Swedenborg
Swedenborg names 3 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below.
Swedenborg EMANUEL, founder of the Church of the New Jerusalem
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
EMANUEL, founder of the Church of the New Jerusalem, and one of the most distinguished men of science of the 18th century; born in Stockholm, Sweden, Jan. 29, 1688. He was carefully educated under the care of his father, Bishop of Skara, in W. 190 SWEDENBORG, EMANUEL Gothland, in the principles of the Lutheran Church. After pursuing his studies and taking the degree of Ph.D. at Upsala, he went on his travels in 1710, and visited the universities of England, Holland, France, and Germany. On his return, he was appointed assessor extraordinary to the College of Mines, and in 1719 was ennobled, on which occasion his name was changed from Swedberg to Swedenborg. He had in the previous year achieved a great engineering feat, in the transport, over a mountain district, of several galleys and boats for service at the siege of Frederikshald. In 1721, he again traveled to examine mines, etc. He continued his scientific studies till the year 1743, when, as he himself affirms, a new era of his life commenced, and he was permitted to hold intercourse with the inhabitants of the invisible world. In 1747 he resigned his office in the mining ng college, retired from public life, and spending his time alternately in Sweden and in England, devoted himself to the publication of his theological works. They are filled with EMANUEL SWEDENBORG illustrations from the scientific and metaphysical lore of their author, and present a remarkable combination of science and theology. Though it is frequently affirmed that Swedenborg labored under a delusion, his writings show no symptoms of aberration. He was always regarded as a learned and pious man; and it would appear that the story of his insanity rests for its support on the word of a single enemy. He was never married. The believers in his doctrines are now become a numerous body (see SWEDENBORGIANS). Of his very numerous works, only a few of the most important can be named: The "Dædaperboreus" (1716-1718); "Philosophical and Mineralogical Works" (1734); "Economia Regni Animalis" (Economy of the Animal Kingdom) and "Regnum Animale" (The Animal King-
Swedenborg or Swedberg, Emanuel (1688-1772)
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
or Swedberg, Emanuel (1688-1772), a Swedish theologian. He was a native of Stockholm. His father was a court preacher or chaplain to Charles XI. On his father's side he was a descendant of a family of wealthy miners in Dalecarlia. On his mother's side he was a descendant of Gustavus Vasa. From his earliest childhood he delighted in serious conversation on religious topics, often talking in a way that led his parents to say the angels must be speaking through him. Nevertheless he was educated at Upsala for a scientific life. He also went abroad for three years and studied chemistry, astronomy, physics, and mathematics at London, Paris, and elsewhere. In fact, from 1710 to 1745 he was an eminent scientist. He traveled extensively. He was for eleven years connected with the college of mines, became a fellow of the Royal Academy of Sciences in Stockholm, and wrote a score of works and treatises on air-pumps, flying machines, ear trumpets, canals, fire, color, coinage, the working of iron and copper, the circulation of the blood, and the make-up of the brain. He was, in short, one of the most active scientific men in Europe. He is credited with a number of suggestions relative to the heart, lungs, and blood that ripened in the minds of later investigators into admitted scientific facts. In 1745 while in London he announced that the Lord had appeared to him for the third time and had given him spiritual insight, with a commission to write of the New Jerusalem and things spiritual. He withdrew from all worldly affairs, the Swedish government continuing his salary, and wrote a series of remarkable works, "as the Lord commanded me to write." The list of these works includes a score or two of volumes. One of the latest, a general exposition of the new theology, is the True Christian Religion, or the Universal Theology of the New Church. His followers are known as Swedenborgians, or as members of the Church of the New Jerusalem. There are about 8,000 adherents in the United States and Canada.
Swedenborg EMANUEL dom) in theology
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
EMANUEL dom) in theology, the "Arcana Cælestia" (The Secrets of Heaven), "Apocalypsis Revelata " (The Apocalyp Revealed), "De Cultu et Amore Dei" (On pse the Worship and Love of God), "On Heaven and Hell," "On Conjugal Love," and the "True Christian Religion." He died in London, England, March 29, 1772. of it, the remainder being divided between the second and third. Also, the contributions from several persons. prize in a horse race, etc. , made up of American military officer; born in Kirk-
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Both accounts treat Swedenborg's church as a growing body — Aiton's counted "about 8,000 adherents in the United States and Canada" in 1910, and Collier's in 1921 called the believers "now become a numerous body." That expansion did not continue: the organized New Church denominations in North America now number only in the low thousands, though Swedenborgian congregations survive in Britain, Africa and elsewhere, and the Swedenborg Foundation and Swedenborg Society still publish new translations. What has grown instead is scholarly interest in Swedenborg the scientist and in his influence on writers and thinkers — Blake, Emerson, Balzac, Baudelaire, Henry James Sr. and Strindberg among them. Collier's defence of his sanity against "the word of a single enemy" (John Wesley's correspondent-turned-critic tradition, usually traced to Swedish detractors) remains a live argument, with modern writers reading the 1743–45 crisis as a religious vocation rather than a pathology.
Written for this edition, 2026.