Notes on This Issue              1997


Vol. CXVII January, 1997     No. 1
New Church Life

How Good Are Your Tents, O Jacob!
     A Sermon on Numbers 24:5, 6
          Jeremy F. Simons

Happiness in Management
     Warren David

Martin Pryke (From a Memorial Address)
     Peter M. Buss

"Towards a New Church Culture"
     Gabrielle Reynolds

The Priesthood and Worship
     Erik E. Sandstrom

Millenniums     Richard Linquist

Judging the Reformed
     Leon S. Rhodes

Editorial Department
     How Very Few Are the Things in Arcana Coelestia
     The Larsens Talk about Historic Influence (2)
     Why Not Teach the Internal Sense to Children? (6)

Communications
     Correction
          Michael V. David
     Women in Ministry
          Michael D. Gladish

Daily Reading Calendar 1997
     Donald C. Fitzpatrick

News Concerning Peterkin Camp

Announcements

PUBLISHED BY
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     Vol. CXVII     February, 1997     No. 2

     New Church Life

     A MONTHLY MAGAZINE DEVOTED TO THE TEACHINGS
     REVEALED THROUGH EMANUEL SWEDENBORG
     __________

The Virgin Birth
     A Sermon on Matt. 1:23
          Terry Schnarr     51

The Lord's Conception: Divine Truth in Operation
     Reuben P. Bell     57

How Much of the Spiritual Sense Should We Give Our Children?
     Robert S. Junge     62

Evolution
     Dandridge Pendleton     68

What if We Started the Church from Scratch Tomorrow?
     Kurt Simons     78

Editorial Department
     How Very Few Are the Things Contained in the Book Heaven and Hell          82
     Why Not Teach the Internal Sense to Children? (7)          82
     "The End of the World"          83
     The New Jerusalem and Its Heavenly Doctrine in Russian          84
     A Book by Chauncey Giles          85

Communications
     Self-esteem
          Bill Hall     86
     Women Who Preach
          Jonathan Rose     87
     Translating That Passage          89

Announcements          93

Vol. CXVII     March, 1997     No. 3

     New Church Life

     A MONTHLY MAGAZINE DEVOTED TO THE TEACHINGS
     REVEALED THROUGH EMANUEL SWEDENBORG
     __________

Fighting Spiritual Battles
     A Sermon on Luke 4:1, 2
          Thomas L. Kline     99

Is the Lord Always the Same?
     Eric H. Carswell     106

Swedenborg Among Mystics
     Wilson Van Dusen     114

Review
     Conversations with Angels
          Wilson Van Dusen     116

In Our Contemporaries
     Three Versions of Conjugial Love          118
     The July-December Issue of The New Philosophy          119

Editorial Department
     Two Books about William Blake          122
     The End of the World (2)          126
     A Perpetual Calendar with Quotations          127
     Picture Post Cards          128

Eldergarten 1997
     Naomi Gladish Smith     129

Communications
     On "Conjugial" and on Self-esteem
          Katya Goodenough     131

Announcements          133

Return to the Promised Land-Excerpts          136

The New Jerusalem and Its Heavenly Doctrine:
     A Latin-English Version          139

Information on General Church Places of Worship          140

Master of Arts in Religious Studies          144

Vol. CXVIII     April, 1998     No. 4

     New Church Life

     A MONTHLY MAGAZINE DEVOTED TO THE TEACHINGS
     REVEALED THROUGH EMANUEL SWEDENBORG
     __________
Prudence and Providence
     A Sermon on Genesis 4:9
          Alfred Acton II     147

The Rt. Rev. Willard D. Pendleton
     A Memorial Address
          Daniel W. Goodenough     155
     Photograph of W. D. Pendleton          157

Free Will and Evil: A Comparison Between
     Swedenborg and Augustine
          Rebecca Cooper     167

Some Thoughts on the Bible Code
     William H. Clifford     174

Take Another Look at the General Church Web Site
     Grant R. Schnarr     181

Editorial Department
     Because I Live          182
     Thoughts of a Foolish Heart about Providence          183

Communications
     Fundamentalist/Literalist Debates
          Neville Jarvis     184
     The Honeybee
          Stephen Gladish, Sr.     185

Eldergarten 1998
     Donald C. Fitzpatrick, Jr.     187

Announcements          190

Vol. CXVII     May, 1997     No. 5

New Church Life

Public and Private Thought
     A Sermon by Rev. Derek P. Elphick          195

Principles Relating to the Selection of a Marriage Partner
     Geoffrey H. Howard          202

Feminine Wisdom
     Erik Sandstrom, Sr.          210

Review (continued)
     Returning to the Source
          Wilson Van Dusen          226

Editorials
     Swedenborg's Testimony on What He did not Read          232
     The Few Things in the Book Conjugial Love          233
     The End of the World (3)          234

Communications
     Women who Preach
          Gail Walter Steiner          237

Announcements          239

Vol. CXVII     June, 1997     No. 6

     New Church Life

     A MONTHLY MAGAZINE DEVOTED TO THE TEACHINGS
     REVEALED THROUGH EMANUEL SWEDENBORG
     __________

The Book of Lamentations
     A Sermon on Lamentations 1:1
          Patrick A. Rose     243

How to Present the Second Coming
     Douglas M. Taylor     251

Principles Relating to the Selection of a
     Marriage Partner (2)
          Geoffrey H. Howard     258

Temptations by Basil Lazer          271

June 19th, A Wedding Anniversary (In Our Contemporaries)          273

A Personal Story
     Judy Ebbe     277

Editorial Department
     Was There Life on Mars Long Ago?          279

     "Someone Similar" and "Similitudes"          280

Communication
     Preaching by Women
          N. Bruce Rogers     282

Report of the Editor of New Church Life
     Donald L. Rose     284

Academy of the New Church Calendar for 1997-1998          285

Announcements          286

Vol. CXVII     July, 1997     No. 7

New Church Life

A Sermon from Two Centuries Ago
     A Sermon on Exodus 17: 5, 6
          James Hodson          291

Principles Relating to the Selection of a Marriage Partner (Conclusion)
     Geoffrey H. Howard          299

The Apostle Paul
     James P. Cooper          306

The New Church in South Florida - From Miami to Boynton Beach
     Derek P. Elphick          311

Editorials
     Planets Outside our Solar System          321
     The Swedenborg Society Report          322
     The General Church Web Site          323

Communications
     Feminine Wisdom
          Linda Simonetti Odhner          324
     Women Priests
          N. Bruce Rogers          327
     Two Items in the May Issue
          Joseph P. David          329
     The Quest of Mankind
          Edgar McCaughtrie          330

Announcements          334

Vol. CXVII     August, 1997     No. 8

     New Church Life

     A MONTHLY MAGAZINE DEVOTED TO THE TEACHINGS
     REVEALED THROUGH EMANUEL SWEDENBORG
     __________

A Gift Freely Given
     A Sermon on Exodus 35:21
          Thomas H. Rose     339

Reviews
     Return to the Promised Land
          Paul Simonetti     343

Written with the Finger of God
     Erik E. Sandstrom     346

Toward a True Philosophy (Part 1)
     Edward F. Allen, Sr.     350

Eating of the Forbidden Tree
     N. Bruce Rogers     356

The Apostle Paul (Conclusion)
     James P. Cooper     365


A Mother Writes to Her Son          367

Editorial Department
     Planets in the Universe          369
     Favorite Sayings of Paul          369

Communications
     On Mars and on the Second Coming
          Steve Koke     371
     The Teaching about Preaching
          Thomas A. David     372
     Feminine Wisdom
          Erik Sandstrom, Sr.     373

Announcements          376

Information on General Church Places of Worship          379

Vol. CXVII September, 1997     No. 9

New Church Life

Gender Issues, the Laity, and the Uses of the Church
     Rt. Rev. Peter M. Buss          387

Impressions of a Trip to Moscow

     Rev. Goran Appelgren     409

Toward a True Philosophy and How to Make a True Philosopher
     Edward F. Allen, Sr.          411

Young Adults Association Formed in Ghana          418

Editorial Pages
     Think about Sunday Schools          419
     Favorite Sayings of Paul (2)          421

     An Unusual Paperback          422
     Epitaphs and Final Words          423

Communications
     About the Second Coming
          Rev. Douglas Taylor          425

Announcements          428

Vol. CXVII     October, 1997     No. 10

     New Church Life

     A MONTHLY MAGAZINE DEVOTED TO THE TEACHINGS
     REVEALED THROUGH EMANUEL SWEDENBORG
     __________

A Perspective on Suicide
     Mary Waelchli Griffin     435

New Church Family Camp at Jacob's Creek          440

Gender Issues, the Laity and the Uses of the Church (Conclusion)
     Peter M. Buss     442

News from Gothenburg
     Joachim Eriksson     460

Editorial Department
     A Book Entitled From Swedenborg          463
     Favorite Sayings of Paul (3)          464

Communications
     Changes in the Church
          Donald C. Fitzpatrick, Jr.     465
     Life in Our Solar System
          Karin Childs     466
     The Forbidden Tree
          Grant R. Schnarr     469
          Bonnie Cowley     471
     Demystified
          Richard Linquist     472
     Women Pastors
          John Raymond     474
     An Anticipated Book
          Karin Childs     476

Announcements          477

Vol. CXVII     November, 1997     No. 11

     New Church Life

     A MONTHLY MAGAZINE DEVOTED TO THE TEACHINGS
     REVEALED THROUGH EMANUEL SWEDENBORG
     __________

Making Excuses
     A Sermon on Luke 14:26, 27
          Kenneth J. Alden     483

Obedience to the Word
     Tatsuya Nagashima     489

Paradigm Shift and the Issue of Women in the Clergy
     Eva Sandstrom Lexie     494

Report of the Bishop of the General Church
     Peter M. Buss     504

Review
     Temptation
          Wilson Van Dusen     509

Local Schools Directory          511

Editorial Department
     Doctrines Related to the Near-death Experience          515
     A Favorite Saying of John: Children, Keep Yourselves from Idols          515

Communications
     Faith Alone Doctrine
          Alexander Fox     519

Announcements          520

Information on General Church Places of Worship          524

Vol. CXVII     December, 1997     No. 12

     New Church Life

     A MONTHLY MAGAZINE DEVOTED TO THE TEACHINGS
     REVEALED THROUGH EMANUEL SWEDENBORG
     __________
Joy in the Coming of the Lord
     A Sermon on Matthew 2:2,10
          David C. Roth     531

A Comparison of the Old Testament, the New Testament and
     the Writings
          Joel Brown     537

Directory of the General Church          545

Review
     The Temple of Wisdom
          Linda Simonetti Odhner     555

Editorial Department
     An Ancient and Powerful Saying Recorded by Luke          557
     Appeal for Coincidences          558

Communications
     The New Church in Sri Lanka
          Grant R. Schnarr     559
     Aldous Huxley's Comment about Swedenborg
          Bill Hall     560
     A Translation Correction
          Drake Kaiser     560
     Wanted: Wisdom about Marriage in Story Form
          Erik Buss     561

Announcements          563


Vol. CXVII     January, 1997     No. 1

New Church Life      This month people who do the "Daily readings" are reading the book of Isaiah and The Last Judgment. See the announcements about the readings on pages 34 and 42. Later in the year the readings take us through such works as Invitation to the New Church and the Doctrine of Charity.

     Among the many useful services rendered by the late Martin Pryke was the editorship of this magazine. Mr. Pryke ran discussion groups for young people when he was in his seventies. "He would urge the younger ministers to continue the good work that the Academy had begun, and he himself set them an example" (p. 19).

     Please note that audio tapes of New Church Life may now be obtained. See page 48.

     Many people are sometimes "at odds with or unhappy with" the church organization (see p. 5). Rev. Jeremy Simons speaks frankly about the external organization of the church but invites prayer for the good that can be in the "tents" of the church.

     Mr. Warren David says in this issue: "The business of the future will accomplish uses by providing all employees with the necessary and useful things they need in order to perform their individual uses. Managers of the future will be managers because they have a strong desire to serve those in their care."

     The article in this issue about New Church culture arises out of discussions at last year's assembly. Mrs. Reynolds speaks on p. 24 of an "underutilized way to express our unique culture."

     A chapter in the book of Genesis may come to about a page. The verse-by-verse exposition in the Arcana may exceed 30 pages. See the editorial on p. 35.

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HOW GOOD ARE YOUR TENTS, O JACOB! 1997

HOW GOOD ARE YOUR TENTS, O JACOB!       Rev. JEREMY F. SIMONS       1997

"How good are your tents, O Jacob! Your tabernacles, O Israel! like valleys that stretch out, like gardens by the riverside, like aloes planted by the Lord, like cedars beside the water" (Numbers 24:5, 6).

     Balaam looked down on the plains of Moab on the east bank of the Jordan River, not far from where it empties into the Dead Sea. There is a band of vegetation near the river, yet it is not a well watered plain, but a dry and barren one, and the scene for the most part is desolate. To Balaam, though, seeing with his spiritual eyes, the setting was a garden planted by the Lord, stretching out by the river. The tents, arranged in their order around the Tabernacle, were as beautiful as any heavenly vista.
     The Children of Israel wandered for so long in the wilderness because they were "stiff-necked" and rebellious. Spiritually they were like a wilderness where faith and love were as scarce as rain in the desert. Balaam did not see gardens by the river because of their spiritual state. The people he saw were neither naturally nor spiritually in a garden. Yet they are described that way because of what was represented in the spiritual sense. We read:

As the encampments of the Sons of Israel represented the arrangement in order of the angelic societies in heaven, when Balaam saw their encampments, he as it were saw heaven in spirit, and prophesied and blessed them . . . (AE 431:13).

In this prophecy neither Jacob nor Israel is meant, but the Lord's kingdom in the heavens, and His church in the lands, which were represented by that order in which Balaam then saw them (AC 3703:18; cf. 4236:2, 3858:6, 6367:6).

     The vision was a prophecy of a future garden, a future church where there would be both love and faith, the love and faith being like the flowers, fruits and leaves of a garden.

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The vision was connected with Israel because it would be through that people that the Lord would bring that spiritual garden into the world. For the Word was written through them and about them; He came into the world in that place and with that people; and it is from Jerusalem as a starting point that He commanded the apostles that "repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations" (Luke 24:47), teachings that would bring that garden to life.
     Saying that this view of Balaam's only represented the order of heaven and the church in no way means that it was not real, or that it was only theoretical. For it is by means of what Balaam saw and how it is recorded, along with everything else that is recorded in the Word, that the Lord is bringing that garden to earth.
     Has that garden been brought to earth? If Balaam were able to be here today and look down over those who make up the organized New Church, what would he see? Are its tents good? Do its members dwell as gardens by the river, or do they wander in a spiritual wilderness?
     In our lessons we read that the flight of the Woman Clothed with the Sun into the wilderness "signifies the church among a few, because with those who are not in good" (AE 730). Is the New Church at first only with a few because it is surrounded by those who are not in good? Or is it among a few because those who accept its teachings, who form church organizations and seek to promote its doctrines, themselves are not in good? Perhaps it means that we all have certain struggles to go through regardless of our formal church affiliation.
     The teaching of our lesson, as clarified later in this same passage, is that:

The New Church that is called the Holy Jerusalem, which is signified by "the woman," can as yet be instituted only with a few, by reason that the former church is become a wilderness; . . . [W]hen the church is such, evils and falsities reign, which hinder the reception of its doctrine, that is, the doctrine of love to the Lord and of charity to the neighbor (AE 730).

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     When the church is a wilderness, it hinders the reception of doctrine with all those it influences. Those within the organized New Church are also a part of a much larger culture. Its members share almost all the customs and ways of life of those who surround them, and more importantly, they share many of the attitudes and values as well. We also know very well that the organized church is not the New Church, but that the New Church is to be a new state of the human race, a state of love and charity which we are promised will come in time. And we know that it exists already-wherever, but only where, the Lord in His Second Advent is worshipped in love and charity.
     Still, there is an organized church, founded to promote the true New Church. It is a human organization, and it shares with other organized churches in the Christian world the difficulty of maintaining an organization that is functional, oriented to uses, peaceful, and which practices the doctrines that it was formed to promote. When the angels look down on this church, do they see tents in orderly arrangement stretching out as gardens by the river, or do they see people wandering in the wilderness?
     Many people feel that as individuals they do well, but that they are sometimes at odds with or unhappy with the organization. Some have observed that the organized body seems at times to represent the worst, rather than the best, of the church. There can at times be disorganization, a lack of charity, the inability to reconcile differences, and many other unfortunate qualities-not what we would hope for from a body whose mission is to bring love and faith to the world. Happily, this is not always the case, and there are many who love both these organizations and the people who are in them.
     Politics is a part of any human organization. It is not enough to have good ideas or to know the right thing to do and do it. It is necessary sometimes to persuade others, to face opposition, to endure a lack of appreciation and even criticism, to deal with difficult people, to make difficult judgments, to be silent when we would like to speak, to speak when we would like to keep silent, to be involved in things we are not interested in for the sake of others who are, and many other things.

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Most of us would love to avoid these politics.
     The reason that Balaam said "How good are your tents" in our text is because of what tents signify. We read:

"A tent" signifies the church in respect to doctrine and worship, because those who were of the church in most ancient times dwelt in tabernacles and tents, and also journeyed with them, for they were then mostly shepherds of sheep; and the father of the family taught those who were born of his house the precepts of charity and thus the life of love, in tents, as was done afterwards in temples (AE 799).

     When we read a passage like this, some people wonder why we have church organizations, and why families do not simply study on their own or with a few friends, fathers teaching the children as the Most Ancients did. We also read that the best of the angels do not live in societies, but "dwell alone, house by house, as it were, and family by family" (HH 50; see also 189, AC 10813). Why then is an organized church important?
     Certainly anyone may "dwell alone, house by house, and family by family," and anyone may choose not to be a part of any organized church. Some day perhaps everyone will be taught directly by the Lord, as the Most Ancients were. Yet the doctrines stress the importance of an organized church for the purpose of keeping order.
     We read in our lesson about our hereditary tendencies to deceit, hatred, envy and other human weaknesses. Because of these tendencies we need external organizations to maintain order, both civil and ecclesiastical, with leaders who "take notice of all things which happen according to order, and of all things which take place in opposition to order, and who ought to reward those who live according to order, and to punish those who live in opposition to order.

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Unless this is done the human race would perish" (NJHD 312).
     A church organization does not do much in the way of rewarding and punishing, yet leaders who do not work, who teach false ideas, who live in a scandalous way, lose their positions. Members of the congregation are sometimes spoken to or praised, or affected by public opinion within the organization. This is not much, but if everyone taught according to his understanding of the doctrines with no government, order would not prevail-unless people were already regenerate. As we read in Arcana Caelestia 6822, when everyone teaches without training or government, "heresies arise, and the church is disturbed and rent asunder."
     If the church were not a "wilderness," politics in organizations would not be difficult for us to deal with. For what is often blamed on organizations is nothing but the shortcomings of its members. We can leave one organization and join another, but we will never find one that is free of evil until we reach heaven.
     However, even if an institution is flawed, as all are in this world, this does not mean that it would not be seen by the angels as a "garden by the river." For the angels see differently than we do; they look at the future as it is contained in the present.

With the Lord, and consequently in the angelic heaven, the future and the present are one and the same, for what is future is already present, or what is to take place has taken place (AC 730:5; cf. 4815e, 2493, 1382e; DP 333:3, 59, DLW 75; SD 3973).

     According to the Writings, the details of the Lord's victories over the hells were "manifested as present realities to the angels" in the Old Testament prophecies even though they had not yet occurred (see AC 2523). This why those prophecies are so often couched in the present tense, such as "Unto us a Child is born" (Isaiah 9).

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This is also why the angels see the regeneration of a child in its baptism, and the salvation of individuals as they receive the Holy Supper. This is one of the reasons why there is so much excitement surrounding the beginnings of things, such as beginning a school year or beginning a sports season-because we project the anticipated results of the future into the present. This is why there is such tremendous delight in the beginnings of relationships and the beginnings of marriages, long before the real work of building conjugial love has been done. The angels who are with us love potential, and we feel their love as delight.
     This is why Balaam saw a garden when he looked at the encampment of Israel, because of the joy that would come into the world through what he saw there. This garden is essentially the same one as the Garden of Eden, and the same as the one described in the Holy City New Jerusalem at the end of the book of Revelation. It is a future garden for the world as a whole, but it can be a present one for anyone who has the eyes to see it and the will to be a part of it.
     According to the teachings of the Writings, there is no question that the New Church will exist (see AR 547). It exists already. And there is no question that it will come into being because of the Heavenly Doctrines. What Balaam was shown was a representation of the church as it would exist. He was also shown a representation of how this would come about, namely through the coming of the Lord into the world:

I see Him but not now; I behold Him but not near; a Star shall come out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel and batter the brow of Moab and destroy the children of Sheth (Numbers 24:17).

     The Lord came into the world to batter and destroy the power of evil and to bring heavenly peace, to plant a garden by the river. He has done this, but much time is needed for the effect of what He has done to reach its fullness.

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Until then, we can see like Balaam and envision the future perfection carried within imperfect temporal organizations. The New Church exists in the hearts and minds of many people, and it is continually growing and will keep growing as it increases in the spiritual world. Let us pray that the organizations that exist to foster this growth cooperate with the Lord in the increase of His kingdom. May we faithfully do our part in contributing to this mission, and be thankful for the means that He has provided. And may the Lord give us patience, faith in Him and love for one another, so that our church may be "like valleys that stretch out, like gardens by the riverside, like aloes planted by the Lord, like cedars beside the water." Amen.

Lessons: Numbers 23:27-24:19; AE 730; NJHD 312 POSITION AVAILABLE 1997

POSITION AVAILABLE              1997

     The Academy Girls School will accept r?sum?s from those interested in the position of Head Housemother of Glenn Hall. This full-time position, with benefits, will commence August 1, 1997.
     Interested parties should submit a r?sum? to Margaret Y. Gladish, Girls School Principal, Academy of the New Church, P.O. Box 707, Bryn Athyn, PA 19009.
OTHER PLANETS 1997

OTHER PLANETS              1997

     "Although the human race might, by losing contact with the Divine, perish upon one planet, . . . it would still exist on other planets."
     Last Judgment 10

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HAPPINESS IN MANAGEMENT 1997

HAPPINESS IN MANAGEMENT       WARREN DAVID       1997

     What might happen if we apply God's principles of management to managing people in business?

     There are several reasons why we might want to try this.

     -     To begin with, God's laws work, and they always will.
     -     God's laws have the highest probability for encouraging happiness.
     -     They also have the highest probability for producing success and permanence.
     -     They also conduce to seeing success as performing uses rather than piling up profit, which could change many of today's inequities.
     -     God's laws are specifically designed for managing human beings in such a way as to lead them to eternal happiness by developing such happiness during life on earth.

     Let's try them!

     What are God's laws for managing humanity? They have been documented in two publications: Apocalypse Explained and Divine Providence. Apocalypse Explained is more detailed, giving ten laws, while Divine Providence summarizes these as five laws.

     The following is a list of the chapter headings in Divine Providence:

     Divine Providence is the government of the Lord's Divine love and wisdom.
     The purpose of Divine love and wisdom is a heaven from the human race.
     Divine Providence regards things infinite and eternal.

     There are laws of the Divine Providence, and these are unknown to people.

     -     We should act from freedom according to reason.
     -     We should, as from ourselves, remove evils as sins in our external being . . . .

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     -     We should not be compelled by external means to think and will, thus to believe and love, the things of religion. We should bring ourselves to it, and sometimes compel ourselves.
     -     We should be led and taught by the Lord from heaven, through the Word and doctrine and preaching from it, and this in all appearance as by ourselves.
     -     We should not perceive and feel anything of the operation of the Divine Providence, but still should know and acknowledge it.

     There is no such thing as our own prudence. Divine Providence is universal from being in every single thing.

     Divine Providence regards eternal things and temporal things only so far as they accord.

     We are admitted interiorly into truths of faith and goods of charity only so far as we can be kept in them to the end of life.

     Laws of permission are also laws of Divine Providence.

     Evils are permitted for the sake of an end, which is salvation.

     Divine Providence is equally with the evil and the good.

     Divine Providence appropriates neither evil nor good to anyone, but our prudence does.

     Every human is able to be reformed, and there is no predestination.

     The Lord cannot act contrary to the laws of Divine Providence.

     Now from Apocalypse Explained: For this presentation I have chosen the ten laws given in AE 1146, which are as follows:

     1.     We feel life in ourselves-we think and will, speak and act from ourselves, yet we may acknowledge that it is from God.

     2.     We act from freedom according to reason, yet may acknowledge that our freedom is from God, and also our reason or rationality.

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     3.     To think and speak truth and will and do good is not from self but from God.

     To think and speak falsity and will and do evil is from hell.

     Yet freedom and reason themselves are always from God.

     4. Our understanding and will must not be compelled by another in the least, since all compulsion by another takes away freedom, but we should compel ourselves, for this is to act from freedom.

     5. From sense and perception we do not know in ourselves how good and truth flow in from God and how evil and falsity flow in from hell; nor do we see how the Divine Providence operates in favor of good against evil; if we did we could not act from freedom according to reason as if from ourselves; it is sufficient for us to know and acknowledge this from the Word and from the doctrine of the church.

     6. We are not reformed by external means-miracles, fears, punishments, but by internal means-truths and goods from the Word and doctrine of the church, and looking to the Lord.

     7. We are let into truths of faith and goods of love by God only so far as we can be kept in them until the end of life. It is less condemning to be evil than to be profane. This is the chief reason why evil is permitted.

     8. God withdraws us from evils so far as we are willing from freedom. So far as we are withdrawn, we do good that is truly good. So far as we are not, we do good that has evil within.

     9. God teaches truths by the Word - preaching, reading, conversation, communication, and thought about these things.

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     10. We are led by things that do not lead astray and are serviceable for eternal life. All things of Divine Providence look to what is eternal.

     These laws are the laws of order which are called the laws of the Divine Providence.

     If we love our neighbors, do we not desire heaven for them? Indeed, is not the purpose of the Lord's government a heaven from the human race? In applying this doctrine to life, do we not see that in all our relations to fellow humans we should regard their attaining heaven? If we do, then ought we not to apply to our fellow humans those same laws that the Lord applies?
     Here are some examples of how we might apply a few of these laws. The law is given in italics, followed by suggestions for applications.

     We feel life in ourselves.

     Let your fellow workers feel that their motivation and their ideas are their own even if they have actually only remembered something they have been told. The modern idea that we are products only of our heredity and environment is to be shunned as being a contradiction to this law. We are actually also products of our own efforts, stemming from our feeling of selflife. Always give credit for uses performed where credit is due.

     Our understanding and will must not be compelled by another in the least, since all compulsion by another takes away freedom.

     Our freedom is so important in the sight of God that many of His laws are ordained to protect it. If we would cooperate with God in His purposes, we too should try primarily to preserve our neighbor's freedom. I take this to mean that we should not compel others-in the least. Don't compel a person to do a job; rather let the person be led by love of use.
     Of course there are people with no love of use who have to work.

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If such a one is working for you, the best you can do is to lead such a person to work for some less noble love, such as love of reputation, honor or gain. However, you can take every opportunity to comment on the usefulness of the work and its meaning to others, being assured that the Lord is ever insinuating a delight of use into workers while they are working.
     From sense and perception we do not know how influx of good and evil takes place, nor the operation of Providence in favor of good. If we did, we would not be free.
     In business, if workers sense your leading of them, they will not feel free. To maintain their freedom and thereby their happiness you must lead by affections, not by thoughts. Enjoy their accomplishments with them for their own sakes; share your accomplishments with them, but don't tell them you are trying to lead them to the delight of use. If workers ever show enthusiasm for work, remember it and recall the occasion frequently, but without being too deliberate.
     If you can help people discover the joy of their work, they will work!
     We are not reformed by external means-miracles, fears, punishments, but by internal means-truths and goods from the Word and doctrine of the church and looking to the Lord.
     Fear of losing a job, disciplinary action for misdeeds, will curb bad practice, but will never reform a person. These will sometimes have to be used in order to insure the performance of a use, but they should be used only as a last resort. What should we use first? Truths and goods from the Word. The Word, indeed, is full of truths and goods that can be put into everyday language and used to help each other do a better job.
     God teaches truths by the Word-preaching, reading, conversation, communication, thoughts about these things.
     Perhaps the greatest service we can do for our fellow workers is to read the Word ourselves and talk about the ideas we find in it.

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     Many people today never open a sacred scripture of their religion. The only way the Lord can teach them is through conversation in which thoughts from the Word are expressed. Usually these thoughts are clothed in our own language, so that the source of the Lord's teaching will not be perceived, but it is still there. Our conversation will be filled with thoughts from the Word if we ourselves are being regenerated.
     We are led by things that do not lead astray and are serviceable for eternal life.
     I feel a certain relief and assurance from this law that no matter what I say or do to a person, the Lord will allow that person to be led only by what will not lead astray and is serviceable for eternal life.
     This does not mean that we can say anything at all! It means that we need not be afraid to say what we think we should say or to do what we think we should do. In other words, if we say and do the best we can, the Lord will look out for our neighbor.

     Charity

"Charity itself is acting justly and faithfully in the office, business, and employment in which we are engaged, and with those with whom we have any dealings" (TCR 422 heading).      "This is charity itself because charity may be defined as doing good to the neighbor daily and continually, not only to the neighbor individually but also to the neighbor collectively; and this can be done only through what is good and just in the office, business, and employment in which we are engaged, and with those with whom we have any dealings; for this is our daily work, and when we are not doing it, it still occupies our mind continually, and we have it in thought and intention . . . .

     Only if we worship the Lord, and act from Him when acting from ourselves, can we attain to spiritual charity, and become imbued with it by the practice of it" (TCR 423).

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     "With those who love the neighbor as themselves and God above all things the delight of doing good to the neighbor is their reward. This is the delight of the angels in heaven, and it is a spiritual delight which is eternal, and immeasurably exceeds all natural delight" (TCR 440).
     "Use is fulfilling one's duty and doing one's work rightly, faithfully, honestly, and justly" (Charity 133).
     In summary I would like to point out that there is a whole new world of business waiting to be developed by people of the New Church. This world is based upon the new concept that business exists for the purpose of providing employments and performing uses. Profit is merely incidental, as we may surmise from the Lord's words: "Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you" (Matt. 6:33).
     The business of the future will accomplish uses by providing all employees with the necessary and useful things they need in order to perform their individual uses. Managers of the future will be managers because they have a strong desire to serve those in their care, living by the Lord's words: "They that would be great among you, let them be your servants" (Matt. 20:27). The responsibility is to those below as well as to those above in the management structure.
     The rift between management and labor disappears because management's primary concern is the welfare of the laborers, while the laborers' primary concern is the honest, faithful and just performance of their jobs. Both look to the use being performed, and each values the contribution of the other.
     The one most important thing we can do for others in the business world is to lead them to the love of being useful to others.

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MARTIN PRYKE 1914-1996 1997

MARTIN PRYKE 1914-1996       Rev. Peter M. Buss       1997

     Excerpted from a Memorial Address

     It is fitting that we consider how the doctrine of use contains the secret of eternal happiness as we meet to celebrate the resurrection of our friend and loved one, Martin Pryke, into the spiritual world. His life has been dedicated to the principle of use to others. A man of many talents with a wide range of interests, he has contributed in a variety of ways to the service of the Lord's church throughout his 81 years.
     Born in England in 1914, he initially entered a surveyor's office and worked there for some time before journeying to America to study, first in the Academy of the New Church College, and then in its Theological School, being ordained into the ministry in 1940. Then he began a career which has taken him to three continents and many countries, serving the church, among other things, as pastor, educational leader, professor of theology, Editor of New Church Life, and Director of the Glencairn Museum. [Photograph of Mr. Pryke]

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     The church and its teachings have been the key to all that has happened in his adult life. He has been deeply devoted to the Word and to the New Church which the Word is founding, and found in its teachings his purpose in life. He also loved the General Church and the Academy as its intellectual center, and was urgent in promoting its purposes. He came from a generation which served wherever it was needed, and this took him into many realms. He once confided that he had not initially been keen to serve in several of the places to which he was called, but in each of them he found happiness.
     His study of the Word was efficient and thorough, carried out with humility. He would delve deeply into a subject, analyze the doctrines and present them in a clear and simple form, which was aided by the fact that he was an excellent public speaker. He was always eager to make a distinction between what the Word directly teaches and what he assumed it meant, so that people were free to make their own interpretations-although he would ardently defend the reasoning behind his own. Though he was an idealist, it was the meaning and the application of the doctrines which moved him. He felt very deeply that principles are what guide us. He challenged people to have a basis in the Lord's teachings for their decisions, and helped them to do so. He would be the first to say that he and anyone else might fail at times to live up to the principles we set ourselves, but the important thing is to believe that they work, and to keep seeking to apply them, for in this we invite the Lord's mercy and power into our lives.
     Martin loved New Church education. He taught in elementary schools for many years, especially in Toronto, and he made the school fun for the students as well as guiding them to the Word. He loved his work as a teacher in the Academy also, appreciating the growing rational minds of the students and seeking to feed them.
     His love for education sprang from a lifelong dedication to communicating the vision of the New Church to the next generation.

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As a younger man he started what may have been the first church camps in England in the mid-1940s, and he continued to run discussion groups for young people when he was in his seventies. He would urge the younger ministers to continue the good work that the Academy had begun, and he himself set them an example. He was also supportive of young people. To some his strong principles made him seem too hard, but many sensed the belief that underlay what he said, and were inspired by him. He showed his support also in tangible ways: although not a keen sportsman himself, he was present at very many sporting events, to let the students know that he supported things that meant a lot to them.
     The desire to be active in use was perhaps the key to his character. He had an amazingly active mind, and to the end of his earthly life he worked whenever he could. A few months before his passing, his younger daughter asked him what he looked forward to the most about going to heaven, and his answer was predictable: "Being useful again."
     Consider the uses he performed for the church. In 1940 England was at war, and he felt that as an Englishman he belonged in his own country, although there was a risk in it. For ten years he served as a pastor in Colchester and London, through the war years and the rebuilding that followed. In 1950 he was called to be pastor of the Durban Society-and indeed leader of the whole church in South Africa. While there he resolved a number of disputes, and was very successful in bringing the young children of the church into the life of the congregation. In 1953 he was called to the Olivet Church in Toronto, where he was pastor for 13 years. It was in these years that he married Zara Bostock, and the Prykes have meant so much to our church ever since. Her gentle strength, wonderful humor and sound common sense blended with his strong idealism and principled leadership. She brought out the affection within him, and their home has radiated the qualities of both people.

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     In Toronto he led the society through a move to its present church site. His love for New Church education flourished in that lovely congregation with its day school, and he proved himself a remarkable headmaster with a flair for administration. This led to his being called in 1966 to be the Executive Vice President of the Academy, a post which he held for eight years. They were years full of challenge. A lot of building took place on the campus. The college was developing a greater identity of its own. The museum-soon to be a love of his-was beginning to flourish. Enrollment was increasing. He brought to these uses a blend of priestly leadership and sound common sense and organization. He was dedicated to the development of distinctive curricula, and worked hard himself on this use.
     After this work he became a teacher in the Theological School and the Editor of New Church Life. His special interest was in helping students to write clear, meaningful sermons. But a new interest was calling. The Academy museum was about to receive the remarkable gift of the Pitcairn family's collection and a home for them in Glencairn. He superintended the establishment of the Glencairn Museum of the Academy and became its first director. Why would a minister love this use? He saw in the artifacts the history of humankind and their relationship with their God, and delighted in the fact that these treasures bore testimony to what the Lord Himself has revealed about the spiritual history of the human race. From 1979 to 1987 he labored in this work, and the layout of this beautiful museum owes a great deal to his loving care.
     Another love of his has been the Academy Library, a record of the thinking of the church. He rejoiced when the new library was built, and volunteered his time to work in it. Until a stroke limited his movement too much, he would walk up to the library regularly and turn his remarkable organizational talent to the work there, and he felt a deep satisfaction in being useful.
     As a church we say a very warm and heartfelt thank-you to a man who has labored so diligently for its uses around the world.

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He has been a powerful force for the establishment of the church, and for the development and preservation of its doctrine and life. We will miss him a great deal, but we are grateful that his strength has returned, and that the Lord can make use of him in His eternal realm, and lead him to new realms of use which will delight his spirit all the days of eternity. "Those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint" (Isaiah 40:31).?
"TOWARDS A NEW CHURCH CULTURE" 1997

"TOWARDS A NEW CHURCH CULTURE"       GABRIELLE REYNOLDS       1997

     Reflections on the Theme of the 1996 General Assembly

     It was fascinating to me to note the many concepts and proposals of New Church culture discussed at the General Assembly in Bryn Athyn this June. The premise seemed to be: "If a New Church culture existed, what would it look like?" This visionary challenge before us, the proceedings took the form of lectures and discussions. To me it was ironic that no one talked about the culture which currently exists, which has been evolving over the past 100 years or so, and in which we live every day. A back-premise must have been the tabula rasa concept, as if we were mentally communally staring at a blank sheet of drawing paper on which we could now design from scratch. But we can no more set up a mythical culture by listing its elements and then stepping into it than we can set up the ideal body before its birth, or the elements of our spiritual life before we animate them. The question should not be one of defining a culture that does not yet exist, but specifying the one that does exist.

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Then, like a process of self-examination, we can study its components and discern whether we want to keep them or change them.
     Swedenborg taught that the first step toward regeneration is self-examination. It is vital that we first see what we are, acknowledge the presence of each habit, tendency, love and desire. Then we must deeply explore, meditate and pray about each one, and decide whether to allow it to exist or, with the Lord's help, to expunge it. It can be an exhausting yet very beneficial process. Interestingly, it is a process which receives much validation in current Western culture. As a people we seem to be very into self-improvement.
     Like self-examination, the process of changing the elements of our culture is an arduous and demanding one. It starts with acknowledging what we already have. Obviously we are living; thus we already participate in a way of life. But few of us take the time to explore whether we should or should not, from conscience and our own individual understanding of the Lord's order, participate. Just as we have learned to live with our own individual evil tendencies, we have learned to live with elements of our culture-even the ones we may not find desirable.
     We do not often get the chance to examine each element and make this decision of participation. Things and events exist all around us; we did not bring them into being. They were here when we got here. They were perpetrated by others before our time. But they exist and we have to deal with them. By not dealing with them we abdicate our say. By letting them exist unchallenged, we consent to their existence. Just like the evil tendencies that exist undetected in ourselves, by our inactivity we permit them to continue. We accept things as they are. Therefore, by inactivity as life and society change, levels of acceptability change with them.
     Culture is a way of life. Elements of culture are the principles, laws, technologies, ethics, mores, attitudes and values of a society, which are demonstrated in its artifacts.

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Artifacts of culture can be its art forms, architecture, style of dress and decoration, written commentary, music and entertainment. These artifacts reflect the culture which spawned them, and undoubtedly they also influence it. Sometimes it seems to be a "chicken or the egg" conundrum: Does art reflect or create societal influence? I believe it must be a little of both. Life imitates art as certainly as art imitates life. Propaganda could be defined as using artistic media specifically to influence thinking and behavior; therefore, not strictly art. Yet what artist, in his secret heart, has not intended his work to affect thinking, affection or behavior? The writer of a sonnet expressing the beauty of the lark must indeed wish to put an appreciation of that beauty into the breast of the reader. The producer of a movie about political corruption must intend a reaction of outrage in his audience. The composer strives to capture his reactions to the dissonance of modern life, his discords chosen to create a feeling of discomfort in his audience.
     The existing cultural influences are given voice in a democratic society by the vote of the masses. As to artifacts of culture, such as new forms of art and entertainment, these votes are in the form of purchase power: a song, book, movie, painting, performance, poem, gown or hairstyle is validated by the dollars the public is willing to spend on it. An artist whose sculptures sell for millions of dollars is considered more valuable, and thus exerts a greater influence on the medium than a "lesser" sculptor-whose works sell for less or don't sell at all. A rock band gains renown and sets a new standard for the genre when its recordings consistently "go platinum." Popularity, as measured by dollars spent, defines successful art forms, and thus tends to contribute to the evolution of popular culture.
     One way to express our response to cultural elements and artifacts is to use our "no" vote.

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We work hard to show our children, our neighbors and ourselves that we don't support certain habits, policies or practices, such as sex outside of marriage, profanity, or taking the Lord's name in vain, even though these things have come to be regarded as commonplace, and therefore acceptable, in society around us. We vote "no" by our abstinence and our refusal to participate in these things, or by not contributing monetarily to their propagation.
     But a very powerful and thus far underutilized way to express our unique culture is to use a "yes" vote, that is, to create and support expressions of a New Church culture, even though we may not have finished designing our picture of what that final culture will look like. There are talents among us now that need encouragement to grow. By fostering the vision of diverse artists who seek to express their own interpretation of a New Church way of life, we strengthen and define that way of life to the benefit of all.
     It is important that we join the ranks of social change by making clear our choices: saying no to the things in our society that we do not find acceptable. But it is also our unique mission that we must find the "yes" to say as well. The artifacts and traditions of our New Church culture will, in some degree, bring forward the ideals and perhaps the specific teachings of Swedenborg. Our belief in not only the one God but His order of the universe; not only the reality of but the structure of heaven and hell; not only the sanctity of marriage but the quest for conjugial love; not only the sacredness of the stories in the Word but their spiritual sense as well-all these are great food for thought and material for our cultural expression. For by expressing them we share them with others, and hope that this will evoke a response in them.
     The concept of culture also assumes a common bond. In the New Church, because we are relatively small in numbers we may think of our common culture as small or even non-existent, because we as a group have not defined or expressed its distinct cultural artifacts to the rest of the world.

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     It is fitting and appropriate that we look to the next 100 years in the new millennium with an eye toward envisioning a changed, more specific New Church culture. Do we want it to transcend political boundaries? I think we do. Do we want it to acknowledge the spiritual more in everyday life? Certainly; now let's figure out how. Is it necessary to create new art forms? Is that even possible? Or can we transfigure the forms already in existence around us to create our symbols and inspiration-our artifacts? Shall we continue to tolerate the differences among us? To celebrate these differences? To suffer intrusion of other types of thought into our common culture? To celebrate them?
     One element of the General Church that concerns me is our tendency not to trust others with our truths. At the assembly Bishop Buss' opening address spoke of the Woman clothed with the Sun. Faced with the flood of waters from the dragon, she was helped by the earth, which swallowed up the waters. Here the earth represents all the other people around us in their own good, which offer support to the New Church, represented by the woman, so that she may safely bring forth her son, representing the doctrine of the New Church. And in Grant Odhner's inspiring assembly address he acknowledged the many jewels in the diadem as representing the great and varied human forms which all reflect the Lord in their own way. These images should serve as an admonition against unduly withholding our truths for fear that they will be tarnished in their exposure.
     Rather than preaching our doctrines directly to a world not prepared to accept them, we need to allow these doctrines to influence and form our expressions of our culture. And our New Church art, music, writings and performance must be grown as expression of, and influence on, our evolving New Church culture. It is appropriate that some of our art forms be intended for New Church audiences, helping us to reflect on the culture we currently have, and inspiring us to participate in its development.

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But it is equally important that we create forms not intended for New Church audiences, but to be shared with the many cultures in the world at large. This speaks of a trust in others around us which we must foster and respect in order for the church to grow and for the world around us to be healed.
     As individuals within an existing New Church culture let us prayerfully and responsibly undertake to identify that culture, to develop it, to support its forms of expression and its artifacts. In this way, at our General Assembly in 2096, we may again examine the question of who we are, how we live our religion, how we share it to the mutual benefit of ourselves and our neighbors in the world, and how we may commit ourselves to striving towards a New Church culture.
PRIESTHOOD AND WORSHIP 1997

PRIESTHOOD AND WORSHIP       Rev. ERIK E. SANDSTROM       1997

     The use of the priesthood is mainly the salvation of souls (see AE 1187, Life 39, TCR 418). The priest's main area of performing this use is in leading in worship and administering the holy things of the church (see NJHD 317). The overall use of the priesthood is to "teach the doctrines of the church from the Word, and to lead by them to the good of life" (NJHD 317). Good shepherds do both; evil shepherds just teach (ibid.).
     There have always been messengers of the Word of the Lord. From the first beginnings of mankind on this earth there have been revelations by the Lord, first face-to-face, then by means of angels, then prophets and priests. Writing was invented to preserve the Word, and it was dictated by the Lord using angels, so that there was a spiritual sense for angels contained by correspondence within the natural or literal sense for men (see HH 254).

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Thus the Word always descended through heaven and was received by the person who wrote it (see AR 959), giving the Word of the Lord great power in its literal sense (see SS 37).
     But mankind has perennially rejected the Word, and so the Lord Himself came on earth, the Word made flesh. He first studied, then fulfilled the Old Testament stories (see AC 1461, Lord 11). For His whole earthly life was spelled out in their internal sense (see AC 2523), as He said, "And beginning with Moses . . . He expounded in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself . . . . Search the Scriptures, for . . . they testify of Me" (Luke 24:7, John 5:39).
     But when the Lord came on earth, the literal text of the Word was that "reed shaking in the wind" (John the Baptist)! The Lord began to restore the Word from His own mouth, and although He spoke in parables He also began to explain their internal heavenly meaning: "What did you go out to see?" (Matt. 10:7-15) The soft clothing of kings in houses means the spiritual sense of the Word in heaven (see AC 9372:2-4). "He opened their understanding that they might comprehend the Scriptures" (Luke 24:45). Since no angel could now reveal this, the Divine Itself took on a body from the world: "The Human whereby God sent Himself into the world is called the Son of God" (TCR 92). God became His own messenger. He explained the truth about the Father and the Son: "All Mine are Thine . . . . He who sees Me sees the Father . . . . I and the Father are one" (John 17:10, 14:9, 10:30).
     This was the beginning of heavenly wisdom restored as it was with the Most Ancients and Ancients. For we all have a soul and body, and so we can all see through the parable:

Everyone may say the same of his own soul and body, namely, All mine are thine, and thine are mine. You [soul] are in me [body] and I in you; he that sees me [body] sees you [soul]; we are one in person and in life . . . .

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All this makes clear that the Divine of the Father is the soul of the Son, and the Human of the Son is the body of the Father (TCR 112:5).

     This is the essence of the New Church message: the Lord is the Divine Human. It is He we are all to worship. But all worship has an internal and an external: the internal of worship is charity, doing our uses at work and at home. This internal coheres with the external rituals of worship, even as "the externals of the mind . . . cohere with the externals of the body" (Charity 173). The externals of worship are various rituals (see Charity 174) which are the "formalities of internal worship" (AC 1175). Internal worship is "the affection of good and the acknowledgment of truth" (AC 1326), which is to freely adore the Lord (see AC 1947); for "adoration of the Lord must be in it for it to be worship" (AC 1150).
     Such is worship. That is why there is a commandment to remember the Sabbath day "to keep it holy." Not that the Lord compels us to worship Him for His own sake-no. "The Lord does not demand . . . adoration . . . for His own sake. He has no glory in it; . . . the Lord wills . . . adoration . . . for [man's] own sake . . . . [so that] the Lord can flow in with heavenly good" (AC 5957).
     This is the design of church services. They are for our own good. We deny that opportunity at our own expense. That is why internal worship-love of good, acknowledging the truth and adoring the Lord-has external ritual along with it. For, we read, although internal worship is the essential and external is formal, "it does not follow that there ought not to be external worship" (AC 1175). And so external rituals drawn from the Word (see SS 76) are necessary; for there is "nothing of the church in people unless the internals of the church are in the externals" (AC 4899). And "that which is from the Word is alone serviceable for Divine worship, because it is in itself alive" (AC 8943).
     A church would not be a church without rituals of worship.

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Internal adoration calls for external prayers and hymns of praise. But the aim of worship is life: "The very worship of the Lord consists in performing uses . . . discharging aright your duties in your station, and from the heart being of service to the neighbor" (AC 7038).
     Here worship is described as going to work. So does church or life come first? "Regeneration is one thing, worship another; worship is according to the state of regeneration" (AC 10206). Life comes first. We are not regenerated by worship but in our life's work, in our uses.
     That is why the Lord said, "He who keeps My commandments, it is he who loves Me" (John 16). "Why do you call Me Lord, Lord, and do not do the things which I say?" (Luke 6:46) We are not saved by singing "Lord, Lord," but by living by the commandments. That is plain enough. But the Lord used parables so that the written Word could conjoin angels and humans by an internal sense in the literal (see HH 254). These parables were misunderstood early in Christian history (see TCR 378). The darkness that brought on the Advent returned. he Word became a "reed shaking in the wind" once again, and had to be fully explained in a Second Advent. Thus the Lord prophesied: "I have yet many things to say unto you but you cannot bear them now. However, . . . the spirit of truth . . . will guide you into all truth . . . and declare it to you" (John 16:12-14).
     That declaration or preaching of the Word is the primary use of worship. Charity is the other. So the Lord commands us to "remember the Sabbath" for our own sake. Also, "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath." It is not up to us to decide how to worship the Lord. The Lord teaches us how. The "church is from the Word" (SS 76), as it is now understood in the Writings. For on the correct observance of the Sabbath (and 4th commandment) "the rest of the commandments depend" (AE 965). Holy worship serves a purpose in and by itself, and when done sincerely, leads to the worship in life (see AC 7038).

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     Priests administer the holy things of worship, which is why " . . . dignity and honor are due to priests" (NJHD 317). Even the priest's garments are to be treated with reverence (see AE 64). In Malachi it says, "For the lips of a priest should keep knowledge, and people should seek the law from his mouth; for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts" (Malachi 2:7). But this means "not that he is the angel of Jehovah but the Divine truth that he teaches is" (AE 130:8, PP). The messenger is "the truth of doctrine from the Lord [with those who] love Him" (AE 444:12).
     Priests preach the Word so that what is "Divine may be among men" (Charity 130). They lead by truth to good (see NJHD 315). It is the truth as messenger that leads to good, not the priest. And to see that truth, the congregation must "search the Word," for it is not true just because priests say so, but only because the Word says so (AC 6047). And so it is the Divine Truth itself that is honored by both priests and laity.
     Because worship is the primary use of the church, the priesthood is the "first of the church" (AE 239), yet "the priesthood is not to be loved first of all, and the church from it; but the goods and truths of the church are to be loved in the first place, and the priesthood loved for the church's sake" (TCR 415). That is why no priest can compel belief, nor should any lay person disrupt the church over belief (see NJHD 318).
     All this is why John the Baptist said, "I must decrease; He must increase." He was a messenger of truth. The messenger shrinks before his message. Only those appointed by the Lord may preach in heaven (see HH 226), and those who have wished to subvert the doctrine of the church and have preached clandestinely were cast down from heaven. There is no universal priesthood (see SD 4904). Worship is open to all. And worship is of the Lord alone, the Son of Man, who is "Lord also of the Sabbath."

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MILLENNIUMS 1997

MILLENNIUMS       RICHARD LINQUIST       1997

     "The world will end in the year 2000! Repent before it is too late." Those persons who advertise this message on painted signs or on the Internet take the chance of being labeled as members in good standing of the lunatic fringe of human society. However, one thousand years ago many people proclaimed that the world would end in the year 1000. Their message was commonly accepted as being gospel truth in Western Europe and especially in France.
     It is clearly stated in the Bible (Matthew 24) that the disciples asked the Lord about "the end of the world," and He gave warnings about it. Further they asked Him about His coming again. One thousand years ago (and even today) it was believed that the events recorded in Revelation 20 are somehow related to His coming. We learn there that there would be a resurrection of some good souls who had not worshiped Satan and that they would reign with Christ for a thousand years, during which time Satan would be bound in a bottomless pit. After this period of time there would be another resurrection from death. Souls would be judged from the book of life in which were recorded their works. "And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire" (verse 15). Apparently this is the same lake of fire where Satan was cast, to be " . . . tormented day and night for ever and ever" (verse 10).
     Anyone then who believed this to be literally true might experience a certain anxiety, or even be scared to the point of death but be too frightened to cross over. However, the world did not end in the year 1000, and there was a release from the fear of eternal damnation and personal pain. " . . . [T]he relief was unbounded and the effect striking. Ralph Glaber, a monk of St. Benigne in Dijon, described how `towards the third year after the year one thousand' the great rebuilding of minsters, cathedrals and village churches began. `It was as if the whole world with one accord, casting off its ancient rags, were clothing itself anew in a white robe of churches'" (Stained Glass by Halliday and Lushington, p. 64).

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     From 1170 to 1270 in France several million tons of stone were quarried, transported and carved to build eighty cathedrals and hundreds of churches. The great Gothic cathedrals of the Middle Ages were constructed, of which our cathedral in Bryn Athyn is a worthy descendant.
     "The churches of medieval Europe were essentially anonymous. Abbot and artist, builder and craftsman gave of their talents together for the greater glory of God." With these thoughts Bruce Glenn began to write his book on our cathedral. Teamwork was the key unlocking materials from the Lord's natural creation and allowing them to be formed into houses of worship. So also today, people's working harmoniously together is essential to the Lord's work of building His New Church.
     We need not fear that the world will end in the year 2000, and there is not a fiery lake to punish sinners. Milleniums come and milleniums go without harm to the human soul. Rather, the passage of time does bring opportunities to serve uses and to enkindle the warmth of friendship among us.?
WORSHIP AND LOVE OF GOD 1997

WORSHIP AND LOVE OF GOD              1997

     The Swedenborg Foundation and the Swedenborg Society are together publishing this year a book that has been long out of print. The Worship and Love of God was published by Swedenborg in 1745.

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JUDGING THE REFORMED 1997

JUDGING THE REFORMED       LEON S. RHODES       1997

     A reading group in which I participate was discussing the books The Last Judgment and Continuation Concerning the Last Judgment. Number 14 of the latter small work begins treatment of the subject of the "Reformed," the various Protestant denominations. What is revealed could be called an alarming commentary on our national beliefs at this day!
     Starting at number 16 we are informed that the Last Judgment was effected upon those only of the Reformed who in the world confessed God, read the Word, heard preaching, partook of the sacraments, and did not neglect the solemnities of the worship of the church. These are what we would consider fine standards and we would hope that we qualify. These qualities apply to our neighbors and to most of our citizens.
     As we contemplate the world around us in this day and age, most of us sense a grave awareness that all is not well! And as we continue to read number 16 we are brought up short with the next statement. "[A]lthough these confessed God, they still made no account of sins against Him; they read the Word, and still they made no account of the precepts of life in it; they heard preachings, and still they paid no attention to them." They attended the sacraments but did not desist from evils of life. They "amended their life in nothing." Does this make us a little uncomfortable?
     The glaring truth is that our society today may "confess God" but "makes no account of the sins against Him." Many, of course, confess God half-heartedly at best, but are indifferent to their transgressions as long as nobody notices them- especially if they are confident that a reasonably competent lawyer could easily get them acquitted. If they bother to think about it, they find little reason to "desist from the evils of their life" or to amend their lives. It is still popular to give the impression that most of our civilization is "God-fearing," that churches and denominations are fine things.

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Sunday is observed by closing most important institutions such as offices, the post office, banks and liquor stores. We still cling to the declaration that we are a "nation under God"-and a great many people consider their beliefs important and precious.
     What is the state of our civilization? How do we feel about the moral character of Americans and their leaders when crime is so blatant and immorality so widely accepted?
     Under the guise of obedience to the decalogue, our population generally disapproves of murder, adultery, theft and false witness, yet New Church teachings go deeper than mere killing, immorality, clever swiping and bending the truth a little. We may feel confident that we would never be condemned for "having other gods before My face" or taking the Lord's name in vain. But there is truly a judgment. What is genuinely New Church is "distinctive" in the true sense, taking to heart and taking into life teachings that are not about faith alone but about life.
LAST JUDGMENT IN THE DAILY READINGS 1997

LAST JUDGMENT IN THE DAILY READINGS              1997

     The Daily Reading Calendar (see page 42) has us reading the work The Last Judgment this month. Some may be interested to look at the version by Dr. George F. Dole published under the title The Last Judgment in Retrospect. Here is a sample from the final paragraph (no. 74).

     I have had various conversations with angels about the state of the church from now on. They have said that they do not know what is going to happen-only the Lord knows that. They do know, though, that . . . the freedom that has been restored has opened the way to a better perception of deeper truths if we want to perceive. The way is also open to becoming more inward people if we want to.

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HOW VERY FEW ARE THE THINGS IN ARCANA COELESTIA 1997

HOW VERY FEW ARE THE THINGS IN ARCANA COELESTIA       Editor       1997

     Occasionally there is the impression that in the twelve volumes of Arcana Coelestia there is a complete unfolding of the interior contents of the books of Genesis and Exodus. Since it is a verse-by-verse unfolding, it may seem to some to be exhaustive, almost as if we have all the spiritual contents of those two books. But the things in the Arcana are really only a few!
     We read a verse-by-verse unfolding of the first chapter of Genesis, and it comes to some thirty-five pages. And then we read that "so many are its arcana that volumes would not suffice for the unfolding of them. A very few only are here set forth" (AC 64).
     We read about the same number of pages about the second chapter of Genesis, and here is what we find: "Such are some of the things contained in this chapter of the Word, but those here set forth are but few" (AC 166).
     Then in subsequent chapters we are reminded from time to time that the things we read are few. A verse in Genesis 31 is unfolded in three pages, and then we read: "Such are the arcana which are presented to the angels when these words are read by man . . . . But these things which have been mentioned are only a very few, for in these arcana the angels see and perceive things innumerable, nay, things relatively unlimited" (AC 4180:7). This number ends by saying that human speech is not adequate to express these arcana, "nor is the human mind capable of receiving them."
     Reflect, if you will, on how it affects us to think of the things we know as "few."


     (To be continued)

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LARSENS TALK ABOUT HISTORIC INFLUENCE 1997

LARSENS TALK ABOUT HISTORIC INFLUENCE       Editor       1997

     In the November issue we began to quote from a presentation by Dr. Stephen Larsen and Dr. Robin Larsen. They spoke of two different ways of looking at the Writings of Swedenborg, comparing this to two different ways of regarding light (either as "photons" or as "waves").
     Do some people look at the Writings theologically while others think of them psychologically? The Larsens say: "If one thinks theologically, Swedenborg's revelation is unquestionably divine in origin; otherwise how could it contain those luminous truths that have touched many generations, and reach our minds and hearts even today? If one thinks psychologically, how could it be otherwise than that Swedenborg's religiously imbued childhood influenced his mid-life recursion, and even that aspects of his father's theology are discernible in certain of his revealed spiritual 'doctrines'?"
     The Larsens speak of Swedenborg's place in history. The European theology of Swedenborg's time contained pathologies "with serious spiritual and psychological consequences-in individual lives and in the culture."
     Among the pathologies listed are: 1) The Trinitarian concept that a righteous God sent down His Son as a sacrifice for the sins of humanity. 2) Heaven and hell are places of reward and punishment, "a punitive model based on divine wrath and judgment." 3) External piety is what religion is about. 4) The concept that God cares only about some people, and gentiles are beyond salvation. In these and other points there are in Swedenborg's books "world-transforming ideas that are also ideas that permeate the morphic field of our time."
     "Whichever perspective we take of Swedenborg, amanuensis of the divine or genius of the humanistic (or both, if our view is sufficiently ambiguous and paradoxical), our thesis is that he announced a new movement in Western civilization that not only offered a remedy for its pathological or lopsided religious view, but one that has effected a change in the very morphic field of Western civilization, the effects of which are still reverberating-and will continue to do so in the new millennium . . . .

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     "The thrust of the current theme is not just to trace Swedenborg's influence in a linear, causal way, but to treat Swedenborg himself as a necessary catalyst, himself a symbol, of the morphic or holistic movement of forces of our time. After all, if time and space are the relative categories spoken of by the New Physics, Swedenborg appeared not only because of the forces that anteceded him and of which he represented a culmination, but because we of the twentieth century, in a teleological sense, needed him to have been there, to pave the way for the powerful spiritual and cultural movements in the world of today. In Jungian-Gnostic terms, he embodied the Anthropos, the quintessential human of our time: Aquarius, the water-bearer, pouring out an inexhaustible stream of truths to a spiritually thirsty generation and announcing the signatory themes of a new millennium."
     For the full lecture from which the above is quoted see Twelve Gates to the City, published by the Swedenborg Foundation in 1996.
WHY NOT TEACH THE INTERNAL SENSE TO CHILDREN? 1997

WHY NOT TEACH THE INTERNAL SENSE TO CHILDREN?       Editor       1997

     Among the things a little child learns eagerly is that God rewards those who do good and punishes those who do evil (see AC 5135:3). That basic concept is appropriate to a child's state.
     The sense of the letter of the Word abounds with such teachings. A list of passages about awaiting reward is given in TCR 440 which speaks of people who have confidence in that promise. It is no wonder that a reader of the Word "simply believes that he can do good of himself, and that if of himself he is good he will receive reward in the other life" (AC 735).

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The sense of the letter also teaches that God "is angry and punishes and does evil to the wicked" (Ibid.).
     The internal sense teaches otherwise. We cannot do good of ourselves. We do not merit reward. And the internal sense teaches that the Lord never punishes.
     Punishments come from evil spirits, and never from the Lord, who only permits the punishment. The simple and little children must believe that the punishment comes from the Lord "because they do not yet apprehend what permission is" (AC 6071:5).
     "Many things in the Word are said according to appearances, and indeed according to the fallacies of the senses, as that the Lord is angry, that He punishes, curses, kills, and many other such things; when yet in the internal sense they mean quite the contrary, namely, that the Lord is in no wise angry and punishes, still less does He curse and kill. And yet to those who from simplicity of heart believe the Word as they apprehend it in the letter, no harm is done while they live in charity. The reason is that the Word teaches nothing else than that everyone should live in charity with his neighbor and love the Lord above all things. They who do this have in themselves internal things; and therefore with them the fallacies taken from the sense of the letter are easily dispelled" (AC 1408).
     Some things in the sense of the letter of the Word "are for the simple and for little children and therefore adapted to their apprehension" (AE 862). As the Writings are so emphatic in teaching that the Lord is never angry, we might sometimes be hesitant about reading stories which say that He is angry. But of this the Writings say, "This most general truth, which must be taught to children, youths, and the simple, should afterward be illustrated, that is, by showing that evils are from man, though they appear as if from God" (AC 6997).

     As children grow, they ask questions about appearances, and some children do this earlier than others. The sensitive and wise parent or teacher uses the questions as an opportunity to speak of the genuine truth.

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CORRECTION 1997

CORRECTION       Michael V. David       1997

Dear Editor:

     I really appreciated the article by Vera Goodenough Dyck in recent issues of New Church Life. I found particularly valuable the idea that we don't have to "do something" about doctrinal disagreements. The important thing is to keep seeking the Lord in the Word, to let the Lord form my understanding of the Word, and for me to shun uncharitable reactions to other people's differing understanding. To follow the Lord myself is far more important than resolving differences with others.
     In her article in the November issue page 510 there is a footnote attributing to me a paper entitled "The Female Side of God." I would like to note that I didn't use that title, and that it doesn't reflect my thinking on the matter. New Church Life did publish a paper of mine entitled "God as Mother and Father" in July and August of 1995. This paper is also available on the World Wide Web at http://www.newearth.org/~michael/- papers/God.Mother.Father.

     Michael V. David
     [email protected]
WOMEN IN MINISTRY 1997

WOMEN IN MINISTRY       Rev. Michael D. Gladish       1997

Dear Editor:

     As a minister of the General Church I would like to acknowledge the pain and sadness expressed in the recent serialized article by Vera Dyck, and also in the letter from Mary Alden published last year about women in the ministry. While I wonder about the accuracy of some of the assertions made in Mrs. Dyck's paper, one thing is very clear: there is a strong, sincere and growing number of our members who are simply not convinced by all the reasonings we have brought together in the last few years that the Heavenly Doctrines prescribe an all-male priesthood.

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     Though not prepared to argue that particular point at this time, I would like to make a couple of observations-in a very affirmative vein-by way of response to the article. First, as a church, I think we have a real duty to acknowledge the frustration, concern and real needs of those who feel different than we do. After all, we read the same books and we love the same Lord. Some may question this, as we have such different ideas about Him, but the Writings clearly show us that the Divine transcends all time and space, so that His infinite love and wisdom in itself is unsearchable. A favorite passage of mine from the Heavenly Doctrines is Arcana 5952, where we read: " . . . [T]he Lord does not openly teach anyone truths, but through good leads to the thinking of what is true, and unknown to the person He also inspires the perception and consequent choice that such a thing is true because the Word so declares, and because it accords therewith. Thus the Lord adapts truths according to the reception of good by each person and . . . this takes place according to each person's affection, thus in freedom" (emphasis added). This passage, among many others, positively affirms the point that Vera makes about the need to consider Divine revelation for ourselves in the light of our own understanding and progress in regeneration.
     The same doctrine is further developed (with a potential negative consequence) in the following from SS 26:2, where we read: " . . . [T]he Lord teaches everyone by means of the Word. Moreover, He teaches from those truths which a person already possesses; He does not directly impart new truths. Therefore, if a person is not principled in Divine truths, or if he has acquired only a few truths as well as falsities, he may by their means falsify the truths. This is done by every heretic with regard to the sense of the letter of the Word, as is well known." By this standard we are all potential heretics!
     With this in mind, and from a pastoral point of view, I would question whether we have to agree on all the reasons for the various conclusions we come to in our thinking.

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Of course Vera didn't say we should do this, but in the article she left me with a feeling that we (ministers) were all just grasping at straws to try to prove a preconceived point. I'm pretty sure this is not the case. Rather, my impression is that all the studies are sincere attempts to get at the truth, and if they are flawed, perhaps the main flaw has been an error of omission rather than commission: that is, our failure to make the disclaimer that we are just doing the best we can, "calling it as we see it" from our study and from such enlightenment as we may have.
     Finally, as to the issue itself of women in the ministry, for all that could be said about the use and representation of the priesthood, it seems to me that the most fruitful way to begin the re-evaluation of our traditions would be to examine more closely the distinction the Writings seem to make between ministry and priesthood. In my experience it is not always clear in specific passages just what that distinction may be, but it is noted, and a sensitive, in-depth study may reveal some surprising possibilities.
     I would like to thank Mrs. Dyck for all the thoughtful, careful and sincere work she has undertaken for the members of the church to try to clarify the issues in a very serious problem that does confront us both in theory and in practice.

     Rev. Michael D. Gladish
     Etobicoke, Ontario, Canada
Christmas Chromosome 1997

Christmas Chromosome              1997

     Christmas Chromosome-In the December 8th Philadelphia Inquirer Magazine a page about Christmas food mentions the author's neighbor and says, "She's a member of the Swedenborgians, who as far as I can tell have an extra Tannenbaum chromosome."

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DAILY READING CALENDAR 1997 1997

DAILY READING CALENDAR 1997       Jr. Donald C. Fitzpatrick       1997

     As it had been foretold that darkness would arise at the end of the present church in consequence of the lack of knowledge and acknowledgment of the Lord as being the God of heaven and earth, and also in consequence of the separation of faith from charity, therefore in order that by reason of this a genuine understanding of the Word might not perish, it has pleased the Lord at this present time to reveal the spiritual sense of the Word and make it plain that the Word in this sense, and from this in the natural sense, treats of the Lord and the church, and indeed of these alone, and to uncover many other things besides, by means of which the light of truth from the Word, now almost extinguished, may be restored.
                              Doctrine of the Sacred Scripture 112

     A calendar of daily readings from the Sacred Scriptures and the Writings is available upon request from the office of the Secretary of the General Church, P.O. Box 743, Bryn Athyn, PA 19009.
     Donald C. Fitzpatrick, Jr.
     Acting Secretary
NEWS CONCERNING PETERKIN CAMP 1997

NEWS CONCERNING PETERKIN CAMP              1997

     Due to rising prices and flood damage at Peterkin Conference Center, the camp will be held at a new location this August. After looking into approximately thirty camps, the planning committee has chosen the Laurelville Mennonite Church Center located fifty miles east of Pittsburgh, just off the Pennsylvania Turnpike between exits 8 and 9.
     To avoid confusion with other camps, the name of the camp will be New Church Family Camp at Jacob's Creek.

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This name was selected because Jacob's Creek, complete with a waterfall, runs through the camp.
     This camp has excellent modern facilities with many nice features that will suit our needs very well. Camping is also available, as is an earn-your-way volunteer work program.
     The dates of the camp are Saturday afternoon, August 9, to Tuesday, August 12 after lunch.
     In this new location Jacob's Creek Camp promises once again to be a fun time for New Church people from many areas to get together to visit, talk doctrine, take a swim, talk doctrine, eat, talk doctrine, then sit on the porch and talk doctrine until the wee hours, just as it has been in the past.
     The camp is designed to be casual in atmosphere, yet serious in its discussion of New Church ideas. At past camps, mornings have been used for presentations by the staff ministers, followed by discussion groups. There are optional classes and discussions in the afternoons, and social activities in the evenings. The focus is on the truths revealed in the Writings, and on how to live life according to them.
     Programs are provided for children of all ages while classes are in session, and families are encouraged to attend. The intergenerational camp has had newborns to octogenarians, all of whom contribute to the sphere of the camp.
     The camp has drawn more than 100 people each year from Bryn Athyn, Washington, Kempton, western Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, New York, Kitchener, Toronto and other places. Plans are for about 120 people again this summer, but the Jacob's Creek Camp can accommodate more, so all those interested are more than welcome.
     For further information contact the 1997 camp's pastor, Rev. Peter Buss, Jr., 74 Park Drive, Glenview, IL 60025; (847) 729-6130, or acting coordinator Mrs. Joseph S. David, 320 Pinoak Drive, Franklin, PA 16323; (814) 432-2009.

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PARAPHRASE OF THE LORD'S PRAYER 1997

PARAPHRASE OF THE LORD'S PRAYER              1997

     The following paraphrase, said Charles Augustus Tulk, early Swedenborgian scholar, "is not offered as a translation to be used in preference to a more exact rendering, but to direct our thoughts to the sense which it bore in the Apostolic times."
     Father of us, Thou who art in the Heavens: hallowed be Thy Name. As Thy Kingdom cometh, and Thy Will is done in Heaven, so may Thy Kingdom come and Thy Will be done at Thy Second Advent in the Land of Israel.* Give us this day the Bread for our support, and forgive us debts, as we likewise forgive our debtors; and lead us not into Temptation, but deliver us from the evil one, for Thine is the Kingdom, and the Power, and the Glory, for ages. Amen.
     The above is taken from an article on the Lord's Prayer in the magazine Arcana, Vol. II, No. 4, p. 48.
     * It should be noted that the phrase "the Land" is featured in Mr. Tulk's article (as contrasted with "the earth") and is not used in a limited sense.
APPLICATIONS FOR ADMISSION TO THE ACADEMY GIRLS SCHOOL AND BOYS SCHOOL 1997

APPLICATIONS FOR ADMISSION TO THE ACADEMY GIRLS SCHOOL AND BOYS SCHOOL              1997

     Requests for application forms for admission of new students to the Academy Secondary Schools should be made by March 1, 1997. Letters should be addressed to Mrs. Robert Gladish, Principal of the Girls School, or Mr. T. Dudley Davis, Principal of the Boys School, The Academy of the New Church, Box 707, Bryn Athyn, PA 19009. Please include the student's name, parents' address, the class the student will be entering, the name and address of the school he or she is now attending, and whether the student will be a day or a dormitory student.

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     Completed application forms should be forwarded to the Academy by May 1, 1997.
     All requests for financial aid should be submitted to the Business Manager, The Academy of the New Church, Box 711, Bryn Athyn, PA 19009, by June 1, 1997. Please note: The earlier the request is submitted, the more likely we will be able to meet the need.
     Admission procedure is based on receipt of: 1. application, 2. transcript, 3. pastor's recommendation, 4. health forms.
     The Academy will not discriminate against applicants and students on the basis of race, color, or national or ethnic origin.

Margaret Y. Gladish          T. Dudley Davis
Girls School Principal     Boys School Principal
ACADEMY COLLEGE APPLICATIONS 1997

ACADEMY COLLEGE APPLICATIONS              1997

     Applications for the fall 1997 term should be received by the college by March 1, 1997. Contact Mr. Brian Henderson at (215) 938-2511; fax 938-2568.
     As The Academy College operates on a three-term system, students may be admitted to any of the three terms. Applications for the spring term of the present academic year, beginning March 15, 1997, are acceptable if received by February 1, 1997.
     The college's requirements are in no way intended to be racially discriminatory, and the Academy will not discriminate against applicants and students on the basis of race, color, gender, or national origin.
PRINCIPAL SELECTED 1997

PRINCIPAL SELECTED       Rev. Peter M. Buss       1997

     The Rev. Prescott A. Rogers has been selected as Principal of the Bryn Athyn Church School effective July 1, 1997.
     Rt. Rev. Peter M. Buss

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AUDIO TAPES OF NEW CHURCH LIFE 1997

AUDIO TAPES OF NEW CHURCH LIFE              1997




     Announcements






     The visually impaired can now buy ($2.00 per tape) or borrow audio tapes of 1995 and 1996 New Church Life, including this issue. These tapes are clearly read by Mr. Edward Cranch and catalogued into the General Church Sound Recording Library. They can be obtained by calling (215) 947-1889 or by mail to P.O. Box 743, Bryn Athyn, PA 19009.

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Notes on This Issue 1997

Notes on This Issue              1997



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February 1997     No. 2

New Church Life


     It could be said that this month marks the 100th anniversary of the General Church. In July of 1787 there was a "commencement of the New Church in its external and visible form" which was a commencement "in much weakness and imperfection" (see Rise and Progress p. 59). Human institutions are indeed imperfect and of themselves weak. The Lord's message to the church at any era might be summed up in the phrase "do not fear, little flock" (Luke 12:32). As noted in the December issue, the General Church is not the New Church but endeavors to serve uses of the Lord's church.
     Well, what if we started the church from scratch tomorrow? That was a question that sparked good discussions at the assembly. Dr. Kurt Simons asked people, "If we are going to form a church, what exactly are we going to do?" (See p. 78 of this issue.)
     There has been a kind of beginning in Russia this year in the publication in Moscow of a book by the Arcana Coelestia Foundation (see p. 84).
     A sermon commended to us that was preached in Australia fits well with a paper written by Dr. Reuben Bell.
     In this issue you will find no fewer than three translations of a passage in the Spiritual Diary. The point is not to overemphasize this passage but to provide information for readers who up to now have had to rely on the one extant English translation.
     On January 11 a feature in the Philadelphia Inquirer began as follows: "Let no one underestimate the millennial wave that will sweep the West over the next three years." It talks of the coming of the year 2000 and says, "Belief in a millennial experience that will bring Christ to reign again on Earth, based on the Bible's Revelations, has recurred in Christianity since the early days." See page 83 of this issue.

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VIRGIN BIRTH 1997

VIRGIN BIRTH       Rev. Terry Schnarr       1997

     "Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call His name Emanuel, which, being interpreted, is God with us" (Matt. 1:23).

     The virgin birth of the Lord is a hard thing to believe. Yet the Word teaches it so clearly and vividly that there can be no doubt that the claim of the Bible is that the Lord, Jesus Christ, was conceived from God and born of a virgin woman. Scholars of the Christian Church have claimed that the Greek word for virgin really means young woman and not necessarily one that has not had intercourse with a man. But the Bible also clearly states that Mary had not known a man, which obviously makes her a virgin. This is a fact that must be accepted if we are going to know and love the Lord as the one and only God of heaven and earth, yet we find it so incredible.
     The Lord's soul, from His conception in the womb to His resurrection from the sepulchre, was God Himself, the Infinite and Omnipotent Creator of the universe. It is of paramount importance to the New Church concept of God that He was born into the world by means of a virgin. He could not have united the Divine and the Human if He had taken a soul from conception by a natural father. In order to save the human race from the damnation of the hells, it was absolutely necessary for God Himself to come into the world, take on an infirm human covering, then put it off again by combatting and conquering the hells, and thereby subjugating them to His own omnipotent eternal control. To attain this end, He had to be conceived in a virgin and born of a virgin. The virgin birth is essential to the New Church concept of Jesus Christ as the one and only God of heaven and earth.
     It is prophesied in Isaiah that the Lord would be born of a virgin, and it is recorded as a fact in Matthew. Joseph was betrothed to Mary, and betrothal was considered a legal marriage.

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But before the marriage had been consummated, before they had been bodily conjoined, Mary "was found with child of the Holy Spirit." Joseph did not at first know of this, and it is said that "being a just man, and not willing to make her a public example, he was minded to put her away privately" (Matthew 1:19). But the angel of the Lord came to him in a dream and told him that the child she bore was conceived of the Holy Spirit, adding, "that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, 'Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call His name Emanuel, which, being interpreted, is God with us'" (Matthew 1:23).
     Even though Joseph was not the father of the Lord, it was important that in the eyes of men it should appear that he was. It was necessary that He be born under the protection of a legal marriage. Joseph was needed as a guardian, provider, and instructor. It was Joseph who led them to safety in Egypt when Herod sought to kill the baby Jesus. It was Joseph who worked to provide Mary and Jesus and their other children with food, clothing, and shelter. And it was Joseph, as the head of the household, who was responsible for the instruction of his children. The Lord as an infant and child was helpless and dependent, as all of us are, on His natural guardians.
     The miracle of the virgin birth is perhaps the hardest to believe of all the miracles recorded in the Word. Other miracles, even though they seem improbable, can be grasped by our natural minds as being remotely possible. We can see with most of them how there could be natural explanations for them even though we believe that the miracle was that they happened at the right time or in the right place. We can see, for example, the possibility that God could string a number of natural phenomena together to produce the miracle of the crossing of the Red Sea at the right time. We are familiar with occasions where people have been pronounced dead and have come back to life.

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We are familiar with circumstances where people have seemingly been miraculously cured of incurable diseases and ailments. Because of our familiarity with these events and our knowledge of natural science, we can naturally envision the possibility of these miracles taking place, and we can therefore easily believe them. But the miracle of a virgin birth is utterly inconceivable to our natural minds. It is something we are not at all familiar with. It is unprecedented in history, and it has not been repeated. Our natural minds cannot, therefore, conceive of it. The result is that in general we either blindly accept it, ignore it, doubt it, or deny it. The New Church presents us with another idea-rational understanding and belief.
     We are thinking in the wrong way when we think in such a way as to accept these miracles only when we can understand them as natural possibilities. As we heard in the third lesson, this type of thinking leads to all folly and insanity. We ought to first believe in the Word, or in the doctrine therefrom, and then confirm that doctrine by rational things of natural science and sense experience. "He who assumes as a principle," we read, "that nothing is to be believed until it is seen and understood can never believe, because spiritual and celestial things cannot be seen with the eyes or conceived by the imagination. But the true order is for man to be wise from the Lord, that is, from His Word, and then all things follow . . . . It is by no means forbidden to learn the sciences, since they are useful . . . but it must be from this principle-to believe the Word of the Lord, and, as far as possible, confirm spiritual and celestial truths by natural truths, in terms familiar to the learned world. Thus man's starting-point must be the Lord and not himself; for the former is life, but the latter is death" (AC 129, emphasis added). In other words, we ought to believe that the miracles recorded in the Word actually took place simply because the Lord in His Word says they did, and then merely confirm our belief by natural reasonings and explanations which seem to make them possible.

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     The virgin birth is a case in point. We ought to believe it because the Lord says in His Word it is so. We can try to confirm it by natural reasonings and explanations. For example, we are taught that the soul of every man is a graft or an offshoot from his father's soul. It consists of finite, spiritual substances so formed as to receive life from the Lord. Carried in the sperm from the father at conception, the mind, disposition, nature, inclination, and affection of the father's love dwell in the souls of his offspring, from generation to generation (see TCR 103). Thus, we read, "the hereditary evil from a father is internal and remains to eternity. For it cannot possibly be eradicated" (AC 1573).
     If Joseph, or any other natural man, had been the father of the Lord, He would have had such a finite soul, with hereditary evil inclinations that could not be eradicated to eternity. It would not have been possible for Him to unite His human to the Divine Soul. He would not have been God Incarnate. This is why it is so important that He was born of a virgin. His soul was Jehovah God Himself. It was Life Itself, infinite and uncreated. His soul had no evil tendencies, but only infinite love for all mankind. It was not a finite substance, formed to receive life. And in no sense was His soul a graft or an offshoot of the Divine, for the Divine is one and indivisible. Therefore, we are not to think of the Divine as being limited or confined in any way by the Lord's body as an infant, as a boy, as a man, or at any time during His life on earth.
     We might wonder how God could rule and sustain order in the universe while He was living in the world as a child or a grown man; but this is to think of His Essence from His Person, limited by His physical person, and we are taught to think of His Person from His Essence, nevertheless to think of and approach the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ.

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     In other words, God's omnipresence, omnipotence, and omniscience were no way limited by the material body of the Lord. His soul was unchanged. His soul was infinite and unobstructed in its operation at all times, continually recreating and sustaining the universe as it always has and always will. The Lord's soul was God Himself, the Creator and Ruler of the entire universe, life itself, infinite love and infinite wisdom. His soul was the indivisible God of heaven and earth in its totality. He called His soul "Father" and spoke to it even as David speaks to his soul in the psalms.
     However, the Lord's body which was formed of natural substances from the womb of Mary was full of the hereditary evil tendencies of the human race. Through this infirm human the hells could approach and tempt the Lord during His life on earth. He combatted them from His own power in His Divine Soul, and was victorious, subjugating them to His eternal control. He thus put off the infirm human nature from His mother, and glorified His Human by uniting it to the Divine which was His soul.
     In states of glorification, then, He was Jehovah God Himself on earth, fully aware of all that His soul was doing. In states of temptation or exinanition, however, God appeared as someone separate from Him, and He was then not consciously aware of what His soul was doing. When He was fully glorified, there was nothing left of the infirm human nature He had taken on in the womb of Mary. He was God-Man, Divine and Human, Emanuel, God with us. Thus He denied His mother from the cross.
     The infant Jesus was born of a virgin so that He could become "God with us." The purpose of His coming into the world was so that He could be in direct contact with people in the world forever after.

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How is He immediately present with us here today?
     He is here in His Word, but His Word is not a book. Before He came into the world in His own Human, He was mediately present by means of a book. But now, the Word, which was in the beginning, which was with God, which was God, and by which all things were made, became flesh and dwelt among us (see John 1:1ff). Jehovah God Almighty came into the world to manifest the true form of the Word-the Divine Human. He came into the world to show His true nature in physical ultimates. He came into the world to become visible in His own Human form, which is Divine in Essence. He came into the world so that people could know and love Him as He really is, Divine and Human, Divinely Human. God is the one and only Divine Human Being. He is Divine Love in human form.
     The form He is visible in today, the form in which He is immediately present with us today, is as Divine love in Human form. The book upon our altar, and the books upon our shelves, are not in Human form. He is not then immediately present and visible there. But when the contents of His Word have been brought into the forms of human minds and have been loved, thought about, and lived, His Divine love is then received and is immediately present in a visible human form.
     When the Word becomes flesh and dwells within people like you and me, the speech and actions of our lives will manifest an image and likeness of the Lord's Divine Human. The miracle of the virgin birth will be repeated in each one of us, and we "shall bring forth a son, and they shall call His name Emanuel, which being interpreted, is God with us" (Matt. 1:23). Amen.

Lessons: Matt. 1:18-2:16; Isaiah 9:1-7, AC 2568 (portions)

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LORD'S CONCEPTION: DIVINE TRUTH IN OPERATION 1997

LORD'S CONCEPTION: DIVINE TRUTH IN OPERATION       Dr. REUBEN P. BELL       1997

     The mechanism of the Lord's conception is not an easy subject for investigation. It is a topic which in essence treats of the Divine truth and Divine good in operation, a subject not frequently discussed in detail in New Church literature of the last 75 years. Tantamount to our understanding of the Lord's conception, a good working definition of the Holy Spirit is an essential element of our core theology as well. It is the Lord with us.
     In The True Christian Religion 137:9 we learn that the Holy Spirit is "the proceeding and operating Divine, and thus Jehovah." This definition at once denotes action as well as being, and in explanation we read this in Doctrine of the Lord 46:

That there is a trine in the Lord may be illustrated by comparison with an angel, who has a soul and a body, also a proceeding. That which proceeds from him is himself outside of himself [ipse extra illum].

     From this we have a clear sense that what proceeds from the Lord is not some mere representation or effect, but is truly Ipse extra Illum.
     Elsewhere in the Writings we find that the Holy Spirit is Divine truth which proceeds from "the power of the highest," which is in itself Divine good (Can. 17). This is an essential point to make when considered in the context of Luke 1:35:

And the angel answered and said to her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is born will be called the Son of God."

     Here we begin to see a context in which to place the conception event itself, and the Holy Spirit as well, with respect to Its origin in the Divine. The "power of the Highest" is Divine Good, and clearly, this in operation is the Divine Truth, or Holy Spirit.

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Since all things are from the Lord, nothing exists that does not reflect the marriage of love and wisdom, which is the Lord Himself. This reciprocal dualism was represented at the Lord's conception by the presence of the "power of the Highest" and the "Holy Spirit," which "overshadowed" and "came upon" the mother of Jesus. From this union of good and truth came the Lord's body and soul, respectively (see Can. 17). This, John reminds us, was the Word, which was "made flesh and dwelt among us" (Can. 16).
     At this point we must deal with the problem of the emergence in time of the Holy Spirit. We know that the Holy Spirit did not exist prior to the Lord's Advent, because we know from the Writings and from Scripture that 1) the Holy Spirit is Divine Truth, 2) the Lord is the Word, or Divine Truth itself, and 3) the Word was "made flesh" in time and space as Jesus, son of Mary. The spirit of Jehovah, then, became the Holy Spirit in the Lord's human, but only after the conception. A problem with this reasoning arises for some in an apparent contradiction with John's statement that "the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified" (John 7:39). What was operating at the conception if there would be no Holy Spirit until the Lord's glorification? "The Holy Spirit [which was conceived in Mary] stands for the Divine Truth proceeding from Jehovah the Father; it was this that came forth as 'the power of the Most High' which overshadowed His mother" (TCR 140).
     There is really no contradiction here: the Holy Spirit and its source in Jehovah were one, just as the Lord incarnate and Jehovah were one, from conception forward (see AC 6982, 9229; TCR 158). Any confusion which may arise likely does so from a confusion of persons. The Holy Spirit "originated" with the Lord at His conception, because at this instant Jehovah's natural presence originated as well. After the Lord's glorification, He chose to give the Holy Spirit to His disciples, as the implied verb in the written Word suggests. But it had existed from His conception as the Divine presence which had "come over" Mary and caused her pregnancy to commence.

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Thus was the creative power of Jehovah translated directly into the stuff of the natural world.
     The final consideration in this discussion is of the Lord's soul -its composition and source. Previous statements have established that the Lord's conception was by means of Divine Truth operating from Divine Good to generate the beginnings of a natural body. But we must also account for the soul. The Writings offer us many clear statements of the soul's origin in the father, and the body's accretion from the substance of the mother.* These references leave little room for doubt on this subject, although without thoughtful consideration one might erroneously ascribe all importance to the father's contribution and virtually none to the mother's role. We must never lose sight of the principle, mentioned above, of the reciprocal pairing of attributes in all things originating in the Lord, corresponding to His essentials of Divine Love and Wisdom. How can one member of a reciprocal pair be of more importance than the other? Carefully considered, these references are testimony to this essential balance of both operative and responsive contributions to the form and life of the child from a union of a man and a woman.
     * See Alfred Acton's notes on the incarnation used by the Academy of the New Church Theological School for Theology 122, page 14, section 164a: "Digest of passages on the soul being from the father and the body from the mother." This is a section of 26 entries, with 51 individual references.
     What happened at the moment of the Lord's conception? Preoccupation with this problem could lead us astray if we were to attempt to rigidly apply our science to this problem of spiritual and not natural reality. It was just such a preoccupation with the soul/body nexus that led Swedenborg the scientist into spiritual crisis. He found that his science could never lead him to "the finest things of nature," or the soul, on the other side of time and space.

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But we are led, nevertheless, to see what the Writings have to say about this mystical event, because they do offer some insight here, and because we do know a lot about what happens when two humans converge into one. With some caution, there may be much to gain from the effort.
     In TCR 103 we find that

"In the seed from which each individual is conceived there is a shoot or cutting of the father's soul in all its completeness, wrapped in a covering of natural elements. These control the formation of the body in the mother's womb."

     This "shoot" from the father's soul is implanted into the fertile substance of the mother's uterus, and so directs the development of the embryo as to form.* This is reminiscent of Aristotle's formative vital heat of the male as organizer of the material menstruum of the female uterus in the development of the embryo.**
     * Substance and form: Once again we have here the reciprocal dualism of Love and Wisdom, this time in operation in the developing embryo. One can be no more important than the other, as each is essential to the existence of the other.
     ** Aristotle, De Generatione Animalium, Book II, Chapter 3, in Smith, J.A., and Ross, W.D., The Works of Aristotle, Volume V, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1912.
     But Swedenborg goes further, telling us that in the male seed the soul is wrapped in a covering of "natural elements" (ibid.). And further, he tells us that, having entered the ovule, this seed begins to "clothe itself in a little bodily form," after which all other elements are of the mother, be it in the ovule or in the womb (see AC 1815). Following its sojourn in the ovule, the developing embryo is perfected in the womb into an "image of heaven" (AC 6468).
     These teachings compare nicely with what is now known of early human development: The male seed, or sperm cell (having one half of the essential human chromosomal complement), is indeed "clothed" with a thin envelope of natural elements.

