WHO WAS SWEDENBORG

WHO WAS SWEDENBORG?

"No single individual in the world's history ever encompassed in himself so great a variety o f useful knowledge."

HE WAS A PSYCHOLOGIST, PHILOSOPHER, mathematician, geologist, inventor, metallurgist, mineralogist, botanist, chemist, aurist, physicist, zoologist, aeronautical engineer, assayer, musician, author, traveler, crystallographer, instrument maker, machinist, cabinetmaker, legislator, mining engineer, economist, editor, cosmologist, theologian, lens grinder, psychist, clockmaker, poet, linguist, biographer, reformer, astronomer, bookbinder, physiologist, hydrographer.

He made the first sketch of a glider-type airplane, invented a submarine, machine gun, ear trumpet and airtight hot air stove. Discovered the function of the ductless glands and that the brain animates synchronously with the lungs. Wrote and published the first Swedish algebra.
This is how Emanuel Swedenborg is described in Robert Ripley's Believe it or Not. And these were the things Swedenborg did before he became one of the world's greatest theologians.
Swedenborg is one of those rare Swedish names that pop up more often abroad than in Sweden. The Swedish thinker who died 250 years ago, is unique in that no other Swede has had and still has such an influence over intellectuals around the world.

With the publication of a new book by Olof Lagercrantz about Emanuel Swedenborg and the dreams that came to occupy him after age 53, there is a renewed interest in Sweden in the thinker and his questions and answers on the connection between the material world and the spiritual.

Born in Stockholm in 1688, Swedenborg grew up under the watchful eye of his father Jesper Svedberg, professor of theology at Uppsala University and Bishop of Skara. Swedenborg himself graduated from the University in 1709.

Until he was 56, he led a life largely devoted to scientific studies covering practically the whole field of science. His research took him to several foreign countries. He published many volumes on mathematics, geology, chemistry, physics, mineralogy etc, all in Latin, the universal scholarly language of his day, in which there are the germs of numerous brilliant discoveries later credited to other investigators. He sketched out the plans for a machine gun, submarine, airplane etc greatly in advance of his time. He is the father of a decimal system of coinage, and of crystallography. He originated the nebular hypothesis of the solar system, and explained the nature of the Milky Way. He made important discoveries on the composition and circulation of blood. He was the first to introduce calculus to Sweden. He used his engineering knowledge as a top civil servant and contributed greatly to iron and copper mining and smelting industries critical to the Swedish economy.

In addition to Latin, and his native Swedish, Swedenborg was fluent in Hebrew, Greek, English, Dutch, German, French and Italian.

He distinguished himself as a leading scholar, inventor and an eager participant in Swedish affairs. He was an accomplished craftsman and an enthusiastic gardener. He also listed women as one of his major interests.

Swedenborg's scientific and engineering achievements were rewarded by memberships in the Swedish and Russian Academies of Science.

By modern measurement of his learning capacity it is estimated that he had one of the highest intelligence levels ever known. In 1745 when he was economically independent Swedenborg moved to London where at the age of 53, he began the systematic scientific study of his own dreams. He became a seer and theological revelator. Within a period of months, his perception changed in an extraordinary way and after some intense inner experience, he had what can be described as a spontaneous religious awakening. In one of the experiences, God gave instructions to Swedenborg to begin a reinterpretation of the Bible. A 4, second major vision came to him a few years later when he foresaw a transformation of Christianity. Unlike mystics approaching spiritual experience through a trance, Swedenborg claimed that his natural body was fully awake to all the sensations and surroundings of this earth while he simultaneously had the eyes of his spirit fully opened to spiritual experiences of every kind. For the first time in history, a highly trained and widely respected scientific intellect was describing, in detail and clarity, spiritual laws and principles from daily contact with, and observation of, life in the spirit world. Swedenborg devoted the rest of his life to religious and philosophical writing. He wanted people to see the innermost meaning of the Bible.

All of Swedenborg's theological writings published in his lifetime were at his own expense, anonymously at first but later showing his name only as servant of the Lord. At no time did Swedenborg preach or make any moves to found a church remaining a loyal member of the Lutheran State Church of Sweden.

By the time he died in London in 1772, at the age of 84, he himself was convinced that his gospel would become the last religion of the world. He had devoted followers in Sweden, France, the Netherlands and England. From here the Swedenborg philosophy spread to the United States.

By the 1820s major centers of Swedenborgian thought had started in several places in the US where they had been organized into formal Christian congregations under the name of the Church of the New Jerusalem (in e.g. Toronto, ph. 416/233-3929).

Swedenborg wrote about 60 volumes during his life, each one consisting of about 500 pages. The first half of his output is devoted to natural science research and the second half to spiritual experiences.

It is a curious fact that Swedenborg is definitely much more known in Britain, USA and South Africa than he is in his own country. Blake, Emerson, Goethe, Balzac, Baudelaire, Ezra Pound, Joyce, Strindberg - all read Swedenborg. He was "Freud -150 years before Freud."