Emanuel Swedenborg was born on the 29th  January 1688, in Stockholm, Sweden.
Swedish seer, primarily a scientist, an authority on metallurgy, a mining and military engineer.  He mastered virtually all the known sciences of  his time;  writing on mathematics, geology, chemistry, physics, mineralogy, astronomy and anatomy.  His achievements range from being the first to propound a nebular hypothesis to making the first sketch of  a glider-type aircraft.  He was also a skillful bookbinder, understood clock making, engraving, marble inlay and lens grinding.  He improved the forerunner of  our phonograph.  His experimental tank for ships is still used.  He reflected on the possibility of  a submarine, designed a machine gun and marketed a usable fire extinguisher.

A learned astronomer, reputed physicist, zoologist, anatomist, financier and political economist, also a profound Biblical student.  He was the son of  a Bishop, graduated at Upsala University and studied abroad under the most famous mathematicians and physicians - Sir Isaac Newton,  Flamsteed,  Halley and De Lahire.  He made sketches of  inventions as varied as a submarine, a rapid-fire gun, an air pump and a fire engine.  He wrote many poems in Latin and when, after five years study he returned to Sweden, he was appointed Assessor of the Royal College of  Mines.  Originally known as Swedberg, nobility was bestowed upon him by Queen Ulrica, and he changed his name to Swedenborg.  At the height of  his scientific career he resigned his office to devote the rest of  his life to the spreading of  the spiritual enlightenment for which he believed himself  to have been specially selected by God.

He mastered virtually all the known sciences of  his time;  writing on mathematics, geology, chemistry, physics, mineralogy, astronomy and anatomy.  His achievements range from being the first to propound a nebular hypothesis to making the first sketch of  a glider-type aircraft.  He was also a skillful bookbinder, understood clock making, engraving, marble inlay and lens grinding.  He improved the forerunner of  our phonograph.  His experimental tank for ships is still used.  He reflected on the possibility of  a submarine, designed a machine gun and marketed a usable fire extinguisher.

He showed signs of  psychic power as a child.  His ability to cease breathing for a considerable period probably means that he passed into the state of  trance.  He had gifts of  clairvoyance.  Kant investigated and found the story authentic that in Gothenburg he observed and reported a fire which was raging in Stockholm, 300 miles away.  In his Dreams of  a Spirit Seer Kant narrates several supernormal experiences from Swedenborg's early life.  His real illumination and intercourse with the spiritual world in visions and dreams began in April, 1744.  In a conscious state he wandered in the spirit world and conversed with its inhabitants as freely as with living men.  He was in a sense the first spiritualist.  Those who went before him did not commune with the spirits of  departed men.  Spirits were considered a different order of  beings.  The great principle of  continuity was not known.  It was he who bridged the gulf  between life and death.  But he could not completely break with theological tradition.  He still distinguished between heaven and hell but not in the orthodox sense.  Of  mediumship he knew little.  Spirits of  kings,  popes,  saints, apostles and biblical personalities were his instructors.  Of spirit identity we have but a dozen evidential cases in his writings.

His descriptions of  the spirit world fall in the main into two classes:  experimental writings and dogmatic writings.  His accounts of  what he saw and felt in the spirit world agree fundamentally with present day spirit teachings, but his theologic writings which led to the establishment of  the New Church and Sweden borgianism are not only too involved but appear to be arbitrary and, though attributed to spirit instruction, suggest a subconscious elaboration of  his preconceived ideas.

Spiritualism owes much to Swedenborg.  He was the first to explain that death means no immediate change, that the spirit world is a counterpart of  this world below, that it is ruled by laws which ensure definite progress and that our conditions in the Beyond are determined by the life we live here.

Although he was acknowledged by his contemporaries to be one of  the outstanding scientific figures of  his generation, the last 27 years of  Swedenborg's life were devoted to writing books on religion.  Before this, and even during his period of religious writing, he served as one of  the most creative and influential members of the Swedish House of  Nobles.

Swedenborg's theological works form the basis of  the Swedenborgian Church or, as it is sometimes called today, The Church of  the New Jerusalem.  Although he never intended a church denomination to be founded or named after him, a society was formed in London 15 years after his death.  This 1787 organization eventually spawned the present General Convention of  Swedenborgian Churches.

As a result of  Swedenborg's own spiritual questionings and insights, we as a church today exist to encourage that same spirit of  inquiry and personal growth, to respect differences in views, and to accept others who may have different traditions. Swedenborg shared in his theological writings a view of  God as infinitely loving and at the very center of  our beings, a view of  life as a spiritual birth as we participate in our own creation, and a view of  Scripture as a story of  inner-life stages as we learn and grow.  Swedenborg said,  "All religion relates to life, and the life of  religion is to do good."  He also felt that the sincerest form of  worship is a useful life.

1688 - 1772

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