Swedenborgianism


Swedenborgianism or The New Church, refers the theological tradition of several historically related Christian denominations that developed under the influence of the theology of Emanuel Swedenborg. The Swedenborgian tradition is considered to be a part of Restorationist Christianity.
Swedenborg's writings focus on a narrative of Christianity's historical decline due to the loss of the "inner sense" of Scripture into a purely exoteric understanding of faith. In this state, faith and good acts become external displays motivated by fear of hell, desires for material blessings, personal recognition, and other worldly things, devoid of true spiritual essence. Swedenborg also wrote extensively about Salvation through a process of "regeneration", wherein individuals accept divine truth from the Lord into their "inner self", controlling the "outer" self by placing their highest love in goodness and truth rather than in worldly desires and the evils and falsehoods which serve them.
It follows that Christianity, in its present condition, as described by Swedenborg, fails to facilitate man's regeneration, contributing to a perceived descent of mankind into ignorance and sin. Swedenborg held that a spiritual second coming of Christ had begun, marking the start of the New Church and offering a renewed path to regeneration.
The New Church presents a theology built upon these beliefs, and while presenting many ideas and themes expressed by various early and contemporary Christian thinkers and theologies, the tradition diverges from standard Christianity not only in its eschatology but primarily in its rejection of the notion of a trinity of persons from eternity as Polytheistic, instead holding that Christ was born with a "divine mind" or "soul" and human body, absolving his distinct personhood and glorifying his human form through kenosis. The New Church has influenced several other spiritual and philosophical movements, including New Thought and American Transcendentalism.

History

Although Swedenborg spoke in his works about a "New Church" that would be based on the theology he presented, he never tried to establish such an organization. Swedenborg published some of his theological works anonymously; his writings promoted one universal church based on love and charity, rather than multiple churches named after their founders and based on belief or doctrine.
In 1768, a heresy trial began in Sweden against Swedenborg's writings and two men who promoted them; the trial questioned whether Swedenborg's theological writings were consistent with Christian doctrine. A royal ordinance in 1770 declared that his writings were "clearly mistaken" and should not be taught, but his theology was never examined.
Swedenborg's clerical supporters were ordered to stop using his teachings, and customs officials were directed to impound his books and stop their circulation in any district unless the nearest consistory granted permission. Swedenborg begged the king for grace and protection in a letter from Amsterdam; a new investigation of him stalled, and was dropped in 1778.
At the time of Swedenborg's death in England, where he had often visited, few efforts had been made to establish an organised church. Two Anglican clergymen were conspicuous in the work of disseminating his writings: Thomas Hartley, rector of Winwick, Cheshire, and John Clowes, rector of St John's Church, Manchester. Hartley translated Heaven and Hell and True Christian Religion ; Clowes, who taught New Church doctrine in the existing churches and was opposed to the forming of new organisations, translated 17 volumes, including the Arcana Coelestia, and published over 50 volumes of exposition and defense. Through his influence Lancashire became the stronghold of the Swedenborgians.
In 1782 a society for publishing Swedenborg's writings was formed in Manchester, and in December 1783 a little company of sympathizers with similar aims met in London and founded a "Theosophical Society" among the members of which were John Flaxman the sculptor, William Sharp the engraver, and François-Hippolyte Barthélémon the composer. In the early days most of them worshipped at the Female Orphan Asylum, St George's, whose chaplain, Rev. Jacob Duche, like Clowes at Manchester, preached the doctrines from his own pulpit. Five prominent Wesleyan preachers adopted the new teaching and were cut off from their connection, a step which led, in spite of remonstrance from Clowes and others, to the formal founding.
On 7 May 1787, the New Church movement was formally founded in England. A number of churches had sprung up around England by 1789, and in April of that year the first General Conference of the New Church was held in Great Eastcheap, London. Later a weekly newspaper, the Morning Light, was published, as well as monthly magazines for adults and young people. The liturgy was prepared in 1828, revised and extended in 1875; the hymnal of 1823 was revised and enlarged in 1880.
New Church ideas were spread in the United States by missionaries, one of whom was John Chapman.
Early missionaries also travelled to parts of Africa. Swedenborg believed that the "African race" was "in greater enlightenment than others on this earth, since they are such that they think more 'interiorly', and so receive truths and acknowledge them." African enlightenment was considered a liberal concept at the time, and Swedenborgians accepted freed African converts in their homes as early as 1790. Several Swedenborgians were also abolitionists.
Occultism became increasingly popular during the 19th century, and some followers blended Swedenborg's writings with theosophy, cabala, alchemy, and divination. Swedenborg's mystical side fascinated them; they concentrated on Heaven and Hell, which describes Swedenborg's visits to Heaven and Hell to experience the conditions there. In structure, it was related to Dante's Divine Comedy.
The U.S. church was organised in 1817 with the founding of the General Convention of the New Church, now also known as the Swedenborgian Church of North America. The movement in the United States strengthened until the late 19th century, and there was a New-Church Theology School in Cambridge. Controversies about doctrine and the authority of Swedenborg's writings caused a faction to split off and form the Academy of the New Church. It later became known as the General Church of the New Jerusalem – sometimes called the General Church – with its headquarters in Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania. Other congregations felt doctrinally compelled to join the General Church at its inception. Two Convention congregations in Canada and two congregations from the British Conference – Michael Church in London and Colchester New Church – joined the General Church.
The Adelaide Society of the New Church, in Adelaide, in the Colony of South Australia. was founded by Jacob Pitman, William Holden, and Smith Owen Smith and their families in 1844. On 11 July 1852, a Swedenborgian church opened on Carrington Street, with Pitman serving as minister until 1859. The congregation grew to a peak in the 1890s, by which time a new church had been built in Hanson Street. In 1971, a new church was built at Warradale, in a style that could be converted to a house in the future.

