Swedenborg and Life

Was Swedenborg Crazy?

Episode Summary

So we’ve been talking about Emanuel Swedenborg and his accounts of the material and spiritual worlds for a full year now, but there may be some people wondering how his claims to have visited the afterlife could possibly be true. When this 18th-century Swedish Renaissance man wrote and published volumes of firsthand accounts of heaven and hell, evil spirits, and heavenly angels, did he really see all of those things? Was it all in his head? In this special anniversary episode, host Curtis Childs from the Swedenborg Foundation utilizes the help of an esteemed psychologist and theological scholars to explore Swedenborg and the historical and anecdotal evidence of his sanity and character. This is an audio-only version of video-based show, and the podcast may contain references to visuals from the original episode. Watch this episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_ZP30NFYf8

Episode Notes

So we’ve been talking about Emanuel Swedenborg and his accounts of the material and spiritual worlds for a full year now, but there may be some people wondering how his claims to have visited the afterlife could possibly be true. When this 18th-century Swedish Renaissance man wrote and published volumes of firsthand accounts of heaven and hell, evil spirits, and heavenly angels, did he really see all of those things? Was it all in his head? In this special anniversary episode, host Curtis Childs from the Swedenborg Foundation utilizes the help of an esteemed psychologist and theological scholars to explore Swedenborg and the historical and anecdotal evidence of his sanity and character.

This is an audio-only version of video-based show, and the podcast may contain references to visuals from the original episode. Watch this episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_ZP30NFYf8

Discussion points:
--Who is Swedenborg?
--Was Swedenborg Insane?
--Evidence of Swedenborg’s Sanity
--Nature of Swedenborg’s Writings
--What it All Means

Special thanks to our featured guests: Dr. Soni Werner, Associate Professor of Psychology, Bryn Athyn College; Dr. Jonathan S. Rose, Series Editor of the New Century Edition Works of Emanuel Swedenborg; Dr. Jim Lawrence, Professor of Spirituality and History, Pacific School of Religion and Graduate Theological Union

References and Downloads:

See the blog that we got that "Swedenborg" graffiti tag from here: https://swedenborgsociety.wordpress.com/2015/03/06/swedenborg-and-graffiti-art/

We got the images for the story of the girl, the angel, and the mirror here: http://newchurchhistory.org/funfacts/indexbbbb.html?p=111

Read "The Swedenborg Epic" by Cyriel Sigstedt online at the Swedenborg Digital Library: http://www.swedenborgdigitallibrary.org/ES/epicfor.htm

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