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The cell itself is virtually lacking in cytoplasm. It is a cell membrane surrounding a nucleus, a centriole (to help with the first cell division to come), some mitochondria for energy production, and one long flagellum for locomotion. Having penetrated the ovum, its membrane and cytoplasm having been discarded upon entry, its mitochondria and flagellum disintegrate; only the nucleus and centriole remain inside. Then the nuclear membrane and nuclear proteins in close association with the chromosomes are gradually replaced by elements of the ovum. The sperm cell is thus "unclothed." Having fused with the female pronucleus (containing the other half of the chromosomal complement), the sperm cell in the ovum retains only its centriole, which will subsequently divide and determine the plane of the first cell division. After cell division in the fertilized ovum is under way, this new entity enters the uterus for implantation in the lining and the formation of a placenta. The substance of the embryo from fertilization is thus virtually all derived from the mother, yet the sperm's genetic material and centriole play essential roles in its ultimation. Not surprisingly, our science can tell us no more about the soul in this process than it could in Swedenborg's day.
     Spiritual analogies to the physical processes of early human development are easily visualized from their descriptions in the Writings. The male seed contributes almost nothing in the way of material substance, but does supply the formative "blueprint" for development in its chromosomes. And it contributes a curiously important formative element in its tiny centriole, which determines the polarity of the first cleavage division plane-the front-back, left-right, and head-tail orientation the organism will carry throughout its life. The general process is just as described in the Writings.
     The problems of the Lord's conception and the nature of His soul are not surprisingly difficult. While still far from a complete understanding of these, we do have the satisfaction of knowing two important principles concerning them:

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The Lord's conception, as mystical as the Holy Spirit "coming over" and the "power of the Most High" "overshadowing" Mary may be, corresponds directly to the mechanism of conception that we do understand from our scientific studies. This is of great help in tying a spiritual concept to natural experience (nunc licet). And secondly, in a similar line of reasoning, what the Writings tell us about the nature of our own souls we can apply to the Lord's. Once again, a mystical subject is rendered less mysterious by the application of experience and rationality. That is what the New Church seems to do best.

     BIBLIOGRAPHY

Smith, J.A., and Ross, W.D., Ed., The Works of Aristotle, Volume V, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1912
HOW MUCH OF THE SPIRITUAL SENSE SHOULD WE GIVE OUR CHILDREN, AND WHEN? 1997

HOW MUCH OF THE SPIRITUAL SENSE SHOULD WE GIVE OUR CHILDREN, AND WHEN?       Rev. ROBERT S. JUNGE       1997

     When the Lord was in the world, He frequently quoted from Scripture and then gave an internal meaning. We recall the familiar, "Ye have heard that it hath been said . . . but I say unto you . . . . " We frequently quote, "Without a parable spake He not unto them." And after His resurrection Luke tells us, "And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself" (Luke 24:27). The New Testament clearly gives an internal meaning to the Old, for the Lord came "not to destroy the Law and the Prophets but to fulfill them" (Matt. 5:17).
     From experience and also from the implications of doctrine, we traditionally emphasize the teachings of the New Testament about the time when the voice begins to change and childhood gives way to youth.

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Children seem to need the explanation of a deeper meaning as they begin to question a literal interpretation of some of the stories of the Old Testament. The question is: "How much of the spiritual sense should we give, and when?"
     The Writings make clear that three things are necessary for man to understand the spiritual sense of the Word: a knowledge of correspondences, the doctrine of genuine truth, and enlightenment. It is obvious that even teenagers cannot really understand correspondences as they are in themselves, namely, the cause-and-effect relationship between discrete degrees which communicate only by influx. It takes both natural and spiritual maturity to have a real and rational grasp of the doctrine of genuine truth. The faith of the immature is at best a borrowed faith in the general doctrines provided by their parents and teachers (see AC 10225). Such historical faith is valuable but is not the key to unlock the spiritual sense. And finally, while children can be in a life of obedience, they are not, nor can they be, in the love of truth for its own sake which brings the gift of enlightenment. Thus the immature simply do not have the three necessary abilities to truly grasp the spiritual sense of the Word. The inner meanings and deeper explanations we give them are steps toward such spiritual understanding, not the spiritual understanding itself.
     But there is much that we as parents can do by focusing on some of the more specific steps in order that our children may develop these three essentials to the sight of the spiritual sense. The first, most fundamental preparation is a sphere of awe and respect for the integrity of the threefold Word of God. Correspondences, the doctrine of genuine truth, enlightenment (the three essentials for understanding the spiritual sense) all rest upon the acknowledged authority of the Word. Yet if the sphere of authority of the letter is not infilled, it can lead to blind literalism and can close the growing mind when it begins to question, even as it has closed the minds of many Christians.

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Older children simply cannot face today's questions with a merely literal understanding of such things as the creation story. They desperately need the internal sense to answer their questions and to preserve their basic allegiance to the Word as an authority above man's own intelligence.
     There is no doubt, then, that young people need the spiritual sense and that it can be one of the richest treasures we can share with them. But our zeal for our children to have these spiritual riches can sometimes lead us to forget the intermediate steps. Too much pressure prematurely on the young mind to think spiritually can give the appearance that the church is abstract,     and can even undermine, quite unintentionally, the basic affections for the letter itself. It can be likened to trying to explain to a little child who desires to give to a beggar that the beggar is not what he appears to be. Childhood's simple trust and charity will suffer, for it is incapable as yet of such discrimination (see TCR 426).
     The key is that the stories of the Word must be clearly understood and then infilled, not contradicted. With the idea of infilling, look at the three keys again: correspondences, genuine truth, enlightenment.
     Because the Word is written in "real" correspondences, it brings association with heaven when it is read reverently. This reverent reading is the first preparation. The effect of this is that the imagery of the Word has a unique affectional power for children. A voice like "thunder" or "many waters" or a "trumpet" establishes affections for the voice of truth even without specific instruction. We as parents and teachers can strive in our instruction to use this imagery as accurately and consistently as we possibly can. Later this imagery can lead to comparisons and parabolic thought. Remember, "Without a parable spake He not unto them." Even the Golden Rule involves a comparison-"as you would have them do unto you."

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Through such means the immature mind is prepared to see comparisons in its imagination which directly prepare for the correspondential relation between the spiritual and the natural without ever casting doubt upon the letter. I believe that even if we say a lamb "corresponds" to innocence, the child, because of the limitations of his thought, sees it as a comparison rather than as a truly correspondential relationship. To see the full correspondence requires spiritual rational thought, which he simply does not have. But the imagery that we should be like lambs and hearken to the voice of the Lord our Shepherd can help satisfy adolescent doubts and inspire adolescent morality with understanding and answers.
     What of the second key, the doctrine of genuine truth which shines through the letter and teaches plainly the necessary truths about the Lord and life? We can certainly teach these truths without in any way undermining the letter, because they appear clearly in the letter. An example of these is given in the Arcana as well as in varied lists elsewhere. "They who are in good not yet formed by means of truths . . . are first formed by the Lord by means of primary truths, that is, by means of general truths, in which and from which are the rest. Primary truths are: that there is one God, that the Lord was born a man so that He might save the human race, that there is a heaven and that there is a hell, that those come into heaven who have lived well and those into hell who have lived ill; also that love to God and love toward the neighbor are the commandments on which the rest hang, and that this love is impossible except through faith" (AC 8773). But looking at this list for example, children will not fully understand that God is one, or how the Lord who was born a man is that God. Still they can learn it, and their knowledge can be infilled later with more and more understanding.
     Another way of laying the groundwork for spiritual thought is to make real the doctrine concerning the other world.

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This too can be learned from the letter of Scripture, but also greatly enhanced through the descriptions and memorabilia of the Writings. Either the simpler doctrinal portions or the memorabilia make wonderful additional reading for family worship where there is a wide divergence of age. The very purpose of our lives is a heaven from the human race. Therefore, making heaven real for our children is a direct challenge affecting their understanding of the Lord, of regeneration, of marriage, and of all aspects of the church.
     As to the third ingredient-enlightenment-we can, through a real allegiance to the commandment to honor father and mother, prepare gently yet steadily for that time when the Lord will be the Father and the Church the Mother whom they serve. Here too we can err if we give too much responsibility too soon, even as we can err if we give too little too late. There are countless mediate goods along the road to genuine spiritual enlightenment. Even if a youngster decides early what he wants to be when he grows up, not only do we know that his job is but part of the natural expression of his spiritual use to others, but we also know that his motives for his choice fall far short of the love of use for its own sake which we hope with regeneration will become his primary motive. Even those beginning reformation labor to get to heaven rather than from a genuine love of use for its own sake. The immature and mediate motives fall far short, then, of the origin of enlightenment, but they can be seen and used by wise parents and teachers as a direct preparation for it.
     So when we accommodate, it even seems as if at times we are holding things back, and yet we may be enhancing our children's reception of the truth. For example, if we were able to plan a rich material inheritance for our children, we would try to prepare them little by little to make the very best use of the wealth that they were going to receive.

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We would not try to give it to them before they understood its value, but neither would we wait until they were mature and then suddenly confront them with it without careful preparation. How much more should we give real thought to preparing the minds of our children to receive the spiritual wealth revealed to the New Church.
WORSHIP AND LOVE OF GOD 1997

WORSHIP AND LOVE OF GOD              1997

     As this book has now been published by the Swedenborg Society and the Swedenborg Foundation, we quote the following from Sigstedt's Swedenborg Epic.
          
Swedenborg seems to have begun the work on The Worship and Love of God on October 7, 1744. He abandoned the work on The Senses, part of which had already been printed. The drafting of the new work was finished in an amazingly short time, for the first part had presumably left the press when the introductory lines were written that so wistfully reflect the autumnal landscape. . . .

If it is possible to sum up a lifetime of mental growth, to collect together the dreams of infancy, the pious teachings of parents, the studies of youth, the poetry of early manhood; if it is possible to incorporate a mature man's visions of social reform, his concepts of a system of cosmology, his experiences from the study of anatomy, and to combine them with the inward stirrings of psychic vision, and put all these things within the covers of a book-then The Worship and Love of God is that book! . . .

De Cultu et Amore Dei is a book written, as it were, more for angels than for fellow men. It is as if the author . . . was longing to associate with those intellects that existed only beyond the earthly sphere.

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EVOLUTION 1997

EVOLUTION       Rev. DANDRIDGE PENDLETON       1997

     Scientific evolution, in its broadest biological sense, simply means change. Applied more specifically to the development of natural organic forms, the word "evolution" refers to the apparent production of higher organisms from lower ones in a continuous (contiguous?) chain of ascent-a production the impulse to and the outcome of which are essentially random and materialistic as to both their means and their end result.
     Here is the first and most basic point of issue with the scientific theory (for it is a theory, though it is presented as proven fact) of evolution. For the New Church, along with every other religion worthy of the name, is not materialistic in its outlook as to essential means, ends, and final purposes. From our/their outlook, the physical cosmos is not a "fortuitous" accident, nor was man* himself merely a chance product of biochemical combinations, whether simple or complex. To the materialist there is but one continuous degree of ascending life in creation, whereas the man of the New Church acknowledges discrete degrees of creative ascent-three in each world (the natural and the spiritual), six in all. These degrees originated in and out of the Divine substantial, and they have their continuance and preservation moment by moment in their created order and use by the Lord-an order and use which reflects and represents Himself in all its parts from inmosts to outmosts and greatests to least singulars.
     * In this and in all following references to "man" the term as I am using it is derived from the Latin homo, which includes both men and women.
     Prior to the turn of the 20th century, the several Christian denominations would not admit of man's arrival upon the scene through any of the lower forms of life as a means. Since then, however, the increasing pressure generated by scientific discovery and theory, coupled with considerably more thought and less pre-conviction by Christian thinkers, has led to a "compromise" solution in some areas of the Christian Church.

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In these areas, the theory of human evolution out of the animal kingdom has been pronounced theologically acceptable, provided it be acknowledged as Divine in origin, implementation, and end result. Even the Roman Catholic Church, long the stalwart opponent of the scientific evolutionary theory of the origin of man, has made certain concessions in this regard.
     And what of the New Church's idea in this field of study? We find no unified opinion but rather much difference thereof, and as a result, a restlessness of scholastic conscience when it comes to specific discussion of the subject. It is obvious that we cannot solve the problem by evading it. Somehow we must come to an essential unity in our approach to the subject of human beginnings, which will necessitate something considerably more to the point than the impression left with many New Churchmen in the past-that the Most Ancient Church was the beginning of all things human.
     In recent times, geologically speaking, there came to the fore an animal-like form which yet was not an animal in essence, there to assume dominion over the earth with unprecedented swiftness and efficiency. What do the Writings tell us of these first man-forms and of the means by which they were created? As to their basic nature and quality, I would call your attention to a published study by Rev. Ormond Odhner.* There, while certain differences of interpretation and conclusion may arise, a valuable study of the pertinent teachings is offered. As to the means of human creation, however, the Writings apparently maintain an absolute silence as far as any open, specific statement is concerned. And yet I believe there is a considerable body of doctrine bearing upon the life of man as distinct from, and at the same time as related to, the life of animals; and it is to this doctrinal aspect of the subject that the mind of the theologian primarily and essentially should address itself.
     * New Church Life, March 1960, pp. 101-110.

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     Physically considered, animals are superior to men.* But spiritually, the life of the animal ends with the death of the body, while the life of man continues to eternity. An interesting mental, and hence biological, difference is noted: that with men the external sight is governed by the intellect, whereas with animals the intellect is governed by the external sight, which results in man's having an "ample brain" for this purpose, whereas certain animals are said to have two "subsidiary brains" within the orbits of their eyes.** The fallacy of considering man as simply a more perfect animal is made clear; for the animal receives the influx of life only from the three degrees of the natural world, while man receives also of the three degrees of the spiritual world, and therefore possesses from birth the potential of a spiritual as well as a natural mind.*** Animals are thus said to be like men in what pertains to their externals but unlike men in what pertains to their life in internals; for in man alone have been gathered together all things of order from firsts to lasts-a fact which establishes itself primarily in that physical organ called the brain, and thereby causes the human brain to be in the "form and flow of heaven."**** This brief doctrinal resum? outlines a fundamental point of knowledge and acknowledgment which can never be reconciled with the materialistic view of evolution. The spiritual world and its close relation to, and effect upon, the natural world is basic to our thought in this, as in every other subject in either of those worlds.
     * See SD 4760:2, 2543.
     ** See AC 4407.
     *** See AC 5084:5; DLW 66, 270; Life 86.
     **** Love xxi:1,2; see also LJ 9; AC 4040, 4041.

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     I would draw your attention next to certain statements which indicate a direct communion - and in certain cases an identity- between man and animal on the plane of the physical body and also on the plane of the lower or natural mind. Animals are said to possess similar bodies and senses to men, in respect to which "man is an animal," similar discernment and sagacity on the plane of these senses, similar natural affections, similar natural good, a similar life on the natural plane, a similar natural mind in respect to which man is said to be "altogether an animal" and "merely animal," and a similar correspondence of the parts of the physical body with the societies of heaven-a correspondence which causes the forms of their bodily organs to accord with the "flow of spiritual substances and forces . . . [which] tends toward the human form, and to each and all things of it from head to heel" (emphasis added).*
     * See AC 196:2; AE 1197:2,3; AC 6484e, 3020, 3408, 5561; Life 86; TCR 296, 566, 673; AE 1208:3.
     Following out this line of thought, we find implications of not only a similarity between man and animal on the physical and exterior natural planes of life, but also a virtual identity on those planes. Man's life before regeneration is said to be "merely animal." Without the Divine celestial and spiritual there is "nothing human" in him, but only a "kind of animal nature such as there is in beasts." In respect to his external life man is "nothing but an animal," and he would have "no more thought, or other thought, than a beast" were it not for his particular communication with spirits.* Man is actually identified with the animal kingdom in Arcana Coelestia 3000, where we read: "In the animal kingdom not only man but also each particular animal, even the least and lowest, is representative."

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In Heaven and Hell 103 it is written: "It was stated in the foregoing chapter . . . that all the parts and every single part of the animal body are correspondences." Yet interestingly, in the section from which this is quoted, the references are all to man's body and the term "animal" is not used. Nowhere, to my knowledge, do the Writings refer to a human kingdom as such, whereas the animal kingdom is said to be the highest in nature, and therefore to "correspond in the first degree."** The two universal forms in creation are the vegetable and the animal, and "by animal forms both animals of every kind and men and angels are meant."*** In Divine Love and Wisdom 65 man is designated as the highest form in the animal kingdom. This idea is evident also in True Christian Religion 145 in which man is placed as a form of higher rank in that (the animal) kingdom.
     * See AC 848, 1894, 10042; TCR 475.
     ** HH 104.
     *** Love xxi, emphasis added; see also DLW 346.
     There are two strong doctrinal statements on the basis of which many New Church men have felt it impossible to consider scientific evolution as the physical medium of human beginnings. Divine Providence 55 speaks of all things as being "held together in the order in which and into which they were created"; and True Christian Religion 145 asserts that nothing can be produced from a form "except what is like it and what is its own." There is no question as to the Lord's holding of all things in the order in which and into which they were created. Yet we should keep in mind that the essential of that order is a conspiring toward the human form (see previous reference); wherefore all things having their origin in the spiritual sun are said to exhibit that form in their inmosts.* In considering the statement just quoted from True Christian Religion that nothing can be produced from a thing except what is like it and what is its own, I believe that a correct interpretation must emphasize what it is to come from something.

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I am quite certain that from a mineral, vegetable, animal or human soul can be derived only another mineral, vegetable, animal or human soul respectively. This, however, does not remove the possibility of man's physical evolution out of or through an animal form. Reflect here on the difference between the first true man as he would necessarily have been had he come from an animal, that is, from an animal soul, and that same man as he would have been in his own right, having been produced from the Lord through a lower animal structure of physical and external mental attributes. The necessary change would not have been on the plane of the physical body, nor even on that of the lower mind, but on the plane of the soul, from which the potential of a spiritual rational could descend.
     * See TCR 66 (emphasis added)
     In order for this change to take place, the implantation of the human soul or "primitive" would have to be accomplished, I assume, within some highly developed form of animal. This has been one of the "sticking points" for many in the past, in that such an implantation and subsequent gestation and birth would seem a "vile" concept. Yet there has not been similar aversion expressed in relation to the Divine soul's having entered into and been born through the mind and body of Mary, although humankind had become far more vile than any animal if both the spiritual and the historical record are considered.
     The miracle of this Divine conception and birth was prefigured, I believe, in the conception and birth of the first human soul into the material universe. Under this concept, however, I would keep in sharp focus the difference between the Divine soul and all merely human souls-one so complete that, while there is an analogy, there is no ratio between them. From this there is also an analogy, but no ratio, between man's regeneration and the Lord's glorification.

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The advent of the first human being would necessarily have occurred without the participation of an animal father, even as the Divine conception was without the agency of a human father. And even as there was with the Lord an external heredity from Mary which He was to put off, so also with the first man, and with all men thereafter, there was and is an animal "heredity" in externals-the physical body and the merely animal affections and appetites-which are put off by regeneration and the death of the material body.
     It is my belief, then, that the Writings indicate man's physical evolution through but not from a higher form of animal life: higher, that is, than other animal forms then extant. I conclude further that this higher form must have been that specific animal form in which the most full and complete brain development had occurred: a brain in which the two basic correlation centers-the cerebral hemispheres and the cortex-had become fully established. Beyond this, the brain of man today appears to have but a continuous structural superiority over the brain of the higher primate forms of animal life, consisting in an enlargement of those brain areas which have the least specialized function-the so-called "association areas" which lie behind the regions of sensory and activity localization. Modern scientific theory has concluded, at least for the time being, that the secrets of human "self-consciousness" and true "conceptual thought" lie in this simple enlargement.
     So far I have given no indication as to my thought concerning an "arboreal theory" of evolution. I have reflected on this as a possibility, but so far I have been unable to accept it as a fact. If there is a willingness to consider man's physical evolution out of any lower material form, then I believe that the logic of ordered succession would prevail-a logic which an arboreal theory would disrupt. Vegetable forms are not forms of life; animal forms are such forms.*

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The vegetable kingdom comprises but the mediate or middle degree of ascent from the ultimates of nature to the Divine, whereas the animal kingdom constitutes the primary degree of that ascent.** To conceive of the human brain's unfurling its prodigious forces for the first time within a plant form-a form which does not even accord with the flow of spiritual but only with that of natural forces and substances-simply does not seem feasible to me.
     * See DLW 158; cf. 346.
     ** See DLW 65.
     Before closing, I would like to propose a question which has come up in the course of this study, and which may be of some interest to the New Church biologist. The brain of man, as stated earlier, is "in the form and flow of heaven." This is not said of the animal brain, and the conclusion would seem to be that the animal brain, while it accords with the "flow of spiritual substances and forces," is not in the actual form and flow of those forces but in the actual form and flow of nature only. We are also told that the human mind is a form of Divine good and truth both spiritually and naturally organized, and that therefore the human brain "is this form."* The animal mind is also a form of Divine good and truth, but naturally-not spiritually-organized; wherefore it would follow that the animal brain is this form. Is there, then, a "discrete" structural difference observable between the animal and the human brains which would answer to the discrete functional difference in their mental capabilities (merely natural vs. potentially spiritual)? As we follow the brain structure of man back into history, back beyond recorded civilization, back to the Ancient (Cro-Magnon?) And Most Ancient (Neanderthal?) Churches, back beyond this to the "Pre-Adamites," and finally to the "near-men," is there a trend in that structure which might lead us to conclude that the first human brain was almost, but not quite, identical to the highest animal brain extant at that approximate period? It is fascinating to me (though certainly not definitive) that the early Arcana presents us with the single, generalized statement that men became first natural, then spiritual, then celestial.

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These earliest human forms, although they were not developed even to whatever the Writings mean by "natural," were human- that is, they had human, not animal, souls. The indication to me is that there evidently was a stage in the existence of the earliest men-perhaps spanning a number of, even many, generations-in which their physical appearance and activities would have seemed more "animal" to us than human, and that it took this time for them to "become [even] natural," let alone spiritual, and finally celestial (Most Ancient Church).
     * TCR 224:2
     The reason for asking this question is that considerable importance has been given in scientific circles to physical body-structure similarities between men and animals in "proving" the scientific theory of evolution. However, the inmost of the physical body is the brain, and it is the "form and flow of the brain" contour, both externally and more deeply within, which is most closely representative of the interior and exterior forces which motivate and essentially constitute the body in which that brain lives, whether in animal or man.
     The following points are emphasized again in summation:

     1) The Writings liken man to, and even identify him with, the animal kingdom as to his physical and external or natural mental properties.

     2) Physical evolution does not stand in essential discord with the statement that all things are "held in the order in which and into which they were created," or the further statement that nothing can be produced from a form "except what is like itself."

     3) An "arboreal" theory of evolution seems to go counter to an orderly ascent by succession.

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     4) Human creation, if it did evolve out of/through the animal physique and lower mental structure, would have been continuous in its external derivation, but discrete as to the formation and influx of its soul from the Lord.

     5) If such an evolution did occur, it must have been by a process of direct influx from the Divine into the body of an animal mother, and therefore without the agency of an animal father.

     6) A close comparative study of the higher animal and the human brain structure from the viewpoint of discrete degrees may give some enlightenment as to the initial separation between these two internally different forms of life which share similar, if not identical, physical (even genetically speaking) and natural-mental life from the Lord.
ACADEMY OF THE NEW CHURCH 1997

ACADEMY OF THE NEW CHURCH              1997

     Secondary Schools

     1997 Summer Camp

     The 1997 ANC summer camp will be held on the campus of the Academy in Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania, from Sunday, July 13 until Saturday, July 19, 1997. The camp is open to boys and girls who will have completed eighth or ninth grade in May or June of 1997.
     Students will receive registration details at the end of March. We try to send to every eligible student but sometimes miss someone. If you have not received the information form by the first week in April or know someone who may need information, please contact the Camp Director, Cory B. Boyce. Call him at (215) 938-2521 or write Box 707, Academy of the New Church, Bryn Athyn, PA 19009.

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WHAT IF WE STARTED THE CHURCH FROM SCRATCH TOMORROW? 1997

WHAT IF WE STARTED THE CHURCH FROM SCRATCH TOMORROW?       REUBEN BELL AND KURT SIMONS       1997

     (From a mini-session at the 1996 General Assembly)

Part II. (Kurt Simons)

     There are three themes that I hope this presentation communicates:

     1. If we are talking about a global church, we need to think in global terms. This isn't "our" church; it's for the whole human race.
     2. There was a time when we could be a church in the innocence of ignorance, but the late 20th century is no longer that time. We now need to be a church in the innocence of wisdom-informed wisdom, "sophisticated" wisdom. Again, if we're talking about a world-class church we need to think in world terms.
     3. In addition to sophistication, we need imagination. "New" is a key word in our church and, interestingly enough, on Madison Avenue "new" is the most used of all words. There's a message there. New things catch people's attention.
     Although we're not supposed to look at the past under this mini-session's ground rules (!), let's just take one peek at history. The founders of the Academy movement certainly had a profound insight when they chose to focus on educating young people. History has made its comment on other efforts in the organized New Church that did not choose that focus. Yet this focus cannot be left in the past tense. As Rev. Norman Ryder reminded us in his talk, we are always just one generation away from extinction. Inspiring the young people-and inspiring seems the right word for the need here - remains a first order of business. And, as our young people live in the late 20th century, this means that we need to provide for them a late-20th-century church-a sophisticated, innocence-of-wisdom, well-informed church.
     So let's begin with trying to get a little perspective. If we are going to form a church, what exactly are we going to do? There have always been those who, on the basis of such teachings as that every man is a church in least form, have thought church organizations unnecessary.

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In our list of models of evangelization this approach is what you might term the Documentation Model, or, these days, the Media Model. Is that an adequate model for bringing the doctrine to the world in the late 20th century?
     To answer this question, it seems useful to begin by going back to that famous question of the angels in the memorable relations: "What news from earth?" (CL 182, 207: TCR 692-3) What news indeed. The statistics handout (available from the author), all 12 pages, is an attempt to provide a feeling for the scope of disorder abroad in the world in this day and age. We're no longer talking about something as limited as, for instance, simple Biblical poverty. We're talking about grievous disorder- obscene, almost incomprehensible disorder in many cases. And there are many more such statistics. Furthermore, as bad as they are, like all statistics they represent only just the tip of the iceberg, failing as do all numbers to adequately communicate the human experience expressed by them. And even beyond those unhappy externals, think of the internals beyond and within.

     EVANGELIZATION MODELS

     Publication/"Media" model (AC 9351)

     Resurrection (first states after death) model

     Church Specific - Universal (Lungs - Heart - Body) model

     Leadership - Co-followership model

     Social Regeneration (Innocence:Ignorance - Wisdom) model

     To gain perspective, let's just briefly look at a few examples: What would those inquiring angels think of the fact that 1/5 of the world's population is malnourished, that something like 35,000 people die of starvation every day, most of them children under five years of age? At the same time, set against that in those inquiring angels' perspective the fact that in the U.S. (and other wealthy countries, presumably) 1/3 of the population is overweight.

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Then the U.S. spends $35 billion a year on diet food to get rid of the effects of this food they shouldn't have eaten to begin with. That $35 billion is 100 times what the U.S. spends on economic assistance (e.g. to grow food) in all of sub-Saharan Africa, or about 30 times what it spends in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia combined. At the same time, obesity and other diet-related problems of degenerative disease (e.g. heart disease) are a major cause of disability and death in wealthy countries, the treatment of which consumes many billions of dollars more. Again, consider these facts from the angels' perspective. What must they think?
     Or consider some statistics about children. Ten to 14 year-olds-not 18 or 16 but 10 to 14 year olds-in this country: they suffer more assaults than any other age group. Two-thirds have tried alcohol, a third drugs; a third more have thought about suicide. They are smoking more cigarettes (tobacco and marijuana), having sex more (the birth rate among adolescent girls is growing fastest in the under-15 age group), and they are being murdered more (their homicide rate doubled between 1985 and 1992). And then there are the statistics of children themselves killing: FBI statistics indicate 1 in 10 people arrested for murder in the U.S. in 1981 was under 18. In 1990 it was 1 in 6. Or, finally, to pick an overseas example: a UNICEF survey has concluded that every single child in the nation of Rwanda has seen a family member or near acquaintance murdered right in front of them.
     For contrast, then, what would those angels think of the fact that simply for entertainment, the average U.S. child by age 18 will have watched 40,000 murders and 200,000 acts of violence on TV and in the movies? And that doesn't count the number of murders and violent acts the kids commit themselves for entertainment in computer games-i.e., where their own will is involved. We're talking really sick here.

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     The "news from earth" statistics are certainly not all bad, however. Consider the fact that there are an estimated 12 million Americans in the New-Age movement, with another 30 million estimated as avidly interested. If all these people were brought together in a church-like organization, they would be the third largest religious denomination in America. They are of interest here, in one observer's words, "because of their willingness to try the unconventional-to risk looking foolish. 'They are the experimenters, the theorizers, the explorers who will defy convention and chart their own routes to fulfillment.'" Sound like a prescription for people potentially interested in an innovative, late- twentieth-century "real" church?
     And then there are the 78 million Americans who are "un-churched"-those with no church affiliation or who have not attended church in the last six months. Add this group to the New Agers and you have a group of 100 million+ people, all looking for something traditional religion is not offering. It is hard not to believe that there are at least a million of these people ready for the New Church. There are a million and more in other movements and organizations with much less to offer! Indeed, it seems fair to suggest that there are that many or more actively looking for the teachings of the New Church at this moment, but they don't know the doctrines are out there. Well, we say, how can that be? Look at our own statistics, such as those two million volumes the Swedenborg Foundation has distributed in its lifetime. So yes, a message has been put out there. But perhaps the problem here is that the church has never been presented in a way these people regard as attractive and meaningful-i.e., that they perceive as an answer to the questions of life better than other answers they have seen.
     So that's some of the "news from earth," positive and negative. If you were to get together an organization to use the good news to change the bad news, what exactly would you do? What might those angels expect you to do?

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HOW VERY FEW ARE THE THINGS CONTAINED IN THE BOOK HEAVEN AND HELL 1997

HOW VERY FEW ARE THE THINGS CONTAINED IN THE BOOK HEAVEN AND HELL       Editor       1997

     Last month we spoke a little of the few things in Arcana Coelestia. This month consider Heaven and Hell.
     Here we have a volume of considerable size. A notable characteristic is its division into chapters on different subjects. There are sixty-three chapters. We might assume that the subject is thoroughly covered. But really the things in the book are relatively quite few.
     In another work of the Writings there is reference to the chapters in Heaven and Hell, and the final sentence of the paragraph reads as follows: "The things there described, however, are very few."
     John Chadwick's rendering of that sentence is: "But the descriptions there are only a small selection." George Dole renders it: "This still constitutes only the sketchiest of descriptions."
     The Latin word for "few" (perpauca) is stronger than the more common word pauca. Sed ibi perpauca sunt, quae descripta (Last Judgment 27).
     As in the case of the other work we have mentioned, the realization that we know but few things gives a sense that there are many wonderful things we do not know.
WHY NOT TEACH THE INTERNAL SENSE TO CHILDREN? 1997

WHY NOT TEACH THE INTERNAL SENSE TO CHILDREN?       Editor       1997

     How excellent it is when something you print reminds someone of something valuable. A reader out there who has followed these editorials remembered something written years and years ago by Rev. Robert Junge. And we are printing it in this issue.
     Letting that speak for itself, we will simply add a couple of sentences to our last editorial, which had to do with the truth that the Lord does not punish and that no one is rewarded for doing good deeds.

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The following are the first lines in n. 9982 of the Arcana: "To believe that they will be rewarded if they do what is good is not hurtful to those who are in innocence, as is the case with little children and with the simple."
"THE END OF THE WORLD" 1997

"THE END OF THE WORLD"       Editor       1997

     Five times in the Gospels a phrase is used, traditionally rendered as "the end of the world." (All five instances are quoted in TCR 755.)     Most versions render it differently. For example, the RSV rendering is "the close of the age." But at least two relatively modern versions keep "the end of the world." The phrase most translators of the Writings have used is "the consummation of the age," and it is not always realized that the two phrases are one and the same. We will quote later from a section of TCR under the heading "The Consummation of the Age."
     As the year 2000 approaches, it is likely that people will be devoting attention to this subject. They have the impression that the Bible talks about "the end of the world." And people look to "the millennium." This word may be used in a secular way, simply meaning the ending of a period of a thousand years. In religious circles "the millennium" can mean a special period of a thousand years, mentioned in the first verses of the twentieth chapter of Revelation.
     The Writings say emphatically that a thousand years should not be thought of literally as a thousand years. People ought to observe that there are many numbers in the Apocalypse "which cannot but signify things," but people still cling to the conjectures of the millenialists and chiliasts and are impressed with "vain things" (see AR 842). A "chiliast" is someone who holds to the doctrine that Christ will reign in bodily presence on earth for a thousand years.
     What are some of the "vain things"? "According to the prevailing opinion at this day in the churches, when the Lord comes for the Last Judgment, He will appear in the clouds of heaven with angels and the sound of trumpets.

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He will gather together all those who are still on the earth, and also those who have died . . . . He will also create a new visible heaven and a new habitable earth, and upon this He will send down a city which will be called the New Jerusalem . . . . All the elect will be gathered into this city, both those then living and those who have died since the beginning of the world. The latter will return to their bodies and enjoy everlasting bliss in that magnificent city" (TCR 768).
     Among other beliefs: "Some suppose that the souls of the dead are translated to the planets or the stars and there have abodes allotted to them; and some that after thousands of years they return to their bodies" (TCR 769). And if you ask people whether they really think such things as that people will return to their bodies even if the bodies had been devoured by fish, people will reply that that is what the Bible teaches (see TCR 770).

     But is it?

     (To be continued)
NEW JERUSALEM AND ITS HEAVENLY DOCTRINE IN RUSSIAN 1997

NEW JERUSALEM AND ITS HEAVENLY DOCTRINE IN RUSSIAN              1997

     This volume has now been printed (see December issue, p. 530), and we have received the following information from Rev. Goran Appelgren, who received a copy in Stockholm.
     The publisher is the Arcana Coelestia Foundation in Moscow. The editors (Brusov, Vasilyeva and Roschin) have used the Edomsky translation in the 1938 edition which they have edited with a careful hand. The ISBN number is 5-89981-104-8
     In addition to the work itself, the volume contains a short biography of Swedenborg by E.A. Sutton and three articles. These are "Swedenborg in Russia" by M.Yu. Roschin, "Swedenborg's Influence on Russia" by Erin Martz, and "The Reality of the Spiritual World: the Personal Experiences of Emanuel Swedenborg" by G. Appelgren.

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BOOK BY CHAUNCEY GILES 1997

BOOK BY CHAUNCEY GILES              1997

     Chauncey Giles did his writing more than a century ago. He was one of the most prolific writers in New Church history, although he did not discover Swedenborg until he was about forty years old. The first book he read was Conjugial Love. And that got him reading everything else, including Swedenborg's scientific works.
     He said, "When I read Swedenborg's scientific works I am lost in wonder at the greatness of the man . . . . But when I come to his theological writings, I do not see the man at all . . . . Ah! how happy we are to be permitted to see these glories!"
     The most successful work of Chauncey Giles, The Nature of Spirit and of Man as a Spiritual Being, may be the most widely circulated New Church book ever published. Scores of thousands of copies were printed. The book seems lately to have been rediscovered, probably as a result of its being quoted at length in Tunnel To Eternity by Leon Rhodes. Rhodes calls it a "masterful study" and "a superb example."
     One of the cheerful predictions for early 1997 is that this best seller will be printed again.
POSITION AVAILABLE 1997

POSITION AVAILABLE              1997

     The General Church Schools and the Academy of the New Church are accepting resumes from those interested in the position of Curriculum Coordinator for New Church Schools. The coordinator will have training and expertise in curriculum development and implementation as well as considerable background in New Church education. This part-time position will commence July 1, 1997.

     Interested parties should submit written application by March 14th. For more information call or write: Rev. Philip B. Schnarr, General Church Office of Education, Cairncrest - Box 743, Bryn Athyn, PA 19009. Phone: 215-947-4661; fax: 215-947-3078 or 914-4935.

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SELF-ESTEEM 1997

SELF-ESTEEM       Bill Hall       1997

Dear Editor:

     I would like to add some comments about Rev. N. Bruce Rogers' sermon "On Self-esteem" (NCL July 1996). First a quote from "Our Ruling Love," a sermon by Rev. Douglas M. Taylor:

We have been speaking of the loves of self and the world when they rule the mind. Their proper place is to be subordinate to love to the Lord and charity toward the neighbor. When either of these two good loves rules the mind, then love of self and the world can be useful servants. We must have some love of self, some self-respect. We must have some desire to protect ourselves from danger, else we would not survive. Similarly, we musts have some love of the world, otherwise we would live the life of a recluse. We are to be in the world but not of the world. But let us not deceive ourselves: these loves always strive to rise up and dominate. It is their nature to want to rule. We must always be on our guard against them.

     In Luke's gospel (10:27) we read that we are to love the neighbor as we love ourselves.
     If we wish to find a solution to the problem of absorption in self, Dr. Hugo Lj. Odhner provides an enlightening answer in his book The Lord's Prayer in the chapter on temptation.

There are those who misunderstand even this simple truth, and who cloister themselves away from the world and spend their time in prayer and fasting. Such do not know that they cannot flee from their own proprium except by forgetting themselves in the sphere of uses to others.

     Rev. Brian W. Keith offers an excellent solution in his sermon "To Be of Service."

So the Lord would have us learn of heavenly joy by serving others. By forgetting about what rewards we might reap from our activities we are freed to concentrate on the real needs of others, loving them and not ourselves.

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     Humility of heart comes from acknowledging that we need the Lord's guidance and protection at all times, and then in trying from a humble heart to be of service to the neighbor.
     The Lord provides us with a humble heart and a love of being of service when we turn to Him and acknowledge Him as the only source of good and truth. "I am the vine; you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing" (John 15:5).
     Bill Hall
     Queensland, Australia
WOMEN WHO PREACH 1997

WOMEN WHO PREACH              1997

Dear Editor:

     The Latin of Spiritual Diary 5936 will not support the current translation's phrase, "Woman belongs to the home." Although it is not entirely clear what Swedenborg was trying to say, it is clear that he did not intend to say this. Here is how the whole passage reads in the currently available translation:

     Women Who Preach

     Women who think in the way men do on religious subjects, and talk much about them, and still more if they preach in meetings, do away with the feminine nature, which is affectional; owing to which they must be with married men: they also become material, so that affection perishes and their interiors are closed. They also begin to develop a tendency, as regards the thoughts, to take up with crazes; which takes place because the affection, being then destroyed, causes the intellectual to be crazy. In outward form, indeed, they are still able to appear like other women. In a word, they become sensual in the last degree. Woman belongs to the home; and she [becomes] of a different nature where [she engages in] preaching [emphasis not mine].

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     The Latin for the italicized phrase is simply illa domi: "that at home." It does not say "woman" and it does not say "belongs to." It is italicized in the English because it is three-quarters underlined in the manuscript (although Swedenborg may not have underlined it himself in that he rarely underlines, and other editors have inserted marks here and there in the manuscript). The Latin simply means "that [feminine singular or neuter plural noun understood] at home." It is followed by a phrase so equally cryptic as to lead the English translator to insert four words and change a noun to a participle in order to make sense of it! The phrase is et alia ubi praedicationes: "and different/other/another [feminine singular or neuter plural noun understood] where preachings." The only way I can see to make sense of this both grammatically and in context is to take the illa and the alia as referring to the same entity: "that at home, and different where preachings." The closest preceding noun that could act as an antecedent is forma: "That [form] at home, and another where preachings." A stretch would be affectio, and an even greater stretch would be natura: "That [affection or nature] at home, and another where preachings. Although the translator takes "woman" and "she" as the understood antecedent, after nine verbs in the plural riding on the opening word "Women," it is unlikely that Swedenborg suddenly made an unsignalled shift to the singular with an unstated subject and an unstated verb. So I would not vote for, "[She is] that at home, and different where preachings." Therefore, although in any of these forms the phrase is elliptical, I vote for form as the most likely antecedent. None of the above gets close to saying, "Woman belongs to the home."
Here is how I would translate the passage:

     On Women Who Preach

Women who think the way men do on religious topics and speak about them a lot, and still more if they preach in gatherings, lose their feminine nature belonging to the affection from which they will be with [their] husbands, and become so materialistic that their affection perishes and they close up inside.

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They also begin to rave in their thoughts, which takes place because their affection, then destroyed, makes their intellect delirious. Admittedly, in external form they can appear like other women. In a word, they become sensual in the lowest degree. [Their form is] that at home, and another one where preachings [occur].

     As to the question of women preaching, when Swedenborg went to index this passage he wrote something I might translate as follows: "Women who speak-intellectually-and-preach like men, lose their nature and become delirious." I use the hyphens to show that the "like men" is a governing phrase in the Latin. To me Swedenborg's passage above is not saying that women should not think about religious matters or preach; it is saying that they should not do so in a pseudo-masculine way. They can speak on religious subjects and preach in a feminine way, a way that is true to their nature rather than destructive of it. Otherwise the passage would lead to the untenable conclusion that women should not be allowed to preach or give elementary school worship or home worship or talk about religion or even think religious thoughts.

     Rev. Dr. Jonathan S. Rose
     Huntingdon Valley, PA

     TRANSLATING THAT PASSAGE

Editor's Note: We have asked two other scholars to supply translations of SD 5936. Here is one of them:

Women who think as men do about religious matters and speak a lot about them, and still more if they preach in assemblies, lose the feminine nature, which is one of affection. It is affection from which they should be [thinking and speaking] in company with their husbands. And [otherwise] they become material [minded] so that affection perishes and their interiors are closed.

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Their thoughts also begin to get off track, which happens because the now destroyed affection causes the understanding to derail, although in outward form they may appear as other women. In short, they become utterly sensual. She is herself at home and a different woman when [engaged in] preaching.

     Another translation of the same passage follows.

Women who think like men about religious matters and speak much about them, and still more if they preach in gatherings, lose their feminine nature, which is one of affection, which is why they should be married. They become moreover materialistic, so that their affection perishes, and their interior elements are closed. They also begin to rave in their thoughts, which comes to pass because their affection, having then been destroyed, causes their intellectual faculty to rave, although in outward form they may still appear to be of another character. In a word, they become in the lowest degree sensual. That is what she is at home, and of another character where there are people preaching.

     The translator comments: "I think the passage as translated speaks for itself. I would add only that the contrast is between the character of such women as they are inwardly at home, that is, in private, and their character where there are people preaching, that is, in public. Inwardly and at home, i.e. in private, they become materialistic and sensual, entertaining irrational and incoherent thoughts, but in public may appear to be quite normal-another lesson in not judging by appearances."
     As a footnote to Michael David's letter in the January issue is his comment on the above passage: "I do not think this passage is a generalization about all women, but about some women who 'think like men about religious matters.' How do men think about religious matters? Mostly they think falsely, according to what I read in the Writings. Maybe the real issue is the quality of men's thinking and its effect on some women. The last two phrases of this passage read: ' . . . illa domi: et alia ubi praedicationes.'

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Different translations have been proposed for this. I would suggest that it might mean ' . . . they are of one nature at home and of a different nature where preaching is going on.'"
FREDERICK EMANUEL DOERING FUND And CANADIAN SCHOLARSHIP FUND 1997

FREDERICK EMANUEL DOERING FUND And CANADIAN SCHOLARSHIP FUND              1997

     Applications for assistance from the above funds for Canadian male and female students attending the Academy of the New Church in Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania, for the school year 1997-98 should be received by one of the pastors listed below by the end of April if at all possible.
     Ideally, acceptance for admission to the Academy should precede application for financial aid, but because academic acceptance (including processing of transcripts from other schools, etc.) can take several months to complete, the Academy business office needs to get started on the financial arrangements before then. Grants are usually assigned in the spring, hence the early deadline.
     In addition, students from western Canada may be eligible for travel assistance and even for another special grant. The vision is that no Canadian student who really wants to attend the Academy should be barred from doing so for financial reasons.
     For more information, help, or application forms, write:

Rev. M. D. Gladish     Rev. G. G. Alden
279 Burnhamthorpe Road     9013 - 8th Street
Etobicoke, Ontario     Dawson Creek, B.C.
M9B 1Z6     V1G 3N3

Rev. M. K. Cowley
40 Chapel Hill Drive
Kitchener, Ontario
N2G 3W5

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APPLICATIONS FOR ADMISSION TO THE ACADEMY 1997

APPLICATIONS FOR ADMISSION TO THE ACADEMY              1997

     GIRLS SCHOOL AND BOYS SCHOOL

     Requests for application forms for admission of new students to the Academy Secondary Schools should be made by March 1, 1997. Letters should be addressed to Mrs. Robert Gladish, Principal of the Girls School, or Mr. T. Dudley Davis, Principal of the Boys School, The Academy of the New Church, Box 707, Bryn Athyn, PA 19009. Please include the student's name, parents' address, the class the student will be entering, the name and address of the school he or she is now attending, and whether the student will be a day or a dormitory student.
     Completed application forms should be forwarded to the Academy by May 1, 1997.
     All requests for financial aid should be submitted to the Business Manager, The Academy of the New Church, Box 711, Bryn Athyn, PA 19009, by June 1, 1997. Please note: The earlier the request is submitted, the more likely we will be able to meet the need.
     Admission procedure is based on receipt of: 1. application, 2. transcript, 3. pastor's recommendation, 4. health forms.
     The Academy will not discriminate against applicants and students on the basis of race, color, or national or ethnic origin.

Margaret Y. Gladish          T. Dudley Davis
Girls School Principal          Boys School Principal
NEW PHILOSOPHY 1997

NEW PHILOSOPHY              1997

THE NEW PHILOSOPHY. The July-December issue is more than a hundred pages. Among the things contained in this excellent issue are: "Publish and Perish" by Dan A. Synnestvedt; "The Kinship of Kant and Swedenborg" by Gregory R. Johnson; "The Centrality of the Idea of God in Religion" by Drake Kaiser; "The Fourteen Fallacies of the Senses Enumerated in Arcana Coelestia" by Leon James. In Dr. Odhner's Translator's Corner is a piece by Lars Bergquist called "The Heavenly Hermeneutic." There is a review by Dr. Gregory Baker of the book Tunnel to Eternity by Leon Rhodes.

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POSITION AVAILABLE 1997

POSITION AVAILABLE              1997




     Announcements






The General Church Schools and the Academy of the New Church are accepting r?sum?s from those interested in the position of Curriculum Coordinator for New Church Schools. The coordinator will have training and expertise in curriculum development and implementation as well as a background in New Church education.

This part-time position will commence July 1, 1997.

Interested parties should submit written application by March 14th to:

     Rev. Philip B. Schnarr
     General Church Office of Education
     Cairncrest - Box 743
     Bryn Athyn, PA 19009

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Notes on This Issue 1997

Notes on This Issue              1997


New Church Life
     
March 1997
No. 3

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     Sometimes things happen in people's lives that are so bad that customary explanations don't seem to work. In fact, one person said: "If there is some lesson that I am supposed to learn by something as tragic as this, I'd rather not learn it." Rev. Tom Kline's sermon is on this subject.
     The heading on page 144 is "A New Opportunity in Studying the Writings." It is about the Master's Program at the Academy of the New Church Theological School. For further information on this contact Rev. Brian Keith of the Theological School, by telephone 215-938-2525) or by fax (215-938-2658) or by email ([email protected]).l
     "We benefit from seeing the Lord's presence with us as being different according to our different states. We can picture Him warmly smiling when we are happy and grateful. We can picture Him acknowledging our sadness, and His grief over our concern when we feel deeply troubled." This is from an article by Rev. Eric Carswell.
     Some of us have thought that preference for the word "conjugial" was typical of many of us who are on the older side. Well, the letter in this issue from a young lady gives us another perspective. She speaks of reading different versions of the book Conjugial Love. We were pleased to discover a review of the work of three different translations. We convey a little of this review in "In Our Contemporaries."
     Dr. Wilson Van Dusen has had some serious health problems. We are glad to learn that he is still able to work effectively, and we have two items from him in this issue.
     Congratulations are due to people who helped produce a new Latin-English volume of the Writings. Rev. Leonard Fox is especially to be congratulated. Seeing and holding the handsome red volume is a pleasure (see page 139).
     The annual Eldergarten has become such a popular occasion that we think of it is as continuing throughout this century for sure. See page 129.

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FIGHTING SPIRITUAL BATTLES 1997

FIGHTING SPIRITUAL BATTLES       Rev. THOMAS L. KLINE       1997

"Then Jesus, being filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, being tempted for forty days by the devil" (Luke 4:1,2).

     Why do bad things happen? Why do bad things happen in our lives? One person recently made the comment that when he looked at the lives of all his friends, it seemed as if all the people he knew were dealing with some big problem or issue in their lives now or in the recent past. The problem could have been disease, a death in the family, marital difficulties, or emotional distress. But it seemed to him as if everyone had some big issue to deal with.
     Another person made a rather cynical comment. That person said he worried not about the people who had big problems in their lives, but about those who hadn't yet faced a major crisis. His concern was that those who still believed that life was peaceful and free of problems would soon have that innocence taken away.
     Not all of us face a crisis. And for some of us, the issues that we deal with in life are open and public, and for others, the issues we deal with are more private and personal.
     But back to the question: Why do bad things happen? One recent best seller is titled, When Bad Things Happen to Good People. And another best seller begins with the thought, "Life is difficult."
     Sometimes when a bad thing happens we can explain it by reasoning that bad things are a necessary part of our spiritual journey. When bad things happen, it is part of that "refiner's fire" that makes us into a stronger person. When a bad thing happens, there is a lesson to be learned, a victory to be won. This is why the life that leads to heaven involves not only joy and comfort, but also pain and the anxiety of spiritual temptation. Spiritual temptation is part of our spiritual growth.

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     But sometimes things happen in people's lives that are so bad that this explanation doesn't seem to work. One person said over the death of a loved one, "If there is some lesson that I am supposed to learn by something as tragic as this, I'd rather not learn it." There are events of truly tragic proportion: the untimely death of a loved one, terrible and painful disease, emotional disturbance and depression, the dissolving of a marriage, abuse, hunger and famine. If we come to believe that somehow the Lord allows or even causes these to happen so that we can learn some important lesson about life, we end up with a pretty terrible idea about God. One person made the comment about such an idea: "God is a bad teacher if He uses tragedy as His lesson plan."
     And so there is another very important truth given to us in the doctrines of the New Church that helps us to understand tragedy: Bad things, terrible tragedies, are permitted by the Lord not just so that we can learn something new about life; bad things often happen simply because we are in the midst of a great war between heaven and hell. We happen to live on the battleground of a great war, and that war is taking place right now. It is a spiritual war; it is the spiritual war between heaven and hell. It is the very war the Lord came on earth to fight. And sometimes we, or our friends and loved ones, are innocent victims of that terrible battle.
     Imagine a physical war where a bomb shell goes off near us and we suffer pain and anguish, not because of anything we did, but because there is a battle going on and a bombshell went off. The same happens on a spiritual level. The hells inflict pain and disorder upon us, and we suffer.
     Think of a little child who has a painful disease. The disease itself, the pain and suffering, come from hell. That suffering is a physical manifestation of the hatred, anger, and vengeance of hell. And that little child has a painful and disabling disease not because the child was sinful, not because his parents sinned, not because there is some lesson to be learned (although there might be a lesson that is learned).

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That child has a terrible disease because the hells are indeed powerful and they wish nothing more than to cause pain and disease and suffering. All bad things-physical, mental and spiritual-are a result of this great battle between heaven and hell.
     We said that we are often innocent victims residing on this great spiritual battleground. This thought can make us feel kind of helpless. And this is why, rather than saying that we are "innocent victims" living on a great spiritual battleground, it is more accurate to say that we are actually "soldiers" who are called by the Lord to be part of the battle. We are soldiers who live on a large battleground, and we are called to fight in the name of the Lord. And this is one of the most important concepts we need to know about our lives, because it gives us a vision of hope and purpose.
     We are in the middle of a great war. (Just look around you and within you.) We are soldiers who are part of this great battle between heaven and hell. Even that little child is a soldier, called into the army of the Lord.
     When a bad thing happens-terrible disease, a terrible death- are we just to remain passive? Are we helpless? How can we fight if the terrible thing has already happened? If a little child dies, how can we be victorious over the hells that caused that death?
     Here is another key: we fight the spiritual battle as an individual, but the consequences of our victory, no matter how slight, are global. When we, as individuals, fight spiritual battles against the hells, we help countless millions throughout this world and the spiritual world who are affected by those same hells. When we are spiritually victorious over a particular hell, we lessen the power of that hell, not just for ourselves but for everyone. When tragedy happens (take for example the untimely death of a loved one), we can still fight against those very hells that caused the death. And we do this by continuing on our personal spiritual journey of shunning evils as sins against God, by living the Word of God, by not giving up hope. In this battle we fight for all.

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And when we fight, we fight for all in the Lord's kingdom, now and in future generations.
     Why can't our life be free from pain, suffering, and the anguish of temptation? Why can't life just be easy and enjoyable?
     It is interesting to ask these questions about the Lord's life. Why couldn't the Lord's life, when He was on the earth, just be peaceful? Why did He have to suffer continual temptations, as the Writings say, temptations from the beginning of His life to the very end? Why did He have to begin His ministry by being tempted by the devil for forty days in the wilderness? Why did He have to suffer the awful pain and anguish of the passion on the cross? Why couldn't His life have been one of simple peace and joy?

     When we ask these questions about the Lord's life, the answer is obvious: He didn't come here to have a life of peace and joy; He came here with a mission to be accomplished. He came here to fight against the hells. He came to fight for generations of men, women and children, generations yet unborn. He came to fight for all of us. There was a purpose to His life, a purpose greater than Himself.
     And the same is true for us. We are here for our own regeneration, and we are here for a cause (a "battle," if you will) greater than ourselves. Sometimes this battle will involve pain, hardship and temptation.
     What one of us would not willingly go forth in the face of danger if it meant that we could spiritually benefit the global sphere of the whole earth? (It is interesting that some passages in the Writings suggest that just a few people are all that is needed to effect the conjunction between this earth and all the heavens.)
     Now this doesn't mean that our lives are going to be plagued with tragedy every moment. No, there is a lot of joy, happiness, and peace in life. Jesus says that our yoke is easy and our burden is light. But we do need to keep in mind why we are here. We need to have more of a "war-time" mentality than a "peace-time" mentality, on the spiritual level.

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And if we see why we are here, we can know why there is often a lot of pain and suffering in our lives and with those around us. A spiritual battleground is not a very peaceful place. If anything, the Lord gives us an oasis from the battle from time to time, time off from the battle; but the battle is our main purpose in life.
     In this context it is useful to think of some of the teachings in the Writings about spiritual temptation.
     First of all, we are told that a spiritual temptation is said to be an attack by the hells on some good love that we have. If you have some new, good love in your life, expect it to be attacked by the hells. And if you say to yourself, "Why, every time I have some new love in my heart, it is challenged?" you are not seeing the purpose of why you are here. There is a battle going on; expect spiritual temptations.
     Another teaching of the Writings: Are our temptations going to get easier or more difficult as we get older? The answer: they are probably going to get more severe. And if your reasoning is, "You mean I am going to have to fight greater battles as I get older? How can this be fair? Why fight now?" then you have missed the point of why you are here. There is a battle going on. You are called to be a spiritual soldier. As you grow stronger, more experienced, the Lord will give you greater challenges, greater battles to fight, because strong experienced soldiers are needed in some of the battles. The Lord is preparing you for great things.
     Still another teaching: Spiritual temptations cause utmost despair and anguish. There is no such thing as an "easy" spiritual temptation. Sometimes you feel that you are going to "lose it" during a spiritual temptation. And again, if the response of your mind is, "Why do I have to have really bad temptations; why can't they be easy?" then you have missed the point of why you are here.
     When Jesus began His ministry, He was baptized by John in the Jordan River.

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And then He went into the wilderness and was tempted by the devil for forty days. He hungered. He hungered so much that He was tempted by the devil to make bread out of the stones. And His hunger was deep within Him; He hungered for the salvation of the whole human race.
     The devil took Him up to the pinnacle of the temple and asked Him to throw Himself down. He was tempted to doubt His own power to save the human race.
     Finally, the devil took Him up to a great and high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world. All this would be given to Him if He would just bow down and worship the devil.
     After all these temptations, we find the very last words. It says that the devil left Him "for a time." And so the temptations were to continue. They were to continue even to the passion of the cross. And by His victory over temptation, our redemption was effected.
     Let us use His victory as strength in our lives, so that we may face the challenges that lie before us with courage and strength. Amen.

Lessons: Psalm 91; Luke 4:1-15, AC 6829; 1690

Arcana Colestia

     When a person is in temptation, he is beset round by falsities and evils which impede the influx of light from the Divine, that is, the influx of truth and good, and then the person is as it were in darkness. Darkness in the other life is nothing else than this besetment by falsities, for these take away the light from the man who is in temptation, and thus the perception of consolation by truths. But when the person emerges from temptation, then the light appears with its spiritual heat, that is, truth with its good, and from this he has gladness after anxiety. This is the morning which in the other life follows the night (AC 6829).
     All temptation is an assault upon the love in which the person is, and the temptation is in the same degree as is the love.

105


If the love is not assaulted, there is no temptation. To destroy anyone's love is to destroy his very life; for the love is the life. The Lord's life was love toward the whole human race, and was indeed so great and of such a quality as to be nothing but pure love. Against this His life, continual temptations were admitted, as before said, from His earliest childhood to His last hour in the world. The love which was the Lord's veriest life is signified by His "hungering," and by the devil's saying, "If Thou art the Son of God, command this stone that it be made bread," and by Jesus' answering that "man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God (Luke 4:2-4; Matt. 4:2-4)" (AC 1690:3).
FACULTY POSITION AT THE ACADEMY OF THE NEW CHURCH COLLEGE 1997

FACULTY POSITION AT THE ACADEMY OF THE NEW CHURCH COLLEGE              1997

     Applications are being accepted for a full-time position in mathematics and computer science. The ideal candidate will have a Ph.D. in mathematics and a strong background in computer science. He/she should be able to a) teach courses across the undergraduate mathematics curriculum, b) contribute to the computer science curriculum, and c) participate effectively in student life. Send vita and the names of three references to Dr. Gregory Baker, Box 707, ANC College, Bryn Athyn, PA 19009.
     The Academy will not discriminate on the basis of race, gender, ethnicity, or national origin.

106


IS THE LORD ALWAYS THE SAME? 1997

IS THE LORD ALWAYS THE SAME?       Rev. ERIC H. CARSWELL       1997

     The reflective reader of the Old and New Testaments can be troubled by the way some stories present the Lord. For example, when the Lord informed Moses that the Children of Israel had started worshiping a golden calf, it seems that the Lord's first reaction was one of destructive anger. He planned to annihilate the whole troublesome group of them. Moses begged for mercy, first suggesting that such a response would damage the Lord's reputation among the Egyptians, and then reminding the Lord that He had sworn a promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to multiply their descendants and give them the land of Canaan. The result of Moses' pleading was that the Lord relented. He apparently rethought what He planned to do. He changed His mind. "Then Moses pleaded with the Lord his God. . . . So the Lord relented from the harm which He said He would do to His people" (Exodus 32:11, 14).
     Examples of a similar kind also exist in the New Testament. In Matthew 15:22-28 the Lord seems to be intentionally ignoring a Gentile woman who was pleading for her daughter to be healed. Eventually the disciples couldn't take her cries for help any more and asked the Lord to send her away. When the woman knelt before Him saying, "Lord, help me!" He compared her to what in their culture was about the most useless thing that existed, a little dog, and said it isn't good to give the children's bread to such a person. But the woman, undeterred, begged for the crumbs that even little dogs got to eat. And then the Lord apparently relented and agreed to heal the woman's daughter.
     The Writings are emphatic that the Lord's perfect knowledge of the future means that He never needs to change His mind because He has learned more or recognized something He previously hadn't considered.

. . . Jehovah foresees from eternity every single thing and therefore never repents.

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When He made each member of the human race, that is, created him anew, perfected him to the point of his becoming celestial, He also foresaw that in the process of time [each member of the human race] would become the kind of person described [in Genesis as existing just prior to the flood]. And because He foresaw the kind of person he would become, He could not repent (AC 587).

. . . Jehovah never repents, for He foresees and provides all things from eternity. Repentance is applicable only to him who does not know the future, and who, when the thing comes to pass, finds that he has erred. Yet it is so said in the Word concerning Jehovah because the sense of the letter is taken from such things as appear to a human being, because it is for the very simple, and for little children, who at first go no further. Both the simple and little children are in the most external things, with which they begin and in which afterward their interiors terminate. Wherefore the Word in the letter is to be understood differently by those who have become wiser (AC 10441).

     Most of us have grown up with the clear knowledge that the Lord is perfect love and perfect wisdom. He knows all things, is present everywhere, and has all power. We have been taught that it is incorrect and even just plain logically inconsistent to think of the Infinite changing. At every moment the Lord is working with His love, wisdom, knowledge, and power to care for the tiniest details of our lives. An example of this kind of teaching occurs in the following passage from the Arcana Caelestia:

. . . Someone errs who believes that the Lord has not foreseen and does not see the smallest individual thing with each person, or that within the smallest individual thing He does not foresee and lead, when in fact the Lord's foresight and providence are present within the tiniest details of all the smallest individual things with him, and in details so tiny that it is impossible to comprehend in any manner of thought one in many millions of them. For every smallest fraction of a moment of a person's life entails a chain of consequences extending to eternity. Indeed every one is like a new beginning to those that follow, and so every single moment of the life both of his understanding and of his will is a new beginning.

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And since the Lord foresaw from eternity what each person was going to be like in the future and even to eternity, it is clear that providence is present in the smallest individual things, and is governing him and bending him so that he may be such, this being achieved by constant reshaping of his freedom (3854:3).

     From the Lord's perspective His effort in our lives is a single, continuous, unchanging expression of His love for each of us. It is an unchanging expression of His desire to lead us to the greatest usefulness to ourselves and others, and so to the greatest possible happiness. This is part of the Lord's essence that should be a core of our thought about Him. The Divine qualities that make up this essence need to be pictured in human form by the eyes of our mind or in our imagination (see TCR 623). While the essence of the Lord doesn't change, it is incredibly important that we picture the Lord responding to us differently in our different states. This statement may contradict an idea that some of us have understood to be true from our earliest memory.
     The Old Testament, New Testament, and Writings of the New Church all present the idea that the most fundamental part of worship and the life of religion is that we are to love the Lord. In Deuteronomy we read the words familiar to many of us: "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength" (Deut. 6:4, 5).
     How do we love the Lord? The infinite qualities that make up the Lord's essence can be understood on the rational plane of our mind as a series of abstract concepts. While these concepts are very important, as the Writings define love we cannot truly love a rational idea based on abstract concepts. Real love can exist only for another who we sense freely loves us in return. We cannot have this love for the Infinite. In the New Testament, the Lord clearly told His disciples that they were not to try to approach the Father directly.

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He said:

"No one comes to the Father except through Me. If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him." Philip said to Him, "Lord, show us the Father and it is sufficient for us." Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you so long and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, 'Show us the Father'?" (John 16:6-9)

     The Writings of the New Church explain these words as meaning that we cannot be joined in a loving relationship with the unchanging Infinite itself. Consider the implications of the following words spoken by angels to some false Christians in the life after death and quoted in the True Christian Religion:

. . . the idea of God enters into everything of religion, and by means of it a person is conjoined [establishes a deep relationship of love] with God, and by means of conjunction [this relationship of love] is saved. We in heaven say [the Lord's prayer] daily in the same way as people do on earth, and in doing so we are not thinking of God the Father, for He is invisible, but we think of Him in His Divine Human, because in that He is visible, and in that He is by you called Christ, but by us is called the Lord; thus the Lord is our Father in the heavens. The Lord also taught that He and the Father are one; that the Father is in Him and He in the Father; and that he who sees Him sees the Father; and that no one comes to the Father except through Him. He also taught that it is the Father's will that people should believe in the Son, and that he who does not believe in the Son shall not see life; and even that the wrath of God abides upon him. All this makes it clear that the Father is to be approached through the Son and in the Son. For that reason too He also taught that all power in heaven and on earth was given to Him. The prayer states, "Hallowed be Thy Name, Thy kingdom come"; and we have shown from the Word that the Father's name is the Divine Human of the Lord, and that the kingdom of the Father comes when the Lord is approached directly, and comes not at all when God the Father is approached directly (113:6).

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     We are invited to return the Lord's love freely. We are invited to approach Him. We cannot successfully do this if we approach the Infinite itself. Even the angels in their purity cannot do this. Consider this passage about understanding the Lord's qualities.

The Lord is referred to as repenting and grieving in heart because all human mercy seems to involve those feelings. Consequently, as is the case many times elsewhere in the Word, the manner of speaking here is in accordance with the outward appearance. Nobody can know what the Lord's mercy is, for it infinitely transcends all human understanding. But one does know what human mercy is; it is repenting and grieving. And unless a person grasps the idea of mercy from some different feeling whose nature he knows, he can have no possible conception of it and so cannot learn anything about it. This is the reason why human characteristics are frequently attributed to Jehovah, or the Lord (AC 588).

     We have been given an amazing variety of pictures of the Lord in the stories of the Old and New Testaments. The Lord could be deeply merciful and forgiving as in the case of the woman caught in the act of adultery. He could be powerfully reprimanding as when James and John suggested that they call fire from heaven to destroy a Samaritan village that had rejected them, or when He berated the scribes and Pharisees, calling them hypocrites or comparing them to highly poisonous snakes. He could be humorous when He noted that they could "strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!" (Matt. 23:24) He could be intensely sad as when He wept to see Mary and others crying over the death of her brother Lazarus.
     Concerning the Lord's response to what can happen even today, consider the meaning of this phrase from the book of Revelation as given in the Apocalypse Revealed:

"And cried with a great voice, as a lion roars" signifies agonizing sadness that the church has been taken away from Him. That by "crying as a lion roars" is signified agonizing sadness respecting the church, and that it has been taken away from Him.

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Sadness concerning these things is signified by "His roaring as a lion," for a lion roars when he sees his enemies and is attacked by them, and when he sees his cubs or food taken away; so does the Lord, comparatively, when He sees His church taken away from Him by devils (AR 471).

     While we are told repeatedly that the Lord is never angry, we are also told:

. . . many things in the Word, more than anyone may believe, have been stated according to appearances and according to the illusions of the senses-such as that Jehovah expresses anger, wrath, and rage against the wicked; that He takes delight in bringing them to destruction and annihilation; and even that He slays them. But the reason such things have been stated in the Word is so that people's persuasions and evil desires might not be destroyed but might be turned in a new direction. For to have spoken of things in a way other than human beings are able to grasp, that is, other than from appearances, illusions, and persuasions, would have been like sowing seed on the waters and would have been expressing that which would be instantly rejected (AC 1874).

      Note that this passage doesn't say that the Word is written as it is because children couldn't understand it any other way. This passage is talking about the human condition. Certainly an abstract intellectual part of our mind can indeed think of the Infinite. We can think, given His perfect knowledge of all things, that the Lord could be unperturbed and completely calm about everything. But what would it be like to have a friend who always had exactly the same facial expression and spoke with the same tone of voice no matter what was happening or what state you were in-if whether you were jubilantly happy, deeply sad, or terribly angry, this friend responded in exactly the same way. Would you have a relationship with that person who had qualities of genuine love?

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One specific problem that can arise if we think solely from the Lord's infinite qualities is that we can feel as if prayer is a relatively useless exercise. From the perspective of the Infinite, if we know what we think and the Lord does also, why talk about it? And yet the Lord calls us to this conversation with Him. Consider this definition of prayer and description of its results:

Regarded in itself prayer is talking to God and at the same time some inner view of the things that are being prayed for. Answering to this there is something akin to an influx into the perception or thought of the person's mind which effects a certain opening of his internals toward God. But the experience varies according to the person's state according to the essence of whatever he is praying for. If his prayer springs from love and faith, and if they are wholly heavenly and spiritual things about which and for which he prays, something like a revelation is present within his prayer which manifests itself in the affection of the one praying in the form of hope, comfort, and some inward joy (AC 2535).

     We benefit from seeing the Lord's presence with us as being different according to our different states. We can picture Him warmly smiling when we are happy and grateful. We can picture Him acknowledging our sadness, and also His grief when we feel deeply troubled. We can picture Him gently but firmly teaching us when we seek greater understanding. And we can picture Him with darkly flashing eyes and a powerful voice when we are seriously contemplating an evil that would hurt us and others. In humility it can be useful for us to realize that He is listening to our plans with an understanding expression, but feeling the same warm amusement that we can have listening to a five-year-old tell us just how rich he's going to be when he grows up. We can picture Him with us as the most perfect loving friend. What we can be sure will never change is that all He does in reaching out to us-teaching, leading, comforting, and strengthening us-comes from His love for us. This is absolutely unchanging.

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The Lord never ever loses interest, gets impatient, or changes His allegiance. The True Christian Religion assures us that He is not even able to look sternly at us (see 56e). While we can and maybe even should picture Him looking sternly at us in certain states of mind, we can know that this sternness has within it absolutely no desire to punish. It is another expression of His concern for our present welfare, the welfare of those whom our lives touch, and the long-term happiness of us all. We cannot really love or feel loved by the Infinite itself. We cannot be conjoined to this perfect, unchanging presence. We are called to worship the Lord in His Divine Human. We are to worship Him as a God who can be visible to our mind's eye. May we take wonderful assurance from what will never change about His love and care for us and realize that the way we picture this love and care in meeting us in our different states of life can and even should change.

Internet: [email protected]
NATURE OF SPIRIT 1997

NATURE OF SPIRIT              1997

     This book by Chauncey Giles has been printed anew. In the foreword we read:

     For more than a century, Chauncey Giles's The Nature of Spirit, and of Man as a Spiritual Being has remained one of the best introductions to the teachings of the New Church regarding the spiritual world. By as early as 1900, more than a hundred thousand copies, including translations into a number of languages, were in circulation, and through the decades its effect on people of all religious backgrounds has been enormous.

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SWEDENBORG AMONG MYSTICS 1997

SWEDENBORG AMONG MYSTICS       WILSON VAN DUSEN       1997

     I have surveyed all the world's mystics for some years now. Evelyn Underhill in her classic Mysticism lists only eighty-seven published mystics in the western world in the last two thousand years! Both Buddhism and Hinduism deliberately cultivate the experience of God, so the published mystics in the east would be more numerous. I can now set Swedenborg in the context of the world's mystics.
     Swedenborg is outstanding in this group in several ways. The first and most obvious is the sheer volume of his writings in this area. There are a few, particularly in Buddhism, who approach this amount. By definition all of the mystics know of the direct experience of God and have described this. Swedenborg is unique in his admission into the spiritual worlds and his description of these. In the entire mystical literature I have found nothing of the stature of his Heaven and Hell. Indeed, from the whole world's mystical literature one could hardly gather even a good part of Heaven and Hell, and even this would suffer greatly in clarity.
     Swedenborg's writings are also outstanding in clarity. For westerners to read the world's mystical literature they must adapt to culturally bound terms, particularly in Hinduism and Buddhism. But even assuming that one has adapted to these other frames of reference, what Swedenborg was given seems unusually clear. I credit this in part to his adhering to a Christian frame of reference. But there is another very important aspect to the clarity of his writings.
     He was forbidden by the Lord to speculate. This means that he felt bound just to set down what was revealed to him. There are mystics in the west such as William Blake, Jacob Boehme and the Jewish Kabalists who felt free to widely speculate and to formulate new symbols and concepts. Such writings present an almost impenetrable thicket. It is quite otherwise with Swedenborg. Even though he is presenting spiritual and even celestial matters, he tries to make them clear to our understanding.

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Along with this lack of speculation he also never puts himself forward. For instance, with William Blake one feels that if he weren't in such a struggle to gain recognition, his writings might have more worth. Not speculating and sticking to a Christian frame of reference and not setting himself forward all contributed to Swedenborg's presenting spiritual matters modestly and clearly.
     There is another unique side to Swedenborg's theology that I hardly know what to do with. It is clear that Swedenborg felt that the inner sense of the Bible was one of the greatest things revealed through him. In the world's mystical literature, east and west, there are comparable works where a sacred text is given greater depth. I can easily think of Hindu, Buddhist, Islamic, and Jewish examples. Yet Swedenborg's work in this area seems unique, in part because of what it reveals of human experience. My real suspicion is that we don't fully understand or know how to best use this interior sense. It is as though his interior sense is a key we have hardly put to use.
     Long ago I described my experience of Swedenborg's writings as an exploration of a whole Himalaya of mind/spirit/life. Now, after a survey of the world's published mysticism, his writings are still a wonder for their extent and clarity. This is not to say that we couldn't learn from other traditions. It is as though each contributes something new. For instance, without the Islamic Sufi literature I would hardly know how intense mystical love could be. Zen Buddhism is the most aesthetic of the mystical literature. Each has contributed something to the whole. But if we are to tackle only one literature, I don't see how we could do better than to explore what Swedenborg was shown. Even when standing among the world's great mystics, he still appears to be a giant.

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REVIEW 1997

REVIEW       Wilson Van Dusen       1997

Conversations with Angels, Edited by Leonard Fox and Donald Rose, Chrysalis Books, West Chester, Pennsylvania, 1996, 159 pp., $12.95

     This is a lovely paperback with a cover that includes a famous Russian Orthodox icon, "The Trinity" by Rublev. It is an odd size at almost seven inches square. This size permits side titles and quotes. It is also graced with handsome drawings by Martha Gyllenhaal. The sensitive attention to details of book production further enhances the material.
     Other than a preface by Rose and a long introduction by Fox, the book is a collection of Swedenborg's memorable relations or vignettes of scenes in heaven in which angels and spirits interact. The unusual thing about it is that its focus is on what Swedenborg witnessed in heaven. The only books I could find in my collection on the memorable relations were two volumes, both over one hundred years old. In general, barely any use has been made of these scenes from heaven.
     The first question is, Do these scenes come across? For me very clearly they did. Though I have them, they are buried in the thirty volumes. I definitely appreciate their being selected out and presented in this handsome format. Both the preface and the introduction adequately introduce these scenes to the general reader. I have long been convinced that there are many books that could be pulled out of The Writings, each presenting all that is said on a particular topic. I have twenty-six of such volumes in my collection. For both the scholar and the average person it helps to have these compilations. But to my knowledge this is the first such use of the memorable relations. It is successful and most welcome. In this form one can focus in on the scenes and better glean the wisdom in them. It appears pretty clear that Swedenborg selected scenes that would serve to overcome misconceptions of heaven. My only criticism would be on the selection which far more emphasized conjugial love, fifteen references, over other sources (four references).

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But this is a matter of personal choice and editorial intent.
     This book brings fresh life to Swedenborg's experiences in heaven.

     Wilson Van Dusen
JOKING FROM THE WORD 1997

JOKING FROM THE WORD              1997

     A reader suggested that we print the following from W. F. Pendleton's Topics from the Writings:

     Jesting from the Word.

     In the Writings, the evil of jesting from the Word is treated of, and shown to be profane (AC 961; DP 231; SD 1304; AE 1064). We are told that it is a habit which goes with man into the other life, and is not removed except after severe punishment. "The Word is the very Divine Truth of the Lord with men, and the Lord is in it, and also heaven. . . . Wherefore, to jest from the Word, and concerning the Word, is to sprinkle the holy things of heaven with the dust of the earth" (AE 1064). For such jesting contains in it contempt for holy things. How common this evil is is well known. But in the New Church we are to heed the Divine admonition and cultivate reverence, even for the copies of the Word, and lead our children to do likewise. Reverence for the Word as a book will open the way to reverence for that which it contains, and for the Lord who is in the Word, and who is the Word.

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IN OUR CONTEMPORARIES 1997

IN OUR CONTEMPORARIES              1997

     Three Versions of Conjugial Love

     The February issue of Lifeline (published in Great Britain) provides a most engaging and valuable review. The writer is Rev. Julian Duckworth. We highly commend and recommend this review. Here are some of its lines:

     The various publishing bodies of the organised New Church in Britain and America have produced no less than three new complete English translations of Swedenborg's "Conjugial Love" in the last four years. Indeed there are four if you allow for the fact that the General Church translation is available in two versions, one using the words Conjugial Love and the other Married Love. This seems a very unusual situation. On the surface it appears almost superfluous and wasteful, suggesting a possible lack of co-ordination. On the positive side, it is absolutely clear that different types of people need different translations, which these certainly are, and the output from our publishing bodies will always need to cater for variety among potential readers . . . .
     When we look at the more practical aspects of the book: the marriage roles, union, the masculine nature and the feminine, progress and changes of state in marriage, and so on, the difference between the conventional versions and these three new ones become very apparent. All three are quite bold in their presentation, and quite skilfully express the point being made. I found all three much easier to read in such sections as chastity, union of souls through marriage, changes in marriage, and so on. The highly descriptive spiritual world experiences of Swedenborg-the Memorabilia, or memorable relations (John Chadwick calls them "experiences"), which end each subject section-are extremely readable and enjoyable. Here, I found myself preferring the style of Bruce Rogers, who seemed to enjoy his use of words to describe what was being seen in the spiritual world. He seemed to me to get it across very naturally, so that I wasn't aware of any translation exercise while I was reading the story.

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David Gladish has an easy style with these narrative accounts, which can almost get a little bit too fluid or loose occasionally, and I was sometimes put off by the breaking up of paragraphs into mini-sections of a few lines at a time. Some people might prefer this. I found it a bit disconcerting. David Gladish, though, often scores with a lovely light apt turn of phrase which made me smile in appreciation. John Chadwick also has a good skill in telling the story and he uses some great expressions . . . .
     I really do congratulate David Gladish, Bruce Rogers and John Chadwick-all three of whom are excellent and valued translators of Swedenborg into readable useable English. In reviewing a translation of a book like Conjugial Love, it is all too easy for the reviewer to pick fault and find criticisms, especially in a threefold comparison. No real criticism is intended by me. I am just very grateful that the work Conjugial Love or Married Love or Love in Marriage exists for us all to see the connection between sex, marriage love and the Lord, and their origin in Him. Will more people be reading Conjugial Love as a result of these three painstaking endeavours to make them available? That surely is our hope.

               * * * * * * *

     The July-December issue of The New Philosophy is packed with interesting things-more than a hundred pages of them.
     Here is what the editor, Dr. Erland Brock, says about the contents of the issue.

     In addition to the usual Annual Number reports, we open with the Annual Address-a very timely one as the association approaches its centenary-in which Mr. Synnestvedt gives an account of its founding father and first president, Rev. Frank Sewall.
     Dr. Leon James's reflections on the fallacies of the senses presented in Arcana Coelestia 5084 have special relevance in this modern scientific age. By way of emphasis of this, I draw attention to the following: In his A History of Western Philosophy, W.T. Jones points out that one's theory of knowledge guides one's theory of being. Hence the belief that reliable knowledge can come only through the physical senses leads to a belief that the physical realm is all that exists, and supposed realities of a transcendental nature are nothing but figments of the imagination.

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For example, in the May 17, 1996 issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education, David L. Wheeler in "Darwin's Scholarly Heirs" quotes Richard Dawkins (a fellow of New College at Oxford University and author of many popular books on evolutionary biology) from his River Out of Eden: A Darwinian View of Life (Basic Books, 1995): "The universe we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil and no good, nothing but blind, pitiless indifference...DNA neither knows or cares. DNA just is. And we dance to its music." This kind of reductionist view of human life is widespread, particularly in learned circles, and needs to be challenged. It represents the consequences of thought that is derived from the fallacies of the senses to which Dr. James draws our attention.
     "The Kinship of Kant and Swedenborg" by Mr. Gregory L. Johnson was originally presented at a colloquium at the ANC College early in 1996. This contribution to examination of the Kant-Swedenborg connection is an appropriate sequel to "The Hidden Influence of Swedenborg on Kant" serialized in this journal.
     As a cautionary note, Swedenborgians may be offended by ideas presented in the opening few pages of Mr. Johnson's article. But the challenges that continue to arise regarding both Swedenborg's claim to continuous experience of the spiritual world and his sanity must be faced, and philosophic journals such as this are very appropriate places for such challenges to be aired and countered. More specifically, the two most widely-known streams of attacks on Swedenborg arise from Kant's Tr?ume eines Geistersehers (Dreams of a Spirit-Seer), and related comments from philosophic circles and psychiatric professionals. The most recent of the latter is reported on in The Swedenborg Society Magazine (Issue No. 7 1996) by its editor Rev. Fred Elphick. [Footnote: Interested readers can contact Mr. Elphick via e-mail at [email protected]].

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Mr. Johnson's article in this issue touches on both these sources of denigration of Swedenborg, and we are most appreciative of the insights that the article provides.
     In his article titled "The Centrality of the idea of God in Religion: A Comparison of Manichaeism and the Bah?'? Faith," Mr. Drake Kaiser illustrates the importance of the idea of God as the center of religious thought. Beyond that, he provides insights into the nature of two religions of ancient origin through which one can gain more appreciation of the spiritual history of mankind.
     The continuation of "Swedenborg in France" includes chapters 10-11-"Edmond Chevrier, the French New Church Historian," and "The New Church in Paris."
     In Translator's Corner, editor Rev. Dr. Durban Odhner gives us Rev. Kurt P. Nemitz's translation of Mr. Lars Bergquist's article "Den Himmelska Hermanuetiken" ("The Heavenly Hermeneutic") that was originally published in V?rldarnes M?te (1-2/95). More than half of Swedenborg's theological works are devoted to exposition of the inner senses of the Biblical Word, and Mr. Lars Bergquist analyzes the manner in which this task was undertaken.
NCL FIFTY YEARS AGO 1997

NCL FIFTY YEARS AGO              1997

     Occasionally people ask about the way the Ten Commandments are divided in their sequence. In the March issue of 1947 Rev. William B. Caldwell provides useful information on this.
BOOK ABOUT DYING 1997

BOOK ABOUT DYING              1997

     The author of Angels in Action, Dr. Robert Kirven, has completed another book. With an engaging writing style and an insightful mind, he presents the subject of dying and ably conveys applicable teachings of the Writings. The book will be published by the Swedenborg Foundation later this spring.

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TWO BOOKS ABOUT WILLIAM BLAKE 1997

TWO BOOKS ABOUT WILLIAM BLAKE       Editor       1997

     We offer here comments about two fairly recent books on the subject of William Blake. Blake, by Peter Ackroyd, was published in 1996. We commend this book to readers with a special interest in Blake. It is published by Alfred Knopf, Inc. Here are some quotes to spark the interest of Swedenborgians:

     . . . In that same year [1787], we have the record of his close study and annotation of Emanuel Swedenborg's writings- Swedenborg being, in particular, the great theologian and philosopher of the age who believed that the spirits of the dead rose from the body and reassumed physical form in another world. He was the philosopher who could give substance to Blake's visions, in other words, and reaffirm Blake's own instinctive sense of life and death. Flaxman may have introduced him to Swedenborg's works; the sculptor had already become a convinced follower, and in his wonderful funereal monuments he would depict the physical form of the dead rising from the mortal body just as Swedenborg had expressed it. . . .
     These were artists who became convinced Swedenborgians but among the fifty people who attended the first meetings at New Court in the Middle Temple, designed to promote the writings of the Swedish theologian, there was a watch-maker, an engraver, a bookseller, an artist-jeweler, a silversmith and an engineer. Such people represented the urban radicalism of the period among the trading classes- exactly the class to which Blake belonged-but it was a radicalism imbued with spiritual and millenarian impulses. Then, on 13 April 1789, Blake and his wife attended a general conference of the New Jerusalem Church at the Swedenborgian chapel in Great Eastcheap; it lasted five days and there were some sixty or seventy participants, filing through a portal that had inscribed upon it "NOW IT IS ALLOWABLE"-words that Swedenborg had once seen in a vision. After the meetings were over they all dined together at a tavern around the corner in Abchurch Lane-the presence of Blake at such a gathering is significant in that it marks the only occasion when he attached himself to a group or congregation of any kind.

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Indeed the fact that he had begun to read Swedenborg two years earlier suggests that, for some time, he was profoundly committed to the precepts of the New Church. . . .
     His annotations to Swedenborgian writings are actually more concerned with elucidating philosophical maxims than in understanding the details of spiritual topography. His notes are written clearly in pencil, with an occasional "Mark this" in the margins . . . . Blake is concerned to press Swedenborg's beliefs into the framework of his own concerns; he was not a disinterested enquirer after the truth but, rather, a self-taught artist who wished to bolster and amplify his own beliefs with any material that came to hand. . . .
     He had come across a rich mine in Swedenborg because, on one level, the teachings contained in Arcana Coelestia, or Heaven and Hell, are a synthesis of occult and alchemical doctrine placed in the Christian context of redemption. Blake had encountered such doctrines before, but here they were given a formal and systematic status which lent them a certain impersonal authenticity. . . .
     Swedenborg . . . believed in the Gorand Man or the Heavenly Man: "God is very Man. In all the heavens there is no other idea of God than that of a Man; the Reason is, because Heaven in the Whole, and in Part, is in Form as Man. By Reason that God is a Man, All Angels and Spirits are Men in a perfect Form." These were very powerful ideas for an artist who had spent a lifetime observing and drawing the human form . . . .
     These spiritual figures, the just and wicked alike, are also close to Swedenborg's vision of life after death when the lineaments of the human form are revived or reawakened in a spiritual sense; they are not necessarily meant to be individual figures, however, but representations of the states through which the human being passes in his journey towards the Redeemer . . . .

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There is one other intimation of Swedenborg within the paintings. In Heaven and Hell the philosopher had declared, "an angelic society sometimes appears as one man in the form of an angel" and that Jesus appears as "one in angelic form". . . .
     [H]e wrote in one of the margins of his later poems, "Innocence dwells with Wisdom but never with Ignorance." He had also read Swedenborg on the same theme and knew that "In particular, cattle and their young correspond to the affections of the natural mind, sheep and lambs to the affections of the spiritual mind, while winged creatures, according to their species, correspond to the intellectual things of either mind." In Songs of Innocence the lambs graze upon the cropped grass beneath the images, and birds soar among the etched words. . . .

     Blake "turned away from Swedenborg." He turned from the New Church.

      . . . That Church itself was becoming more ritualised and institutionalised-it began ordaining ministers, and eventually prescribing their robes of worship-and therefore far less radical. The influence of the occultists, mesmerists and magicians was replaced by that of conservative Church leaders who pledged their faith to "the Constitution and Government of their country" as opposed to the "principles of infidelity and democracy." The slow processes of organised religion began to unfold; in particular, the ministers of the New Church now attached less importance to the energetic life of charity and began to emphasise the duty of avoiding sinfulness. This renunciation of the original spirit of the Church, so notably present in the sign above the portal in Great Eastcheap, "Now it is Allowable," also repudiated all of Blake's instinctive beliefs: he began to annotate Swedenborg's Divine Providence, published in 1790, and denounced him for "Lies and Priestcraft," "Cursed Folly!" and, most seriously, "Predestination."
     So he turned to the writings of Paracelsus and of Boehme. They were widely known and readily available: the bookshops that sold the revelations of Emanuel Swedenborg also stocked their works . . . .

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     There is no doubt that the Marriage [The Marriage of Heaven and Hell] represents Blake's most serious attack upon Swedenborg and Swedenborgians, for reasons that have already been discussed, and he is happy to parody the more solemn aspects of Swedenborg's revelations. He uses the Swedish theologian's device of the "Memorable Fancy," for example, to convey some very scandalous conversations with angels, while at the same time explaining that he treats the Bible in its "infernal . . . sense" rather than Swedenborg's tamer "internal sense."

          * * * * * * *

     The other book is by E. P. Thompson, who is noted on the dust jacket as "one of England's foremost historians and social critics." The title is Witness Against the Beast. It was published in 1993 by The New Press in New York.
     Let's begin with a declaration which is surprising coming from an experienced historian. In a note on page 133 the author simply states: "Swedenborg had not only read Boehme in his youth but also Pordage and Jane Lead." There is an obscure reference given which we can try to track down. One would have thought that more caution would have been used and reference made to Swedenborg's clear statement that he had not read Jacob Boehme.
     In 1766 the works of Jacob Boehme (1575-1624) were arousing attention in some European circles. In September Swedenborg's confidant Dr. Gabriel Beyer asked him what he thought of this mystic's writings. Swedenborg answered on the 25th of the month: "As to Boehme's writings, I can pass no judgment for I have never read them." In February of the following year Peter Hammarberg asked Swedenborg the same question on the works of Boehme. The answer was, "I have never read them." We may comment further on this in a later issue.
     We wonder how much E.P. Thompson actually read of Swedenborg. The quotations he gives may have been copied from New Church journals rather than from the books themselves.

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He certainly saw the copies annotated by Blake. He ascribes to Swedenborg a hidden predestinarianism, and makes no reference to Swedenborg's very strong statements repudiating this doctrine (e.g. DP 202, 330, TCR 486-488). One of the refreshing things about this book is the suggestion that Robert Hindmarsh's testimonies are not to be trusted. In some of our historical reference works Hindmarsh is often cited as the authority. It may be healthy in future historical studies to consider the possibility that Hindmarsh is a biased witness. I am finding it hard to get used to Thompson's assertion that "the closer one gets to the actual record, the more Hindmarsh's Rise and Progress of the New Jerusalem Church appears to merit as much and as little credence as Stalin's Short History of the CPSU" (page 135).
     The author's distaste for Swedenborgianism does seem to color his writing, but there are interesting things upon which we hope to comment later.
END OF THE WORLD 1997

END OF THE WORLD       Editor       1997

     The following quotation is from Arcana Coelestia 4527. Notice the different notions people had in their heads, and in particular notice the thought about the destruction of the world.

I have spoken with some a few days after their decease . . . . Some of them had believed that after death people would be like ghosts, in which opinion they had confirmed themselves from the specters of which they had heard . . . . Some, however, had believed that they would not rise again until the time of the last judgment when the world would be destroyed, and they would then rise again with the body, which, though fallen into dust, would then be gathered together, and they would thus rise again with their bones and flesh. And as that last judgment or destruction of the world had been waited for in vain for many centuries, they had fallen into the error that they would never rise again, never thinking of what they had learned from the Word, and from which they had also sometimes spoken, saying that when a person dies, his soul is in the hand of God, among the happy or the unhappy according to the life which he had made habitual to himself, nor thinking of what the Lord said about the rich man and Lazarus.

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But they were instructed that the last judgment of every one is when he dies, and that he then appears to himself endowed with a body as in the world, and enjoys as here every sense, only more pure and exquisite because bodily things no longer stand in the way, and the things of the light of the world no longer darken those of the light of heaven.

     Yet another century is coming to a close. Do people anticipate the destruction of the world? One simple point the Writings make about the Biblical passages on this subject is that if the world were destroyed, the Word would not say that one man in the field would be taken and another left, or one woman grinding at the mill would be taken and the other left (see Matt. 24:40). It is manifest, therefore, that "there is not meant any destruction of the world" (AC 4059).
PERPETUAL CALENDAR WITH QUOTATIONS 1997

PERPETUAL CALENDAR WITH QUOTATIONS       Editor       1997

     The people at the New Jerusalem Church in Pretty Prairie, Kansas, have chosen passages from the Writings and from the Bible to make a calendar that stands up on a desk or dresser. The hope is that it will provide "thoughts to ponder each day." They say, "We thought it might help for our own study and for others to have a 'bit' of Swedenborg each day through an eternal calendar. Special thanks to all the readers of Swedenborg in Kansas and visiting friends who contributed their favorite quotes and Scripture to create this calendar. Please excuse any misquotes; we did our best."

