Divine Love and Wisdom by Emanuel Swedenborg

First published:Sapientia angelica de divino amore et de divina sapientia, 1763 (English translation, 1788)

Type of work: Religious philosophy

The Work:

Early in his life, Emanuel Swedenborg established a lasting reputation as a scientist in many scientific fields, including physics, astronomy, mathematics, engineering, and human anatomy. His research in several of these fields culminated in important publications that showed him well in advance of his time. His work in anatomy, for example, anticipated some of the later theories of physiology, including those involving the functions of the ductless glands.

With respect to his later writings in religion and theosophy, Swedenborg’s reputation is a mixed one. Between 1743 and 1745 he suffered a mental and religious crisis that changed his life and his work. During the crisis, according to his own report, he underwent mystical experiences in which he believed he was given access to the spiritual world. He saw visions of that world, heard and took part in celestial conversations, and received divine instruction. In 1745, during a third great spiritual experience, Swedenborg reported having witnessed the second advent of Christ and having been instructed to establish a “New Church.” From his visions and the instructions he purportedly received grew Swedenborg’s theosophical writings, for which he used Latin. Although he wrote voluminously on his doctrines, Swedenborg did not found a sect, for he believed that members of any church could follow his doctrines. Later his followers did constitute the Church of the New Jerusalem, or New Church.

Like all theosophical writings, those of Swedenborg depend for their importance on how seriously readers are willing to take the author’s reports of divine inspiration and revelation. If this is accepted, the writings assume tremendous, even cosmic, significance, for Swedenborg did not attempt to disguise or conceal the supernatural source of his doctrines. He stated as fact that his doctrines were the results of visions granted to him by God, and he calmly and routinely noted certain facts and points either overheard in conversations among the angels or witnessed during the times he was transported spiritually to heaven. He regarded his mission seriously, sincerely believing that he had been commanded to interpret the spiritual world and explicate the Bible’s true spiritual intent to humankind.

Swedenborg’s most important theosophical work is Divine Love and Wisdom, in which he stated his system most comprehensively and succinctly. The premises of his doctrine are that God is Man (or God-Man) and that God is Love. The conception of God as Man is held in all the heavens: because heaven as a whole and in every part resembles the human form, and the divine, together with the angels (who are also human in form), constitutes heaven. Swedenborg added that all angels and other heavenly spirits are human beings in perfect form. The essence or being of God, according to Swedenborgian doctrine, is love, an infinite love that humankind knows only as existing and not through an acquaintance with its nature, inasmuch as humankind is, without God, held to the natural world.

For Swedenborg, the manifestation of God and his infinite love is a living sun. That spiritual sun corresponds in heaven to the “dead” sun of the natural world and is the source of spiritual life. The sun of the natural world, according to Swedenborg, is the source of life in nature, which is but a receptacle of life, not a source. Just as the spiritual sun and the natural sun are distinct but analogous in part and whole, so are heaven and earth distinct but analogous. Swedenborg warned, however, that space and time are concepts only of the natural world and are not to be found in the structure of the infinite and perfect realm of heaven. In heaven, according to the cosmology expounded in Divine Love and Wisdom, are three uncreated, distinct, and eternal degrees, corresponding to which in the natural world there are three finite degrees. Swedenborg did not describe in Divine Love and Wisdom how these degrees exist, but only stated that they are love, wisdom, and use, or, to put it another way, end, cause, and effect. The three degrees exist, declared Swedenborg, in every human being at birth, although as a creature of the natural world the human being is unaware of them. As the degrees are opened successively to the individual, so is God in people and people in God, according to the doctrine. Light from the spiritual sun flows into human beings as they shun evil, meaning that they can gain in wisdom; but the “heat” of the spiritual sun, or love, cannot be received. The natural mind of the lowest degree, said Swedenborg, is a hell in itself, while the mind that is spiritualized becomes a heaven. In other words, by love and the opening of each of the successive degrees human beings can rise toward God. According to Divine Love and Wisdom, the end of creation, both spiritual and natural, is to become perfectly the image of God-Man.

Swedenborg undertook to answer the question of creation that has bothered countless numbers of theologically minded persons in every generation: Did God create the universe out of nothing, or did he form a cosmos from the stuff of chaos? According to Swedenborg:

Every one of enlightened judgment sees that the universe was not created out of nothing, because it is impossible to make anything out of nothing; for nothing is nothing, and to suppose anything to be made out of nothing is absurd and therefore contrary to the light of truth, which comes from the divine Wisdom . . . . Everyone of enlightened judgment also sees that all beings were created out of self-existent substance, the very BEING out of which all things that exist come forth: and as God is the only self-existent Substance, and thus is essential BEING, it is plain that this is the source of all things that exist.

Swedenborg suggests that there are pairs in all parts of the body in order that everyone may achieve the love and wisdom of divinity. He notes that the eyes, ears, nostrils, hands, loins, and feet exist in pairs, and that the heart, brain, and lungs are divided into two parts. The right-hand parts, according to his views, have a relation to love and the left-hand parts a relation to wisdom.

The doctrine propounded in Divine Love and Wisdom grants to all human beings the means of achieving the spiritual heaven, for in the Swedenborgian view it is a false doctrine that the Lord arbitrarily excludes any members of the human race from salvation.

Bibliography

Bergquist, Lars. Swedenborg’s Secret: The Meaning and Significance of the Word of God, the Life of the Angels, and Service to God, a Biography. London: Swedenborg Society, 2005. Comprehensive biography, placing Swedenborg’s life and work within the context of Sweden’s declining power in the eighteenth century. Explains Swedenborg’s core ideas, defining him as a founding father of modern spirituality and Western philosophy.

Dole, George F., ed. A View from Within: A Compendium of Swedenborg’s Theological Thought. New York: Swedenborg Foundation, 1985. A discursive and thorough survey of Swedenborg’s theology by a respected scholar. Well-organized and helpful to any serious student. For a more concise rendition of his biography and key concepts see A Scientist Explores Spirit: A Compact Biography of Emanuel Swedenborg, with Key Concepts of Swedenborg’s Theology. West Chester, Pa.: Swedenborg Foundation, 1992.

James, Henry. The Secret of Swedenborg: Being an Elucidation of His Doctrine of the Divine Natural Humanity. 1869. Reprint. New York: AMS Press, 1983. Still an essential guide to Swedenborg’s understanding of the multifold symbolic and allegorical relations between God’s love and human nature.

Lachman, Gary. Into the Interior: Discovering Swedenborg. London: Swedenborg Society, 2006. Examines Swedenborg’s ideas about mysticism, sexuality, and radicalism and their relationship to modern philosophy.

Morris, Herbert Newall. Flaxman, Blake, Coleridge, and Other Men of Genius Influenced by Swedenborg. Norwood, Pa.: Norwood, 1975. Aids in understanding various literary and cultural figures who were influenced by Swedenborg’s philosophy.

Swedenborg, Emanuel. Angelic Wisdom About Divine Love and About Divine Wisdom: Angelic Wisdom About Divine Providence. Translated by George F. Dole. West Chester, Pa.: Swedenborg Foundation, 2003. In addition to the text of Swedenborg’s book, this edition contains an introduction and extensive annotations. Like many of the editions published by the Swedenborg Foundation and the Swedenborg Society, this one is authoritative.

Trobridge, George. Swedenborg: Life and Teaching. 5th ed., rev. New York: Swedenborg Foundation, 1992. Important biography of Swedenborg, with a lucid discussion of his belief system.