into a spiritual phase in which he experienced dreams and visions. This culminated in a spiritual awakening, where he claimed he was appointed by the Lord to write a heavenly doctrine to reform Christianity. He claimed that the Lord had opened his eyes, so that from then on he could freely visit heaven and hell, and talk with angels, demons, and other spirits. For the remaining 28 years of his life, he wrote and published 18 theological works, of which the best known was Heaven and Hell (1758), and several unpublished theological works.

Swedenborg explicitly rejected the common explanation of the Trinity as a Trinity of Persons, which he said was not taught in the early Christian Church. Instead he explained in his theological writings how the Divine Trinity exists in One Person, in One God, the Lord Jesus Christ. Swedenborg also rejected the doctrine of salvation through faith alone, since he considered both faith and charity necessary for salvation, not one without the other. The purpose of faith, according to Swedenborg, is to lead a person to a life according to the truths of faith, which is charity.

Swedenborg's theological writings have elicited a range of responses. Toward the end of Swedenborg's life, small reading groups formed in England and Sweden to study the truth they saw in his teachings and several writers were influenced by him, including William Blake (though he ended up renouncing him), Elizabeth Barrett Browning, August Strindberg, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Charles Baudelaire, Balzac, William Butler Yeats, Sheridan Le Fanu, Jorge Luis Borges and Carl Jung. The theologian Henry James Sr. was also a follower of his teachings, as were Johnny Appleseed and Helen Keller.

In contrast, one of the most prominent Swedish authors of Swedenborg's day, Johan Henrik Kellgren, called Swedenborg "nothing but a fool". A heresy trial was initiated in Sweden in 1768 against Swedenborg's writings and two men who promoted these ideas.

In the two centuries since Swedenborg's death, various interpretations of Swedenborg's theology have been made (see: Swedenborgian Church), and he has also been scrutinized in biographies and psychological studies.

Reviews

[Doug Webber · Rating 5 out of 5]

I remember picking up this book at the University library - I had heard of Swedenborg from the book "Life After Life" by Raymond Moody, and I was curious what he had to say on the doctrines of Christianity. When I started reading it, I was stunned - he began to clearly set forth the true doctrine of the Trinity. He shows that it is not a trinity of three persons, but the aspects of the soul, body and spirit of Jesus Christ, and shows that using scripture. It was at that point I realized who Jesus really is - He is not a "second" person, He is THE person. Jehovah in the Old Testament is the Lord of the New Testament. From then on, it really has changed my views on Christianity, one that is truly Monotheistic, and one where one must live by God's commandments. Up until that point I had been going through a long period of searching, trying to find the true doctrines of Christianity among its different sects.