For March 10th we have the following:

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     "It has been a necessity that some revelation should exist. . . . [F]or a revelation, or Word, is a common recipient vessel of spiritual and celestial things, thus conjoining heaven and earth . . . " (AC 1775).

     "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away" (Matt. 24:35).

For March 15th:

     "We are constantly kept in a state where repentance and conversion are possible" (TCR 720).

     "Take heed to yourselves. If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him, and if he repent, forgive him. And if he trespass against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to thee, saying, 'I repent,' thou shalt forgive him" (Luke 17:3,4).

     One of the nice features of this calendar is the choice of sayings from the Epistles, which we know are good and useful books for the church but with which many of us lack familiarity.
     In place of a stern copyright warning we read the following: "Developed for the use of all. Any part may be reproduced in any form without permission from anyone. And we hope you will!"
PICTURE POST CARDS 1997

PICTURE POST CARDS              1997

     There is a weekly newspaper devoted to picture post cards. The January 20th issue has a picture of the Bryn Athyn cathedral on the front page, and opens with an article entitled "The Swedenborgians."
     Most of the article is quite accurate. Here is a sampling: "Swedenborg identified his own interpretive activity with the return of the Messiah and the founding of the New Jerusalem, hence the alternate name for the Swedenborgians, 'The Church of the New Jerusalem.'

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     "Shortly after Swedenborg's death, a Londoner named Robert Hindmarsh discovered Emanuel's book Heaven and Hell, one of the 30 books which Swedenborg had written, most of them after his spiritual experience. It so impressed Hindmarsh that he organized the first known group of Swedenborgians, a discussion group, to delve into the theologian's thinking . . . . There are now three major Swedenborgian bodies . . . . The General Church (in 1985) has 3,297 members. Its headquarters is at Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania, a part of greater Philadelphia. It has a magnificent cathedral."
ELDERGARTEN 1997 1997

ELDERGARTEN 1997              1997

     From January 20 to 26, one hundred seven men and women of "a certain age" met in Boynton Beach, Florida, for five days of morning classes and six afternoons and evenings of both organized and unorganized congeniality.
     Mornings began with an 8:45 worship service, after which participants went to their first forty-five-minute lecture in one of four classrooms. During the half-hour break following that first class, the fifteen-minute break after the second, and the lunch that succeeded the last morning class, Eldergarten students continued discussions of various issues brought up in class, visited with friends, or simply enjoyed the beautiful weather and surroundings while munching nourishment and sipping coffee, tea or fresh Florida orange juice.
     The focus of the week, however, was study. Each participant could enroll in a maximum of three of the four series of classes offered, and most who signed up for the allotted three found themselves wishing they had been able to fit in all four. For what courses they were! Bishops Peter Buss and Louis King gave courses on "Elijah, The Story of Our Faith" and "Influx," respectively; the Rev. Alfred Acton gave a series titled "The Church to the Gentiles," and Prof. Charles Cole one entitled "The Human Form."

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Regeneration came in for its fair share of study, with Prof. Cole's students thoroughly enjoying learning ways in which the digestive system corresponds to regeneration, and by Bishop Buss's classes on how the story of Elijah relates to faith and regeneration. There was a bonus when, unexpectedly, Bishop King had to cram all he wanted to tell us about discrete and continuous degrees into three lectures instead of five, and the Rev. Derek Elphick, Pastor of the Boynton Beach Society, stepped in to give two fascinating lectures on the external and internal memory, entitled "Our Book of Life."
     Midway through the week, at a gathering at Bryce and Doris Genzlinger's, Mr. Elphick spoke of the group as "people who had come together in a spirit of charity to learn things that lead to the good of life." And truly, a spirit of charity did seem to pervade during those days of study and afternoons and evenings of renewing old friendships and making new ones. The Saturday night banquet and program featured a talk by the new director of the Office of Education, Rev. Philip Schnarr. This rounded things off nicely, and the fruitful, enlightening week ended with Sunday worship.
     We discovered, however, that all was not quite ended, for after church the children of the society presented a delightful play about Swedenborg's preparation as a revelator. This was followed by a luncheon provided by the society for everyone who had come to church, both young and old.
     There was a real feeling among those participating that Eldergarten is an important use and has proven to be a significant adjunct to the life of the church. Those attending found it a powerful and moving experience, and the Boynton Beach Society is to be heartily congratulated for once again undertaking this worthwhile endeavor.
     Naomi Gladish Smith

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ON "CONJUGIAL" AND ON SELF-ESTEEM 1997

ON "CONJUGIAL" AND ON SELF-ESTEEM       Katya Goodenough       1997

Dear Editor:

     I have read with interest parts of Rev. N. Bruce Rogers' new translation of Conjugial Love and the Married Love version. It is amazing to me what a different feel I get from the two books! While I enjoy reading the Married Love for myself, I find the Conjugial Love more user-friendly for those outside the church, I think for this reason: many young people are cynical when it comes to marriage, and it's easy to see why. "Marriage" to them is a word connected with sadness, bondage, or crowd control. I often agree with them. The ideals envisioned concerning conjugial love bear little relation to many legal marriages today, and we are searching for a lot more than that. It seems fitting to use a wholly new and exciting word to introduce the concept to people. Many traditional terms are on the way out. "Religion" is out, but "spirituality" is in, and the conjugial relationship is very spiritual!
     On the subject of self esteem: whenever a psychological term arises, I try not to assume it is either good or bad, but instead look at, "Does it help people shun evils as sins?" With this in mind I have done a great deal of thinking, reading, and observing human experiences concerning the subject of this mysterious "self-esteem."
     It is clear to me that "self-esteem" is not the same thing as "self-love." People who have low self-esteem are often very self-centered. I have worked with many teenagers who are in a double bind. They feel they are worthless. However, everything they do, buy, say, is for their own purposes. They have the worst of both worlds! How to help them extricate themselves from this mess?
     The first-in-time answer is, I believe, to be found in remains. I wonder if many of those who automatically question the value of "self-esteem" simply assume its existence and cannot imagine life without it.

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When I came to Bryn Athyn over Christmas I was moved to tears watching children perform for their society, with parents and adults in full force in the audience. I work with girls whose parents not only have never come to watch them perform, but do not even call their daughters when they say they will. Surely no one would argue that these parents are instilling a proper humility in their children! What, then, are we doing when we go to our children's performances but helping the Lord to build remains-or, put differently, instilling in children a sense of the Lord's good and truth and their ability to receive it?
     I have witnessed direct and remarkable instances where, through a rise in "self-esteem," girls are able for the first time to serve their neighbor-girls who can suddenly sacrifice their desires for someone else, who can stop an inner rage from exploding and hurting someone, who feel safe enough to admit to a fault. I ask them why. They don't know, except that "for the first time I just felt as if I could do it."
     I agree with Bruce Rogers that self-esteem is no substitute for humility. I think very few people think it is. But for some, attaining a degree of self-respect is an essential first step toward the end goal of humility and a life of use.
     Katya Goodenough

     Danbury, Wisconsin

ON SELF-ESTEEM: Someone gave the editor an excellent column by family psychologist John Rosemond. He writes: "The difference between self-esteem and self-respect is night and day. A person with 'high self-esteem' thinks highly of himself. A person growing in self-respect understands that he is an imperfect being who was given the gift of life in order to serve. A person with high self-esteem thinks he is deserving; therefore, he is ungrateful. A person growing in self-respect thinks he is undeserving; therefore, he is grateful."

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Correction 1997

Correction              1997




     Announcements





     Correction: In the December 1996 issue two dates were reported incorrectly concerning the baptism of Caroline Chloe Brock. The birth date should have been July 14, 1996, and the baptism took place on September 22, 1996. [Corrected in the electronic version.]
MINISTERIAL ANNOUNCEMENTS 1997

MINISTERIAL ANNOUNCEMENTS       Rev. Peter M. Buss       1997

     The Rev. Kurt Hyland Asplundh has accepted a call to teach at the Academy of the New Church in the Secondary Schools and in the College, effective July 1, 1997.
     The Rev. Terry Schnarr has accepted a call to be Pastor of the Chicago New Church, effective July 1, 1997.

          Rt. Rev. Peter M. Buss
RECEIVED AS A CIRCLE 1997

RECEIVED AS A CIRCLE       Rev. Peter M. Buss       1997

     It was with great pleasure that I received and approved the application of the New Church at Boulder (Colorado) to be received as a circle of the General Church. This New Church congregation has had a most promising beginning, and I am delighted that they wish to pass this particular milestone. I congratulate all its members and friends on achieving this status. As a recognized circle of the General Church, it will become a more integral part of that communion of souls who recognize the Lord in His new revelation, and who promote this revelation throughout the world.

     Rt. Rev. Peter M. Buss

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RETURN TO THE PROMISED LAND 1997

RETURN TO THE PROMISED LAND              1997

     The following are excerpts from the book by Rev. Grant Schnarr to be published this spring by the Swedenborg Foundation.

     I invite you to come with me on a journey. The path we will travel is not new. In many ways this is an ancient journey first taken thousands of years ago by a group of people searching for a home. But every person-of whatever time, and background, and religious orientation-is called to this journey on a spiritual level. God, as we understand him, calls you and me out of the slavery of egotism and mistaken wants, out of addiction, in whatever form that may take, to freedom. I ask you to adventure with me, to leave the old ways behind, and to search for a new and promised way of life, what many call "the road to recovery" and what the Israelites called the "return to the promised land" . . . .
     The covenant between God and Abram is symbolic of the covenant the Divine makes with you and me. From the very beginning God urges every person to rise from the inertia of self-centeredness and a preoccupation with the material world alone, to move forward in a search for a new land and a new way. When a person moves forward to find wholeness and spirituality, an inner voice of the Divine begins to lead the way. The Divine will guide and lead through a series of experiences, tests, and adventures, toward a life that can truly be called blessed. In fact, the blessings from the Divine increase and never cease. As countless as the stars of the heavens, so will the number of those blessings be. According to the inner story of the Israelites' travel to a promised land, this new and happy life is our destiny. It is our promised land.
     But that is the end in view, the goal, the final purpose. There is a journey that one must take to begin to understand that end. There is much to be learned in order to achieve that goal and realize that purpose. So the journey begins in childhood, in that dreamlike world of wonder and awe, in a world not too dissimilar from that of the biblical patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

137



     The patriarchs' stories in the book of Genesis have a childlike quality to them. As the reader follows the leaders through their lives' journeys, one cannot help but be struck by the dreamlike quality of their consciousness. The innocence, the simplicity, the childlike characteristics that these men and their families embody cause the reader to wonder and to yearn for his or her uncomplicated childhood.
     Like the Israelites, we can encounter a time in our spiritual development when we settle at the brink of a new way of life, poised to enter it. We've known the struggle in the wilderness of life. We've known hunger and thirst and have also appreciated the sustenance God has provided in our search. But now a new and bright future appears on the horizon, a future replete with hope. We begin to see what treasures life can hold if we follow our God and seek the right path. The spies sent into the land symbolize reflection upon and contemplation of the possibilities of this new, wholesome, spiritual life. It is not yet ours, even as the land of Canaan was not yet the Israelites'. But we see that it is real and, just as God had promised, a beautiful place, flowing with milk and honey.
     For example, on the road of spiritual progress, sometimes traveling through a wilderness of loneliness, and perhaps empty relationships, we can come upon the hope for more meaningful relationships and a more loving connection with those close to us. We might try out a new approach toward our associates at work, for instance, one that brings out the good qualities within them and allows them to appreciate our own. We might recognize that with a little patience and understanding, we could cultivate some very good and close friends. Our daily associations could become more meaningful, full of real care and genuine human interaction, rather than remaining the typical polite, empty conversations that they've been for the past couple of years. The potential for friendship is seen as unlimited . . . .
     
     Spiritual Inheritance

     God had promised the children of Israel that they would return to the land of their fathers and claim their inheritance. That promise was fulfilled. They returned to that paradise known to their forefathers and foremothers.

138


But this time there was a difference. Even when their ancestors had lived in Canaan, they remained sojourners; the land was never really their own. But now, after securing the land, the Israelites could clearly call this land their home.
     Spiritually, we return to a type of paradisal state of mind similar to that of childhood. We don't become ignorant again or naive or silly. But we do recapture that innocence and tenderness of childhood. As Jesus said, "Whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it" (Luke 18:17). We truly become as children. Our newly found innocence is one of wisdom. We follow because we know we should. We trust because we have learned to trust. We dream because it's right to dream. We play because we've known the burden of labor. We accept what comes, not because we are ignorant of the future, but because we are wise from the past. We trust that God will provide. Whether goodness or evil comes our way, God will provide for us and lead us to a closer union with him. We become willing to follow our God, which is true innocence. To become as little children once again spiritually is to trust absolutely in God.
     This is the return to our promised land, to an inner serenity that can be enjoyed here on earth.
     The children of Israel also found themselves in a land and under a government that was truly their own. Compare the days when they were in Egypt to the days ahead in the promised land. From being slaves in a strange land, they had become self-governing lords of their own territory. Spiritually, the same is true with us. We feel at home in this new way of life. Maybe we feel that we are at home with ourselves for the first time in our life. We feel alive, vibrant, free! Like Israel, we have escaped from bondage, from that old and destructive way of living. Now we rule our own lives from a full sense of self-determination. We don't act on egotistical whims or destructive impulses. We don't act from fear and inner compulsion. We freely choose our life's direction with wisdom based on love. We act wisely from a deep sense of love and commitment to life itself-to God, to our neighbor, and to ourselves.

139


We have been delivered from the "house of bondage" and set free to enjoy our new home in the promised land.
NEW JERUSALEM AND ITS HEAVENLY DOCTRINE, A LATIN-ENGLISH VERSION 1997

NEW JERUSALEM AND ITS HEAVENLY DOCTRINE, A LATIN-ENGLISH VERSION              1997

     We have had a first look at this new volume which will be available as we go to print. Here are some lines from the Publisher's Note.

     The present parallel Latin-English edition of The New Jerusalem and Its Heavenly Doctrine is the first of its kind. The Latin text is reproduced from the one published by the Rev. S. H. Worcester in 1895. . . . The book is offered in the hope that its convenient parallel format will encourage increased interest in the study of Swedenborg's Latin . . . . The English translation we have chosen to reprint is the one published in London by the Swedenborg Society in 1896. . . . We would like to acknowledge here the kindness of the Swedenborg Society in permitting us to republish it.
     We also want to express profound thanks to the Rev. Jonathan Rose for his meticulous proofreading of the Latin text, in the process of which he discovered several errors in Worcester's edition that have now been corrected. . . .
     We invite the comments and suggestions of readers, especially with regard to the usefulness of this book and of future publications of parallel Latin-English editions of the Writings, possibly enhanced by critical apparatus and footnotes referring to other places in the Writings where the subject of a particular section or number is treated.

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GENERAL CHURCH OF THE NEW JERUSALEM PUBLIC WORSHIP AND DOCTRINAL CLASSES 1997

GENERAL CHURCH OF THE NEW JERUSALEM PUBLIC WORSHIP AND DOCTRINAL CLASSES              1997

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

     Alabama:

     Birmingham

     Dr. R. Shepard, 4537 Dolly Ridge Road, Birmingham, AL 35243. Phone: (205) 967-3442.

     Huntsville

     Mrs. Anthony L. Sills, 1000 Hood Ave., Scottsboro, AL 35768. Phone: (205) 574-1617.

     Arizona:

     Phoenix

     Contact: Lawson & Carol Cronlund, 5717 E. Justine Rd., Scottsdale, AZ 85254. Phone: (602) 953-0478.

     Tucson

     Rev. Frank S. Rose, 9233 E. Helen, Tucson, AZ 85715. Phone: (520) 721-1091.

     Arkansas:

     Little Rock

     Mr. & Mrs. Kenneth Holmes, 155 Eric St., Batesville, AR 72501. Phone: (501) 793-5135.

     California:

     Los Angeles

     Rev. John L. Odhner, 5022 Carolyn Way, La Crescenta, CA 91214. Phone: (818) 249-5031.

     Orange County

     Rev. Cedric King, resident pastor, 21332 Forest Meadow, El Toro, CA 92630. Phone: home (714) 586-5142; office (714) 951-5750.

     Sacramento/Central California

     Bertil Larsson, 8387 Montna Drive, Paradise, CA 95969. Phone: (916) 877-8252.

     San Diego

     Rev. Stephen D. Cole, 941 Ontario St., Escondido, CA 92025. Phone: home (619) 432-8495; office (619) 571-8599.

     San Francisco

     Mr. & Mrs. Philip C. Pendleton, 501 Portola Road, Box 8044, Portola Valley, CA 94028. Phone: (415) 424-4234.

     Colorado:

     Boulder

     Rev. David C. Roth, 4215 N. Broadway, Boulder, CO 80304. Phone: (303) 443-9220.

          Colorado Springs

     Mr./Mrs. William Rienstra, 1005 Oak Ave., Canon City, CO 81212.

     Connecticut:

     Bridgeport, Hartford, Shelton

     Mr. & Mrs. James Tucker, 45 Honey Bee Lane, Huntington, CT 06484. Phone: (203) 929-6455.

     Delaware:

     Wilmington

     Mrs. Justin Hyatt, 2008 Eden Road, N. Graylin Crest, Wilmington DE 19810. Phone: (302) 475-3694.

     District of Columbia: see Mitchellville, Maryland.

     Florida:

     Boynton Beach

     Rev. Derek Elphick, 10621 El Clair Ranch Road, Boynton Beach, FL 33437. Phone: (407) 736-2843.

     Jacksonville

     Kristi Helow, 6338 Christopher Creek Road W., Jacksonville, FL 32217-2472.

     Lake Helen

     Mr. & Mrs. Brent Morris, 264 E. Kicklighter Road, Lake Helen, FL 32744. Phone: (904) 228-2276.

     Pensacola

     Mr. & Mrs. John Peacock, 5238 Soundside Drive, Gulf Breeze, FL 32561. Phone: (904) 934-3691.

     Georgia:

     Americus

     Mr. W. Harold Eubanks, 516 U.S. 280 West, Americus, GA 31709. Phone: (912) 924-9221.

     Atlanta

     Rev. C. Mark Perry, 2119 Seaman Circle, Atlanta, GA 30341. Phone: office (770) 458-9673.

     Illinois:

     Chicago

     Rev. Kurt Hy. Asplundh, 1334 W. Newport Ave. #2, Chicago, IL 60657. Phone: home (312) 472-0282; office (312) 525-7127.

141




     Decatur

     Mr. John Aymer, 1434 E. Whitmer St., Decatur, IL 62521.

     Glenview

     Rev. Eric Carswell, 73 Park Dr., Glenview, IL 60025. Phone: (847) 724-0120.

     Indiana: see Ohio: Cincinnati.

     Kentucky: see Ohio: Cincinnati.

     Louisiana:

     Baton Rouge

     Mr. Henry Bruser, Jr., 6050 Esplanade Ave., Baton Rouge, LA 70806. Phone: (504) 924-3098.

     Maine:

     Bath

     Rev. Allison L. Nicholson, HC 33 - Box 61N, Arrowsic, ME 04530. Phone: (207) 443-6410.

     Maryland:

     Baltimore

     Rev. Willard L. D. Heinrichs, visiting minister, Box 717, Bryn Athyn, PA 19009. Phone: home (215) 947-5334; office (215) 938-2582.

     Mitchellville

     Rev. James P. Cooper, 11910 Chantilly Lane, Mitchellville, MD 20721. Phone: home (301) 805-9460; office (301) 464-5602.

     Massachusetts:

     Boston

     Rev. Geoffrey Howard, 17 Cakebread Drive, Sudbury, MA 01776. Phone: (508) 443-6531.

     Michigan:

     Detroit

     Rev. Grant Odhner, 395 Olivewood Ct., Rochester, MI 48306. Phone: (313) 652-7332.

     East Lansing


     Lyle & Brenda Birchman, 14777 Cutler Rd., Portland, MI 48875.

     Minnesota:

     St. Paul

     Karen Huseby, 4247 Centerville Rd., Vadnais Heights, MN 55127. Phone: (612) 429-5289.

     Missouri:

     Columbia

     Mr. & Mrs. Paul Johnson, 1508 Glencairn Court, Columbia, MO 65203. Phone: (314) 442-3475.

     Kansas City

     Mr. Glen Klippenstein, P. O. Box 457, Maysville, MO 64469-0457. Phone: (816) 449-2167.

     New Hampshire

     Hanover

     Bobbie & Charlie Hitchcock, 63 E. Wheelock St., Hanover, NH 03755.

     Phone: (603) 643-3469.

     New Jersey:

     Ridgewood, NJ

     Jay & Barbara Barry, 474 S. Maple, Glen Rock, NJ 07452. Phone: (201) 445-3353.

     New Mexico:

     Albuquerque

     Mrs. Carolyn Harwell, 1375 Sara Rd., Rio Rancho, NM 87124. Phone: (505) 896-0293.

     North Carolina:

     Charlotte

     Rev. Fred Chapin, 6625 Rolling Ridge Dr., Charlotte, NC 28211. Phone: (704) 367-1930.

     Ohio:

     Cincinnati

     Rev. Patrick Rose, 785 Ashcroft Court, Cincinnati, OH 45240. Phone: (513) 825-7473.

     Cleveland

     Mr. Alan Childs, 19680 Beachcliff Blvd., Rocky River, OH 44116. Phone: (216) 333-4413.

     Oklahoma:

     Oklahoma City

     Mr. Robert Campbell, 13929 Sterlington, Edmond, OK 73013. Phone:(405)478-4729.

     Oregon:

     Portland

     Mr. & Mrs. Jim Andrews, Box 99, 1010 NE 365th Ave., Corbett, OR 97019. Phone: (503) 695-2534.

     Pennsylvania:

     Bryn Athyn

     Rev. Thomas H. Kline, Box 277, Bryn     Athyn, PA 19009. Phone: (215) 947-6225.

     Elizabethtown

     Mr. Meade Bierly, 523 Snyder Ave., Elizabethtown, PA 17022. Phone: (717) 367-3964.

     Erie

     Mrs. Paul Murray, 5648 Zuck Road, Erie, PA 16506. Phone: (814) 833-0962.

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     Freeport

     Rev. Clark Echols, 100 Iron Bridge Road, Sarver, PA 16055. Phone: office (412) 353-2220.

     Hatfield

     Mr. Peter Sheedy, 1303 Clymer St., Hatfield, PA 19440. Phone: (215) 842-1461.

     Hawley

     Mr. Grant Genzlinger, Settlers Inn #25, 4 Main Ave., Hawley, PA 18428. Phone: (800) 833-8527.

     Ivyland

     The Ivyland New Church, 851 W. Bristol Road, Ivyland, PA 18974. Pastor: Rev. David Lindrooth. Phone: (215) 957-5965. Secretary: Mrs. K. Cronlund. (215) 598-3919.

     Kempton

     Rev. Robert S. Junge, 8551 Junge Lane, RD #1, Kempton, PA 19529. Phone: office (610) 756-6140.

     Pittsburgh

     Rev. Nathan D. Gladish, 299 Le Roi Road, Pittsburgh, PA 15208. Phone: church (412) 731-7421.

     South Carolina:

     Charleston area

     Wilfred & Wendy Baker, 2030 Thornhill Drive, Summerville, SC 29485. Phone: (803) 851-1245.

     South Dakota:

     Hot Springs

     Linda Klippenstein, 604 S. River St. #A8, Hot Springs, SD 57747. Phone: (605) 745-6629.

     Virginia:

     Richmond

     Mr. Donald Johnson, 13161 Happy Hill Road, Chester, VA 23831. Phone: (804) 748-5757.

     Washington:

     Seattle

     Rev. Erik J. Buss, 5409 154th Ave., Redmond, WA 98052. Phone: home (206) 883-4327; office (206) 882-8500.

     Washington, DC: See Mitchellville, MD.

     Wisconsin:

     Madison

     Mr. Warren Brown, 130 Greenbrier Drive, Sun Prairie, WI 53590. Phone: (608) 825-3002.

          OTHER THAN U.S.A.

          AUSTRALIA

     Sydney, N.S.W.

     Rev. Arthur W. Schnarr, 26 Dudley St., Penshurst, N.S.W. 2222. Phone: 61-02-9580-1589.

     Tamworth, N.S.W.

     See Rev. Arthur Schnarr under Sydney.

          BRAZIL

     Rio de Janeiro

     Rev. Crist?v?o Rabelo Nobre, Rua General Alfredo Assuncao, 187, Cosmos, Rio de Janeiro, RJ 23058-540. Phone: 55-21-409-6586.

          CANADA

     Alberta

     Calgary

     Mr. Thomas R. Fountain, 1115 Southglen Drive S.W., Calgary, Alberta T2W 0X2. Phone: (403) 255-7283.

     Debolt

     Ken & Lavina Scott, RR 1, Crooked Creek, Alberta T0H 0Y0. Phone: (403) 957-3625.

     Edmonton

     Mrs. Wayne Anderson, 6703-98th Street, Edmonton, Alberta T6E 3L9. Phone: (403) 432-1499.

     British Columbia

     Dawson Creek

     Rev. Glenn G. Alden, Dawson Creek Church, 9013 8th St., Dawson Creek, B.C. V1G 3N3. Phone: home (604) 843-7979; office (604) 782-8035.

     Ontario

     Kitchener

     Rev. Michael D. Cowley, 58 Chapel Hill Drive, Kitchener, Ontario N2G 3W5. Phone: office (519) 748-5802.

     Ottawa


     Mr. & Mrs. Donald McMaster, 684 Fraser Ave., Ottawa, Ontario K2A 2R8. Phone: (613) 725-0394.

     Toronto

     Rev. Michael Gladish, 279 Burnhamthorpe Rd., Etobicoke, Ontario M9B 1Z4. Phone: church (416) 239-3055.

     Quebec

     Montreal

     Mr. Denis de Chazal, 29 Ballantyne Ave. So., Montreal West, Quebec H4X 2B1. Phone: (514) 489-9861.

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          DENMARK

     Copenhagen

     Mr. Jorgen Hauptmann, Strandvejen 22, 4040 Jyllinge. Phone: 46 78 9968.

          ENGLAND

     Colchester

     Rev. Kenneth J. Alden, 8 Stoneleigh Park, Lexden, Colchester, Essex CO3 5EY.

     London

     Rev. Frederick Elphick, 21B Hayne Rd., Beckenham, Kent BR3 4JA. Phone: 44-181-658-6320.

     Manchester

     Mrs. Neil Rowcliffe, "Woodside," 44 Camberley Drive, Bamford, Rochdale, Lancs. OL11 4AZ.

     Surrey

     Mr. Nathan Morley, 27 Victoria Road, Southern View, Guildford, Surrey GU1 4DJ.

          GHANA

     Accra

     Rev. William O. Ankra-Badu, Box 11305, Accra North.

     Asakraka, Nteso, Oframase

     Rev. Martin K. Gyamfi, Box 10, Asakraka-Kwahu E/R.

     Madina, Tema

     Rev. Simpson K. Darkwah, House No. AA3, Community 4, c/o Box 1483, Tema.

          HOLLAND

     The Hague

     Mr. Ed Verschoor, V. Furstenburchstr. 6, 3862 AW Nijkerk.

          JAPAN

     For information about General Church activities in Japan contact Mr. Tatsuya Nagashima, 30-2, Saijoh-Nishiotake, Yoshino-cho, Itano-gun, Tokoshima-ken, Japan 771-14.

          KOREA

     Seoul

     Rev. Dzin P. Kwak, Seoul Church of New Jerusalem, Ajoo B/D 2F, 1019-15 Daechi-dong, Kangnam-ku, Seoul 135-281. Phone: home 82-(0)2-658-7305; church 82-(0)2-555-1366.

          NEW ZEALAND

     Auckland

     Mrs. H. Keal, 4 Derwent Cresc., Titirangi, Auckland 7. Phone: 09-817-8203.

          SOUTH AFRICA

     Gauteng

     Alexandra Township

     Rev. Albert Thabede, 303 Corlett Dr., Kew 2090. Phone: 27-11-443-3852

     Balfour

     Rev. Reuben Tshabalala, P.O. Box 851, Kwaxuma, Soweto 1868. Phone: 27-11-932-3528.

     Buccleuch

     Rev. Andrew Dibb, P.O. Box 816, Kelvin 2054. Phone: 27-11-804-1145.

     Diepkloof

     Rev. Jacob M. Maseko, P. O. Box 261, Pimville 1808. Phone: 27-11-938-8314.

     KwaZulu-Natal

     Clermont and Enkumba

     Rev. Ishborn Buthelezi, P.O. Box 150, Clernaville 3602. Phone: 27-31-707-1526.

     Durban (Westville)

     Rev. Lawson M. Smith, 8 Winslow Road, Westville 3630. Phone: 27-31-825-351.

     Rev. Geoffrey S. Childs, 7 Sydney Drive, Westville 3630. Phone: 27-31-262-8113.

     Empangeni and Impaphala

     Rev. Chester Mcanyana, P. O. Box 770, Eshowe 3815.

     Eshowe/Richards Bay/Empangeni

     Mrs. Marten Hiemstra, P. O. Box 10745, Meerensee 3901. Phone: 0351-32317.

     Hambrook, Kwa Mashu and Umlazi

     Rev. B. Alfred Mbatha, P.O. Box H602, Kwa Mashu 4360. Phone: 27-31-503-2365.

     Westville (see Durban)

     Western Cape

     Cape Town

     Mrs. Sheila Brathwaite, 208 Silvermine Village, Private Bag #1, Noordhoek, 7985. Phone: 27-21-7891424.

          SWEDEN

     Jonkoping

     Rev. Ragnar Boyesen, Oxelgatan 6, S-565 21 Mullsjo.

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     Stockholm

     Rev. Goran R. Appelgren, Aladdinsvogen 27, S-161 38 Bromma.

     Phone/Fax: 46-(0)8-26 79 85.

     (When dialing from abroad, leave out zero in parentheses.)

      Note: Please send any corrections to the editor.
NEW OPPORTUNITY IN STUDYING THE WRITINGS 1997

NEW OPPORTUNITY IN STUDYING THE WRITINGS              1997

     You may have wanted to study the Heavenly Doctrines of the New Church in depth, with guidance and with friends. Now you are able to do so, regardless of where you live in the world!
     This past autumn, an exciting new program for adult men and women learners was launched by the Academy of the New Church Theological School in Bryn Athyn, PA. It is a graduate school program leading to a Master of Arts in Religious Studies.
     The two dozen students in the first year of the program are from all over the world. Some were born and raised in the New Church; others are newcomers from places as distant as Eastern Europe or the Pacific Rim of Asia. Some students live in or move to the Bryn Athyn area. Others commute for weekly classes from West Chester, PA and even from Washington, DC. Other students live hundreds of miles away. They stay at home in Pittsburgh, PA or in Johannesburg, South Africa and participate with the class by e-mail through the Internet.
     In common for all these adults is the desire to learn from the Lord by a systematic exploration of the doctrines of the New Church. In common for all, as well, is a personal dream or goal of using the truths they learn in various academic, professional and personal uses-to write for the public, to prepare for hospital chaplaincy, to help revise the General Church schools curriculum, to be an effective lay leader in the church, to be a better person.
     The program emphasizes the basic and advanced doctrines of New Church theology. It also provides the opportunity to explore other subject areas, such as education, psychology, and philosophy, and relate them to New Church ideas.
     For further information, contact Rev. Brian Keith, Dean of the Theological School. See "Notes on This Issue."

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Notes on This Issue 1997

Notes on This Issue              1997


New Church Life
April 1997 no. 4

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     Sometimes a particularly helpful sermon is copied repeatedly so that it can be shared with others. Such a sermon is the one on comfort that we are printing this month.
     A few weeks ago members of the Council of the Clergy met in Bryn Athyn for a week. It was particularly encouraging to have a strong contingent from the African continent. One of the African visitors was Rev. Alfred Thabede, who was ordained into the second degree of the priesthood on March 2nd. This photograph was taken during the gathering following that ceremony. [photograph of Rev. Alfred Thabede]
     Of the twenty-seven baptisms reported in this issue, seven took place in Africa; likewise three of the four confirmations and two of the three betrothals.
     One of the letters talks about management and refers to a passage in Doctrine of Charity which says of the business man: "He acts as from his own prudence, and yet trusts in the Divine Providence . . . . He thinks of the morrow and yet does not think of it. He thinks of what should be done on the morrow and how it should be done, and yet does not think of the morrow, because he ascribes the future to the Divine Providence and not to his own prudence" (n. 167).

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COMFORT 1997

COMFORT       Rev. ALFRED ACTON       1997

"Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God" (Isaiah 40:1).

     The desire for comfort, for rest from labor, for protection in the face of anxiety, for peace, for warmth and compassion fills the hearts of all people. We all find ready response to the desire for comfort.
     The work of our hands seeks this same goal. We strive through all our days to earn by dint of our own efforts the peace and rest that we believe will give us true comfort. Retirement, rest from labor, warmth and sustenance, relaxation, tranquillity, and quietness are goals people seek in their quest for comfort.
Yet when calamity befalls, when death destroys our hope of happiness shared, when sickness cripples our powers, when grief assails as loves are threatened, we look upon comfort in different terms. In such anguish our own efforts at comfort seem puny. We realize the need for a true comforter, for a power beyond our own that can in fact offer us the protection we find ourselves unable to attain. We respond to our recognition of helplessness with new requests for help. With the Psalmist we echo the words, "When my heart is overwhelmed, lead me to the rock that is higher than I" (Psalm 61:2).
     Those who mourn the loss of their own ability to face the sorrows of life shall find comfort, yet the comfort will not be their own. Despair will lead them to the realization that there is but one rod, one staff that can comfort them. "My soul fainteth for Thy salvation," cries the Psalmist, "but I hope in Thy Word. Mine eyes fail for Thy word, saying, When wilt Thou comfort me?" (Psalm 119:81, 82) "Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will extend peace to [Zion] like a river, and the glory of the Gentiles like a flowing stream: Then shall ye . . . be [as an infant] borne upon [his mother's] sides and dandled upon her knee. As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you; and ye shall be comforted in Jerusalem" (Isaiah 66:12-14).

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     But how will our Heavenly Father comfort His children? Why does He allow us to enter into states of despair before He is present with mercy and truth? What is it that can bring comfort? What teachings can be found in the pages of revelation which will help us in times of trouble when calamity leads to despair? Can the simple acknowledgment that the Lord is our shepherd lead us through the valley of the shadow of death? What are the rod and staff of God that can bring us comfort? Such questions as these plague people's hearts. When their own powers fail, they know the need for help, but how can they find it?
Our Lord proclaimed to His disciples that He would not leave them comfortless. But what is that new Comforter, that spirit of truth which proceeds from the Father and testifies of Him? How does that spirit in fact comfort?
     Today the spirit of truth is present with us. The new Comforter, the new Word of God, has been proclaimed, and in its pages we can learn of comfort. There Divine truth is plainly proclaimed.
     The rock that is higher than we are is open to view. The rod and the staff of revelation, the internal and external senses of the Word, are clear.
     But where is comfort in truth? Is not truth cold? Does not truth condemn rather than comfort? Do we not always find ourselves lacking when we measure ourselves by the standard of Divine truth? How can such measures comfort? Truth in itself cannot comfort, for comfort involves protection, hope, and the joy of good, not the knowledge of truth. Yet without truth no comfort is ever possible. The teaching is that truth is that which sustains us in temptation, while good is that which consoles or comforts us after temptation. Still, good necessarily needs a vessel upon which its influx can rest, and this vessel is truth. Without truth there is no comfort, but comfort comes from the affection for truth, not truth in itself.

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     Let us illustrate. It is a truth that a person lives forever, and that the Lord's Providence works for a person's happiness. The new Comforter, the New Word of God, clearly explains the eternal state which all people seek. The truth we know about the other world as well as the workings of Providence and God's power can sustain us in the face of temptation.
     Temptation is an assault upon a love. If our love is for another and we are forced to watch that individual undergo suffering which results in death, our love for that individual is assaulted. We are in temptation. We wonder at, or doubt, the wisdom of our Maker. Where is Providence in suffering? Where is God in our grief? Our loves are in turmoil. But the turmoil will not destroy us if we look to truth. Truth can sustain us. Even though the temptation may continue, our knowledge of what is eternal, our knowledge from the rock that is higher than we, can keep hope alive even in our despair. Our sufferings last but we are not destroyed. Our love for others is tried, or tested. We know the truth that individuals in heaven are happier than those on earth, but our own love for that other person cannot bear to see our loved one parted from us. Our temptation may well continue even to the point of utter despair. All we have is the truth to sustain us, and it offers naught but cold comfort. Still the truth keeps the hope of future happiness alive.
     There is within us what are called "remains," states of good experienced in the past, remains that can change our state of sorrow into the happiness of new life. In process of time, if our hope leads us to trust in the mercy of the Lord, comfort can come. The truth we have learned can be filled with the conviction of its reality. Good can find a home in our knowledge of eternal life, in our knowledge of the Lord's Providence, in our knowledge of His mercy. And when the good meets the truth we have with us, we are comforted. A new state begins in our life. We rejoice in God our Savior. The prophet Ezekiel speaks of this new state when he says, "Yet behold, therein shall be left a remnant that shall be brought forth, both sons and daughters: behold, they shall come forth unto you, and ye shall see their way and their doings: and ye shall be comforted concerning the evil that I have brought upon Jerusalem, even concerning all that I have brought upon it. And they shall comfort you when ye see their ways and their doings: and ye shall know that I have not done without cause all that I have done in it, saith the Lord God" (Ezekiel 14:22, 23).

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The remnant will establish the new church which will bring comfort.
     The influx of good flowing through the heavens into people's hearts meets the truth of doctrine received by them to sustain them in their despair. Comfort begins. For when good and truth are united in people, they become their own, and good once acquired elevates people into heavenly states, states which drive away the doubts imposed by the hells even as devils rush from heavenly light. Truth becomes clear as good fills it because the light and heat of heaven are present in the mind.
     Such is the Divine order of consolation. We necessarily face temptations. Loves must be made our own if we are to enjoy them eternally. They must be tried. Our creation into this world has imposed upon our human nature an order that is natural. Our body presents us with what is animal-like. On earth we know of death, selfishness, aggression and a host of other animal loves which we receive through our mortal frame. But we also know what is truly Human. God's truth and love are human. Selflessness, charity, love truly conjugial, these are human. Which set of loves will we make our own? How will we be able to choose? Temptation helps us make loves our own. As such it is useful. Although God would prefer us, in freedom, never to know of evil and the anguish of temptation, and so teaches us to pray not to be led into temptation, still temptations do make loves our own. Evil brought into the world by people's free will must be faced and rejected by acts of free will. Providence provides for such testing. Whether it be of permission, which is directly opposed to God's will, or of His leave or good pleasure, temptations come.

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Yet even as Providence allows for our grief, so also God's mercy protects. His love pours upon our hearts, patiently waiting for our free choice to receive it. Consolation and comfort come as we turn to the Lord for help.
     It is the teaching of the New Word that hope comforts. Hope, that affection stemming from trust in the attainment of our love, can keep that love alive. Temptation which assaults love is warded off by hope and trust. The Lord can give us life if we but hope in Him, if we but have the confidence or trust in His power to lift us from despair, to fill us with a new will that can form the base of our heavenly life. "The Lord is good unto them that wait for Him, to the soul that seeketh Him. It is good that a person should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord" (Lamentations 3:25, 26).
     So we read of those who trust in the Lord that even though they have cares, still they do not have anxiety: "Unruffled is their spirit whether they obtain the objects of their desire or not; and they do not grieve over the loss of them, being content with their lot. If they become rich, they do not set their hearts on riches; if they are raised to honors, they do not regard themselves as more worthy than others; if they become poor, they are not made sad; if their circumstances are mean, they are not dejected. They know that for those who trust in the Divine, all things advance toward a happy state to eternity, and that whatever befalls them in time is still conducive thereto. Such people are in what is called the stream of Providence, and so are in a state of peace from the good of their faith" (see AC 8478).
     Let us, then, remember what comfort is. Let us remember that for true comfort to exist we must provide in ourselves the basis of truth whereon Divine influx of good can rest. Let us hope and trust in the Lord, sure in the knowledge that His Divine truth can provide vessels in us whereby His good can become living in our hearts. The Lord is our shepherd. He will lead us even through the valley of temptation if we but trust in His rod, the spiritual sense of His word, and His staff, the natural sense which gives a firm base for the spiritual, and from this trust allow His love to fill our lives.

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Indeed, His mercy is upon us according as we hope in Him. He is ever ready to lift us from states of temptation into joyous states of new life wherein peace, tranquillity and happiness are ours. The peace of useful activity flowing from sharing the love we receive from God can raise us even to the gates of heaven.
"Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God." Amen.
COMFORT AFTER TEMPTATION 1997

COMFORT AFTER TEMPTATION              1997

     "All spiritual temptation is followed by comfort and, so to speak, newness of life" (AC 8567).
TEACHING POSITION IN PITTSBURGH 1997

TEACHING POSITION IN PITTSBURGH              1997

     A teaching position in the primary grades is opening in the historic Pittsburgh New Church School for the 1997-1998 school year. This is a full-time job teaching a small group of adorable students in a multi-grade classroom. There is a wonderfully innocent sphere and a family-oriented environment in the school.
     Letters of interest, applications or questions should be sent to Rev. Nathan Gladish, Principal, 299 Le Roi Road, Pittsburgh, PA 15208, or e-mail to: [email protected] call (412) 731-7421.

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WRITINGS IN ICELAND 1997

WRITINGS IN ICELAND       Rev. ERIK SANDSTROM       1997

     Iceland belongs on a New Church map. There is no formal organization of the church in that small country; but the Writings have been translated, there are readers, at least two individuals have the Writings on NewSearch diskettes, lectures on Swedenborg have recently been given over the Icelandic State Radio, and there is a small group meeting on a monthly basis to study the doctrines.
Thus Iceland joins the other four northern countries having outposts of the church: Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and Finland.
     In Sweden there are three societies (two of them General Church) and in Denmark one (G.C.). Technically, there is one also in Norway, duly recognized by the government in 1947, but the society is dormant and those with a longstanding loyalty to the doctrines are scattered and in need of being brought together. In Finland we know of at least one group of readers not affiliated with any New Church organization. These five countries have a common linguistic base (except that Finland, besides Swedish, also has Finnish, which is entirely unrelated to the northern linguistic group). Interestingly, all five have an identical pattern in their national flags (the Christian cross), and are alone in the world with that exclusive pattern, being distinguished only by the different colors in these flags.
     Of the five, Iceland is the smallest, with a total population of just over a quarter million, about half of whom live in the capital, Reykjavik, or its vicinity. It is a country where in deep winter the sun never rises and in summer it never sets.
     In the history of the New Church in this little country, three names stand out: Jon A. Hjaltalin, Einar Jonsson, and Sveinn Olafsson. The first and third of these have put their indelible mark on the presence and growth of the church in their country through their translations of the Writings, the second through the silent testimony of his magnificent sculptures.

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All three are now in the spiritual world, the latest of them, my special friend Sveinn Olafsson, having been called there only last August. His picture adorns this article.
     I learned about Mr. Olafsson six years ago when Dr. and Mrs. James Brush of Phoenix, Arizona, having just visited in Iceland, stopped over in Bryn Athyn on their way home. (Dr. Brush is searching for the Ancient Word and has travelled in China.) They said that in 1988 Mr. Olafsson had published his translation of Heaven and Hell, that the first issue of 2000 had sold out, and that another print of five or six hundred were also gone or nearly gone. He had made earlier translations as well, all on his own initiative and without any worldly compensation. I felt I wanted to shake the hand of that man; and so in the spring of 1992 when my wife and I planned to visit London for the centenary of our Michael Church there, returning also to my old fields of activity in Sweden-Denmark-Norway, we decided to stop over in Iceland as well.

     [Photograph of Mr. Olafsson.]

     Landing outside Reykjavik in May, we were met at the airport by Mr. Olafsson and his charming wife Adalheidur, and were for our two days most hospitably received by them and by friends to whom they introduced us. Sveinn Olafsson became a dear friend from the beginning, and we were in close consultation about needs and deeds in Iceland through the four years until his passing in 1996. Nearly all my information about the Writings and the New Church in his country I have from him, including what I will say, apart from things relating to himself, about Hjaltalin and Jonsson.

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     I should mention that quite early in our correspondence I said I wanted to write an article about Iceland for New Church Life (such as the present one), but he asked me to wait until there was something more substantial to report. He had in mind some startup of an organization and the establishment of a publication fund to be organized under the auspices of the government of Iceland. I quoted to him the wonderful Latin proverb festina lente (hurry slowly), and we had fun making me the "hurry" and him the cautious and patient "slowly." I felt he was also afraid I would "make too much of him." But in his very last letter, a few months before he died, he signalled for me to go ahead, agreeing that it would be good for the beginnings of the church in his country to be known particularly in USA and England. The following, therefore, is an overview of the presence of the Writings and the history of the New Church in Iceland.
     Jon A. Hjaltalin (1840-1908). Both his father and grand-father were ministers of the church of Iceland (Lutheran), and he himself, though never ordained, obtained a degree in theology. A very active writer, both as author and translator, he delved into political, religious, agricultural, historical, and educational subjects, spending much of his adult life as an educator. His teaching career, begun in 1864, was interrupted by lengthy periods abroad in England, Denmark, and Scotland. In England he met James J. Garth Wilkinson, who is said to have helped him with the Latin of the Writings. In Edinburgh he served first as Assistant Librarian at the Advocates Library and then in a similar capacity at the University Library (1871-79).
     Back in his own country he was appointed Headmaster of the Gymnasium in Moethruvellir in 1880, then moved with his school to nearby Akureyri, the largest city in northern Iceland, where his school became a college. Iceland at this time belonging to Denmark, he was in 1887 appointed a member of the Icelandic Parliament by the King of Denmark, and served in that capacity for ten years.

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In 1902 the king bestowed the Order of Dannebrog on him.
     Hjaltalin's great contribution to the cause of the New Church found expression chiefly in his translations, first of Divine Love and Wisdom (1869), then Charity (1889), and finally The New Jerusalem and Its Heavenly Doctrine (1899). He dedicated his translation of Charity to Dr. Wilkinson.
     But a man of renown, and one with theological training, put-ting out new and unusual books, would naturally draw attention to himself, and we may assume that friends both political and religious would seek him out. There is indeed evidence that the Writings were touching the clergy. Mr. Olafsson tells me that ministers began to speak of a "triune God" instead of the "three Persons" in the Godhead. And Iceland's greatest hymn writer, the Rev. Valdimar Briem (with three volumes of hymns to his name) is believed to have been acqainted with Hjaltalin's translations, for many of his hymns suggest an influence of these. No one is known to have brought the Writings to Iceland prior to the time of Jon A. Hjaltalin. It fell to this man to open the doors for the New Church into his country.
     Einar Jonsson (1874-1954). This sculptor of extraordinary talent discovered the Writings while studying art in Copenhagen. He says that the book that opened his eyes was one he had borrowed from someone "long ago but never before bothered to read." Might it have been lent to him by Rev. Valdimar Briem, or perhaps more likely the minister's wife? Mrs. Briem was known for her interest in spiritual matters, and Einar Jonsson is known to have been a frequent, youthful guest in the Briem home.
     But I am running ahead of schedule. I should first mention, bearing in mind Iceland's union with Denmark at the time, that it was his longing to study that brought him to Copenhagen, where he persuaded a Nordic sculptor to take him on as an apprentice. His talent was noticed, and he soon was admitted to the Copenhagen Academy of Art.

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In 1901 he entered his large statue "The Outlaws" in a general public art exhibition, and one critic pronounced his entry "the foremost of all the sculptures exhibited." This success was registered in his homeland, and the following year the Althing (Legislative Assembly) voted a generous grant for him to study in Rome. While he was there, moreover, the Copenhagen Academy honored him with its "grand award," which enabled him to visit art centers in Germany, Austria, and Hungary as well.
     An important thing happened in 1909. That year, perhaps in gratitude to his country for having so effectively helped him in his career, he offered his fatherland a gift of all his works, yet on the understanding that a suitable building would be provided to house them. Hence the impressive art museum, the National Einar Jonsson Gallery. This gallery now holds scores of sculptures (only his), filled with powerful human emotions, some inspired by Icelandic folklore, others by Biblical stories. Some Beethoven music, alternately tumultuous and peaceful, would make for fitting background music if a filmed display of Jonsson were to be made.
     I will now mention a book on Jonsson, rich with magnificent photos of his art, some in color, for Einar Jonsson was also a painter. A gentleman by the name of Hafsteinn Gudmundsson, himself a prominent artist, was commissioned to design this book for the gallery. It was put out in 1983. Mr. Gudmundsson is an admirer of Swedenborg and a friend of Sveinn Olafsson, who told him of the Glencairn Museum in Bryn Athyn and how I felt that Jonsson's art ought to be represented there. So Mr. Gudmundsson most kindly sent me a copy of the book for the museum. This awakened the interest of the museum Director, Mr. Stephen Morley, who early last year found an opportunity to visit Iceland and to see the Jonsson Gallery for himself. I now hear from him that he hopes in due course to obtain a bronze or plaster cast of one of Jonsson's pieces for the Glencairn Museum.

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     But what do we know of Einar Jonsson's interest in the Writings of Swedenborg? Let me quote from his autobiography:
     We are taken to a period of his years in Copenhagen, and in a chapter he calls "Daybreak" Jonsson writes: "For a long time over many years I had been living in doubt and all kinds of uncertainty. I was in a state of combat against myself. It was a silent and lonely fight . . . . One evening when I was going to bed I started reading a certain book which I had borrowed [from someone] long ago but never before bothered to read. It was some fragmentary sort of reading from Swedenborg. This name was connected with many different things which I had heard in my youth. Maybe it was because of that that I had borrowed it and now started reading it. I do not remember how long it had gone on into the night when I stopped. But for many years I had not lain down for a night's rest that was in any way like this time, with a new hope and feeling for eternal values. Perhaps there was some meaning in life? Perhaps it was this short time of staying awake which, among other things, was the cause that a complete change took place in my life? In such circumstances a tiny spark is often sufficient to light the flames. A spark of hope was enkindled within me, that I might have hit upon the trail which I had lost and for so long had sought and wished to find. A contact with something so unutterably dear and lovely, dearer to me than any-thing else I had known and felt, had come into my life.
     "It need hardly be said that after this I started looking for more by this author. As time passed I became more and more enthralled by him, and I was strongly affected by his great conviction" (extracted from Einar Jonsson's Autobiography, Skuggsja Publishing Co., 1983, pp. 273-274).
     So it is that the National Einar Jonsson Gallery stands in the outskirts of Reykjavik as a silent witness to the truth and beauty of the Writings. But perhaps silent not for long? Miss Hjafnhildur Schram for one, Director of the Gallery, knows where Jonsson found his inspiration.

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     Sveinn Olafsson (1917-1996). I have already given a general introduction to this good man. I should now tell a little of the very active life he led almost up to the day of his death, how he discovered the Writings, and what legacy he leaves behind.
     All his life he had enjoyed good health. In July of last year, however, he experienced some heart trouble and went to see his doctor. It was then discovered that the trouble was serious, and he was given a by-pass operation. There were complications, and he suffered a stroke and died on August 3. His youngest daughter, Johanna Sveinsdottir, writes: "We know that he was probably better prepared for his death than most people after having devoted his life to the teachings of Swedenborg. He firmly believed that this life is only a preparation for the after-life where we will live forever and have much happier lives than on this earth, free from physical pain of the body."
     Sveinn Olafsson was an executive in the Icelandic shipping industry-one of this island country's chief sources of life-supplies-and had served his company for almost 50 years. He was widely known and had friends among high and low, as witness four obituaries or eulogies, two with his portrait, in the Morgunbladid, which is the nation's largest newspaper.
          A longtime Freemason, he told me he first heard of Swedenborg through a lecture in his Freemasonic Lodge. This was about 1967. Shortly thereafter he came across a little book The Living Thought of Emanuel Swedenborg. Remembering the lecture he decided to read it. Things then happened quickly. Just a little later he went on a business trip to London, and there, he says, "I happened to find myself outside the window of the premises of the Swedenborg Society . . . . I went in and met Mr. [Stanley] Wainscot." Mr. Wainscot, known to all our people in England and to many in this country, was the Acting Librarian and served as the manager of the book shop with a window display on Bloomsbury Way. Learning of his guest's Icelandic nationality, Stanley Wainscot excused himself and returned with Hjaltalin's three translations: Divine Love and Wisdom, Charity, and New Jerusalem and Its Heavenly Doctrine.

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"Since then I have been reading and translating Swedenborg, and trying to let others share the wonders I feel he brought into my life and my new grasp of existence."
     The NJHD having been long out of print, Olafsson decided to begin with a fresh translation of this work. It was published with the help of the Swedenborg Society in 1976. Mr. Olafsson was not a Latinist, but being virtually fluent in English he translated from that language. Still active in "a demanding business," as he said, and negotiating agreements with both domestic and foreign companies, he did not find much time for new translation until his retirement. He did, however, produce a pamphlet on Swedenborg's life and teachings, and this he carried with him wherever he went, always talking about Swedenborg and handing out his pamphlet. In one of his letters he referred to himself as a "walking advertisement."
     His next translations were those of Heaven and Hell (see above) and Helen Keller's My Religion. The latter book he man-aged to get on tape, courtesy of the Institute for the Blind.
     Both of these books were published by Orligur Halfdanarson, then owner of one of the largest and best known publishing houses of the country. This gentleman became one of Mr. Olafsson's closest associates in promoting the spread of the Writings. He is well known and highly regarded for his volunteering in various social and cultural activities. He and his wife took my wife and myself on a sightseeing tour way into his lava and geyser country and then, together with the Olafssons, served us dinner in his beautiful home. At this time I was able to give a little talk about the New Church, which led to a delightful discussion.
     Another close associate was Mr. Jonas G. Rafnar, whom Sveinn and Adalheidur invited to meet with us over lunch in their home. Jonas Rafnar, now retired, had been a man of wide influence, having been a lawyer, chief manager of the Bank of Iceland, and a one-time Speaker of the Icelandic Parliament.

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He proofread the HH for publication and was most helpful in legal matters, particularly in setting up rules for a Swedenborg publishing fund (about which presently). The three-Olafsson, Halfdanarson, and Rafnar-were for some years the nucleus of New Church work and planning in Iceland.
     The work later had to pass into other hands. Mr. Rafnar preceded his friend Sveinn into the other world; and Orligur Halfdanarson was forced to discontinue his publishing, owing to an economic depression in the country, with additional problems arising from a government value-added 14% tax on books. But the work of these three men lives on.
     In the meantime, three more translations by our friend await publication: the posthumous work The Divine Love and The Divine Wisdom, Trobridge's Swedenborg-Life and Teaching, and Van Dusen's The Presence of Other Worlds. In this connection I shall mention also the translation by his daughter Johanna Sveinsdottir-in process or now completed-of Leon Rhodes' Tunnel to Eternity.
     The fund I referred to has an important purpose. We got it off to a modest start in 1992. Its name is "The Swedenborg Memorial and Publishing Fund," and it is designed to serve on a smaller scale what the Swedenborg Society does on a worldwide scale. Jonas Rafnar and Sveinn Olafsson worked carefully in producing the bylaws for the fund, and I had the honor of working with them. It was agreed to seek a supervising sponsorship from the Swedenborg Society, and Mr. Olafsson has written to the SS president requesting such sponsorship. For the purposes of the legalization of the fund a minimum of about US $5,000 is required. The fund got a boost about a year ago. Then Sveinn O. was invited to write an article and to give an address in northern Iceland, and a handsome honorarium was given him. This he donated to the fund! The three men just mentioned are the founders, and I know they were a year or two ago actively planning for the perpetuation of the guardianship of the fund.

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At the time of writing I am not certain of the situation, but, knowing the great and meticulous care by which my friend took all important matters in hand, I have little doubt that proper arrangements were made.
     In his last letter to me Sveinn O. said that he had formed a study group, consisting of himself, a retired commercial airline pilot, and an engineer. These three agreed to meet again after a month, each at that time to bring one guest with him. They were determined that none would be included unless he was sincerely devoted to the study of the Writings for their own sake.
     But now, with Mr. Olafsson in a higher realm, his daughter Johanna is taking over. She, a lady with her hands full in business and the Master designate in a Co-Masonry Lodge, writes that she hopes "to some extent" to follow on in what her father was doing. A group of five existed at the time of her recent letter, and she said that seven or eight were expected at the meeting a month later.
     In the meantime the books are there. As Sveinn Olafsson said: "They are the SEED."
     So the work goes on in Iceland. This little country belongs on a New Church map.
NEW CIRCLE IN SOUTH AFRICA 1997

NEW CIRCLE IN SOUTH AFRICA       Rev. Peter M. Buss       1997

     It is with great pleasure that I announce that as of February 23, 1997 the Cape Town Group (South Africa) is now officially recognized as the Cape Town Circle of the General Church of the New Jerusalem. I congratulate all its members and friends on achieving this status. The Rev. Andrew Dibb will continue to serve as its visiting pastor.
     Rt. Rev. Peter M. Buss

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PREACHING BY WOMEN 1997

PREACHING BY WOMEN       Rev. WALTER E. ORTHWEIN       1997

     Regarding the article in February's New Church Life about the translation of Spiritual Diary 5936, I think the real issue is a matter not of translation but of interpretation. There does seem to be somewhat of a translation problem with the phrase that was rendered "Woman belongs to the home," but the main point of the paragraph is women preaching, whether that is a good idea or not; and on this question there is no substantial difference among the several translations presented.
     SD 5936 says: "Women who think the way men do about religious matters and speak much about them, and still more if they preach in gatherings, lose their feminine nature . . . . " Alternate readings given are: "in the way men do," "as men do," and "like men."     But no matter how this passage is translated, the meaning seems very clear.
     The suggestion has been made that "like men" is the operative phrase, the implication being that it is all right for women to preach like women or in a feminine style. I just cannot imagine that this is what Swedenborg meant. Such an interpretation reverses the obvious meaning. The Latin word order in Swedenborg's index may be such as to make such an interpretation possible, but it doesn't require it.
     The proposed new interpretation just doesn't fit with the whole body of teaching, as I understand it, concerning the nature of the church, the use of the priesthood, and the distinctly different ways in which the feminine and masculine minds work. It is an error to examine SD 5936 in isolation because it is not an isolated statement; there are many other passages in the Writings which taken together present a picture with which SD 5936 agrees. We can't resolve this issue one passage at a time, but must discuss the subject in light of all the relevant teachings.
     Dr. Rose concludes that reading the passage without understanding "like men" to be the governing phrase "would lead to the untenable conclusion that women should not be allowed to preach or give elementary school worship or home worship or talk about religion or even think religious thoughts."

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But the church has read it this way for over a hundred years without concluding any such thing. The uses mentioned-such as leading elementary school worship-are things women in the church routinely do. I think the church has taken it for granted all these years that giving worship for little children is not the same as the kind of "preaching" meant by the passage. And the concern that the traditional reading of the passage would forbid all thought or talk by women on religious subjects is shown by long experience to be unfounded.
     When it comes to specific applications of general principles drawn from the Word we often feel that our understanding is obscure. The Writings don't give us a pharisaical rule book to tell us what to do in every situation. I wouldn't want to try to assign "gender appropriateness" to every task in life. But in this case I think it is clear that preaching is meant to be a masculine use.
     I think SD 5936 means that the activity of preaching itself is destructive of the feminine nature, not just the manner in which a woman might do it. Women can and should think about religious things, of course; but the kind of thought which is appropriate to public deliberations about religious topics, especially with a view to preaching, is distinctly masculine. If the statement read: "Women shouldn't chop firewood with an ax like men do," I wouldn't interpret that to mean they should chop it with a kitchen knife, but that they shouldn't chop firewood. It wouldn't make sense to say they should chop it, only not with an ax the way men do, because an ax is the appropriate thing to use.
     But I don't think all of this hair-splitting is really necessary to see what the passage is saying.
     A big part of the issue here, of course, is what we mean by "preaching." I believe that in the General Church the use of preaching has been understood as a rational exposition of doctrine from the Word.

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Based on that idea of preaching as a priestly use, I do not think this passage can possibly mean that it is all right for women to preach as long as they don't do it "the way men do." I certainly do not mean by this that women lack rationality, only that the special kind of rationality men have is the kind needed for the exposition of doctrine from the Word.
     Perhaps the word "rational" has connotations of "cold" and "abstract," but this is not what I mean by it. By "rational" I simply mean seeing a relationship between the spiritual and the natural; and this seeing is, at heart, a matter of love. The application of spiritual principles to natural life by a priest must be inspired by a love for the people's spiritual welfare.
     Not every male person is able to be a preacher, obviously, but one of the requirements (the most basic) for engaging in that use rightly is a masculine mind. This is not a matter of general intelligence or skill, in which a woman may well excel over a man, but of the way the mind works. The appearance is that a woman can do most of the same things a man can do, and vice versa. But just as a man lacks the distinctive kind of perception women have, so women lack the light or judgment needed for the right performance of those uses designated as masculine-of which preaching from doctrine is perhaps the most distinctive of all. This is explained in Conjugial Love 175. Preaching is not identified there as a masculine use, but both the nature of it in the New Church and the fact that this activity is said to be destructive of the feminine makes me think it is. Such teachings as CL 125 confirm this view: " . . . the church is implanted first in the man and through him in the wife, because he receives its truth in the understanding, while the wife receives it from him."
     Many people in the world around us have no understanding of the spiritual distinction between male and female; they base their ideas on appearances, and imagine that the distinction is primarily physical. They think of masculine and feminine as being ranged along either side of a continuum, with individuals placed somewhere along the scale, more toward one side or the other.

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It is popular today to speak of everyone as having both a "masculine side" and a "feminine side," and this idea is even creeping into the church. A Convention minister recently made the amazing assertion that "of course it is abundantly clear in Conjugial Love that every person has both (masculine and feminine) principles active within themselves" (The Messenger, Nov. 1996, p. 142). But it is explicitly taught in that very book that this is not the case: " . . . the masculine is one thing and the feminine another, and they are so different that one cannot be changed into the other . . . " (CL 32). The male is born one way, and the female another, and "nothing whatever is alike in them," so that even after death "the male is a male and the female is a female" (CL 33). The masculine mind and the feminine mind are absolutely distinct. There is conjunction, but no blending.
     This has nothing to do with either sex being superior or inferior, except in the sense that men are inferior to women in the performance of uses which depend upon the genius of women, and vice versa.
     Much of the discussion about ordaining women has revolved around issues of freedom, rights, privileges, honors, personal ambition, and even payment. But it is important for us to consider this question in terms of use, and to base our conclusions on the Word. A man cannot give birth; to say he should have a right to give birth is meaningless; it doesn't address the reality. I think to speak of women preaching is a similar departure from reality. Many will say the two things are not equivalent, but I think the comparison is valid, because the masculine and feminine minds are every bit as distinctly different as their bodies. The parts played by women and men in the spiritual birth (regeneration) which the church labors to bring forth are just as distinct as in the case of physical birth.
     I assume that our customs have been influenced to some degree by the customs of the world around us; the church as a human organization is not a perfect expression of pure heavenly ideals.

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So it is right that we should reconsider our practices from time to time; they might be wrong. And if we think about them in light of the truth the Lord has revealed for the New Church, then we can move ever closer to the ideal. The question I hope we ask in regard to every proposed change is whether it represents a move away from worldly thought toward our Divinely revealed doctrine, or away from doctrine toward the way of the world. The church must change as it grows and (one hopes) becomes more perfect, so I am not against change; but I tend to consider any major change very carefully because the founders of our body of the New Church who established its order and organization impress me as such deep and careful and sincere students of the Writings. No doubt they were influenced by the times in which they lived, as well as their own heredity; and, yes, times change and the church must change with them. Let's just be sure that each change is for a good reason, and not just to keep up with the times.
     Personally, I have thought about this issue as fairly and with as open a mind as I am capable of, and still conclude that there is a good doctrinal basis for maintaining a male priesthood. By "doctrinal" I don't mean just theoretical, but human; doctrine is nothing more than truth applied to human life. We can be confident that an order based on principles drawn from the truth the Lord has provided for us will prove the most humane and happy for all the people of the church.
     And this is the thing-it is not just a dogged determination to "stick to the doctrines" that I feel most strongly, but a concern for the human life and happiness of our church if we ordain women to preach the Word (which, I believe, is the main purpose of ordination). I think the proposed change would hurt the women of the church the most, and diminish their real influence and power. This, above all, is why I oppose it.

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     The benefit some hope to gain by ordaining women would be to bring a feminine voice into the Council of the Clergy, but if engaging in the work of the clergy (doctrinal deliberation and preaching) are destructive of the feminine nature, then we would be destroying the very thing we hoped to benefit from.
     The church's policy is not based solely on SD 5936; that statement merely confirms the order of things which follows from the teaching of the Writings generally. Until recently I think the church as a whole saw this and was agreed on it, the women as well as the men. I have to question whether the new thoughts on this subject reflect a deeper understanding of the Writings, or whether they represent influences from the world around us, which seem bent on erasing all distinctions between the sexes.
     Some advocates of women preaching have noted that the first people to carry the message of the Lord's resurrection were women. To my mind this is not an argument in favor of women priests-I wouldn't call what those women did "preaching"-but this story does provide a quite telling and beautiful picture of how the church should be ordered. Those faithful women who loved the Lord, who sat at His feet and listened, who washed His feet with their tears, who would not abandon Him even after He was killed-such women are the life of the church, the will of the church. Their task is not to preach; it is something far deeper, purer, and more vital-it is to love the truth, and to inspire the men of the church with their more immediate and living perception of the life of that truth, so the men will join with them in putting flesh on it and bringing it into actual life. The women on Easter morning didn't preach. They simply reported what they had seen; then the Apostles, those poor frightened men hiding in their room, went forth, and when they had seen for themselves, they set out to preach the Gospel.
     In an individual, the will whispers to the understanding, giving rise to thoughts. The deepest thoughts are perceptions of ends, of purpose, of the life the Lord wills for us; from these come other thoughts, which in turn are expressed, more or less clumsily, in words.

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In this progression of life from the inmost to the spoken words, the will's perception is the most profound and immediate and perfect. But because its influence is deeper than the thoughts which appear to the understanding, and far deeper than words, the appearance is that the will isn't so important. Yet the will is primary; it forms the understanding, and the understanding does nothing on its own (see DLW 409, 410). If the will's voice is a still, small voice in the church, then we need to listen to it more attentively. But don't ask it to speak more openly and loudly, lest in that endeavor it should abandon its first love.
     Will and understanding, heart and lungs, women and men-both elements are necessary, reciprocally conjoined, working together, while remaining distinct. I think of the angel saying of his wife, "She is my heart; I am her lungs" (CL 75). She is my heart. The contribution of women to the life of the church is not less vital because they don't preach, but more vital.
     If the women are the heart of the church in a special sense, then the men are its lungs in a special sense. (I say a "special sense" because of course everyone has will and understanding; the difference is in which predominates with each sex.) Preaching is a "lung" use. Just as the heart's blood needs continual purification and enrichment in the lungs, so the will's affections must be processed in the understanding. But the heart is primary; it is the first and last thing to move in the body; if we men, the lungs of the church, have turned away from the heart, hurt the heart, failed to serve the heart faithfully and well, this must change. The question is how. One way is for the heart to attempt to take on the work of the lungs, but that's no good for either or the body as a whole.


Words from a Golden Age Couple: The husband said, "Her life is in me, and my life is in her . . . . Her love outwardly clothes my wisdom, and I am the wisdom of her love" (CL 75).

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REVIEW 1997

REVIEW       Rev. Ray Silverman       1997

Returning to the Source: The Way to the Experience of God, by Wilson Van Dusen, Real People Press: Moab, Utah, 1997, 280 pp. [ISBN 0-911226-37-0]

Real People

     In a telephone conversation with the editor and publisher of this book, I commented on how much I liked the name of his publishing house-Real People Press.
     "Did I tell you the story about how I chose that name?" he inquired.
     "No," I said, "but I would like to hear it."
     "Well," he said, "it goes back to an old prospector I used to know. Whenever he met someone he really liked, he had a way of expressing it that I never forgot. He would say, 'Them's real people.' So when I started my own publishing business I called it 'Real People Press.'"
     Real People. If I could sum up the essence of this book in one word I would say that this book is "real." It's about a real person inviting each of us to become real people so that we might experience the joy of the One Reality-the Living God.
     The real person who has authored this book is Dr. Wilson Van Dusen, a well known writer and clinical psychologist whose explorations in the realm of phenomenology have attracted the attention of such well known individuals as Carl Rogers and Alan Watts. Writing like an old prospector who has graciously invited us to join him on the dig, Van Dusen does not disappoint us. On every page there are little chunks of gold to be found, and sometimes we discover a whole mine.
     Van Dusen's style is loose, adventurous, bold, and honest. He candidly admits that the structure of the book came to him as he wrote. For example, he had intended to make only a few comments about the idea of "pristine awareness." He thought he would just mention it at the end of a chapter.

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But from a deeper source he received this message: "No, a new chapter." Van Dusen writes: "This whole book is being written with this kind of guidance" (213). In fact the book is dedicated to "the One who woke me up . . . showing me how to present these things" (from the Dedication).
     Great writers like James Joyce, Virginia Wolfe, and William Faulkner were early pioneers of a writing style which became known as "the stream of consciousness." Departing from traditional ideas of how a novel should be structured, they allowed their writing to flow along in a continuous stream of inspiration-unworried about where the story was heading. In reading Van Dusen's new book, the reader gets a similar feeling. Van Dusen allows himself and his readers to be carried along in this gentle stream, now meandering, now rushing swiftly ahead, sometimes swirling around a particular rock, or lingering in a delightful eddy. We are sometimes unsure where the next sentence might lead-and this is part of the adventure-but we can always be certain that we are moving steadily toward the Source.

Returning to the Source

     The Source, of course, is God. And the book is about the excitement and joy one can experience in the process of returning. Van Dusen says, "This whole book arose out of a simple realization that most presentations on God are rather dull and dry. Rarely is the joyous pleasure of the experience even mentioned, so I set out to correct this impression" (p. 175). Van Dusen's emphasis on joy is unmistakable. In fact he considers joy and happiness to be our most reliable guides as we journey back to the Source. Allowing his words to fall into free verse, Van Dusen writes:

          When we feel ill,
          We seek health,
          Because a greater happiness lies that way.

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          Similarly we try various things
          Until we find what we enjoy the most
          Drawn by the happiness it brings.
          So is it not apparent
          Happiness guides us
          On the way? (p. 168)

     Van Dusen is eager to steer his readers in the direction of true spiritual joy. "The mystic experience," says Van Dusen, "is the highest joy that humans can experience" (p. 7). Though he has tremendous respect for all religious paths, Van Dusen finds that the religious services associated with the various paths often fail to communicate the real joy of the journey:

I attended services for a year in a major faith, but I simply found it too boring and too shallow to persist in it. Most religious works bore me to tears. . . . In contrast I will be talking about religious experiences which are the essence of joy-a transcendent joy one cannot create but can find (pp. 8, 9).

     Van Dusen sees this discovery of joy, and this life of joy, as supremely important:

When Swedenborg was asked, "What is the real purpose of human existence?" his answer was "That there be a heaven from the human race." But heaven is not just a place. Heaven is the gathering of those who have gone through life and have freely decided to seek harmony with existence so they can be in heaven "where the joy of one is the joy of all." This is the real purpose of human existence (p. 149).

     It is refreshing to be reminded that "religious experience" does not necessarily have to be a valley of tears, or the straight and narrow path of self-denial. Van Dusen insists that by using true happiness as our guide, we can discover ineffable joy, not just "on the other side" but also in the "here and now." Being guided by happiness toward happiness is really the way back to the Source. In following this path we find that we are gradually liberated from the quest for material possessions and the need to control others.

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"When you have ultimate happiness," says Van Dusen, "you don't need wealth, and least of all power over others" (p. 214). This Present Moment
     When Van Dusen speaks about "the way to the experience of God," he is not referring to some abstract, occult practice known only to swamis, gurus, monks, and wise men cloistered away in remote settings. On the contrary, he is speaking about an experience that is available to every human being-a precious gift that is our God-given right. Helen Keller, who was deprived of both sight and hearing, developed this sense to an extraordinary degree, and called it "the mystic sense" (Light in My Darkness, pp. 141-150). Keller and Van Dusen agree that for most people the mystic sense is dormant, buried under the rush and the noise of everyday concerns. And yet, it is always there-like God, waiting to be discovered and enjoyed. Van Dusen writes:

By the mystical experience we are referring simply and awesomely to the direct experience of our common God. Cultural and historic accidents have led to an immense assortment of names and even namelessnesses of God. But however it is said, or not said, we understand it is the same One, common to us all. . . . [T]hose who have had the direct experience of God have a very wide area of essential agreement. The apparent differences between them merely reflect differences in language, culture, and religious frames of reference (p. 253).

     It is important to emphasize that the essence of the mystical experience has little to do with specific names, rituals or forms of worship. Rather, it is always about entering into the present moment:

          The entrance into the Divine
          Is always through this present moment.
          It cannot be in any other time (p. 189).

     Learning to live in the present moment and to discover therein the presence of God takes a little training.

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The first step is to learn to let go, or as Van Dusen says, to "let yourself be":

My earliest experience of this type was at age one in a crib. I was staring at motes of dust floating in a sunbeam. As they floated and emitted rainbow colors, I went into ecstasy in the incredible beauty. It apparently became central for me, for I remember it vividly seventy years later. . . . If you want more experiences of wonder, learn to relax and appreciate what is before you. Just let yourself be (18, 19).

     Van Dusen refers to this state as "relaxed perception." It is a state where there is absolutely no hurry, and there is nothing to be accomplished. "You simply let things be, and notice them as they are," he says. "You need not even seek some message or lesson" (p. 35). For many of us, this kind of slowing down will take a shift in attitude, a re-focusing of priorities, and a willingness to look at life with the wonder of a child. Van Dusen writes:

To approach mystery requires little shifts of attitude. One is to slow down, as though we have all the time in the world. Another is to become fully invested in whatever is before us. . . . As a child I remember lying on my stomach staring at the parted grass. I swore I would discover all that was there. I was surprised to find so many tiny insects, bits of leaf, rocks, more than I could comprehend, even in a few square inches of grass . . . . Being anywhere, relax and notice all that presents itself. Allow existence to open itself, and reveal itself. It is the total openness, waiting to receive. Instead of doing anything to ourselves, or to existence, we simply let it be and look into its nature. We carry away from these experiences a kind of cosmic sanity. As a child lying face down trying to discover all in a tiny plot of grass, I learned that the smallest part of ordinary existence contains more than I can ever grasp (pp. 33, 34).

     Van Dusen says that such simple experiences of child-like wonder have within them all the essentials of genuine mystical experience: "The very first and most common mystical experience of the wonder of nature introduces us to the One Life of which all things are a manifestation" (p. 29).

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This state of consciousness, known to the Buddhists as "pristine awareness," is one in which there is no longer a separation between subject and object. The ego drops away and one simply beholds the wonder of what is. "These experiences are brought on by relaxed perception and appreciation of whatever is present. The experience is primarily a feeling of joy, wonder, and awe at what is present" (p. 22). All this is possible, says Van Dusen, and the way to attain it couldn't be simpler: "Do nothing," he says. "And in doing nothing, simply notice and learn from what is there. Attend the school of Letting Be" (p. 260).

The Little Way

     One of the first lessons to be learned in the school of Letting Be is what Van Dusen calls "the little way":

People expect [enlightenment] to be awesomely impressive. "It will be so big my whole life will be changed. People will see my radiance." Remember what I said in the introduction, "No Miracles, Please." Looking for one big experience tends to make people overlook all the tiny and almost ever-present experiences which are the very foundation possibly leading to a big experience one day. The big one may never be given; that is a matter of the grace of God. The millions of tiny experiences are ever-present. They have always been with you. But you must do your work to find them, and through them to be changed and developed (p. 161).

     Rather than urge us into a "big-bang" approach to mysticism, Van Dusen advocates the quieter, simpler approach of day-to-day, moment-to-moment discovery. Again, he is helping us to become spiritual prospectors, panning for gold amidst the ordinary experiences of daily life:

Seeking one giant overwhelming vision is like expecting God to meet you in the form of a knight on a white horse, blinding you to God's ever-gentle presence and the instruction you are already receiving now by influx.

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What you are seeking is already occurring and will occur forever. The little discoveries can be entered upon anytime, anywhere. . . . So though I have known big enlightenments, I prefer the little way, the slow way of endless discovery. Each little discovery makes the day worthwhile. Each little one is enough in itself, because each little one is a reflection of the design of the whole, the all. The little way is a much more realistic picture of what anyone can easily find. When there are little gold coins lying everywhere why seek vast wealth in some distant place, especially when one little coin is enough to enter paradise? (pp. 161,162)

     In the following illustration, Van Dusen shows how God uses the ordinary experience of feeling impatient in traffic to teach a valuable lesson:

When I am impatient to get somewhere in a hurry I have not the slightest surprise that all the slowest cars in town are programmed to be right in front of me. I take it as a cosmic joke-a cosmic finger pointing and saying, "Here, learn patience" (p. 150).

     Van Dusen says that we should not seek for happiness and enlightenment in distant places with exotic names; nor should we wait for some thunderbolt experience, or go on long fasts, or practice extremes of self-denial. The experience of God is available in the here and now, no matter how insignificant it might seem:

I believe that religions which imply that the path to the direct experience of God is an endless and difficult process do a disservice. The One sought is already there. The limitations in this relationship are all on our side. Don't look for awesome thunderbolts. Notice the littlest thing (p. 178).
     Rev. Ray Silverman

     (To be continued)

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FEW THINGS IN THE BOOKS OF THE WRITINGS 1997

FEW THINGS IN THE BOOKS OF THE WRITINGS       Editor       1997

     In a previous editorial we said that a very large work, Arcana Coelestia, actually contains but a few things (AC 64). Notice the way a paragraph in that work ends: "But what the particulars involve it would take too long to explain. It is sufficient to give only a general idea of their most general import" (AC 771). Elsewhere we read that a further explanation would be "too prolix and unnecessary. It is sufficient to know that they are here described" (AC 789). A frequent saying in that work is that there are more arcana than can be told (see for example nos. 37, 310, 1414, 1904, 2618, 4560).
     The things in the book Heaven and Hell are also but few. In the chapter on the changes of state of angels it is said that it would be too tedious to specify the differences (see HH 157). Why are the angels not in one constant state of intense happiness? Why are they instead in a sequence of changing states? Number 158 gives three reasons for this, but the angels said that the reasons were many.
     The book Divine Providence says that wars are permitted. What is the reason for this? We are told that the reasons are actually many, and that they are stored up in the treasury of Divine wisdom. "Some of these reasons have been revealed to me" (DP 251). Elsewhere Swedenborg speaks of things made known to him, "but it would require too much space to explain it here" (DP 304). Fascinating things are said about what people call "fortune." (Last year we had a series of editorials on this subject.) But Swedenborg says on this subject, "It has been granted me to learn many things that I am not permitted to disclose" (DP 212).
     And what about the book Conjugial Love? Swedenborg deliberately made this a smaller volume in order not to tire the reader (see CL 209), and we will speak of this another time.

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BOOK ABOUT BLAKE DOUBTS SWEDENBORG 1997

BOOK ABOUT BLAKE DOUBTS SWEDENBORG       Editor       1997

     Last month we mentioned the book Witness Against the Beast by E. P. Thompson. This interesting book is rather negative to Swedenborg. We will quote from page 133 a paragraph, the last sentence of which leads to a somewhat dramatic conclusion.

To read through more than a few pages of Emanuel Swedenborg's writings induces such mental tedium that few students of Blake succeed in conveying more than the same tedium in their commentaries. It is difficult to understand what a poet with an imagination so concrete could have made of a language which dissolves whatever it touches into abstractions. A more concentrated attention reveals that Blake was reading into Swedenborg opinions which he already held and which he seemed to glimpse through hazes which arose probably from similar Behmenist fires. What Swedenborg tried to do was to bring this extraordinary and contradictory group of ideas (some from Behmenist sources) within a polite and rationalised framework.

     There is a footnote to that final sentence. It reads as follows: "Swedenborg not only read Boehme in his youth but also . . . . "
     To read in a scholarly book the declaration that Swedenborg did indeed read Boehme's works is interesting, because Swedenborg clearly states that he never read them.
     Swedenborg was asked directly about this, and he concluded a letter in September of 1766 by saying, "As to Boehme's writings, I can pass no judgment for I have never read them."
     Is someone mistaken here? Is someone being less than truthful? We have had help from the Swedenborg Library in tracking down some information on this, and will have more to say next month.

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HAPPINESS IN MANAGEMENT 1997

HAPPINESS IN MANAGEMENT              1997

Dear Editor:
     Warren David's enthusiasm for happiness in management (January 1997) may have met with some reserve by those readers who have had a bad experience in the business world. Others whose main exposure to that world has been through the popular media are also likely to doubt that anything very jolly can be found in corporate life.
     Every Christmas by popular demand the television channels entertain us with replays of Dickens' "Christmas Carol." Viewers can be counted on to sympathize with the much oppressed Bob Cratchet shown hard at work in a wickedly cold London office. However, this can all change, and it does. After a painful process of reformation Scrooge alters his management style, starts to respect his faithful clerk, and cries out, "I am so happy."
     In reality there are of course many happy and successful organizations in the world led no doubt by people with unusual integrity and discernment. But as Mr. David happily shows, opportunities exist for the New Church manager to do equally as well and eventually much better by virtue of the acknowledgment and application of the Heavenly Doctrines. I hope he will not object to my adding one or two more references to his considerable list.
     For those who are interested in this field, what better introduction could there be than the passage headed: "Charity in the Man of Business" (Charity 167)? Here we are told to look to the Lord, shun evils as sins and transact business sincerely, justly and faithfully. If we will act from prudence while trusting in the Divine Providence, we will not be despondent in misfortune or elated with success. Such a leader, we learn, "loves business as the principal of his vocation and money as instrumental . . . . "

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Again, " . . . he loves the general good while loving his own good, for that lies hidden within it as the root of a tree . . . . "
     In a search for particular applications the New Church leader may usefully study the story of Jacob's extended stay with Laban, during which he accumulates great possessions. In the Arcana the parallel is drawn of the regenerating person gaining spiritual wealth by means of a long involvement in the states of mediate good (Laban). These are states of good mixed with evils, and an understanding of this doctrine holds the promise of interesting insights. For instance, we can better learn how to make appropriate use of rewards and how to motivate others properly by always appealing to the highest love possible (see AC 3993, especially section 12). This same number provides answers for those who question the ethics of negotiating and selling in business. It also throws a clear light on the issue of profits, showing that this is not a matter of whether they are needed but rather how we should regard them.
     Finally, it seems that an unregenerate manager in an unregenerate world is necessarily limited in the extent to which the governors in heaven can be used as models (see HH 218). However, we may find some encouragement and inspiration as we learn more about the way these angels lead, holding onto the hope that we may eventually be able to emulate them.
     Such encouragement might be found in such a passage as AC 905, in which a beautiful description of how the Lord leads the regenerate is given: " . . . once he has . . . been regenerated he is led by the Lord through the angels so gently that no yoke or dominion exists at all, for he is being led by what is joyful and pleasing; he is being loved and he is being shown respect."

     H. Keith Morley
     Etobicoke, Ont., Canada

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EVOLUTION 1997

EVOLUTION       John J. Schoenberger       1997

Dear Editor:
     I write to express thanks and admiration for the fine article by the Rev. Dandridge Pendleton on the massive topic "Evolution" (recent February issue). Even aside from its content, the article's clear and succinct writing, its evidence of careful thought and research, and the concise and orderly structure and presentation all have much to commend them.
     It was many years ago when in a college class I first learned how the embryonic development of the individual displays in miniature and brevity the wide-spread and long-time development of the whole animal kingdom. "Ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny" was the pithy phrase propounded by the evolution philosopher whose name now escapes me. I recall how in my youth that contemplation seemed so wonderful. It still seems wonderful but now even more so with the points and material included in the Pendleton study. I can now think of the animal kingdom's evolutionary process itself as the womb in time (or times) impregnated by God with whatever it is that is or that seeds the soul. That we can be no more specific I believe is to be expected. It is par for the course, leaving the wonder ever there, and rightly so.
     Notwithstanding "Big Bang" or any similar notions about simultaneous total creation, I personally am glad there are still some who are satisfied that revelation and science together sufficiently display to mankind (to the extent of our finite comprehension) perhaps all we could ever partake or muster concerning the natural and the spiritual aspects involved in the ever continuing process of creation.
     The published article is replete with supportive interesting Third Testament references. I wondered a bit why but for the Annunciation there was no other Biblical reference. Genesis, ancient and allegorical though it be, within its verses 1:20 to 2:7 has this to say, all emphases of course being my own:

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First ("day" 5): "Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth." Second ("day" 6): Then were "made" the animals and ultimately man; and some 12 verses later: "And God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul" and so a human animal or being, distinguished by the potential for regeneration and eternal life.

     Many persons, I believe, would find it impossible to avoid consideration of a delightful comparison of the above account with all of the Incarnation from conception to glorification, as indeed was suggested in the subject article.
Surely there is development in spiritual as well as in natural phenomena. So in one very real sense Evolution is Creation. Who but infinite God could have devised and arranged it? It is Divine handiwork, continuous and wonderful, and in its composite utterly beyond any of the (also created) natural science that may be involved. So let us hope that the ridiculously adversarial context of Evolution or Creation may soon have its welcome demise. Perhaps then, instead of fighting and argument, there will prevail only sincere respect on the part of all the beneficiaries.
     In even the limited worldly sense of merely progressive change through and out of precedent entities, Evolution is still amazing. Mr. Pendleton has done a fine job of not only adding new clarity and completeness to the subject but also of covering the whole of it. Anyone who has not read his study should definitely do so, for I am sure it would be appreciated.
     John J. Schoenberger
     Bryn Athyn, PA
VIRGIN BIRTH AND THE TRINITY 1997

VIRGIN BIRTH AND THE TRINITY       Vera Dyck       1997

Dear Editor:

     I would like to thank the Rev. Terry Schnarr for his beautiful and helpful sermon about the virgin birth (Feb. '97).

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I am so grateful to be a part of a Christian Church which is able to hold fast to a belief in the Divinity of Christ in a world where this is getting harder and harder to do unless one is a fanatical Biblical literalist. Terry not only unapologetically proclaimed the virgin birth as true, but he showed the goodness that this truth brings or could bring to our lives right now.
     In struggling to find a nearby preschool to send our son to, I nearly chose one in a local Presbyterian church. It seemed a good match for him in almost every way. The literature made me a little nervous though. The first stated purpose of the school was to help children come into a relationship with God and His Son Jesus. I liked the "relationship with God" part, but not the separation of God into two persons and relationships with them both. I expressed to the teacher that I had some concerns about the theology taught in the school, that we think of the trinity as being within Jesus, not separate people. She assured me that they really didn't teach any theology at all, but simply told Bible stories and songs, and that the orientation was Biblical, not that of any specific denomination.
     I went home scratching my head pretty hard. I thought, "It is Biblical to speak of God and Jesus as if they were separate-Jesus Himself was the one who did it first. How could I claim to be a Christian and object to Christ's own words being taught in school?" I felt annoyed that the Lord would put such a strong appearance of separate persons right there in His Word. I thought, "Hmm, I've got my understanding of the trinity, she's got hers, and mine is no more Biblical than hers. The basis of my understanding isn't so much in the Bible as it is in the Writings. That's the lens I view the Bible through. Since the Writings hold no authority to her, I have no basis for a discussion with her."
     Because the school seemed good in other ways, I hoped that maybe their ideas about the trinity really wouldn't affect the way Bible stories were taught. To find out, I went and sat in on the school for a day.

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It was just after Christmas, and at Bible story time, the teacher asked the children, "And who was Baby Jesus' mother?" In chorus, they responded, "Mary." "And who was Baby Jesus' father?" "Joseph," the children sang. Clearly they had been reciting this regularly.
     I was amazed. I expected trouble with the trinity, but the trouble came from the opposite direction than what I had predicted. I thought there would be a teaching that Jesus was a separate person from eternity who was sent by His Father to appease the Father's anger. Maybe that's what I would have heard if I had come closer to Easter time. But here, just after Christmas, was a total denial of the Divinity of the Lord. Jesus was a common man, son of Mary and Joseph. Now how is that for "Biblical"?
     While in college in Bryn Athyn I learned from the Rev. Douglas Taylor that there are two types of passages in the New Testament which must be reconciled somehow: those where the Lord speaks of Himself as one with the Father, and those where He speaks as if He were separate from the Father. Alternating states of temptation and glorification, and a trinity within Jesus Christ, Mr. Taylor said, were the only way to make sense of all of those passages. This recent experience with the preschool teacher convinced me again that this is true. Swedenborg's explanation of the trinity is the only one I know of which is consistent with all the passages in the Bible, the only one that is "Biblical" to the whole Bible.
     I think that this sincere Christian woman would certainly never intentionally deny the Divinity of Christ, but confusion flowed from her false assumption. I expect she was trying to simplify theology that seems mysterious and complex, especially for children. But in trying to simplify, she was brought to what Swedenborg says is the natural result of a belief in three persons in God-a belief in no God, or at least a belief that Jesus is not God. I wonder what would happen if I went to her and appealed to our common authority, the Bible, and said that I was concerned that at a Christian school she would teach children that Jesus was the son of Joseph.

