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Swedenborgianism

Restorationist Christian denominations

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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" (rather than through faith or acts alone), wherein individuals accept divine truth from the Lord into their "inner self" (or higher faculties), controlling the "outer" (or earthly) 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. At least one scholar has characterised Swedenborgianism as being a part of Restorationist Christianity. 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 (died 1784), rector of Winwick, Cheshire, and John Clowes, rector of St John's Church, Manchester. Hartley translated Heaven and Hell (1778) and True Christian Religion (1781); 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 (15 years after Swedenborg's death), 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 (the New Church Magazine) and young people. The liturgy (containing five services for Morning and Evening, together with the order of Baptism, Holy Supper, Marriage, etc.) 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 (Johnny Appleseed). 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 (particularly in the United States, France, and England), 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 (and report on) 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 (sometimes shortened to the Convention), 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 (a suburb of Philadelphia). Other congregations felt doctrinally compelled to join the General Church at its inception. Two Convention congregations in Canada (one in Toronto and another in Kitchener) 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.

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