Branches and membership

, the most recent membership figures for the four church organisations were:
  • General Conference of the New Church : 1,314
  • Swedenborgian Church of North America, also known as the General Convention : 2,029
  • General Church of the New Jerusalem: 5,563
  • The Lord's New Church Which Is Nova Hierosolyma: 1,000
  • The New Church of Southern Africa: membership not confirmed yet
Membership in the New Church has always been small, and the organisations have been deeply involved in publishing.

The two doctrines of the New Church

The New Church has two essential doctrines. The first is that there is one God, Jehovah, who incarnated as Jesus so that he may redeem mankind.
The second is the obligation to live according to his commandments. "There are two essentials which constitute the church, and hence two principle things of doctrineone, that the Lord's Human is Divine; the other, that love to the Lord and charity toward the neighbor constitute the church, and not faith separate from love and charity." These "two things, the acknowledgment of the Lord, and a life according to the precepts of the Decalogue are the two essentials of the New Church."
Adherents believe that these two doctrines bring about salvation and union with Jesus. "All things of the doctrine of the New Church have reference to these two, because they are its universals, on which all the particulars depend, and are its essentials, from which all the formalities proceed"
If a person is unaware of the doctrines but has believed in one God and lived a life of love for goodness and truth, according to Swedenborg, they will learn them after death.

Doctrine of the Lord

The New Church's universal principle of faith is that the "Lord from eternity, who is Jehovah, came into the world to subjugate the hells and to glorify His Human; and without this no mortal could have been saved; and those are saved who believe in Him":
From this doctrine, the Trinity is defined as "the three essentials of one God, and they make one as soul, body, and operation make one in man. Before the world was created this Trinity was not; but after creation, when God became incarnate, it was provided and brought about; and then in the Lord God the Redeemer and Savior Jesus Christ." As a trinity of body, soul, and spirit exists in every man, this became the Holy Trinity in Jesus. The doctrine of one God as one person distinguishes the New Church from other Christian churches, most of which define the Trinity as three eternal persons. The New Church sees Trinitarianism as illogical: "In the ideas of thought a Trinity of Divine Persons from eternity, or before the world was created, is a Trinity of Gods; and these ideas cannot be effaced by a lip-confession of one God."
Monotheism is defined as one God who is one person; only the Lord is worshipped. Worship of, and faith in, Jesus is not worshiping a created being: although he was born with a human body, the New Church holds that his soul was eternally divine. When he rose from the dead, he discarded the human body he inherited from Mary and put on a human body from the divinity within him.
According to Swedenborg, God the Father is the inner divinity which became outwardly manifest in human form known as the Son. Since adherents believe that the Lord is one with the Father, the Lord's Prayer is directed to the Lord only. In the opening "Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name", "name" is everything by which God is worshiped.
According to the New Testament, Jesus sometimes prayed to the Father and declared himself one with the Father at other times. New Church adherents believe that this was because Jesus progressed towards God during his life by gradually making his human body one with the divine.