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Would she see that the falsity in the "simplified" message she gave the children betrayed a deeper falsity in her own more complex beliefs, in the assumptions behind her simplifications?
     It struck me that the hells attack the Lord's Divinity from all directions. We can lose the Divine Humanity of the Lord by stressing too heavily His Divinity (a belief in the eternal separate person of Jesus, or an overemphasis on the Divine apart from the Human form) or by stressing too heavily His Humanity (a belief that Jesus is a mere mortal, born of Joseph, or an overemphasis on the physical form Jesus took while in the world). We want our doctrines to be true to all passages in the Writings and the Bible. I am very grateful for Terry's sermon, which from my perspective did not overemphasize either the Lord's Humanity or His Divinity, but instead found a balance, a marriage, of these two perfectly united aspects of the Lord. It was an explanation which reconciled different kinds of teachings in the Writings which, when stressed apart from each other, do away with the Divine Humanity of the Lord. Thank you very much. You help me to love and proclaim without apology the truth which is our church's pearl of great price: THE LORD GOD JESUS CHRIST REIGNS.
     Vera Dyck
     Chalfont, PA
PARADIGM SHIFT 1997

PARADIGM SHIFT       Rev. Paul E. Schorran       1997

Dear Editor:

     I very much enjoyed reading "Paradigm Shift and the Issue of Women in the Clergy" by Vera Goodenough Dyck. The article reminds me that the Writings can be interpreted differently, that there are some issues of doctrine that we cannot find positively clear answers for in the Writings, and that our viewpoints are never unbiased.

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     The idea of women in the clergy goes against my preconceptions. However, what Vera is saying leads me to seriously examine the basis of my assumptions. This awareness is what I value most about the article. The issue of women in the clergy is secondary.
     Vera's views on women representing the Lord make me think again. I'm interested in the idea of a united leadership of men and women that could more fully represent the Divine Humanity. Could not women serve as women and men serve as men? I wonder how valuable a woman could be in the ministry.
     A paradigm shift means a change in the pattern of our beliefs, values and interpretations. (See NCL June 1995 for a clear presentation by Beryl Simonetti on the meaning and characteristics of a paradigm shift.) What Vera is saying can be applied to other issues in the church as well. Many are interested in studying and using the methods of Waldorf education. Many are searching for new expressions of worship. I hope we are free to explore these issues. Not everyone is the same, so there must be different ways of teaching and leading in the church.
     I encourage everyone to get hold of Vera's article and to read it carefully. I think she has a very important message.
     Rev. Paul E. Schorran
     Kempton, PA
PRIESTS 1997

PRIESTS       John Kane       1997

Dear Editor:

     Recent numbers of New Church Life have covered in detail the vexed question of whether or not the General Church should ordain women priests. As a layman I really wonder why there should be such a dispute when the Word seems very clear: see Genesis 2:22, 23. God created woman from man and the Writings tell us that they are to be reunited as a single angel in heaven.

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Is not this fair enough? What a shame it would be to disrupt the General Church status quo over such a matter.
     By not being priests, women could conceivably be losing something, although I doubt it, but the General Church might lose a great deal by having women on the chancel. Those who would oblige the church to make this change might with advantage study the "Four Angels bound at the great river Euphrates," Apocalypse Explained 569 and following numbers.
     John Kane
     Braintree, Essex, England
SURVIVORS MAGAZINE CLOSING 1997

SURVIVORS MAGAZINE CLOSING              1997

     We have heard that the publication called Survivors which first began in 1988 is now ceasing publication after its 25th issue. In April of 1996 a letter in our pages pointed to the use of this publication. "In the effort to accommodate the vision of heavenly marriage for our times, the personal witness of people who have experienced marital dysfunction and are trying to apply the Word to their lives becomes a valuable resource for a growing church."
Back issues of this publication are now in the custody of the Swedenborg Library in Bryn Athyn where they may be consulted.

     OUT OF SILENCE

Dear Friends,
     A group of survivors is pleased to announce our new newsletter, Out of Silence. Out of Silence is an informative journal specifically for the support of any survivor of sexual abuse, anyone interested in supporting survivors, and for those in a position to reach out to survivors such as counselors, ministers, and advocates who wish to understand more. If you would like to be on our mailing list, send your name and address with a suggested $2.00 contribution (which will be much appreciated to help with mailing) to: Out of Silence, P.O. Box 264, Bryn Athyn, PA 19009.

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NATURE OF SPIRIT 1997

NATURE OF SPIRIT              1997

This book by Chauncey Giles has been printed anew. In the foreword we read:

          For more than a century, Chauncey Giles's The Nature of Spirit, and of Man as a Spiritual Being has remained one of the best introductions to the teachings of the New Church regarding the spiritual world. By as early as 1900, more than a hundred thousand copies, including translations into a number of languages, were in circulation, and through the decades its effect on people of all religious backgrounds has been enormous. . . .
     The preface to the 1894 edition stated that the demand for this work "has been constant and still continues." One hundred years later, this is still true. After a great many editions and reprints, the work was allowed to go out of print. It remained unavailable for a long time until it was republished serially, chapter by chapter, in the journal Arcana: Inner Dimensions of Spirituality, beginning with the first issue, which appeared in 1995.
     The response to the reprint was so positive that it was decided to publish the work once again in the form of a pocket-size book. For this new edition, the nineteenth-century style of punctuation was modernized, and several other minor changes were made that in no way affect the content. . . .

     Here is how the seventh of the nine chapters begins. It is about preparation for one's final home:

     It was the aim of the last chapter to show that the judgment of everyone takes place after the death of the material body and his resurrection into the world of spirits, according to the saying of the Apostle, "It is appointed unto men once to die, and after death the judgment." The world of spirits is, therefore, the august judgment-hall, where man's trial is held and the verdict rendered. He is not, however, arraigned before any tribunal, and acquitted or condemned according to any arbitrary law. He is simply placed in the most favorable conditions-conditions which could only be found in the spiritual world-for the evolution of his real character.

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The good person is drawn into the societies of the good by the power of his spiritual affinities. By the same power the wicked person is attracted to those of a nature similar to his own. At the same time, the external and the internal character become united. Everything is cast aside which is not in perfect harmony with the ruling love. Everyone speaks as he thinks and acts as he desires, and finally becomes the perfect form of his own good or evil. The features of his face, the tone of his voice, the expression of his eye, his gestures, his walk, and his whole form and deportment are the perfect embodiment and expression of his will. This great change is not effected in an arbitrary manner by omnipotent power, but in perfect accordance with laws which we see in constant operation in this world. Each person condemns or acquits himself by simply becoming what he really is. The wicked person throws off all his disguises; the good person is freed from all the natural evils which he had combatted in this life, but from which he could never entirely free himself. And as the real character becomes known, unlike natures are repelled from each other, and like are attracted to like (from pages 138 and 139).
TWO PART-TIME TEACHING POSITIONS 1997

TWO PART-TIME TEACHING POSITIONS              1997

     AVAILABLE AT CARMEL CHURCH SCHOOL

     Two positions will be opening in Carmel Church School in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada for the 1997-98 school year. One is for approximately 10-13 hours a week, teaching grades 7 and 8. The second position is for the first term only, covering the full instruction in a multi-grade 1, 2 and 3 classroom from September through November. Applicants should be professionally trained and committed to the principles of New Church education.
     Applications and inquiries should be sent to: Julie Niall, Principal, 40 Chapel Hill Drive, Kitchener, Ontario, Canada N2G 3W5; telephone (519) 748-5802.

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ORDINATIONS 1997

ORDINATIONS              1997




     Announcements
     Rose-At Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania, February 23, 1997, Jonathan Searle Rose into the second degree of the priesthood, Rt. Rev. Peter M. Buss officiating.
     Thabede-At Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania, March 2, 1997, Ndaizane Albert Thabede into the second degree of the priesthood, Rt. Rev. Peter M. Buss officiating.
Notes on This Issue 1997

Notes on This Issue              1997


New Church Life
     May 1997

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     Rev. Derek Elphick is pastor of the society in Boynton Beach, Florida. This month we have a sermon he preached there on a text which some people have found disquieting. It says that what was spoken in the ear will be proclaimed upon the housetops! The lesson from the Writings that he read before this sermon was n. 104 of Divine Providence. This passage shows that we all have two kinds of thought, and invites us to notice this in others and also in our own thoughts when we are in company and when we are alone. Two words used by people commending this sermon are "practical" and "reassuring."
     We are beginning in this issue a substantial study by Rev. Geoffrey Howard. What can help us and those we love in the matter of choosing a marriage partner?
     Rev. Erik Sandstrom, Sr. begins his article in this issue by stating its essential purpose. Mr. Sandstrom speaks of prejudices, and the first one is this: "Until recent times there was a general prejudice that women were inferior to men intellectually. Then in order to restore justice to women the pendulum swung, not to its diametrical opposite, but to the extreme of asserting that the difference between male and female was physical only . . . . "
     In an editorial this month we quote from a little booklet entitled, Relax, It's Not the End of the World.
     We have received a copy of Thoughtful Teaching, a book by Christopher M. Clark, published in 1995 by Teachers College Press, Columbia University. Mr. Clark had an especially interesting item in our pages last August entitled "Letter to a Catholic Cousin."
     The Academy schools calendar for 1997-98 will be printed in the June issue.

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PUBLIC AND PRIVATE THOUGHT 1997

PUBLIC AND PRIVATE THOUGHT       Rev. DEREK P. ELPHICK       1997

     There is a passage of Scripture that terrifies a lot of people. It first appears in the gospel of Matthew and then is repeated with a slight variation in Luke. It says: "There is nothing covered that will not be revealed, nor hidden that will not be known. Therefore whatever you have spoken in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have spoken in the ear in inner rooms will be proclaimed on the housetops" (Luke 12:2, 3).
     Another translation puts the last sentence this way: "Whatever you whisper within four walls will be shouted from the housetops" (The New Testament in Modern English, J. B. Philips, New York, 1958).
     People are terrified by this teaching because it seems to suggest that on the day of judgment all our private thoughts, particularly the shameful, regrettable ones, will be made public. And having these painful, embarrassing thoughts publicized is also thought by some to be a vindictive act by God. In explaining the meaning of this passage, the teachings of the New Church do indeed say this much: "[After death] nothing whatever of a person's thought, speech, or action in the world is hidden but it is open to view" (AC 7454; cf. HH 463e). And: "A person carries with him his whole memory, and nothing is so well hidden in the world that it is not brought out into the open after death, in public . . . " (HH 462b:8; cf. HH 469).
     In a broader context Jesus said, "There is nothing covered that will not be revealed" in direct response to the hypocrisy of the Pharisees. Jesus said that no secrets would remain hidden with the person who pretended to be something he was not. You might remember that the Pharisees received the sharpest criticism from Jesus because they pretended to be something they were not (see Matt. 23). It's interesting to note here that the word "hypocrite" comes from a Greek word meaning to "play a part" or "to act."

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     In the spiritual world it's impossible to pretend to be something you're not. After death, when the Lord's angels ever so gently review a person's Book of Life, they hold absolutely no interest in broadcasting the faults of a person's past or in raising embarrassing, hurtful memories. Only those who deny their crimes or who deny their true identity will have their private thoughts broadcast in the way the passage from Luke suggests, and this is done only so that all people may enter fully into the joy of their own hearts (see DP 254:3, AC 7795:2, HH 462b). As a result, every person's essential character will still become open to view in the spiritual world, which is why "nothing whatever of a person's thought, speech, or action in the world is hidden but it is open to view" (AC 7454:3).
     Only in this world do we have two sets of thought, one private and one public (see AR 294). These two sets of thought are distinguished by the way we act when in company and when alone (see DP 415). As one passage says: "Every person who reaches maturity has an external and an internal thought . . . . This is clear to anyone . . . who observes his own thoughts and intentions when he is in company and when he is alone" (DP 104).
     Eventually our public and private thoughts will "make one by correspondence" (HH 499:2). They will become one because in the spiritual world everyone "speaks as he thinks" (AR 294). But here on earth we enjoy a special kind of freedom in which we can act one way when in company, and in a completely different way when alone (see DLW 415). This special kind of freedom serves not only as a protection but also as an essential part of our earthly life.     
     As long as people are in this world, they can keep their deepest thoughts and most private feelings hidden and can manufacture whatever kind of public image they want. Everyone is free to move through his life publicizing as much or as little of his true thoughts and feelings as he wishes. As a result, an insincere person will say all the right things in public, flattering as many people as he or she can, and yet will privately laugh at those things when alone; whereas a sincere person will make every effort to publicly say what he or she privately thinks (see DLW 417; cf. 261).

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The teachings of the New Church use the example of public officials and religious leaders to illustrate this point. We are told that people in these types of professions can manufacture a very convincing public image and yet privately hold very little interest for the public welfare or common good. One teaching says that public officials and religious leaders might very well perform their use "from natural affection alone, which is for the sake of self, that they may be honored and exalted to prestige, or for the sake of the world, that they may gain wealth and become rich. In some cases these [selfish] ends drive [these people] to perform more excellent uses than those who are in the spiritual affection of use" (D. Love XVII:3; cf. DP 250:3).
     Another teaching talks about the hypocritical church leader who "on returning home after his sermon laughs at all he said and expounded from the Word to his audience" (TCR 381:5; also DLW 261). And yet this same preacher, who secretly laughs at what he says, can move people "to tears" with what he says in public (AC 4799:4; see also CL 499).
     As long as we live in this world we will never know whether someone is faking his public image or not. Many people are frankly disgusted by the amount of hypocrisy they see around them, particularly when hearing the honeyed phrases that seem to flow so effortlessly out of the mouths of many public officials, church leaders, and corporate bosses. The general public will, most likely, always be suspicious of the lofty words spoken by many of its leaders, and this seems to be one reason why a large segment of the world population remains deeply skeptical of church organizations. Unfortunately, churches are often surrounded by scandals, and the public (understandably) has difficulty trusting the leaders of these organizations, even the legitimate ones.

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     On an individual level (and as members of a church organization) we may at times question the legitimacy of our own public image. There are many people who experience devastating hurt and disappointment in their lives, who struggle against the very ideals they try to model publicly, and who also choose to keep these struggles private. We would never call these people "fakes" or "frauds" for covering up the inconsistencies and contradictions in their own lives, and yet when we find ourselves working so hard to cover up our own troubles, we might very well think we are being a fake or fraud. (This very issue bothered an American president a number of years ago when he was in office. He once confided to his wife, "I wonder why we are made so that what we really think and feel we cover up."-Truman, David McCullough, New York, 1992, p. 326)
     Of course the goal of our earthly life is to invite the Lord to be present and active in every part of it as we go about our "public, private, and domestic duties" (AC 5130). The following teaching adds to this by saying that the private world of our inner thoughts and feelings is actually the "medium" which introduces heaven to our external, public life:

Heaven flows by way of the internal man into the external . . . and the external man in the world gains . . . a perception of what exists in heaven. It is to this end that the human being has been created the way he has (AC 4963).
     
          The thoughts and feelings of our "internal man," of our private world, have been created to flow into our "external man," into our public world. We have all seen this process in action with little children and also with the elderly, sometimes with humorous results. When you sit down with a little child, he will tell you exactly what's on his mind. His private thoughts flow with complete ease into his public world; little children don't need to manufacture a public image. And when people reach the last years of their adult lives, they too, in most cases, will tell you exactly what's on their minds.

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They seem to hold little interest in keeping up appearances, and seem almost relieved to let the manufactured image of their public life (which had served them so well) crumble and fall to the ground.
     But having the freedom to publicly say or do what we may not privately think or feel is an essential part of our earthly life. The book Conjugial Love spends one whole chapter explaining in detail why it's so important for married partners to publicly show their love toward each other during those times when they don't privately feel it (nos. 271-294). The chapter also stresses the point that this kind of "role playing" is not hypocritical since its purpose is to heal the marriage relationship not only before the eyes of the couple, but also before the eyes of any children, as well as before society (see CL 279, 282-291).
     There is also a section in the Arcana Coelestia and one in the book The Divine Providence that talk about the importance of compelling ourselves to go through the motions involved in the work of regeneration even when we don't feel like doing it (see AC 1937, 1947; DP 129, 136). Again, this kind of "role playing" is not hypocritical since the person doing it is sincerely trying to amend his or her private life, something a hypocrite would never dream of doing.
     If we were forced to give a running commentary on everything we truly thought and felt, we would find ourselves with very few friends at the end of the day. It is essential that people be free to unravel the contradictions and inconsistencies of their life in privacy. This is a protection every person needs, and it is confirmed in the following passage:

From his interior thought [a person] can view his exterior thought, reflect upon it, deciding whether it is evil or not. The mind of a person owes this characteristic feature to the faculties which he has from the Lord, called liberty and rationality (DP 104:2).

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     In the modern world of talk shows and public confessionals it seems that many people feel pressured to publicize their private thoughts. In the media, celebrities are expected to share their deepest thoughts and feelings as though the world couldn't go on without knowing them. We can all point to moments in our own lives when we publicized a private thought prematurely: a thoughtless comment to a co-worker, a piece of advice to a friend (who really needed to hear it), or that brutally honest critique of our spouse. And even though we may regret some of the things we "let out," we may still argue it's better to "say it like it is" than sugar-coat every private thought. We may also argue that if everyone "speaks as he thinks" in the spiritual world, as we are taught, then why waste time playing a charade? But that teaching also points out the fact that people in the spiritual world "may be silent, and not publish the thoughts of [their] mind" (AR 294). In other words, while our essential character will become open to view in the spiritual world, we will still be free to maintain a level of privacy that suits our own preference.
     People don't need to be terrified or overly troubled knowing that one day what they really think and feel will become public, because they are involved in the process right now. All sincere adults who try as well as they can (when circumstance and opportunity allow) to publicly say what they privately feel ought to know they are on the right track. As little children we had no difficulty publicly saying what we privately thought, and during our final years on earth we will, most likely, have no difficulty doing it again (if we don't already). In fact, we might find it quite refreshing.
     With the years in between, the Lord ever so carefully helps us to develop our true character and identity within the safety of our private world. While the Lord certainly encourages us to keep our struggles and concerns out in the open where they can be dealt with squarely, He knows that we also need a certain level of protection while living in this world.

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The Lord therefore helps us unravel many of the contradictions and inconsistencies that appear in our public world, again within the safety of our private world. It is also allowable, and necessary at times, to manufacture a public image that may not reflect our true character, because it takes time and patience for our public and private thoughts to make one by correspondence. But when they do, we will enter into the greatest happiness we can imagine. For when people enter heaven they "come into the highest joy of [their] own heart" (DP 254:3). Amen.

Lessons: Luke 12:1-3; DP 104 MAPLE '97 1997

MAPLE '97              1997

     A NEW CHURCH CAMP FOR TEENAGERS

     "I can't wait until the next Maple."
     For more than 25 years, New Church young people have been coming to Maple Leaf Academy and making lasting friendships while learning about the Lord in a sphere of love and acceptance.
     Maple '97 will be from Saturday, June 21st to Friday, June 27th. If you are in high school, you are invited.
     "This is the greatest camp. It is always the highlight of my year."
     The camp is held at Caribou Lodge, Ontario, Canada, and is funded by the General Church in Canada. Financial assistance is available.
     For registration information, contact Sue Bellinger, 110 Chapel Hill Drive, RR #2, Kitchener, Ontario, Canada N2G 3W5; phone (519) 748-5386.
     "The worship services and sessions really related to my life."

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PRINCIPLES RELATING TO THE SELECTION OF A MARRIAGE PARTNER 1997

PRINCIPLES RELATING TO THE SELECTION OF A MARRIAGE PARTNER       Rev. GEOFFREY H. HOWARD       1997

     One of the more perplexing problems facing our western civilization is the alarming breakdown of marriage. It is a problem that has steadily assumed significant proportion during the last fifty years. This unhappy fact has weakened the moral fibre of modern society. It has caused untold sorrow and heartache. It has left its hurt deeply entrenched in the hearts and minds of those affected. The memory of such painful experiences can never be totally eradicated in this life.
     In seeking a solution to help break this trend, we must realize that there is often little that can be done to resolve a marriage problem that is very deeply entrenched. It would be highly desirable if such couples would act toward each other through simulating kind behavior as the Writings advocate.
     The real hope lies with a marriage that is yet to be contracted, for prior to marriage a young man and a young woman have a freedom of choice that is not bound by a contracted covenant. Too often people enter into marriage without exploring their relationship to each other thoroughly enough. Some become married without really feeling deeply "in love," without actually having felt led into their marriage by the Lord.
     Our purpose here is to focus upon some of the many principles which the Lord has revealed in the Writings. In them He tells us the very means whereby He seeks to lead us to find a partner whom we can marry and with whom we can develop a relationship that will last to eternity.
     
The Existence of Love Truly Conjugial
     
     In the Writings the Lord has revealed the existence of "love truly conjugial." This is described as a quality of love that is more deeply interior than any other love in human experience. It can be given only in the marriage of one man and one woman and only when each looks to the Lord and strives to live by His commandments.

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Everyone has been created either male or female. It is the Lord's intent that in time each will be led to find a suitable partner, if not in this world then certainly in heaven. The perfection in marriage, along with the greatest sense of delight, is provided by the Lord as each willingly follows His leading. As each partner comes to will and think as the other they become one in thought and in will. To render marriage blessed, happy and delightful, the Lord provides His supreme gift: a quality of love interior and sublime, "above every love"-conjugial love (CL 64).
     Society at large is for the most part unaware of the existence of a love of this quality. Conjugial love is "so rare that it is not known what it is and scarcely that it is" (CL 69). The Writings however reveal its existence. To have this knowledge is therefore a great privilege, for if we know that such a love exists, then we may strive to become worthy of its reception. We may come to learn the laws which govern its reception, and if we understand the Lord's order pertaining to marriage, we may be led to select a partner, in full freedom, with whom an eternal union may develop. Therefore, through the agency of the Writings, along with a faith in their teachings and a willingness to follow them, there is hope of conjugial love's "being brought back to its primeval or ancient holiness" (CL 74). What a glorious promise that is, and what a tremendous goal it is to strive for.
     The question remains: How does the Lord lead us to find such a partner? How do we recognize and discover each other? How do we know that what we feel within ourselves can be trusted? How does the Lord lead us and show us the way?
     
How Did the Lord Lead a Man and a Woman into Marriage in the Beginning?
     
     If we had been born in the Golden Age and lived in the celestial Most Ancient Church, we would not be asking these questions.

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In that pristine state of early creation, people were born into an unspoiled order which the Lord had formed at the beginning. With the absence of evil spheres from hell, the Lord could lead men and women to find their partners through a certain perception which was granted them from heaven. He led them immediately through heaven. He provided them with affections which they felt keenly within their hearts. The law of marriage between only one man and one woman "was inscribed on their internal man" (CL 162). Since evil spheres did not intrude with allurement, heavenly perceptions could descend and lead in a most immediate way. Such perceptions led a young man and a young woman to find each other as if from a certain dictate that came from within them.
     However, we are not born into such a state. Instead we are born into the fallen state of the human race. We are born virtually bereft of all heavenly perceptions. Certainly we still have perceptions, but from ourselves we are in total darkness as to their origin, whether they are from heaven or from hell, whether they are founded in truth or in falsity. To enable us to ascertain their origin, and thus their quality, the Lord provides us with His Word. These precious books, in which His truth has been revealed through the ages, enable us to establish the quality of the perceptions which we feel. Through comparing what we feel with what the Word teaches, we may know which perceptions are from heaven and which are not. The same principle applies in our seeking to know how the Lord leads us to find our marriage partner. The feelings that are awakened within us must be guided and moderated by revealed principles from the Lord's Word, and there is an abundance of such principles in the Writings of His Second Coming.

How Is the Lord's Leadership Shown to Us?
     
     The important thing to remember is that in leading us the Lord does not speak to us openly. He always leads us tacitly "by means of affections and not by means of thoughts" (AE 1175:3).

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That is a key statement. The Lord leads us by means of our affections, or our feelings. Now all of our affections, that is all the loves and desires we feel, come to us from the spiritual world. Good affections come from heaven, and evil ones from hell. But it is further taught that affections in themselves are invisible; they "do not become evident to man" (Ibid.). However, "affections produce thoughts" (AE 825:3), and by means of thoughts they do become visible. Through consulting the Word, their origin and quality become known. It should be clearly understood that the Lord never leads and teaches us through "any perceptible inspiration, but by an influx into [our] spiritual delight" (Ibid.). Thus when an affection which is provided by the Lord shows itself in our thought, we feel as though we think freely, as though we speak and act freely, as if of ourselves (see AE 1175:4). It is because of our fallen condition that the Word must always be consulted carefully for all spiritual guidance. If the affections we feel, and the thoughts which these produce, are in harmony with what the Word teaches, then we may follow them and pursue them with confidence.

The Affections Through Which the Lord Leads Us to Enter into Marriage
     
     In creating the human race the Lord formed the two sexes, male and female. From their very creation the Lord implanted in each "an inclination to conjoin themselves into a one" (CL 88). The Lord's ultimate objective was and still is that a man should marry a woman of his choosing, and that through progression in marriage they should gradually come to receive conjugial love and perceive an ever-increasing sense of blessedness. The potential for this is provided from creation, but its manifestation dawns gradually. The Writings tell us that "conjugial love . . . does not appear during infancy and childhood, but still [it] lies hidden within; nor does it come forth until each and all things have been so disposed that it can manifest itself; meanwhile it produces all of the means that are suited to itself" (AC 3610).

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From this teaching we can see that the potential for receiving conjugial love has been implanted in each person from creation. The first manifestation of this inclination toward conjunction between the two sexes begins at puberty, when the love of the opposite sex begins to be actively awakened. Initially a general sense of attraction to the opposite sex becomes felt. With boys it is a keen and active physical attraction. With girls it appears to be more gradual.
     Let us remember that this love of the sex is part of the Lord's order in creation, and as such is a most important provision. Already we have mentioned that He leads us through our affections. However, in the fallen condition of the human race, let us also remember that by themselves the affections we feel without the guidance of truth are not to be trusted. They should be subject to the control of the rational mind, which when properly instructed from the Lord's Word, should exercise guidance and control over this developing love. Thus the love of the sex is in itself a general love which is quite undiscriminating. It is a love "toward many . . . and with many . . . . Man has it in common with the animals and the birds" (CL 48).
     However, without the love of the sex the Lord could not lead us into marriage. Out of this general love which is first felt the Lord seeks to further lead a man and a woman to feel an attraction for one another and then to discover compatible qualities in each other. If the affections in their hearts develop, He fills them with a desire to become married. The love of the sex plays a most vital part in this process of selection, but it is by no means the only factor.
     The Writings describe the initial process: "Before a consort is found, the sex in general is loved, being regarded with a fond eye and treated with courteous morality; for an adolescent it is in the period of choosing, and then, from an implanted inclination to marriage with one which is latent in the shrine of his mind, his external grows pleasantly warm" (CL 98).

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Let us note that the initiative spoken of here is the masculine initiative. It is "his external" that "grows pleasantly warm." The Writings elaborate upon this principle, and tell us why the initiative in courtship falls to the masculine province. Very good reasons are given for this. The masculine mind is said to be "a form of understanding" (CL 33), and by virtue of this a man is granted a more clear insight as to who, among his female companions, holds the greatest appeal (see CL 296).
     What is it that draws a young man to seek the hand of a particular young woman? The answer lies partly in the fact that a man is endowed with "the prolific principle and this is from no other source than the understanding" (CL 90). Thus the love of one of the sex, which in time he is given to feel, is inmostly directed by the form of the understanding in his mind. Because of this, the love of the sex which he feels is not felt with equal intensity toward all of the female sex. A greater attraction is felt toward some than others. The reason for this lies not simply in the physical beauty or in the physical appeal of a particular girl. It exists from a higher and more interior cause. Its cause is the fact that each man is created to receive in his understanding a certain quality of wisdom from the Lord. He is born into "the love of becoming wise" (CL 88). He actually becomes wise by seeking the Lord's guidance, and by striving to bring His teachings down into the very conduct of his life. If a young man does this, then the Lord is able to lead him in quite an immediate way.
     Let us consider these teachings further. As we have said, a man is born with a potential for becoming wise. Every man is unique. His understanding is unique, and therefore the form of wisdom that he is in the potential of receiving from the Lord is likewise of unique quality. By virtue of these factors a man comes to feel a specific attraction for one of the female sex whose mind and whose being are capable of becoming conjoined to his. Thus it is said that "from an implanted inclination to marriage with one, which is latent in the shrine of his mind, his external grows pleasantly warm" (CL 98).

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Every man is therefore created with the potential of receiving from the Lord a unique quality of wisdom. As a consequence his unique form of mind causes him to perceive an attraction for a young woman who manifests a potential response, a response that may develop into a love of his potential wisdom; for a woman was created to become the love of her husband's wisdom. Her form of mind is likewise unique, giving rise to her perceiving different responses to different men who may seek her company.
     These principles are very important to understand. As we have already stated, the Lord leads us all by means of our affections. When love of one of the opposite sex coincides with a mutual feeling of mental and spiritual compatibility, then it may be assumed that the Lord has provided an indication of something which deserves further scrutiny and exploration.
     In summary we may say that the affections by means of which the Lord leads us into marriage have a twofold manifestation. Firstly, the love of one of the opposite sex is kindled with the young man. His "external grows pleasantly warm" (CL 98). Secondly, during the process of courtship the compatibilities and the similitudes within the mind of each become known and recognized. If these cohere, an answer is given, and mutual consent to marry is appropriate.
     This is similar to the state which exists in heaven "when a young man sees the virgin provided by the Lord, and the virgin the young man, and both feel the conjugial to be enkindled in their hearts, and perceive, he that she is his, and she that he is hers; for when love meets love, it meets itself and causes it to recognize itself and at once conjoins their souls and their minds" (CL 44). It is therefore of great value to know that this is one of the means whereby the Lord leads us. For this reason we are taught "that with man, love of the sex is not the origin of conjugial love, but is the first thereof" (CL 98).

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It should also be strongly emphasized that love of the sex is not the only indication. Similarities of mind are of prior importance. Thus, love of the sex is "as a natural external wherein is implanted a spiritual internal" (Ibid.). We will now consider each of these questions further, the love of the sex and the doctrine of similitudes.

     (To be continued)
JOB OPPORTUNITY: Helping Our Teens Grow 1997

JOB OPPORTUNITY: Helping Our Teens Grow              1997

     The Youth Program in the Glenview New Church is currently being expanded. The Glenview congregation, together with the Midwestern Academy, has an opening for a person to serve this program. The job requires someone who:
     * loves being with teens.
     * is committed to the principles of the New Church.
     * is self-motivated and energetic.
     * can be a strong leader and role-model.
     * can be available for weekday evening / weekend time.
          This is a part-time position, between 17 and 24 hours per week. The job could be split between two people, so if 24 hours sounds like too much, call anyway. You would work together with parents, other young adults, and the pastoral staff to provide a broad program of learning, activities, and fellowship.
     If you want to get a more complete job description, or if you're ready to send in a resum? and statement of interest, please contact Maynard Riley, c/o Glenview New Church, 74 Park Drive, Glenview, IL 60025; home phone: (847) 657-9437; fax: (847) 657-9426; e-mail: [email protected].

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FEMININE WISDOM 1997

FEMININE WISDOM       Rev. ERIK SANDSTROM       1997

     My essential purpose with this article is to demonstrate that masculine wisdom and feminine wisdom are equal, and that they are at the same time by creation and forever different.
     As a related issue I shall also try to show that by virtue of their difference the two wisdoms are complementary and conducive toward the formation and development of conjugial love; also, that in turn conjugial love is for the purpose of physical and spiritual offspring. Spiritual offspring is spiritual use. Our underlying theme, therefore, is conjugial love and its offspring. And throughout the argument I shall appeal to my readers to bear in mind that there is no inherent wisdom with either male or female, but that true wisdom with both is a quality received in the mind through a willingness to be taught and led by truth.
     The two kinds of true wisdom have as a common denominator a twofold interior acknowledgment: that there is a Divine Source of all things created, and that all humans from birth live simultaneously on both a natural and a spiritual plane of life. In the New Church this universal acknowledgment is further defined as the faith that the Creator has made Himself visible in His Divine Human, and that He has caused the arcana of both planes of life- the spiritual and the natural world-to be set forth in rational language in the Theological Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg.
     In pursuing the above purpose I shall compare two sets of teachings which, to the casual reader, may appear contradictory, but which can be seen to be in a living and most beautiful harmony with each other. These teachings not only will establish that there is a difference in the wisdom of the two sexes, but will also show the nature of that difference. These two sets of teaching are:
     A.     That the conjugial conjunction between male and female minds is sealed by a conjunction between a higher and a lower mental degree.
     B.     That feminine wisdom by virtue of its gentle influence is superior to masculine wisdom.

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Teachings A:

     Masculinity cannot be converted into femininity, nor femininity into masculinity; wherefore, after death a male is still a male, and a female still a female . . . . The difference essentially consists in this, that the inmost quality in masculinity is love, and its veil wisdom . . . while the inmost quality in femininity is that same wisdom, the wisdom of masculinity, and its veil the love derived from it. But this love is feminine love, and it is given by the Lord to a wife through the wisdom of her husband, whereas that former love is a masculine love, which is a love of becoming wise, and it is given by the Lord to a husband according to his reception of wisdom. Consequently, the male is a form of the wisdom of love, and the female is a form of the love of that wisdom (CL 32).
     A male is born intellect-oriented and a female is born will-oriented; or in other words, a male is born with an affection for knowing, understanding and becoming wise, while a female is born with a love for joining herself to that affection in the male. Furthermore, because interior qualities form the exterior ones to their likeness . . . therefore the male has a different look, a different sound, and a different physique from the female . . . . The two sexes also differ in behavior and manners. In short, nothing in the two sexes is the same, although there is nevertheless a capacity for conjunction in every detail (CL 33).
     The heavenly marriage is that of good with truth and of truth with good, yet is not between good and truth of one and the same degree, but between good and truth of a lower and of a higher degree; that is, not between the good of the external man and the truth of the same, but between the good of the external man and the truth of the internal; or what is the same, not between the good of the natural man and its truth, but between the good of the natural man and the truth of the spiritual man. This conjunction is what makes the marriage (AC 3952).

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Teachings B:

     In men the mind is elevated into a higher light, and in women the mind is elevated into a higher warmth . . . . The elevation into a higher warmth in women is an elevation into more and more chaste and pure conjugial love, and this continually toward the conjugial which from creation is innate in their inmost beings (CL 188).
     [From a Memorable Relation-The husbands said:] Our wives know all the states of our mind, nor is anything hidden from them. They see, perceive and feel whatever comes from our will. And we in turn know nothing of this in our wives. Wives have this gift because they have very tender loves and feelings of almost blazing zeal for the preservation of the friendship and trust in marriage and thus for the preservation of both partners' happiness in life. This happiness they watch over for their husbands and themselves from a wisdom inherent in their love (CL 155r:3).
     [From a Memorable Relation in which angel wives disclose secrets concerning conjugial love:] Some of the secrets so transcend the wisdom of you men that the comprehension of your intellect cannot grasp them. You men vaunt yourselves over us on account of your wisdom, but we do not vaunt ourselves over you on account of ours-even though our wisdom is superior to yours because it enters into your inclinations and affections and sees, perceives and feels them. [Being questioned as to how it is that they have this wisdom, the wives replied:] It is implanted in us from creation and so from birth. Our husbands liken it to instinct, but we say it comes of Divine providence, in order that men may be made happy through their wives (CL 208:2, 3).

     In order to prepare the way for an examination of these teachings, however, we need first to look at certain situations and concepts as a backdrop for our inquiry. Therefore I offer these preambles:

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Preambles
     1.     Prejudices arising from the complexities of modern living.
     2.     The predominance of the male in ancient and modern governments and in the judiciaries.
     3.     Concerning knowledge, intelligence, and wisdom.

     1. Prejudices. Until recent times there was a general prejudice that women were inferior to men intellectually. Then in order to restore justice to women the pendulum swung, not to its diametrical opposite, but to the extreme of asserting that the difference between male and female was physical only and not mental also. There developed the thought-now widely held in government, courts, and the media-that equality implies similarity, and this to the point of obliterating the distinction between specific functions suitable for men and functions suitable for women.
     One can detect critical consequences of this confused thinking. While covertly a mental distinction is perceived, it is at the same time overtly denied. First there is the undermining of the institution of marriage. Men and women no longer need each other more than men and men or women and women do. The physical distinction still remaining, however, the focus of attention flows to it. The opposite sex readily becomes no more than a source of pleasure. In this sphere, is there room for the love of offspring? Happily, there are still men and women in the decadent societies of our day who hold fast to and even fight for the order inherent in creation and ordained by the Creator, namely, the order of marriage and family. Nevertheless, insofar as we have accidental childbirths, unloved and insecure children, and single-parent families, there are bound to be visible consequences in the social and educational fields. And with no stable home, no safe haven from which to go forth in life, what is there to prevent crime for variety and a little excitement? In too many cases there has been no one to help the youngster develop a conscience.

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And the next generation will know the aftermath.
     Second, the idea of sameness readily sends women into the employment market to compete with men in areas that used to be theirs. This leads to unemployment for otherwise would-be male bread winners, which in turn spreads poverty and dependency. It leads also to homes where the career woman/mother of necessity has less time and energy for her children. Again, children are deprived; and again the next generation is affected.
     To stop the whirl of this vicious circle it is necessary to think in terms of "ought to be," not in terms of what is. It is for the New Church to begin the restoration of the conjugial relationship, the family, and the home.

     2. The predominance of the male. In view of the prejudices just discussed, it is interesting to note that there is still, as there has always been, a universal predominance of the male in both government and the judiciary. This is discussed in an article in National Review, Nov. 11, 1996, pp. 32ff, by Steven Goldberg, Chairman of the Department of Sociology at the Cornell University of New York.

     The article is headed "Is Patriarchy Inevitable?" and subheaded, "Men rule not because they are told to, but because it is their nature to do so." Goldberg writes: "It is always the case that the universal institution serves some need rooted in the deepest nature of human beings. In some cases the explanation of universality is obvious (e.g., why every society has methods of food gathering). But there are other universalities which are apparent though without any obvious explanation. Of the thousands of societies on which we have any evidence stronger than myth-there is no evidence that there has ever been a society failing to exhibit three institutions: 1. Primary hierarchies always filled primarily by men . . . . 2. The highest status roles are male . . . . 3. Dominance in male-female relationships is always associated with males."

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     The author discusses these "institutions" individually, and then continues: "Over the past twenty years, I have consulted every original ethnographic work invoked to demonstrate an exception to these societal universalities . . . . Today no serious anthropologist is willing to claim that any specific society has ever been an exception."
     Then there follow some statistical examples: "Scandinavian nations, which have long had government agencies devoted to equalizing women's position, are often cited by social scientists as demonstrating modernization's ability to override patriarchy. In fact, however, Norway has 454 municipal councils; 443 are chaired by men. On the Supreme Court, city courts, appellate courts, and in Parliament, there are between five and nine times as many men as there are women. In Sweden, according to government documents, men dominate 'senior positions in employer and employee organizations as well as in political and other associations' and only five of 82 directors of government agencies, nine of 83 chairpersons of agency boards, and nine per cent of judges are women. One may, of course, hope that all this changes, but one cannot invoke any evidence implying that it will."
     I cite the above article because in terms of modern realities it bears out the point, universally taught in the Writings, that the male is truth and the female is good. From this distinction it would follow that the male mind is generally better suited for positions involving the administration of law. But that men so often apparently put self above use, and so fail to live up to their calling, this is another matter. Still, it is striking that trends prompted by inherent nature can prevail against the intention of modern thinking. On the other hand, as I hope to demonstrate, this truth-oriented masculine nature by no means implies that the mental capacities or the functions (uses) of women are inferior.

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     3. Knowledge - Intelligence - Wisdom. These three are vertical. Knowledge is on the lowest level of the natural mind, intelligence on the middle, and wisdom on the highest. These levels exist equally with men and women. Yet, though they are of equal value with each sex, they nevertheless differ in kind with each. This should be understood to mean that each level, or degree, of the mind is viewed from a different perspective with men than with women. "Indeed, masculinity in the male is masculine in every part, even in the least part of his body, and also in every idea of his thought, and also in every bit of his affection. So, too, with femininity in the female" (CL 33, emphasis added).

     The distinction is most clearly seen on the level of wisdom, less clearly on that of intelligence, and the least clearly on that of knowledge. If the male is intrinsically truth-oriented and the female will-oriented, it would follow that the male would be primarily concerned with the means leading to the end, and the female primarily with the end that is reached through means. Or in terms of uses: The male would tend to explore, discover, and analyze the way or the structure by which a use may be performed, while the female would long for and perceive the use, and then adopt whatever means is offered her for getting it done, without caring much for the analysis of the means. That is why if a man should present a woman with an invention, her primary question is not, How did you do it?, but What is it for?
     Now a good storehouse of knowledge is often mistaken for intelligence, or even wisdom. That is why a woman, especially if she has a retentive mind and is therefore in possession of a big storehouse, rebels at any suggestion that the man-just because he is intellect-oriented-is more intelligent than she. And every one knows, or can know, that woman can be just as knowledgeable as man, and that a girl in school can "out-smart" a boy, especially in certain areas of study, just as often as a boy can do the same to her, especially in areas closer to his particular bent. The point is that it is not the mass of knowledge that is different with men and women-the cortical cells where memory is stored are every bit as good with both sexes.

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The difference is in the way knowledge is viewed in the perspective of usefulness or application.
     Surely, Marie Curie was every bit as knowledgeable a chemist and physicist as was her husband Pierre; but look how she used it! Tons of material passed through her kettle in experiment after experiment, until there was a shiny blotch of radium on its inside wall, while husband Pierre Curie helped along with his formulas.
     I might even illustrate the point by stepping down from these splendid scientists all the way to my wife and myself. I was building a two-car carport for us adjacent to our house and needed a large frame, about 20'x20', in which to pour concrete for the floor; and I needed a right angle against the top of the driveway. So, using the Pythagorean Theorem, I measured three yards as a base and put sticks at either end; then cut two strings, four and five yards respectively, and tied each to one of the sticks. But before I could bring the other ends together to get my angle- being careful not to stretch the strings unduly-my wife came out with a newspaper, opened it up, laid one side along the base, and said, "There's your right angle." The worst was that her angle was probably more accurate than mine, even though mine was by far the more accurate, in fact accuracy itself, in theory!
     And now a word about intelligence and wisdom. Perhaps intelligence may be broadly defined as an insight into relationships and an ability to draw conclusions from these. Again, the essential difference between the male and the female would show, on the one hand, in the analysis of the means leading to the good end (the use), or, on the other hand, the perception of that use, and sweeping through the means without any unnecessary analysis.
     And what is wisdom? With men, wisdom is a universal life-view that for the sake of use embraces and calls to itself all the knowledge and reason (or insight) of the mind (see CL 130 & 183:3); while wisdom with women is the wisdom of conjugial love, which wisdom "enters into the inclinations and affections [of husbands] and sees, perceives and feels them . . . [and then] discreetly moderates them" (CL 208:2, 3 & 188).

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Wives know the male wisdom, for they "conjoin themselves with it inwardly" (CL 163). But more about feminine wisdom later.
     These preambles extended much beyond my intention, but the rest of the sections in this study can be briefer. The preambles are meant to say: Let us rise above the deep confusion in our day with regard to the distinction between the sexes; let us recognize that men predominate in areas of truth and law, and women in the fields of conjunctiveness: bringing people together: parents and children, people and people, government and lawful living, and, yes, truth and good (a good that is truth applied to life); and let us recognize that knowledge is not intelligence, nor intelligence wisdom.

Distinctiveness and Conjunctiveness
     
     Distinction, the way the Lord has ordained it, is for the sake of conjunction. And what is distinctive with each sex, and how the Lord leads by means of it to a full conjunction between a man and a woman, is shown in a comprehensive summary in HH 369 (emphasis added): "Everyone, man or woman, enjoys understanding and will; but with the man the understanding predominates, and with the woman the will predominates, and the character is determined by that which predominates. Yet in marriages in the heavens there is no predominance; for the will of the wife is also the husband's will, and the understanding of the husband is also the wife's understanding, since each loves to will and think as the other, that is, mutually and reciprocally. Thus are they conjoined into one. This is actual conjunction, for the will of the wife enters into the understanding of the husband, and the understanding of the husband into the will of the wife, and this especially when they look into one another's faces . . . . From all this it can be established what the conjunction of minds is that makes marriage and produces conjugial love in the heavens, namely, that one wishes what is his own to be the other's, and this reciprocally."

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     This, then, is heavenly marriage; and it is conjunction into one by sharing what is distinctive with each. What is distinctive with the man is the dominance of the understanding, and with the woman the dominance of the will.
     And let us now examine "Teachings A" and "Teachings B" to see specifically how this conjunction is brought about-and, we may add, is ever renewed and deepened.
     I think we will find, first, that the element that brings about the conjunction of the male and the female is use; and, second, that conjunction between conjugial partners is on two levels, that is, in their internal minds and their external minds at the same time.
     Use is the end in view, for use is the child of the marriage of good and truth. And what this marriage is like we can best see if we think of the joining of a good will with a true understanding, and this first within one individual mind. A good will has for its ruling love uses to the neighbor-the individual neighbor and the collective neighbor; and this good will, in looking to uses, loves to think that they are from the Lord, that is, that He has enkindled the heart and enlightened the mind. Indeed, this good will would not dream of attempting real usefulness without consulting the truths in its own understanding, which means consulting the teachings of the Word as these have been received and understood. When therefore the will and the understanding cooperate in this manner in the performance of use, then they are married. This is the marriage of good and truth in an individual. That will and that understanding also remain in a permanent state of marriage if they dedicate their life to use, even when they are not in the very act of use.
     Now the special province with the male, thus with the husband, is truth and understanding, and that of the female or wife, good and will. But truth and understanding must precede good and will in point of time; for truth shows the way and describes the way.

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Therefore the good of the wife that is being shown the way is a good that submits itself and follows. It is a good of a lower degree, while the truth that leads is of a higher degree. "The heavenly marriage is that of good with truth and of truth with good, yet is not between good and truth of one and the same degree, but between good and truth of a lower and of a higher degree; that is, not between the good of the external man and the truth of the same, but between the good of the external man and the truth of the internal" (AC 3952).
     "Truth of the external man" is truth of the memory, while "truth of the internal man" is truth understood. It is this latter truth that enters into marriage with the good of the external man, which is the good of use.
     This is comparable to the seed and the soil; also to the human seed and the ovum. The seed in each case is what triggers the action-vegetation or conception. The soil for the vegetable kingdom and the ovum for the human kingdom wait in readiness and respond when touched. It is also like theory and practice. Practice is theory in act.
     The conjunction of truth in the internal and good in the external is said to be "that which makes the marriage" (ibid.). It makes the marriage because marriage is marriage when there is a joint product. In the world the child is the primary "product," but in both worlds use in general, born through cooperation, is the product.
     But now good and truth are specifically assigned to distinct individuals, good to the wife and truth to the husband. And CL 32, speaking of husband and wife, shows the same pattern as AC 3952 just quoted: "The inmost quality in masculinity is love, and its veil wisdom . . . while the inmost quality in femininity is that same wisdom, the wisdom of masculinity, and its veil the love derived from it." As in the Arcana teaching, good is subordinate, so here love is.

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     So also in CL 33: "A male is born with an affection for knowing, understanding and becoming wise, while a female is born with a love for joining herself to that affection in the male."
      Here, throughout, the underlying law is that truth should lead good. But this is when the reference is to good in action. This good is called the good of truth, and it is a good that is described as truth in will and act (AC 5295).
     Since the male is born "intellect-oriented" and the female "will-oriented," it follows that in marriage and in the home the husband-father is the proper leader in matters of truth and the understanding of it. Therefore, also: "The church is formed by the Lord in the man, and through the man in his wife." But note further, that "after it has been formed in the two together, the church is complete, for then a full conjunction of good and truth takes place, and the conjunction of good and truth is the church" (CL 63).
     This order is also recognized at weddings in heaven, where the representation of bridegroom-husband and bride-wife after the weddings themselves changes to reflect the above relationship. Newcomers in the world of spirits had been invited to attend such a wedding, and afterwards a wise man there instructed them: "The bridegroom-now the husband-represented the Lord, and the bride-now the wife-represented the church, because weddings in heaven represent the marriage of the Lord with the church . . . . But after the wedding the representation changes, for then the husband represents wisdom and the wife represents the love of that wisdom . . . . Consequently, after the wedding the two together, the husband and his wife, represent the church" (CL 21:1, 2).
     At this point we pause for a moment to observe that the New Church is a spiritual church. A celestial can be built into it, but it is spiritual in that it will always be led to good by means of truth-the truth of revealed doctrine. It will not be led to good by an immediate way. It is a city, not a garden.

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The streets of it are of gold nevertheless, as is the city itself, because the good of love is to infill its truths and its doctrines. The New Church is to worship a visible God, our Lord in His Divine Human, a God visible to an understanding that has broken away from the will of the proprium. And over the gate of the temple in heaven that represented the New Church these words were inscribed: "Now it is permitted to enter intellectually into the arcana of faith" (TCR 508:3). This is why the understanding, indeed an understanding enlightened by the sun of heaven, must lead the way in this church. For it is in an understanding separate from the proprium that the good of love, thus a new will, can be created by the Lord.
     It is this new will-the will glowing with the good of love-that is at the heart of Teachings B. We are now moving from the external mind to the internal-from the natural to the spiritual. What thus comes before us is the higher plane of conjunction in a conjugial marriage. We recall that there are two planes. But insofar as regeneration progresses and so the conjugial develops, so far the two planes, or degrees, fall into correspondence, the one with the other, and a unified male mind and a unified female mind are formed. These two minds constantly intertwine, so that the understanding of the husband becomes also the understanding of the wife, and the will of the wife also the will of the husband. The two minds, and the partners who possess them, love to will and think each as the other.
     In this order the wife is the recipient of the husband's understanding, and the husband the recipient of the wife's will. For as the husband receives the love of becoming wise immediately from the Lord (see CL 32), and thus the wife the fruits of it from the Lord through him, so the wife receives conjugial love immediately from the Lord (see CL 161, 188), and the husband the flow of it from the Lord through her, she the loving recipient of the truth of wisdom, he the grateful recipient of conjugial love.
     And what is the conjugial? It is the love of conjunction, so that good shall not be separate from truth, or will from understanding, or love from wisdom, or wife from husband.

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What results is "a union of souls, a conjunction of minds, an effort to conjunction in breasts, and a consequent effort to conjunction in body" (CL 179, emphasis added). This in terms of HH 369 is actual conjunction-yet ever formed and ever living from what is distinctive with each partner.
     This is what we find in Teachings B. Here we are not faced with the formation of the minds of the two sexes, but with the mind that has been formed with each-not with the process of formation but with the result. This parallels the state of reformation and the state of regeneration. First truth leads to good in the mind; then, as the external mind learns to do what is good, the Lord brings out the remains in the internal mind and builds- creates-out of them a new will, which now reaches out for all the truths in the mind which rise to its bidding. There was the formation of the good of truth; then there springs forth the truth of good.
     This is the order with both men and women: only the primary agent in the reforming state is the male (in a true marriage the husband), and the primary agent in the regenerate state is the female (in a true marriage the wife).
      Thus in the state of regeneration, in which the conjugial blossoms, the female mind is elevated into higher warmth, and there receives more and more of the conjugial which the Lord from creation has woven into women in "their inmost being" (CL 188).
     From this love, as it develops with them, wives "see, perceive and feel whatever comes from the will of their husbands" (CL 155r:3); and thus they possess "a wisdom superior to theirs," because "it enters into their inclinations and affections and sees, perceives, and feels them" (CL 208:2).
     Thus the two sets of teaching are one. The first sets forth the formative period, the second shows the nature of the state formed.

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And we see that the leadership of the Lord through the male is open, while His providing through the female is secret.

Feminine Wisdom

     The following teachings will further describe the nature of the feminine mind and its wisdom:
     "Females or women signify the affections of truth" (AC 3974, emphasis added). The question was asked: "What does a wise man or wisdom have to do with a woman?" And the answer: "What is a wise man or wisdom apart from a woman or apart from love?" (CL 56:2) "Women are born forms of love, while men-with whom they unite themselves in order to be loved in return- are receivers" (CL 160). "A wife is given a perception of her husband's affections, and also the highest prudence in knowing how to moderate them" (CL 166). "Wives keep this perception in them hidden and conceal it from their husbands for reasons that are necessary in building conjugial love, friendship and trust, so that they may have bliss in living together and happiness of life" (CL 167). "A wife's conjunction with her husband's intellectual wisdom exists inwardly, because this wisdom is characteristic of men, and it ascends into a light in which women are not. This is why women do not speak from it . . . . Nevertheless, wives still have these things with them inwardly" (CL 165). "There is a conjugial sphere which flows in from the Lord through heaven into each and every thing of the universe, extending itself even to its lowest forms . . . . This sphere is received by the female sex and communicated through it to the male sex" (CL 222, 223). "An intellectual form cannot grow warm with conjugial warmth from itself but only from the conjunctive warmth of one in whom that warmth has been implanted by creation" (CL 223). "Affection does not separate itself from the thoughts with women as it does with men" (CL 169).

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     "The elevation into higher warmth in women is an elevation into a more and more chaste and pure conjugial love, and this continually toward the conjugial which from creation is innate in their inmost being" (CL 188:2). "The wisdom of wives is superior to that of men because it enters into their inclinations and affections and sees, perceives and feels them . . . . But from a zealous love for their happiness and at the same time their own . . . they moderate them so discreetly that, whatever their husbands wish, pleasure or will, they accede to it by allowing it and enduring it, and only directing it when possible, but never compelling" (CL 208:2).
     So to sum up: The Divine influx of warmth and light out of the Sun of heaven is the same with all, but the male and female minds respond distinctly and differently to the touch of that influx. The male mind, when elevated, receives more of Divine light, which in itself is Divine Wisdom, and the female mind, when elevated, more of Divine warmth, which in itself is Divine Love. The result is a male wisdom that operates openly, even as light is visible, and a female wisdom that operates secretly, even as warmth is invisible.
     As for intelligence and knowledges, the measure of the one and the amount of the other are not prejudiced by sex, but they are viewed differently, depending on whether the innate disposition is intellect-oriented or will-oriented.
RETURN TO THE PROMISED LAND 1997

RETURN TO THE PROMISED LAND              1997

     The new book by Grant Schnarr (quoted in the March issue) is now being sold in book stores. If you ask for it at a book store (ISBN 0-87785-179-4), it helps create a demand for the book.

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REVIEW 1997

REVIEW       Rev. Ray Silverman       1997

     (Continued from the April Issue)

Returning to the Source: The Way to the Experience of God, by Wilson Van Dusen, Real People Press: Moab, Utah, 1997, 280 pp. [ISBN 0-911226-37-0]

     Van Dusen speaks of God being in us. Understandably, passages like these will raise New Church eyebrows, especially when the teaching of the New Church is so clear about what Swedenborg calls "the detestable false doctrine that God has infused Himself into men, and that he is in them" (DLW 130). But before you allow this prejudice to deter you from enjoying the good things that Van Dusen wants to offer, consider the larger context of that passage from the Divine Love and Wisdom:

Let every man guard himself against falling into the detestable false doctrine that God has infused Himself into men, and that He is in them, and no longer in Himself; for God is everywhere, as well within man as without, for apart from space He is in all space; whereas if he were in man, He would be not only divisible, but also shut up in space; yea, man then might even think himself to be God. This heresy is so abominable that in the spiritual world it stinks like carrion (DLW 130, emphasis added).

     In looking at the whole passage we can see Van Dusen's comment in a different light. It is not wrong to believe that God is in man, for He is. This becomes a false doctrine only when it is believed that God is in a person and no longer in Himself. It doesn't take the reader long to realize that in talking about God being in a person, Van Dusen does not mean that God is no longer in Himself. In fact Van Dusen could not be more clear about his belief that God is everywhere present, in all things at all times, and that, most deeply, only God exists:
     
I once had an awesome vision from which I came back with the total and absolute certainty that only God exists . . . . I somewhat fearfully revealed to my dinner guest, the late Alan Watts, that I had been shown only God exists. He said I was very fortunate to have the vision that the Hindus and the Buddhists seek. I felt much relieved by his saying this.

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I was in accord with ancient tradition (p. 29).

     The decision to deliberately seek mystical experience was something that Van Dusen made rather early in his life: "In my own experience," he says, "I recall the very moment when, as a boy, I came into the [mystical] experience for the umpteenth time and resolved to seek it rather than to wait to stumble upon it again" (p. 236). What are we to say about this? We know that the teachings of the New Church frequently warn of the dangers associated with seeking visions, communicating with the dead, and other occult practices. Is this in fact what Van Dusen is advocating?
     Quite the contrary. In fact, Van Dusen assures us that although he is a spiritual seeker and enjoys the direct experience of God, he is not a spiritist: "For the most part I am not one to seek signs. I have seen people become foolish in seeking a sign in every passing cloud. The real, which we each are, is really sign enough in itself" (p. 170). He also is aware of the teachings that emphasize that visions and signs compel belief and therefore are contrary to God's leading:

One aspect of the Divine is that, by its nature, it chooses to reform people through their own volition. This makes most of its interactions with people gentleness itself. You are left in freedom to accept with thanks, to take all credit, or even to curse the Source. It will not use major visions to enforce your belief, because that would violate your freedom. It is Freedom Itself that created and respects your freedom (p. 213).

     And he cautions us to be wary of visions in which we have meetings with spirits, especially those which create a sense of superiority:
     
If a Westerner meets spirits and ancestors in visions, I would immediately check its fruit. If a vision makes him feel superior to others, then it is a different and dangerous process. Heaven is a kingdom of uses; of what joins people together.

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Hell is a kingdom of splits and divisions created by isolated and impoverished egos (p. 221).

     It is this idea of uses that is the touchstone for Van Dusen's entire work. In most of his previous work he has been a leading proponent for seeing "uses" as a way of personal and spiritual development. The mystical experience in itself is not an end. Rather it is one of the stages in the spiritual process. Ultimately the mystical experience serves to lead us back into life with fuller awareness, deeper love, and greater resolve to serve others unselfishly. Van Dusen writes:

The ultimate result of the mystical experience is represented in the ox-herding pictures as returning to the marketplace with helping hands. The great mystic doesn't glow in the dark or do amazing wonders. He is not proud; she is the simple one, doing what he/she can. See how many there are. Enlightenment is an exuberant expression of Life which further defines itself. Swedenborg described this in his beautiful doctrine of heaven as a kingdom of uses. Heaven is a society where each finds their love of the life and fully lives out their uses, working each in their own way to aid the society, where the joy of one is the joy of all (p. 257).

     Van Dusen shows that in seeking mystical experience we do not lose our ability to be useful in society. In fact, it can help us to be more useful. Before the experience we chopped wood and carried water. After the experience we will continue to chop wood and carry water-but we will do it in a new way, with a new spirit, and with greater joy.

One Way or Many Ways?
     
     It is a little confusing that Van Dusen subtitles his book "The Way to the Experience of God." One would expect that he might have subtitled it "Many Ways to the Experience of God," or "Some Ways . . ." or "A Way . . . . " But "The Way . . ." does sound a bit presumptuous. This is especially confusing since Van Dusen, who has spent most of his professional life as a champion of religious tolerance, would be the last person to advocate one right way.

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He writes:

The main emphasis of the world's mystical literature is on ways to finding God. Very often an adept finds God by a way and describes that way as an appropriate one for all mankind. Individual differences in relation to ways is hardly known. So much depends on the nature and quality of one's effort that I am convinced that the dumbest procedure on earth, sincerely applied by a contrite seeker, could work well. . . . In effect this whole book is about ways (p. 258, emphasis added).

     The confusion is cleared up, however, when the reader comes to understand that Van Dusen is looking at The Way within the many ways. Among the many ways are: The Way of the Book; The Way of Prayer/Reflection/Meditation; The Way of a Mantra; The Way of Church Services; The Way of Identification with God; and The Way of Use of Ordinary Experience. But underlying and encompassing them all is what he calls "The General Way"-and this is what he is referring to when he speaks of "the way to the experience of God." In describing this General Way, he identifies the following essentials:

     They are seeking God.
     1.     They choose or stumble on some avenue or way.
     2.     They find God actually entering their life and instructing     them.
     3.     They remain open to discovery (p. 265).

     Of special interest to the New Church is what is called "The Way of the Book," for this was Swedenborg's method:

Swedenborg followed several ways, including dream interpretation. But when he read the Bible as though God were present in it, and speaking to him, this approach must have suited him best, because he abandoned every other way and kept to this way the rest of his life (p. 156).
     
     When Swedenborg found that the Lord could speak to him directly through the Word, he spent the rest of his life pursuing and developing this method.

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"It is through the Word," Swedenborg said, "that the Lord is present with a man and is conjoined with him, for the Lord is the Word, and as it were speaks with the man in it" (SS 78). At one point he felt so strongly about this approach that he claimed that the Lord speaks to man nowhere else except through the Word: "There [in the sense of the letter of the Word] and not elsewhere is the Lord present with man, and enlightens him, and teaches him the truths of the church" (SS 53, emphasis added). Van Dusen describes this as "The Way of the Book":

In this way, the seeker takes a book as itself revealing God, reading and reflecting on what the book says as though God is present and aiding them. Any book that the person feels is sacred will do. Swedenborg read the Bible in this way, Buddhists have used Buddhist texts, and the Koran is appropriate for Moslems . . . . This method requires only an initial faith that God is present and will reveal wisdom through the volume at hand. I know of no instances in which the volume was other than religious (p. 261).

Beyond Ego: Being Yourself

     One of the most remarkable, yet simple, discoveries that Van Dusen made is that self-discovery and the experience of God are really the same process. "It is a clever design that we must know ourselves to find God," he says (pp. 266-267).
     However, the road to self-discovery involves the giving up of the false self (ego) so that we might find our true self.
     In regard to the ruling love Van Dusen cites Swedenborg's True Christian Religion:
     
A man's very life is his love, and such as is the love, such is the life; in fact, such is the whole man; but it is the dominant or ruling love which makes the man . . . . A man's character is entirely such as is the ruling principle of his life. By this he is distinguished from others, and according to it his heaven is formed if he is good, and his hell if he is wicked.

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It is this which constitutes his will itself, and his nature, for it is the being (esse) of his life. It cannot be changed after death, because it is the man himself (TCR 399).

     When we are involved in what we love, we do not think about reward, about self, about time or effort. We become one with the work; the labor is of love; and no matter how hard or difficult it may appear from the outside, inside there is all grace and ease. Van Dusen writes:

The easy, egoless way is very like enjoying any form of art, or anything higher. In enjoying a symphony you aren't concerned with yourself. There is just the wonder and pleasure of the music. By giving it your full attention the music lives in you. It is quite the same with the Divine (p. 257).

     Like the sea bird, which Van Dusen describes so beautifully, we are called to rise above the limitations and distortions of ego, and to experience the life that God intends for us. That life will inevitably involve our inmost love-our divine endowment-and in following that love we shall discover that our very nature is synonymous with the Divine in us.

Conclusion

     In his foreword to the book, publisher Steve Andreas writes: "Each time I have edited a section of this book, I have felt nourished, quieted, lightened, cleansed, and refreshed. Whenever I have put these ideas into practice, my life has become easier and more interesting and enjoyable in a quiet and fundamental way." I have had the same experience. I am grateful to Wilson Van Dusen for showing us how to find gold in the midst of everyday life, how to return to the source, and, above all, how to be Real People.
     
     Rev. Ray Silverman

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SWEDENBORG'S TESTIMONY ON WHAT HE DID NOT READ 1997

SWEDENBORG'S TESTIMONY ON WHAT HE DID NOT READ       Editor       1997

     As noted last month, a British historian has asserted that Swedenborg read the works of Jacob Boehme. When asked directly by Dr. Beyer about this, Swedenborg wrote: "I have never read them" (Sept. 25, 1766).
     A few months later a list of questions was passed to Swedenborg. "Several questions have been put to me," he wrote in February of 1767. One was about the writings of Boehme. "I have never read them, and it was forbidden me to read dogmatic and systematic books in theology before heaven was opened to me . . . . " (We will mention in a note the possible time of this forbidding.)
     Now, Swedenborg did correspond with Friedrich Oetinger, who was a student of the works of Boehme. Having gone over that correspondence with this question in mind, I would like to share some of the things Swedenborg wrote. There was no allusion to Boehme, and it is remarkable that Swedenborg should rhetorically ask, "Who has known anything concerning man's life after death?" Some of the things written to Oetinger are fairly well known, and so they should be.
     Swedenborg speaks of his recent publishing of the work Apocalypse Revealed "from which it can be clearly seen that I speak with angels; for without revelation, not the least verse in the Apocalypse can be understood."
     "I can solemnly bear witness that the Lord Himself has appeared to me, and has sent me to do what I am doing . . . . Who has heretofore known anything concerning . . . the spiritual world, or concerning heaven and hell? Who has known anything concerning man's life after death? Must all this and much else lie hidden from Christians forever?

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     "These my writings concerning the New Jerusalem cannot be called prophecies but revelations" (Sept. 23, 1766).     
     In a later letter: "I have spoken three times with John, once with Moses, a hundred times with Luther who confessed that, contrary to the admonition of an angel, he had adopted faith alone solely for the sake of a separation from the Papists; but with angels I have spoken now for 22 years, and am speaking with them daily. These the Lord has adjoined to me.
      . . . I was introduced by the Lord first into the natural sciences and thus prepared, and this from the year 1710 to the year 1744 when heaven was opened to me" (Nov. 11, 1766).
      Note: It is said above that Luther was warned by an angel. See the end of Divine Providence 258 where it is said that "he was warned by an angel not to do it."
     Note: When was Swedenborg forbidden to read certain things? In the large Continuing Vision book published by the Swedenborg Foundation I have suggested that this happened when Swedenborg was fifty-six years old, for he noted at that time a sign that "I ought not to contaminate myself by reading other books, treating of theology and such subjects" (page 337 in the article "The Pivotal Change in Swedenborg's Life").
FEW THINGS IN THE BOOK CONJUGIAL LOVE 1997

FEW THINGS IN THE BOOK CONJUGIAL LOVE       Editor       1997

     The book Conjugial Love was intended not to be so big that it would tire the reader (see CL 209). There are indications that there are many things on this subject not made known. Consider for now the following:
     
Angel wives greeted Swedenborg, saying they had expected him to come to learn one more arcanum concerning conjugial love. Swedenborg replied, "Why do you say one when yet I have come here to learn many?" (CL 208) On a previous occasion they had wished to tell Swedenborg more, but could not because a dove at their window had flown away. We assume that the sign came from a higher heaven.

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An angel from the highest heaven said, "In our heaven there are more such arcana than in other heavens" (CL 43).     

     A chapter in this work ends with Swedenborg's being instructed by an angel about the meaning of a palace and its relation to conjugial love. "He wished to recount still further particulars . . . but he said, 'Enough for now. First investigate whether these concepts are beyond people's general comprehension. If they are, what is the use of saying more? On the other hand, if they are not, more will be disclosed another time'" (CL 270).     
END OF THE WORLD 1997

END OF THE WORLD       Editor       1997

     We would like to quote from an appealing little pamphlet of ten pages entitled Relax, It's Not the End of the World. Rev. Frank Rose does a good job of reassuring, explaining with a touch of humor in accompanying cartoons.

It is important to understand that when the Lord prophesies the end of the world as a future event, He is talking about another such end of an era, a consummation of an age, not the end of the planet . . . .

Let us look at the expression: Heaven and earth shall pass away (found in Matthew 24:35). Once again we find that this image is in Old Testament prophecies as well-as in Isaiah 51:6, talking about the heavens vanishing. The idea of a new heaven and new earth is found not only in the New Testament (Revelation 21:1) but also in the Old Testament (Isaiah 65:17, 66:22). The earth usually refers to the peoples on the earth, and their religious condition. And heaven refers to the inner state of the people. The end of the world, and heaven and earth passing away are talking about changes in religious institutions and the spiritual state of people . . . .
     
The world, heaven and earth all passed away two thousand years ago with the coming of Christ, and a new heaven, new earth and new world were started.

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Why should it be any different at the Second Coming? . . . .
     
     What about the Thousand Years?

There is an expectation that the year 2000 is somehow involved in the end of the world.

This seems to be based on the twentieth chapter of the Book of Revelation, although the chapter says nothing about the end of the world. It is said that Satan would be bound for a thousand years and that some reigned with Christ for a thousand years (Revelation 20:2-6). It also says that Satan will be released from prison after the thousand years were over. The book ends with a description of the holy city New Jerusalem descending from heaven, and the creation of a new heaven and earth.

Those Christians who feared that the world might come to an end in the year 1,000 were clearly mistaken. Chapter 20 of Revelation does not mean that the world would come to an end in a thousand years although many people thought that was precisely what it meant. In these calculations two important facts are overlooked.

One: When the Bible uses the word thousand it rarely is meant to be an exact number, no more than it is with us when we say: "There are a thousand things that I have to do before Sunday," or "I've told you a thousand times not to exaggerate." It just happens that in ancient times the largest number for which they had a name was 1,000. So when they wanted to refer to some long period of time or some huge amount they would say a thousand.

When Winston Churchill gave his famous Battle of Britain speech, he said: "If the British Empire . . . should last for a thousand years, men will say 'This was their finest hour.'" If someone from the crowd had asked-"When will this thousand years be up?," Churchill might have managed a weak smile or heavy frown. He did not expect people to take that number literally.

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We still use that kind of expression, though since we have much larger numbers with names we might say a million years-or even a billion or a trillion, just to make a point.

Two: If the number 1,000 were to be taken literally, there would still be the question, when do you start counting? The people who got nervous when the year 1,000 arrived assumed that it was a thousand years from the birth of Christ. Unfortunately, because of calendar alterations over the centuries they were about four years too late. One thousand years after the birth of Christ was probably 996 A.D. Most scholars say that Christ was born four or six B.C., which means that in this calendar Christ was born Before Christ. If it was thought that Jesus was referring to a time one thousand years after He made this comment, that would have been fulfilled in about the year 1030 A.D. But He specifically told them that they were not to try to calculate this. "Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh" (Matthew 25:13-see also Matthew 24:36-44, 50; Mark 13:30-33; Luke 12:39-46).
HUMAN RACE WILL NOT CEASE 1997

HUMAN RACE WILL NOT CEASE       Editor       1997

     Since the day of the Last Judgment does not mean the destruction of the world, as was demonstrated in the last chapter, it also follows that the human race will continue in existence, and reproduction will not cease.
          Last Judgment 6 (Chadwick translation)

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WOMEN WHO PREACH 1997

WOMEN WHO PREACH       Gail Walter Steiner       1997

Dear Editor:
     I want to thank Rev. Dr. Jonathan Rose for his clarification of Spiritual Diary 5936 in the February issue of New Church Life entitled "Women Who Preach," and to respond to Rev. Walter Orthwein's article in the April issue entitled "Preaching by Women." It is interesting to see how much liberty was taken by former translators to fill the gaps in the original Latin text to make sense of a sketchy statement. Perhaps it made sense to early translators, set in their particular culture and decade, to say that "woman belongs to the home." In today's world and in many cultures such a statement does not make sense.
     But what is even more interesting to me is why, for so many years, the emphasis in the opening phrase, "Women who think . . . in the way men do," has never been placed where it apparently belongs-namely, on in the way men do. Women, being completely feminine, cannot think, preach, behave, or even throw a baseball "in the way men do." Does that mean they shouldn't do those things in the way women do? What Swedenborg seems to be saying is that if women try to act like men, they'll go crazy. Women can act only like women; it is impossible to do otherwise.
     As Dr. Rose says, to interpret this passage in the traditional way, without the emphasis on "in the way men do," implies that women shouldn't even think about religious things, which is in direct conflict with New Church teachings encouraging people to think for themselves and move from historical to genuine faith.
     Mr. Orthwein is right when he says that the issue of women preaching cannot be resolved "one passage at a time," that it must be discussed "in light of all the relevant teachings."

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There are many issues involved, including the role of preaching. The duties of a priest are to "teach the truth and lead to the good of life" -teaching is only one part of the job; perhaps it could even be considered the "masculine" part of the job. Maybe the unique perceptive qualities women have would be well used in "leading to the good of life," the "feminine" part of the job. What would it look like if every New Church society had two "ministers"-a man who did the preaching and a woman who nurtured the congregation (not every society could afford to pay for two ministers, but the job could be split)? There would be plenty of room for women's special gifts to be used in the leadership of a congregation.

     Referring to the traditional interpretation of the SD passage, Mr. Orthwein states that, "Until recently I think the church as a whole saw this and was agreed on it, the women as well as the men." I do not think this is true. I know many women who, even as young girls, were bothered by this church's policy about women in the priesthood, women who felt called to be ministers but either abandoned their dreams, left the church, or changed their idea of what a minister was to fit their calling. As an ANC College student, I was called a "heretic" because I confessed my ambition to be a minister in the New Church (I soon abandoned that!). Just because there hasn't been much public discussion about this topic in the church until recently, it doesn't mean that people have been in agreement. For decades prior to the Civil Rights movement in the United States, black people sat only in the backs of buses and gave up their seats to white people-this does not mean they were in agreement with the policy that kept them at the backs of the buses.
     I agree with Mr. Orthwein that "times change and the church must change with them. Let's just be sure that each change is for a good reason . . . . " I hope we can continue to explore this issue and be open to the Lord's leading.
     Gail Walter Steiner
     Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania

239


TEMPTATIONS, a Book by Basil Lazer 1997

TEMPTATIONS, a Book by Basil Lazer              1997


     
     
     Announcements





     
     Published in Australia, this excellent book will soon be available from the General Church Book Center.

241


Notes on This Issue 1997

Notes on This Issue              1997

     
New Church Life

June 1997

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     "The book of Lamentations is not a book we should overlook because we might think it too sad and depressing. Yes, it talks about sad and depressing states. But it is a book about life. It is a book about our lives. . . " (p. 249).
     It is quite possible that upon reading what Douglas Taylor says in this issue (p. 251) you will conclude that you have been mistaken in past efforts to tell people about the Second Coming. If so, think of future opportunities, especially as the approach of the year 2000 gets people thinking about eschatology.
     This year the editor of NCL spoke at an elegant banquet in Orange County, California. It was encouraging to meet new people interested in the Writings. Their enthusiasm is contagious. One person told me how she discovered the New Church, and she has consented to have part of that story appear in this issue (p. 277).
     It was our intention to print in this issue the rest of the article on choosing a married partner. It did not fit, and we will conclude it in July.
     Dr. Kurt Simons alerted us to two notable articles in scientific publications. See pages 272 and 283.
     Rev. Terry Schnarr leaves Australia this month. An address he gave there compared the 19th of June to a wedding anniversary (see p. 273).
     This month summer camps begin. There is one in June. There are three in July and several in August (see p. 283).
     A Book about Dying: Preparing for Eternal Life has been published by the Swedenborg Foundation. Dr. Robert Kirven (author of Angels in Action) has produced an excellent book that deserves wide circulation.

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BOOK OF LAMENTATIONS 1997

BOOK OF LAMENTATIONS       Rev. PATRICK A. ROSE       1997

"How lonely sits the city that was full of people! How like a widow is she who was great among the nations! The princess among the provinces has become a slave!" (Lam. 1:1)

     Jerusalem, the capital of ancient Israel, was a most beautiful city. It was set in the southern part of the land, surrounded by mountain ranges on every side but the southeast. If you stood in that city and looked around, you would see these mountain ranges all around. And if you then turned to the southeast, you would see a gap in the mountains where you could look out over the wilderness toward the far distant mountains of Moab.
     Mountains in the Word symbolize the Lord and the love that comes from Him. It was as if Jerusalem, surrounded by these beautiful mountains, was being protected by the Lord's love. The Psalms speak of this protection: "As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds His people from this time forth and forever" (Ps. 125:2). And the city of Jerusalem was indeed protected, and in a special way, for it was a special city. Jerusalem, after its complete conquest by King David around 1000 B.C., became the capital of the Holy Land. David's son, King Solomon, then built the temple there, and Jerusalem thus became the center of worship for all the Israelites.
     It is important to realize just how fundamental Jerusalem and the temple were to the Israelites. Sacrificial offerings were at the center of their worship, and these offerings could be made only in the temple. And so it was that every adult Israelite, and in particular each adult male, would regularly travel to Jerusalem, to the temple, to sacrifice to the Lord. They were commanded to attend three annual festivals, though in practice many of them would attend only the Passover.
     From all across the land, pilgrims would regularly journey to this holy city to worship Jehovah. In the Psalms King David speaks of this annual pilgrimage: "I was glad when they said to me, 'Let us go into the house of the Lord.'

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Our feet have been standing within your gates, O Jerusalem! Jerusalem is built as a city that is compact together, where the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord, to the testimony of Israel, to give thanks to the name of the Lord" (Ps. 122:1-4).
     This is why Jerusalem in the Word symbolizes both worship and the doctrines which teach us how to worship (see NJHD 6). Indeed the New Church takes its very name from Jerusalem. The New Church, the New Jerusalem, consists of new doctrines which teach a new way of worshiping the Lord.
     Jerusalem, then, was a very beautiful city, and a symbol of something very holy: the worship of the one true God, and indeed, the promise of heaven itself. Its name, Jerusalem, means "Habitation of Peace." It was a sanctuary where people could gather to give thanks to, and to draw close to, God Himself.
     Eventually, though, this sanctuary, this beautiful city, this center of worship, was to fall into the hands of enemy soldiers. During the reign of Solomon, who built the Lord's temple in Jerusalem, the kingdom of Israel reached its greatest height. After Solomon, though, the kingdom began to decline. Following his reign, the kingdom of Israel split into two. Jerusalem then became the capital of only the two southern tribes, Judah and Benjamin. Eventually, as the result of their repeated sins, the northern tribes were carried away captive to Assyria by the Assyrian army, never to return (see 2 Kings 17:6; this happened ca. 722 BC). The southern kingdom continued intact for somewhat more than a hundred years, but eventually Judah itself would also fall prey to foreign soldiers, and the city of Jerusalem would be plundered by the Babylonians.
     The fall of Jerusalem was a terrible event. The Babylonian army of King Nebuchadnezzar besieged the city and conquered it. The temple of the Lord was ransacked. The king and his family, all the nobles, all the craftsmen, and anybody the invaders thought useful, were taken away to Babylon.

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Only the poorest people were left to fend for themselves in this once beautiful but now devastated city (see 2 Kings 24). For a while the Babylonians set over the Jews a puppet king by the name of Zedekiah, but Zedekiah himself proved rebellious. Once again the city was besieged. The city ran out of food, and within the walls of Jerusalem there was the most terrible famine. Jerusalem fell again, and this time the city was broken up, and the temple and most buildings of significance were set on fire. Zedekiah's sons were slain in front of his eyes. Then the king himself was blinded, and he was taken to Babylon (see 2 Kings 25; this happened ca. 586 BC).
     The fall of Jerusalem involved a great deal of terrible human suffering, both physical and emotional. Jerusalem, the "Habitation of Peace," had become a site of terrible destruction. For those who lived there, and for those who worshiped there, it was a most horrible tragedy.
     Now a great deal of the horror and dismay that accompanied the fall of Jerusalem can be seen in a small book of the Word called Lamentations. The book of Lamentations was written by the prophet Jeremiah, and in fact immediately follows the book of Jeremiah. Jeremiah is generally known as the prophet who, more than any other, prophesied gloom and doom. From his name comes the English word "jeremiad," meaning a tale of woe. And Jeremiah indeed talks of many sad things because he saw many sad things.
     It is important to realize that Jeremiah not only witnessed the fall of Jerusalem, but had also, earlier, been given the task of warning people of this impending destruction. The Lord had chosen him to warn the people of Jerusalem of the consequences of their actions, and to implore them to change their ways before it was too late. If they would return to following the commandments of the Lord, they could remain in the land that the Lord had given them (see Jer. 7:7). But all that Jeremiah said-all his warnings-were met with contempt.

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At one point he was commanded by the Lord to write down on a scroll all that he had been told, warning of what would happen to Judah if they did not repent. Jeremiah had his scribe Baruch write down all he dictated, and then he had Baruch read it before all the people gathered in the temple. Baruch was called before the king, and when the king heard the warning words of Jeremiah, he cut the scroll into pieces and threw the pieces into the fire on the hearth (see Jer. 36:23). Jerusalem sealed its own fate by ignoring and despising the warnings the Lord gave through Jeremiah. But even then, Jeremiah did not cease his warnings. He warned the people to leave the city before it was too late, and to surrender themselves to Babylon rather than face famine, sword and pestilence. Jeremiah was accused of weakening the resolve of the people, and he was lowered by ropes into a dungeon in which there was no water, just mire. Jeremiah sank into the filth, and he, the prophet of the Lord, was left to die of hunger.
     Jeremiah was later rescued from that dungeon, only to witness the very destruction that he had prophesied. And the sadness, the terrible sadness that he experienced, is recorded in the book of Lamentations. Lamentations is a small book, just five chapters in length. It is, unquestionably, the saddest book in the entire Word. In Latin its name is Threni, from a Greek word meaning "wailing"-the Book of Wailing, of Weeping, of Lamentations. In Hebrew it was called Ecah. Ecah is the first word of the book in Hebrew, and it means, simply, How? "How lonely sits the city that was full of people!" And from that very first verse throughout all five chapters, this small book of the Word is filled with the poetry of sadness. In a way it might be said to be a litany of tears. The verses have a structure that reflects the Hebrew alphabet. For example, in three of the chapters each verse begins with a different letter of the alphabet, in order. It is almost as if, in English, we were to say, "A is for anguish, B is for Babylon, C is for crying, D is for death," and so on. And the images this book presents are awful: of infants and children starving in the streets, of young women being raped, of young women and young men being slaughtered with the sword.

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     Now if we read the book of Lamentations, it is easy to start feeling depressed. It is a book that is filled with sadness, with lament, with suffering. It describes pain, physical pain, emotional pain. It is perhaps a book of the Word that we would rather avoid. And yet it is a book of the Lord's Word, and it has been given to us so that we can read it and learn from it, and in the process draw closer to the Lord Himself.
     Most of us have a strong tendency to avoid thinking about things that are sad, things that are unpleasant. Some even think that the main purpose of religion is simply to cheer people up and make them feel better about themselves and about life. Certainly the message of religion is a happy one, a very happy one indeed. Religion has as its goal nothing less than everlasting happiness. But a person will not arrive at such happiness by avoiding the more unpleasant aspects of life. For each one of us there are things we must face, things we must pass through if we are eventually to reach heaven.
     Now there are many hard things that a person will experience during the course of an average lifetime. And some people will experience not just hard things, but tragedies-events that bring them close to complete and utter despair. Indeed, if the truth be known, all of us at times pass through such dark tunnels, times when we wonder whether our hearts will ever again be filled with sunshine and with happiness. Not all of us will experience and face external tragedies. But within our spirits, deep within our minds, such states of despair are inevitable as we walk the path toward heaven.
     What is the darkest state, really, that we can ever experience? It is to think and to believe that somehow we are doomed to hell. It is to come to doubt that we will ever manage to reach the gates of heaven. We see too much evil, too much selfishness, too much lust, too much worldliness, within our hearts.

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And if the truth be known, we are scared, scared that perhaps we are just too wicked to be saved.
     Such a state is portrayed by the fall of Jerusalem. Jerusalem, after all, represented the things of the church. It was at Jerusalem that men would gather to worship and draw close to their God. And we know that the Lord's church is essentially not something outside of us but within us. Within our hearts, within our minds, there need to be the things of the church: truths we have learned from the Word, and the determination and humility to obey these truths. And it is interesting that very often Jerusalem, or the church, will appear to prosper and grow within us during the earlier states of our lives. As young people, as young adults, we can be very idealistic and enthusiastic about our religion. As we turn to the Lord and follow Him, there is within us this habitation of peace, this Jerusalem, where the Lord dwells within our hearts.
     It is only later that we realize, sometimes with horror, that within us there are also spiritual enemies. The mighty empire of Babylon represents the love of dominion, the love of self. And we slowly come to see that there is in fact a great deal of selfishness - so much concern for ourselves and for what we want- in all that we do. And as we peer into our spirits, we no longer see Jerusalem as a beautiful city built high upon the hills. Rather we see it in ruins. We realize much of what we thought we believed, much of what we thought we loved, lies broken within us.
     It is a terrible thing to see the church itself falling apart within us. We can find ourselves questioning whether or not we love the Lord. We can find ourselves even doubting whether He exists. We feel a sense of disgust at our evils, our sins. Deep down inside of us everything spiritual seems to disintegrate. We feel confusion, anxiety, pain and fear within our hearts. And we are convinced that we are doomed to hell as too wicked to ever be saved. Jeremiah wept bitterly at the fall of Jerusalem. And in our hearts we do the same: we weep at the way in which the church seems to have fallen apart within us.

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     But we need to remember something. Despite everything, the Lord still loves us. He is still with us. Indeed, when we go through states of such deep despair, He is then closer to us than at any other time: watching over us, protecting us, sustaining us.
     When Jeremiah saw his beloved city in ruins, he did not give up hope. Despite all the sadness, all the tragedy, recorded in the book of Lamentations, Jeremiah still speaks of hope: "'The Lord is my portion,' says my soul, 'Therefore I hope in Him!' The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him. It is good that one should hope and wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord" (Lam. 3:24-26). And indeed there was reason to hope. The Lord had not forgotten Jerusalem. About fifty years later the city would start to be rebuilt and the Jews would start returning home from Babylon.
     And so too with us: we should not give up hope. States of spiritual despair, states of spiritual temptation, might feel as if they are going to last forever, but they do not. Rather, they are a stage through which we pass- and through which we must pass - on our way to heaven.
     We can never fully accept the Lord as our Savior without experiencing spiritual despair. The experience of despair, you see, teaches us something very important. In states of despair we feel condemned. We feel as if we are going to go to hell. We get to sense and to experience what life would really be like without the Lord. We come to realize just how weak we are all by ourselves, and how much we truly need Him-how much we need His salvation. This is why the Lord allows us to experience despair- total utter despair. And this is why the Lord, and the Lord alone, later brings us out of despair-so that we might experience His salvation, might experience the power of His outstretched arms.
     The book of Lamentations is not, then, a book we should overlook because we might think it to be too sad and depressing. Yes, it talks about sad and depressing states. But it is a book about life. It is a book about our lives, and about the course that our lives will take as we walk the path to heaven.

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It is a book which helps us see that the Lord is not with us only when things are going well and when we are feeling happy. He is with us through the hard times as well. He is with us not only when we feel good about ourselves. He is also with us when we feel totally wretched and depressed about ourselves and about our own wickedness. He is with us when we weep from despair. He is always with us because He loves us, and He cares, cares deeply, about the state of the church within us. And if we trust in Him, and wait for Him, and obey His Word, then in time He will restore and He will rebuild Jerusalem-the Habitation of Peace-within our hearts. He will deliver us from destruction and from despair and He will save us and bless us with happiness and with peace forevermore.
     Do not be defeated by despair. Do not give up. The Lord is with you wherever you go. He is with you wherever you are. And if you hope in Him, then He will save you. Jerusalem will be rebuilt. The Habitation of Peace will be restored.
     " . . . be glad and rejoice forever in what I create; for behold, I create Jerusalem as a rejoicing, and her people a joy. I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and be glad in My people" (Isaiah 65:18-19). Amen.

Lessons: Lamentations 1:1-16; John 16:16-24; AC 2694:2 ITALIAN VERSION OF CONVERSATIONS WITH ANGELS 1997

ITALIAN VERSION OF CONVERSATIONS WITH ANGELS              1997

     A publisher in Rome is undertaking to print an Italian version of this book, which has been among the recent best sellers of the Swedenborg Foundation.

251


HOW TO PRESENT THE SECOND COMING 1997

HOW TO PRESENT THE SECOND COMING       Rev. DOUGLAS M. TAYLOR       1997

     The subject of the Second Coming will no doubt be on our minds as we approach the nineteenth of June-New Church Day. But for most of us it is not something we like to talk about- except among ourselves! We are afraid of bringing ridicule down upon ourselves and even upon the church.
     Many Christians do not want to talk about it either, or even think about it. The only people insisting strongly on the certainty of the Second Coming are the Fundamentalists, including "Adventist sects" such as the "Seventh Day" Adventists. They are certainly not embarrassed to talk about it; they all feel (and have felt for centuries) that the Lord will return physically any day now.
     But for most Christian denominations it is simply not a respectable doctrine. They would rather forget it. (They would prefer to let sleeping dogmas lie!) Even such a doctrinal church as the Roman Catholic Church is embarrassed by it. I once asked one of their official representatives if they had any literature on the subject. After a nervous, embarrassed chuckle he replied: "Well, no. We don't have much to say on that." The non-fundamentalist Protestants seem to think of it only when asked about it. Perhaps "think" is too strong a word; they talk about it unthinkingly. To think about it would be to face some formidable intellectual difficulties if the Biblical statements are taken only literally. Rather than do that, some prominent "scholars" have recently concluded that the Lord never promised to come back. The whole idea is considered wishful thinking on the part of some devout Christians who interpolated it later into the record!
     Their embarrassment is quite understandable. But what of ours? Why should New Churchmen feel embarrassed by the Heavenly Doctrine's view of the Second Coming? In itself it is quite reasonable; in comparison with any of the alternatives it makes pre-eminent good sense.

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     However, it does depend upon an acknowledgment of the internal or spiritual sense of the Word. For what else is the Second Coming of the Lord but His revelation of the Heavenly Doctrine, the doctrine they have in heaven, the spiritual sense of the Word (see NJHD 7)? Consequently, knowing that we believe there is such an internal meaning throughout the Scriptures is a prime prerequisite for people to make sense of our doctrine of the Second Coming. An inquirer needs that knowledge at the very least. Without it he cannot hope to see its reasonableness.
     We can present the New Church idea of the Second Coming in either a reasonable or an unreasonable way. To achieve the reasonable way, here are some suggestions:
     1. Never begin by saying it has already happened. That is the surest way to invite ridicule! Just consider: it is almost certain that inquirers have in mind the usual ideas about the Second Coming. As soon as the words "Second Coming" are uttered, certain images inevitably rise up in their minds-graphic pictures of the sun and moon not giving their light; the stars falling "from heaven" (by which they understand "the sky"); earthquakes everywhere; rampant pestilences and famines; in short, chaos and catastrophe. Then you say to them, "We believe the Lord's Second Coming has already taken place"!!!
     No matter what you say after that, you have lost your audience. They simply do not hear you, despite your eloquence and sweet reason. You might as well be talking to the wind. You mean one thing; they think another. Was there ever a better example of a complete breakdown in communication?
     At best your statement will seem incomprehensible, bewildering; at worst, ludicrous. Your friend-former friend-will be saying to himself: "How could any sane person believe that? How could all those catastrophes happen with practically no one knowing about it? How did they sneak it past the newspaper reporters and historians? How is it the world's best kept secret?"

