Life of emanuel swedenborg
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Life of Emanuel Swedenborg antisocial William White
Together with a brief condensation of his writings, both philosophical stream theological
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Emanuel Swedenborg
18th-century Swedish scientist, freemason and theologian
Emanuel Swedenborg (,[2]Swedish:[ˈsvêːdɛnˌbɔrj]ⓘ; born Emanuel Swedberg; (29 January 1688 – 29 March 1772)[3] was a Swedish polymath; scientist, engineer, astronomer, anatomist, Christian theologian, philosopher, and mystic.[4] He became best known for his book on the afterlife, Heaven and Hell (1758).[5][6]
Swedenborg had a prolific career as an inventor and scientist. In 1741, at 53, he entered into a spiritual phase in which he began to experience dreams and visions, notably on Easter Weekend, on 6 April[7] 1744.[8] His experiences culminated in a "spiritual awakening" in which he received a revelation that Jesus Christ had appointed him to write The Heavenly Doctrine to reform Christianity.[9] According to The Heavenly Doctrine, the Lord had opened Swedenborg's spiritual eyes so that from then on, he could freely visit heaven and hell to converse with angels, demons, and other spirits and that the Last Judgment had already occurred in 1757, the year before the 1758 publication of De Nova Hierosolyma et ejus doctrina coelesti (English: Concerning the New Jerusalem and its Heave
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Swedenborg’s Life
Table of contents
The life of Emanuel Swedenborg (1688–1772) was steeped simultaneously in the rational world of the physical sciences and in a deep Christian faith. He lived during the height of the Enlightenment, a period when intellectuals rejected dogmatic religious teachings in favor of science and reason, and his theology reflects a long struggle to understand the world of spirit through investigation of the physical world. Ultimately, that struggle was resolved when (as he described it) his spiritual senses were opened and he began to interact directly with the denizens of heaven, hell, and the world of spirits in between. Although his theological writings are based on experiences and visions that may seem unbelievable to a modern audience—as they did to many of Swedenborg’s contemporaries—he writes with full awareness of how difficult his accounts may be to accept. In keeping with his early scholarly training, he presents his ideas in a logical order, drawing examples from everyday life as proof of the truth of his words, inviting readers to judge for themselves.
Early Years
Born Emanuel Swedberg in Stockholm, Sweden, on January 29, 1688, he was the second son of Jesper Swedberg, a pastor in Sweden’s Lutheran state church. At the age of ele