Author: Emanuel Swedenborg
Publisher: Library of Alexandria
Published:
Total Pages: 69
ISBN-13: 1465573399
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →THE SENSE OF THE LETTER OF THE WORD, IN WHICH IS THE SPIRITUAL SENSE, REPRESENTED. It was given to see great purses, appearing like sacks, in which was hidden silver in great abundance; and, since these sacks were open, it seemed as if anyone might take from the silver placed therein, yea, steal from it; but near the sacks sat two angels who were guards. The place where the sacks were deposited appeared like a manger in a stable. In the next chamber were seen modest virgins together with a chaste wife, and near that chamber were two infants, and it was said that they were not to be played with in a childish manner, but wisely. Afterwards there appeared a harlot, and then a horse lying dead. It was then perceived that thus was represented the sense of the letter of the Word, in which is the spiritual sense. 1-1 Those great purses filled with silver signified the knowledges of truth in great abundance therein. That they were open and yet guarded by angels, signified that everyone may take thence the knowledges of truth, but that care must be taken lest its interior sense in which is nothing but verities be falsified. The manger in the stable where the sacks lay, signified spiritual instruction for the understanding. A manger signifies this, even the one wherein the Lord was laid when born; for a horse signifies the understanding: hence a manger signifies its nourishment. The modest virgins who were seen in the next chamber signified the truths of the church, and the chaste wife signified the conjunction of truth and good which is everywhere in the Word. The infants signified the innocence of wisdom in the Word; they were angels from the third heaven who all appear like infants. The harlot, with the dead horse, signified the falsification of the Word by many at this day, whereby all understanding of truth is destroyed; a harlot signifies falsification, and a dead horse, no understanding of truth.
Author: Stephen McNeilly
Publisher: The Swedenborg Society
Published: 2002
Total Pages: 158
ISBN-13: 9780854481347
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →On the True Philosopher and the True Philosophy: Essays on Swedenborg is a collection that seeks to reexamine the eighteenth-century Swedish philosopher and mystic Emanuel Swedenborg's place in the history of ideas, offering an important critique of a controversial and neglected thinker and positioning his theories in terms of contemporary philosophical debate.
Author: Andrew Malcolm Thomas Dibb
Publisher: University Press of America
Published: 2005
Total Pages: 376
ISBN-13: 9780761829751
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →The Trinity was defined at the Council of Nicaea and the relationship of the human and divine natures of Christ was defined at Chalcedon. Very few questioned the Church's depictions of the nature of God. Two such mavericks, Michael Servetus (1509-1553) and Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772), in spite of their Christian educations, rejected the Church's creedal understanding of God and the Trinity. Although they lived in two different ages- the Reformation and Enlightenment, and there is no evidence that Swedenborg ever read or even knew of Servetus- the two men came to remarkably similar conclusions about the nature of God. Each scholar stated that the Trinity does not rest in three Persons, but rather takes form in the single person of Jesus Christ, the visible God. Servetus was a superb scholar in his day. He mastered the Church Fathers and possessed an encyclopedic knowledge of the Bible. Servetus tragically perished in the flames at Geneva because of his beliefs. Swedenborg, likewise, was a well-known and respected scholar, philosopher, and anatomist. He dedicated the last thirty years of his life to biblical research, producing a series of some thirty volumes (in English) of theological writings. His work influenced many of the great thinkers and artists of the nineteenth century and continues to be read and studied in many parts of the world today.