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     Some few people may voice their puzzlement or dismay. But most people, out of friendship, politeness or pity, will keep their thoughts to themselves-at least until out of earshot! They may murmur something innocuous like, "I see. That's very interesting." But they will not mean it. They have already consigned us to the same pigeonhole as the Jehovah's Witnesses.
     Meanwhile, because we have heard no audible objection, we naively conclude that we have succeeded in arousing some interest. Worse still, we come to believe that our method of introducing the subject is a good one. So we continue with it, alienating still more inquirers, and wondering why they never again raise the subject of the New Church. We may even console ourselves with the opiate that "the world isn't ready for the New Church," or justify our approach with such convenient thoughts as these: that we must not hide our light under a bushel, that we must be direct and not devious, that we must not fly under false colors, and that they can "take it or leave it."
     But let us face the harsh reality: this is the worst possible way of introducing the subject. The charitable way is to present it in "receptor" terms-that is, in such a way that the other person may receive, beginning with his ideas.
     2. Begin with the idea that a prophecy is never understood until fulfilled. Take, for example, the Lord's first coming, His coming in the flesh. Its purpose was not understood even by the disciples until after His ascension. Although the Lord made it abundantly clear to them that His was not an earthly kingdom, and thwarted an attempt to make Him a king (see John 6:15); although He strongly denied that He was a judge or arbitrator in worldly matters (see Luke 12:14); although He spoke repeatedly of the kingdom of heaven: they still persisted in believing Him to be a national political savior and redeemer, who would deliver them from the hated Roman yoke (see Luke 24:21). It was only afterwards that they understood why He said that His kingdom was not of this world (see John 18:36).

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It was only afterwards also that they understood and believed His prophecies about being put to death and rising on the third day (see John 2:18-22).
     Introduce here the possibility that we today may also have misunderstood the prophecies about the Lord's Second Coming. The leaders of the Jewish Church applied the Messianic prophecies to tangible, worldly matters. Could it be that the leaders of the Christian Church have made a similar mistake-by applying the prophecies of the Second Coming to happenings in the world of nature, to physical upheavals? Perhaps there is another way of understanding them.
     3. Point to the strong similarity of the language and imagery used in both prophecies.
     It is most enlightening to note that virtually the same words that the Lord used in reference to His second coming He had also used centuries before in reference to His first coming, His coming in the flesh.
     In Joel, where the subject is the coming of the Lord to judge the Jewish Church, these words occur: "The sun and the moon will grow dark, and the stars will diminish their brightness" (Joel 3:15). These words were never literally fulfilled with the coming of the Lord. In fact, were not the wise men guided by a star? But they were certainly spiritually fulfilled. Recall how the Lord denounced the leaders of the Jewish Church for lacking the warmth of love (the sun) and the light of a true faith (the moon- a reflection of the sun). They were obviously "in the dark" about spiritual things; the Lord called them "blind leaders of the blind" (Matt. 15:14) and "blind guides" (Matt. 23:24). Recall also the story of Nicodemus, "a teacher of Israel," who came to the Lord "by night"-in a state of great obscurity, in fact, spiritual darkness (John 3:1-12).
     If the Old Testament prophecies were referring to the spiritual state of the Jewish Church, perhaps we should regard the New Testament prophecies as a commentary on the state of the Christian Church at the coming of the Lord.

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This thought is reinforced by the Lord's prediction that at that time "the love of many shall grow cold" (Matt. 24:12), and His rhetorical question: "When the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?" (Luke 18:8)
     Only if your inquirer has followed you affirmatively so far should you advance to suggestion 4.
     4. Now discuss the difficulties of understanding the prophecies literally. The earth would be utterly destroyed if the sun did not give its warmth and light, if the stars (some of which are larger than this planet) were to fall to earth, or if the moon turned to blood (see Rev. 6:12).
     For many centuries people have feared this "end of the world," which it certainly would be if literally fulfilled. But what would be the purpose of it? Why would the Lord wilfully destroy the earth which He had created? Where is the logic of it?
     It is also useful to explain that the Bible never speaks of "the end of the world" but "the end of the age" or era. The word translated "world" is aion, elsewhere always translated as "an age" or "for ever," as at the end of the Lord's Prayer. The translators evidently let their theological beliefs twist their translation.
     Besides, what are the clouds upon which the Lord is to come? Matthew says they are the "clouds of heaven" (Matt. 24:30), that is, not the clouds of earth. But what are the "clouds of heaven"? And if the Lord comes on heavenly clouds, how would we see Him? Yet "every eye shall see Him" (Rev. 1:7), despite the complete absence of light from the sun, moon and stars. And so on!
     When love and faith provide no light, it is imperative that the Lord intervene. The last time He did so, He came in Person to set things right. But could He come again in Person unless He were born again of woman? The order that He has imposed on His creation is that in order to be alive on the physical plane, man must be born of woman. Yet nowhere does He ever even remotely suggest that He would be born of woman again in order to come back again in Person.

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     5. Quote two key overlooked passages. Both occur in chapter 16 of John. The first is: "I still have many things to say unto you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the spirit of truth has come, He will guide you into all truth" (John 16:12, 13, emphasis added). This clearly states that the Lord had more to say, and promises a later, more spiritual revelation.
     The second passage shows the nature of the promised revelation: "These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs in figurative language, but the time is coming when I will no longer speak unto you in figurative language, but I will tell you plainly about the Father" (John 16:25). The new truth was to be in the form of a revelation, an unveiling, of the parables, the coming of "the spirit of truth." Every New Church person really needs to be able to quote these two passages-even if he or she thinks there will never be an occasion to use them.
     They can be introduced by something like this: "I often wonder why more attention hasn't been paid to two passages in John's gospel. They tell us more plainly than any others about the Second Coming."
     Having seen Scriptural evidence that the Lord is to come as Divine truth rather than in Person, we can now understand what is meant by "the Son of Man."
     6. Show that it is the "Son of Man" who is to come. This is obvious from the gospels. Matthew, Mark and Luke all quote the Lord as speaking of the coming of the Son of Man, not the Son of God. (For an enlightening discussion of the clear distinction between these two names of the Lord and their usage, see The Doctrine of the Lord 19-28.)
     "The Son of Man" always means the Divine truth. You can show this by referring to the prophets who are very frequently addressed as "Son of Man," especially Ezekiel and Daniel. They relayed or re-presented the Word of the Lord which came to them. So they represented the Word or, what is the same, the Divine truth.

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     The Lord, of course, was the Divine truth itself, "the Son of Man." His coming as the "Son of Man" specifically reinforces the truth we have already shown-suggestion 5-that He was to come back as the Divine truth.
     His first coming was mainly a revelation of His body and something of His mind; in His second coming He revealed His mind.
     7. What should we be looking for?
     You are only preparing the way for a more detailed presentation of the subject. Be satisfied with introducing the idea that perhaps we should be looking for a new revelation of Divine truth, a revelation that will unveil the parables. Do not speak of it as having been given already; just introduce the concept as a possibility and let the idea germinate.
     Later you may be able to pose the question, "What kind of man do you think the Lord would use for making this revelation to today's world?" You will be surprised at how accurately your friend will describe Emanuel Swedenborg.
     
     * * * * * * *
     
     "Since the Lord cannot manifest Himself in Person, as shown just above, and nevertheless has foretold that He was to come and establish a new church, which is the New Jerusalem, it follows that He will do this by means of a man who is able not only to receive these doctrines in his understanding but also to publish them by the press. That the Lord manifested Himself before me, His servant, and sent me to this office, that He afterward opened the eyes of my spirit and thus introduced me into the spiritual world and granted me to see the heavens and the hells, and to talk with angels and spirits, and this now continuously for several years, I affirm in truth; as also that from the first day of that call I have not received anything whatever pertaining to the doctrines of that church from any angel, but from the Lord alone while I have read the Word" (TCR 779).

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PRINCIPLES RELATING TO THE SELECTION OF A MARRIAGE PARTNER 1997

PRINCIPLES RELATING TO THE SELECTION OF A MARRIAGE PARTNER       Rev. GEOFFREY H. HOWARD       1997

     (Part 2)

     The Relationship between the Love of the Sex and Conjugial Love

          In itself the love of the sex is a roving love. Every person receives it, or comes to receive it, a man in one way and a woman in another. The Lord implanted it to serve a twofold use. The first was that by its means a husband and a wife may become more and more conjoined in the marriage of good and truth and thus strengthened in the conjugial covenant. Its second use was that through its means the procreation of the human race was provided for.
     Love of the sex is in itself as a servant. It can become subject to the influence of the Lord operating through the heavens. Then it serves as the ultimate means for the expression of conjugial love in marriage, and also the orderly means for the procreation of the race. It can also be made subject to the influence of the hells, in which case it serves the lusts of adultery and lasciviousness. We have been given the freedom to use it either way.
     If a person wishes to be led by the Lord, and wishes to be led into a legitimate and lovely companionship with one, then love of the sex is one of the important means through which the Lord is able to lead to the eventual discovery of a true partner. With such, therefore, "the first sensation of the conjugial . . . pertains to love of the sex" (CL 150). It "does indeed commence from love of the sex, or rather by means of that love, yet it does not arise from it" (CL 98). "Conjugial love is in love of the sex as a gem in its matrix" (CL 97).
     A further distinction is given that "love of the sex is love toward many of the sex and with many; but conjugial love is love toward one of the sex and with one" (CL 48). This is an important distinction to make. Because conjugial love can exist only in marriage with one, then when a potential partner is found, an attraction is felt for that one only.

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"Who does not then look upon other women with a loveless nod and upon his own with a loving one?" (CL 58) These first states provided by the Lord are of great significance and importance.
     When a young man and a young woman first fall in love, they enter into a tender and blessed state. They feel strongly attracted to each other. The reason is that "love of the sex which is unchaste is then cast out, and implanted in its place resides love of one of the sex" (CL 58). The Lord shows us much in these first states, that is in the states of courtship, betrothal and in the early days of marriage. The glow that is then mutually felt "emulates love truly conjugial and presents it to view in an image" (Ibid.). It is thus a borrowed state, one that "emulates" and presents to view a glorious future. Yet this is not love truly conjugial in itself. That is given later as the state of the church becomes sown in the heart of each partner.
     Although the sense of exhilaration felt in those first states is beautiful and tender, the Writings describe them as states "of heat not tempered with light" (CL 137). And so we are warned that "the first heat of marriage does not conjoin, for it partakes of love of the sex, which is a love belonging to the body and thence to the spirit." They further add that "what is in the spirit from the body does not stay long, while love which is in the body from the spirit does" (CL 162). The love of one of the sex is most keenly felt at that time, yet it is "of an ardor belonging to the body not yet moderated by the love of the spirit" (CL 145). Unless the couple grows together in their love for the Lord and in their love for spiritual values, their love for each other will wane. This is well known both from experience and from revelation. The first fires of love "kindled at the time of betrothal and flaming at the time of the wedding gradually cool down . . . [if there is] a discrepancy in internal affections" (CL 275). This can, and does to some extent, occur with the majority of marriages.

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To prevent the invasion of deeper states of cold, we must remember the teaching that love truly conjugial can be given to "those only who desire wisdom and more deeply enter into it . . . . [Conjugial love] arises in proportion as wisdom with the man advances its step and comes into the light, wisdom and [conjugial love] being inseparable companions" (CL 98). That this spiritual advancement might be the goal of both partners is why it is so vitally important for time and freedom to be given in coming to know the form of mind and the quality of affection that motivates us, as well as our prospective partner. We advance in wisdom to the degree that we apply the Lord's truths to our life. We do this by seeing His principles and by shunning what is evil as a sin against Him. To the degree that a young man and a young woman hold these ideals, to the same degree may their future marriage blossom and flourish. They may also come to an ever-deepening perception of the interior blessedness of love truly conjugial.

     Similitudes and Dissimilitudes (Social, Mental and Spiritual Compatibility)

     So far we have spoken mostly about how the conjugial principle is awakened in a man, how it first manifests itself through his love and affection for one of the opposite sex. We have also mentioned the importance of a compatibility existing between them on the plane of the mind. We will now elaborate on this important subject further, drawing forth the Lord's teachings pertaining to it.
     Internal compatibility is spoken of in the Writings under the title of "similitudes." The word "similitude" is not commonly used in modern language. "Compatibility" is more frequently used but the meaning of this word is somewhat broad. The Oxford English Dictionary defines the word "similitude" as "a person or a quality resembling, or having the likeness of, some other person or quality; a counterpart." Dissimilitudes refer to the opposite.
     The importance of similitudes between married partners is generally acknowledged in the world at large.

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In the Writings we find a wealth of information on the subject. They provide us with a remarkable analysis and insight. They tell us that "similitudes and dissimilitudes are internal and external" (CL 246). We will now consider each of these aspects in some detail.

Internal Similitudes

     To gain an idea of internal similitudes, let us first consider the many different affections and thoughts that flow into our minds. If we reflect upon them we will soon realize that they are of varying quality and degree: for example, the thoughts and the affections that are aroused by the things pertaining to this world; the kind of work that we might do, the recreational activities we enjoy, the preferences and tastes for various things we might want to acquire; all of these evoke a certain quality of feeling or affection. These are all of a somewhat external nature.
     Above these, on a higher plane, there are other more intangible things that evoke far more profound and sacred feelings within us. The people whom we love and respect awaken affections of a deep and more interior nature. We try to please them. We are careful not to harm them so that our affections for them will not be strained. The inmost affections of all pertain to our love of the Lord and our commitment to Him, for all good loves we receive are from Him. Thus the Writings unequivocally state that internal similitudes "take their origin from no other source than religion" (CL 246).
     The Word of God teaches us clearly that the highest principle that we should strive to serve is the will of the Lord, our Creator. We, in our fallen condition, are born without any knowledge or perception of the Lord's existence. We have to learn about these things from His Word. As we thus come to know and revere the Lord, so do we become gifted with a perception of His presence. We come to know Him as the source of all spiritual love. Thus a person's religion may be defined as his personal response to the Lord as manifested in the quality of life he leads.

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Internal Similitudes and Religion

     If a husband and wife desire to be affected by conjugial love, then it is vital that they both come to know the Lord and look to Him with similarity of conviction and purpose. For this reason the Writings tell us that internal similitudes "take their origin from no other source than religion" (CL 246). A person's religion is the way he leads his life out of deference to his God. His honor of the Lord should command his highest allegiance. If the Lord holds that place with both married partners, and they feel a commitment to the way of life He has revealed, then the possibility exists for conjugial love to be gradually implanted in their hearts.
     The importance of married partners sharing the same religious ideals is strongly emphasized in the Writings. The reason for this is that conjugial love "accompanies religion, and since religion is the marriage of the Lord and the church, it is the commencement and ingrafting of [conjugial] love" (CL 531). Since conjugial love is the inmost of all loves, and is the inmost gift which the Lord can give, it can be received only in a mind that is formed by the teachings of a "true religion" (CL 333). The threefold Word has been provided as the means whereby a true religious life can become established. From a true religion we come to know the evils in ourselves which are to be shunned, for evils bar the presence of the Lord and of His love. When these are shunned, the way is opened for the Lord to enter. The things pertaining to our religion are therefore sacred, and occupy "the highest seat in the mind" (TCR 601).
     If marriages are contracted without a commitment to a common religion, then the very ground upon which the inmost conjunction of minds depends does not exist. The couple can then be joined only by "external affections which [indeed may] simulate the internal and consociate" to a degree (CL 277). However, external affections occupy the lower region of the mind only, while internal ones occupy the higher region. This means that in marriages where partners do not share a common religion, they can indeed be friends and companions, provided there is a common moral code to which they both subscribe and which they honor.

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But apart from a true religion they cannot come to know and fully appreciate their married partners interiorly. Religion alone opens the inmosts of the minds of each. Its truths give form to the interior things they hold to be sacred, enabling them to formulate something of the intangible nature of love into tender words, and gestures of meaningful expression. If partners share the same religious aspiration, then they feel desirous and confident to share the deepest treasures of the heart, for then they perceive that these things will be received and treasured.
     Thus, apart from religion the interior quality of a person's mind cannot easily be known. The Writings tell us why. "The internal affections, which belong to the mind, do not come to view, and with many scarcely a trace of them shows through; for either the body absorbs them . . . or, by reason of simulation learned from infancy, it deeply conceals them from the sight of others. By this means the one partner puts himself into a state of some affection which he observes in the other and attracts that affection to himself; in this way the two are conjoined" (CL 272). Without the ability to share religious values, the union of minds exists only in externals, on the plane of friendship and companionship. Under those conditions the real depth of inmost confidence, and of conjugial delight, can scarcely dawn.
     If then our goal is to enter marriage and to receive from the Lord love truly conjugial, it is apparent that the ground for internal similitudes must exist. Only by looking to the truths of religion and only by committing them to life may wisdom be implanted with a man, and the love of his wisdom be given to a woman.
     
Recognition of Internal Similitudes before Marriage
     
     How do these internal similitudes become recognized and known prior to marriage? The only way in which they manifest their potential for development is again through the truths of one's religion.

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Internal affections lie deeply concealed within the interiors of the mind. Before they become actually formulated into living states by the life of regeneration, they exist in the form of ideals-ideals which a person feels deeply within his own heart, ideals toward which he aspires. These are never easy things to talk about, for they are usually perceived as feelings which are deeply personal and private. In early maturity, though, they do exist as ideals. These are states that have not yet come into fruition. They have not been proven and tested by the real challenges of life. Inevitably for each young person, there lie ahead times of severe spiritual challenge, times when he will fail those ideals. If he does, he will feel disappointment and disillusionment within himself, but from his religious conviction he will turn again to the Lord and try again. Therefore, ideals together with a certain determination to live by them are vital to sound spiritual development.
     During the initial stages of courtship it is important to talk about our religious convictions, and also to share the many principles which the Lord has revealed in the Writings, especially those pertaining to courtship and marriage. If the attraction is deeply felt within the mind, conversation about these matters can only exalt and strengthen the basis for true spiritual love to develop. Adherence to the principles given will draw forth mutual respect. The Lord will fill any void that is felt with deeper and more lasting values. It will also provide a healthy climate of freedom, which is the only climate in which love can thrive.
     Conjugial love breathes of freedom. Undue haste, pressure, or compulsion are to be avoided, for these attitudes cause its sphere to become withdrawn. When tender states of love are being explored, the freedom of each must be carefully guarded and respected. Especially is this true of a woman. It is the part of a true gentleman to allow her to respond to him sincerely, according to the dictates of her inner perceptions.

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Thus when such things are shared, they must be shared freely and willingly. After due time for her deliberation has been granted, freedom must exist for the relationship to proceed further. If she feels uncertain, she should be granted further time. If she feels it is wrong, it may be necessary to terminate the relationship. Let us remember that in this important decision to marry, we must create a situation in which the Lord can lead us to see the internal similitudes which He alone provides; hence the vital importance of freedom.

Internal Similitudes Are Provided by the Lord

     Let us not fall into the error of supposing that just because a person subscribes to the same religious faith that that in itself implies the existence of internal similitudes. Let us again remember that a man is created to receive from the Lord a quality of wisdom which is unique. Similarly, a young woman is created with the potential of loving a specific quality of wisdom in her future husband, according to her innate affections. It is only when the sphere of a man's potential for wisdom and her matching love of that wisdom cohere that they begin for the first time to feel interior love.
     The purpose of courtship is to provide a free and wholesome relationship, enabling two young people to come to know each other in freedom, without obligation of any kind. This is to allow them to see, through the perception of spheres from each other, whether or not the Lord is truly leading them toward marriage.
     We are told that internal similitudes are provided by the Lord "for those who desire love truly conjugial" (CL 229). Those who hold this desire are such "who from youth have loved, chosen, and asked of the Lord a legitimate and lovely partnership with one, and who spurn and reject wandering lusts as an offense to their nostrils" (CL 49). As we shun such evils, we come to feel a deeper sensitivity for the interior blessedness of conjugial love. The Lord then affords a keener perception and recognition of those spiritual values which accord with our own internal loves.
     What a privilege it is to know that if we conduct our lives wisely, the Lord will lead us to find a partner with whom we may find internal compatibility in the inmost things of life.

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These inmost qualities come to light through the truths of our religion. The disposition to love the things of religion in a specific way "is implanted in souls, and through souls is derived from parents to offspring as a supreme inclination" (CL 246). Thus the potential for a man to receive wisdom, and for a woman to be drawn to love the wisdom he may receive as he regenerates, is an inclination that the Lord implants in the soul of each. It manifests itself in the form of a supreme inclination, that in time becomes mutually felt. Let us always remember that these internal similitudes assume their potential and are brought to recognition only by means of the truths of our religion.

External Similitudes

     As we have shown, a person's individuality exists firstly on the plane of his soul, and secondly through the internal form of his mind. These are two reasons why he receives the Lord's life in a unique manner. There is a further one. His individuality is extended into such things as belong to personality and disposition. These have their seat in the lower regions of the mind that are closer to the senses of the body.
     In considering the question of similitudes between prospective partners, their temperament, disposition and personality are also important issues to consider. The Writings likewise address themselves to those characteristics of the lower mind or animus, calling them "external similitudes." External similitudes pertain to the realm of external affections, by which "are meant the inclinations in the mind of each which are from the world . . . . They occupy its lower region while the former [internal similitudes] occupy its higher region" (CL 277). External similitudes are likewise vitally important to consider, since without harmony on this plane there soon will arise states of discord.
     As we have said, each person is a unique individual.

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His individuality is provided by the Lord through various channels, through the soul, through the heredity received from parents, through external influences from the environment, and through his own choices. The Writings therefore say that external similitudes "take their rise from connate inclinations" (CL 227), that is, those inclinations that are implanted in the soul. These supreme inclinations trigger our response to all that transpires in the mind, below the soul. Each of us therefore responds to life in a unique way. There is variety in our choices, and we feel preferences in everything that transpires. After birth, our external affections and inclinations become "insinuated chiefly by education, association with others, and the resultant habits" (CL 246).
     Let us therefore consider how education and association with others affect us and bring about a certain kind of manifestation in our habits and customs. Each of these things constitutes a broad subject to consider. Clearly their combined effect produces a significant impact upon the way we react to life.
     The concept of education encompasses not only our formal education in school. It includes all that we learn within the environment of our home and surroundings. When we are born, we know nothing. We first come to learn the meaning of love from interaction with our parents. During the early stages of life the mind is in an unformed state. It absorbs much from the general environment. It learns to imitate the form of speech peculiar to the home and country. The customs of the home become ingrafted as a way of life. Although from creation our individuality is unique, we nevertheless are greatly influenced by the things that happen around us. These influences, taught in the environment of the home, introduce into our conduct certain customs of behavior and manners. Good manners should constitute an expression of charity, of principles of consideration and thoughtfulness for others. Such externals are perceived as pleasing when seen in this light. Agreement of manners brings a sense of harmony in courtship and marriage.

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Conversely their absence or lack causes discord, and produces strained feelings, or even antipathy.
     In our formal education at school we are taught about things that are of immediate concern. We learn various skills and knowledges that enable us to function in an intelligent fashion. Education therefore opens the mind, and the increase of knowledge broadens our horizons. Through its influence we become aware of the wonders that exist in creation. It allows us to apply our loves and our energies to useful endeavors.
     Not to be forgotten is the importance of religious education in the home, at church, and in New Church schools. Religious education lifts the mind to horizons beyond this world and presents a higher purpose to life. We learn that the Lord's purpose in creation is the formation of a heaven from the human race. The goals of heaven then become the ultimate focus of our education. In regard to marriage, let us remember that in heaven a husband and a wife together form one angel.
     Education in general opens new horizons in the mind. Through its influence latent affections become awakened. Certain ambitions which pertain to our future aims and objectives are aroused. It is important to be able to share such thoughts and feelings in marriage, and this is far easier when there is a similarity in our educational background. Therefore similarity of education likewise pertains to the realm of external similitudes.
     A factor which further affects our "external affections and inclinations" is said to be "our association with others" (CL 227). When we are born into this world, our parents are the ones who have the most immediate and far-reaching effect upon us. The country in which we are born is composed of people bearing a certain similarity of purpose and disposition. We cannot help but take upon ourselves the national characteristics inherent in the land of our birth. The customs we were taught when we were young, the values and traditions of the land, all leave their mark upon our developing memory. A certain strength is perceived when others unite and celebrate events pertaining to our national heritage.

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All such experiences remain ingrafted upon our memory and leave us with a lingering sense of fondness. These are the remains of our childhood and of our youth which can never be eradicated. They leave us with a certain feeling of stability, for if they are memories of good and noble affections, they do in fact "remain" with us. Later the Lord calls them forth and works through them to lead us to pursue spiritual ideals.
     In other ways our association with others has a more immediate effect. The values which are held by the adults in our association carry with them a certain sphere. If their values are well founded in Divine principles from the Word of God, and also if these principles are reflected in their conduct, a sphere of strength and stability is perceived by the young whom they affect. If a husband and a wife have the spiritual and moral fortitude to submit themselves to Divine principles of order, then obviously these same principles become examples for their children to honor and follow. Children learn so much from the examples they see around them. Through the influence of a stable home, children learn social behavior. They learn to overcome selfish inclinations. They are taught manners and civilities which look beyond the interests of self to the well-being of others. These then become habits which are introduced into their conduct. When unselfish behavior becomes a practice that is learned, a child begins to feel acceptability from others. He then is in a position to enjoy the company of other human beings in a constructive and harmonious manner.
     If a child is raised in a home where these values have not been taught, his concern for himself will not be channeled and directed. As a consequence his efforts to find social acceptability will be more difficult. If bad habits are overlooked or remain unchecked, he will feel unsure within himself. As he grows up he will look at others and secretly feel envious of those who, in his eyes, seem more fortunate. If a person does not learn unselfish behavior in his childhood, he will certainly have to learn it in adult life, which is usually more difficult.

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His reliance upon the truth of the Word is then the only thing that can really help him overcome the lacks that might have existed in his former home environment.
     Our association with others obviously has a far-reaching effect in shaping our disposition and personality. A child who feels accepted and loved knows how to respond to others with love. As a result he will mature into a more stable person. He will have learned to subdue his proprial desires and will have been introduced early in life into unselfish behavior. The same experiences which made him feel secure will be those according to which he will strive to treat other people. Especially in regard to marriage, it is of vital importance that each partner know what it means to forget self and to think of the welfare of the other before that of self.
     Obviously these many factors are the very things which formulate our "resultant habits," our mannerisms and our general mode of behavior. They have a profound effect upon the shaping of our disposition and personality. The less concern there is for selfish interest, the more acceptable we become in the sight of another, and the easier we are to live with in our future marriage. The whole of life is really an exercise in self-discipline, in submitting the life we feel to be our own to the call of the Lord's will.
     Thus many of our loves are reflected in the things we do and say. External similitudes do not always manifest themselves in the face of a person. They do however become reflected in the habits and in the persuasions according to which we have been schooled and accustomed. Each one of us radiates "a spiritual sphere, being the sphere of the affections of [our] love . . . . [This] pours forth from every person and encompasses him. Moreover, this sphere implants itself in his natural sphere, being the sphere of the body" (CL 171). From this we can see that similitudes in externals are important factors in marriage. They either hinder or facilitate the expression of interior loves.

     (To be continued)

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TEMPTATIONS 1997

TEMPTATIONS       BASIL LAZER       1997

     (From the New Church Courier, December 1996)

     Many of you may have known the late Basil Lazer, who during his lifetime published a number of booklets on the Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg. Basil was an ardent reader of the Writings, and had a passionate belief in the importance of getting people to read these works. When he departed for the spiritual world several years ago Basil left a considerable sum of money to the church "for the purpose of propagating the Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg, including using the books that I have written."
     The trustees of the Basil Lazer Fund, nominated by Basil in his will, are Rev. Ian Arnold, Owen Heldon, and the pastor of the Hurstville Society, presently Rev. Terry Schnarr. The trustees, in carrying out the wishes of Basil Lazer, chose to republish his booklet The Origin, Significance and Purpose of Temptation, shortened to simply Temptations in the new edition. This book was considered to be the most practical of all Basil's books as it deals with a subject so central to bringing the truths of the Second Advent into people's lives. It has been commented that it is a useful companion volume to refer to again and again. The book will be helpful also to the reader who has time or inclination to read only one or two paragraphs at a time.
     This republished work is the culmination of over a year's effort, and the result is to transform the very plain booklet of the first edition into a quality publication. Dr. David Gladish, who had previously translated Swedenborg's works, notably Love in Marriage, was contracted to produce a new translation into more readable modern English. David had also revised Basil's commentary, and while still retaining Basil's thoughts and feelings, had revised the text to read more simply and is more in keeping with the updated translation. He did a wonderful job, and it is a great pity that he too passed into the spiritual world before the book went to press.

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     Equally important to the success of the work has been a new layout, striking cover and illustrations. This is the work of Donna Heldon, who graduated earlier this year with a Bachelor of Creative Arts from Wollongong University, majoring in graphic design. Donna was able to undertake this work as a final-year special project, for which she was awarded a high distinction.
     Donna has created a number of illustrations inspired from the text. These genuine artworks are quality prints from lino cuts and greatly enhance the attractiveness of the book. Another feature she has introduced is the use of "pull quotes," striking quotations pulled from the text and highlighted in large print throughout the book. These, along with the illustrations, are intended to catch the eye of those browsing through the book and encourage them to read further. Donna has given thought to every aspect of the layout. The chapter headings, the Arcana Coelestia references and the appendices are all artistically finished in a consistent and complementary way.?
NEUROSCIENTIST 1997

NEUROSCIENTIST              1997

     A recent issue (Vol. 3, No. 2, 1997) of The Neuroscientist has a six-page article entitled Emanuel Swedenborg: A Neuroscientist before His Time. Charles G. Gross says: "This article reviews Swedenborg's ideas on the brain in the context of 18th century knowledge and considers where they came from and why they were ignored." Quoting from Economy of the Animal Kingdom the writer says, "Swedenborg even outlines the pathway from each sense organ to the cortex in a totally unprecedented view that was not to reappear until well into the 19th century."
RETURN TO THE PROMISED LAND 1997

RETURN TO THE PROMISED LAND              1997

     This book by Grant Schnarr is selling well. (See the March issue, p. 136.) We hope to publish a review in the near future.

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IN OUR CONTEMPORARIES 1997

IN OUR CONTEMPORARIES              1997

     June 19th, A Wedding Anniversary?

     In the current issue of Theta Alpha Journal (an excellent issue), Rev. Terry Schnarr speaks of June 19th as of a wedding anniversary. Here are some excerpts:

     Just as we prepare ourselves for marriage and plan for weddings, so also the Lord prepared the human race to enter into a spiritual marriage with Himself. The Lord created the heavens and the earth so that there may be a heaven from the human race with whom He can be conjoined and have an intimate relationship.
     The Lord provided first the Ancient Word, and then the Word of the Old Testament to prepare for His first coming into the world. He came a second time, by opening the Word to reveal Himself and show us the process each of us goes through with Him.

     God's Divine love had no other end in view in creating the world than relating people to Himself and Himself to people, so that He might dwell with them. The reason why the former churches lacked [this possibility] is that the Most Ancient Church which existed before the flood worshiped an invisible God with whom no relationship is possible. The Ancient Church which existed after the flood did likewise. The Israelite Church worshiped Jehovah, who in Himself is an invisible God, but in human form . . . . This human form was a representative of the Lord who was to come . . . . [T]he Christian church did indeed with the lips acknowledge one God, but in three persons, each one of whom was singly or by Himself God . . . . They still don't know that the one God who is invisible came into the world and took on the human form, not only so as to redeem the human race, but also so that He might become visible and thus capable of being conjoined with the human race (True Christian Religion 786).

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     In the Apocalypse Revealed we read the following summaries of the hidden secrets contained in the visions recorded in the Book of Revelation:

     The Book of Revelation . . . from beginning to end treats of the last state of the church in the heavens and on the earth; and then concerning the Last Judgment; and after this of the New Church, which is the New Jerusalem. This New Church is the purpose of this work (AR 2).
     The Book of Revelation from beginning to end treats only of the state of the former heaven and church, of their abolition, and afterwards of the New Heaven and New Church and of their establishment, in which One God will be acknowledged in Whom there is a trinity, and that that God is the Lord . . . . Lastly, [it teaches] that the New Church, which is the New Jerusalem, will be the church of the Lamb, that is, of His Divine Human (AR 523).

     The Book of Revelation describes this new relationship as a marriage. John's visions describe, symbolically, the preparations the Lord made for His marriage with the human race. Now we can rationally understand what He will do and what we can do to develop our marriage together.
     Studying and applying the teachings of the Word is the absolute key to the marriage relationship we can have with the Lord. Therefore, the necessary personal preparation we must make before we are ready for the wedding supper of the Lamb, marriage with the Lord, before we really become a church and His wife, is to study the Word, share our understanding of it with each other, put into practice what it teaches, share our experience with others, and witness to each other how the Lord is operating and acting in our lives. We become conjoined to the Lord by encouraging and supporting each other in our relationship with the Lord, practicing what He teaches, introducing people to the life of heaven, and thereby strengthening the establishment of the New Church on earth.
     People receive Divine truths from the Lord, not simply when they learn truths from the Word, but when they avoid evils and live according to the truths of the Word.

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Then they receive an influx of Divine truths from the Lord through the angels who are with them. It is into these truths that people receive good loves from the Lord. They then love what is good and act from what is true, bringing about a marriage of these two within themselves, at the same time establishing a marriage with the Lord (AR 797).
     In addition to this, "the church is said to be where the Lord is acknowledged and where the Word is," we read (Heavenly Doctrine 242). Acknowledging the Lord is different from knowing Him. A person acknowledges the Lord when he notices what the Lord does and gives testimony, or bears witness to the Lord's activities. For example, we may know someone but never acknowledge them. We acknowledge them when we pay attention to them, and draw other people's attention to their contributions. It is similar with the Lord. We acknowledge Him when we notice what He does, and when we give praise and honour to Him in front of others.
     On June 19, 1770, the revelation of the Lord in His second coming was completed. He had rationally revealed Himself as a visible God, in whom is the infinite and eternal invisible God. Preparations for the wedding were finished, and people in the spiritual world and on earth were invited to the marriage supper.

     After the completion of this book, the Lord called together His twelve disciples . . . and a day later He sent them all forth throughout the spiritual world to preach the Gospel, that the Lord God Jesus Christ is king, and His Kingdom shall be for ever and ever, as foretold by Daniel (7:13, 14) and in Revelation (11:15): "Blessed are they who come to the wedding supper of the Lamb" (Rev.19:9). This happened on the nineteenth of June in the year 1770. This was meant by the Lord's saying: "He will send his angels, and they will gather together His chosen people from the bounds of the heavens on one side as far as the bounds of the heavens on the other" (Matthew 24:31). (TCR 791)

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     Because the whole purpose of creation was so that God might have a marriage relationship with people, it is not surprising that the last verse in the Word would testify that this relationship has been established. What better way to express the fulfillment of creation than to record the wedding vows between the Lord and His wife? These wedding vows are recorded in the last verses of the Word. The Lord's wife says:
     The Spirit and the Bride say, "Come," and let him who hears say, "Come," and let him who is thirsty come, and let him who wills take the water of life freely (Rev. 22:17).
     [The Lord says], "Surely, I come quickly" (Rev. 22:20). "He comes in His Divine Human which He took upon Him in the world and glorified, as the Bridegroom and Husband" (AR 960).
     "Here at the end of the book the Lord speaks and the church speaks, as the Bridegroom and the Bride" (AR 960). The wedding vows are declared, concluding the written Word of God. The purpose of the Word is completed. The purpose of creation is fulfilled. The promises are made.
     The people of the church promise to desire Him, pray to Him, and to receive Him, and the Lord promises to come. We read again: "The Lord speaks these words, 'Surely, I come quickly. Amen'; and the church speaks these, 'Yea, come, Lord Jesus', which are words of betrothing to the spiritual marriage" (AR 960).
     Let us rejoice with the angels, who, when they heard the news from the disciples on June 19, 1770, exulted: "Alleluia, for the Lord God the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and exult, and give the glory to Him; for the marriage of the Lamb is come and His Wife has made herself ready" (Rev. 19:6, 7).

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PERSONAL STORY 1997

PERSONAL STORY       JUDY EBBE       1997

     I was in the middle of a spiritual crisis (a real whopper at that!) when I found Swedenborg's Heaven and Hell at the Orange County Library in October, 1993. During the previous eight months, I probably had read 200 books searching for truth about God and heavenly life. Nothing I had read had any real answers-the near-death experiences took me only to a certain point. Beginning in my search I asked the Lord for help in directing me to the books I should be reading and searched the bibliographies for the next one. In the very first one, Swedenborg's name was in the bibliography, but even though I was drawn to his name, I resisted, thinking he couldn't possibly have anything relevant to say! I forget all the books that I read, but they included near-death experiences, Christian belief, spiritualism, psychology, philosophy, quantum physics-you name it. But I wanted the truths that I would believe in based upon the Bible and I wanted consistency, which I wasn't getting.
     By October I was mentally and emotionally exhausted. But when I came home with Heaven and Hell, I inexplicably sensed that this book was different. I held the book up and prayed to the Lord: "Please, Dear Jesus, let this be the book that has the answers." I was astonished-at long last there were answers-real Truth. I still had doubts but I continued to read Swedenborg. Next was Divine Providence, then True Christian Religion, Apocalypse Revealed and several of the smaller volumes. Many of the false doctrines that I had been taught but had trouble accepting were laid to rest with these books. Then I started reading Arcana Coelestia and so far I have read ten volumes. The Old Testament, which I had practically given up hope that I would ever understand, came alive with such incredible power and meaning for me. I obviously don't understand it all, but what I do understand has been a powerful experience. As I read the Arcana, I came to realize that no man-no matter how great the intellect-could invent the inner sense of the Bible.

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This truly was Divine Revelation. And that's when I could accept as truth Swedenborg's claim that he was allowed to experience the spiritual world.
     I know that there will be trials ahead; however, I'm not afraid (well, not much!). For I know the Lord will protect me as He has done throughout my life. I am joyously looking forward to my baptism, and hope it will be a celebration of the Lord's leading me out of the wilderness. I know that I have much to learn and that an initial reading of the Writings is just a beginning. I want to thank all of you at the New Church for making me feel so welcome and wanted; I am looking forward to actively participating with you, for I have to grow where God has planted me.
     
     Judy Ebbe
     Dove Canyon, CA
     
     [Photograph of Judy Ebbe.]

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WAS THERE LIFE ON MARS LONG AGO? 1997

WAS THERE LIFE ON MARS LONG AGO?       Editor       1997

     Over the past several months there has been a debate about the existence of life on Mars long ago. I am raising the question of intelligent life on Mars in the past.
     Why in the past? As briefly as possible here are two reasons. First we are told that Swedenborg spoke with spirits who had been people living on other planets beyond our solar system. Through the eyes of such spirits (who were associated with living beings) he was able actually to see life on planets beyond our solar system (see n. 135 of Earths in the Universe).
     For some reason Swedenborg did not get to gaze on life on Mars or elsewhere within our solar system. He spoke with spirits of people who had lived in our solar system. Why did he not see onto those planets as he did those beyond the solar system? One possible explanation might be that in Swedenborg's day, life no longer existed there.
     The second reason is the vision of the bird of stone. Although Swedenborg never saw a person from Mars and never gazed upon the Martian surface, he did speak with spirits from Mars, and in the account of this he speaks at considerable length about the appearance of a symbolic bird turning to stone. The last four pages of the chapter about Mars deal with this bird. Does it symbolize the termination of life on Mars? (See E. U. 94-96.)
     For now consider just these two reasons, as we note that one year ago we had an article on life on the moon. The author of this fine article ends by suggesting that we have the humility to accept the paucity of our understanding of the data.
     
     Thinkers Pondering Questions About Life
     
     The debate about life on Mars stirred up some intriguing comments, and then came the discovery by a Galileo spacecraft of an ocean on one of Jupiter's moons. Here is what a physicist at the University of Pennsylvania wrote: "The information is only the latest in a series of astonishing findings that have raised the intriguing question: Is it possible that life might have evolved elsewhere?"

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Here are the closing paragraphs of Gino Segre's article in the Philadelphia Inquirer. "Some future spacecraft may prove that life on Earth is one of many forms of life that exist in our universe.
     "The two Galileos have stretched our understanding of the cosmos.
     "They have underscored both our smallness, for we are only specks in the vastness of the universe, and our greatness, which ultimately lies in our capacity to dream, to explore and even to question what gives meaning to our lives."
"SOMEONE SIMILAR" AND "SIMILITUDES" 1997

"SOMEONE SIMILAR" AND "SIMILITUDES"       Editor       1997

     Someone commented on the beauty of the following statement: "For people who yearn for real married love the Lord provides someone similar, and if someone similar is not available on earth, He provides someone in heaven." We will return to this in a moment.
      A valuable study in this issue talks about similitudes. The word "similitude" is found in dictionaries. Among its meanings are "resemblance" and also "a person or thing that is the like, match, or counterpart of another." It is no wonder that translators of the work Conjugial Love have used this word in rendering the Latin word similitudo, and have then used the word "dissimilitude" for the Latin dissimilitudo. Some new readers of the work have found the word unusual, and have welcomed renderings in the latest translations.
     We are fortunate to have new translations available. We invite you to consider three consecutive headings in Conjugial Love. Here first is how they read in the familiar translations by Warren and Acton (which are in these instances almost identical).
     1)     That there are various similitudes and various dissimilitudes with married partners, both internal and external (227).
     2)     That various similitudes can be conjoined but not with dissimilitudes (228).

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     3)     That for those who desire love truly conjugial the Lord provides similitudes; and if they are not given on earth, He provides them in the heavens (229).
     In Latin we have:
     1)     Quod sint variae similitudines, et variae dissimilitudines, tam internae quam externae, apud conjuges.
     2)     Quod variae similitudines possint conjungi; sed non cum dissimilitudinibus.
     3)     Quod Dominis illis, qui desiderant amorem vere conjugialem provideat similitudines, et quod si no dantur in terris, provideat illas in caelis.
     In the translation by N. Bruce Rogers:
     1)     Married partners bring with them various similarities and various dissimilarities, both internal and external.
     2)     Various similar qualities can be joined together, but not with dissimilar ones.
     3)     For people who desire truly conjugial love, the Lord provides similar partners, and if they are not found on earth, He provides them in heaven.
     In the translation by John Chadwick:
     1)     There are a number of likenesses and unlikenesses, both inward and outward, to be found among married couples.
     2)     A number of likenesses can be linked, but not with unlikenesses.
     3)     The Lord provides a likeness for those who desire truly conjugial love, and if this is impossible on earth, He provides for it in the heavens.
     In the translation by David Gladish:
     1)     There are various similarities and various differences between married partners, inner as well as outer.
     2)     The various similarities can unite with each other but not with the differences.
     3)     See the first sentence in this editorial.

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PREACHING BY WOMEN 1997

PREACHING BY WOMEN       Rev. N. Bruce Rogers       1997

Dear Editor:
     The Rev. Walter Orthwein's article in the April issue, "Preaching by Women," was a real pleasure to read. I found the Heavenly Doctrines echoed throughout his discourse, and his ardor to uphold those doctrines truly affecting.
     One would think that by now this issue would have been laid to rest. Over the past few years or so we have been treated in these pages to several analyses of doctrines pertinent to it, and the writers have all come to the same general conclusion, namely that preaching is regarded in the Doctrines as a masculine function, and ought to be so regarded in the Church.
     Yet despite these studies, we still have among us some who continue to challenge the position. One has to wonder to what extent views adopted in the liberal Christian world have insinuated themselves.
     I have nothing myself to add to Mr. Orthwein's remarks and to the learned discussions that have preceded them except to point out that people tend to believe what they want to believe, and to disbelieve what they wish to disbelieve. To quote Arcana Coelestia (The Secrets of Heaven):
          Every one may know that a person is governed by the principles he assumes, even the most false, and that all his knowledge and reasoning favor his principles. For countless supporting arguments suggest themselves, thus confirming him in falsities (AC 129).
     As regards people caught up in a negative approach to something being true that is in the Word, saying at heart that they will believe when they are persuaded by rational and factual arguments, the reality is that they never believe . . . (AC 2588:2).

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     It is paramount in our pursuit of truth that our love of truth be not overcome by some other love originating from some other consideration than our devotion to Divine revelation.
     
     Rev. N. Bruce Rogers
     Huntingdon Valley, PA
SUMMER CAMPS IN 1997 1997

SUMMER CAMPS IN 1997              1997

     The following camps for this year have been reported to us:

     Maple               June 21-27
     Arizona Mountain     July 3-10
     Laurel Week 1     July 20-26
     Laurel Week 2     July 27-August 2
     Laurel Week 3     August 3-9
     Jacob's Creek     August 9-12
     Sunrise          August 19-24
     Rocky Mountain     August 21-24
FROM A PUBLICATION CALLED EPILEPSIA 1997

FROM A PUBLICATION CALLED EPILEPSIA              1997

     Last year this publication (Vol. 37. No. 2) had an article about Swedenborg. The article asks: "How is it that the name of a brilliant 18th century scientist and philosopher, many of whose exceptional achievements were often advanced for his time, is almost never mentioned in the annals of science? And how did it happen that a man very deeply dedicated to the advancement of science experienced a vision that completely altered the course of his life?"
     The suggestion is made that men who have changed Western civilization such as St. Paul, Mohammed and Dostoevsky may have had temporal lobe epilepsy and that the same applies to Swedenborg.

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REPORT OF THE EDITOR OF NEW CHURCH LIFE 1997

REPORT OF THE EDITOR OF NEW CHURCH LIFE       Editor       1997

     Sixty-four people wrote for New Church Life in 1996: 41 laity (18 women and 23 men) and 23 clergy.
     I would mention some series that extended over a number of issues in 1966. In January we were already into the series by Dr. Jonathan Rose entitled "Beauty in Swedenborg's Latin Writings," which concluded in May. In the February issue we began two series. One was by the Bishop on the Word of God. The other was by Grant Odhner on having a loved one "on the other side." That one extended to September with a postscript in November. In March we had a first article on ritual by Terry Schnarr, and we began a series of editorials on luck which went to July. April began a series by Vera Dyck called "Paradigm Shift and the Issue of Women in the Clergy." In July a sermon on self-esteem brought a sequence of reactions (for example, four letters on the subject in the September issue). In August we began a series by Michael Gladish on why we should bother to spread the truth.
     An example of a study of considerable volume that was able to be fit into one issue (November) was the study on evil spirits and angels by Mark Pendleton.
     An approximate page count on different things we print yields the following:
     Articles - 286               News - 5     
     Sermons - 62               Reviews - 10
     Reports - 17               Editorials - 29
     Communications - 38          Directories - 13     
     Announcements - 43          

     Two things stand out on the page totals: only five pages of church news as compared with 20 the previous year and 32 the year before that; only 38 pages of communications (letters) as compared to 52 the previous year.
     Our circulation count was 1538. For comparisons see page 362 of 1996 and 180 of 1995.
          Respectfully submitted,
          Donald L. Rose (Editor)

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ACADEMY OF THE NEW CHURCH THEOLOGICAL SCHOOL,COLLEGE AND SECONDARY SCHOOLS CALENDAR 1997-1998 1997

ACADEMY OF THE NEW CHURCH THEOLOGICAL SCHOOL,COLLEGE AND SECONDARY SCHOOLS CALENDAR 1997-1998              1997

     1997
Aug     24     Sun     Secondary Schools resident students arrive on campus
               8:00 p.m.     Secondary Schools Parent-Teacher Forum meeting
     25     Mon     Secondary Schools orientation, registration for all students
     26     Tue     8:00 a.m.     Secondary Schools chapel and classes
     28     Thu     New College resident students arrive on campus by 8:00 p.m.
     29     Fri     New College students registration (through Monday) and classes begin
Sept     1     Mon     Labor Day     College returning resident students arrive
                              Secondary Schools holiday
     2     Tue     8:05 a.m.     Theological School classes begin
               9:30-12:30     Registration of returning College students
               7:30 p.m.     Cathedral worship service for students, faculty, parents, friends
     3     Wed     8:05 a.m.     Returning College students' classes begin
               11:05 a.m.     College chapel and opening convocation
Oct     17     Fri     8:00 a.m.     Charter Day: Annual Meeting of ANC Corporation (Pitcairn Hall)
               10:30 a.m.          Service (Cathedral)
               9:00 p.m.          Dance (Society Building)
     18     Sat     7:00 p.m.          Banquet (Society Building)
Nov     21     Fri     12:20 p.m.     College and Theological School Thanksgiving recess begins
     25     Tue     3:00 p.m.     Secondary Schools Thanksgiving vacation begins after classes
     30     Sun     Resident students return in all schools
Dec     1     Mon     Winter term begins in College and Theological School; Secondary School classes resume
     19     Fri     12:20 p.m.     Christmas vacation begins for all schools

          1998

Jan     11     Sun     Resident students for all schools return
     12     Mon     Theological School and College classes resume; Secondary Schools second semester classes begin
     19     Mon     Martin Luther King, Jr. Day (in-school observance)
Feb     16     Mon     Presidents' Birthday holiday
Mar     7     Sat     Spring break begins after exams for all schools
     15     Sun     Theological School and College resident students return
     16     Mon     Theological School and College classes resume
     22     Sun     Secondary Schools resident students return
     23     Mon     Secondary Schools classes resume
Apr     10     Fri     Good Friday holiday for all schools
May     2     Sat     11:15 a.m.     Semiannual meeting of Academy Corporation (Pitcairn Hall)
     25     Mon     Memorial Day Holiday
     26     Tue     College exams begin
     28     Thu     College Graduation Dinner
     29     Fri     College and Theological School Graduation (Pavilion)
               6:30 p.m.     Secondary Schools Senior Dinner and Graduation Dance (Glencairn)
     30     Sat     10:00 a.m.     Secondary Schools Graduation

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Returning to the Source 1997

Returning to the Source              1997


     

     Announcements

     



     

     ADVERTISEMENT
     The author has written the most advanced book yet on those approaches that can lead into the direct experience of God. For the first time this sets Swedenborg in the context of the world's mystics.
     "Van Dusen's book is a gift. The wise reflections of a spiritual friend" (Ram Dass). "A spiritual masterpiece" (Patriarch Mar Joseph).
     Order from The Swedenborg Foundation, or your book seller, or Real People Press, Box F, Moab, Utah 84532; (801) 259-7578 or FAX (801) 259-4042; $13.50 paperback, $19.00 clothbound. Order and People Press will bill you.

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Temptations 1997

Temptations       Basil Lazar       1997

     Here is a good selection of quotations from the Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg, complied by Basil Lazer, on the subject of temptations: their cause, meaning and purpose.
     Introductory remarks are very well written, and introduce the reader to Swedenborg and some basic New Church terms.
     All quotations are well referenced and were translated by Dr. David Gladish.
     Illustrations and layout for the book were by Donna Heldon, who won an award for this project.
     Mr. Lazer, who died several years ago, was an ardent reader of the Writings and had a passionate desire to inspire others to do the same. He left a considerable sum of money to the church "for the purpose of propagating the Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg. . ."

Published by Basil Lazer Trust Fund
Penshurst, Australia
1996
Softcover, 153 pages, U.S. $7.95 plus U. S. $1.25 postage

289


Notes on This Issue 1997

Notes on This Issue              1997


New Church Life
July 1997

290


     We thank Mr. Howard Roth for bringing to our attention the sermons of James Hodson and affording us a glimpse of what sermons were like in the earliest days of the New Church. Hosdon happens to be an ancestor of your editor.
     "We tend to ignore Paul in the New Church . . . We hardly ever read his letters to the early church leaders in spite of the fact that the Writings tell us they are 'good books for the church.'" Wasn't Paul inspired when he wrote them? "We need to heave the facts," says Rev. James Cooper, and in this issue he begins to supply them. Your attention is called to an excellent compilation of passage entitled The Acts and Epistles. It shows relationships between New Church teachings and Biblical passages (177 pages).
     As noted in the report of the editor, we have received much less church news in recent years than was common in the past. We are glad therefore that Rev. Derek Elphick has made the effort to provide us with a picture of the history of the New Church in south Florida.
     A reader has brought to our attention the June issue Zygon, a journal of science and religion. There is an interesting reference to Swedenborg in a sketch of the history of the discussion of extra-terrestrial life. Notice in our remarks about the Swedenborg Society that a new translation of Earths in the Universe will be titled Worlds in Space.
     The review of Return to the Promised Land by Grant Schnarr will appear in the August issue.
     A Book About Dying by Robert Kirven is featured on page 2 of the 1997 Swedenborg Foundation catalogue. We read, "Kirven explains that the way we live now affects the way we die and the quality of our life after death. He suggests practical ways to alter our thoughts and actions to help prepare for what follows the transition we call dying."

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SERMON FROM TWO CENTURIES AGO 1997

SERMON FROM TWO CENTURIES AGO       Rev. JAMES HODSON       1997

     (A sermon preached in Dudley Chapel, Denmark Street, Soho, London, and published in 1809.)

"And the Lord said unto Moses, Go on before the people, and take with thee of the elders of Israel; and thy rod wherewith thou smotest the river, take in thine hand and go. Behold I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb. And thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it that the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel" (Exodus 17:5, 6).

     There is no part of the Word of God which can afford more important instruction to the spiritual and contemplative mind than the history of the Israelitish journey, from their departure out of Egypt to their entrance into the land of Canaan, wherein is typified the Christian's progress from a state of fallen nature to the attainment of that celestial state wherein he resteth from all his spiritual labours, and enjoyeth an eternal sabbath of peace and tranquillity. But however desirous we may be of viewing the spiritual import of the particular circumstances therein related, and of receiving that benefit which might be expected from a knowledge of and contemplation upon the internal sense of God's Word, yet we are not at all times in a proper state of recipiency for that purpose, though we are occasionally enabled to view some of the wonderful arcana which are manifest in its spiritual sense; yet we frequently read the Word of the Lord only in the letter. Our understandings appear closed as to any spiritual signification, and like the man being restored to sight by our Lord, we can only "see men as trees walking." And this is very often the case with those who have made great advancement in the knowledge of spiritual truth. Indeed the more we advance in such knowledge, the more, perhaps, are such states of darkness necessary, lest we should be so eager after truths as to leave ourselves no leisure or opportunity of applying what we have received to their corresponding good; or lest like Moses in striking the rock, we should attribute that power to ourselves which belongs to the Lord alone.

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For all illumination, and all illustration of the Divine Word, is from the Lord alone, and can only be attained when man is in a state of humiliation, since when man is in a state of humiliation from self acknowledgement, he is in a state of reception of good and truth from the Lord, and then the Lord opens to him the treasures of his holy Word. And surely nothing can tend to bring us more into a state of humiliation than a true knowledge of ourselves, and the seeing how little we are able to effect without divine assistance; which may be seen in a great measure if we attend to the history of the Israelites in the literal sense of the Word only. For what did they effect by their own strength and power in all their difficulties?-What temptations overcome, what obstacles surmount, or enemies subdue?-None!-It was the Lord alone who subdued their enemies, relieved their wants, and "bore them on eagle's wings," that he might bring them into the land which he promised to their fathers. And "is the Lord's hand shortened," my brethren, "that it cannot now save?" Is it not the same God that conducted the Israelites in their natural journey through the wilderness that now directs and supports us both in our natural and spiritual journeys? Is not "Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever," and hath not he promised to "be with us always even to the end of the world?" Wherefore, then, should we doubt? Yet, alas! to all, and to each of us at this day, it is to be feared, may be applied the words of Moses to the Israelites, "The Lord your God which goeth before you, He shall fight for you, according to all that He did for you before your eyes and in the wilderness; where thou hast seen how that the Lord thy God bore thee as a man doth his son, in all the way ye went, till ye came into this place.

293


Yet in this thing ye did not believe the Lord your God, who went in the way before you, to search you a place to pitch your tents, in fire by night, to shew you by what way you should go, and in a cloud by day!"-Yes, for us the Lord hath opened a passage through the sea, and overwhelmed our enemies in the deep-for us the streams of Marah have been rendered sweet, and we have encamped amongst the palm-trees, by the fountains of living water;-for us the Lord hath rained down bread from heaven, and given us angel's food. And yet we can, like the Israelites, tempt the Lord in every fresh difficulty, chide with the Divine dispensation itself if we have no water, and even doubt in the grievousness of our temptation, whether the Lord be amongst us or not!
     Thus we read that after the murmurings of the Israelites in the wilderness of Sin for want of bread, when the Lord granted them not only a miraculous and immediate supply, but so provided for its continuance that for forty years it rained down manna for them every morning, without the trouble of either sowing or reaping during their whole pilgrimage: "all the congregation of the children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of Sin, after their journeys, according to the commandment of the Lord, and pitched in Rephidim. And there was no water for the people to drink. And Moses said, Why chide you with me? Wherefore do ye tempt the Lord? And the people thirsted there for water; and the people murmured against Moses, and said, Wherefore is this that thou hast brought us out of Egypt to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst? And Moses cried unto the Lord saying, What shall I do unto this people? They be almost ready to stone me! And the Lord said unto Moses, Go on before the people, and take with thee of the elders of Israel; and thy rod wherewith thou smotest the river, take in thine hand, and go. Behold, I will stand before thee upon the rock in Horeb; and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it that the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel."
     The subject treated of in the internal sense of this chapter is concerning a fourth state of temptation, when there is a failure of truth after a supply of good.

294


This temptation is signified by the murmurings of the Israelites because they had no water; wherefore the truths of faith are given to them in that state, which is signified by water out of the rock of Horeb. But in the internal historical sense of this passage, in which the religious principle which prevailed among the Israelitish nation is treated of, that nation is signified as to its quality towards Jehovah, viz. that they were not willing by supplication to entreat him for aid, but that they expostulated. The reason was that they did not acknowledge Jehovah as the supreme God in heart, but only in mouth, and that only when they saw miracles. And in the internal spiritual sense is described the quality of temptation with those who are brought to the last state thereof before they are liberated. Every expression used in the account of this temptation points out the violence of the assault, and the desire of release from it. By the people chiding with Moses is signified grievous complaint even against Divine Truth itself; by their saying Give us water and let us drink is signified an ardent desire after the object of the temptation. Why tempt ye the Lord signifies despair of Divine aid. And the people thirsted implies an increased desire. It being repeated that the people murmured signifies a greater degree of painfulness from the bitterness of temptation. To kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst implies that in case they should yield in the temptation, the all of spiritual life, or the life of heaven, would expire; for man is gifted of the Lord with that life by temptation. The life of heaven is to be led of the Lord by good, and to the intent that man may come into that life, good must be implanted by truth, or charity by faith. So long as this is effecting, man is in the way to heaven, but not yet in heaven; and so that in this case the truths which are of faith may be confirmed, and also be conjoined with good, man is let into temptations; for these are the means of the conjunction of good and truth. When, therefore, man is in good, that is, when he is in the affection of doing good for the sake of good, thus for the sake of the neighbour, he is then elevated into heaven, for he is then in the order of heaven.

295



     We see, however, by the example before us, that the more interior the temptation, the more ardent it is; and that temptations with respect to truth are more violent or vociferous than those with respect to good. And the reason why temptation as to truth is now treated of is that temptation as to good was treated of just before, after which temptation they received manna, which signifies good. For when man is gifted with good from the Lord, he then comes into the desire of truth, and this desire is kindled according to the defect thereof, since good continually desires truth. All genuine affection of truth is from good; for the case herein is like that of meat, in that it cannot be nourishment for natural life without drink, and in that also meat requires drink with which it may be conjoined that it may be serviceable for use. This is the reason why temptation as to truth immediately follows that for good, for temptation assaults that which a man most loves and desires.
     Our text informs us that Moses making application to the Lord on this occasion, "the Lord said unto him, Go on before the people, and take with thee of the elders of Israel; and thy rod wherewith thou smotest the river, take in thine hand and go."-Hereby is implied that by the aid which should be given they would be instructed from primary truths (signified by the elders) that their relief was of Divine power alone; for by the rod or staff wherewith Moses smote the river is signified Divine power.
     "Behold I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb; and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it that the people may drink" signifies the Lord as to the truths of faith which are from his law or Word; for by the Word the Lord not only teaches what faith is, but also gives it. And by smiting the rock is signified to be instant in entreating, but from an humble heart. In one of our first discourses upon the journeyings of the Israelites, "when the Lord said unto Moses, Why criest thou unto Me?

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Speak unto the children of Israel that they go forward," it was said that there was no need of intercession, and here it is said that they were to be instant, or earnest and continual in entreating the Lord. This, however, is only an apparent contradiction, for in both cases the instruction is perfectly consistent with Divine order. In the violence of temptations, we are apt to slacken our hands to any means in our own power to overcome them, and to betake ourselves wholly to prayer and intercession to the Lord. The Lord, however, wills the end, which is conquest over the temptation, and the prayers of the tempted are only attended to in proportion as they regard and promote that end, which they cannot do unless there is an exertion at the same time. Hence in the present case we are not to act contrary to the former instructions; for the waters did not flow till Moses smote the rock. Therefore we are to apply to the Lord, through his Word, for the means of support and relief in all our troubles and difficulties. But to smite the rock by direction of the Lord signifies that we should in our temptations be instant to entreat the Lord from an humble heart. It appears that Moses struck the rock from a hard heart, and thus expostulated with the Lord instead of entreating him; therefore it was denounced to him that he should not introduce the people into the land of Canaan, as he himself relates in the twentieth chapter of the book of Numbers, where it is written that "Moses and Aaron gathered the congregation together before the rock, and Moses said to them, Hear now, ye rebels; must we fetch water out of this rock? And Moses lifted up his hand and smote the rock twice; and the water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank and their beasts also. And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron, Because ye believed me not, to sanctify Me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them."
     After the words of our text it is added, "And he called the name of the place Massah and Meribah, because of the chiding of the children of Israel, and because they tempted the Lord, saying, Is the Lord amongst us or not?"

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Massah signifies the quality of the temptation, and Meribah the quality of the complaint, for in the original tongue the word signifies contention or chiding, and hereby is signified complaint from the grievousness of the temptation, which was such that they had even nearly yielded. By saying, "Is Jehovah in the midst of us or not?" is signified that they nearly believed that the Lord doth not bring aid even to his own. Therefore, respecting this temptation, it is to be observed that herein are described the state of those who in the violence of temptation almost yield-who complain against heaven, and at length almost disbelieve in a Divine Providence.
     This inward state of despondency respecting Divine aid, and of doubt respecting the Lord's power to assist, is generally excited from the infernal spirits by means of our external troubles and straitnesses. In which case they will frequently suggest to us that it is in vain for us to pursue those objects which occasion us so much anxiety and uneasiness, for the hand of the Lord is entirely against us; therefore that we are only tempting the Lord by expecting relief in such difficulties as we have to encounter; that we cannot tell what the dispensation of Providence with respect to us may be; it may be the Divine will that we are not to conquer this temptation, and therefore we had better yield at once, since our case is so very different from all those which we read of in the Word of God; and notwithstanding we have been delivered in trial apparently as grievous as these, yet that deliverance hath been effected by some rational means, or some fortunate accidental circumstances, none of which are likely to occur now; nor indeed could anything less than a miracle now save us, and we are not to expect that God should work a miracle for us! Therefore we despair of relief-we have no relish for anything which this world can afford; and we think, with the prophet Jonah, that "it is better for us to die than to live."

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In this state, however, Moses cries to Jehovah, that is, the grievousness of the temptations occasions interior lamentation and intercession for Divine assistance; Divine Truth itself intercedes for us; "The Lord knoweth our infirmities; he remembereth that we are but dust"; and "in His love and in His pity He redeemeth us" from the danger of this temptation likewise. We are relieved in such a manner as to shew us that our salvation is of the Lord alone! Divine power is given us to smite the rock, but it is in consequence of the Lord standing before us there that the waters flow out so abundantly as to give drink for us and our cattle.
     This, then, is the last of this series of temptations-the last cause for murmuring before we are called to fight against Amalek, and to drive out the nations. And if, my brethren, ye have any of you passed through this state of conflict-if ye have felt the grievousness of temptation to such a degree as to be induced to complain against heaven, almost to disbelieve in a Divine Providence, and despairing, yea, almost doubting even the power of the Lord to give you assistance; or if the infernals have suggested that you have no claim to the Divine Protection because ye have acted contrary to the order of heaven, and therefore ye are only tempting God to expect it; if any of you have felt the agony of such a state, ye know that it is not to be described! If ye are now passing through it; if ye are chiding with Moses, and occasionally violent, through the grievousness of temptation, in your complaints at the dispensations of Providence; if ye wish your thirst to be quenched and are panting after the waters of life; and if ye are desirous that such a temptation should cease, O then humble yourselves in the dust before the Lord of the whole earth! From a broken and contrite heart smite the rock in Horeb-in a state of humble acquiescence to the Divine will apply to the Word of God! And that God which stood upon the rock in Horeb when Moses smote it will pour down therefrom and give you that spiritual refreshment which will enable you to conquer when Amalek comes out to fight against you.
     This day, my brethren, the Lord stands again upon the rock before you!

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He hath prepared His table for you in the wilderness, and he invites you all to take that refreshment which alone is able to preserve your souls unto eternal life: Accept the invitation, and "all his love receive!"

     "He feeds us with the bread divine,
     Gives us to drink the heav'nly wine;
     Here we may sweet conjunction prove,
     With Jesus Christ, the God of Love."
PRINCIPLES RELATING TO THE SELECTION OF A MARRIAGE PARTNER 1997

PRINCIPLES RELATING TO THE SELECTION OF A MARRIAGE PARTNER       Rev. GEOFFREY H. HOWARD       1997

     (Conclusion)

     Time and Freedom Are Required for Similitudes to Become Recognized
     
          Let us now turn our attention once again to the teaching "that for those who desire love truly conjugial, the Lord provides similitudes; and if not given on earth, He provides them in the heavens" (CL 229). This is quite a remarkable statement. If we believe it, then surely any serious-minded young person seeks to be led to the person to whom he may be married to eternity. That this can be accomplished is a genuine promise from the Lord. He "provides similitudes," and these may be "given on earth." Surely then, with the direction which the Writings provide we can be granted a far deeper insight into our own make-up, and from this we can be in a far stronger position to intelligently choose our partner. If we are mindful of the Lord's teachings, and if we endeavor to live by them, He offers us a glorious promise.

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For "those who from youth have loved, chosen, and asked of the Lord a legitimate and lovely partnership with one, and who spurn and reject wandering lusts as an offence to their nostrils," the Lord will provide a suitable partner (CL 49). If we condition our affections, our thoughts, and our actions accordingly, we may feel relatively certain that the person whom we are led to marry will become our partner to all eternity. How important it is to enter marriage with that desire in our hearts. "Those who are in love truly conjugial look to what is eternal in marriage . . . because eternity is in the love" (CL 216).
     We have spoken of the mode whereby our affections become stirred and how we are led into marriage. It is quite apparent that the process whereby these various affections develop and mature takes time. Therefore courtship should not be a hastened process. Ample time and freedom must be permitted to allow internal states to manifest themselves in freedom. The relationship during this period should develop on the plane of the mind and should not be made binding in any way. To allow for that full freedom, which is so essential, the Writings tell us plainly "that during the time of betrothal it is not lawful to be conjoined corporeally, for thus the order which is inscribed on conjugial love perishes" (CL 305). Once this intimacy has been tasted, a sense of obligation becomes perceived, and our freedom becomes curtailed by that sense of obligation. The sexual relationship is therefore to be reserved for marriage. Then it can serve to communicate in a most powerful way the interior delicacies of love, but only after the existence of internal and external similitudes has been established and sealed in the protective covenant of marriage. Only then may the sexual relationship fully serve its intended design, which is to convey intimate affections of love through the power of ultimates.
     Therefore the value in preserving full freedom during the courtship period cannot be overemphasized. Sometimes, however, one partner may perceive the desire to marry sooner than the other. If this is so, it requires a considerable degree of patience to allow time for love to be reciprocal and returned from the full freedom of the heart.

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Only when each feels this from within, and is allowed to respond from freedom, do the first fires of the conjugial really begin to burn. This happens only after each has fully given consent, and the period of betrothal commences.
     
     A Young Woman Should Consult with Her Parents Prior to Giving Her Consent

     "Before she consents, it behooves a young woman to consult with her parents, or those in the place of parents, and then to deliberate with herself" (CL 298). This is advocated by the Writings because a chaste young woman is a tender and innocent receptacle of love. As yet she does not have the ability to know and to discern the morals of men. Those powerful feelings of attraction that are so strongly felt in courtship constitute a borrowed state, in which everything seems blissful and sublime. If principles are not consulted, it is easy to be blinded and to overlook the realities that may underlie it. When two people fall in love, each becomes affected by an unselfish sphere which is loaned from heaven. The affections that are then perceived are swathed in a sense of glory. Young men feel drawn to manifest only the most pleasant and winning side of their nature. If the underlying intentions are not honorable, it is easy to hide the more sinister motives which sometimes belie the blissful appearance of love in this borrowed state.
     If, however, this state of "love" is objectively considered, it can be quite easily seen whether the relationship is based on sound moral principles or not. If it is not, then as soon as these first fires begin to cool, as inevitably they will, then there remains no stable basis upon which conjugial love can rest. Therefore parents, or those whose judgement she considers wise, are to be consulted by a young woman. Parents, by virtue of their more advanced age and experience, have acquired more clear-sighted judgment "in regard to [the] suitability [or the] incompatibility" of a suitor (CL 298). Following this the young woman must finally weigh the question herself. If her consent is to be forthcoming, it must come from within her own heart.

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If she feels it appropriate to give her consent, then they enter into the state of betrothal.
     On the other hand, if similitudes are felt to be lacking in any essential way, it is far better for each to agree to terminate the relationship in the spirit of freedom and mutual goodwill. Let us remember that if force or persuasive coercion is applied to a relationship, the interior things of love withdraw. That which is provided by the Lord is perceived with freedom and delight. He leads us through our affections, and we must come to recognize their quality and agreement. They are freely given by Him. They cannot he forced through coercion, pressure or obligation.
     
     How Clearly Can We See Internal Similitudes?

     The recognition of similitudes is clearly perceived by angel partners in heaven. In this world it is more difficult because here we are clothed with a material body and this tends to obscure internal affections, preventing them from showing through lucidly. Of this the Writings speak. In this world "internal affections, which belong to the mind, do not come to view, and with many scarcely a trace of them shows through; for either the body absorbs them . . . or by reason of simulation learned from infancy, it deeply conceals them from the sight of others" (CL 272).
     Let us note that this teaching, if seen in its entirety, does not categorically imply that internal affections can never show through. It simply says that the body and the cupidities that can arise from it tend to obscure the sight of internal affections, and consequently of internal similitudes.
     On the other hand, if wandering lusts and cupidities are spurned, rejected and subdued, the internal affections become infilled with heavenly delights. The truths of the Word are the means provided for ascertaining their origin and quality. As these internal affections descend and manifest themselves in the thoughts of the mind, they come to recognition. If sincerity becomes cultivated, then these good internal affections will manifest themselves in speech, gestures and manners. In this way they are made visible.

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     Internal affections become obscured only if sincerity is lacking, for "simulation learned from infancy . . . deeply conceals them from the sight of others" (CL 272). In the spiritual world this condition does not exist, for in that world "internal affections, like the external, [appear] to the sight in the face and gesture, and to the ear in the tone of the voice, [and are] perceived by the nostrils or scented" (Ibid.). Let us remember that through the cultivation of the virtues of honesty and sincerity, something of our internal loves and aspirations may shine through in this world.

     Do We Ever Feel Completely Certain in Our Choice?

     The stages of courtship which lead to the giving of consent are seldom felt with total certainty in this world as they are in heaven. Many conditions vary between heaven and earth. As we have already said, in this world we have our physical body and this tends to absorb internal affections, sometimes to the point of scarcely allowing them to show through.
     Furthermore, no young person in this world is regenerate. The evil spheres of the hells work upon us all, and it takes a lifetime of spiritual combat to subdue the temptations that come upon us. The one whom we love and come to marry will inevitably see us in a more personal and intimate light than anyone else. Although we may feel strongly drawn to each other, and may experience many occasions of sublime delight, there will be other times when our unregenerate self manifests its more sinister side. We must expect a certain degree of conflict to surface periodically, both during our courtship and also in our marriage. The fact that this happens does not mean that the initial inclination toward marriage should necessarily be forsaken. As the Lord is merciful so must we learn to be merciful. If we happen to hurt the one we love, we must feel remorse and be prepared to show it. We must acknowledge the hurt that we have caused and repent of the state. Then through the mutual willingness to forgive, we must allow our internal affections, which originally drew us together, to return.

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It is important to develop the strength of character to do this, for upon the successful mastery of this process our progress in regeneration depends, as also does the subsequent progress of our marriage. Those who learn to successfully master their unregenerate side will find that, with persistence, they will come to love their partner more tenderly than before. Conjugial love enters as the state of the church develops in the heart of each.
     When we contemplate marriage, the future is unknown. We have little idea of what it is really like to completely share our life with another. Initially we sense a tremendous state of promise and anticipation. At the same time we also feel a degree of apprehension. The future depends on the quality of judgment we employ, and beyond that it lies in the Lord's hands. However, if we approach marriage having felt guided by His revealed principles, then we may face the future with trust and confidence in His provisions. Under these conditions doubt and uncertainty become minimized while confidence and trust in the efficacy of His providence supersede.

     The Value of First States

     If a couple is guided by the principles which the Lord offers in the Writings, they may gradually be led to recognize their love for each other. When a young woman gives her consent, it initiates the state of betrothal. Then for the first time does the warmth and blessedness of the conjugial torch begin to glow. The love they then feel for each other is deeply affecting. They believe this state to be "the very blessedness of [their] life" (CL 137: 3). They feel they have been led to each other "as if by fate, instinct, [or] dictate" (CL 229), although in reality they were led there by the Divine Providence of the Lord. When similitudes become opened by the Lord, the love for each other glows warmly and deeply.
     In these first states the Lord provides them with a most powerful perception of the beauty and delight of conjugial love. "The first love of marriage emulates love truly conjugial and presents it to view in an image" (CL 58). When a man thus devotes his love to one woman, and she to him, their relationship images the heavenly ideal. All first states that are in order receive a borrowed inspiration from the celestial or highest heaven.

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"The Lord insinuates conjugial love through the inmost heaven, the angels of which are in peace beyond all others" (AC 5052). It is this very sense of peace which is loaned in these first states, because with a sincere couple who comply with the Lord's order, there is innocence, and celestial love can dwell in innocence.
     The more perfectly these first states emulate the Lord's true order, the more perfectly can we perceive the promise of conjugial love. The memory of these initial states is never forgotten. It remains as a blessed memory of promise. As we pass through subsequent times of trial when our faith and our love wane, the Lord employs such memories to draw us back. Through them He stirs our will, restores our perspective, and gives us the strength to return to the ideals which we initially cherished with such delight.
     Love truly conjugial cannot be given in marriage apart from our willingness to shun what is evil and selfish. We must realize that spiritual peace comes only after a lifetime of militant combat against our petty evils as well as our greater temptations. If we strive to become motivated by a spiritual love of the Lord's principles, then our "first state is an initiation into perpetual states of happiness" (CL 59).

     Marriage Is to Continue to the End of Life in the World

     The love which the Lord inspires in our first states contains the promise of love truly conjugial. Those who are thus affected cannot help but "look to what is eternal . . . because eternity is in the love" (CL 216). A contracted covenant was Divinely ordained for the purpose of protecting the order of marriage, and thus for safeguarding that order into which conjugial love can inflow.
     While we live in this world, the hells infuse their sphere, seeking to destroy the Divine order of marriage. We are all on occasions the subject of these temptations. We therefore need the protection of that covenant.
     When the hells attack us in respect to our marriage, we fall into states of cold. While we are under this influence, these states invade and dispel "the delights of that love . . . until nothing is left of the remembrance of the early state of our marriage" (CL 59).

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Then when our rational thought returns, we remember the covenant and the vows we made before the Lord, before one another, and before our relatives and friends. From honor, and from recalling the promise felt so keenly in those first states, we return with commitment of will and purpose to our partner. Through that kind of determination and resolve the Lord can help us to overcome our differences and our problems in marriage. Through the very same means He leads us to experience genuine states of conjugial bliss. The covenant of marriage is therefore to protect that order.
     All of these teachings we have referred to are important to know and understand before we contemplate marriage. Prior to marriage we are in complete freedom to choose. The truths which the Lord has revealed are there to lead us, to guide us, and to help us recognize our inclinations and affections. If we patiently suffer ourselves to be guided by their dictum, we will be placing ourselves in the stream of the Lord's providential leadership. "Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and cleave unto his wife, and they shall become one flesh" (Genesis 2:24). "Therefore what God has joined together, let not man put asunder" (Matthew 19:6).
APOSTLE PAUL 1997

APOSTLE PAUL       Rev. JAMES P. COOPER       1997

     "Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law. Or is He the God of the Jews only? Is He not also the God of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also, since there is one God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. Do we then make void the law through faith? Certainly not! On the contrary, we establish the law" (Romans 3:28-31).

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     This passage is taken from the third chapter of Paul's letter to the Romans. It is extremely important because it is the key idea in the debate that Paul was having with the disciple Peter over the place that Jewish ritual and law would have in the Christian Church that they were in the process of establishing. It is also important because some fifteen hundred years after he wrote this letter to the Christians in Rome, church scholars would take it out of its proper context, totally reverse its meaning, and use it to support the heresy that God doesn't care what you do as long as you believe that Jesus died for your sins.
     We tend to ignore Paul in the New Church-certainly we do not put the same emphasis on his works as do other Christian churches. We hardly ever read his letters to the early church leaders in spite of the fact that the Writings tell us that they are "good books for the church," and, as we shall see in a moment, even say that Paul was inspired when he wrote them. We need to be aware of Paul's contribution to the establishment of the Christian Church; we need to have the facts about his life so that we can separate the legend from the man himself; we need to know what he really thought so that we can separate those doctrines which are not his but are now associated with him from those that are his own.
     The Heavenly Doctrines turn to Paul's works for confirmation of the doctrine of genuine truth in a surprising number of cases. There are in the Writings at least eighty references to Paul by name, and hundreds of references to the letters that he wrote to the church leaders in Asia and Europe. Most of these references to Paul's works are to use his teachings, which are widely accepted in the traditional Christian world, to confirm and support the doctrines of the New Church.
     Although Paul never met the Lord Himself, he did in time come to know the disciples, and eventually, through his personality and his accomplishments, became the best known of the leaders of the early Christian Church.

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     Paul was born a Jew in Tarsus, and was named "Saul." Later in life, when he began to write and preach in Greek, he adopted the Greek form of his name. It is possible that he changed his name as a symbol of the change of his faith.
     History tells us that not only was Paul a Jew, but he was also a Pharisee, and a fanatical one at that! He was dedicated to the preservation of the strict application of the Mosaic law, and was willing to punish those who broke those laws, even to death. He (correctly) saw the Christian movement as a threat to the Jewish order that he worked so hard to establish and support, and so he fought hard against the early Christians. We know, for example, that he was personally involved in the murder by stoning of the Christian leader now known as St. Stephen. Some church historians believe that the calm way in which Stephen accepted his martyrdom made a lasting impression on Paul, and prepared him for what was to happen later in one of the most famous examples of miraculous conversion, the conversion of Paul on the road to Damascus.
     Briefly, what happened was that Paul was travelling with a company of other like-minded zealots to arrest and punish some Christians who were reported to be setting up a church in Damascus. The scene is described by Luke in the book of Acts (9:1-9):
     
Then Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked letters from him to the synagogues of Damascus, so that if he found any who were of the Way, whether men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. And as he journeyed he came near Damascus, and suddenly a light shone around him from heaven. Then he fell to the ground, and heard a voice saying to him, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?" And he said, "Who are You, Lord?" And the Lord said, "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. It is hard for you to kick against the goads."

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So he, trembling and astonished, said, "Lord, what do You want me to do?" And the Lord said to him, "Arise and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do." And the men who journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice but seeing no one. Then Saul arose from the ground, and when his eyes were opened he saw no one. But they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. And he was three days without sight, and neither ate nor drank.

          This, coupled with his earlier experience at the stoning of Stephen, had a profound effect on Paul, and he turned away from persecuting the Christians and instead became one of them. It took some time for him to be accepted by the Christian community, as could be expected considering his record and background, but eventually he was accepted, and as we know, he travelled widely throughout Asia, Asia Minor, Europe and the Mediterranean islands spreading Christianity. Paul, himself a Roman citizen, was finally beheaded in Rome during one of the periodic persecutions of Christianity.
     While the doctrines of the New Church say that Paul was inspired when he wrote his letters, yet they distinguish between the inspiration of Paul and that of those who wrote the gospels. We read from Spiritual Diary 6062:2:

. . . Paul did indeed speak from inspiration, but not as did the prophets, to whom the several words were dictated; but that his inspiration was that he received an influx according to those things which were with him, which inspiration is totally different; nor has it conjunction with heaven by means of correspondences.
     
     This passage speaks volumes on the nature of the inspiration of the various prophets, far too much for us to go into now. It can only be said that the distinction between the inspiration of Luke, for example, and Paul is that Luke received his inspiration in a "living voice"; the words of his gospel were actually dictated to him from heaven in the manner of all the prophets of the Old Testament from Moses onward.

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Paul, on the other hand, was inspired according to his own character and experience (see TCR 154). Paul's inspiration was that which we call the "enlightenment of use"; that is, by his attention to and affection for the teachings of the Lord, and through keeping himself in external order, his spiritual state attracted like-minded spirits whose presence with him inspired him to certain insights indirectly. To draw a parallel, the difference between the gospels and the epistles is like that between the Word itself and a sermon carefully drawn from the Word. Both are of value, but only the Word itself is of absolute authority.
     Having established the background, let us now look at the question of what Paul really teaches about the heresy that salvation is by faith alone apart from works.
     Those who teach the doctrine of faith alone quote a portion of our text from Paul as support and confirmation of their doctrine. They quote Romans 3:28, which says, "Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law." We must admit that taken by itself, just as it stands, it does sound very much as if Paul supports the idea of salvation by faith alone. But some important questions have to be asked: What was the context of this statement? What "law" is he talking about? It is our habit, from reading the Old Testament and the gospels, to immediately assume that when it speaks about the law, the reference is to the Ten Commandments, but in this case, the assumption is incorrect. The context of the statement shows that Paul was engaged in a discussion with Peter about whether or not the Jewish rituals (such as circumcision) are necessary in the Christian Church. This was an important issue to them, as at that time Christianity was really more of a cult within the Jewish Church than a church in its own right.
     As we read on, Paul's real view becomes clear. Fearing that he might be misunderstood (clearly a correct fear), he then explains himself more fully a few sentences later, saying, "Do we then make void the law through faith?

311


Certainly not! On the contrary, we establish the law" (Romans 3:31), and in this case, he is referring to the Ten Commandments. There are other places in the letters of Paul where he demonstrates his view that works are as important as faith, if not more so (see Corinthians I 13:13, Cor. II 5:10, Galatians 2:14-16, Romans 2:6, 2:13, 3:27-31, James 2:17-26). Those people who have confirmed themselves in the doctrine of faith alone on the basis of that one verse have stared at it so long that, like someone who stares at the sun, they have become blinded to all the other teachings in the Word and in the letters of Paul where the laws of faith are listed as being the works of charity. They also ignore all those places where Paul declares that those who do not do the works of charity cannot enter heaven! In order to say that Paul supports the heresy of salvation by faith alone, one has to ignore everything else that Paul wrote except that one verse, taken out of context. The Lord says in the Divine Providence 115, "From this it is evident what blindness has been induced by a wrong understanding of this single passage."

     (To be concluded)
NEW CHURCH IN SOUTH FLORIDA 1997

NEW CHURCH IN SOUTH FLORIDA       Rev. DEREK P. ELPHICK       1997

     From Miami to Boynton Beach

     In 1898 Jacob Fritz left Roanoke, Virginia after making and losing a fortune in Virginia real estate, and moved to Miami, Florida. Undaunted by adversity, Mr. Fritz joined the early Miami founders and began acquiring land, purchasing four hundred forty acres in the vicinity of Northwest 27th Avenue and 36th Street for a dairy farm and housing development.

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With the proceeds of his first venture, Mr. Fritz sent for his wife Carolina and six children. In 1926, with a new fortune behind him, Mr. Fritz was in the midst of his newest venture, a luxury eight-story hotel complex, when nature and economics intervened. The famous 1926 Miami hurricane damaged the hotel severely and the bottom fell out of the city's booming real estate market. But Mr. Fritz, as he had done before, picked up the pieces and moved on with yet another venture, remaining convinced that Miami was the place to be.1
     1. Miami Herald, Saturday, May 18, 1996
     A lot more could be said about this remarkable entrepreneur, but what is of particular interest to us is that Mr. Fritz was one of the first, if not the first, New Churchmen to set foot in Miami. Apparently, the Jacob Fritz family had been introduced to the teachings of the New Church back in Virginia when Miss Elizabeth Simons (Mrs. E. E. Iungerich) visited them on their farm. Later, many Convention and General Church members visited the family in Miami, and it was always the dream of Mr. Fritz to have a New Church congregation in that beautiful city. He never lived to see that dream fulfilled since he passed away in early 1940, but his daughter Caroline carried the vision forward and became quite instrumental in the establishment of the first General Church congregation in Miami.
     When the David Lindsay family moved to Miami in 1941 and bought a lovely home in Miami Shores, they very quickly got to work tracking down the New Church people already in Miami. When the Second World War broke out, many young men and women were stationed in places like Opa Locka, Key West, Homestead, Port Everglades, and Miami. The group that met in the Lindsay home began to grow, and included the Jane Wilson family, Hollis Brandt, Private Arthur "Buddy" Schnarr, and young Ted Farrington. It was during this time that Caroline Fritz, the daughter of Jacob Fritz, married Mr. E. E. Collins, who became very interested in the teachings of the New Church, was baptized and joined the church.

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It was also at this time that ministers like Bjorn Boyesen, Ormond Odhner, and later Dan Pendleton, who, in making bi-annual visits to the southern states sometimes as far south as West Palm Beach, began extending their circuit to include Miami as the last stop, which very quickly became the largest New Church group among the southern states. Rev. Ormond Odhner, in one of his delightfully detailed pastoral reports, said, "Miami is always one of the high spots in my southern trips. Not only is our group there the largest of any in the south, but the city itself is lush and luxurious, the weather is warm and wonderful, and the swimming is wonderful."2
     2. New Church Life, February, 1949, Report on a Pastoral Trip, Rev. Ormond Odhner, p. 84
     
     If it wasn't for the combined vision and financial planning of Mrs. David Lindsay Hodges and Mrs. Caroline (Fritz) Collins, 1954 wouldn't have been the year when the Miami group received its first resident pastor. But these two remarkable ladies persisted in communicating their vision to Bishop George de Charms, and in the late summer of 1954 the Rev. Morley Rich and family moved there. As the group gathered momentum under full-time pastoral leadership, more New Church people joined them, such as the Bob Gauzens family, Mrs. Vida Schnarr, the Reynold Doerings, the Bruce Pitcairns, and Carl Asplundhs who spent their winters in Palm Beach. Shortly after Mr. Rich became its resident pastor the group found it necessary to rent a public place for services. Public worship first took place on the premises of the Miami Woman's Club, and later in the Lions and Pioneer Clubs. In 1958 the group was recognized as the Miami Circle, and after years of looking and many discussions, a house of worship was bought on North West 5th Avenue and 151st Street. Bishop Willard D. Pendleton dedicated the building on the 14th April, 1963.3
     3. Miami Missive, July, 1972, "A Thumb-Nail Sketch of the Miami Circle," Mrs. A. Hodges

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     After a stay of ten years, the Rev. Morley Rich moved to another pastorate and the Rev. Roy Franson took over in 1965. Under the leadership of Mr. Franson the first Southeastern District Assembly was hosted by the Miami Circle in May, 1967 at a beautiful resort in Ft. Lauderdale with more than ninety people in attendance. Mr. Franson continued to do the huge Southeastern United States traveling circuit started by Mr. Rich, which included visits throughout the whole Florida District, and extended north to include the growing group in Atlanta, Georgia and some other pocket groups in North and South Carolina. During Mr. Franson's pastorate, the small but growing circle in Miami proudly reported having seven weddings and six baptisms in their new building. In 1974 Mr. Franson was called to another pastorate and the Rev. Glenn Alden, fresh out of theological school, took over the Miami Circle.
     By the late 1970s the demographics of the Miami Circle, like so many other General Church congregations, proved to be a challenge. The circle had begun to spread over a large geographical area, mostly north of Miami. The families of Donald Schmucker, Ron Sands, Argo Karallus, Hank Mellman, Murray Carr, Lawson Cronlund, Bryce Genzlinger, John Muthe, Bill Boker, Ginny Huntzinger, Lou Synnestvedt, Norman Synnestvedt, and Ted Farrington were all a part of the Miami Circle even though some of them lived quite a distance from the church. But they were a dedicated group and often got together for work parties at the church (at one time the church property had over twenty different citrus and tropical fruit trees), and for those famous outdoor "pig roasts" (a fine skill originally cultivated by Arthur "Buddy" Schnarr who then shared this secret knowledge with the pastor).

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     The Rev. Glenn Alden was the first pastor to work just in Florida, and he did a tremendous amount with the scattered New Church families in the north, central and western parts of the state, and with the growing group in Lake Helen (near Orlando), which received its own resident pastor during the last year of Mr. Alden's pastorate in Miami. Mr. Alden started "traveling" doctrinal classes, which involved loading local members into his Volkswagen bus and driving them to meet the scattered New Church groups around the state. It was creative efforts like these that paid off and gave the newly organized Florida District a sense of identity and community within the larger New Church family, which any traveling minister knows is very hard to do.
     
     
     [Photograph]
          
          The Miami Church on NW 5th Ave and 151st Street

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     Back in his pastorate in Miami, Mr. Alden made special efforts to try to get the circle into a self-supporting status so that it would be on reasonably solid financial ground as it faced what was becoming a decidedly uncertain future. In 1981 Mr. Alden was called to a new pastorate and his cousin, the Rev. Mark Alden, took over in July of that same year.
     One challenge for the incoming pastor was to find a way to include the growing senior membership of the congregation in the activities of the church. The Rev. Mark Alden succeeded in this task by offering a wide variety of activities and programs for members of all ages. He also reworked and improved the format of the Miami Circle newsletter, the Florida Missive, realizing it could serve as a valuable communication tool, especially for the isolated and for the elderly "shut-ins." But one of the highlights for the Miami group came at the end of Rev. Mark Alden's brief pastorate. A highly successful Southeastern District Assembly was held in Miami on March 17-20, 1983. Among the guests were Bishop King, several out-of-town ministers including the pastor-elect, the Rev. Dan Heinrichs, and his wife, and lots of members and friends from the Florida District and beyond. The assembly was held at the brand new facilities of the Florida Institute of Technology located right on Biscayne Bay. One member was able to bring his sailboat almost to the front door of the facilities and offer rides between the scheduled events. The assembly brought a real sense of cohesion to the members of the Florida District and particularly to the hosts, the Miami circle, who, as already said, faced an uncertain future.
     The issue of high property rates, the increasingly knotty problem of a scattered congregation, and many questions about the location of the church building began to surface, and a number of members from the Miami Circle expressed concern over how these issues might affect their future. The Rev. Mark Alden worked hard to develop some rough plans that would help the congregation relocate the church to a more central and suitable location if and when it desired.

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In looking through the church records I found a file entitled "Long Range Projections for the Miami Circle" that Mr. Alden had sketched out with a footnote that said, "Guesses, please revise" (actually his "guesses" ended up being quite prescient). It included a ten-year plan with the necessary phases for new property development, a construction timetable for a new church building, and plans of a condominium complex designed for church retirees. (In anticipation of future plans like these, the Board of the Miami Circle had generated a small fund which ended up serving as the seed money for the relocation of the church.) But it was Mr. Alden's uncle, the Rev. Daniel Heinrichs, who, in taking over the pastorate of Miami July 1, 1983, led the congregation in the Herculean task of relocating the church.
     Just as Mrs. Lindsay Hodges and Mrs. Collins were the motivating force in establishing the Miami group with its first resident pastor in 1954, Mr. Bill Boker, a retired businessman and resident in Florida since 1967, became the motivating force behind the decision to relocate to Boynton Beach in the early part of 1988. The generous financial support of this remarkable man, together with the small fund generated by the Miami Circle a number of years earlier, made 1988 the year when a three-acre property of undeveloped land was purchased in what was then rural West Boynton Beach, and plans for the construction of a new church building got under way. And so on January 10, 1988 the Miami Circle gathered for the last time to worship in its original church building.
     It took the firm leadership and persistence of Mr. Heinrichs to carry forward the vision of relocating the church, and it was no easy task. Discussion of such a move had begun back in the days of Rev. Glenn Alden's pastorate, and many people then and much later couldn't see how it would ever happen. Prior to the actual move in 1988, Mr. Heinrichs and his wife Miriam had spent a good four years patiently researching and exploring options, talking through the issues with church members.

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They would often spend their Sunday afternoons driving around different parts of the state surveying potential church sites.
     With the professional help of long-time member Ted Farrington, and with the help of the members of his own family, Mr. Heinrichs supervised the remodeling of the one existing building on 10621 El Clair Ranch Road. This building became the manse, with the living room serving as the temporary church for almost two years. Mr. and Mrs. Heinrichs had two of their four adult children (Mary and Bradley) in residence with them already, and were shortly reunited with the remaining two married children (Freya and Robert), both of whom wished to relocate from the cold, harsh winters up north to be with their family and a New Church congregation in sunny South Florida. For a while, then, the whole Heinrichs clan lived in the manse, and on each Sunday miscellaneous grandchildren and family members would be swept out of the living room so that the pews and organ could be moved in and set up for church. As all of this was going on, Mr. Heinrichs had the additional duty of supervising the design and construction of the new handsome church building which was being built next to the manse and was completed at the end of May, 1990.     
      One hundred forty-four members and friends of the newly incorporated "New Church at Boynton Beach" gathered for the dedication service which was conducted by Bishop Peter M. Buss on June 24, 1990. This must have been a proud moment for what was still, officially at this point, the Miami Circle, and two years later, in June, 1992 the growing congregation in the Boynton Beach area became officially recognized by the General Church as a society.
     The Boynton Beach Society has been growing steadily. Some familiar names to many of our readers such as Beryl Moorhead, Jane Birchman, the John Snoeps, the Peer Snoeps, the Barry Smiths, the Roger Smiths, the Phil Smiths, the Phil Horigans, the Phil Heinrichses, Grace Childs, Dorothy Brickman, the Gareth Actons, the Dexter DiMarcoses, the Jim Monahans, the Peter Morells, the Francis Van Loosbroeks, the Jack Lees, the Alan Childses, and Fred Schnarr have found the Boynton Beach Society and become a part of this exceptionally welcoming New Church family.

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When I arrived as the new pastor in July, 1994, the society had already developed the plans and raised the funds to build a new addition to the church in order to accommodate the influx of new members who had recently relocated from other church societies. Growth continues to be a major factor not only for Palm Beach County (which is the fastest growing area in Florida) but also in the long-term planning of the Boynton Beach Society itself. Many new and exciting uses have been developed by the Boynton Beach Society, and one of the last parcels of undeveloped land in the area (which happens to be a two-acre property adjacent to the existing church property) may very well be acquired by the society in the not-too-distant future to accommodate its growing uses (the enormously popular Eldergarten, a possible school, senior adult learning, family and youth programs, public seminars and classes, book store, offices, etc.).

     [Photograph]

     The Boynton Beach Church at 10621 El Clair Ranch Road

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     South Florida is indeed a lush and luxurious part of the United States, as Rev. Ormond Odhner couldn't help but notice during one of his last southeastern pastoral trips. The pleasant climate and warm seas no doubt add to the appeal of South Florida, but it was the profound message of the New Church that first inspired old Mr. Fritz and then a few people in Miami Beach to form a church group, and it was the desire to see the New Church permanently established in South Florida that inspired the Miami Circle to relocate to Boynton Beach. The Boynton Beach Society has become a strong New Church center in South Florida and looks with excitement to a bright and promising future.
     
     [Photgraph]
     
     The entrance to the church with the new addition to the left
     
     [Photgraph]

     The Boynton Beach Church Chancel at Christmas

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PLANETS OUTSIDE OUR SOLAR SYSTEM 1997

PLANETS OUTSIDE OUR SOLAR SYSTEM       Editor       1997

     Well, are there planets outside our solar system? The May issue of Scientific American says, "Recent reports of planets circling stars similar to the sun have sent imaginations reeling." Why the excitement? A planet just might support life! But there is still room for doubt on the evidence of the existence of planets beyond the ones we can see. "In the coming weeks astronomers around the world will focus attention . . . . " New evidence is anticipated.
     The May 17th Science News shows less caution. We read on page 305, "Astronomers have deduced the presence of one or possibly two additional planets orbiting stars, bringing to 12 or 13 the number of known extrasolar planets." The June issue of Sky and Telescope reviews a book called The Biological Universe. "Recent reports of bodies circling other stars confirm the suspicion that planets probably are common in the universe." The question is asked, "Are we alone? Has intelligent life evolved in other solar systems?"
     It is interesting to look at encyclopedias and old science texts to find views on the existence of planets. Some people have asserted that our sun must be the only one in the universe that has planets around it. Others say it is conceivable that there are millions of suns with planets!
     In Swedenborg's day it was known that the stars are suns. Around those suns, Swedenborg reports, there are planets. "The reason that these do not appear to our eyes is their being at such an immense distance, and having only the light of their star, which cannot be reflected as far as here" (EU 126).
     This year we will learn (if the missions are successful) more about our neighbor Mars, but we will also perhaps have further evidence on the question of the existence of planets outside our solar system. That is a physical question, having to do with the material universe. But its implications go beyond material things.

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SWEDENBORG SOCIETY REPORT 1997

SWEDENBORG SOCIETY REPORT       Editor       1997

     The Swedenborg Society in London has had a series of summer lectures at Swedenborg House this year. Speakers have included Glennyce Eckersley, David Lomax, Michael Stanley and Christopher Hasler.
     The society's annual report is always interesting. Here are some things gleaned from the report for 1996.
     John Elliott has completed the translation of volume 11 of the Arcana, and is at work on the final volume with Lisa H. Cooper as consultant.
     Dr. John Chadwick is at work on a modern translation of Earths in the Universe. The title will be The Worlds in Space.
     The society makes interesting contacts as it helps people in research. One Canadian researcher unearthed the previously unknown information that in 1878 a 799-ton barque named "Emanuel Swedenborg" had been launched in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia.
     The society continues to make sure that libraries have copies of the Writings. Twenty-six copies of Dr. Chadwick's translation of Conjugial Love were sent to libraries during the year. Dr. Vladimir Maliavin, President of the Russian Swedenborg Society, was the guest speaker at a society meeting in March. His subject was "Recent Studies on Swedenborg in Russia."
     Glennyce Eckersley signed about thirty copies of her book Angel at My Shoulder when she gave a lecture at Swedenborg House. Mr. Richard Lines had two letters relating to Swedenborg published in The Times.
     During the year twenty-three members of the society died. The list includes Mr. Sveinn Olafsson, whose work as translator and distributor was noted. (See the article in the April issue of New Church Life.)
     Nineteen new members were enrolled during the year, and membership stands at 832.

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GENERAL CHURCH WEB SITE 1997

GENERAL CHURCH WEB SITE       Editor       1997

     The General Church web site (www.newchurch.org) continues to teach people about the Writings and to offer a variety of information about the New Church. There was a special six- month effort of paid advertising using the religion section of a search engine on the Internet. More than forty thousand people visited the site as a result of the advertising. For three weeks a free cassette tape was offered; some 240 people asked for it.
     Rev. Grant Schnarr has further statistics which show how remarkably successful this has been. He also has samples of comments from people who have responded. Here are a few of them.
     "I'm a student at Georgetown University. I really enjoyed the New Church homepage and would like more information."
     "During a short recess from my school work, I visited the New Church homepage. It was a delightful and inspiring experience. Thank you for spreading the love of God on the Internet."
     "I have decided to look deeper into your church and to find out what your thoughts and doctrine may hold."
     "The material on your site has given me new insight into experiences I have had in life. I will continue to read Swedenborg's works as I continue my journey of spiritual growth."
     "Thanks for your beautiful New Church web site . . . . As a United Methodist pastor, I learned quite a bit about a denomination I knew little of."
     "I'm a graduate student at Fordham University. Several students and professors are interested in forming a Swedenborg study group."
     "I wonder if you could send me some sermons by e-mail. We do not have a New Church group here."
     "I have come across a volume of Heaven and Hell and I am interested in the New Church. I have always believed in God, but there were many unanswered questions. That book has helped me understand them."
     There were requests for books in German and Italian, and communications from the Philippines and Japan.

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FEMININE WISDOM 1997

FEMININE WISDOM       Linda Simonetti Odhner       1997


Dear Editor:
     In responding to the Rev. Erik Sandstrom, Sr.'s article "Feminine Wisdom," I will begin with Marie Curie, one of my favorite people.
     Curie's knowledge of chemistry and physics, and her resulting ability to isolate radium, wonderful as Mr. Sandstrom acknowledges these to be, do not comprise her main contribution to science. To imply this does her an injustice, which stands out in this case because Mr. Sandstrom discusses her in the context of making a distinction between knowledge and intelligence, saying that knowledge can be mistaken for intelligence and that this is why women resent being considered less bright than men. (Why is it necessary to invoke this explanation when he has just quoted CL 33, which says that knowledge, intelligence, and wisdom "exist equally with men and women," although they are of different kinds? And when that is just what he says he intends to demonstrate?) Curie spent much of her life confronting the charge that the original thinking in her work really belonged to her husband Pierre, and although Mr. Sandstrom does not say this, his summary comes far too close to it for comfort.
     Marie Curie's brilliant and daring hypothesis that radioactivity is an atomic property, not a chemical one, did more to usher in the era of atomic physics than did any other single idea. This hypothesis led her to conclude that pitchblende ore, which was more radioactive than the uranium extracted from it, must contain at least one unknown element. The skepticism of her peers, and her own persistent nature, drove her and her husband to prove that those new elements really existed. Without her conviction that they must be there, the two would never have found them, for they existed in incredibly minute quantities in the ore.
     Understanding about the source of radioactivity, and the availability of radium for experimental purposes, led in turn to Ernest Rutherford's experiments and theories about the structure of the atom.

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Other scientists could and did gain as much knowledge of chemistry and physics as Marie Curie, but she also possessed the intelligence that enabled her to make a vital and seminal statement about the boundary between the two sciences. Both she and her husband were committed to the ideal of pure scientific research, with no immediate application in mind except for increased knowledge and understanding. Curie's life is a rich source for reflection about the difference between men's and women's minds, and I would like to see this reflection based on a true perception of the worth of her accomplishments.
     As for the right angles mentioned in the next paragraph of the article, the right angle you get by folding a sheet of paper in half, and then folding it again to bisect the straight angle (which is probably how the corner of the newspaper came by its right angle), is just as securely based on theory as the right angle obtained by using Pythagoras-more so if anything. Right angles are easy to make; that's why you see so many of them.
     With science given its due, I move on to society. The roles of men and women in the home and in the workplace need continuing thought. If women have a special calling to make sure that home is a place where everyone, both male and female, can come for rest, nourishment, safety, belonging, and connection, doesn't it follow that men have a similar calling to make sure that the workplace is an environment where anyone who chooses, whether male or female, can earn a fair wage and an honest living, receive respectful treatment and work under decent conditions? Does blaming career women for poverty and dependency further that purpose? Saying that the workplace is men's special province, so women should stay out, is like saying that the home is women's arena, so men should stay out. Men have an important influence in the home, and so do women in the workplace.
     The state of Pennsylvania is compelling children to be away from home for a large part of the day from an early age (as we with children in the Bryn Athyn Church School know all too well; the recent crisis there about compliance with the law has raised some strong feelings).

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A wife and mother might wish to remain at home to nurture her family, but when nobody else is there, the primary purpose for her presence is removed. Resisting the establishment of an institutional culture may be something many women feel called to do; some of us would prefer to do it from our homes, but if we are driven to be political about it, we will. I would also love to see some zeal from men to make sure that the place of home in society is not legislated out of existence, but how can we expect this unless men have ongoing firsthand knowledge of what a home can be? The rigid separation of men and women, workplace and home, and the breakdown of communication between them, can have the effect of undercutting our freedom in both areas. It is tempting, though perhaps presumptuous, to speculate that the people who decided that first graders must be in school at least five hours a day, and those who enforce the law so zealously, never knew a rich, fulfilling home life, or have forgotten what it is like.
     Finally, I wish to point out that getting from what the Writings actually say to the statement "The male is truth and the female is good" requires a leap of inference, but since we are told that the statement is "universally taught in the Writings," we don't learn how or why Mr. Sandstrom made the leap; he gives us no justification for it, so why expect us to be convinced? The same is true of other statements in the article. I would hesitate to say that anything is universally taught in the Writings until I've read them all carefully. Some odd reversals pop up, like love as the bridegroom and wisdom as the bride in TCR 37:3.
     I will stop here, but not because I've run out of things to say.
     
     Linda Simonetti Odhner
     Horsham, Pennsylvania

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WOMEN PRIESTS 1997

WOMEN PRIESTS       Rev. N. Bruce Rogers       1997

Dear Editor:
     In the May issue, Gail Walter Steiner comments that teaching truth is only one part of a priest's duties-" . . . perhaps it could even be considered the 'masculine' part of the job"-and suggests that the perceptive qualities women have could be well used in leading to the good of life. "What would it look like," she asks, "if every New Church society had two 'ministers'-a man who did the preaching and a woman who nurtured the congregation . . . ?"
     This suggestion provides perhaps a clue as to why some members of the church have had and are continuing to have trouble accepting the idea that the work of the priesthood is a masculine function. It has as a premise the notion that leading to the good of life is reserved for the priesthood, something the Doctrines do not teach. Indeed, we find in Arcana Coelestia n. 6822 the statement, "Good can be instilled in another by everyone in the country, but not truth, except by those who are teaching ministers. If others do it, heresies arise and the church is disturbed and sundered."
     It does not require a priest or minister to instill good or to lead to goodness of life. It is, in fact, a duty of every parent and every teacher, regardless of sex. It is only the authoritative teaching of doctrinal truth that is reserved for teaching ministers-i.e., not ministers of state, but clergymen-and this to protect against heresies and the disruption of the church.
     As for nurturing, how does this square with the charge to the priesthood to maintain order in the church by rewarding those who live according to order and by punishing those who live contrary to it? Is this nurturing? Or is it not rather akin to the enforcement of law? The fundamental statement regarding the office of priests is found in Arcana Coelestia (The Secrets of Heaven), nos. 10789ff., a statement repeated in The New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine, nos. 311ff., which we quote here in part:

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     There are two things which in human society must be in order, namely matters having to do with heaven and matters having to do with the world. Matters having to do with heaven are called ecclesiastical; those having to do with the world are called civil.
     Order cannot be maintained in the world without prefects (praefecti) to observe all that is done according to order and all that is done contrary to order, and to reward those who live according to order and punish those who live contrary to order.
     If this does not happen, the human race must perish. For owing to his innate heredity, everyone wishes to rule over others and to possess the goods of others, which leads to enmities, jealousies, hatreds, vengeance, deceit, savagery, and many other evils. Therefore, if people were not held in bonds by laws, and by rewards according with their loves, which are honors and material gains for those who do good, and by punishments contrary to their loves, which are losses of honor, possessions, and life for those who do evil, the human race would perish.
     Consequently there must be prefects to keep associations of people in order, prefects who are skilled in the law, wise, and God-fearing. Among the prefects there must also be order, lest anyone out of caprice or ignorance permit evils contrary to order and so destroy that order. This is guarded against when there are higher and lower prefects in subordination to each other.
     Prefects over those matters in human society which have to do with heaven, or ecclesiastical matters, are called priests, and their office is the priesthood . . . .
     Priests are to teach people and lead them through truths to goodness of life. But still they must compel no one, since no one can be compelled to believe contrary to what he has thought from his heart to be true. A person who believes differently from the priest and does not create disturbances must be left in peace. But a person who creates disturbances must be separated, for this, too, is a matter of order, for the sake of which the priesthood exists (AC 10789-10793, 10798, NJHD 311-314, 318).

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     Priests are not meant to be social workers. They are prefects, people set in charge to maintain order in the church and to teach doctrinal truths by which to lead to goodness of life and so to the Lord.
     Do people need nurturing? Of course they do. But that is not the peculiar office of the priesthood. It is, indeed, a simple matter of charity, an obligation laid on everyone. One does not need to be a priest to nurture, nor does nurturing depend on the services of a priest. Anyone desiring inauguration into the priesthood primarily in order to nurture others may be better advised to consider a career in psychological services or social work, honorable professions in their own right.
          Rev. N. Bruce Rogers
          Huntingdon Valley, PA
TWO ITEMS IN THE MAY ISSUE 1997

TWO ITEMS IN THE MAY ISSUE       Joseph S. David       1997

Dear Editor:
          I would like to comment about two items that appeared in the May issue of New Church Life.
     In his sermon Rev. Derek Elphick mentions that the Lord gave His "sharpest criticism" to the Pharisees because they pretended to be something that they were not. "Hypocrites," He scathingly called them.
     I think we need to define more clearly what hypocrisy is. I have long thought that it means acting as if good but from evil motives, whereas we often act as if good from good motives, and this should not be called hypocrisy.
     If being a hypocrite is simply play-acting, then in a sense anyone who is trying to regenerate is a hypocrite because he or she is trying to act better than he really is.
     When we teach three-year-olds to say "please" and "thank you" or to say "I'm sorry," then are we not teaching them to play-act, at least at first?

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     And who has not heard some ill-mannered celebrity refuse to be polite because "It would be hypocritical," and "It just wouldn't be me"? Honesty becomes the excuse for selfishness, and fear of hypocrisy the excuse for not bothering with self-amendment.
     For most of our lives there are two "me's" within each of us. One is original with its particular tendencies to evils, and the other is the "me" we are trying to become because of the truths we have seen and understood. So when we say "That just wouldn't be me," we have to consider which "me" we are talking about.
     My second comment is in response to Gail Steiner's letter about preaching, which proposes that one person preach and another lead to the good of life. A perusal of the Concordance shows quite a few references to preaching or teaching and leading to the good of life. Most of these seem to connect the two as means and end. Several are turned around to say that the minister who doesn't preach so as to lead to the good of life is in trouble. This is given as a warning to ministers not to preach to satisfy their own egos or to gain power, wealth, or similar things.
     There are not two separate parts to the job of being a minister. There is the job itself and then the reason for doing the job. If the motive behind preaching is to lead members of the congregation to the good of life, then the preacher is likened to a good shepherd.
     Joseph S. David
     Franklin, Pennsylvania
QUEST OF MANKIND 1997

QUEST OF MANKIND       Edgar McCaughtrie       1997

Dear Editor:
     
     I was reading W. D. Pendleton's book Education for Use the other day, and he states that one of the most important questions we should ask ourselves is: What is the meaning and purpose of life? Of course that question set off a whole new train of thought.

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I was soaring off into the wild blue yonder.
     Are we seeking the meaning of life? In order that our life experience in this natural state will redound in our soul, our innermost being, we ought to seek to be conjoined with God. Thus we reach the kingdom of God that is actually within us, and enter into the rapture of being truly alive.
     Jesus said, "I am come that you might have life, and might have it more abundantly" (John 10:10). This abundant life that Jesus promises us is not just for when we die and pass into the world of spirits, but is for us now. That we might experience God's type of life in this world, we must be aware of the spiritual world every day. We are so concerned with achieving that which is of value to the outer man, which satisfies our fleshly desires, that our whole thought process is inundated with natural, material things. Thus we neglect the things that are of value to the inner man, the spiritual things that would lead us to this rapture of being alive. Jesus tells us not to lay up treasures on earth but in heaven (see Matt 6:19). Swedenborg tells us that "Man was born to become an inhabitant of heaven" (AC 1775). But heaven is a "today" experience, or ought to be. If this is so, are we going about our daily lives in the right way?
     Do we reason our way to God, or do we experience Him? We do not seek to understand a beautiful flower, but we can experience its fragrance, its beauty.
     In John 3:36 Jesus says: "He that believes on the Son has everlasting life." This is the promise to us, but what does it mean? I think we need to examine a few things. What is the life that is being offered here? The Greek word for everlasting life is zoe (zoay), which does not mean the life of the body but the pure life of the mind-the life of God in our earthly life.
     How do we receive this life? We see an English word here, "believe," which is from the old English word "by life," meaning how you are walking, or what your true character is. Using this definition, I paraphrase Jesus' saying as follows: "If you have your life experience in following the doctrines of the Lord, you will have-experience-the pure life in the present."

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I am convinced that this is how God wants us to live life, now. In this way, people can see the "outpouring love of God within our hearts" (Romans 5:5) and know that we strive to be "sons of [the] Father who is in heaven" (Matt 5:45). People in this life can look at us, see that we have a heavenly nature, and be attracted to it. They will not think that we are being good just so that we can go to heaven and be an angel, although that may be a motive as well.
     Most of us will admit that we are not in that position, or perhaps are not really trying. Oh, we know that it is a great idea, but we are so slack and our vision has somewhat lost its glow. We are told to seek first the kingdom of God. Do we have a goal? In the natural we would first set some goals, both long-term and short-term. Can we do less for the kingdom of God?
     
     Goal-setting for a Godly Life

     Why is goal-setting important to us? After all, we are not running our spiritual lives like a company, are we? Or should we be? Can we separate our everyday life and simply "put on" our spiritual life on Sundays or when we go to a retreat or special service? We can get "really spiritual" for a few days and then go back to work on Monday with a "glow on." This glow gradually fades away, and can be revived only by another booster shot, and another, to the point that we become retreat junkies. (That is not to say that we should not observe the setting aside of times to worship the Lord, or have times for renewal.)
     Have we become schizophrenic Christians, trying to live several lives at once, always calling up the different "voices" at the appropriate time and place? Or have we become indifferent to the voice calling, "Repent, for the kingdom of God is impinging upon you" (Matt. 3:2, Cotton Patch Version).
     I think that we must take heed of the words that Jesus spoke to us in Luke 14:28, teaching us to count the cost of discipleship.

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For cost it will, but the rewards can be out of this world.
     How do we find out where we are? This is the easy part. If we take out the Bible and turn to Psalm 139:23,24 (yes, read it now!), go to a quiet place and say these words as a prayer, God will most assuredly hear the cry of our heart, and angels will come and minister to us. When we turn to the Lord, the angels of the Most High will be at our side, to lift us up and guide us into the life everlasting.
     If we turn to Him and begin to read the Scriptures, both the Bible and the Writings, on a daily basis, God will show us the way to walk. His presence with us will be more intimate, and so we will be better able to put off those sins and encumbrances that hinder our walk with Him.
     It is a good idea to start with a short time, perhaps 15 minutes morning and evening at a regular time. We set a pattern in our life.
     I think if we start and end each day with a few minutes of quiet meditation, we will find that our relationship with the Creator of all things will grow and grow. We will begin to experience "the peace of God that passes all understanding."
     James says in his epistle that "Elijah was a man just like us" (James 5:17), and so was Swedenborg. I can just hear you saying now: "But these were men chosen specially by God." Yes, but we also are people whom God has chosen to be His representatives on this earth, wherever we may be, and He wants us to walk with Him, to be aware of the realities of both heaven and earth. So do not set your goal too low. Aim for all you can be in God. Seek you first the kingdom of God, and all these things will be added unto you.
     Edgar McCaughtrie
     Kitchener, Ont., Canada

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BOOK INFORMATION 1997

BOOK INFORMATION              1997

     


     Announcements






     As we go to print we have seen an early copy of a tiny book about the Sermon on the Mount. No, the print is not small. It is quite as comfortable to read as the book is comfortable in one's pocket. The words of the Sermon on the Mount appear on the left page and on the right page we have an opening of the internal sense. We will have more to say about this another time.

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Notes on This Issue 1997

Notes on This Issue              1997

     
New Church Life
     1997 August

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     Last month we had a sermon from Exodus written two centuries ago by James Hodson. This month we have another sermon from Exodus, written by Hodson's great, great, great, grandson. This was preached in Bryn Athyn near Independence Day, and a part of it is slanted to American readers.
     We are pleased to have two reviews in this issue, and we thank Mr. Paul Simonette and Rev. Erik Sandstrom (the younger) for their able efforts.
     Many of our readers remember with affection the presentations of Mr. Edward Allen, Sr. One example is his article on science and religion published in this journal in 1964 called "The Two Foundations of Truth." We are pleased to hear that he has an article coming out in The New Philosophy. We apologize if we have been a little hasty in printing the first part of a recent study. In his nineties, Mr. Allen has remarkably clear handwriting, but we are not sure we have always been exact in getting this part into print.
     Will the New Church be endangered by falsities? If so, what kind of falsities? The study by Rev. N. Bruce Rogers addresses this question, and invites us to "the affirmative principle." In contrast to the principle that leads to "folly and insanity" we are told that this principle leads to "intelligence and wisdom" (AC 2468).
     A year ago this month we printed "A Letter to a Catholic Cousin" by Dr. Chris Clark. This was widely appreciated. A letter we are now publishing says, "Please don't fret that Dad and I are now Swedenborgian." It tells of an intriguing incident.
     Of the several reports of baptisms a number have come from Ivyland, which is only a few miles from Bryn Athyn. Others have come from more remote places, six coming from Rio de Janeiro.
     The Swedenborg Foundation is seeking a Publisher/Executive Director. See page 368.
     The book advertisement this month is about Perspectives on New Church Education by the late Bruce Glenn. Some quotations from that book are on page 366.

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GIFT FREELY GIVEN 1997

GIFT FREELY GIVEN       Rev. Thomas H. Rose       1997

     "Then everyone came whose heart was stirred, and everyone whose spirit was willing, and they brought Jehovah's offering for the work of the tabernacle of meeting, for all its service, and for the holy garments" (Exodus 35:21).

     Somewhere back in the deep shadows of our being-somewhere hidden beneath the complexities and distractions of our daily living-there lies a tremendous yearning. This yearning seems to have a life of its own, its own identity from which we draw the trappings of our own identity. It is the desire and longing for autonomy or the need to feel the freedom to be an individual-to be a free human being capable of making choices. We know from doctrine that we are born for the sake of others. We know that we are capable of loving others even more than we love ourselves. But still we need to know with a certainty that our love for others and our useful service must come from the personal choice to give of ourselves in this way. The ability to choose the nature of our giving is what makes us human. We make our choices in life from freedom and from rational thought. Freedom and rationality are the faculties which define our humanity.
     The Lord, our Heavenly Father, knows this well, of course. He guards our freedom as the "apple of His eye," gently bending us and guiding us but never forcing or breaking. The Lord in no way compels us to do anything. He values our free return of His love and our mutual love for others freely given. He has no regard for anything done in a state of compulsion, except as a means toward finding full adult freedom of spirit.
     When the Children of Israel were fleeing from Egypt they were being released from slavery. In a very practical sense, their freedom was being restored by the awesome power of Jehovah God. The role of the people was to obey Moses and Aaron and get out of the land; otherwise they would either perish or remain captive and continue to serve Pharaoh.

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Here was their opportunity to be released from their hated bondage, and all they needed to do was to follow along as the events unfolded in the dramatic exchange between Pharaoh and the servants of Jehovah God, Moses and Aaron. It was not a difficult free decision the people were called to make, and they would go on to face many challenges in the wilderness. But notice that very shortly after their departure from Egypt they were asked to make a sincere gesture from the heart. They were asked to bring an offering, something from their own possessions, to serve in the fashioning of the tabernacle and its furnishings and coverings, the ark of the covenant, and the vestments for the priesthood now to be established among them.
     "Take from among you an offering to Jehovah. Whoever is of a willing heart, let him bring it as an offering to Jehovah: gold, silver, and brass . . . . "
     And they did it. They came, moved from the heart-not compelled from without-to contribute to the establishment of the ways and means by which they would worship their God from that point onward.
     "Then everyone came whose heart was stirred, and everyone whose spirit was willing, and they brought Jehovah's offering for the work of the tabernacle of meeting, for all its service, and for the holy garments."
     In life we so often feel compelled to do what we do. We obey laws and observe proprieties of behavior for the common good. We pay the bills and arrive at appointments. We stand in lines and stop at traffic signals that have no more power in themselves than that of displaying colored light before our eyes. In human society there are standards for living which we for the most part obey. And all of it is because we know that acting in such a way contributes to our condition of freedom and to the freedom of all others. It is true in civil life, moral life and spiritual life that how we choose to live either enhances or inhibits the freedoms of other people.

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     Some decisions are easier to make than others. Like the Children of Israel following Moses and Aaron in their escape from bondage, we can come to see the importance of reading and following the Word as the only way we can escape the influence of the hells. We can, from fear of hell and the hope of heaven, come before the Lord in times of worship, public and private. We can decide to interact with each other charitably, knowing that this is an image of the life of heaven. But the deeper exercise of our spiritual freedom comes when the Lord asks us to make an offering from the heart. Our spiritual maturity begins when we start to lay down our lives-our possessions-before the Lord and before our neighbor from a spirit of genuine love freely given.
     Each of us has had the experience of growing from childhood into adulthood. In this process, as we enter into more of a capacity to exercise our rational mind, we take on more responsibilities, become more accountable for our actions and more able to make our own choices in life. Like the Children of Israel, our personal entry into adulthood may involve some rebellion at first -and certainly it involves a movement away from the dominant influence and borrowed faith of our parents and teachers. And then, somewhere early in our adult spiritual journey, the Lord stops us at the foot of His holy mountain, and we understand that we must make an offering from the heart in order to establish our personal, internal place and manner of worship.
     Imagine the Children of Israel at Mount Sinai-one bringing silver earrings, another bringing badger skins; one with brass, another with linen. These things represent our presentation before the Lord of good and true states, internal and external affections and truths of our life all brought together to make a tabernacle in which the Lord may dwell. And the point here is that we are asked to do this from true freedom; we are asked to make this offering to the Lord from the heart. "And they came, both men and women, as many as had a willing heart, and brought a clasp, and an earring, and a ring, and a girdle, every vessel of gold; and every man that waved a wave-offering of gold to Jehovah."

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Every vessel of gold was brought, and this is because everything done from true freedom is done from love.
     We know that the story of the Children of Israel moves on from Sinai in a long and perilous journey until they finally settle in the promised land. Building from our heart a dwelling-place for the Lord is only the beginning of our adult exercise of spiritual freedom. The struggles of most of adult life are temptations, both natural and spiritual. And although it seems quite the opposite, we are taught that we exercise more freedom when we are in the despair of temptation than we do otherwise. Reading in the Arcana Coelestia: "In self-compulsion there is freedom, that is, what is willing and spontaneous, and this distinguishes self-compulsion from being compelled. Without this freedom, or willingness and spontaneity, a person cannot possibly be reformed and receive any heavenly proprium; also, though the contrary seems to be the case, there is more freedom in times of temptation than there is outside of them. Indeed at such times freedom increases as assaults are made by evils and falsities, and it is consolidated by the Lord in order that a heavenly proprium may be given to the person. The Lord in no way compels anybody. No one who is compelled to think that which is true and to do that which is good is reformed, but instead thinks all the more what is false and wills all the more what is evil. This is so with all compulsion, as may also become clear from all the experience and lessons of life, which when learned prove two things: first, that human consciences will not allow themselves to be coerced, and second, that we strive after the forbidden. Furthermore, everyone who is not free desires to become so, for this is his life. From this it is evident that nothing is in any way pleasing to the Lord that is not done in freedom . . . " (AC 1947).
     Today we gather together for worship in this beautiful cathedral, having just celebrated a landmark event in the expression of human freedom: our own country's declaration over 220 years ago that it would become independent from the dominance of any other nation.

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The forgers of this spirit of independence were God-fearing people. They knew deep within that, having freely accepted the governance of God, they had a capacity and a right to in turn govern themselves. They also knew that their rebellion from another country's control was only the first step in the practice of true freedom. They knew that as this new entity grew up, it would face tremendous challenges and internal struggles, and that the people's real freedom would be realized in their process of responsible work and growth together to become a truly nurturing motherland for millions of people.

     Whether it is the Children of Israel, our own nation, or ourselves, there is a pattern: rebellion or the acquisition of independence, a heartfelt offering of a place for God to dwell, and the subsequent struggles and conflicts that serve to refine a sense of real freedom of choice. This is the struggle for true humanity, and in the church it is the free choice to be re-fashioned by the Lord into His image and likeness.
     "Then everyone came whose heart was stirred, and everyone whose spirit was willing" (Exodus 35:21). Amen.

Lessons: Exodus 35:4-29; John 8:30-36; AC 1947 (part)
REVIEWS 1997

REVIEWS       Paul Simonetti       1997

Return to the Promised Land: The Story of Our Spiritual Recovery, by Rev. Grant R. Schnarr, Chrysalis Books, Swedenborg Foundation, West Chester, Pennsylvania, 1997, paperback 213 pp.
     
     Perhaps the most distinctive and revealing aspect of New Church doctrine is that which is explained with intimate reference to the books of the Old Testament.

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There is a special power and relevance to our lives today in the many passages whose literal sense deals with the events which befell that small group of people known as the Children of Israel in the millennium before the Lord's advent. Why this should be so is amply explained in the Arcana, and yet we discover this fact over and over again each time we revisit these stories and gain new insight into the internal sense. It becomes more and more clear to us that the Scriptures abound with application to each one of us today, and it remains only for us to read and understand what the Lord is teaching us through these historical parables.
     It is for this reason that Grant Schnarr's new book is so valuable to our search for meaning and relevance in the Word. The author succeeds in making these passages come alive in a way that has not been done before, and he accomplishes this by taking us through the Scriptural accounts, stone by stone, event by event, and acting as our guide and companion along the way. He describes why and how each symbolic act applies to our human condition, and, what is more, he illustrates all this by sharing of himself, his own journey along the way to the promised land. He is both our guide and fellow traveler, explaining, encouraging and sharing.
     Return to the Promised Land is a chronicle of the internal sense of the Biblical account of the journey of the Children of Israel from Egypt to Canaan, from their bondage in Egypt, of their trials in the wilderness, and of their triumphs in recapturing the land of Canaan. The author freely recounts his own spiritual journey, the experiences from his youth, to illustrate the internal meaning hidden within the text.
     To make a book reviewer's life easier, the author provides a summary of his own book:

This book . . . is about the parable of the Children of Israel's struggle to become a nation. By "parable" I mean a symbolic representation of our human existence.

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This book does not merely offer a loose correlation between the history of a people and our own personal lives. It assigns each significant person, place, tree, rock, body of water, and stick in the hand a specific spiritual meaning that corresponds directly to our spiritual growth . . . . This story was written for you and me, for our spiritual development. It will soothe and encourage you to know that, even as God did not abandon his people so many thousands of years ago, he does not abandon his people today, but leads each of us, if we will let him, to happiness and inner peace . . . .

As your guide on this journey, I want you to know that I have taken and am taking this same journey daily. I firmly believe that you will learn a great deal about your personal spiritual journey from these descriptive biblical stories, from their deeper meaning brought to light by Emanuel Swedenborg, and from my own experiences with pain, with life, and with growth.


     Preceding each chapter are biblical passages from one part of the story as contained in the books of Genesis, Exodus, Numbers or Joshua. This is the text to be explained in the body of the chapter. The story is divided into twelve parts, and each chapter focuses on a particular aspect of our spiritual journey, in a developmental progression, from "Spiritual Bondage in Egypt" (chapter one) to "Spirituality, Peace in the Lord" (chapter twelve). Each chapter begins with a quotation from a work by Swedenborg, which, as the author explains, "was the starting point of my own interpretation."
     No matter how well written, no book can effect changes in one's life without the reader's participation and involvement on more than just an intellectual level. For this reason, Mr. Schnarr has provided at the end of each chapter several practical exercises, which, as he says, are "intended to help you put your newfound knowledge into immediate action."
     Paul Simonetti

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Title Unspecified 1997

Title Unspecified              1997

???????



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TOWARD A TRUE PHILOSOPHY 1997

TOWARD A TRUE PHILOSOPHY       EDWARD F. ALLEN       1997

     And How to Make a True Philosopher
     (Part 1)
     
Preamble

When Swedenborg was in his philosophical state of mind, he was a Christian man who was being prepared by the Lord to become His servant. Besides other things that have been written about Swedenborg's preparation there is the fact that he was Christian, that is, how that contributed to his preparation: Etienne Gilson, important historian of mediaeval philosophy, made this statement about Christianity: "We note in the first place that the great superiority of Christianity lies in the fact that it is no mere abstract knowledge of truth, but an efficacious way of salvation."
     After nine pages of particulars, he concluded: "Thus I call Christian every philosophy which, although keeping the two orders formally distinct, nevertheless considers the Christian revelation as an indispensable auxiliary to reason."
     Swedenborg as a Christian in providence called upon the Only Begotten three times as part of his preparation: first in order that he might become a true philosopher; second that he was able to complete a reasoned argument by "Thus then we have an agreement of revelation with reasoning"; third because as Swedenborg wrote about the Only Begotten: "That so by Him alone, and through our connection with Him alone, we ourselves are ultimate effects to the primary end. And that without Him there would be no connection between the last effect and the Infinite; whereas through Him somewhat of the divine may dwell in us, namely, in the faculty to know and believe that there is a God, and that He is infinite, and again through Him, by the use of the means, we are led to true religion, and become children of God, and not of the world." This is from The Spirit of Mediaeval Philosophy by Etienne Gilson.

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     A call upon the Only Begotten in order that it could be possible that Swedenborg could become a true philosopher.

     The subject of chapter 1 of the Principia is, "On the means which conduce to true philosophy and on the True Philosopher."
     The first part of the chapter is devoted to how it is possible to obtain a true philosophy. In order to enter into the second part of the chapter, i.e., how to become a true philosopher, Swedenborg introduces this description of the true philosopher.
      And so the development of a true philosophy begins by acknowledging the beginning of the first thing said in chapter 1 of the Principia, and the beginning of what is required to be a true philosopher is to satisfy the first thing said in the chapter, namely: "If the mind (animus) be well connected with the influx of the heavens, or in other words, if man be truly rational, he is perpetually aspiring after wisdom." When examined, this develops into a reason why a true philosophy becomes possible whereby Swedenborg is able to describe a true philosopher as follows:

By a true philosopher, we understand a man who, by the means above treated of, is enabled to arrive at the real causes, and the knowledge of those things in the mechanical world which are invisible and remote from the senses; and who is afterwards capable of reasoning a priori, or from first principles or causes, concerning the world and its phenomena, both in physics, chemistry, metallurgy, and all other sciences or subjects which are under the empire of mechanical principles; and who can thus, as from a central point, take a survey of the whole mundane system, and of its mechanical and philosophical laws.
     
     Swedenborg then proceeded to show how one may become a true philosopher by applying this means by which a man may obtain a true philosophy. This depends upon an investigation of the nature of nature itself. This part of philosophy itself which depends upon the science of nature is called Natural Philosophy. "Natural Philosophy" historically is the more enduring part of philosophy in general. Thales had a natural philosophy because of his argument that all is water.

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So it was with Pythagoras when he argued that all is number, and Heraclitus when he argued that all is motion, that is, fire. And over 2000 years later Swedenborg in his Principia was reasoning by natural philosophy that all in the universe is made of first natural points. In our century, physics is alive with natural philosophy. I have two books on the subject: Natural Philosophy of Cause and Chance by Mark Born, a physics Nobel Laureate, and Physics as Natural Philosophy, edited by Abner Shimony and Herman Teshbach. The latter consists of articles by twenty-four authors. And so Swedenborg was involved historically by his natural philosophy in his Principia. Physical evidence is in his description of the solar system and studies in magnetism in rocks, and the variation of the declination of the compass needle in the study of terrestrial magnetism. Swedenborg knew what he was doing because if you look in chapter 1 of the Principia where he gives the description of a true philosopher reproduced above, you will see that that description beginning with "By a true philosopher we understand a man . . . , " he calls for verification of what is in his mind, namely, the description given above, but by the sentence "How far this may be affirmed of my Principia, it is for the reader to decide." To this two things are necessary: 1.The reader must have read "my Principia," which consists of showing that the universe is made of first natural points. 2. In order to use reading "my Principia" as a reason, chapter 1 had to be written after "my Principia." My mind is foggy on this point, but it gives me the message that Alfred Stroh said something to this point. But the reader on his own account, by a study of the contents of each, can conclude that the Principia's first chapter as printed should out-and-out admit that it was written after the description of everything created out of first natural points, and first natural points are each a first ens described in the first sentence of chapter 2 of the Principia:

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No rational and intelligent philosopher can deny that the first ens was produced from the Infinite as well as the rest in succession.

     Hence the universe, however extensive it may be, is itself formed out of what is finite.
     With this enforced sidetrack upon us set aside, we return to Swedenborg's having an investigation of what he has described as true philosophy. We left him as applying how in order to be a true philosopher one must be able to apply Natural Philosophy. The question was in his thoughts of how or even if it would work, even calling upon Gods for help (see pp. 33, 34, Clissold translation). An overpowering event had happened which stopped his mind from seeking help from Natural Philosophy. It was the fall of man because as he wrote:

No man seems to have been capable of arriving at true philosophy, since the age of that first of mortals who is said to have been in a state of the most perfect integrity, that is to say, who was formed and made according to all the art, image, and connexion of the world, before the existence of vice.


     And for the remaining ten pages of chapter 1 of the Principia, Swedenborg carries on a comparison of a man who is in integrity with a man who is not. I condense that ten pages of reasoning to and fro, that is, a man in a state of integrity and man not in a state of integrity. I reduce this to the first remark and the last remark on man in integrity in those ten pages: in part the first statement is:

The reason why man in a state of integrity was made a complete philosopher was that he might the better know how to venerate the Deity-the Origin of all things-that Being who is all in all.


     After ten pages contrasting the state of a man who is in integrity against the state of a man who is not in integrity his reasoning arrives at this:
     
We therefore conclude again that the wiser a man is, the more will he be a worshiper of the Deity. From the same reasoning it follows that such a man must have been the object of God's supreme love, for love is not only reciprocal, and according to connexion, but is also greater in its prior degree, and becomes less in the derivative.

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     But a comparison is a comparison. The comparison only emphasizes the difficulty. The fall of man and its consequences are still with Swedenborg, and so he wrote:

But the contrary to all this must necessarily take place in a man not in a state of integrity, and in whom the connexion above mentioned is disrupted. Such a man has not the wisdom, the veneration and adoration of the Deity we have described; and as his knowledge of the Divine benefits and grace is also imperfect in proportion to his deficiency in wisdom, so neither can he have such love; in a word, he cannot have any such veneration, adoration, and love of the Deity, as was entertained by the wise first man, unless he receives them from another source, that is, immediately from grace. But whatever veneration, worship, and love may exist in a man so changed, and in whom the connexion is broken by vices and cupidities, they can never be unaccompanied by fear, because he never can be without cause of fear. Neither can love be supposed to exist in God towards man after the connexion is broken, but, instead of love, justice. Man's having cause for fear implies justice in God.

     It will be seen that what follows this will be the last thing said in chapter 1 of the Principia. It calls for help by the Only Begotten. Thus theology is introduced into philosophy! For up to now what Swedenborg calls "my" Principia consists of an argument that the universe is made of finites, actives and compounds made of these. Hence the whole is in the finite sphere.
     As for Swedenborg himself, in order that he may be able to become a true philosopher, he is to be restored in integrity lost by the fall of man. Hence by this reasoning the last thing said in chapter 1 of the Principia is:
     
It is therefore agreeable to reason to conclude that there would have been no love in God towards man in his unconnected and discontinuous state, but only justice, had not the Infinite and Only Begotten for this cause been made man, that in Himself as a man, and consequently through a certain connexion with Himself, He might restore a connexion with the Infinite in those who are like Him.

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     There is, however, a condition in the final sentence of the Principia chapter, namely, that the lost connection of man with God can be restored only in this manner:

He might restore a connection with the Infinite in those who are like Him.

     The question arises: Who are those who are like Him? A possible answer can be given as follows: The answer may be in what happened in the Sermon on the Mount. After the Lord instructed the multitude on things not to do, He said, "Be not ye therefore like unto [the heathen]. After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven . . . . "
     And also the connection broken in Swedenborg, a Christian, by the fall of man, may be connected if he would be like those who are like Him, when He said, "after this manner therefore pray ye . . . . "

     (To be continued)
RADIO PROGRAM FROM PROVIDENCE, R.I. 1997

RADIO PROGRAM FROM PROVIDENCE, R.I.              1997

     Rev. Frank Rose is being featured in a radio talk show out of Providence, Rhode Island this summer. He is able to speak from Tucson, Arizona while the program originates on the east coast! The half-hour program comes on Monday evenings at 7:30. It will continue for at least 13 weeks.

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EATING OF THE FORBIDDEN TREE 1997

EATING OF THE FORBIDDEN TREE       Rev. N. BRUCE ROGERS       1997

     The Falsification of the Word in the Church

     The quality and worth of a church depends on its understanding of the Word.1 It is a church's understanding of the Word which enables it to carry out its principal purpose and function, to teach truths from the Word and by those truths to lead to the good of life and thus to the Lord.2 The church in the individual is a matter of personal faith and life in accordance with the doctrines of the church,3 but as an organization the church is primarily a teaching body, a worthy and commendable church if what it teaches are genuine truths, an unworthy and uncommendable church if what it teaches are not genuine truths, and a bankrupt and fallen church if what it teaches are falsified truths.4
     (Notes are on page 364.)
     History has seen the rise and fall of a number of churches-churches which in the beginning embraced and held to genuine truths, but which in the course of time falsified those truths by altering them and adding to them ideas of their own. Their falsification of truth by arrogating to themselves the right and power to decide for themselves what is good and true has been the fundamental reason for the fall of every church.5
     This is what is depicted in the familiar story in Genesis of the man and his wife in the garden of Eden eating of the forbidden tree:

So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings.

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And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.6

     Of every other tree in the garden they were permitted to eat, including the tree of life, but of the tree of knowledge they were not to eat, lest they die.7 To eat of the tree of life is, spiritually, to be intelligent and wise from the Lord; but to eat of the tree of knowledge is, spiritually, to attempt to be intelligent and wise from self.8

The Falsification of the Word in Previous Churches

     Specifically, what is symbolized is the reason for the fall of the Most Ancient Church. Originally the people of the Most Ancient Church drew all their concepts of moral and spiritual living from God out of heaven. But in the process of time, the people's sensual nature began to assert itself-represented by the tempting of the serpent-and their sense of self, with its desire for independence-represented by the woman-began to listen. And eventually they ate of the forbidden tree, which is to say, they began to draw their concepts of moral and spiritual living from themselves and the world and to decide for themselves what is good and true.9 They corrupted their perceptions of goodness and truth which they had from God by reasoning about them from the evidence of their senses and knowledge gained from the world.10
     Something similar happened in the Ancient Church. From the beginning the people of the Ancient Church attempted to inquire into truths of faith by reasoning about them, and they consequently fell into errors and perversions.11 And eventually, corrupted by innovators, the Ancient Church degenerated,12 until, as depicted in the story of the tower of Babel, falsities reigned instead of truths-represented by the bricks the people made instead of stone-and the people framed their own doctrine-represented by the city they built-in rebellion against the Word they had from God.13

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     The like occurred in the Israelite and Jewish Church. Although only the representation of a church from its inception, and not a true, internal church, still it too became wholly bankrupt and corrupted through the people's falsification of the plain teachings of their Word.14 This is evidenced by judgments pronounced by its prophets upon the people of that church. The 81st Psalm declares: " . . . My people would not heed My voice . . . . So I gave them over to their own stubborn heart, to walk in their own counsels."15 The prophet Isaiah declared: "'Woe to the rebellious children,' says the LORD, 'who take counsel, but not of Me, and who devise plans, but not of My Spirit . . . . '" 16 Jeremiah was commanded to write, "This is a nation that does not obey the voice of the LORD their God nor receive correction. Truth has perished and has been cut off from their mouth."17 Through Hosea came the word of the LORD, "There is no truth . . . in the land."18
     Therefore the Lord in His advent accused the scribes and Pharisees of making the Word of God of no effect through their tradition, because they twisted the teachings of their Word to suit their own preferences and ends.19 Nor would they suffer themselves to be corrected. "You seek to kill Me," He said, "because My Word has no place in you . . . . You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do . . . . Therefore you do not hear . . . . "20
     The Christian Church in its history followed the same pattern. The Apostolic Church was a genuine church, but it was not long before false dogmas arose, hatched out of merely human reasoning, and over the centuries these dogmas gained ascendency over teachings of the Word, until the Word was either set aside or interpreted in such a way as to support them. Consequently the Heavenly Doctrines record that the dogmas of the present Christian churches have not been formed from the Word, but from people's imagination, and therefore from falsities.21

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And in specific reference to the Roman Catholic and Protestant churches, they declare that there are in the world two religions which have sprung from people's own intelligence-one in which the love of self and of the world is everything, and one in which the light of nature is everything; and although some adherents of the latter acknowledge the Word, they use it to defend their own ideas, making the Word subservient to them.22
     Thus every church in the history of the world has in time been corrupted, and this owing to people's arrogating to themselves the right to decide for themselves what is good and true. Indeed, it seems to be a principle that every church in time becomes corrupted, for the Heavenly Doctrines teach that every church in the course of time degenerates, stemming either from people's love of rule or from conceit in their own intelligence, which lead them to adulterate and falsify the goods and truths of the church.23

The New Church

     Now the New Church, we are told, will endure for ever and ever, as the crown of all the churches that have existed in the world.24 However, that does not guarantee that every organization of the church will endure. Still less does it guarantee that every organization of the church will endure uncorrupted. The principle remains that every church in the course of time degenerates, and this through falsification of the truths that it has by people's arrogating to themselves the right to decide for themselves what is good and true. One organization may succeed another. Alternative organizations may arise. But if it is to continue as a genuine embodiment of the New Church, each must guard against falsification of the doctrines of that church.
     Falsities, which, when commingled with truths, falsify them, are of various kinds, depending on their nature and origin.25 In general they fall into two categories: falsities arising from relying on one's own, merely human intelligence, and falsities arising from a desire to confirm what one pleases.26 The first may be called falsities of the intellect, and the latter, falsities of the will.

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Falsities of the Intellect

     Falsities of the intellect may result from ignorance. One may simply not know what the Doctrines actually teach and make unwarranted assumptions concerning God and the life of religion. From some few doctrines that are known, one may draw conclusions that are in fact at variance with other doctrines. Simplicity of intellect or inadequate study may lead one to think he or she comprehends what he or she really does not and to reason accordingly. The ensuing falsities are in themselves not very harmful, at least not permanently so, if they are believed in innocence and are not confirmed.27 However, if they are confirmed, they are harmful, for they then become matters of which one is persuaded, which cannot be easily rooted out.28
     Falsities of the intellect may result also from reasoning based on fallacious appearances. Merely symbolic or representative expressions in the literal sense of the Word may be mistaken for genuine truths.29 Personal experience gained through the senses, as from seeing or hearing, may be misinterpreted so as to give rise to misconceptions that cloud the understanding.30 Indeed, such misconceptions are almost inevitable, since so much that we learn is gained through the senses, which are prone to error.31 Personal experience, therefore, is not to be trusted; for no one is able to perceive spiritual truth of himself.32 In the words of the prophet Jeremiah, "It is not in man who walks to direct his own steps."33 Acumen of intellect does not alter or remedy this human condition. One may be able to reason keenly and ingeniously and still be caught up in fallacious appearances and misconceptions of the senses.34 Again, the ensuing falsities are in themselves not very harmful, provided they are believed in innocence and are not confirmed.35
     Falsities of the intellect may result as well from reasoning about general truths on the basis of some particular examples or illustrations of those truths.

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One may, for instance, form conclusions about some other person on the basis of what one knows about oneself and be quite off the mark. One may similarly seize on some specific point of doctrine as though it were a universal truth and draw inferences from it that are quite erroneous. General truths are not seen in the light of particular examples or illustrations of them, but particular examples or illustrations of some general truth may be seen and understood in the light of that general truth. First the general truth must be known and understood, and then the particular example or illustration of it may be properly viewed.36 This again points up the fallibility of reasoning from personal experience; for reasoning from personal experience almost always involves the drawing of general conclusions from particular examples or illustrations, conclusions which, on that account too, are liable to error.
     Because falsities of the intellect may result from reasoning based on fallacious appearances and from reasoning about general truths on the basis of some particular examples or illustrations of those truths, therefore they may result from reasoning on the basis of any empirical observation.37 To reason about matters of religion on the basis of empirical observations is to form conclusions about spiritual matters on the basis of natural effects and phenomena. Not only is this contrary to order, but it blinds the intellect to matters above the realm of nature.38
     Human reason, in short, no matter how keen, in matters of faith cannot substitute for revelation.39 Human reason may be employed to interpret and confirm what revelation teaches, but it cannot be employed to alter or add to revelation.

Falsities of the Will

     More serious than falsities of the intellect are falsities of the will. Falsities of the will are falsities arising from a desire to confirm what one pleases. They may arise from a desire for innovation.40 People who, discontent with traditional interpretations and practices, wish to introduce new interpretations and practices must formulate arguments to justify and defend those innovations.

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If they wish to introduce them simply because they are new, and not from any new insight into the truths of revelation, then their arguments inevitably contain erroneous reasonings. The first Ancient Church in its worship and life was corrupted and degenerated owing largely to the inventions of such innovators.41
     Falsities of the will may arise also from a desire for prestige and influence in the church.42 One may seize upon some point of doctrine and explain it or distort it so as to captivate minds and lead them.43 One may devise or advocate new interpretations or practices in order to captivate minds and lead them.44 Whenever the motivation is the promotion of self and not the love of truth for the sake of truth and the good that it teaches, the outcome is invariably reasoning that embraces falsities.
     Worst of all, finally, are falsities that arise from a desire to justify ends and actions that are contrary to precepts of the Word.45 On the plains of Moab, shortly before his death, Moses spoke to Israel and said,

I make this covenant and this oath . . . that there may not be among you man or woman or family or tribe whose heart turns away today from the LORD our God . . . ; and it happen, when he hears the words of this curse, that he blesses himself in his heart, saying, "I shall have peace, even though I follow the dictates of my heart . . . . "46

     And in His advent, in His Sermon on the Mount, the Lord said,

Not everyone who says to Me, "Lord, Lord" shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, "Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?" And then I will declare to them, "I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!"47

     A desire to justify ends and actions that are contrary to precepts of the Word is a common human failing, and when teachings of revelation are wrested this way and that in order to justify those ends and actions, then the teachings are perverted, falsified and profaned.48

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It is to profess a belief in the Word, and yet at the same time to so abuse it as to reject what it teaches.49
The Affirmative Principle
     All of these falsities arise as a result of reasonings concerning the truths and goods of faith,50 in violation of the command not to eat of the forbidden tree by arrogating to self the right and power to decide for oneself what is good and true. If given sufficient currency, such falsities have the potential of destroying the organized church, inwardly if not outwardly. For falsities beget still further falsities,51 and there is no falsity which cannot be defended and made to appear as truth.52
     This caution does not advocate or counsel a blind belief. In the New Church it is permitted to enter with understanding into the mysteries of faith,53 and the Heavenly Doctrines warn against a blind faith.54 Rather the caution is to underscore what the Arcana Coelestia calls the affirmative principle, which is first of all to believe the Word, and afterward to employ human reason, not to alter or add to its teachings, but to understand them and confirm them.55
     In our management of the church and its affairs and in the conduct of our lives, we have been faced and will be faced with temptations and trials that challenge our commitment to the Word. But the Lord said, "If you abide in My Word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." 56
     The condition is that we abide in His Word.

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Notes:
      1 SS 76-79. TCR 243-245.
      2 AC 10794, 10798. NJHD 315, 318. TCR 415.
      3 TCR 245.
      4 SS 77, 79:8.
      5 AC 126, 127, 231.
      6 Genesis 2:6-8.
      7 Genesis 2:15.
      8 AC 125, 126. CL/ML 353.
      9 AC 9942:3, 4, 9960:19. DP 313:1, 2. Char. 204. AE 581:2, 739:6, 11. Coro. 29.
      10 AC 6398, 9942:3, 4, 9960:19.
      11 AC 975, 1070, 1071:1.
      12 AC 1241.
      13 AC 1295-1298, 1302, 1304, 1305.
      14 SS 79. TCR 247:1.
      15 Psalm 81:10-13.
      16 Isaiah 30:1, 2.
      17 Jeremiah 7:28. Cf. Jeremiah 9:3, 44:16, 17.
      18 Hosea 4:1, 2.
      19 Matthew 15:1-9. Mark 7:1-13.
      20 John 8:37-47.
      21 TCR 508:4.
      22 AC 8941:3.
      23 AC 1241. Faith 49. DP 327, 328.
      24 TCR 788.
      25 NJHD 21, 171.
      26 AC 735, 845, 1212, 1295:1,2, 8941:1-3. SS 52, 60, 91. Faith 49.
      27 AC 845, 1082, 1088, 1106, 1295:1, 3436, 7887, 9192:7, 9253, 9982. NJHD 21, 171. DLW 350. CL/ML 422.
      28 AC 845, 1106, 1295:1, 9982. NJHD 21, 171. SS 91, 92, 95, 96. DLW 108, 188, 350. DP 318:1, 5, 9, 11. CL/ML 422, 491. TCR 254, 257, 258.
      29 SS 91, 92. TCR 254.
      30 AC 1188:1, 4729. NJHD 171.
      31 AC 735. NJHD 27. DLW 188.
      32 AC 3175, 10227:2,3. TCR 40.
      33 Jeremiah 10:23.
      34 AR 455. TCR 402.
      35 AC 735. NJHD 21. DLW 108.
      36 AC 5454, 6751, 7646. AE 904.
      37 AC 195, 1212.
      38 AC 126, 128, 195, 196, 1212, 2588:2, 8, 9. CL/ML 408.
      39 AC 129, 196, 1385, 1936:1, 5, 2568, 2588:1, 2, 8-10, 2657, 2733, 3786:2. HH 385, 455:3. SS 91. DP 318:1, 8. CL/ML 385, 481. TCR 40.
      40 AC 1188:1.
      41 AC 1134, 1193-1195, 1241.
      42 AC 1188:1, 3963, 8941:2. Faith 49. TCR 232, 565.
      43 AC 1295:2.
      44 AC 3900:8.
      45 AC 845, 1188:1, 3436, 4729:1. NJHD 21.
      46 Deuteronomy 29:14,18,19.
      47 Matthew 7:21-23. Cf. Luke 13:23-27.
      48 DP 231.
      49 Cf. AR 198, 202.
      50 AC 1188:1.
      51 NJHD 21, 171.
      52 AC 7318:2. DP 87, 286, 318. CL/ML 491. BE 55.
      53 TCR 508.
      54 Faith 1, 2, 8, 9. TCR 345, 346.
      55 AC 128, 129, 2568, 2588:2. HH 455:3,      note. DP 219:3. TCR 508:5.
      56 John 8:31, 32.
LOOKING DOWNWARD 1997

LOOKING DOWNWARD              1997

     "If the internal man looks downward to earthly things, and vests everything in them, it is impossible for him to look upward, and to vest anything in heavenly things, because the earthly things completely absorb and stifle the heavenly things" (AC 5433:2).

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APOSTLE PAUL 1997

APOSTLE PAUL       Rev. JAMES P. COOPER       1997

     (Conclusion)

     The other great heresy of the Christian Church is that of the division of God into three separate persons, who somehow, miraculously and mysteriously, are also one person. Many times the Heavenly Doctrines of the New Church draw on Paul's teachings on this subject to illustrate and confirm what the Lord Himself taught: that He is One, indivisible, and Divine. Paul taught in his letter to the Colossians: "For in [Jesus] dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily" (2:9), thereby teaching the truth that Jesus Christ was the bodily incarnation of Jehovah God, not some portion of God.
     We could go on at some length discussing the various doctrines of the Christian Church that have been based on Paul's teachings, but more important, we should be noting that Paul should not be blamed for the heresies that have been hidden behind his name. In spite of the fact that we regard him as less of an authority than do other Christian churches, that should not take away from our respect for all the things that he did accomplish.
     The Apostle Paul was a man who, like many other men in the history of the church, was flawed, but in spite of his flaws (or perhaps because of them) the Lord could use him in a special way to establish His kingdom on earth. Moses and David are two other examples that readily leap to mind. We have to ask if a truly humble, peaceful, charitable Christian-type person would have had the dynamic personality required to establish the church and cause it to spread in the face of opposition from the Roman empire and the Jewish Church. What about our own Bishop Benade whose fighting spirit separated the Academy movement from Conference, and eventually led to the formation of the General Church when all the members of the Academy, led by his own hand-picked clergy, resigned and formed the General Church because of his abuses?

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     Paul's own teaching on the relationship between faith and charity is quite correct and in accord with the doctrines that the Lord Himself taught while in the world, at least when seen in their correct context. His teaching about the nature of the Lord is also quite correct. Some of his other teachings, specifically those on the relationship between men and women, are suspect, but this is the essence of understanding Paul's works and his impact on the Christian Church and the New Christian Church. All of his letters are a fascinating history of the early Christian Church. Some of the doctrines he teaches are quite good and state genuine truths quite clearly and well, but all of his letters, both the good and the bad, are his own opinion, not Divine authority like the Gospels. Therefore, Paul's works are "good books for the church" because they teach us history, and can be used to confirm and illustrate the doctrines taught in the Old Testament and the Gospels, but one should not use Paul's letters as the basis to establish a doctrine not taught elsewhere in the inspired Word.
FROM PERSPECTIVES ON NEW CHURCH EDUCATION 1997

FROM PERSPECTIVES ON NEW CHURCH EDUCATION       E. Bruce Glenn       1997

     "Today our educational strength is bent to preserving our children from the intolerable ills to which the world is heir; but this must be done with constant recognition - on our part and theirs-that we are blest in our work so far as we [try to] serve, with humanity and goodwill, the spiritual welfare of everyone on earth."
     "It is by means of knowledges and the learning of them that the mind is developed in preparation for the reception of spiritual life. For the mind of man alone of all created things stands between the two great worlds of spirit and matter."
     "Education, within the framework of true order, does not suppress individuality; it nurtures and develops it."
     E. Bruce Glenn

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MOTHER WRITES TO HER SON 1997

MOTHER WRITES TO HER SON              1997

Dear Son,
     Hi! Something quite so wonderful and awesome happened to me in August. I thought it best to share it with you by the written word so you could take it in at your own convenience.
     I was reading one of the angel stories I often try to tell you about: An assembly of men who love truths were gathered in the School of Wisdom in the spiritual world. The angels had posed quite a profound theological question. I, myself, had read quite a bit by now and thought I might just be able to answer at least part of the question, so I picked up pencil and paper and wrote my opinion.
     As I finished reading the delightful memorable relation, I had the enormous reward of having had an understanding which resulted in a right answer. In the story, to those who were correct, " . . . a figure appeared, as if flying with two wings, . . . bringing rewards, which were robes, caps and wreaths of laurel." I said aloud, half joking, "Boy, I wish someone would bring me a laurel wreath. I study so hard and no one tells me 'Well done.' Where's my laurel wreath?"
     I closed my book and shortly strolled upstairs into your old bedroom. There on your bed, shining bright as gold, was a small plaque which read "Student of the Month."
     I was astounded and elated. Talk about a confirmation! This took my breath away. I couldn't speak. For a long time all I could utter was "Thank you, thank you, thank you."
     When I was able to gather myself together, I started to think. "Well, it is August. All of the theologs are on vacation and so are most of the ministers and laity. With all this diminished competition, I just could have been "student of the month"!
     It took me more than two months to figure out where that plaque could have come from. I remembered back some 24 years when you were just 7 years old and taking karate lessons. You earned a "student of the month" trophy. Though the trophy is long gone and we have moved several times since then, the engraving must have fallen off and lodged onto something in the attic.

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It somehow worked its way loose and landed face up, shining and bright, on your old bed, to be rediscovered within five minutes of the time of my plea.
     My dearest and only son, whom we love so much, please don't fret that Dad and I are now Swedenborgian. We are the New Catholic, the completed Catholic. And Jesus Christ our Lord, in His Divine foresight, knew we would be coming even 24 years ago.
     Your loving mother,
     (Anonymous)
SWEDENBORG FOUNDATION EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR 1997

SWEDENBORG FOUNDATION EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR              1997

     Swedenborg Foundation, a non-profit educational association and small press, seeks a Publisher/Executive Director to continue development of its trade list of books for spiritual seekers, and to manage association and publishing operations including fund-raising and membership development. The preferred candidate will have at least five years' experience managing an academic, non-profit, small commercial publishing program plus professional or personal experience working with non-profit boards. We offer an excellent work environment and benefits. Send cover letter and resum? with salary history to Executive Director/Publisher Search, Swedenborg Foundation, P.O. Box 549, West Chester, PA 19381.

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PLANETS IN THE UNIVERSE 1997

PLANETS IN THE UNIVERSE       Editor       1997

     In Heaven and Hell in the chapter on the immensity of heaven it is said that there are countless planets in the universe filled with inhabitants. And reference is made in Arcana Coelestia to the knowledge that stars are fixed suns with planets orbiting them (AC 9441).
     Actual evidence for the existence of planets was not available until about two years ago. It is indirect evidence, and some people question its validity. But one can say in 1997 that the evidence does seem to support the existence of planets. "Most people in the field have concluded that too many apparent planets have been detected by too many different groups for them all to vanish." This is quoted from page 1336 of the magazine Science, where we read that recent discoveries have "heightened interest in our quest for planets around other stars."
     You think about planets, and you wonder about life. Do any bodies other than earth have life? "Earth has it? Mars might have it. What are the chances for life elsewhere in the solar system?" That is from page 42 of the latest issue of Sky and Telescope, an issue which says that in the distant past quite possibly water was abundant on Venus, and that it may have had oceans.
     As we have noted before, these are physical questions, but they have greater than physical implications. It is hoped that we will see more physical discoveries resulting in more considered thought.
FAVORITE SAYINGS OF PAUL 1997

FAVORITE SAYINGS OF PAUL       Editor       1997

     For New Church people probably the best known saying of Paul occurs in the 9th verse of the second chapter of his letter to the Colossians. The Writings quote this verse at least sixteen times. It is quoted in Conjugial Love 82, Apocalypse Revealed 294, and in the True Christian Religion beginning at number 11, it is quoted over and over again.

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     One of the more recent Bible translations, the Contemporary English Version, renders the verse in five words: "God lives fully in Christ." Look at some of the other renderings of this favorite saying:

     "In Christ there is all of God in a human body."
     "In Him all the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily."
     "In Christ all the fullness of Deity lives in bodily form."
     "It is in him that all the fullness of divine quality dwells bodily."
     "All of God lives in Christ fully."

     In context in the New King James: "Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ. For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily."
     One of the longer quotations from Paul is in True Christian Religion 330: " . . . it is evident that the commandments of the Decalogue contain all things of love to God and love toward the neighbor. Therefore Paul says:

He that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is summed up in this saying, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Love worketh no ill to the neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law (Rom. 13:8-10).
PAUL REJECTED FAITH WITHOUT WORKS 1997

PAUL REJECTED FAITH WITHOUT WORKS       Editor       1997

     "Paul, equally with James, rejected faith without good works" (see Apocalypse Revealed 417).

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ON MARS AND ON THE SECOND COMING 1997

ON MARS AND ON THE SECOND COMING       Steve Koke       1997

Dear Editor:
     Scientific research suggests that all signs of any possibility of life on Mars do refer to the distant past. Mars has been for some time unable to support any elaborate ecosystem but may have long ago. So far so good. But, if there was life on Mars only in the distant past, the empty planet would have had to be noted by Swedenborg, for in Earths in the Universe n. 1 he says that the deceased inhabitants of a planet are near their planet and know what is going on there. No empty planets were reported, and if there were any, it would have been a crisis for the spirits from the planet-a planet's population is the material base or foundation of any planetary population in the spiritual world. And his Martians are described as if they were still there (e.g.: "At length they were instructed from heaven that the inhabitants of Mars were meant, that their celestial love, in which very many still are . . . " n. 94). If Mars lost its inhabitants, it would have happened after EU was published.
     Swedenborg's efforts to identify the solar system home planets of people in the spiritual world failed across the board, which indicates that the problem was probably systematic. With a systematic problem on our hands, Mars would be a lucky exception, and we would need to unravel the entire solar system problem before we could be sure of any one planet-except ours!
     I was intrigued by Douglas Taylor's article on how to present our idea of the Lord's Second Coming. He brought out a striking argument based on John 16:12, 13, and 25, which he feels predicts that the Second Coming would be a revelation of truth, not a personal coming.

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Since I am writing a book on the subject for the Swedenborg Foundation, I looked up the passages with the help of Searle's Index, but found no such interpretation by Swedenborg. Hence I'm cautious. If the verses did settle any issues about how to take the Last Judgment prophecies, Swedenborg curiously avoids using them for the purpose.
     
     Steve Koke
     Rough & Ready, CA
TEACHING ABOUT PREACHING 1997

TEACHING ABOUT PREACHING       Thomas A. David       1997

Dear Editor:
          I have read the comments in the February and April issues of New Church Life about the translation of Spiritual Diary 5936. Let's look at the beginning of this passage: "Women who think 'the way men do' on religious topics and speak about them a lot, and still more if they preach in gatherings, lose their feminine nature . . . ." In all three translations in the February issue, the phrase, "the way men do" applies only to thinking on religious topics. It does not apply to preaching in gatherings. The loss of feminine nature and descent into the sensual clearly apply to women who preach, whether they do it the way men do or not. Swedenborg's index may give a different emphasis, but it is an abbreviation, not the text itself.
     This passage may not totally exclude women from preaching, but it is certainly a strong warning against it. If the Lord had really intended it to mean that, yes, women should preach but in a different way from men, I can't imagine that it would be written this way. Does the church really choose to see this number as an endorsement of women in the priesthood?
     Then in the July issue there are comments about the duty of the priesthood to lead to the good of life. The Writings are clear in many places that this is a required part of the minister's job. It is the end, and preaching is the means. But leading to the good of life has many forms. Some of these are probably proper only to the priesthood.

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Some may be properly open to others. This opens up a number of questions, such as:
     *     Can leading a congregation to the good of life be a feminine use?
     *     Can this use be performed by someone other than the minister without harming the minister's use?
     *     Is this a use that people in the church want to perform?
     *     Is this a use that congregations need to have someone perform?
     *     Are there still other uses that New Church ministers do that are not really part of their jobs as defined in the Writings, that others could do?
     Some of these questions are doctrinal and some are practical. By all means let's discuss them, but let's make sure that any changes we wish to make are doctrinally sound. Let's look to the plain teaching of the Writings to guide our answers.
     Thomas A. David
     Erie, PA
FEMININE WISDOM 1997

FEMININE WISDOM       Rev. Erik Sandstrom       1997

Dear Editor:
     
     Linda Simonetti Odhner does not address the leading point in my article on feminine wisdom (New Church Life, May pp. 210ff.), which was "that masculine wisdom and feminine wisdom are equal, and that they are at the same time by creation and forever different," nor its resolution in the teaching concerning the nature of feminine wisdom, in that its essence is conjugial love (see CL 188:2), from which "the wisdom of wives is superior to that of men" (CL 208:2). Perhaps this implies that Mrs. Odhner agrees with the above? In her comments, however (NCL, July pp. 324-326), she challenges a related point, namely, that "the male is truth and the female is good."

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This statement of mine, therefore, requires some elaboration.
     I attached it to some findings by Steven Goldberg which I quoted (pp. 214-215), and I called the point "universally taught" in the Writings, having in mind the recurring theme that the male is a "form of truth" and the female "a form of good." Let me quote some examples of teachings on the point in question.
     "The male and the female were created to be the very form of the marriage of good and truth, . . . the male to be the understanding of truth, thus truth in form, the female to be the will of good, thus good in form"(CL 100). "Good and truth are the universals of creation, and hence are in all created subjects, [and] they are in them according to the form of each . . . . It follows that the male receives it according to his form, that is, in the understanding . . . and that the female receives it according to her form, thus in the will" (CL 92). "'Man' and 'male' signify truth, and 'wife' and 'female' good" (AC 725). These and similar teachings are universal in scope. See further CL 32, 33, 91, 101, 159, 187, HH 369; and in the Concordance or in "Subject Index" (at the end of translation of CL) under "Male," "Female," or "Male and Female."
     But Mrs. Odhner finds deviations from the point I said is universally taught, and she refers to TCR 37:3, where she finds love as bridegroom and wisdom as bride. This number deals with the Essence of God, that it is Love Itself and Wisdom Itself, and states that God created the universe from love by means of wisdom (see TCR 37:1). It contains the words, "Love, as bridegroom and husband, produces or begets all forms, but by means of wisdom, as bride and wife."
     There are many more cases where the terminology is reversed, generally when the subject is the highest heaven. The principle here stems from what is called "the inmost" in the male and the female respectively, as explained in CL 32: "In the male the inmost is love and its clothing wisdom . . . and in the female the inmost is that wisdom of the male and its clothing the love from it."

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This, however, does not call the universal distinction into question, for even in the Most Ancient Church (which was celestial) they called the understanding of the internal, spiritual man "male," and the will, "female" (AC 54).
     The present, however, is not the time to analyze the internal and psychological implications of the terminology employed in the Writings to suit different contexts, but we may note that the very number that follows the just quoted CL 32 says: "It follows that the male is born intellectual and the female voluntary" (CL 33). In general we may sense the harmony among the various teachings if we think not from terms but from ideas, and observe in the case of the male that it is his love of becoming wise that produces his understanding, and in the case of the female, that it is her wisdom that fills and directs her will to do good and to produce uses. This applies in regenerate states.
     As for Marie Curie, I devoted five lines to her, and I mentioned her to illustrate what I think is the hands-on nature of feminine intelligence (which, please, does not make the seat itself of a woman's intelligence in the mind any lower than the analagous seat in the male mind). Mrs. Odhner assigns a major part of her comments to her and thinks I "did her an injustice." Well, Madame Curie is one of my favorite people too, and has been ever since my years of physics back in Sweden - and this not only because of her brilliance as a scientist, but also (and equally) because she was apparently a good person, and one joined in a happy marriage with her husband. For example, together the two refused to patent the process by which they isolated radium, nor did they in other ways seek commercial advantage from their revolutionary discovery.
     Rev. Erik Sandstrom, Sr.

376


ORDINATION 1997

ORDINATION              1997




     Announcements
     Bell-At Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania, May 25, 1997, Reuben Paul Bell into the first degree of the priesthood, Rt. Rev. Peter M. Buss officiating.
GENERAL CHURCH OF THE NEW JERUSALEMPUBLIC WORSHIP AND DOCTRINAL CLASSES 1997

GENERAL CHURCH OF THE NEW JERUSALEMPUBLIC WORSHIP AND DOCTRINAL CLASSES              1997


     UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
     
     Alabama:
     Birmingham
     Dr. Winyss A. Shepard, 4537 Dolly Ridge Road, Birmingham, AL 35243. Phone: (205) 967-3442.
     Huntsville
     Mrs. Anthony L. Sills, 1000 Hood Ave., Scottsboro, AL 35768. Phone: (205) 574-1617.
     Arizona:
     Phoenix
     Contact: Lawson & Carol Cronlund, 5717 E. Justine Rd., Scottsdale, AZ 85254. Phone: (602) 953-0478.
     Tucson
     Rev. Frank S. Rose, 9233 E. Helen, Tucson, AZ 85715. Phone: (520) 721-1091.
     Arkansas:
     Little Rock
     Mr. & Mrs. Kenneth Holmes, 155 Eric St., Batesville, AR 72501. Phone: (501) 793-5135.

     California:
     Los Angeles
     Rev. John L. Odhner, 5022 Carolyn Way, La Crescenta, CA 91214. Phone: (818) 249-5031.
     Orange County
     Rev. Cedric King, resident pastor, 21332 Forest Meadow, El Toro, CA 92630. Phone: home (714) 586-5142; office (714) 951-5750.
     Sacramento/Central California
     Bertil Larsson, 8387 Montna Drive, Paradise, CA 95969. Phone: (916) 877-8252.
     San Diego
     Rev. Stephen D. Cole, 941 Ontario St., Escondido, CA 92025. Phone: home (619) 432-8495; office (619) 571-8599.
     San Francisco
     Mr. & Mrs. Philip C. Pendleton, 501 Portola Road, Box 8044, Portola Valley, CA 94028. Phone: (415) 424-4234.

380




     Colorado:
     Boulder
     Rev. David C. Roth, 4215 N. Broadway, Boulder, CO 80304. Phone: (303) 443-9220.
     Colorado Springs
     Mr./Mrs.WilliamRienstra, 1005 Oak Ave., Canon City, CO 81212.
     Connecticut:
     Bridgeport, Hartford, Shelton
     Mr. & Mrs. James Tucker, 45 Honey Bee Lane, Huntington, CT 06484. Phone: (203) 929-6455.
     Delaware:
     Wilmington
     Mrs. Justin Hyatt, 2008 Eden Road, N. Graylin Crest, Wilmington DE 19810. Phone: (302) 475-3694.
     District of Columbia: see Mitchellville, Maryland.
     Florida:
     Boynton Beach
     Rev. Derek Elphick, 10621 El Clair Ranch Road, Boynton Beach, FL 33437. Phone: (407) 736-2843.
     Jacksonville
     Kristi Helow, 6338 Christopher Creek Road W., Jacksonville, FL 32217-2472.
     Lake Helen
     Mr. & Mrs. Brent Morris, 264 E. Kicklighter Road, Lake Helen, FL 32744. Phone: (904) 228-2276.
     Pensacola
     Mr. & Mrs. John Peacock, 5238 Soundside Drive, Gulf Breeze, FL 32561. Phone: (904) 934-3691.
     Georgia:
     Americus
     Mr. W. Harold Eubanks, 516 U.S. 280 West, Americus, GA 31709. Phone: (912) 924-9221.
     Atlanta
     Rev. C. Mark Perry, 2119 Seaman Circle, Atlanta, GA 30341. Phone: office (770) 458-9673.
     Illinois:
     Chicago
     Rev. Arthur W. Schnarr, 73A Park Drive, Glenview, IL 60025. Phone: (847) 724-5466.
     Decatur
     Mr. John Aymer, 1434 E. Whitmer St., Decatur, IL 62521.
     Glenview
     Rev. Eric Carswell, 73 Park Dr., Glenview, IL 60025. Phone: (847) 724-0120.
     Indiana: see Ohio: Cincinnati.
     Kentucky: see Ohio: Cincinnati.
     Louisiana:
     Baton Rouge
     Mr. Henry Bruser, Jr., 6050 Esplanade Ave., Baton Rouge, LA 70806. Phone: (504) 924-3098.
     Maine:
     Bath
     Rev. Allison L. Nicholson, HC 33 - Box 61N, Arrowsic, ME 04530. Phone: (207) 443-6410.
     Maryland:
     Baltimore
     Rev. Willard L. D. Heinrichs, visiting minister, Box 717, Bryn Athyn, PA 19009. Phone: home (215) 947-5334; office (215) 938-2582.
     Mitchellville
     Rev. James P. Cooper, 11910 Chantilly Lane, Mitchellville, MD 20721. Phone: home (301) 805-9460; office (301) 464-5602.
     Massachusetts:
     Boston
     Rev. Geoffrey Howard, 17 Cakebread Drive, Sudbury, MA 01776. Phone: (508) 443-6531.
     Michigan:
     Detroit
     Rev. Grant Odhner, 395 Olivewood Ct., Rochester, MI 48306. Phone: (248) 652-7332.
     East Lansing
     Lyle & Brenda Birchman, 14777 Cutler Rd., Portland, MI 48875.
     Minnesota:
     St. Paul
     Karen Huseby, 4247 Centerville Rd., Vadnais Heights, MN 55127. Phone: (612) 429-5289.
     Missouri:
     Columbia
     Mr. & Mrs. Paul Johnson, 1508 Glencairn Court, Columbia, MO 65203. Phone: (314) 442-3475.

381



     Kansas City
     Mr. Glen Klippenstein, P. O. Box 457, Maysville, MO 64469-0457. Phone: (816) 449-2167.
     New Hampshire:
     Hanover
     Bobbie & Charlie Hitchcock, 63 E. Wheelock St., Hanover, NH 03755.
     Phone: (603) 643-3469.
     New Jersey:
     Ridgewood
     Jay & Barbara Barry, 474 S. Maple, Glen Rock, NJ 07452. Phone: (201) 445-3353.
     New Mexico:
     Albuquerque
     Mrs. Carolyn Harwell, 1375 Sara Rd., Rio Rancho, NM 87124. Phone: (505) 896-0293.
     North Carolina:
     Charlotte
     Rev. Fred Chapin, 6625 Rolling Ridge Dr., Charlotte, NC 28211.
     Ohio:
     Cincinnati
     Rev. Patrick Rose, 785 Ashcroft Court, Cincinnati, OH 45240. Phone: (513) 825-7473.
     Cleveland
     Mr. Alan Childs, 19680 Beachcliff Blvd., Rocky River, OH 44116. Phone: (216) 333-4413.
     Oklahoma:
     Oklahoma City
     Mr. Robert Campbell, 13929 Sterlington, Edmond, OK 73013. Phone: (405)478-4729.
     Oregon:
     Portland
     Mr. & Mrs. Jim Andrews, Box 99, 1010 NE 365th Ave., Corbett, OR 97019. Phone: (503) 695-2534.
     Pennsylvania:
     Bryn Athyn
     Rev. Thomas H. Kline, Box 277, Bryn Athyn, PA 19009. Phone: (215) 947-6225.
     Elizabethtown
     Mr. Meade Bierly, 523 Snyder Ave., Elizabethtown, PA 17022. Phone: (717) 367-3964.
     Erie
     Mrs. Paul Murray, 5648 Zuck Road, Erie, PA 16506. Phone: (814) 833-0962.
     Freeport
     Rev. Clark Echols, 100 Iron Bridge Road, Sarver, PA 16055. Phone: office (412) 353-2220.
     Hatfield
     Mr. Peter Sheedy, 1303 Clymer St., Hatfield, PA 19440. Phone: (215) 842-1461.
     Hawley
     Mr. Grant Genzlinger, Settlers Inn #25, 4 Main Ave., Hawley, PA 18428. Phone: (800) 833-8527.
     Ivyland
     The Ivyland New Church, 851 W. Bristol Road, Ivyland, PA 18974. Pastor: Rev. David Lindrooth. Phone: (215) 957-5965. Secretary: Mrs. K. Cronlund. (215) 598-3919.
     Kempton
     Rev. Robert S. Junge, 8551 Junge Lane, RD #1, Kempton, PA 19529. Phone: office (610) 756-6140.
     Pittsburgh
     Rev. Nathan D. Gladish, 299 Le Roi Road, Pittsburgh, PA 15208. Phone: church (412) 731-7421.
     South Carolina:
     Charleston area
     Wilfred & Wendy Baker, 2030 Thornhill Drive, Summerville, SC 29485. Phone: (803) 851-1245.
     South Dakota:
     Hot Springs
     Linda Klippenstein, 604 S. River St. #A8, Hot Springs, SD 57747. Phone: (605) 745-6629.
     Virginia:
     Richmond
     Mr. Donald Johnson, 13161 Happy Hill Road, Chester, VA 23831. Phone: (804) 748-5757.
     Washington:
     Seattle
     Rev. Erik J. Buss, 5409 154th Ave., Redmond, WA 98052. Phone: home (206) 883-4327; office (206) 882-8500.
     Washington, DC: See Mitchellville, MD.

382



     Wisconsin:
     Madison
     Mr. Warren Brown, 130 Greenbrier Drive, Sun Prairie, WI53590. Phone: (608) 825-3002.
     
          OTHER THAN U.S.A.

     AUSTRALIA
     Sydney, N.S.W.
     Hurstville Society, 22 Dudley St., Penshurst, N.S.W. 2222. Phone: 61-02-9580-1589.
          BRAZIL
     Rio de Janeiro
     Rev. Cristovao Rabelo Nobre, Rod Mendes Vassouras, km 41, Caixa Postal 85.711, 27.700-000, Vassouras, RJ Brasil. Phone: 55-21-409-6586.
          CANADA
     Alberta
     Calgary
     Mr. Thomas R. Fountain, 1115 Southglen Drive S.W., Calgary, Alberta T2W 0X2. Phone: (403) 255-7283.
     Debolt
     Ken & Lavina Scott, RR 1, Crooked Creek, Alberta T0H 0Y0. Phone: (403) 957-3625.
     Edmonton
     Mrs. Wayne Anderson, 6703-98th Street, Edmonton, Alberta T6E 3L9. Phone: (403) 432-1499.
     British Columbia
     Dawson Creek
     Rev. Glenn G. Alden, Dawson Creek Church, 9013 8th St., Dawson Creek, B.C. V1G 3N3. Phone: home (604) 843-7979; office (604) 782-8035.
     Ontario
     Kitchener
     Rev. Michael D. Cowley, 58 Chapel Hill Drive, Kitchener, Ontario N2G 3W5. Phone: office (519) 748-5802.
     Ottawa
     Mr. & Mrs. Donald McMaster, 684 Fraser Ave., Ottawa, Ontario K2A 2R8. Phone: (613) 725-0394.
     Toronto
     Rev. Michael Gladish, 279 Burnhamthorpe Rd., Etobicoke, Ontario M9B 1Z4. Phone: church (416) 239-3055.
     Quebec
     Montreal
     Mr. Denis de Chazal, 29 Ballantyne Ave. So., Montreal West, Quebec H4X 2B1. Phone: (514) 489-9861.
     
          DENMARK
     Copenhagen
     Mr. Jorgen Hauptmann, Strandvejen 22, 4040 Jyllinge. Phone: 46 78 9968.
     
          ENGLAND
     Colchester
     Rev. Kenneth J. Alden, 8 Stoneleigh Park, Lexden, Colchester, Essex CO3 5EY.
     London
     Rev. Frederick Elphick, 21B Hayne Rd., Beckenham, Kent BR3 4JA. Phone: 44-181-658-6320.
     Manchester
     Mrs. Neil Rowcliffe, "Woodside," 44 Camberley Drive, Bamford, Rochdale, Lancs. OL11 4AZ.
     Surrey
     Mr. Nathan Morley, 27 Victoria Road, Southern View, Guildford, Surrey GU1 4DJ.
          GHANA
     Accra
     Rev. William O. Ankra-Badu, Box 11305, Accra North.
     Asakraka, Nteso, Oframase
     Rev. Martin K. Gyamfi, Box 10, Asakraka-Kwahu E/R.
     Madina, Tema
     Rev. Simpson K. Darkwah, House No. AA3, Community 4, c/o Box 1483, Tema.
     
          HOLLAND
     The Hague
     Mr. Ed Verschoor, V. Furstenburchstr. 6, 3862 AW Nijkerk.

383



     
          JAPAN
     For information about General Church activities in Japan contact Mr. Tatsuya Nagashima, 30-2, Saijoh-Nishiotake, Yoshino-cho, Itano-gun, Tokoshima-ken, Japan 771-14.
          KOREA
     Seoul
     Rev. Dzin P. Kwak, Seoul Church of New Jerusalem, Ajoo B/D 2F, 1019-15 Daechi-dong, Kangnam-ku, Seoul 135-281. Phone: home 82-(0)2-658-7305; church 82-(0)2-555-1366.
          NEW ZEALAND
     Auckland
     Mrs. H. Keal, 4 Derwent Cresc., Titirangi, Auckland 7. Phone: 09-817-8203.
          SOUTH AFRICA
     Gauteng
     Alexandra Township
     Rev. Albert Thabede, 303 Corlett Dr., Kew 2090. Phone: 27-11-443-3852
     Balfour
     Rev. Reuben Tshabalala, P.O. Box 851, Kwaxuma, Soweto 1868. Phone: 27-11-932-3528.
     Buccleuch
     Rev. Andrew Dibb, P.O. Box 816, Kelvin 2054. Phone: 27-11-804-1145.
     Diepkloof
     Rev. Jacob M. Maseko, P. O. Box 261, Pimville 1808. Phone: 27-11-938-8314.
     KwaZulu-Natal
     Clermont and Enkumba
     Rev. Ishborn Buthelezi, P.O. Box 150, Clernaville 3602. Phone: 27-31-707-1526.
     Durban (Westville)
     Rev. Lawson M. Smith, 8 Winslow Road, Westville 3630. Phone: 27-31-825-351.
     Rev. Geoffrey S. Childs, 7 Sydney Drive, Westville 3630. Phone: 27-31-262-8113.
     Empangeni and Impaphala
     Rev. Chester Mcanyana, P. O. Box 770, Eshowe 3815.
     Eshowe/Richards Bay/Empangeni
     Mrs. Marten Hiemstra, P. O. Box 10745, Meerensee 3901. Phone: 0351-32317.
     Hambrook, Kwa Mashu and Umlazi
     Rev. B. Alfred Mbatha, P.O. Box H602, Kwa Mashu 4360. Phone: 27-31-503-2365.
     Westville (see Durban)
     Western Cape
     Cape Town
     Mrs. Sheila Brathwaite, 208 Silvermine Village, Private Bag #1, Noordhoek, 7985. Phone: 27-21-7891424.
          SWEDEN
     Jonkoping
     Rev. Ragnar Boyesen, Oxelgatan 6, S-565 21 Mullsjo.
     Stockholm
     Rev. Goran R. Appelgren, Aladdinsvogen 27, S-167 61 Bromma.
     Phone/Fax: 46-(0)8-26 79 85.
     
     
     (When dialing from abroad, leave out zero in parentheses.)
      Note: Please send any corrections to the editor.
WHEN FEAR IS TAKEN AWAY 1997

WHEN FEAR IS TAKEN AWAY              1997

     "When fear is taken away, there is hope." (AC 2694)

384


PERSPECTIVE ON NEW CHURCH EDUCATION 1997

PERSPECTIVE ON NEW CHURCH EDUCATION              1997


     Just Published
By

E. Bruce Glenn
Edited by Vera P. Glenn

     Here is a wonderful collection of addresses and papers on New Church higher education by a well-loved and respected teacher at the Academy of the New Church for 46 years, and one of the foremost spokesmen for its principles and practices. Professor Glenn speaks here to educators, parents, and students alike. This work belongs not only in the liberties of the church and church schools but also in the homes of all those devoted to the principles of New Church education.

Hardcover, dust jacket, and index, 282 pp.
Published by
Academy of the New Church
1997
ISBN 0-910557-51-9
U.S. $19.95 plus postage U.S. $1.75

385


1997 CHARTER DAY October 17th - 19th 1997

              1997


Vol. CXVII September, 1997 No. 9

     New Church Life


     We extend a warm welcome to alumni, students, and friends of the Academy 6f the New Church to come on home, renew old memories, and forge new ones during the 120th anniversary celebration of the granting of the Academy Charter.

     When? Friday through Sunday, October 17-19

     Where? On the campuses of the Academy of the New Church, Bryn Athyn, PA

     What? Cathedral procession and service, an alumni reception in your new Alumni Center, class reunions, girls' and boys' sporting events galore, breakfast at Cairnwood, the 4th Annual Walk/Run, alumni sports contests, the President's reception and dance, club telegrams, the Theta Alpha and Sons luncheons, a stirring banquet program, a Sunday brunch - all planned for you to renew old friendships and forge new ones.

     A complete agenda will be mailed to all alumni and friends.

     Banquet tickets - $12.00 for adults and $6.00 for students - may be purchased by contacting Mrs. David Roscoe at the Academy switchboard, by writing to the Academy of the New Church, P.O. Box 707, Benade Hall, Bryn Athyn, PA, or by calling (215) 947-4200. You may also purchase tickets at the Alumni Center located in the old library, or at the college office in Pendleton Hall. Please make checks payable to the "Academy of the New Church" and include a self-addressed, stamped envelope when appropriate.

386


Notes on This Issue 1997

Notes on This Issue              1997

     See the inside cover for the annual Charter Day invitation. The weekend of October 17-19 will be packed with activities in Bryn Athyn. As we go to print we see stirrings of action in the Academy schools and the influx of a record number of college students (see page 410).
     We begin in this issue a series by Bishop Peter M. Buss entitled "Gender Issues, the Laity, and the Uses of the Church."
     Your attention is called to a preschool conference to be held on November 15th at the Ivyland Church a few miles from Bryn Athyn (see page 427). This announcement is related to the announcement from the Office of Education of a new catalogue for religious education (see page 431). Also apropos is the invitation to think of the work of Sunday schools. See pages 419 and 420 for photographs of a Sunday school in action.
     Among the thirty baptisms reported in this issue are three that took place in Moscow in May. See under the names Gorbenko and Sadykhova, and see the brief writeup on page 409. Note also that Russia is one of the nations represented at the Bryn Athyn College this year (p. 410). We hope to have some publication news from Russia next month. Baptism reports came from six countries for this issue, five from South Africa and seven from Canada. Note that ten were adult baptisms.
     The Swedenborg Society has published the 11th volume of Arcana Coelestia (see page 426).
USES FOR RECEIVING THE SPIRITUAL FROM THE LORD 1997

USES FOR RECEIVING THE SPIRITUAL FROM THE LORD              1997

     These are all things that belong to religion and to worship therefrom, thus all things that teach the acknowledgment and knowledge of God and the knowledge and acknowledgment of good and truth and thus eternal life, which are acquired in the same way as other learning, from parents, teachers, discourses, and books, and especially by applying to life what is so learned. DLW 333

387


GENDER ISSUES, THE LAITY, AND THE USES OF THE CHURCH 1997

GENDER ISSUES, THE LAITY, AND THE USES OF THE CHURCH       Rev. PETER M. BUSS       1997

     For some time I have wanted to address two sets of issues which have been active in the minds of many people in the church. The one is the nature of women's contributions to the church, and the other is the relationship between the clergy and the laity in their uses. Recently there was a request made of the clergy to consider how to give women "a more balanced role in the affairs of the church." This request was signed by over a hundred people, reflecting a concern that this balance does not exist. I received some letters in response, questioning that assumption and expressing the opinion that women are indeed honored and listened to in the church.
     I am not going to try in this article to resolve debates like these. It is healthy that the church examine in each new generation the understanding of doctrine which earlier generations have had. That is the way we can maintain a living sense of what the Writings teach. We don't have to be afraid of looking at these issues with fresh eyes, because the Lord has given us a comprehensive statement of His truth in the Writings, and they can be the light from which we look at our past beliefs. Nor should we be afraid to ask ourselves anew how these doctrines and our understanding of them can be applied to life. The truth that has been revealed gives us the freedom to look at any issue, knowing that if we look to the Lord, we will be led by Him, albeit according to our limited human understandings.
     Let me start, therefore, by speaking of the relationship between the sexes - particularly about what constitutes true femininity and masculinity.

The Feminine and the Masculine: the Challenge

     The fall of humankind ushered in a conflict between the genders.

388


It was never part of the Divine plan that this should be so, for the Lord Himself made us male and female, and said, "For this cause a man shall leave father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they two shall be one flesh." In the Writings He repeats the goal of His creation of two sexes: that they may be conjoined, and in that union find a perfection that each by itself lacks.
As the centuries rolled by, the efforts of human beings, frequently relying on their own intelligence rather than on Divine leadership, have skewed this relationship in countless ways. Today we look at our world and see many examples of this confusion. They are clearly evident in the lack of respect and the inferior roles often assigned to women, and perhaps less evident in the impoverishment of a male mind which is not guided as it should be by the perceptive half of creation.
The Lord gave the Word of His Second Advent to re-establish the ideal which was His when "He made them in the beginning." Part of the immensity of His new revelation is the continuing theme of the relationship between good and truth: how they appear separate, how they seem to war for supremacy, which one is "primary," how they come together, and how they finally join in a covenant to eternity. These teachings all have implications for the relationship between women and men, whose unique characteristics are now revealed by the Creator so that they can be learned, understood, appreciated, and incorporated into the fabric of a new culture. For women are forms of love, and men of understanding, and together they become a church.
     Here is our problem as we seek to pursue the vision revealed in the new revelation. First, we have a pristine revelation, telling us things about the feminine and the masculine that we can learn only from the Lord. Second, we have our own traditions and prejudices which frequently filter what the Lord has revealed, and perhaps distort it. Third, we have the efforts of the world around us to right the injustices between the sexes which people have come to recognize. Well-intentioned these efforts may be, and sometimes they are wisely driven.

389


Yet, lacking the interior view of the sexes that the Lord has revealed, they will tend to be based on trial and error, on experience and on reflections from experience.
Can these three forces come together and help us approach the ideal relationship between the sexes? Surely they can. Yet we need to acknowledge that our past experiences and prejudices may lead us astray, and the efforts of a culture not guided by direct Divine revelation will also at times mislead us. By all means let us draw from the past and the present, in ourselves and in the world around us. What we need most of all, however, is the light of Divine revelation to shine down on all that we have known and all that we are learning, and show us the way.
     Let us be clear about one thing: it took centuries to confuse the relationship between the sexes. We are not going to "fix it" in a hurry.
     Let me put that in another way. The natural part in each of us will always skew this relationship. Only as the church approaches closer to the true marriage between good and truth will we become sensitive to the voice which each has in our interior lives. Only as the people of the church enter more deeply into love truly conjugial will we honor masculinity and femininity as the Lord would have us honor them. This is the burden of His promise: that love truly conjugial, so long hidden from the world, will finally be made known - but there is a condition!

Tell the inhabitants of the world that there is a love truly conjugial, the delights of which are numberless. As yet hardly any of them are known to the world, but the world will know them when the church betroths herself to the Lord and becomes His bride (CL 293, emphasis added).

After His advent conjugial love will be raised up again by the Lord such as it was with the ancient people; for this love is from the Lord alone and is with those who are made spiritual by Him through the Word (CL 81, emphasis added).

390




     So let us examine the teachings again, knowing that our infant church is taking some of its first steps towards a beautiful vision of the relationship between the sexes. The Lord is aware of how much we have to learn, but in His mercy He blesses any approach to His Word if there is humility in it, and He quickens any sincere attempt to seek for an ideal.

Much of what is said about the masculine and feminine is illustrated most clearly in the marriage relationship.

     As we examine these teachings, we will find that the context is often that of a good marriage. Sometimes it may seem that the Writings are speaking only of the married state. Nevertheless, the qualities that reach their height in that relationship exist in general with all people of each sex. From time to time I will note passages where the Writings show that these qualities exist with individuals who are not at that time married.

Swedenborg learned from the wives of heaven.

     Whenever I try to address the qualities of both sexes I am aware that it is hard for a man to speak with real understanding about the feminine nature. Swedenborg himself found this a challenge. Once he said, "Now, because these are among things kept secret by wives, it is not appropriate for me to reveal them in their particulars. It is, however, appropriate for wives themselves, and therefore I have included at the end of several chapters four narrative accounts in which wives themselves reveal them" (CL 166). The Lord revealed these things through Swedenborg, but He provided that women in heaven would speak of them. In addressing this topic, then, I will try to remain aware of my inevitable limitation.
      Elsewhere it is taught that if husbands are in a regenerate (or perhaps regenerating) state, wives are able to share with them the nature of their perception, and the nature of their delight in forging the union called love truly conjugial (see CL 156e).

391


This gives emphasis to the fact that we are not going to re-establish the balance between the sexes until the church truly looks to the Lord-and that means until individual people make that decision in their hearts.

It is harder to see the interior contributions of women than those of men.

     Ouch! That doesn't seem fair. Yet experience confirms this fact. Our world is full of examples where women have contributed greatly to causes, been the mainstay of families or equal partners in a venture, and somehow the men have been more clearly recognized for their accomplishments.
     There is an interior law at play here and, unhappily, an interior evil. The law is that good is felt and truth is seen. We notice what we see, and tend to respond to what we feel without consciously recognizing the impulse for what it is.
     The "interior evil" is that we live in a "faith-alone" culture: that is, we live in a world in which the contribution of the intellect, the power of the spoken word, seems to have more influence than the contribution of love, or the power of sympathy, compassion, sensitivity.
     Now let me be very clear. The Writings do not say that women are deficient in intellect, or that men have no compassion or sensitivity. What they say is that each has both: "Every one, whether man or woman, possesses understanding and will; but with the man the understanding predominates, and with the woman the will predominates, and the character is determined by that which predominates" (HH 369).
     The problem is that humankind seems to value the understanding and its accomplishments more than it does the gifts that come from the will. So we find the following teaching: "Good does not appear in the light of the understanding as does truth. Therefore, knowledge of it has concealed itself and eluded investigation. And since, from this cause, good is among things unknown, no
one could conjecture that there is a marriage between it and truth" (CL 83, emphasis added).

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In another place the Writings say, "It seems as though truth is the primary thing in the church, because it is its first concern in time .... As a result, what the good of charity is and what the affection of the will is lie buried in a mound of earth, so to speak, and some have also thrown dirt on them, as though on dead men, to keep them from rising again" (CL 126).
     Why do the Writings spend so much time talking about how good is really "in the first place," and truth "appears in the first place because it is first in time"? One of the reasons is that we pay more attention to ideas than to the affections which give them birth. Let's keep this principle in mind as we discuss the unique gifts of each sex.

We are not "part man, part woman."

     At times there has been the suggestion that the distinctions between the sexes are merely gradations in a continuum. According to this argument, men have feminine characteristics and women have male characteristics. Some men seem to be "more feminine" or "more perceptive" and some women seem "more intellect-oriented."
     This may be so at a lower level, in the sense that each sex has a variety within it. But the true quality of masculinity and femininity is distinct, and is not at all blurred. "Nothing in the two sexes is the same, although there is nevertheless a capacity for conjunction in every detail. Indeed, masculinity in the male is masculine in every part, even in the least part of his body, and also in every idea of his thought, and in every bit of his affection. So, too, with femininity in the female" (CL 33). The souls of each are different, and it is from the soul that all the rest take their qualities.
     Therefore, at times it may seem in this paper that the generalizations are rather sweeping. People sometimes resist generalizations, feeling that they don't allow enough for variety.

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While I will try to put in caveats where they seem needed, it is important to note that the Writings assign certain characteristics, certain strengths to all those of one sex or the other. Of course we can pervert or waste the qualities the Lord gives to us, but they exist in potential with every woman and every man.

There is a perfect complement between women and men.

     One of the things that has struck me is the remarkable balance that is found in the Writings when speaking of the two sexes. At times you will read something and think, "That makes the Writings sound pro-male." Then they will say something else that puts men at a significant disadvantage compared to women. It depends on what the subject is. When all the passages are gathered together, however, we find a grand sense of the distinct, unique nature of each sex, and at the same time of how perfectly they complement each other.
     So let me start with the thesis that if the Writings point out a strength (or a weakness) in one sex, somewhere else you will find a corresponding strength (or weakness) at the same level of existence in the other sex. This is how the Lord Himself made us - eternally distinctive, eternally equal.

A Perfect Complement in Our Inmost Beings
The Inmost of the Male: a Love for Growing Wise

     "The inmost quality in masculinity is love, and its veil wisdom, or in other words, it is love veiled over with wisdom" (CL 32).
     Another, more complete way of saying this is that the male is "the truth of good," or truth from the love of growing wise. "In the subjects of the animal kingdom, the truth of good or truth from good is masculine .... The male is born to become understanding" (CL 90; see also CL 159).
     The secret of masculinity lies in this teaching.

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The Lord made the male to long for wisdom and to seek after it with all his being. It is his soul, his inmost being. From this he longs for knowledge, and then understanding, and finally the wisdom of life (see CL 91, 90). To this end the Lord gave him the ability to raise his mind into "a light in which women are not" (CL 165; see also CL 102). A similar passage says that the masculine mind perceives things "which are above the body and beyond the world, it being to these that the rational and spiritual sight extend" (CL 168).
     These passages have sometimes been a source of tension, especially if they seem to have been used to speak of "what women can't do." (I will draw attention shortly to equally strong passages which speak of the complementary things that men can't do.) However, they are passages to rejoice in because they speak of the beauty of the male mind -its interior longing to seek wisdom from the Lord, to find ideals outside of itself and in so doing to become ennobled and purified. This is what woman loves in man, and seeks to conjoin herself to.
     When these passages are read in isolation, they can also seem to make women of a lower order than men. For they teach that the inmost of the feminine is the wisdom of the male (see CL 32, 33; see also CL 173). In his address in 1972 entitled "The Feminine Mind" (see Spring Theta Alpha Journal), the Rev. Erik Sandstrom, Sr. made it clear that the inmost of anyone is always love! The true inmost of woman cannot be wisdom. These passages are talking about one of the ways that men and women are conjoined. The inmost of that particular conjunction with women is the wisdom of the male. Her inmost being is something higher.

The inmost of a woman is the love of conjoining good and truth in use.

     The Writings say that lots of "spheres" or "atmospheres" flow forth from the Lord into creation, and they list some of them. One of them is more universal than all the others: the sphere of conjugial love. "It fills the universe and pervades it from the firsts to the lasts of it" (CL 222).

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     This most universal sphere from the Lord flows into the female sex. Men in general receive it from women (see CL 223). In a true marriage, it flows into the wife and from her into her husband (see CL 224).
     Now what is meant by "the sphere of conjugial love"? Well, a simple answer is that it means the sphere of the love belonging to marriage. It is in this context that the Writings sometimes speak. But we need to look deeper. The Writings teach that the origin of married love is the conjunction of good and truth. In one sense, whatever is said of the marriage bond applies in a more pure sense to that bond between a good love and the true idea that expresses it. This marriage takes place in individual human hearts, and from it married love descends. We may also add that this union manifests itself in all human affairs.
     So here we have the most universal of all the auras that pour forth from the Lord - one which inspires the conjunction of good and truth in human minds, which moves humankind to join ideas and loves to produce uses, which moves couples to be joined together, flowing directly into womankind. It is received by her, and forms her inmost. And without it males have no joy in that bond from which all usefulness comes. "There is no conjugial love with the male sex . . . . It is with the female sex alone," and through them with males (CL 223; cf. 161).
     Therefore, we find the teaching that in much of life the woman plays the active part, because love is the active force. "Women are born loves, but men, with whom they unite themselves that they may be loved in return, are receptions. Moreover, love is continually working. It is like heat, flame, and fire, which perish if restrained from doing their work" (CL 160).
     "Wives are loves and men receptions" is the general teaching that precedes the above comment (CL 161). "Man is not love but only a recipient of love" (CL 161). "It is masculine to perceive from the understanding, and feminine to perceive from love" (CL 168, emphasis added).

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     This assigns to the feminine the active force, and the wives in heaven bear this out. "In all conjunction by love there must be action, reception, and reaction. The delightful state of our love is the agent or action. The state of the wisdom of our husbands is the receiving or reception; it is also the reagent or reaction according to the reception" (CL 293). Because of this it is the wife who joins the two together (see CL 198 and 32 1). This active force is present in all that womankind does.
     Much has been made in current literature about the woman's love for establishing connections between people. The above teachings would support this. Not only do women love making connections with people, but they love to see the connection between an idea and its use, between a love and its form, and they love to nurture the uses that come forth from these connections. This is their strength.
     So when we say that the inmost of woman is "conjugial love," let us think of it in a more universal sense as the love of conjunction. She loves to see the wholeness of life, and to work towards the conjunctions that produce this integrity.
     Do males love that too? Yes, in the same sense that a woman loves to grow wise - as a love that is subsidiary to that which is the inmost.
     The point is that the soul of each sex is distinctly different. Everything that is below this inmost being is also distinct - right down to the bodies of each - because of the unique creation He forged in their inmost beings.

Perfectly Complementary (2): The Wisdom of Each
Masculine wisdom is to see truth in spiritual light.

     Please forgive me for starting with the masculine each time. Because the male characteristics are more easily seen and thus described, it is easier to start with them, and then to see the unique feminine by comparing them.

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     The Writings tend to call the male understanding "rational wisdom," although they will also refer to it as "spiritual," or "spiritual-rational and spiritual-moral" (see CL 293). The main gift of the male understanding is its ability to separate itself from those things which its will loves, to see truth apart from those loves. Hence the following teachings.

It is masculine to perceive from the understanding, and the understanding perceives things which are above the body and beyond the world, it being to these that rational and spiritual sight extends, while love does not go beyond what it feels. When it does go beyond, it does this by drawing on that conjunction with the male understanding which was established by creation (CL 168, emphasis added; see also CL 89 and 90).

Rational wisdom perceives the truths and goods which appear interiorly in a person, not as his own but as flowing in from the Lord (CL 102).

The conjunction of the wife with the rational wisdom of the man is from within because this wisdom is proper to the understanding of men and climbs into a light in which women are not (CL 165).

     Another passage says that the "innate disposition of the male inclines to the formation of the understanding" (CL 89). These gifts are "by creation," and "from birth." This leads us to the vital role that the male mind performs in human life.
     When the Lord made the soul of the male into the form of loving to become wise, He assigned to the male the primary role in the initial establishment of the church. The church is established at first by a person's learning the truth, understanding it, and then seeing how it can be used. This learning comes from without -from the Word and from those values in the world around us which the Word has created over the centuries. The vehicle is "rational wisdom," the interest and the ability to separate one's personal desires from learning truth, the ability to see the truth in spiritual light and then to bring it down into the realm of rational and moral principles (see CL 163-165, 168, 193, 102).

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     Do women have this ability? Yes, but it does not predominate with them (see CL 122). Their deepest talent is something else. This is the male's special contribution. This brings us to a rather important teaching. In a marriage the church ought to be established first in the husband and from him in the wife (see CL 125, 63). If it happens the other way around, the Writings say, it is not according to order.
     Notice the all-important word "first." That means "first in time." In his series "The Cycle of Life: A Model for Viewing Gender-related Concerns," the Rev. Erik Buss dealt with this process in detail (please see New Church Life, 1995, pages 442, 490, 535). The wife's love is formed by her husband's understanding of the church - the values which he has developed and holds dear. Then, when she joins herself to her husband's understanding, she becomes the creative or moving force. It is her love which nurtures and develops the church (the church is both of them together), and which builds a heaven for the two of them. His understanding, then, clothes that love.
     This is the interior reason why, when couples marry in heaven, they marry in the man's society, and move to live in the woman's society (see CL 411:2; SD 6027:16). Her love is the center of their life. This too is why the Lord said in Matthew: "For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife" (Matt. 19:5). It is not said the other way around. He goes to her. The Writings explain: "As speech is the form of sound, so man may be described as the form of the wife; they are one flesh; a man shall cleave to his wife; the wife is the man's soul and life, or is the heart of the man; but neither knows anything else than that the other is his or hers, and that each is the other's reciprocally and mutually" (SD 6110:14).
     But it begins with the husband. The Lord made him to seek after knowledge, understanding and wisdom, and endowed him with a special talent to do so - a talent which women may imitate, but not equal.

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From this wisdom the church begins with a married couple, and then the wife's love gives it a home.

Feminine Wisdom: to Perceive from Love, to Perceive Human States

     It is interesting that, while women seem able to imitate the masculine wisdom (the Writings suggest that they do so in the sphere of men whom they respect), it seems that it is much more difficult for men to imitate feminine wisdom. More on that later. The unique perception which is feminine wisdom is usually spoken of in the context of marriage, although three passages (CL 21, 44 and 156e) make it clear that they use this sensitivity in their dealings with people in general, and they have it before they are married. Here are some of the most general descriptions.

It is masculine to perceive from the understanding, and feminine to perceive from love. What pertains to light is seen and what pertains to heat is felt. This perception is the wife's wisdom, and it is not possible with the man, nor the man's rational wisdom with the wife (CL 168, emphasis added).

In order that this union may be achieved, a wife is given a perception of her husband's affections, and also the highest prudence in knowing how to moderate them (CL 166).

[The wives] then said: "Every man has five senses, but we have in addition a sixth sense, being the sensation of all the delights of the husband's conjugial love. We then discern them as exquisitely and distinctly as the ear discerns the modulations of song" (CL 156e; in the Rogers translation this is 155 repeated).

     It is hard to describe feminine perception, since it is an effect of love. The angel wives said as much to Swedenborg: "Some of [the secrets of our wisdom] so transcend the wisdom of you men that the comprehension of your intellect cannot grasp them" (CL 208). They know without having to go through the process of analysis, evaluation, and objective reflection. It is a wisdom that flows from them, almost as an instinct.

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In fact, wives in heaven said that their husbands likened it to instinct, "but we say it comes of Divine providence, in order that men may be made happy through their wives" (CL 208).
     I referred above to the fact that this wisdom exists with women in general, not only with wives in true married states. In one case six young women in heaven were introduced to ten male visitors. They immediately knew the atmosphere of unchaste love flowing from these men and withdrew (see CL 21; see a similar description in CL 44). On another occasion Swedenborg met for the first time with some wives in heaven. They looked into his eyes and knew the quality of his thoughts about marriage. He wasn't married to them. He wasn't even known to them (see CL 156e).
     The point is that feminine perception may find its perfection in the marriage state, but it works in all human relationships. Women know things to which they cannot put arguments. They can sense danger in ways that men cannot. (Sadly, our culture tells them not to trust these feelings: I once read a book which stated that every woman whom the author had interviewed who had experienced "acquaintance rape" had experienced a prior sense that something was wrong but pushed it aside.)
     In a positive vein, women have a sense of what is good and worthy of encouragement in people, and they have the wisdom to nurture it.
     If there is one thing that the New Church can do in a concrete way to improve the spiritual and mental health of the world, it is to speak of the validity of this perception, to strive to be sensitive to it, to honor it and to encourage women and the young girls of the church to feel free to follow it. Will their perception sometimes lead them astray? Will they sense danger where it is not present, or feel that they can trust someone whom they cannot? Yes. They are human and fallible. Men are wrong a great deal, and woman's perception is sometimes misled by her natural wishes and prejudices, just as man's judgment is clouded by the same forces.

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She should constantly seek to perfect her sense of human states through attention to the Lord's Word. But her perception is something that the Lord has given her, and He has told all of us about it so that she may feel confidence in using it.
     This wisdom has uses which are different from (although altogether harmonious with) masculine wisdom. The first is that through it women are aware of human states. They sense things which men do not. I said above that the Writings seem to say that men have a much harder time emulating feminine wisdom than women do imitating that of men. In one passage, wives in heaven said, "You men vaunt yourselves over us on account of your wisdom, but we do not vaunt ourselves over you on account of ours even though our wisdom is superior to yours because it enters into your inclinations and affections and sees, perceives and feels them" (CL 208).
     Then they added something amazing: "You know nothing at all about the inclinations and affections of your love, and this despite the fact that it is because of them and in accordance with them that your intellect thinks, consequently that it is because of them and in accordance with them that you have your wisdom. Yet wives know these things in their husbands so well that they see them in their husbands' faces and hear them in the intonations of the speech of their mouth" (Ibid). Women know them in others, and men don't know them in themselves.
     A second use of feminine wisdom is that it moderates the affections of those it loves. Because women have a perception of the states of their husbands (and of those they love), they quietly work on them to help these people to improve the quality of their feelings (see CL 166; also CL 208, 293, 156e).
     Many women have said that they are not aware of this wisdom in themselves. They don't seem to themselves to be as sensitive as the Writings say they are, or to be moderating affections in their husbands or others in such gentle ways. I do recall an occasion when I was the only male present in a gathering of women who were discussing the subject, and one woman expressed this concern.

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An older woman in the group said, "Of course you have that awareness. Don't you know when. . . " and she listed several situations in which wives on earth knew instinctively things about their husbands. Nearly everyone in the group immediately assented.
     Why do women not feel that they have these gifts? I think it is partly because our world tends to dismiss whatever we cannot take apart, analyze, validate by arguments, and put a name to. Part of the reason may also be that in this external world of ours the deeper powers of both sexes are little noticed compared to their more outward strengths. Perhaps also women exercise their wisdom so instinctively that they are unaware of what they are doing. But, the Writings assure us, they are doing it.

Women's wisdom operates quietly, even secretly, whereas masculine wisdom tends to be observable.

     A third use of feminine wisdom is that women frequently operate quietly, secretly, invisibly. "They moderate [their husbands' affections] all unknown to their husbands" (CL 166). Wives "entirely conceal their wisdom and prudence from men" (CL 294).
     There are vitally important reasons why the wisdom of women is not seen. The first is that it allows for the freedom of those they are helping. The wives in heaven said that they know that love cannot be forced, and needs to be given in freedom. So their operations are secret, and then their husbands feel that, in showing love to them, they are doing it of their own free will. In fact, they are moved by the wives to do so, but they choose to respond. In that choice they find their joy in loving. "This she accomplishes in a thousand ways, taking especial care that none of these ways be detected by her husband; for she well knows that love cannot be compelled, but is subtly infused in a state of freedom" (CL 294).

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     There is a remarkable teaching in one of those memorable relations where the wives talk with Swedenborg. They say: "It is the Lord's will that the masculine sex act in freedom in accord with reason; and since a man's freedom involves his inclinations and affections, therefore the Lord Himself moderates his freedom from within, and through his wife from without" (CL 208, emphasis added). They go on to add that all this is done so that a man's freedom may be preserved.
     To understand the burden of this teaching, we need to reflect that the Lord leads in two ways. From truth He leads by means of teachings from the Word. It is the province of rational wisdom to delve into these teachings and present them. This kind of leadership is clearly seen. It is articulate. The freedom which a person enjoys is that he or she is able to accept or reject the truth.
     The second way of the Lord's leadership is through affections. When He guides our affections, He does so in secret ways: through His own interior presence and through the presence of angels and good spirits, He inspires feelings for what is good and true. The person feels that they are his own, and yet responds freely (see AE 1173-1175 et al).
     Part of this second kind of leadership is through womankind. She too touches affections in others, and they are not aware of it but respond in freedom. It is a sensitive type of leadership: the guidance of one who, through a gentle form of caring, disposes another to choose wise pathways. And when the other person has chosen them, he knows no otherwise than that he did it himself. Just as the Lord delights that people will have this sense of choice and the joy that comes from it, so a woman wishes those she affects to choose for themselves, and to have a delight in so doing.
     Here is my conclusion - a derived doctrine, to be sure, yet one that seems both logical and compelling. The Lord's Divine Providence operates in secret, but He has told us about it so that we can see it after the event.

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This is a general principle of the Divine Providence - we cannot see it in the face, but in the back, even as Moses could not see Jehovah face to face on Mount Sinai, but saw Him after He had passed by.
     But He wants us to see His workings after the event! He wants us to reflect, and see how He led us, and be grateful for what He has done.
     I believe a similar principle should apply as we seek to discover the wonder of the feminine mind. A male cannot be aware of much that she is doing before and while she is doing it. But the Lord has told us what she is doing! He made sure that we would know. Why? So that we can look back and reflect on the influence of those women we love, and love them in return. For they operate in an external way as He operates in an internal one.
     Gratitude is often hard. It is harder still if we don't devote our minds to discovering what gifts we have received, that we may be grateful. One of the great tragedies of the world - and it's been going on for thousands of years - is that we pay attention to what jumps up and hits us between the eyes, and ignore that which is silent and gentle. We see the visible accomplishments of the male understanding, and don't take the time to look back and perceive how feminine wisdom has created the environment in which life and love can flourish.

How is woman's freedom preserved?

     It might be asked, How is women's freedom preserved? Why do men get this "special treatment," having their affections guided both by the Lord and by women? What do women get that is equivalent? I wish I could deal with this in detail. Let me say only that women are forms of love, and they receive that love as an influx from the Lord. What they need is to have that love "formed" by the wisdom of men. So the Lord leads them in two ways also. He leads them directly from within. Indirectly He leads women from without through the wisdom from the male which gives form and strength to their loves.

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     This wisdom from the male provides the articulation of her love. The Writings use the words, "A wife's love takes form through the wisdom of her husband" (CL 198, emphasis added). The gift of the feminine is to inspire and to lead in secret. The gift of the male is to bring forth her love, to allow it to flourish and find form in the truths that he presents. As love truly conjugial grows in the church, husbands will love, more and more, to use the talent the Lord has given them to allow the interior beauty of their wives to exert its influence on human affairs. This will surely find its way into all the affairs of society.

To Make the Invisible Visible

     For some decades people have been paying more and more attention to the fact that women have been little valued. I hope that, from what has been said above, we can see some of the deeper reasons for this lack of respect for the feminine. We tend to see the form rather than the substance, to honor the more visible contributions of the male mind over the deeply precious gifts of feminine perception and wisdom. We live in a "faith-alone" culture, one which exalts the understanding above the will. We are steeped in this culture, and it is folly to believe that the New Church, young as it is, is not strongly affected by centuries of custom and traditions.
     What I would plead, however, is that we not take the wrong solution to the right problem. We would do that if we were to want to make the quieter strength of women into the more noisy strength of men.
     In a most poignant passage, Swedenborg said the following: "The feminine interiorly is to love the husband tenderly - but they desire the husband to be ignorant of this .... The wives of the angels said that I must not disclose this, but I said that I would disclose it. This was because they suppose that this was their weakness; but it is the very good of truth and truth of good" (SD 6110:3).

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     Even the wives of heaven were afraid that their tenderness would be regarded as a weakness. They didn't mind their husbands' knowing it, because angel husbands can be trusted with this knowledge, but they were afraid for their sisters on earth if it was revealed. It seemed that it would reveal the vulnerability of women, and men would take advantage of them.
     The Lord insisted that it be revealed. It is time: time for people to know the true quality of love, that it is tender. Yes, it is robust at times too, but its strength lies in its gentleness - that is what the Writings meant when they called it "the very good of truth and truth of good." Tender love is the most powerful love of all. It softens human lives by its very presence. Is there a greater human strength than that?
     We could seek to honor women by trying to assign to them the louder voice that men have. We could try to ensure that their contributions are seen in advance, not only in retrospect. We could try to make visible what by its nature is secret. We could do these things from the best of motives, because for too long women have not been appreciated enough.
     But that is the wrong solution to the right problem. The Lord has now told us what we could not possibly have known otherwise. He has said that love flows in directly from Him into the feminine being, and from that love there is perception of human states. From that perception there is wisdom -to moderate in secret the affections of those she loves, and to rejoice when they respond and are guided into paths of happiness.
     Our challenge is to try to be sensitive to that love, and to find ways to honor it and give it expression, that human society may be gentled, and that it may respond more and more to tender affections.

But what of the understanding?

     In the realm of "wisdom" we find three kinds: rational, moral and feminine perception. Rational wisdom is the arena in which men excel.

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Feminine perception belongs to women; and the two tend to meet in moral wisdom (see CL 165).
     Sometimes we get a little confused and think that the Writings seem to say that the intellect of men is superior. That is irritating to women because they know they are just as clever as men are. They feel in themselves the ability to communicate, often with better articulation than men. Their intellectual prowess is well documented.
     The Writings do not at any time, to my knowledge, say that the intellectual faculties of either sex are superior. They simply compare the quality of the masculine and feminine intellects, pointing out that men's are aggressive, fond of a good fight, frequently irresponsible at first. Women's are more gentle and peaceful, even yielding. But the passage ends by saying that the intellect - or the understanding -of men is changed by the presence of "feminine love and at last conjugial love" (CL 218).
     Note that men's intellects can be gentled, even before they are married. The presence of the feminine with its quality of love changes it. Married love completes the task.
     So we read of a wonderful discussion in heaven where the men in heaven were saying how the internal beauty of their wives changed them. One said, "The Lord took beauty and grace of life from man and transferred them into woman, and that is why a man not reunited with his beauty and grace in woman is stem, severe, dry and unattractive, and also not wise except for his own sake alone, in which case he is a dunce. On the other hand, when a man is united with his beauty and grace of life in a wife, he becomes agreeable, pleasant, full of life and lovable, and therefore wise" (CL 56). Then the hostess in the home where the discussion took place invited her husband to speak, and her influence was visible to those who listened. "When he spoke, the life of wisdom from his wife was perceived in his speech, for her love was in the tone of his voice. Thus did experience bear witness to the truth expressed" (CL 56e).

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In summary:

     1. Both sexes have a distinct love which forms their inmost beings, and which they receive directly from the Lord.

     a. With women it is a love of conjoining good and truth, thus of conjugial love.

     b. With men it is a love of growing wise, through learning, understanding, and seeing how truth applies to life.

     2. Both sexes have a wisdom and a perception from their love.

     a. With women it is the ability to sense human states, and to use prudence and sensitivity in moderating them.

     b. With men it is seeing truth detached from their own loves, in spiritual light, understanding how it can change the human condition, and articulating this vision.

     3. Both sexes moderate the qualities in the other.

     a. Women join themselves to the wisdom of their husbands (or if unmarried to those they respect), and feel their loves to be purified, strengthened, and given expression.

     b. Men are gentled in secret through women's ability to touch their good affections and to turn them from the impure ones. They find their harshness softened and their wisdom made alive.

     4. Both have intelligence, but it takes its quality from their inner nature. When the two halves of creation come together, the intelligence of each derives something lovely from the other. From a man a woman draws strength and form. From a woman the man becomes gentle.

     Though they join together into the covenant of eternity, they remain eternally distinct. Were they not to do so, they would no longer have something special to offer the other.

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     6. Because of this vision of the two sexes, revealed by the Creator Himself, a new culture can arise in the world in which women and men play an equal but distinct role in the church and in society. But our destiny will be reached only if we seek an ever purer awareness of what the Lord has revealed, and let it create our culture.

     (To be continued)
IMPRESSIONS OF A TRIP TO MOSCOW 1997

IMPRESSIONS OF A TRIP TO MOSCOW       Rev. Goran Appelgren       1997

     May 22-28 this year I was in Moscow. What called me there was a request for New Church baptism and worship as well as the wish for spiritual and moral support for the little group of New Church people there.
     For the last five years I have been a good friend of several of the leading individuals in the New Church movement that exists chiefly in Moscow. It was two years since my previous visit, but I had met them during their visit to America in the past year. It took no time at all to fit in and feel comfortable. Already on the second day of my visit we held a service of worship, in which three people were baptized: a sixty-year-old woman and a couple, Alexander and Irina Gorbenko, whom I had managed to meet briefly in Sweden last year. He wants to study for the priesthood. For the most part the whole service was in Russian - quite an experience. I noted that those gathered there, about fifteen people, adults and children, were strongly taken by the atmosphere of heartfelt devotion. May the Lord lead this little group to be able to attain the realization of their dreams.
     As always on these visits the days were intensive and filled with discussions and visits with people who were interested in helping in different ways. I held a lecture at a university.

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We visited a publisher who is considering the possibility of publishing a biography of Swedenborg, and we visited a private center for teacher training and an independent Christian college that very much wants us to give courses there.
     As regards book publication, our friends are at present completing the editing of Marriage Love, which we hope will be coming out this year.
     In conclusion, on their behalf I want to express thanks for the gifts that came in as a result of the appeal that was directed to our readers in the previous number of our bulletin Nytt Ljus. Thank you very much!
      Rev. Goran Appelgren
THIS YEAR AT BRYN ATHYN COLLEGE 1997

THIS YEAR AT BRYN ATHYN COLLEGE       Dan A. Synnestvedt       1997

     Here is some information from Bryn Athyn College's Office of Admissions:

     Last fall, academic year 1996-97, we had 113 full-time students. The record for number of students enrolled at the college was set during the academic year 1976-77. That fall the college had 148 fulltime students. This fall, about twenty years later, Bryn Athyn College will probably break the record for enrollment. As of this date we are expecting 150 students, an increase of 32% over last year. 83% of the student body will be from North America; of these, 60% are from Pennsylvania. The remaining 17% are from the following countries: Australia, Brazil, England, Ghana, Israel, New Zealand, Russia, South Africa, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Trinidad and the Ukraine.
     And yet the numbers do not really do the students justice, for each student has his or her particular reason for coming to the college: one wants to be a New Church psychologist; one wants to be a New Church writer and spread the church in Russia and Israel; one wants to join the new Biological and Chemical Sciences major to see how religion and science fit together; another wants to become a New Church art teacher;

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another is here to learn as much religion as he can before he goes on to medical school; one is an aspiring translator, another an aspiring historian. We hope the readers of the Life will take the opportunity to stop by the college and become acquainted with a few of our unique students.

     Thank you for your support; we appreciate it.
      Dan A. Synnestvedt
      Director of Admissions
TOWARD A TRUE PHILOSOPHY 1997

TOWARD A TRUE PHILOSOPHY       EDWARD F. ALLEN       1997

     And How to Make a True Philosopher (Part 2)

     A call upon the Only Begotten in order that there can be a philosophy in agreement with revelation.

     In Chapter I of The Principia, by the call upon the Only Begotten, theology was introduced into philosophy. Hence this is acknowledged on the first page of The Infinite, the work which follows The Principia:


In order that we may be favored and happy in our endeavors, we must begin from the Infinite or God, without whom no undertakings can attain a prosperous issue ... (p. 7).

     And so,

Human philosophy and wisdom are for the most part anxious to be taken into company with theology ... (p.7).

     And since theology has been taken into company with philosophy, and since God is infinite, a caution arises: The Infinite is the difficulty of philosophy. When this difficulty is seriously acknowledged and the consequences are investigated, it must be acknowledged that God is infinite and so the quality and nature of God cannot be known, but it can be proved that He exists.

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So reasoning leads to:

Since we now affirm as a positive truth that there is a nexus [connection] equally unknown with the Infinite itself .... The whole sphere of the finite, or the universal world, must of course be referable to its own prime beginning therein and terminating therein. Therefore the final or impelling cause cannot be in the means, but only in the end itself; nor can it terminate in the finite sphere, but only in the Infinite. And thus all the multiplicity of causes that concurred to the existence and creation of the world can neither end nor begin anywhere but in the Infinite; whatever proceeds therefrom consists merely of causates. Nor can it be said that any cause concurring to creation exists elsewhere than in the essential cause itself, i.e., in the Infinite (pp. 95-96).

     The first cause cannot be anywhere but in the Infinite, for it has nothing natural in it, but the natural begins in the first entity produced by the cause, and as this process continues we arrive at the subject heading:

There is a nexus and the Infinite is the final cause of creation (P. 99).

     As this process of reasoning continues, we arrive at:

Let us now go further, and see whether anything more be discoverable by the reasoning process.

First, however, let us see whether there be any source besides mere reasoning from which we can know the existence of the nexus. To illustrate what we mean, let us suppose that some other person now tells us the same thing that we ourselves had discovered by reason; in this case we shall be bound to think that he too has discovered it by the same process. And if any one told me the same but gave additional particulars coinciding with it which went still more to confirm it, then it would be fair to believe that he had reasoned more deeply, distinctly and acutely than myself, since he not only sees all that I do, and draws my conclusion, but superadds new results of which I knew nothing, yet which are nowise at variance with mine, and therefore I have every reason to believe them.

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And hence the mind that would not be deceived lays hold both of that which is concurrent with its own reasoning and of that which other minds superadd, and which appears to be not at variance with the former.

But perhaps the reader may be curious to know my drift in these remarks, and he may ask what greater degree of affinnation I want on the subject. I wish then only to draw this conclusion, that if any one tells me the same thing that I myself have arrived at, I am bound to believe him on the simple ground that I believe myself. Let us now see whether God Himself, or the Infinite, has not been pleased to reveal to us this very thing; for He tells us that He had from eternity an only-begotten Son, and that this only-begotten Son is the Infinite, and is God, and that the connection between the finite and the Infinite is effected by the only-begotten infinite and God; and that the Father and the Son are one God, both infinite, both the Creator of the finite universe; that both concurred in the work of creation, yet that the two are so distinct that the one is the Father, the other, the Son; the one the first Person, the other the second; wherefore in respect to the names of Father and Son, and in respect to the word Person, they are indeed two, but in infinity and divinity they are one and the same. In this way we have here something like what reason has dictated, to wit, the existence of a nexus between the finite and the Infinite; also the declaration that the final cause belongs to the Infinite, but through the above nexus; and that the connection between the Infinite and the finite is through the Son, and through nothing else. Thus then we have an agreement of revelation with reasoning (pp. 100-101).

     Now by the first call upon the Only Begotten in Chapter I of The Principia it becomes possible for Swedenborg to become a true philosopher. And now because of a second call upon the Only Begotten we can know that revelation can be in agreement with the reasoning of his philosophy.
     Immediately after this begins an investigation which will affect Swedenborg personally as a man who is the ultimate effect in the world: the subject to investigate now is announced by the subject heading:

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A call upon the Only Begotten because through Him somewhat of the Divine may dwell in us. It is written in The Infinite:

     Man is the ultimate effect in the world through which the divine end can be obtained (p. 103).

     The next ten pages are devoted to an endeavor to prove this, but an objection arises.

     Objection: That the Divine end is not obtained in the ultimate effect (that is, so far). Hence the investigation proceeds in this manner:

Before we can solve [this objection], we must recur to our principles .... Nothing but what is most perfect can proceed from the Infinite, and as the primitive [i.e., the first thing ill creation] proceeded immediately therefrom [i.e., from the Infinite], so nothing but what is most perfect can be predicated of it. If there be a nexus between the Infinite and the primitive, then whatever is most perfect in the primitive is infinite in the cause. Thus all that there is in the primitive is superlatively perfect by its derivation from the Infinite (p. 114). Let us grant then that the primitive is most surpassingly perfect in the finite sense .... All the least and simple entities or first natures of the world ... are finitely speaking most perfect, and therefore most self-similar (p.1 15).

     That is, there simply cannot be any dissimilitude, and the argument continues to where it is said,

Therefore as it is finite, and the essence of the finite consists in its subjection to degrees . . . [so as said, it] must involve degrees, or degradation from more to less ... for all that is finite must admit of a succession of different states: the Infinite is the only being to which this necessity does not apply ... (p. 117).

Let us now proceed to man, who is the ultimate effect of nature, with a view of seeing whether anything superlatively perfect in a finite sense can exist in him, or the contrary.

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We answer in the negative. We say that as he is the ultimate effect of nature; as he is made up of all the intermediate effects; as he is finite, and many times finite; and as his soul may obey his body and thereby become like his body, so that which is superlatively perfect in a finite sense is impossible in him. This is a consequence of the antecedent proposition. And we know not if it may not even be taken as an axiom, that perfection indeed may exist in man, but naturally speaking by no means superlative perfection, which may be manifested in the primitive alone, and nowhere else (p. 118).

     What follows immediately is treated under the subject heading:

God has exercised His prevision and providence at once to ensure obtaining the primary end.

He at once provided for the case by the creation of the soul, which He made rational, and consummately rational, and indeed most perfect, so that it might rule the body. A soul that should have dominion over all parts of the body at once. A soul without which the body could do nothing, but which should dispose the whole and the parts at its sovereign will. A soul without which nothing should be admitted into the human will . . . . - I am now speaking of the soul of the first man - to desire to constitute the body in its own likeness, and to govern it as such; for it had the power, inasmuch as nothing could be done without its knowledge and concurrence ... (pp. 119-121).

     There is more:

Why did He give him a soul which was unable to govern the body? Why did He make an ultimate effect which could fall? Would not this seem to argue that the ultimate effect was not under the direction of the Infinite, and did not exist for the ends of the Infinite?

But to continue the tissue of our discourse, which it would be unwise to interrupt, since we might thereby hinder the mind from seeing the tenor of the divine foreknowledge and providence: as God foresaw that without a rational soul the body could not be a means to the primary end, so He provided that a consummately rational soul should be given to it, or that reason should be given at once to both body and soul, to enable man to acknowledge God, and become a means to the end.

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And having given and connected these two, He also foresaw that the body would command the soul, and that the will common to both could and would obey, the body in preference to the soul (p. 123).

He foresaw that no nexus was possible between the finite and the Infinite, unless the nexus itself were infinite; as a necessary consequence of which, the connection between the last effect, namely man, and the Infinite, must have place through the infinite; otherwise the divine end could never be obtained. Now by the fall, and the dominion of the body over the soul, the connection was broken and the end would have been frustrated. But God provided against this by His infinite, only-begotten Son, who took on Him the ultimate effect of the world, or a manhood and a human shape, and thereby was infinite in and with the finite, and consequently restored the nexus in His own person between the Infinite and the finite, so that the primary end was realized (p. 124).... And that without Him there would be no connection between the last effect and the Infinite; whereas through Him somewhat of the divine may dwell in us, namely, in the faculty to know and believe that there is a God, and that He is infinite, and again through Him, by the use of the means, we are led to true religion, and become children of God, and not of the world (p. 125).

Desirous, therefore, to explore the nature of the soul by reasoning but unable to come to any solution, they leave it doubtful altogether. From ignorance of the state of the soul, we may easily pass to a denial of its existence.

If, however, they had thought, that the end for which the world was created is divine, or is for the Infinite in the first place; and that man is the ultimate effect by which this end may be obtained; and that a soul is given him which in conjunction with the body has the prerogative of concluding, and by virtue of revelation, although not of itself as a finite creature, of believing that there is a God, and that He is infinite:

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and that in this way there is somewhat of the divine in man (p. 173).

     A number of reasons are given for the soul to be immortal. But this is not intended to be a formal argument for immortality. As will be seen, some farther introductory material is given first which suggests the immortality:

We may deduce and conclude analytically and rationally from the nexus of natural beings and things in the world that the soul or subtlest part of the body must be immortal . . . ; still more is immortality evidenced by the fact that those who are in the true bond of the divine end, or have a true acknowledgment and love of God, desire nothing more strongly than the immortal estate of the soul, and count nothing of less value than the mortal estate of the body.... Furthermore, in demonstrating the immortality of the soul, we may infer from the Infinite to the soul, as from the soul to the body, that is to say from the connection between the Infinite and the soul, as from the connection between the soul and the body: for as said before, from connection love immediately arises, or strict delight which is felt in love, in other words in the harmonious conjunction of parts and modes in the world.

     Then for eight pages Swedenborg lays out some ideas as to what the nature of a demonstration might be.

     (To be continued)
SUMMER CAMP ENROLLMENTS 1997

SUMMER CAMP ENROLLMENTS              1997


     SUMMER CAMP ENROLLMENTS: As the summer comes to a close in the northern hemisphere we have heard that the summer camps were well attended. 360 attended the three-week Laurel camp in western Pennsylvania and 129 attended the Jacob's Creek ramp in the same vicinity.

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YOUNG ADULTS ASSOCIATION FORMED IN GHANA 1997

YOUNG ADULTS ASSOCIATION FORMED IN GHANA              1997

     A Young Adults Association has been formed within the New Church, headquarters branch at Abelenkpe, Accra. It has a membership of twenty-four and is administered by a five-member executive council. They are George Dziekpor, president; Henry Agrroh, secretary; Janet Hotorwovi, treasurer; Edward Akottey, organizing secretary; and Prince Godwin Zattey-Agboga, Counsellor.
     The association aims:

     1. To integrate through co-operation and affiliation all young adult members of the New Church in Ghana.

     2. To study and discuss together the works of Emanuel Swedenborg and dedicate its youthful energies to the propagation of the knowledge acquired.

     3. To share within and outside the church Emanuel Swedenborg's insight into the nature of God, the spiritual and physical world and man, and thus help to impart a vision of the New Jerusalem, and

     4. To develop and promote the social aspects of the New Church with the view to enhancing the common good of its members.

     The association has plans to raise funds toward the purchase of public address equipment and doctrinal literature for evangelization.
LAMP IN THE DARK AND A GUIDEPOST ON THE WAY 1997

LAMP IN THE DARK AND A GUIDEPOST ON THE WAY              1997

     True doctrine is like a lamp in the dark and a guidepost on the way. But doctrine is not only to be drawn from the sense of the letter of the Word, but must also be confirmed thereby, for if not so confirmed, the truth of doctrine appears as if only man's intelligence were in it and not the Lord's Divine wisdom.
     Doctrine of the Sacred Scripture 54

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THINK ABOUT SUNDAY SCHOOLS 1997

THINK ABOUT SUNDAY SCHOOLS       Editor       1997

     Part of the life of the General Church is Sunday School activity. In societies that have their own schools the summer time sometimes brings more focus on the Sunday School. We salute the Sunday School teachers and the beautiful things that they prepare for children. It is said in Divine Providence 136:

In the spiritual world all children are introduced by the Lord into angelic wisdom and through this into heavenly love by delightful and charming means, first by pretty things in the home and the charms of the garden, then by representations of spiritual things affecting the interiors of their minds with pleasure.

     When we think of Sunday School we think of children. Here are some photographs taken recently of children in Sunday School in Boulder, Colorado.

[Photograph]

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[Photographs]

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FAVORITE SAYINGS OF PAUL 1997

FAVORITE SAYINGS OF PAUL       Editor       1997

     (2)

     Here is a passage that the Writings quote about love and the commandments:

He that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is summed up in this saying, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself Love worketh no ill to the neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law (Romans 13:8-10, TCR 330, 444).

     At the beginning of Arcana Coelestia it is said, "In the following work, by the name LORD is meant the Savior of the world, Jesus Christ." It is noted that after the resurrection the disciples called Him "the Lord," having been commanded to do so (AC 14). It is because of this command that "He was so called by the apostles in their epistles" (TCR 8 1).

"In the Lord" - The phrase "in the Lord" is occasionally used in beautiful verses of the Psalms, such as "Trust in the Lord" and "Be glad in the Lord." The apostles used the phrase over and over.
     In Romans we read of laboring in the Lord, receiving someone in the Lord, saluting in the Lord. In Corinthians we read of being called in the Lord, being faithful in the Lord, being married in the Lord. In Ephesians we read of obeying your parents in the Lord, being strong in the Lord, trusting in the Lord.
     And, of course, in the book of Revelation it is said, "Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord." Readers of the Writings are familiar with the saying about a soldier, "If he dies, he dies in the Lord; if he lives, he lives in the Lord." And of sailors, "If they die they die in the Lord and go to heaven" (Charity 171). To be in heaven is to be "in the Lord" (AC 3637, 8192).
     One wonders whether there is a Biblical or other antecedent for the phrase used in the Writings on being "content in God" (AC 3938, 4981, HH 284, 288).

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UNUSUAL PAPERBACK 1997

UNUSUAL PAPERBACK       Editor       1997

     Perhaps the most unusual thing about it is its size. It fits into the palm of your hand. The title is Words of Spirit and Life, The Spiritual Meaning of the Sermon on the Mount.

     Usually one finds on the left page a single verse from the Sermon on the Mount and then on the right page, quotations from the Writings explaining the verse. For example, on page 18 we read: "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God." Then on page 19 we read:

All unrest is from evil and falsity, and all peace is from goodness and truth (AC 3170). Peace is happiness of heart and soul arising from the conjunction of the Lord with heaven and the church, as well as from the conjunction of goodness and truth, when all conflict and combat of evil and falsity with goodness and truth has ceased (AE 997:4).

Those who are in the goodness of love to the Lord and in goodness of charity towards the neighbor are His sons, and are called "sons of God" (AE 746:2). In the Word they who are regenerated by the Lord are called "sons of God" (CL 120).

     When there is not a direct quotation from the Writings relating to a verse, the compiler, Rev. Leonard Fox, uses the two fine commentaries of Clowes and Bruce. Here is how Mr. Fox puts it in his introduction:

The internal sense of the Sermon on the Mount, which appears in the following pages facing the literal sense as recorded in the Gospel of Matthew, is drawn from the Writings of the New Church revealed through Swedenborg, as well as from commentaries on the Gospel of Matthew by William Bruce and John Clowes, two of the most illustrious nineteenth-century exponents of New Church doctrine. These doctrines themselves state that no one should base his or her beliefs on the authority of another person; rather, the individual must examine a statement carefully and decide whether or not it is true.

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     At the end of the booklet there is a list of books of the Writings with a few lines describing each. It is remarkable how much is contained in this small package.
     The address of the Swedenborg Association is 278-A Meeting Street, Charleston, SC 29401. The booklet is also available from The General Church Book Center, priced at $7.95.
EPITAPHS AND FINAL WORDS 1997

EPITAPHS AND FINAL WORDS       Editor       1997

     The Last Word is the title of a little book published this year by Dove Tail books. The epitaphs and sayings are collected by Nicola Gillies. The foreword says, "One of our earliest forms of literary expression, the epitaph offers the reader a glimpse of the past and, perhaps, a universal truth." Before saying why, we offer these samples:

     On a tomb in Williamsburg, Virginia dated 1849 is the following:

My Ann, my all, my Angel Wife
My dearest one, my love, my life
I cannot sigh or say farewell
But where thou dwellest I will dwell.

     On the tomb of a child:

His last words were unspoken
He never said "Good-bye."
He was done before he knew it
And only God knows why.

     On a gravestone in Chicago:

We part to meet again.
What a joyful thought.

     On a grave dated 1803:

Death is not an eternal sleep,
Therefore my friends you need not weep;
But look by faith beyond the grave
That you some peace of soul may have.

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     On a tomb in New Haven, Connecticut dated 1775:

Go, Reader
And in the Short Space of Life allotted thee
Attend to his Examples
And Imitate his virtues.

     Another says:

Be thou what you think I ought to have been.

     Among the shortest:

Oh reader, be prepared.

     One reason that epitaphs and eulogies often have wise ingredients is that when people are directing their thought to death and life they can be in a kind of enlightenment. Note what is said in Conjugial Love 28. "What man who has loved his married partner and his infants and children does not say to himself when they are dying or dead, if he is in a state of thought raised above the sensory things of the body, that they are in the hand of God, and that following his own death he will see them again and join with them once more in a life of love and joy?"
     Another passage urges a reader to just think about the state of deceased friends or relatives. "Put away from you the idea of the soul being a breath, and then think what your state, or that of your friends, or that of your children, will be after death. Surely you will imagine yourself going on living as a human being, and them likewise .... This too is what the composers of funeral eulogies write about the departed; they set them in heaven among the angels, dressed in white and walking in gardens" (Continuation of the Last Judgment 6).
     Of particular interest in this regard is n. 274 of Divine Providence. It mentions eulogizers who speak of the deceased as being in heaven, sharing joy with angels. It mentions common people thinking of being dressed in white in a heavenly paradise. And it speaks of people who expect to see spouse and children after death. This is from a common perception granted by the Lord.

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ABOUT THE SECOND COMING 1997

ABOUT THE SECOND COMING              1997

Dear Editor:

     In response to Steve Koke's comments on my article about presenting the Second Coming, the essential point about John 16: 12,13,25 is that the literal meaning is so plain that it did not need to be explained in the Writings. But there was a need to explain the spiritual meaning, so that was done.
     The fact that the Writings refer only to the internal sense does not mean that we must ignore the obvious literal meaning or feel insecure about it. In fact, we have the clear statement that "doctrine is not only to be drawn from the sense of the letter of the Word, but must also be confirmed by it; for if not so confirmed, the truth of doctrine appears as if only man's intelligence were in it, and not the Lord's Divine wisdom .... The doctrine of genuine truth can also be drawn in full from the sense of the letter of the Word, because in this sense the Word is like a man clothed whose face and hands are bare. All things that concern man's life, and consequently his salvation, are bare; but the rest are clothed" (SS 54, 55).
     The passage under discussion is clearly a good example of the doctrine of genuine truth outcropping in the sense of the letter. The doctrine of genuine truth on this subject is that "the second coming of the Lord is not a coming in Person, but in the Word, which is from Him, and is Himself" (TCR 776, heading). The teaching is essentially the same in John 16:12, 13, 25.
     The internal spiritual sense has to do with the coming of the Lord to the individual person; the internal historical sense, as given in TCR 776-791 and in the sense of the letter, has to do with the coming of the Lord in general, "in the Word."
     Another example would be Hosea 6:2: "After two days He will revive us; in the third day He will raise us up, and we shall live in His sight."

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Here is the general form of the detailed teaching given in HH 445-452 about the resuscitation of mankind from the dead. It is the doctrine of genuine truth appearing in the sense of the letter in general form and elaborated in the Heavenly Doctrines.
     Yet the Heavenly Doctrines do not refer to the literal meaning, but expound only the spiritual sense and the internal historical meaning. Historically, the sense of the letter refers to the resuscitation of Israel and Judah from their abject state; doctrinally, the subject, as we have seen, is the resuscitation of mankind after death. In the spiritual sense, the whole process of regeneration is summarized; in the internal historical sense, we are instructed about the restoration of the church. In this case there is a perfect harmony among all levels of meaning.
     It is not quite clear whether Steve Koke feels that the "striking argument based on" the passages from John is invalidated because the Writings do not comment on them in their literal sense. Any suggestion that this is the case can hardly be sustained in the light of the above considerations.
     Rev. Douglas Taylor Huntingdon Valley, PA
VOLUME ELEVEN TO BE AVAILABLE 1997

VOLUME ELEVEN TO BE AVAILABLE              1997

     Volume eleven of the Swedenborg Society translation of Arcana Coelestia will be available later this year.
     We would quote here just one passage from John Elliott's rendition. It was this passage that inspired the writing of a series of lessons called "The Human Face," now available from the Office of Education. Just think of the implication of this teaching:

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     The face has been fashioned so that it can produce an image of a person's interiors. It has been so fashioned to the end that those things which belong to the internal man may appear within the external, thus to the end that those things which belong to the spiritual world can be visualized in the natural world and so have an effect on one's neighbor. It is well known that the face presents visually, or as if in a mirror, what a person thinks and loves. This is so with honest people's faces, and especially with angels' faces (AC 9306).
SOWING THE SEEDS of Love and Wisdom 1997

SOWING THE SEEDS of Love and Wisdom              1997

     A Preschool Conference for parents, teachers and all of us who love children and want to learn and share experiences about their development from birth to six years.
     A one-day conference Saturday, November 15, 1997 held at the Ivyland New Church
     Come and learn about windows of learning, the planes of spiritual development, different learning styles of girls and boys and many more topics.
     Featured speakers: Rev. Dr. Reuben Bell - brain physiology Jill Rogers - developmental stages Dr. Sonia Werner and others
     Conference coordinators: Cathy Schnarr - GC Office of Education David Lindrooth - Ivyland Pastor Phil Schnarr - GC Office of Education Director

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100 WAYS TO IMPROVE YOUR SPIRITUAL HEALTH SEE THE NEW CATALOG FOR RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 1997

100 WAYS TO IMPROVE YOUR SPIRITUAL HEALTH SEE THE NEW CATALOG FOR RELIGIOUS EDUCATION              1997




     Announcements






     Time to order the 1997-1998 catalog of materials from the General Church Office of Education.

     Our latest catalog has a new look and a wide variety of resources that are designed to help you and your family in your spiritual life.

     Parents, grandparents, students, teachers, Sunday Schools, seniors may get a free catalog of over 100 items available by mail order.

     We list a variety of educational lessons, stimulating courses and studies, Sunday School materials, and video programs for young and old alike.

     Please order your free catalog today from: General Church Office of Education Cairncrest - P.O. Box 743 Bryn Athyn, PA 19009 Phone: 215-914-4949 - Fax: 215-914-4935

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Return to the Promised Land 1997

Return to the Promised Land              1997

     The Story of our Spiritual Recovery

     "This book is about the parable of the children of Israel's struggle to become a nation. By 'parable' is meant a symbolic representation or our own human existence. This book does not merely offer a loose correlation between the history of a people and our own personal lives. It assigns each significant person, place, tree, rock, body of water, and stick in the hand a specific spiritual meaning that corresponds directly to our spiritual growth . . . ; this story was written for you and me, for our spiritual development. It will soothe and encourage you to know that, even as God did not abandon his people so many thousands of years ago, he does not abandon his people today, but leads each one of us, if we will let him, to happiness and inner peace."
     Each chapter begins with readings from the Old Testament and quote from the Writings. At the end of each chapter there are a few exercises designed to help you apply this information to your own life. Reading through the chapter titles gives an idea of the journey ahead: Spiritual Bondage, Road to Recovery, Bitter Realizations, Spiritual Sustenance, Refreshing Insights, Repelling Negative Thoughts, Overcoming Fears Conquering Spiritual Foes, Spirituality or Peace in our Land.

     Hours: Mon-Fri 9-12 or by appointment Phone: (215)914-4920 Fax: (215) 914-4935     

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Notes on This Issue 1997

Notes on This Issue              1997


New Church Life
October 1997

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     The Bishop of the General Church travels to distant places and works to acquaint himself with many uses. We will print his annual report next month, but we commend to our readers the long paper printed in this issue. This about it. There are aspects of the church you may know very well, but what about the overall picture? "We have 4,500 adult registered members, 12,000 souls who call the church their home." Reading this article provides an opportunity to contemplate the facets of this organization.
     We congratulate Sue (Mrs. James) Simpson on becoming Acting Secretary of the General Church, and Judy (Mrs. Garry) Hyatt on her new responsibilities (see page 462). And we salute Donald Fitzpatrick on his retirement, and hope he will find more time to write for New Church publications. See his letter in this issue.
     Because thousands of people attempt suicide each year, most people have occasions when they are personally affected. Mary Griffin offers some thoughts. The direct teachings on the subject are very few, she notes. And she says, "A suicidal death is as individual as any other death, and we can see vaguely, in retrospect, the Lord's providence and permission in life-and-death situations."
     Among the things ready to print in this issue was a sermon. We apologize to writers and to readers for the omissions due to space constraints. Someone has scanned more than a hundred sermons and made them available on the internet. One can access them using www.primenet.com\~lawson\sermons.
     Summer Camps - There is reference in the Bishop's article to the work of those who manage summer camps in the General Church. We have an actual writeup this month of but one of them. But we have heard, especially this year, of good attendance and excellent spirit at Camp Winding Waters in Oregon, Sunrise Camp in eastern Pennsylvania, and several others.

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PERSPECTIVE ON SUICIDE 1997

PERSPECTIVE ON SUICIDE       MARY WAELCHLI GRIFFIN       1997

     Several years ago, in what was then the Academy of the New Church College, a professor posed this question: "Is there anyone here who has ever contemplated suicide?" There were few hands that didn't go up. That in itself was an astounding demonstration! The fact that many people have thought about ending their bodily lives indicates a need to discuss the question.
     To give a perspective on suicide that is honest and founded on truth, the following three topics will be drawn together in this order: first, certain factual and statistical data will be referenced; second, a few comments on the impact of and attitudes toward suicide on the part of the survivors will be given; third, some of the teachings from revelation will be presented. All three topics, but especially the light of doctrinal teachings, can help the understanding of a tragic event.
     Washington University at St. Louis, in a collaborative study on high-risk suicidal patients, noted that " . . . suicide risk seems proportionate to the severity of . . . anxiety attacks," and that hopelessness is "strongly predictive" of suicide, according to Dr. Jan Fawcett in a 1996 interview on "Understanding the New Risk Factors for Suicide." Anxiety and hopelessness are certainly negatives, and occur among hospitalized mental patients and among us all sometimes. The ability to overcome these states is a major criterion of a healthy mind. Being able to cast off the " . . . slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or take arms against a sea of troubles, and by opposing end them" indeed is a " . . . consummation devoutly to be wished."
     Depression, lack of support, mental and physical disorders can be precursors to an attempt at suicide. The strongest indication of an attempt is a past history or dialogue in that direction. There are ways to intervene and help, both medically and psychologically when the persons doing so are competent in those fields.
     There are even situations where a change in direction in social or occupational environments may help relieve a very stressful life style.

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The National Center for Injury Prevention and Control is working to raise the awareness of suicide as a serious public health problem and of science-based prevention strategies as an effective means of reducing injuries and deaths due to suicide (see Youth Suicide and Prevention Programs: A Resource Guide, 1992).
     In looking at statistical data and clinical treatment we see 32,000 dead in 1996 and a projected half million attempts by people who will opt for death this year. This gives a somber note to the problem (http://www.asfnet.org/suicide/facts.htm 4/30/97). No age group is exempt from death by suicide. Males are three to five times more prone to commit it than females. Caucasians under forty years, black males, and the elderly are the highest at-risk groups for suicide (http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/dvp/suifacts.htm).
     A person in distress needs help in many ways, but recognizing the symptoms often escapes those who are in close contact with a suicidal person. There are a host of warning signals that often occur in clusters: withdrawal, change in sleep patterns, loss of energy, and lack of interest in life around the person are only a few of the signs to pay attention to. Suicide is " . . . usually [attempted] to block unbearable emotional pain which is caused by a wide variety of problems. It is often a cry for help" ("Suicide-Frequently Asked Questions" 1996).
     The alienation of people with suicidal ideation might be reduced by accepting them as they are, i.e., not casting them into situations they perceive as socially unfriendly or hostile. By avoiding these they may be able to see options other than suicide, for suicidal thoughts tend to obscure peripheral options and cause tunnel vision.
     The impact of suicide on the survivors has them looking for help to understand this event. They must turn away from guilt, denial, and pain in some way, often searching for comfort in self-help literature.

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Even The Reader's Digest offers articles along this line (Feb. 1997, "Help Yourself Through Hard Times" by Collin Perry). In taking charge in self care, we are told to grieve, to get angry against the problem, to challenge, not to deny and try to escape, to be active physically and mentally. This advice does make sense. However, the proliferation of self-help advice abounds; on a scale of one to ten its usefulness falls into every numeral.
     Suicide is probably the last tragic act of a series for the perpetrator. The impact on individuals and groups who are affected by the act is profound. The help and comfort individuals give each other is absolutely necessary, as it is in other troubling times. The stigma and condemnation of suicide by western civilization makes the pain more severe, and yet there is validation of it from the literal sense of the Word. The Lord says "Thou shalt not commit murder." Suicide is such an act and, therefore, forbidden. It is a sinful act, but as with any sin, we judge the act, not the person. However, the Word's command is our law. It was surely a tragedy when Judas followed his betrayal of the Lord with his own hanging. When Saul took into his own hand the sword his servant would not raise "against the Lord's anointed," it was a sinful act. When Ahithophel got his earthly possessions into order and did away with his life on earth, he too was in disorder. These examples from the Word may take on more clarity in our minds if we proceed to what the New Revelation tells us about suicide.
     Actually the Writings give scant coverage to suicide. There are some "hard sayings" that appear, such as in the Spiritual Diary, of the suicidal man who in the lower earth held a knife to his breast in an ongoing effort to kill himself, but of course did not, although he suffered the feeling that lingered on after physical death in this case (see SD 1336). Then there are the spirits of Saturn who have the appearance that they are killing themselves because they would rather do so than be drawn away from the worship of the Lord (see AC 8950).

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Another number in the Spiritual Diary speaks of the awful spirits who formerly rushed into the chambers of the brain and caused such terror that whole armies slew one another, and goes on to say that, "It is very rare at the present day that the bonds are loosened to any of [those frightful spirits], only when anyone is such that it is better that he should be permitted to perish as to the body than as to the soul, and who, unless he perished as to the body in such a manner by insanities and suicide, could not but perish to eternity" (SD 1783, emphasis added). The gracious mercy of the Lord is strongly evident in this quote, for it leaves the door open to mercy for anyone who commits suicide, and terminates any judgment of that person on our part, leaving that to the Lord alone.
     There are numerous references to the desire of evil spirits to incite insanity and accidents upon living people. The Spiritual Diary abounds in accounts of disasters that evil spirits would like to have caused (see 5717, 253, 1043); and we can infer that the same intent is longed for by evil spirits around all of us.
     Since the Writings give very little direct information on suicide and there are few references to this subject, this lack of focus on suicide is a protection for those of us who would be inclined to make inappropriate judgments. A suicidal death is as individual as any other death, and we can see vaguely, in retrospect, the Lord's providence and permission in life-and-death situations.
     "Thou shalt not kill," the seventh commandment, refers to spiritual murder of faith and love; moral murder is committed in the ruination of a person's reputation and honor, and natural murder is of the body (see AE 1012). Thus all three may be implied in the act of suicide. A further problem of suicide is that the time of death is seemingly usurped from the Lord's wisdom and is therefore a denial of the Lord's omniscience. A rightful stigma on murder, even of oneself, is recognized on natural, moral and spiritual levels, for it is an act that is in outward appearance against both love to the Lord and love toward the neighbor.

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     Bishop King, in a post-suicide letter, wrote soothingly as follows: "While we can only surmise, I believe there comes a time when certain people must reach out to the Lord in the only way they believe is left to them, in order to be embraced by the security of His near presence. Since true spiritual freedom is to be led by the Lord, I also believe there are times when a person is permitted to terminate natural life, suffering pain and guilt in advance for doing so, yet without knowing that the Lord allows this since the person would not have remained in spiritual freedom had earth life continued. How wonderful that the Lord looks upon the heart and makes just judgments, while we stand by and trust in His loving concern for each one of us-long term." Here "the way certain people must reach out to the Lord in the only way they believe left to them" takes some of the heartache of "the thousand natural shocks" of guilt and condemnation that survivors carry with them.
      A comforting memorial service helpful to us left on earth looked to the long-term goals the Lord provides and asked the following questions, giving some answers. "Can we put our trust in the Lord and in His resurrection and salvation? Can we acknowledge that His providence is universal? The Lord tells us to turn our minds away from the grave. Does He not say to us that if we would believe, we would see the glory of God? Let us take away those thoughts that keep her in the grave within our minds [bearing] the heavy stone of guilt, doubt and despair. The Lord is calling her forth as He did Lazarus, and she has left the grave and is entering into eternal life. Let us follow the Lord's instructions, to loose her of the grave clothes of unhappy memories, and let her free in the spiritual world" (Rev. Andrew Heilman, June 2, 1991).
     To lift our minds to the long-term goals is sometimes an arduous task. How to cope becomes a minute-by-minute process even with the help of family, friends, literature and revelation.

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To get outside of oneself and to turn thoughts and efforts to helping others cope is a stand we can make in which the Lord can support us. As we call upon the Lord and encourage our friends and loved ones to do so, we gain strength from Him. In our quiet moments of doubt, inadequacy, hurt and grief we seek solace from the Word. Thankfully Psalm 68:28 opened my eyes on how to react. "Thy God hath commanded thy strength. Strengthen, O God, that which Thou hast wrought for us."
NEW CHURCH FAMILY CAMP AT JACOB'S CREEK 1997

NEW CHURCH FAMILY CAMP AT JACOB'S CREEK              1997

     The 1997 New Church Family Camp at Jacob's Creek proved to be a resounding success. The camp, formerly held at Peterkin Conference Center in West Virginia, this year moved to the banks of Jacob's Creek at Laurelville Mennonite Conference Center east of Pittsburgh.
     One hundred thirty people-about 50 families, from young parents with infants to single adults to great-grandparents- gathered in early August for three days of lectures, discussion, and worship services, and swimming, hiking, visiting, playing at the playground, and generally enjoying each other's company.
     The camp's subject, "Providence," was the focus of the morning lectures, discussion groups, and optional afternoon classes as well as the worship services morning and evening. One worship service was held on a nearby hilltop, and on another evening a Holy Supper service was offered. Spontaneous late-night discussions are a popular feature of the camp for those willing to sacrifice sleep.
     Each morning, children's classes were led by dedicated volunteers.

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Free time characterized the afternoons, and the evening programs included an ice cream social, campfire sing-along, and a field day topped off by a talent night.
     The Rev. Peter M. Buss, Jr., led the ministerial staff, which included the Rev. Messrs. Erik Sandstrom, Dan Goodenough, Grant Odhner, and Chris Bown. Thanks to their efforts it was an intellectually and spiritually stimulating camp.
     The spacious modern facilities at Jacob's Creek, some of them air-conditioned, brought overwhelmingly positive comments from campers.
     The one missing element was a large porch for the informal gatherings that are such a valued part of the New Church Family Camp. That will be provided for next year's camp; organizers have reserved the camp lodge, with its expansive porch, in addition to the buildings used this year.
     The Jacob's Creek Camp provides a happy, stimulating and fun way for New Church people to gather for doctrinal enrichment and fellowship. This year people came from Ontario, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Missouri, New York, Connecticut, Maryland, Illinois, Florida, and Pennsylvania.
     Children and adults make lasting friendships, and many families come back year after year.
     The New Church Family Camp at Jacob's Creek is open to everyone interested in examining the doctrines of the New Church. All are welcome. For information, please contact Rev. Peter M. Buss, Jr., at (847) 729-6130, Rev. Patrick A. Rose at (513) 772-1478, or Mrs. Joseph S. (Pat) David, at (814) 432-2009. Watch for details of next year's camp, August 8-11, in future issues of New Church Life.
Title Unspecified 1997

Title Unspecified              1997

     "I have been there." This is a phrase from AC 1628.

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GENDER ISSUES, THE LAITY, AND THE USES OF THE CHURCH 1997

GENDER ISSUES, THE LAITY, AND THE USES OF THE CHURCH       Rev. PETER M. BUSS       1997

     (Conclusion)

To Repeat the Summary:
1.     Both sexes have a distinct love which forms their inmost beings, and which they receive directly from the Lord.
a.     With women it is a love of conjoining good and truth, thus of conjugial love.
b.     With men it is a love of growing wise, through learning, understanding, and seeing how truth applies to life.

2.     Both sexes have a wisdom and a perception from their love.
a.     With women it is the ability to sense human states, and to use prudence and sensitivity in moderating them.
b.     With men it is seeing truth detached from their own loves, in spiritual light, understanding how it can change the human condition, and articulating this vision.

3.     Each sex moderates the qualities in the other.
a.     Women join themselves to the wisdom of their husbands (or if unmarried, to those men they respect), and feel their loves to be purified, strengthened, and given expression.
b.     Men are gentled in secret through women's ability to touch their good affections and to turn them from the impure ones. They find their harshness softened and their wisdom made alive.

4.     Both have intelligence, but it takes its quality from their inner nature. When the two halves of creation come together, the intelligence of each derives something lovely from the other. From a man a woman draws strength and form. From a woman the man becomes gentle.

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5.     Though they join together into the covenant of eternity, they remain eternally distinct. Were they not to do so, each would no longer have something special to offer the other.

6.     Because of this vision of the two sexes, revealed by the Creator Himself, a new culture can arise in the world in which women and men play an equal but distinct role in the church and in society. But our destiny will be reached only if we seek an ever purer awareness of what the Lord has revealed, and let it create our culture.

     Section II: Application to the Uses of the Church

     For centuries men have dominated society. It is not surprising, because when the human race fell, it emphasized the external form rather than the internal reality. The understanding became more important than the good that it was intended to understand. The Writings spend a lot of time speaking about this unhappy state of affairs (I referred to this point in the first section of this paper).
     How shall we establish a more true balance between the sexes in the uses of our church? There are many who believe that we have done a great deal to redress that balance. Others feel that we have a long way to go. In the last 20 years most of our councils, and more recently our boards, have come to be composed of both women and men. In some congregations an equal balance has been established. In others an imbalance remains.
     People could give many examples of a lack of balance in the church. Take a few examples. Our translations tend to render the Latin homo (which usually refers to both women and men) as "man," after a custom common until recently. In the English language we will speak of a person and then assign the pronoun "he" or "him" to the person. (By the way, in Swedish the word "person" is feminine, so the correct pronoun is "she." I have been told that Finnish has a pronoun which encompasses both sexes.)

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Examples in sermons and classes tend to emphasize male concerns.
     Sometimes the question of paid employment comes up. It is worthy of note that the General Church employs an equal number of men and women in full-time positions and considerably more women in part-time positions. However, the leadership roles are often taken by men, largely because our leaders tend to be ministers. Recently quite a few leadership positions have been taken by women.
     It is harder to put words to a general sense among some women (and men) that the perceptions and perspectives of women are not heard or honored as they should be. Some disagree, feeling that they are indeed heard; others feel strongly that this is not so.
     In one realm there is a clear delineation. In the General Church, only men are ordained ministers. As any reader of this publication knows, this has been questioned by many in the church. The subject has been discussed in a number of forums, in addition to the articles and letters that have been published. Many points have been made, and it would be impractical to deal with them all. Let me attempt to address some of them.
     First of all, is it clearly and undeniably taught in the Writings that only men may be ordained priests? I don't think so. There are two passages in The Spiritual Diary which come close, one entitled "Women Who Preach" (SD 5936), and one which says that women may indeed lead in prayer "but not teach" (SD 4940). By "teach" here I understand the Writings to mean the teaching of formal doctrine. That interpretation seems to agree with other statements elsewhere (see CL 165; AC 8994). Neither of these Diary passages is crystal clear.
     It is fair therefore to say that the belief that men only should be ordained priests is a "derived doctrine." But what does that mean?
     Some statements in the Word are so clear that we have to be purposely blind in order to deny them. The Ten Commandments are an obvious example.

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The fact that the inmost of the sexes were created forms of two different loves is another.
     Then there are things which the church has come to believe, based on its understanding of the Word. A good example is the general principle that children should be taught the principles of religious life together with those of earthly life. This has led to a belief in the General Church in the value of New Church education. The Writings don't teach this principle in so many words, but most members of the General Church see the truth of it. It is part of what the Writings call "the doctrine of the church" (see NJHD 315).
     The important thing about "derived doctrine" is that it is only true to an individual if she or he sees it. Others must be free to believe differently-although the assumption is that they too are forming their opinions not from prejudice or some other source of learning, but from their sincere understanding of the Word. After all, the term "derived doctrine" clearly means doctrine derived from an understanding of the Lord's truth.
     However, the fact that "derived doctrines" are not so openly taught that we can prove beyond a reasonable doubt that they are in the Writings has led some to suggest that derived doctrine is of little use. They may suggest that "it is just someone's opinion," that we should feel more free to use experience as a guide, for if the Writings are not specific, we can make up our own minds about the issue, using other sources.
     I think that is a mistake. The Writings teach that without doctrine the Word cannot be understood. In The Doctrine of the Sacred Scripture, nos. 50-53, under the heading that "without doctrine the Word cannot be understood," are given examples of how the Christians could not have understood the Old and New Testaments without "derived doctrine." Other passages tell us that a church is a church not because the Word is there, but according to the understanding which people have of it, thus according to the soundness and purity of its doctrine (TCR 245).

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     And where do people get this "soundness and purity of doctrine"? They study the Word and compare many passages together. From this comparison there emerges an understanding of what the Lord is telling us. The Writings say that the true understanding of the church comes "when a person reads the Word and carefully compares one passage with another, and perceives what is to be believed and what is to be done" (AC 6222:3; see also section 5 and AC 7233).
     Another teaching on this subject is found in the chapter dealing with the priesthood. It says that priests ought to teach "according to the doctrine of their church from the Word" (NJHD 315), and it adds that nevertheless they should not compel people to believe as they do, "because no one can be compelled to believe contrary to what he thinks from his heart to be true" (NJHD 318). This is the passage that says that those who disagree with the priest should be left in peace to do so unless they cause a disturbance in the church.
     The point, however, is that the church develops an understanding of the Word through looking to the Lord in humility, studying the Word, comparing its teachings, and seeing them as a whole. This understanding is called "doctrine," which simply means "teaching."
     There are many things that the Writings do not address by name. Racial intolerance is one example. But it would be foolish to say that they don't address the issue when they teach, for example, that "everyone individually is the neighbor who is to be loved, according to the quality of his good" (TCR 406); or that "everyone is a neighbor according to his good, be he Greek or Gentile" (Charity 75). From these and many other teachings, we can develop a clear and rational doctrine about how we should love and respect those who are different than we are. This is part of "the doctrine of the church."
     In summary, therefore, let us not diminish the importance of derived doctrine. Without it we would not see how to live according to the teachings of the Word. It is our understanding of the Word.

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We may indeed be mistaken in our understanding, and we should be willing to examine it afresh. Nor should we say that all people should believe what the church in general teaches. It is to this end that the General Church does not promulgate "positions"-on social issues or on doctrinal ones-in order to leave people free to see what they themselves believe that the Lord is teaching.
     On the subject of women in the priesthood, there are clearly differences of opinion in the church. We are urged not to seek to compel others to see what they sincerely do not see (see NJHD 318).
     However, in this situation we are faced with a "yes" or "no" dilemma. Either women are ordained as priests or they are not. Whatever decision the leadership of the church takes, there are going to be some people who disagree with it. Yet we can't have paralysis on the subject, for even that is a vote-for the status quo.
     I know, therefore, that there will be those who disagree with my understanding of the doctrine. Naturally the bishop does not want to disappoint those who sincerely hold another point of view, but at the same time it is not fair to pretend that he doesn't have a definite understanding of doctrine if indeed he does.
     I do believe that the Writings address this issue. Personally, I believe that almost everything they say about the two sexes indicates an answer. But there are other aspects to the subject as well. First of all, they describe the distinct nature of the souls, the minds, the perceptions and the wisdom of each sex, and they urge us to restore the sense of that distinctiveness and of how they are conjoined together. Second, they describe the uses of the priesthood-and this is unique, because other vocations are not decreed and laid out by the Lord. People invented the professions of architect, jurist, board member, and so on. The Lord ordained the priesthood.

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     The way in which the Writings speak of the issues mentioned in the above paragraph appears to me to affirm strongly the principle that while not all men can be ministers, one of the requirements for performing the office of the priesthood is a male mind.
     Let me try to put this in another way. In the first section of this paper I tried to describe the new vision of the feminine which the Lord has revealed. He has told us of the perceptive qualities of the feminine mind and the nature of her wisdom-one which senses loves, feelings, tendencies, and relationships, perceiving them from love rather than analyzing and arranging them and working them out as men tend to do. Feminine wisdom also works silently and gently on those she loves, moderating them in freedom. This attribute has been long hidden from the world, and now the Lord has made it known. The development of that quality in individual women and in the church at large is a duty most precious. This will not, I believe, be aided by assigning to women the responsibility to study interior truth, to articulate it in words, and to preach it. There are many better ways to discover the true feminine, and to honor it as it should be honored.
     But these summary statements need more elaboration. First, what are the primary duties of the priesthood?
     To many people a pastor needs to be a caring person, a "people person," a good listener. These are very important characteristics, and without them a pastor cannot lead. Yet they are means to an end. The true purpose of the priesthood, as the Lord Himself describes it, is to teach the truth and to lead by means of that truth to the good of life. Whenever the Writings describe the priesthood, that is their emphasis. Here are some examples:

     1.     "Priests ought to teach people the way to heaven and also to lead them . . . . Priests who teach truths and thereby lead to the good of life and so to the Lord are good shepherds of the sheep; but they who teach and do not lead to the good of life and so to the Lord are evil shepherds" (NJHD 315).

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     In this connection I note that it has sometimes been suggested that maybe men should teach and women should lead. The Writings don't support this. The priest who teaches and doesn't lead by that truth to the good of life is an evil shepherd. The two actions are in the same person.
     2.     To teach and lead to the good of life, and so to heaven, is to consult the good of souls (see TCR 422; Life 39).
     3.     Priests are to provide that the Divine shall be present in a community (see Char. 135).
     4.     They should lead in worship and "unfold the Divine law and teach" (AC 9809).
     5.     They should be watchmen, warning of evil (see Ezekiel 33, explained in The Summary Exposition of the Prophets and Psalms).

     There are other duties mentioned, such as governing the affairs of the church and preserving order (see NJHD 311-314). But the emphasis is on teaching the truth, for this is what allows the Lord Himself to lead us. All other uses are subsidiary. Therefore we also find a lot of teaching about how to preach.
     Let me be clear that I don't want to suggest that the priesthood is not a caring profession; it is indeed. But just as psychologists or counsellors have a body of knowledge from which they show caring, so do ministers. The vehicle for bringing help is truth from the Word, in which they should be steeped, and to which they should lead, helping people to hear the Lord's voice leading them towards heaven. Therefore the Writings say that a "shepherd or pastor is a pastor" from "the affection of interior truth," which opens up the Word (AC 3795). He shows his caring by bringing interior insights of truth from the Word to people, and thereby allowing the Lord Himself to be in touch with them and guide them.
     To perform this function adequately the priest needs to study the whole doctrine, going beyond his own affections and preferences to present it as a minister of the Word.

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That objective study is important. (I'm not saying that all ministers are objective in their studies-far from it. As in all human uses, it is a perfect goal towards which we work in our limited way.)
     Then there is one other thing that distinguishes the use of the priesthood: the level of knowledge that they are to study. All other professions deal with civil or moral truth. The duty of the priesthood is to discover the laws of heavenly life and to apply them to life on earth-to see the reality of both worlds, both levels of the human mind, and to show how the Lord leads them.
     Why is the male mind specially formed for this task? The Writings seem very clear on this. The male man is born into the love of becoming wise from without, from the Word. To this end the Lord gave him the ability to raise his mind into spiritual light (see CL 168, 102). Women do not have that ability (remembering that they have equal but different powers); and therefore although "some people suppose that women can raise the sight of their understanding into the same realm of light that men can and see things on the same high level," they are mistaken (CL 175). It is from these teachings that it is said that when matters of rational wisdom-interior doctrine-are discussed, women "keep silent" (CL 165; see also AC 8994). It is made clear that they can understand the issues and discuss them. But it is the ability to discover the interior truth, to separate their understandings from their own loves and perceive truth in spiritual light, which is the peculiar gift the Lord gave to men.
     The intellectual powers of women lie in their sensitivity to how such truths, once enunciated, might have the softness of use as their purpose and so enter into a heavenly marriage in people's minds. They see those truths that touch them personally, and perceive how people may be inspired to use them. But it is not part of their interior love to go out and discover them by separating their personal loves from the inquiry. This separation- objectivity-is what the male mind can attain to, and by it it can be lifted up into a more interior sight of truth.

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     This kind of truth-the one the male sees-is "truth from good," or truth from the love of growing wise, and it is this which is received first by the male (see CL 122). It was also as "truth from good" that the Lord descended to earth, because this kind of truth can overcome evil. Good by itself, the Writings say, is "inadequate to effect this" because it is too gentle (see TCR 85, 86). This is the truth that is taught by priests, and that is why also all preachers in heaven are from the spiritual kingdom (see HH 225; one passage, SD 1061, equates women with celestial things and men with spiritual things).
     Hence there is the teaching that the church should be formed first with the husband and from him with the wife, and if it is the reverse it is not according to order (see CL 63, 125; cf. 122). This seems to have clear application to the question of a male priesthood.
     But let me hasten to say once again that "first in time" does not mean "first in importance." I spoke of this earlier in the paper. Once the church is formed, the wife's love is its center, and the husband's wisdom clothes it. So to assign the duties of the priesthood to the male sex does not imply a greater importance, merely a specific use requiring the form of mind that the Lord created in the male.
     In summary, there are many things which we can and should do to ensure that the distinctive feminine qualities have more respect in the church, and take a greater part in its affairs. Ordaining women into the priesthood is not going to promote that goal. Let us seek for other ways.
     My hope is to show, in the last section of the paper, that there are many, many ways in which lay contributions are vital. They develop and nurture and apply what is taught in the church. We are performing some of these already. Others await our discovery.

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Some Objections

     There will be many who will see problems with an all-male priesthood. I don't want to try to answer all the objections that I have heard. Let me comment on a few.
     One of those which concerns some is that the priesthood in the New Church has a leadership role, and this role is therefore closed to women-and also, of course, to lay men whose particular bent does not fit them for it. I acknowledge the truth of this. Women will not be members of the Council of the Clergy and governors of the church as ordained ministers are. I don't know what to say to this, because if one believes that the priesthood is a male use, this is a consequence, for the Writings clearly teach that priests are to be governors of the affairs of the church (see NJHD 314 et al).
     In a series of articles in New Church Life in 1991 I addressed the concept of government in the church. It is a very different concept from the idea of people having power and influence. In general, the interior idea of government is one in which the truth itself is seen, and by it the Lord Himself leads us from within. An exterior form into which this type of government fits is what Bishop W.F. Pendleton called "counsel and assembly." That is, all people work together to see uses. The pastor takes counsel and works with the congregation, and when uses are seen, then the board or the congregation agrees to or modifies them.
     This is the heart of our leadership: seeking to let uses lead, and finding ways in which the participation of people may take place so that they can give free consent and support to those uses. In that way their wills and their understandings participate in them.
     Yes, it is true that the priests are the leaders of the church, and as such they sometimes make decisions. In most congregational matters, there is very little that they do without the full participation and consent of the people. When ministers do make decisions, we would hope that they will be guided by many women and men in the congregation, and particularly by their own wives.

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Once when Swedenborg met with a group of men to discuss wisdom, the host stated, "I am not alone; my wife is with me" (CL 56). All people of the church would long to say that about their spouses in everything that they do. I acknowledge, however, that this is not the same as women making decisions.
     Influence and power are of many different kinds. Note, for example, the Lord's own words on this subject: "For who is greater, he who sits at the table or he who serves? Is it not he who sits at the table? Yet I am among you as the One who serves" (Luke 22:27).
     Part of the early section of this paper had as its purpose to present those teachings which suggest that much of the true contribution of the feminine mind is more silent, less obvious. Because it is so, it does not have to be less important. The ability to perceive human states, to moderate them gently, is an awesome talent, and should have a significant effect on the life of the church. Hopefully, as we develop we can allow it to be exercised more and more effectively, and see that its influence, or "power," is equal to the contribution of the male mind.
     Another objection is that if all the ministers are men, the church will tend to have a male quality to it. Again, that may be a valid concern, because we live in a culture which has that bent. We tend to measure things by what we observe, and the contributions of that half of creation which is born to be intellectual are more easily seen. They also seem to have more influence.
     We definitely need to address this issue. But we can address it by gradually imbibing the teachings about the sexes, by honoring them both for the distinctive and conjunctive uses they perform, and by working that sensitivity into our church. It will take time. Yet I believe it is the only way that a too-great emphasis on the understanding will be moderated.
     There are those who are concerned that in our present culture a church that has an all-male priesthood will not grow very easily.

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People who may have been disposed to learn of the Heavenly Doctrines will shy away from an organization that they perceive to be archaic in its structure. At times this will happen. If, however, we truly believe that the present policy is based on an understanding of the Word and not on past prejudices, then we must trust that if we act according to our consciences, the Lord will take care of the growth of His church.
     Perhaps the thing that is hardest to address is the feeling that women are "excluded" from a position in the church. The culture around us reacts strongly against any form of exclusion because of the many abuses connected with it throughout human history, allowing various forms of intolerance to prosper. I don't have an answer to this concern, and I wish I did. It seems an inevitable conclusion from the points that have gone before. I can only say that I truly believe that this is not a human decision made to support male preferences, and that we must be wakeful to any abuses that may arise.

The Uses of the Laity

     I believe that we can do a great deal to address the concerns that some women and men have expressed about the lack of feminine input in many of the affairs of the church. We can do it by addressing a broader concern. In what ways can we broaden the influence of lay men and women in the vital uses of the church?
     Our laity is amazingly active. The love and concern they show for the church they serve is beautiful to see. Any one of us who reflects on all that is accomplished in a day or a week or a year in our congregations cannot help but be moved at the thought of all the love for the Lord and His church which is manifested in this service.
     Some of the work is menial. But there are also many uses requiring special skills, whether financial, or as teachers, lawyers, care-givers, musicians, artists, or architects.

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Our laity has given freely of its talents in a large variety of fields. This precious work is part of the upbuilding of the church on the earth, and all people can participate, giving of those special talents which the Lord has granted to them.
     So here I am daring to say, "We could do more!" But let me illustrate how the vibrant quality of the church has already manifested itself.
     There have been women's symposiums and marriage symposiums in the church, with a wealth of lay speakers, each bringing to these meetings their sense of the application of the Word to human endeavors. We have lay people working in marriage enrichment and in personal counselling, helping individuals and couples in their life journeys, drawing on their understanding of the Writings. We have held mental health symposiums, in which speakers and workshop leaders from the caring professions have given their perspectives on the combination of the doctrines and the professional body of knowledge from which they work.
     At our last assembly a large number of sessions were addressed by lay women and men speaking on the general topic of how the New Church can develop a distinctive way of thought in many arenas. In March of 1996, 64 people in Bryn Athyn met under the leadership of the Rev. Tom Kline to work together to try to see what the future of the Bryn Athyn Church might look like.
     The camps in our church are run by lay people. Much of what they do is vital leadership. People return refreshed, inspired, and often with a new sense of how the Writings affect their lives. In Bryn Athyn lay people work with the minister in preparation for each contemporary service, and their insights greatly improve his work. The children work to prepare the gymnasium for worship. In Glenview there are over 100 people who participate in the Sunday program-in music, Sunday school, nursery, decoration and so on. In many congregations there are programs run by the laity which promote the outreach efforts of the congregation and serve the community.

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     I could go on and on, but I'm sure you get the point. There are many things that the laity are doing today which are new and vibrant, and which are significant contributions to the development of the church in hearts and minds. And I haven't even mentioned how much goes on in our schools, some of it by paid teachers, some by volunteers.
     Yes, much of what we do for our church is routine, whether it's preparing a supper, acting as an usher, cleaning the church or getting out a mailing. These things are not essentials in themselves, but they are essential! Without them we could not function. Each of them is an expression of love, and a response to the need for help.
     But there are deeper uses being performed. Lori Odhner gave me a list of the "ministries" that people in the church perform. They are not uses of the ordained priesthood. But each one of them is a special gift to some people-to those in the church or to those who may find it. The list is long, from child care to music to the development of poetry and literature to caring for the aged to writing on human issues to counselling people of different ages (see Connections II, the Journal of the Second Women's Symposium, p. 332).
     When she showed me her list I thought, "Each of these uses is precious, and every one of them has a doctrine attached to it! We could go to the Word and ask the Lord what He says about these uses, and we would find a wealth of information."
     If we did this, would we perhaps be performing these uses in an even deeper, more living way? That is how New Church education gained its momentum, its vision, its strength. People turned to the Word to hear what the Lord says about children, about education, about the growth of human states, about the affections that cause people to learn and to develop. As they saw how the light of revelation gave deeper meaning to what they were doing, they were inspired to perform this use in a special way.

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For 125 years we have been seeking to make our education "New Church."
     The beauty of doing this is the feeling that we are working with the Lord when we let Him tell us, in His Word, about the task we are doing. That sense of partnership is a deep and abiding communion with our Maker. We want to show love, and He is telling us how. That is the internal burden of His promise to us: "I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard of My Father I have made known to you" (John 15:15. "The Father" is the Lord's love).
     What about music? Can we have a set of teachings about music which we offer to all those who would like to serve in this field in the church? If we did, would it give a spiritual impetus and direction to the special gift they are bringing to the church? When Raymond Pitcairn was working on the construction of the Bryn Athyn cathedral, he sought for those truths that would make this structure one which illustrated worship of the Lord in the New Church. When John Frost was architect of the church in Westville, South Africa (the Durban Society), working with much more limited resources, he and pastor Dan Heinrichs together sought to bring the principles of architecture and those of worship into a harmony, and to instruct the society so that they shared in the vision of what he was trying to produce.
     Can we do more of this? When young people become ushers in our church, might the senior ushers teach them about the sphere of worship, encouraging them to sense that they are not just preparing the church for a service but are helping people to worship?
     In our church congregations many people take care of the elderly. Could we search out those teachings which speak of the wisdom of age, and those which help us to understand what we seem to lose as we grow older, to give focus to our care of the elderly? Can we help these care-givers understand even better the process of entry into the other world, something they see more often than others?

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Can we help them to understand their own impatience at times with those who are very old, and look to the Lord to grow in appreciation of the deeper qualities which those have whom they are serving? (For an example of this kind of application, see Grant Odhner's articles in New Church Life, 1996, pages 77, etc.)
     The ministers would be involved in much of this. But the fact is that in the field of education, many talented lay people have taken the doctrinal work of ministers, and found teachings in the Word themselves, and applied these truths to the areas of their expertise. Talk to Jane Williams Hogan, associate professor of Social Studies at the Bryn Athyn College of the New Church, about the sociology of various segments of the New Church around the world over the last century, and see what wonderful insights she has into the factors that may influence the future growth of the church.
     You see, the work of the priesthood is only the beginning. Yes, the ministers must delve ever deeper into the treasures which the Writings contain. It is their duty to see the universal truths, and to seek to fit the particulars into them, producing "the doctrine of the church" and insights into the life that flows from it. They should seek to lead people towards the spiritual sense of the Word in which the Lord is fully present, for that is the great gift of the Lord's Second Advent (see TCR 780, et al).
     But the joy of taking these truths and putting them to use awaits us all. We do not have to be brilliant to do this. Each of us has insights in our own field or in our own home. Each of us can see the truth shining upon our endeavors. We can bring our particular love and sensitivity to the altar of the Word and find that they are given direction and power by the Lord Himself.
     Many people in our church are doing this already. It's one of the reasons I love the General Church and feel so privileged to serve it. But there is more-much more-that we could do. There are fewer than 100 ministers active or retired in our church.

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We have 4,500 adult registered members, 12,000 souls who call the church their home. As the Rev. Bruce Rogers said in his letter in the July New Church Life (1997, p. 327), the caring aspect of the church is far from the sole province of ministers; it is the privilege of all of us. "Good can be insinuated into another by anyone in the land" (AC 6822). If all 12,000 of us can see more and more clearly how our particular uses in the church take light and life from the Word, what a difference we can make.
     In this work, the nurturing work of the church, the active daily life of the church, there are distinctive qualities offered by each sex, and there are many in which the two come together. It is in this arena that we can explore the question of the balance between the uses of each sex, and encourage even more than we have the contributions of each individual.
     I am sure there are many other ways in which the women and men of the church can have a more active part in the church, and I know that the balance between the uses of the sexes will always need to be given attention. In the months to come, many of you will be considering these things, and will have a lot to say. The last section of this paper has been an attempt to suggest some ways in which lay uses may take increase from the fountains of the Word, and to honor those who have already been performing their uses in this way.
     We've made a great start. But it is an ongoing project, not an ending.
NEW BOOK 1997

NEW BOOK              1997

     We have just seen a new book, the subtitle of which is Living in the Spiritual World. The main title is Conversations with Gorandmothers and Gorandfathers. Written by Helen Kennedy, it is put out by Of the Spirit Publisher & Distributors, Bryn Athyn, PA 19009-0209. We note that the substantial bibliography includes Conjugial Love and True Christian Religion.

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NEWS FROM GOTHENBURG 1997

NEWS FROM GOTHENBURG       Joachim Eriksson       1997

     (Translated from Swedish by Rev. K. P. Nemitz)

     It was a great delight for me to be invited by Rev. Goran Appelgren to follow along with him from Stockholm down to Gothenburg to be present at the dedication of the new premises of the new Swedenborg Association, Den Inre Trodgorden (The Inner Garden). It was clear to me that the new association in Gothenburg had a religious impetus. I also was confirmed in my understanding that even though the official organization Den Inre Trodgorden is a new association, the interest in the New Church and Swedenborg's theological Writings has been there long earlier among people in Gothenburg, and that Rev. Olle Hjern had been active and held many services of worship there earlier.
     Here in these new premises there were a few more than thirty people who had gathered to this service of dedication at eleven this weekday morning, New Church Day the 19th of June. Different from the cathedral in Bryn Athyn where I usually attend services of worship, the place of worship in Gothenburg was very simple. There were folding chairs for seating. There was a simple table that functioned as an altar. And there was a portable electric piano on which the music was played. There was no podium, only the same folding chairs for the priests to sit on. There were no windows with stained glass, but instead, on the window toward the back garden hung a painted rice-paper picturing the New Jerusalem with its twelve gates and the Tree of Life. In spite of its simplicity there was a sphere of profound reverence and holiness in this room during the service of worship, which was led conjointly by Rev. Messrs. Goran Appelgren, Ragnar Boyesen, and Olle Hjern. It was Ragnar who delivered the sermon, and at its conclusion he dedicated the premises to service in the Lord's name. After the worship service we all gathered for a light lunch, at which presents were distributed and informal but very affectionate and sincere speeches were given.

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After lunch, coffee was served, and then the program continued, first with Arne Lindgren, who gave an inspiring and gripping description of his spiritual awakening, passage and conflicts in life. After that, Rev. Bjorn Boyesen gave a talk which he had written earlier as an introduction to the New Church. With sunny and powerful words he described the central faith of the New Church and the spiritual world. After an intermission Olle Hjern delivered the last talk, which dealt with Swedenborg and his friends in Gothenburg. Olle described how people in Gothenburg in the late 17th century were the first who embraced the Writings and attempted to establish the New Church.
     The final item for this day was an organization meeting of Den Inre Trodgorden. I was clearly able to see that this organization located in Gothenburg has as its purpose being accessible to people who want to buy, borrow or read Swedenborg's Writings and literature about him and the Writings. My general impression was that the new association was and is a part of the New Church described in the Writings-one in which one looks toward eternal life in affirming what is good and true and acknowledges no other god than the Lord Jesus Christ. In the evening when the program for the dedication of the premises and association in Gothenburg was concluded, Goran and I travelled home to Stockholm. I was conscious of having been part of an historic happening in which I had been given to witness how the New Church is continuing to grow and bloom-two hundred forty years after it was first established in the world.
Joachim Eriksson
COMFORT TO THE DYING 1997

COMFORT TO THE DYING              1997

     Who does not comfort a person who is incurably sick by saying that shortly he will enter the next life? (AC 5078:5)

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ANNOUNCEMENT 1997

ANNOUNCEMENT       Rev. Peter M. Buss       1997

     As of August 31, 1997 Mr. Donald C. Fitzpatrick, Jr. will retire as Acting Secretary of the General Church. In this capacity he also served as Manager of the Cairncrest operations-our General Church center. Under his leadership the Secretary's office has run smoothly, the uses in Cairncrest have been handled with sensitivity and competency, and the building itself has been much improved.
     Sue (Mrs. James) Simpson will become Acting Secretary of the General Church, effective September 1. She will take on these duties in addition to keeping her position as Executive Secretary to the Bishop. This additional administrative task is made partly by time savings from computerization, and mainly because Sue will be delegating many tasks which she has been doing which have had great value, but have been in addition to her work in the Bishop's office.
     Judy (Mrs. Garry) Hyatt will become Manager of Cairncrest Operations and Assistant to the General Church Secretary as of the same date. Judy has been assisting Don Fitzpatrick for the last two years, and has also served in the past as secretary to the Assistant Bishop.
     Rt. Rev. Peter M. Buss
JAPANESE LANGUAGE AND LETTERS 1997

JAPANESE LANGUAGE AND LETTERS              1997

     Your attention is called to a remarkable article in the latest New Philosophy (p. 593) which shows the Chinese characters as used in the Japanese language. Tatsuya Nagashima calls this article "New Church Culturation in Ethnic Minds."

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BOOK ENTITLED FROM SWEDENBORG 1997

BOOK ENTITLED FROM SWEDENBORG       Editor       1997

     This book was published in 1959. Its sub-title is An Outline of Emanuel Swedenborg's Latin Testament. The author is R. Newton Mahin. Here is what is said about him inside the dust jacket:

     R. Newton Mahin comes from a long line of Methodist clergymen. Four of his great-uncles were preachers in that denomination. And significantly, one of these great-uncles believed that Emanuel Swedenborg was far closer to the truth, to the spiritual meaning of the Word of God, than any other Christian thinker . . . . Swedenborg had been inspired by the Lord to write the Latin Testament to inform those members of the Christian Church who still lived in darkness; to explain much more about the world of the spirit, about Heaven and Hell, than is given in the natural sense of the Word.

     Mr. Mahin "grew eventually to share the opinions of his great-uncle . . . . He prepared this Outline so that many other Christians might be granted the same truths about the Lord and the life beyond this world. He hopes that some readers may be induced by the Outline to read the entire works of Emanuel Swedenborg for their fuller instruction and spiritual fulfillment."
     The book (120 pages) was published by Greenwich Book Publishers of New York. Its dozen chapters include Heaven, Hell, The New Church, The Lord's Second Coming, Emanuel Swedenborg and Marriage.
     On page 111 we read:
     
     When the Lord came the second time He did not come in person, but He used a man to whom He manifested Himself in person . . . . [T]he man to whom the Lord manifested Himself, and whom He filled with His spirit, was Emanuel Swedenborg, the son of a Lutheran bishop of Sweden.

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Swedenborg had to be prepared from infancy for his work, which lasted about twenty-nine years. He interviewed about 100,000 angels, spirits, and infernals during that time.
     Before Swedenborg could operate in two worlds at the same time, he had to have the sight of his spirit opened, so that he could see the things that spirits and angels see.

     We do not know how many copies of this remarkable book were printed or how it sold. Perhaps some of our readers know more about it.
FAVORITE SAYINGS OF PAUL 1997

FAVORITE SAYINGS OF PAUL       Editor       1997

     (3)

     "Eye Has Not Seen"

     In the first letter to the Corinthians (chapter 2) we read:
Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for those who love Him (Compare Isaiah 64:4).
     Although the reference is not given, there are passages in the Writings which echo this saying:

     [A botanist who went to the other world was allowed to view and examine the flowers in heaven. He said that people on earth would scarcely believe such wonders] because few believe there is any heaven and hell, and they who believe only know that in heaven there is joy, and few among them believe that there are such things as eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, and the mind has never conceived (AC 4529).

     Another passage says that "things are said in heaven such as eye has never seen, nor ear has ever heard" (AC 7381). And we are told, "it is said by those that have been in heaven that they have seen what eye has never seen, and from a perception of Divine things communicated to them by those who are there, that they have heard what ear has never heard" (HH 489).

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CHANGES IN THE CHURCH 1997

CHANGES IN THE CHURCH       Jr. Donald C. Fitzpatrick       1997

Dear Editor:
     Most adults recognize that changes will occur in any living human organization. What is not always recognized, however, is that the way changes are made can have a profound effect on how people feel about them.

     If a change is made after careful weighing of the effects it will have and whether those effects will be useful, the decision as to whether to make the change will have clear reasons supporting it.
     A problem arises, however, if after such careful weighing, the members of the organization are not informed of the reasons underlying the proposed decision. When this happens, even good and useful decisions often do not find support.
     From its beginning, the General Church has held as a principle the idea that government should be exercised with the consent of the governed. In seeking to put this principle into practice, it has adopted the mechanisms of council and assembly in an effort to insure that changes proposed are understood and supported with essential unanimity by its members. Where such essential unanimity has not been found, decisions have been delayed so that further study and discussion could take place.
     I believe that the distress some members of the church feel over changes in patterns of worship and in some of the music used in worship has arisen, in part at least, because the changes have been made without those members having the opportunity to know the reasons for those changes.
     If this is so, a renewed application of principles characteristic of the church since its beginning might help its members come to see the use of such changes and accept them for the good of the organization they love.
     Donald C. Fitzpatrick, Jr.
     Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania

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LIFE IN OUR SOLAR SYSTEM 1997

LIFE IN OUR SOLAR SYSTEM       Karin Childs       1997

Dear Editor:
     I agree with Mr. Steve Koke's opinion that in Earths in the Universe Swedenborg certainly seems to be speaking with spirits who are still connected with inhabited planets. But I have a hard time believing that the Lord would allow Swedenborg to make such a blunder in His Arcana Coelestia as to misidentify planets. I personally believe that Swedenborg is truly and accurately referring to our own moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. If all Swedenborg's encounters were with planets in other solar systems, why wouldn't the Lord have guided him to refer to all of them as "earths in the starry heavens"?
     I imagine that Earths in the Universe is a puzzle for all New Church people-an embarrassing one for some, an intriguing and exciting one for others. Of course, the information in this book is useful knowledge, regardless of how it is literally true. But in this exciting dawning of space exploration, when we are starting to get a closer look at our neighboring planets, it's hard not to wonder how Swedenborg's descriptions of extra-terrestrial people and terrains fit in with the pictures we're receiving back from our space probes.
     I think it's important to remember that when it comes to the realities in God's created universe, there are endless things that we are not yet ready to understand. A look back in history shows many examples of times when the human race was simply not ready to believe in scientific realities that we now take for granted.
     Think back to the era before it was known that our earth is a great big globe. We can chuckle about those long ago who were sure that the earth was flat, but that's what met their eyes! It took a long time for advances in the ability for long voyages finally to provide enough evidence to convince the human race of the true shape of our planet, but all along the world had been round.

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     Think back to early views of our solar system. What met the eyes of those who looked upward were the sun, moon, and stars rising and setting, traveling around them while they stood on their seemingly stationary earth. It took a long time for advances in calculations, observations, and equipment to provide convincing evidence that we were actually whirling around the sun along with several other planets, but all along it was so.
     There are so many things in the physical world which don't appear to our eyes. Over time, as the human race has been ready, methods have been discovered to find the evidence of unseen realities. Microscopes and telescopes have revealed whole new realms to our eyes, but realities like gravity cannot be grasped by our senses, but only by secondary forms of evidence.
     So here we are, launching out into the solar system, and what is meeting our eyes? So far, barren, empty planets, which could not sustain life as we know it. But does that mean that there is no life there?
     Personally, I choose to believe in the possibility of human life elsewhere in our solar system, even on the worlds that we've already had a look at. Life on these worlds could have such a completely different form that we don't have the ability to see evidence of it yet. The people that Swedenborg has described could live in a dimension that we don't yet know how to sense.
     Consider too that while the inhabitants of Earth have relation to "natural and external sense" (EU 122) and therefore to the "corporeal sensual" (EU 148), the inhabitants of Mars have relation to "the medium between the involuntary and the voluntary, consequently to thought from affection, and the best of them to the affection of thought . . . "(EU 88).
     The inhabitants of Mars correspond to "the middle province . . . between the cerebrum and the cerebellum" (EU 88), while the inhabitants of Earth seem to correspond to the skin. (SD 1743, in talking about those who constitute the external skin of the Gorand Human, says that a very large portion of those spirits are from our earth.)

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     Might it not be very hard for a race of people which relates to the corporeal sensual to be aware of a race that relates to the joining of thought and affection? From an external point of view, one can see skin but not an inner part of the brain. HH 209 says that angels in the higher heavens can see inhabitants of the lower heavens. But when the angels of the lower heavens look toward the angels of the higher heavens, they cannot see them. The higher heaven appears to them only as a mist above their heads. Might not the natural world have different levels as well, with the inhabitants of the outer level lacking the ability to see the inhabitants of the deeper levels?
     When a person having a near-death experience is out of his body but has not yet crossed into the spiritual world, where is he? Might he be in a more interior level of the natural world? Such a person can still see his earthly surroundings, though no one can see him. He is much more able to see and communicate with inhabitants of the spiritual world, and to be taken on a trip into the spiritual realm. This seems similar to inhabitants of other planets who are described as having much easier and more regular open contact with the spiritual world than we do.
     As the surface of the planet Mars is being carefully scrutinized by an earth-made machine, all we can do is theorize about how Swedenborg's descriptions of Martian people match up with what we see. But keep in mind that a particular attribute of those in the province of the skin (which Earth people seem to tend toward) is wanting to reason from the senses, apart from perception (see AC 1385, 4046, 6402).
     Maybe contact with other races in our solar system will take an approach of a totally different nature-perhaps an approach in the realm of perception rather than in the realm of sensual evidence.
     Karin Childs
     Rochester, Michigan

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FORBIDDEN TREE 1997

FORBIDDEN TREE       Various       1997

Dear Editor:
     I read Bruce Rogers' article entitled "Eating of the Forbidden Tree" (August issue) with interest and also with some concern. There is no doubt that falsification of the Word from falsities of the intellect and the will is what has precipitated the fall of every church on earth. This is an important teaching, and the warning against such falsities is a point well taken. However, it is also important that these teachings be taken into consideration by each individual of the church for his or her own spiritual enlightenment and rebirth, and not to be used to judge others-especially when these teachings, taken a step too far, can cause harm and unnecessary strife within the church.
     For instance, one particular statement could be misconstrued. On page 361 it is said that falsities from the will can destroy the church and "may arise from a desire for innovation. People who, discontent with traditional interpretations and practices, wish to introduce new interpretations and practices must formulate arguments to justify and defend those innovations . . . . The first Ancient Church in its worship and life was corrupted and degenerated owing largely to the inventions of such innovators." Misconstrued, these words could be used in a very hurtful and unproductive way. A person who interprets this to mean that all those who desire new forms of life, worship, or even government in the church are innovators motivated from falsities of the will is grievously mistaken. For instance, the same argument could have been used to prevent the Academy of the New Church from coming into existence, or New Church education in general, which, in their time, were innovations. Practically everything we do in the church was an innovation at one time or another. The innovations spoken of in the Writings were about turning away from the true God. It is one thing to discuss what songs should be sung, or whether a minister should wear a robe, or even the different roles of men and women in the church, and what form of government best cooperates with the Lord's Divine Providence.

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It is another thing to introduce idolatry or magic into worship-which is the innovation spoken of in connection with the Ancient Church.
     When the Lord came on earth, He challenged the dead traditional mold of those who were asleep to religion, and who had made themselves and others prisoners to the externals of religion. "You have made the Word of God of no effect," He warned them. It also seems from my reading of the Writings that another major reason churches fell was because they lost their soul in worship and the life of religion, focussing purely on the external tradition. That seems to be something of great importance to watch out for. When the Lord began to instruct His disciples about the church they were to continue to set up He warned them of persecutions, and even that the persecutors would believe they were doing God a service. Why would the disciples be persecuted? Certainly not for toeing the traditional line. It was because they challenged it.
     The challenge of every generation in the church is to hold fast to the authority of the Word of God and take diligent care to re-evaluate their understanding of the Word in order that the Divine may continue to live and grow in the minds, hearts, and lives of His children. Questioning, struggling to understand, creating new means of allowing the Divine to be not only understood but worshiped in a living form are all part of this process.
     Bishop de Charms set out a vision for the church in this regard which is as relevant as ever for today's changing world. He said, "The purpose of religion is to bring man's will into harmonious co-operation with the Lord's will. If, then, man is bound by religious conscience to external forms, to modes of procedure or of application, so that from spiritual affection he is induced to cling to them after their real usefulness has passed; or if he is led to insist upon them for all men and for every nation, regardless of differing spiritual states and needs, his will cannot fail to become alienated from the Divine Providence.

471


When this happens, man's religion loses its vital soul and becomes a natural superstition out of touch with genuine truth" (Principles of Government, p. 3). He says, "Each generation should be free to judge and to act in the light of its own day-the light that Divine revelation sheds upon the conditions that exist at any given time" (Ibid., p. 70). This seems to be a healthy attitude toward self-examination, change, and proper innovation in the church. I would hope that in this changing world of ours, this would be the spirit within which we endeavor to follow the Lord's will.
     Rev. Grant R. Schnarr
     Bryn Athyn, PA

Dear Editor:
     I was really struck by the article in the August issue of New Church Life by Bruce Rogers entitled "Eating of the Forbidden Tree." The idea that this organization of the church could "fall," like the many churches before us, is very sobering. Many of us, having grown up with the concept that the New Church is the crown of all churches, often feel a smugness, an unreal security that "our church" is somehow perfect. The belief that "Now it is permitted . . ." often leads us to seek fruit from the forbidden tree and justify it because we think that we, as New Churchmen, have a corner on the "understanding the mysteries of faith" market.
     Modern society has become a scary place for many people, primarily because of the lack of "constants" or "absolutes." Everything, from whether to spank your kids or what sexual orientation you wish to adopt, has become simply a matter of opinion or preference. Where does that leave those of us who want to know and do what is truly right? It leads us to the tree of Life, to the Word, to the New Church.
     The changes many would like to see in the church today represent to me the same type of temptation to eat of the forbidden fruit. We as individuals and as a church can be tempted to skip the work-the study, the prayer, the reflection-and latch onto what "seems" right or "feels" good from our own "experience" or from what is acceptable in today's society, and go with it rather than do the work of trying to understand what the Word is really teaching.

472


It is as if somehow it is OK in the New Church to reason one's own way to the truth. What a big responsibility the stewardship of the New Church is in a world like ours. How easily we could go the way of all the past churches if we are not vigilant.
     To me, the pages of New Church Life over the last several years have clearly reflected the hells tempting us to "make up our own truths." The volleys thrown back and forth from one camp to another further emphasize that the disagreements that have arisen in the church are not primarily about "the issues" but about absolute truth itself. We can't all have it our own way as the world would like us to believe. There is a right and a wrong. Absolutely. And we all know where to find the truth.
     The letter by Bruce Rogers (June issue) and the one by Erik Sandstrom, Sr. (August issue), to name just a few, reassure me that there are many who are doing the work, studying, and seeking the truth for the truth's sake. Let us beware of the spirit of bashing each other with quotes, or using truth as a weapon to defend our own self-interests. As Mr. Rogers says in his article, we must "stop arrogating to ourselves the right to decide for ourselves what is good and true" and affirmatively seek to know what the Word is teaching us about how to live and worship.
     Bonnie Cowley
     Riverdale, Maryland
DEMYSTIFIED 1997

DEMYSTIFIED       Richard Linquist       1997

Dear Editor:
     "Emanuel Swedenborg was a mystic and Swedenborgianism is a cult." This idea may not be slanderous but often is, having shown its haughty face in the past and being likely to do so in the future.

473


My experience has been that those who use this phrase appear to be inflated with the infernal hot air of self-satisfaction that they have understood Swedenborg correctly and are justified in condemning him. An "in-your-face" response, which I have used occasionally is, "I regard Swedenborg as the most rational man who ever lived. As perhaps you may know, the word 'cult' refers to worship. Therefore every religion, a system of religious worship, is a cult, including yours."
     Even the word "mystic" can be used with respect for Swedenborg and the truth of the Writings because of his special relationship to the spiritual world. While living in the natural world, he was conscious in the spiritual world, a realm hidden in mystery to humanity. Although we may refer loosely to him as a mystic, one wonders what he had to do with mysticism, which is defined as " . . . reliance on spiritual intuition or exalted feeling as the means of acquiring knowledge of mysteries inaccessible to intellectual apprehension" (The Oxford English Dictionary). The truth is that Swedenborg entered with understanding into the mysteries of faith. ("In dry Latin he went on listing the unconditional Last Things." So ends Jorge Luis Borges's poem, Emanuel Swedenborg, as I put the last two lines of his poem into one prose sentence.) Not intuitively, that is, having the power of discovering truth without reasoning, but with reason, entering into the mysteries of faith was Swedenborg's style, and is the New Church approach to truth.
     Consider the thoughts of my former neighbor and teacher, Rev. Cairns Henderson. "Swedenborg's other-world experiences have no real resemblance to the visions and ecstacies of other, self-styled seers; nor does he expound, in any accepted sense of the term, a mystical way of life. Nowhere does he claim to have attained communion with God by contemplation; or that he arrived at direct knowledge of God, of spiritual truth, and of ultimate reality by direct insight or intuition. Least of all, perhaps, does he claim to have established a system whereby his followers may arrive at such knowledge by contemplation or any other practice.

474


The testimony always is that he was the instrument of Divine revelation, and that men may be taught by the Lord in that revelation-not that they may attain knowledge or power through any insight they may develop in themselves through mystical exercises" (Selected Editorials, p. 15).
     I hope that those who refer to Swedenborg as a mystic and Swedenborgianism or the New Church as a cult do so with intelligence and good hearts. My own experience is that this attitude is rare. Often the words are uttered with hatred, I believe. Therefore, I see labeling Swedenborgianism a cult a fault, and Swedenborg a mystic a mistake.
     Richard Linquist
     Huntingdon Valley, PA
WOMEN PASTORS 1997

WOMEN PASTORS       John Raymond       1997

Dear Editor:
     In the July issue of New Church Life, under the heading "Women Priests," Rev. N. Bruce Rogers cites Arcana Coelestia 10789ff as constituting "the fundamental statement regarding the office of priests." Without slighting the importance of these numbers, I would note that there are others dealing with the priestly office that are, I believe, equally "fundamental."
     To start with, the word "priest" is not the only one used in the Writings concerning the priestly office. The words "minister" and "shepherd" (Latin pastor) are also used. For example, we find under the word "shepherd" in Potts' Concordance much of what is said in AC 10789ff, but without the emphasis on governance, and so far as I can tell, without using the word Mr. Rogers translates as "prefect."
     I suggest that the concept of the priest as a shepherd is at least as "fundamental" to understanding the priestly office as is the concept of the priest as a prefect (or overseer); indeed, more so.

475


The General Church does not, after all, distinguish its priests into sub-prefects, prefects and arch-prefects; rather, it distinguishes them as ministers, pastors and bishops.
     Now if, as Mr. Rogers maintains, "nurturing" is not the peculiar office of the prefect priest, "pasturing" is most certainly a peculiar office of the shepherd (or pastor) priest. And while "pasturing," the Writings say, does mean "to teach truths and by means of them lead to the good of life," it suggests, as AC 10789ff does not, the breadth of means by which this teaching and leading is to be accomplished. For the shepherd priest does not merely preach, instruct and govern. The shepherd priest nurtures the flock, tenderly cares for it, binds up its wounds, and inspires it by example and through manifest love, not just of the truth but of the sheep, that is, people. In so doing, such a priest takes as a model the Good Shepherd, the Shepherd so beautifully depicted in the twenty-third Psalm and in the Gospel of John-the Lord Himself.
     Finally, with regard to women in the office of priests, if AC 10789ff leads some members of the clergy to conclude that feminine qualities and abilities (as embodied in actual women) have no place in the priestly office, I submit that reflection on what the Writings teach about the shepherding function of priests might suggest a different conclusion.
     For instance, I am fascinated by what the Writings say about Rachel. Genesis 29 tells us that Rachel was a shepherdess. The exposition of this in AC 3795 tells us that a shepherd, or one who feeds the flock, signifies one who leads and teaches. As a woman, Rachel signifies the affection for interior truth. Does this passage have any bearing on the question of whether or not a woman today can be a shepherd? a leader and teacher? a shepherd (pastor) priest?
     For myself, I am not clear about what the Writings teach concerning gender and the priesthood or if, indeed, they definitively teach anything at all on the subject.

476


I do know that there is a cry rising from some women in the General Church and that the church, and especially its priests, must try to answer this cry with truth: truth that is untainted by personal preference or prejudice or mere tradition. Priesthood and laity alike must strive to enter more interiorly into the arcana of faith in this matter, seeking wisdom that is truly perceptive. Let our prayer be this, in words of the twenty-fifth Psalm: "Show me Thy ways, O Lord; teach me Thy paths. Lead me in Thy truth and teach me: for Thou art the God of my salvation; on Thee do I wait all the day."
     John Raymond
     Toronto, Ontario, Canada
ANTICIPATED BOOK 1997

ANTICIPATED BOOK       Karin Childs       1997

Dear Editor:
     True Christian Religion is a wonderful book, filled not only with truth but with vivid stories, comparisons, and descriptions to illustrate that truth. I love stories, and I find the truth revealed in the Writings, particularly concerning the reality and influence of the spiritual world, to be very exciting. So when I began to take courses on writing children's literature several years ago, I hoped to some day weave truth that I've learned from the Writings into intriguing stories for young people.
The Temple of Wisdom is a book that I have now completed, with the help of teachers at the Institute of Children's Literature in Connecticut and the advice of others, both in the New Church and outside of it. It is a medieval quest fantasy, woven around a striking image in TCR 387 of the heavenly Temple of Wisdom. The story also includes other scenes inspired by Swedenborg's descriptions in TCR. My husband Jon and I have started Foundation Publishing in order to self-publish the book, and it is now available for sale. Please see the ad elsewhere in this publication for more information.
     Karin Childs
     Rochester, MI

477


Temple of Wisdom 1997

Temple of Wisdom       Karin Alpelt Childs       1997




     Announcements





     The journey of two young princes as they search for a scepter, said to be found at the mysterious Temple of Wisdom. Includes scenes inspired from descriptions in True Christian Religion.
     "This is one of those books that you don't want to have end. You are drawn into the story and live with the characters." Carol Buss, Assistant Director of Education, Bryn Athyn.
     Available late October, 1997. An exciting read best geared fro ages 12 and up, but can be enjoyed by younger children as a read aloud. Order a copy ahead of time by sending $5.95 plus shipping and packaging (U.S. $2.25; Canada, $2.50; overseas, $3.00; U.S. funds please) to: FOUNTAIN PUBLISHING, P.O. BOX 80011, ROCHESTER, MI 48308-0011. Make checks payable to Fountain Publishing.

480


AND THE WORLD DID NOT KNOW HIM 1997

AND THE WORLD DID NOT KNOW HIM       Donald L. Rose       1997

     In the history of Christianity the generation least capable of realizing the identity of Jesus was the one that lived when He was on earth. Those people walked and talked with Him as a man of flesh and blood. Yet the actual words of the Gospels with the wonder that is in them have stood the centuries, and history still bears out what is said in Isaiah: "the Word of our God shall stand for ever."
     This booklet presents a sweeping glance at the public ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ, looking for a significance in the sequence of words and works.
     Revised and reprinted in 1997 with the same striking illustrations by former Disney artist Kenneth Hultgren, this wonderful treatment of the New Testament is once again available for our review or as introductory material.
     
Price U.S. $2.85 plus postage U.S. $1.25

General Church Book Center
Cairncrest
Box 743
Bryn Athyn, PA 19009

Hours: Mon-Fri 9-12
Or by appointment
Phone: (215) 914-4920
Fax: (215) 914-4935

481


Notes on This Issue 1997

Notes on This Issue              1997



New Church Life 1997

November

482


     Rev. Kenneth Alden (pastor in Colchester, England) writes about the very human experience of making excuses. "The totally irrational thing about our making excuses not to follow the Lord is that He is only trying to lead us to eternal happiness."
     As the General Church is now a hundred years old, the Bishop takes the opportunity to reflect with thankfulness on the remarkable nature of this organization.
     Every single school in the General Church has increased enrollments this year, and that includes the Academy, Bryn Athyn College and the Theological School (see page 514). We hasten to add that most of the increases are small, and that in some cases the enrollment is actually lower than it was some years ago. Nevertheless, it is a pleasure to report 1167 students in our schools.
     Who are the people currently involved in teaching in our schools? There are 75 ladies and 27 gentlemen named in the directory in this issue. (For names of Academy teachers, consult the Academy Journal.)
     The article by Eva Lexie was ready for print more than a month ago, and it predates the article by the Bishop concluded in our last issue. It was in order to print it all in one issue that we delayed it until this month.
     We thank Mr. Nagashima for his article on obedience coming from the perspective of someone with Jesuit training. This kind of article helps us all to enlarge our perspectives.
     Dr. Wilson Van Dusen reviews for us a booklet by Basil Lazer. "I found this collection so useful I read it twice" (p. 509).
     Carl Linnaeus received attention in life Magazine recently, but the picture they have is of another eminent Swede! Coincidentally, a study by Lars Berquist on Swedenborg and Linnaeus has recently been published. See page 523.

483


MAKING EXCUSES 1997

MAKING EXCUSES       Rev. KENNETH J. ALDEN       1997

"If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple" (Luke 14:26, 27).

     The conditions which the Lord seems to be demanding of those who would be His disciples are at best severe. How can the Lord expect to have any disciples if He requires them to hate their families, wives, and even their own lives? If these demands were made by any earthly leader, we would account him as a hardened, compassionless tyrant. We would find it difficult to imagine such a leader to be a Christian, for Christ said that we should love those who hate us (see Matt. 5:43, 44, AC 10490, AE 724:5). Nor would we account someone as a gracious host who became angry if we begged to be excused from a great banquet because we had married, or bought a piece of ground, or wanted to test some oxen (see Luke 14:18-20). Even the ancient laws of Moses allowed people who had recently married or planted a vineyard or built a house to be excused from going to battle for up to a year (see Deut. 20:5-8, 24:5). But when the Lord was on earth He sometimes said things which make Him seem to be without human feeling, as when He said, "Let the dead bury their own dead . . ." to the man who wanted to bury his father first before following the Lord (Luke 9:60, Matt. 8:22). Could it be that the Lord's New Testament law is less caring than the law of Moses?
     In spite of the doubts that may arise from reading such harsh-sounding passages as the ones we are considering, we know that the Lord is Mercy itself. We know that whatever appearance of coldness there is in the Lord's description of what it is to be a disciple, the Lord tells us these things out of mercy and a deep desire to have us close to Him as true disciples. We know also that He is the Author of the law of Moses as well as the New Testament law. Within each is expressed the same kind of degree of love for us all.

484


A closer examination of these laws will show that internally they are equally filled with mercy.
     Even in the literal sense we can see that there is considerable difference between the compassion of the Old Testament law which allowed exemption from military service, and the Lord's parable about the excuses given for not attending the great supper. To begin with, the one excused people from military service because they ran the risk of death, while the other did not involve any threat to life at all. To be invited to a great banquet was just the converse-a life-promoting experience.
     In the internal senses of these two laws there is an equal difference. The exemption from battle which was allowed to those who had not dedicated their homes, who had not gathered the fruit of a newly planted vineyard, or who had not taken a betrothed wife and spent a year at home, describes an exemption from spiritual warfare for those who have not yet had the church implanted in them. Such would not be able to prevail over their spiritual enemies since truth has not yet been conjoined to good in them (see AE 734:12, 13). So the potential soldiers are encouraged to return home and to do those things which represent having the church established in them, and conjoining good with truth in them lest they die. Clearly this is a law of the Lord's mercy for our salvation. In the parable, however, those who wish to be excused from the great supper represent people who do not wish to receive and appropriate to themselves the good and truth of heaven and be consociated with those there (see AE 548:5, 6175, 252:2). These refuse to do what those excused from spiritual military service were excused to do: establish the church in themselves and conjoin truth with good.
     There is another difference between the law of exemption from military service and the parable of those who wished to be excused from the banquet. In the one, the Lord commanded that those who had not dedicated their house, gathered their grapes, or taken their betrothed wives be excused. In the other, the people who wanted to see their field, test their oxen, and be with their new wives refused to come, and asked to be excused, or simply gave their excuse.

485


In the one, those who were to be excused by their officers were to be excused for good reasons-spiritually, so that they could have the church established in them and not suffer spiritual death (see AE 734:12, 919e). Adequate preparations are necessary for spiritual battle and are granted by the Lord (see AC 4599:5). But in the other, those who made excuses for themselves represent people who make excuses for why they do not wish to accept the Lord's invitation to heaven. The things which they would rather do instead stand for the goods of the world and external goods withdrawn from internal goods which people prefer to things which are internally satisfying (see AE 1162). They stand for affections and desires which lead away from heaven (see AE 548:5). At the time when the Lord spoke the parable, the people who would rather tend to their land, oxen, and wives pictured the Jews who were not interested in acknowledging a heavenly King (see AC 4314:2, HH 365:2). If we, like the Jews, think that we want the Messiah for our king, and His kingdom for our paradise, but make excuses when He comes and invites us, then we might apply to ourselves the teaching of the Writings which says that "to will and not to do when one is able is not to will . . . " (HH 475).
     Worldly and selfish things are the ones which we put first when we make excuses for not following the Lord. Because we inherit from our parents inclinations to evils of every kind, "father" and "mother" in a negative sense represent evil and falsity and also the love of self and of the world (see AC 3703:20 and 6138:2, AE 724:5). "One's own life," too, stands for the life of the love into which a person is born, which is opposite to the life the Lord wills to give him; and all one's relatives and one's spouse in a negative sense represent all the evils and falsities related to that love (see AE 7245, AC 10490:6, 7). For this reason the Lord phrased the requirements of being a disciple in terms of hating one's father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even one's own life (see Luke 14:26).

486


If we are going to stop making excuses and come to follow the Lord and accept His invitation to heaven, we need to come to hate the selfish and worldly things which presently attract us more.
     While it may seem impossible to come to hate those distractions from heaven which we now love, the Writings hold out great hope that it is possible to come into such a state. We read: "A man who is being regenerated is at last so far reduced by repeated alternations of desolation and sustenance that he no longer wills to be his own but the Lord's; and when he has become the Lord's he comes into a state of such a nature that when he is left to self he grieves and is seized with anxiety; and when he is delivered from this state of self he returns into his happiness and bliss. In such a state are all the angels" (AC 6138).
     The Lord has brought countless people with hereditary inclinations and distracting environments just like ours into such angelic happiness. But the means of getting there appear painful and life-threatening. We must undergo temptations, which are attacks upon the life of our heavenly loves and which are the means for the death of our worldly and selfish loves. These are pictured by the cross which the Lord said that we must bear if we are to become His disciples (see AR 639, AC 10490:7, 8159:4, 4599:5, AE 893:3). While we are becoming spiritual, evils and falsities will infest and torment us. They can be dispersed only by temptations (see AE 893:3). Temptations exist when those who have faith in the Lord and who live according to His commandments drive away the evil spirits who are with them and who act as one with their lusts (see AR 639). In this way is a person prepared for heaven and for being a disciple of the Lord (see AC 8159:4).
     To be disciples of the Lord we will need to hate the things related to self and the world, and to take up our cross and come after the Lord. Making excuses as to why we cannot come, or why we must put it off until later, have no part in this.

487


The Writings teach: "In order that He may make a man blessed and happy, the Lord wills a total submission, that is, that he be not partly his own and partly the Lord's, for then there are two lords, which no one can serve at the same time (Matt. 6:24)" (AC 6138:2). "To be a disciple of the Lord is to be led by Him and not by self, thus by the goods and truths which are from the Lord and not by the evils and falsities which are from man" (AC 10490:7).
     In spite of all that we know of what we ought to do because it is best for us and others to eternity, we find it very easy to make excuses for why we cannot follow the Lord, or why we must put it off for later. The Lord tells us to lay up treasures in heaven, but we put that off with the excuse that we cannot begin doing that until we have nice enough material advantages for ourselves and our family. The Lord tells us to shun our self-centeredness and seek the wisdom to be genuinely useful to our neighbor, but we insist that we must antagonize or carry out intrigues against those who seem to stand in our way, with the excuse that we cannot be charitable to others with them in the way. Fleeting pleasures and experiences seem more pressing than exploring new spiritual heights. Expressing anger seems more urgent than looking for a common ground of charity. Impatience takes precedence over looking for eternal ends. As long as we continue to fail to follow the Lord, our will to do so is not true will. "To love and not to do good when one is able is not to love . . . ; it is only to think that one wills and loves, and . . . is thought separated, which vanishes away and is dissipated" (HH 475).
     There is no end to the excuses and rationalizations which we can come up with to avoid following the Lord to an eternal home in heaven. Until we are willing to accept the hardship of temptations, and to hate the loves into which we were born, we will find ourselves continually raising up a shield of false thinking to protect and excuse the selfish and worldly things which we put first. The arrows of truth about the value of the Lord's way will not be able to remove the evils we shelter.

488


The totally irrational thing about our making excuses not to follow the Lord is that He is only trying to lead us to eternal happiness. The hardship of temptation which we must face along the way is but a temporary thing. Nor will the Lord require us to face more of this than we are able to bear. For the Lord excuses from spiritual battle those who have a spiritual home to dedicate, a spiritual grape harvest to gather, or a spiritual marriage to consummate. He knows that we must be strengthened in our love of heavenly things and knowledge of interior truth before we can conquer in temptation and be fully confirmed in heavenly life (see AC 4599:5, AE 734:12, 919e). But to make excuses for ourselves so that we avoid even becoming ready to endure temptation will only thwart the Lord's desire to provide a place in heaven for us.
     So let us avoid willing to come to heaven without doing what the Lord says we must to follow Him. Let us be willing to do His commandments. Let us be willing to hate the spiritual family of evils into which we were born and which we incline to propagate. Let us not make excuses for why we cannot learn of the Lord and follow Him. Let us look for reasons why we should, and can and will respond to the Lord's compassion when He says, "If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple." Amen.

Lessons: Luke 14:15-27, Deut 20:1-9, AC 6138

From AC 6138: Men are nothing else than forms receptive of life from the Lord, and these forms are such by inheritance and by actual life that they refuse to admit the spiritual life which is from the Lord. But when these receptacles have been so far renounced that they no longer have any freedom from man's own, there is total submission. A man who is being regenerated is at last so far reduced by repeated alternations of desolation and sustenance that he no longer wills to be his own but the Lord's.

489


OBEDIENCE TO THE WORD 1997

OBEDIENCE TO THE WORD       Tatsuya Nagashima       1997

1. Obedience: An Unpopular Word

     Nobody is comfortable when someone says, "He is a commander," or "She is obedient." In the present age two such words as "command" and "obey" have become more unpopular than ever.
     The Catholic papacy was once protected by the sacred obedience of the religious people who vowed it before God. In the late 1950s when the Tridentine Epoch of papal infallibility almost came to an end, the adamant rule of "obedience" prescribed by Loyola became somehow unpopular, even among the Jesuits. In my early twenties, after two years as a novitiate of the Jesuit Society, I vowed "obedience" preceded by two other things: "poverty" and "chastity," but four years later I was legitimately dismissed from the vows. Looking back over the sixty-odd years of my life, I am surprised that perhaps I learned something that can never be learned in later years: obedience.
     Readers might be guessing that in the name of "sacred obedience" I possibly learned how to blindly conform to a human authority rather than to the Lord's. But nobody can learn obedience to the Lord without first learning obedience to a human authority. Who can learn how to subordinate himself to the Divine commandments and providential dispensations without first learning how to submit to parents, teachers, and other human authorities? We know that human authorities all originate from the Lord's authority (see John 19:11, Rom. 13:1); although it is not clear how the human authorities represent the Divine authority, it is clear that they do.
     It seems that there are two levels of obedience. One is obedience from conscientious obligation, whereas the other is obedience from spontaneous affection of love. In the Writings "obedience" is often used for the former: "They who from obedience do good are natural, whereas they who do it from affection are spiritual.

490


Those who do good from obedience are those who are reformed . . . whereas they who do it from affection are regenerated" (Char. 210:2).
     This obligatory obedience, as it were, easily turns into disobedience. I have seen quite a few who recanted their Christian faith because they ceased to trust and obey providential dispensations. They ask, "How can a loving God, if any, let that happen?" Owing to an inner disobedience, their apparent faithfulness turned into atheistic nihilism. Disbelief is a sort of disobedience to the Word of God.
     One errs, however, if he thinks that obedience is only a blind acceptance of something unknown. One often obeys without knowing in detail why. But he can presume that such-and-such command or advice comes from a higher level of wisdom beyond his means. So his obedience may come from respect, trust and love for the authority, more so if the Divine one.

2.     Angelic Obedience

     We may call the above an angelic obedience. We read: " . . . in the Lord's kingdom or heaven, they who are the greatest (i.e., they who are inmost) are servants more than others, because they are in the greatest obedience, and in deeper humiliation than the rest" (AC 5164:2, emphasis added).
     Obedience and humility go hand in hand. Obedience is not always a sign of humility, but only a humble man can really obey. Humility comes from understanding of oneself, while obedience comes from voluntary action of humility.
     The Lord says, "Whosoever would be great among you shall be your minister; and whosoever would be first of you shall be servant of all" (Mark 10:44, Matt. 20:26, 7). In His earthly life the Lord repeatedly declared that He does His Father's will (see John 4:34, 6:38, 39, Matt. 26:39, etc.). Obedience is a readiness to do another's will, or willing subjection to a higher authority. The Lord obeyed the Divine will represented by the "Father."

491


The apostle Paul wrote: "The Lord humbled Himself and became obedient even to the death of the cross" (Phil. 2:8). For a modern man it is almost impossible to believe that the Lord obeyed the unjust death penalty.
     Swedenborg obeyed the Lord's call. He was commanded by the Lord to write (see Letter to the King, May 25, 1770), and he obeyed by committing the whole latter half of his life. No doubt the Lord's obedience came from His highest wisdom, and Swedenborg's obedience came from his wisest subjection to the Divine will.

3. The Identity of the General Church

     A habit of obedience acquired from Jesuit training helped me to join the New Church. Soon after I knew that the Writings were revealed truths, I was not able to wait. Obedience in my understanding required in me an immediate response in action. I joined the General Church. I thought that the General Church unconditionally obeys the authority of the Divine Word. This church has been uncompromising in this point, even when it was wrongly criticized by outsiders. My lingering on a choice between the General Church and the Convention churches stopped when I was reading M. Block's book. She wrote: "The Academy took the whole miserable affair calmly, as they felt they had nothing to fear. But the Convention seems to have been in a state of panic bordering on hysteria" (The New Church in the New World, Swedenborg Publishing Association, 1984, p. 255). The reference is to the "Conjugial Love" issue earlier this century. Who is afraid if he is obedient to the Lord's Word? A Bosnian proverb says, "Who fears God fears nobody else." This fearless and calm conviction can be obtained only through one's obedience to the Lord. It is not a blind conformity, but a total, and sometimes life-staking, reliance on the Divine wisdom.
     No matter how subservient it may seem to be, obedience is the life of religion. Where there is a commandment, there is obedience.

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The Writings state that "all doctrine is founded upon two commandments" (AC 3773). Obedience is a simple start for all religious life in the New Church.

4.     The Catholics vs. the New Church

     The Writings state that Catholics are more easily led to the New Church than Protestants, because faith alone doesn't exist with them; their devout veneration of the Host protects the Divinity of the Lord's Humanity, and they hold repentance, reformation and charity to be essentials of salvation (see Brief Exposition 108). "These are three reasons why the Roman Catholics . . . may more easily than the Reformed receive a living faith . . . and be conducted by angels from the Lord to the gates of the New Jerusalem or the New Church, and be introduced therein with joy and shouting" (ibid.).
     Catholics in general are practically trained in kneeling down in various devotions. They spend more time praying and meditating before the altar, where they believe the incarnate and glorified Lord dwells in the host. Their belief in the Divine Human is that He lives in the host as He is. The late Mother Teresa repeatedly said that all her power came from the Holy Communion with Him while attending the daily mass. The communications with the living Lord through the Word and images in devotional practices are sacramental. Veneration of Mother Mary helps them to think about the Lord's natural humanity. Mary's obedience to the Divine call, shown by her immediate response to the angel Gabriel, is the greatest model of obedience. Catholics, owing to their Mariology and holy sacraments, retain the daily-life religiosity in repentance, reformation and good works. They keep in mind the visioned examples of the Lord, Mary and a hundred saints in terms of naturally comprehensible imageries.
     The natural sense of the Word is the basis of its spiritual sense, and therein the Divine Truth is in its fullness, holiness and power; and the doctrine of the church is to be drawn therefrom and confirmed thereby so that conjunction with the Lord and association with the angels are given to man (see SS 27, 37, 150, 62).

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If so, the natural sense of the Word is an indispensable foundation of the whole process of regeneration.
     " . . . [M]an is reformed and regenerated and is at the same time taken out of hell and introduced into heaven by means of truths from the sense of the letter of the Word" (SS 49, emphasis added). Insofar as the natural understanding of the Word is firm, the knowledge of the internal sense can also be active; but if it is not so much, all the knowledges of the internal sense might end in fruitlessness.

5.     The New Jerusalem: the Lord's Bride

     The spiritual sense of the Word is for the spiritual angels, and the celestial sense of the Word is for the celestial angels. The practical teaching of simple obedience might be a shortcut for regeneration on earth. When we become angels some day in heaven, we will much more easily see the internal meaning of the Word. But insofar as we are not yet fully reformed and regenerated on earth, the internal sense of the Word is just kept in the natural memory, and we can never see through the Word from a higher wisdom.
     We need more practical communications with the Divine Natural of the Lord. These communications are given through daily practices. Practice is nothing but habituation. We do practices by reading, praying, singing, meditating and day-to-day devotions. In order to become the Lord's bride, the New Jerusalem Church on earth, we are now to be prepared for clothing ourselves with our Holy Husband's Divine Natural, and we will be an obedient bride to the Lord.

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PARADIGM SHIFT AND THE ISSUE OF WOMEN IN THE CLERGY 1997

PARADIGM SHIFT AND THE ISSUE OF WOMEN IN THE CLERGY       EVA SANDSTROM LEXIE       1997

     I have read Vera Goodenough Dyck's original paper entitled "Paradigm Shift and the Issue of Women in the Clergy" in its entirety at least five times. I found it thought-provoking and fascinating. Each time I have wanted to respond, and each time I have decided that I had better go back and study the Writings some more. I have also re-read most of the other papers to which she makes references. For this challenge and incentive I thank her! Having still failed to study "enough," it is time to take the plunge.
     There are several points on which I agree with Vera. Primary among these are the following:

1)     No individual can ever claim to have a complete and perfect understanding of the Word.

2)     It is the way we live the truth we know, more than the intellectual purity of that truth, that establishes the church in an individual. [This, however, does not negate the statement that it is "the integrity and purity of its doctrine, thus the understanding of the Word" that establishes the collective church. Both statements are supported by TCR 245. It also does not negate the fact that the quality of that church in the individual is greatly affected by the quality of the guiding truth. "Such as is the quality of the truth, such becomes the good" (AC 6916). Only truth can challenge the inborn tendency to evil.]

3)     We need a continuing real dialogue about all the issues relating to women's roles in the church, and it is possible to progress beyond the traditions of the past without disrespecting them.

4)     We as members of the General Church often tend to be too dependent on the priesthood to tell us what the Word says, instead of reading it for ourselves.

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[In my own view, we are particularly overdependent in the area of "application" of doctrine. Priests who have dedicated their lives to studying the threefold Word certainly can tell us a great deal about what they have found there and how they see it all fitting together. We shouldn't, however, rely heavily on them to tell us how to use this information in our personal lives. That is the work each of us needs to do to establish the church in him/herself. The collective life of the church organization is a different matter; there priestly government applies.]

5)     We cannot expect total unanimity in the church organization on the subject of women's roles (or almost any other subject!).

6)     People's feelings about this subject need to be recognized and acknowledged as such, but should not in themselves serve as the basis of church policy.

     Having said this, I do take issue with many of Vera's ideas, and have questions about others. I would like to address several of her points. My references are to her original 29-page document, not to the condensed version published in New Church Life; I hope this will not confuse readers.
      Vera begins by talking about the distinction in our organization, as in other church organizations, between "conservatives" (those who believe that the words of a sacred text, pope, or council are the exclusive source of religious authority and can be properly understood in only one way) and "liberals" (those who believe that the words of the text, pope or council interface with the experience of individuals striving to find relevance in them, and are therefore interpreted in a variety of legitimate ways). Her plea is that we learn to accept differences of interpretation and the possibility of more than one right answer, in the absence of any "direct teachings" to settle the issue.

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In fact, if I were to condense her entire paper into five words, they would be these: "Dear conservatives, please become liberals!"
     I think there is a vast difference between saying "I can know all the right answers with perfect certainty" and saying "There is such a thing as Absolute Truth, and it is perfect, and has one right answer for every situation. I will try to see it more and more clearly for the rest of eternity." The fact that no individual can have the complete picture does not necessarily mean that we as an organization should have no position on difficult issues. Like the laws of a nation, the doctrines of a church give it structure and order, and should as much as possible reflect the Divine Law. In my opinion, when it is not clear how to interpret the Divine Law, the policies should reflect the "common conscience" of the members or citizens as much as possible.
     A "common conscience" is not the same thing as unanimity. Nor is it the same thing as a majority vote, because for any given issue, a great many people in the church will not really have a strong, informed opinion. It is not necessarily an easy thing to find, and the church may progress toward it in stages. It won't ever make everybody completely happy, but it should provide a general sense of rightness and order and peace. It should never overrule the individual's right to disagree and think independently, but it shouldn't allow that right to cause severe and long-term disturbance for the church as a whole.
     I see the purpose of a continuing dialogue as an effort to approach a common conscience. I am wondering what Vera sees as the purpose of dialogue. She names three options for the church: 1) work for unanimity (which she feels is not worth waiting for), or 2) squeeze some people out of the church by intolerance of their views, or 3) keep talking, but accept that we don't agree and adapt our structure to accommodate differences of opinion (p. 1). I have a very hard time picturing how the third option would work. If we adapt our structure so that those who want women priests can have them, and those who don't do not have to, how will that affect those who hold the opinion that a female priesthood is disorderly and detrimental to the happiness the Lord intended for us?

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While some people may feel that an all-male priesthood is disorderly and detrimental to our happiness, it does not strike me as an improvement to shift their distress to a different group of people. Keep talking? Yes! But to what end?
     Vera places strong emphasis on the difference between "direct teachings" and "derived doctrine." She warns that we may be placing too much authority in derived doctrines, which "cannot be universally, infallibly true in the way that directly stated doctrines are" (p. 3). This is a problematic subject, because even the most direct statements, read from the original Latin without the interference of a translator, are subject to differences of interpretation. Vera's argument seems to be that if you can't back up your doctrinal view with a specific, clear supporting quote that says you are right, then you are no more right than anyone else. In such circumstances, should we always welcome and celebrate a variety of opinions?
     Consider the following statements:
          "Men should not beat their wives."
          "Child pornography is evil."
          "People should not be used as slave laborers."
          "Coming to church without clothes on in Western culture is not advisable."
      Are there specific, clear quotes from the Writings which say these things? If there are not, does that mean our church should take no position with regard to these issues? Are all opinions about them equally valid?
     Here are some specific, clear quotes from the Writings on some other subjects:
     
With respect to the employment of the female, it . . . has to do with things that are works of the hands and are called sewing, needlework, and other names, which serve for decoration, for her personal adornment, and for enhancing her beauty.

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Also . . . with various tasks called domestic (CL 91).

It is known to spirits and angels that there are inhabitants even in the Moon, and likewise in the moons or satellites . . . about . . . Jupiter and . . . Saturn . . . . [W]here there is an earth, there is man; for man is the end for the sake of which an earth exists . . . (EU 112).

Eating the flesh of animals, regarded in itself, is . . . profane . . . (AC 1002).

Are we unanimous in our understanding of these direct statements?
      I contend that any real faith must be formed by linking many different teachings into a cohesive network, and that "deriving" doctrine is what we are supposed to do. Care should be taken to bring in as many teachings as possible, and to work from a sincere openness to the truth. It should be a lifelong process, and subject to revision as new truths are seen, but there should be the ability to commit to a certain way of understanding things in order to move forward.
     Vera points out (pp. 10, 11) that among ministers who have studied the issue of women and the priesthood, there are differences of understanding. I have read the studies upon which she is focussing, and I feel that to some extent these men's ideas are (unintentionally) misrepresented in her paper. I do see disagreement among them; at times it is a matter of different focus and emphasis rather than direct conflict. I can't speak for what the men intended, but in some cases their ideas are reconcilable if you assume that sometimes they use "the Lord" to refer to the Divine Essence itself (God Invisible), and other times to the Human which appeared to men (God Visible), with the Divine Essence being above gender, but the manifestation being always male. One man emphasizes the priest's love, which is on a higher plane; another emphasizes the truth which serves it on a lower plane. None of them say that women can't serve the church or be recognized for their service. Mr. Cole says that we should not create an official ordained position for women, and call it "ministry," and that we should not offer women some lesser role as a way to escape facing the issues involved.

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I do not see this as really conflicting with the views expressed by Mr. Buss.
     However, we all know that ministers do not always agree; why should these be any different? If ministers never disagreed on the interpretation of teachings they would be inhuman, and our freedom to find our own understanding would be severely jeopardized. The disagreement may give the appearance that they are all scrambling to find their own reasons for a preconceived conclusion, but that is not necessarily the case. It is true that our priests are only fallible humans doing a special job, but it does not follow that it would make no difference if they were female.
     I can't help feeling that the problem of "representation" is a major stumbling block in this whole discussion. I freely admit that I have not done an intensive study of the use of the priesthood, and I think more understanding of this question is crucial to the issue of women and the priesthood. However, my current understanding is this: The purpose of the priesthood is not primarily to represent the Lord. The purpose of the priesthood is to teach the truth (cause), and lead by it to good in life (effect), driven by a love for the salvation of souls (end). The representation of the Lord "comes with the office," not the man, and would be attached to anyone who legitimately served as a priest.
     There has been a great deal of discussion as to whether a woman can represent the Lord. In the way that Vera uses the word "represent," she certainly can. Surely we all have known women who have given us a special glimpse of the Lord's truth or a sense of the Lord's love, who have helped us in our connection with Him. That doesn't mean that women should be priests. Vera quotes a minister on the subject of women representing the Lord: "The Lord is represented in the Word by pillars of fire and cloud, by a burning bush, by a lion, a lamb, a dove-inanimate objects and mute beasts! Surely something as lofty as a woman ought to be able to do the trick!" (p. 23).

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That's right! But how many of the representatives listed should we ordain into the priesthood?
     I think that another stumbling block comes from separating the two halves of the sentence "teach the truth, and lead to the good of life" when describing the work of the priesthood. This has been clearly expressed by other writers in New Church Life (see, for example, the letters from Rev. N. Bruce Rogers and Mr. Joseph S. David in the July 1997 issue, pp. 327-30). As they point out, the leading of the priesthood is to be by means of the truth found in the Word. Other people can, and do, lead to good in other ways; some of these ways are especially suited to the talents of women. I think the desire to have women priests is very much related to the desire to have priests apply doctrine for us in our daily lives. As stated above, in my opinion that is the job of every lay person to do for him/herself, with as much support from others (female or male) as desired, but without any need for an ordained person to drive the process.
     Vera would like us to drop the stereotypes and restrictions, let people follow their loves and answer whatever inner calling they feel, and trust that men will do so in masculine ways and women in feminine ways. She would like us to provide the opportunities and "see what happens." She would like us to be open to a completely different kind of "ministering" from that which our priests now provide. Stereotypes can indeed be damaging, and restrictions are good only when they are founded on true order. Letting people follow their loves and answer their inner calling is what the freedom to live life is all about, although freedom without the guidance of reason is counterproductive. Often, when women feel that they cannot do what they love, I am left genuinely puzzled as to what is stopping them. When Otho Heilman wanted to evangelize, he didn't wait for the church to train him and pay him; he did what he loved-with wonderful results. We all know people who have a gift for focussing our attention on what is important, for helping us through our problems, for seeing an applicable truth or giving an uplifting touch of kindness.

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They don't wait for the church to train them and pay them; they do what they love- with wonderful results! This completely different kind of "ministering" happens to us every day.
     Building an organizational structure which just lets people do what they feel suits them best, and pays them to do it, may be appealing in theory. However, like utopian communism, it doesn't work very well with unregenerate, selfish human beings. The trouble with trying something and "seeing what happens" is that it's hard to undo it if "what happens" turns out badly. Vera quotes AC 2679 to show that people who are being reformed "wander into this position and then into that, both in doctrine and in life," often misled by their affections, but that even these mostly erroneous ideas can serve to promote growth (see pp. 11, 13). She understands this to mean that we are all influenced by our culture, experiences, and loves, and that it's not so important to have the truth exactly right, but to try to live by whatever partial truth we have. I can see how this interpretation might encourage a "see what happens" approach. Further reading of this Arcana number, though, reveals that it describes the early stages of reformation, and that we are supposed to progress beyond it. While the Lord can work wonders with our limited states, He wants us to learn to reason and plan about what is best, in the light of the Word. He wants our charity to take on new, deeper qualities from the truths we gather. Obviously, no matter how much we learn, reason and plan, life always holds an element of "see what happens." But we are supposed to "enter with understanding," to do our best to find the wisest course. I don't think we can escape the need to work toward an understanding of women's roles in the church, and the need to search for the Lord's will in this regard. I would rather not "see what happens" until we have done that as a church community.

502



     There has been considerable discussion in our church of another aspect of gender issues, with several people propounding the view that the Divine is both male and female. They support this idea with talk about the Divine marriage of good and truth. Vera points out that SS 67 says that celestial angels understand the commandment to "honor your father and mother" to mean honoring the Divine Good as Father and the Divine Truth as Mother (p. 22). But the fact that there is a correspondence between father/mother and Divine Good/Divine Truth does not necessarily make the Divine Good masculine and the Divine Truth feminine. Lions represent the Divine Truth as to power (see AR 241 et al), but that does not make the Divine Truth feline. As I understand it, the marriage of masculine and feminine on the plane of the animal kingdom corresponds to a different kind of union in the Lord. I recommend Stephen Cole's discussion of "The Relation of Gender to Marriage" in his paper for the Council of the Clergy ("Reasons for Ordaining Women?", pp. 1-3) as very enlightening in this regard. Since I am allowed to express my "feeling" as well as my understanding about this subject, I will add that I find the concept of masculine and feminine together in God, or in the different aspects of ourselves as individuals, completely repugnant! I can think of the Divine as "more" than masculine and feminine, but not as "both."
     Like Vera, I enjoyed the wall-climbing analogy used by Erik Buss to illustrate how men and women cooperate. The man boosts the woman up on the wall, and the woman then reaches down to pull him up. I was also very interested in Vera's expansion of this analogy. Some women are up on the wall, but the ministers won't let them do the pulling, and tell them to get down. Then the men try to climb up alone. Everyone is frustrated.
     This picture holds a lot of meaning for me. Why can't the women exercise their pulling muscles the way they want to? Is it because some people are unwilling to admit that they can pull? This appears to be Vera's interpretation. Is it because they are trying to pull people who aren't ready?

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Is it because they are inexperienced and they are doing it the wrong way? Or for the wrong reasons? Can some people see that the women are in the wrong place, or maybe that the wall isn't sturdy enough yet? When our church knows how to get to the point where the women can successfully pull up the men, it will have solved a lot of its problems. I suspect the answer has a lot to do with an established relationship of trust, in which people are boosted or pulled up willingly and in fact unconsciously-certainly not shoved or yanked off their feet in a way that feels bad.
     Vera ends her paper with an appeal that we remember that if charity is ruling, differences in doctrine and worship do not divide. This is a much-quoted teaching whose familiar ring is taking on an annoying jangle for me, even while I acknowledge its truth. We could use this teaching, taken at face value, to espouse perfect harmony among New Church people, Muslims, Buddhists, Baptists and Hare Krishna in one organization. To me, the key is the definition of charity which rules-a subject better left for another paper!
     I respect Vera's courage, hard work and sincerity in writing her paper. I found much to agree with, much to object to, much to ponder. She challenged us to re-examine our ideas, and I hope we will all continue with patience and determination to try to hear what the Lord is telling us. Ultimately, I hope this process will lead us as a church organization to a place of peace. As Vera wrote (p. 29), perhaps we will come to "recognize the turmoil and pain around this issue as the struggle of a birth rather than a battle."
ANYONE WHO LOOKS TO THE LORD 1997

ANYONE WHO LOOKS TO THE LORD              1997

     Anyone who looks to the Lord and wants to be guided by Him is in a state of good.                    Conjugial Love 444:4

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REPORT OF THE BISHOP OF THE GENERAL CHURCH 1997

REPORT OF THE BISHOP OF THE GENERAL CHURCH       Rev. Peter M. Buss       1997

     1996-97

     This year the General Church is a hundred years old. In fact, it existed in spirit for years before 1897, in what was known as the Academy Movement, for the Academy was born of the conviction that the Writings are the Lord's revelation, and that the church looks to them, and to the Old and New Testaments, as its authority in the conduct of its affairs. Our organized body of the church came into existence, however, on February 6, 1897, so the church in its many congregations has found different ways to celebrate this anniversary during 1997.
     I would like to take this opportunity to reflect with thankfulness on the remarkable nature of this organization. We are used to it. We see some of its strengths and many of its weaknesses. We know that in terms of the age of churches it is but a baby. Considering the fact that the New Church is the last great church of the Lord on earth, we stand at the dawn of its history. We are keenly aware of all the things that we don't know, of those that we are not able to do, of the love and charity and gentleness that we have yet to learn. If we are wise, we will use this sense of our limitations to acknowledge the Lord's greatness and our smallness, and we will ask for strength and humility to do our own small part to cooperate with His great providence.
     But there are things which cause the General Church to transcend its own limitations. For we are not the church. We are a part of it, but its life is something far greater. The Writings teach that the Divine of the Lord makes heaven, and angels constitute it. So also, the Lord Himself makes the church, and, if we turn to Him, we are part of its body.
     In the beginning the Lord forms the church through the affections which He implants in our hearts from infancy-those precious remains which cause us to look beyond ourselves, to love Him, to love others, to love the truth and to seek for it. This is the beginning of the new will, and thus of the church with us.

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It is a sanctuary in which the Lord Himself silently, invisibly touches us.
     The second part of the process is learning the truth from without-for that is the visible way in which the Lord comes to us. This is where "the church" is of the most obvious help.
     What is truly unique and beautiful about the General Church is its vision of how that should be accomplished. Because we believe that the Lord has completed His revelation to humankind -in His threefold Word-we feel free to use it as our "constitution." The vision of the General Church is that it will seek to lead people to the Word itself, and allow them to hear from the Lord Himself the truths that will constitute their faith and life (see AR 224).
     In 1962 the Rev. Erik Sandstrom gave an address to the General Assembly called, "The Following Is Not a Written Constitution" (published in New Church Life, 1962, page 384). These are the first words of The Order and Organization of the General Church. The most recent version was published in 1982, and it is presently undergoing revision. Bishop W.F. Pendleton, the first bishop of our church, first published this pamphlet, and the above words were a little different in that version. He spelled the idea out. "In the General Church there is no legislation for the sake of enforcing doctrine, or for meeting future contingencies. Doctrine is to be taught but not enforced; and the possibilities of the future are in the hands of the Lord, who will enlighten those who are active in the affairs of the church at any given time" (New Church Life, 1914, p. 497).
     Mr. Sandstrom noted that in civil society, laws are established and conformity is expected. "When important issues are involved, the [decision of what is proper] may be raised to the dignity of what is constitutional, and disciplinary means are adopted to enforce and protect it. As citizens of a country we approve of all of this, for we accept such procedure as necessary in a society where evil must be curbed . . . " (NCL 1962, p. 385).

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"But," he added, "the document at present under consideration declares in effect that it is not to be so in the General Church . . . . The General Church is to be ruled by internal law and by conscience."
     Bishop W.F. Pendleton emphasized that in its "formal business" the church should follow procedural laws. But its life comes from its essential purpose-to lead people to the Lord in His Word; to help them in their understanding [note the words "their understanding"] of the Word, and to support them in their wish to love the Lord by doing what He has said. In its life, in its essential purpose, the General Church seeks to have no formal constitution, no governing rules which require a specified understanding or which legislate how people shall see the truth. We believe that the church should teach an understanding of the Word but that everyone should be led to go back to the Word itself, for there the Lord has told us plainly of His love and His ways, and we may "check" the church's teachings against that clear revelation.
     It is to this end that the General Church doesn't promulgate positions. In meetings of the Council of the Clergy we do not determine what the "church's position" is on a subject and then publish it. We do discuss issues and publish what individuals-or sometimes groups of individuals-see to be the present understanding. But that is not binding upon those who in sincerity see the truth differently. Our requirement for baptism into the General Church is that people acknowledge that (1) the Lord Jesus Christ is the one God of heaven and earth, and (2) the life of charity is to be learned and lived. These are the two essentials of the church. We don't require conformity to a detailed catechism. It is true, once again, that the General Church has generally accepted views on many other doctrines, but while these are taught, belief in them is not pre-requisite for membership.
     In all of this we are guided by the spirit of interior freedom that runs throughout the Writings. It is the first law of the Lord's Providence that a person should act in freedom according to her or his reason.

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This is the primary law by which the Lord operates to guide us to heaven. Many other freedoms may be denied us or be limited, but the freedom to believe what we truly believe and to love what we choose to love are most precious to the Lord, and He guards them in each of us.
     No external force can cause us to see what we do not in free conscience see. No external force can cause us to love that which we do not choose to love. Sometimes people under pressure think that they believe something that they have not chosen. They may even think they love something they have not chosen. In time the Lord will restore their freedom, and they will reject all that does not come from their free choice.
     So the General Church is motivated by its trust in the Lord's Providence, that He will lead each person to believe and to love the things of heaven in His own way. We cooperate by offering His truth and showing how it leads to heavenly loves. We do not force these blessings upon others, and we rejoice that others do not do this to us.
     The General Church is comforted by the knowledge that in His final revelation the Lord has spoken so clearly that any truth may be measured by what He Himself has said. Therefore we don't need to be afraid of open discussion of issues in our church, for unless we are bent on following ourselves rather than the Lord, He will eventually guide us through the sacred pages He has caused to be written.
     This organization of ours is not the Lord's church. As Mr. Sandstrom said, "The General Church would not claim to be the only possible embodiment for the Lord's Church. It would not even claim to be an embodiment at all events and in all circumstances" (NCL 1962, p. 389). Some of the things we do when our propriums are active are not very heavenly. Some of the things we teach may be powerfully influenced by the pride in our own intelligence. These weaknesses are obstacles on the path to heaven which we must all contend with.

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     But we stand for a beautiful ideal. Mr. Sandstrom summed it up thus: "A truly living church is one that takes its directives as to heart, mind and hand from the Word of the Lord alone, and thus from the Lord. And the General Church was established for the purpose of doing that" (Ibid.).
     It is wonderful to be a part of that vision, and to see it as an ideal to offer to all humankind-that one day all peoples upon this earth will be led directly by the Lord. Then, whatever part of the New Church they belong to, they will say to that organization, "Now we believe, not because of what you said, for we have heard for ourselves and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world" (John 4:42).
     May our little church strive to be ever more part of this vision, to seek for a culture that looks to the Lord Himself in His Word, and trust that if we do, we will surely be led in safety towards the peace of heaven.

STATISTICAL ACTIVITIES

As Bishop of the General Church:
Pastoral Visits - 21
Inauguration into the priesthood - 1
Ordinations into second degree of priesthood - 3
Meetings:     Board and Corporation - 5
          Consistory - 7
          Advisory Council - 12
          Joint Committee - 5
          Bishop's Council - 4
          Council of Clergy
          Evangelization seminar in Tucson
          Treasurers' meetings
          Education Council meetings in Glenview
          Councils and Boards of local congregations - 9
Pitcairn Hall worship - 3

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As Chancellor of the Academy of the New Church:
Meetings:     Board and Corporation - 8
          Theological School faculty - 4
High school chapel - 8
Ministrations:
Bryn Athyn Services: private, public and festival - 12
Bryn Athyn doctrinal classes - 2
Worship services in other church areas - 16

Rt. Rev. Peter M. Buss
Executive Bishop
REVIEW 1997

REVIEW       Wilson Van Dusen       1997

Temptations, Basil Lazer, Swedenborg Foundation, 1996, $7.95

     This book compiles the essence of all Swedenborg has to say on the subject of spiritual temptations. Could we simply turn to the Writings and find all Swedenborg has to say ourselves? I found this collection so useful I read it twice. The author loves this subject and compiles what the Writings have to say in order under twelve chapter headings. Should we turn to Potts' Concordance, we would have to sift through some twenty pages of references. Some would be relevant to our search and some would not. Here the subject is compiled in a developmental order. I feel Lazer has done us a real service.
     It turns out that the key references are mostly in the Arcana Coelestia, so this takes up the first ten chapters. The rest of the Writings is covered in the last two chapters. Lazer himself comments very little, so mostly we are reading what the Writings themselves have to say.

510


The book is unusually well produced on heavy paper, with suitable black and white pen drawings that depict the emotional qualities of spiritual temptations. I just wonder how many other useful books could be compiled from the Writings!
     I can best suggest how much this compilation affected me by dealing with my own search, which led me to read this book twice. In the Arcana Coelestia passages Swedenborg showed the depth of his spiritual experience. Even though I have been intensively involved in spirituality my whole life (see my Returning to the Source), I have had almost a total absence of spiritual temptations, to such an extent I really didn't understand what such temptations were. Several reasons emerged in this book. Also, oddly enough, Swedenborg's experience gave me a major clue as to the inner nature of chronic schizophrenia. My most reprinted work showed the clear parallels between demons of hell and the experience of chronic schizophrenics. I now see chronic schizophrenics having become stuck in the worst phase of spiritual temptations. And this insight provides clues as to how to help these people.
     This is to say I found Lazer's work quite useful, and it should be to anyone interested in the inner dynamics of spiritual temptations. The Writings' power and wisdom show up better in a compilation such as this.
     Wilson Van Dusen

Note: Mr. Lazer's book is reviewed favorably in the latest edition of Outlook, a glossy, colorful British publication. Edited by Roland Smith, this publication continues to have a wide appeal.

511


GENERAL CHURCH SCHOOLS DIRECTORY 1997-98 1997

GENERAL CHURCH SCHOOLS DIRECTORY 1997-98              1997

Office of Education:
           Cairncrest, P.O. Box 743, Bryn Athyn, PA 19009
           Phone: 215-914-4949 ? fax: 215-914-4935
          Rev. Philip B. Schnarr      Director
           (e-mail: [email protected] ? direct phone: 215-914-4950)
          Carol Buss     Assistant Director
           (e-mail: [email protected] ? direct phone: 215-914-4960)
      *     Jill Rogers     Curriculum Coordinator; School Support
           (e-mail: [email protected] ? direct phone: 215-914-4953)
      *     Gretchen Keith     Resource Center Coordinator
           (e-mail: [email protected] ? direct phone: 215-914-4952)


Bryn Athyn:     Bryn Athyn Church School, P.O. Box 277, Bryn Athyn, PA 19009
           Phone: 215-947-4086 ? fax: 215-938-1871
Rev. Prescott Rogers     Principal
Barbara Doering     Vice Principal
Kathy Orthwein      Kindergarten
Kit Rogers     Kindergarten
Beth Bochneak     Grade 1
Robin Morey          Grade 1
Candy Quintero     Grade 1
Claire Bostock     Grade 2
Linda Kees          Grade 2
Lois McCurdy     Grade 2
Kris Ritthaler     Grade 3
Judy Soneson     Grade 3
Melinda Friesen     Grade 4
JoAnne Hyatt     Grade 4
Sheila Daum          Grade 5
Alix Smith          Grade 5
Kay Alden          Grade 6
Heather Klein     Grade 6
Carol Nash          Grade 7-Girls
Steven Irwin     Grade 7-Boys

512



Gail Simons          Grade 8-Girls
Reed Asplundh     Grade 8-Boys
Greg Henderson     Grade 8-Boys
Melodie Greer     Computers, 7-8 Science
Robert Eidse     Physical Education
Dorothy Brisco     Physical Education
Margit Irwin     Music
Dianna Synnestvedt     Art
Judith Smith     Librarian
* Marion Gyllenhaal     Remedial & Support Uses
* Fay Lindrooth     Remedial & Support Uses
* Gretchen Glover     Kindergarten Aide
* Amy Jones          Kindergarten Aide
* Elizabeth Childs     Intermediate Aide
* Sue Hyatt          Intermediate Aide
* Janna Lindsay     Grade 5 Reading
* Brita Conroy     Grade 8 Aide
* Karen Harantschuk     Tutor
* Ceri Holm          Tutor
* Lori Nelson     Tutor
* Eileen Rogers     Tutor
* Robin Trautmann     Tutor
* Rosemary Wyncoll     Tutor/Primary Aide

Durban: (1997 school year: January 1 - December 31, 1997)
               Kainon School, 36 Perth Road, Westville, Natal 3630, RSA
               Phone: 011-27-31-822342 - fax: 011-27-31-262-6099
Rev. Lawson M. Smith     Headmaster, 4-7 Religion
Sarah Berto          Grade 1, Music
Anthea Stewart     Grades 2-3
Jane Edmunds     Grades 4-5; 6-7 Science
Heather Allais     Grades 6-7; 4-5 Art
* Oonagh Chaning-Pearce     3-7 Afrikaans & Zulu; 4-5 History

Glenview:     Immanuel Church School, 74 Park Drive, Glenview, IL 60025
               Phone: 847-724-0057 - fax: 847-724-3042
Rev. Eric H. Carswell     Pastor/Headmaster
Jeryl Fuller     Co-principal; Grades 7-8
Rebekah Russell     Co-principal; Grades 3-4; 5-8 Music
Laura Barger     Kindergarten; 3-4 Language Arts; Primary Music
Joanne Kiel          Grades 1-2
Phil Parker          Grades 5-6
* Yvonne Alan     Grades 7-8
Gordon McClarren     Math, Science
* Jenny de Padua     P.E.
* Jennifer Overeem     Art
* Connie Smith     Resource Center

513





Kempton:     Kempton New Church School
               583 Hawk Mountain Road, Kempton, PA 19529
               Phone: 610-756-6140 - fax: 610-756-4072
Rev. Robert Junge     Principal
Mark Wyncoll     Vice Principal; Grades 7-10
* Judy Synnestvedt     Kindergarten
Kathy Schrock     Grades 1-2
Alex Rogers          Grades 3-4
Curtis McQueen     Grades 5-6
Eric Smith          Grades 7-10
* Erika Brown     Grades 1-2 Aide; Grades 7-10 History & PE
* Rev. Andrew Heilman     Religion, Science, Hebrew, Computer
* Kate Pitcairn     Science, Latin

Kitchener:     Carmel Church School
               40 Chapel Hill Drive, Kitchener, Ontario, Canada N2G 3W5
               Phone: 519-748-5802 - fax: (none)
Julie Niall     Principal; Grades 1-3
Josephine Kuhl     Grades 4-6
Mary Jane Hill     Grades 7-8
* Nina Riepert     Kindergarten
* Linda Eidse     Grades 1-3
* Rev. Michael Cowley     Pastor, Scripture Study
* Muriel Glebe     French

Oak Arbor:     Oak Arbor Elementary School
               4535 Oak Arbor Drive, Rochester, MI 48306
               Phone: 248-652-3420 - fax: 248-652-7711
Rev. Grant H. Odhner     Principal
Melissa Eller     Grades 1-3
Nathaniel Brock     Grades 4-6
* Nancy Genzlinger     Grades 3-4 Language Arts
* Rev. Mark Pendleton     Religion

Pittsburgh:     Pittsburgh New Church School
               299 Le Roi Road, Pittsburgh, PA 15208
               Phone: 412-731-0122 - fax: 412-731-7421 (non-dedicated)
Rev. Nathan D. Gladish     Pastor/Principal, Religion
Jennifer Lindsay     Grades 1-2
James Pafford     Grades 3, 5-6
* Elise Gladish     Pre-kindergarten

Toronto:     Olivet Day School
               279 Burnhamthorpe Road, Etobicoke, Ontario, Canada M9B 1Z6
               Phone: 416-239-3054 - fax: 416-239-4935
Steve Krause     Principal, Grades 3-4
Natalie Lambertus     Grades 1-2
James Bellinger     Grade 5-8 & Misc.
* Gillian Parker     Jr. & Sr. Kindergarten
* Rev. Michael Gladish     Religion

514




Washington:     Washington New Church School
               11914 Chantilly Lane, Mitchellville, MD 20721
               Phone: 301-464-5602 - fax: 301-805-8835
Rev. James P. Cooper     Principal, Worship, Religion
Karen Hyatt          Kindergarten & Misc.
Kim Maxwell          Grades 1-2
Jean Allen          Grades 3-4
Dean Schroeder     Grades 5-6
Kathy Johns          Grades 7-8
Carole Waelchli     Grades 9-10



     SCHOOL ENROLLMENTS 1997-1998

     The Academy
      Theological School (Full-time)     8
      Theological School (Part-time)     2
      Theological School Masters Program (Full-time)     3
      Theological School Masters Program (Part-time)     23
      College (Full-time)     145
      Girls School          125
      Boys School          128
          Total Academy                    434


     Midwestern Academy
      Grades 9 & 10 (Part-time)     12

     Society Schools
      Bryn Athyn     373
      Immanuel Church School (Glenview)     51
      Kempton New Church School     78
      Carmel Church School (Kitchener)     37
      Washington New Church School (Mitchellville)     50
      Oak Arbor Elementary School (Detroit)     20
      Pittsburgh New Church School     23
      Olivet Day School (Toronto)     37
      Kainon School (Durban) - 1997      52
               Total Society Schools     721
                     Total Reported Enrollment in All Schools     1167

515


DOCTRINES RELATED TO THE NEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCE 1997

DOCTRINES RELATED TO THE NEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCE       Editor       1997

     A number of New Church people have noted teachings in the Writings which resonate with testimonies of people who have had near-death experiences. The most thorough doctrinal investigation I know of was done by Rev. Wendel Barnett. He had a set of passages arranged by categories, which has been appreciated and used for some time by the New Church scholars who were aware of its existence. Although copies were passed from hand to hand it was not printed.
     The good news is that these passages now appear as an appendix to a new edition of the book Tunnel to Eternity by Leon Rhodes. This book, noted in our September issue last year, has now been published by the Swedenborg Foundation. We hope to have more about it in our pages. For now, we want to announce that the valuable study done by Mr. Barnett is now available. We thank him and Mr. Rhodes for this useful contribution.
FAVORITE SAYING OF JOHN 1997

FAVORITE SAYING OF JOHN       Editor       1997

     Children, Keep Yourselves from Idols

     The apostle John, in contrast to Peter, is scarcely quoted in the gospel story (although of course he wrote one of the gospels). What he does say is together with his brother James.
     John wrote three letters, and the final verses of the first of those letters are quoted in the Writings some twenty times!
     We are cautioned in True Christian Religion not to worship people on earth: "For those who do such things are these words in John: 'We abide in the truth in Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life. Little children, guard yourself from idols' (1 John 20, 21)" (TCR 560, emphasis added).
     In giving the spiritual sense of the first commandment the Writings quote several verses, the final one being: "We are in the True, in Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.

516


Little children, keep yourselves from idols" (TCR 294).
     The idols which we children are to beware of include the things that loom too large in our lives. As the Writings say, "A man worships that which he loves above all things" (AC 10407). How useful it is to reflect on idols toward which we may incline.

     Test the Spirits

     Chapter 4 of John's first epistle has a warning that is not actually quoted in the Writings. But Swedenborg alludes to it in the Journal of Dreams. "Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits whether they are of God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world."
     Swedenborg had a wonderful dream in which the Lord appeared to him. This is described in number 54 of the Journal, after which description Swedenborg writes, "It is a sin that I am doubting it, but as it is commanded that we are to try the spirits, I reflected on everything."
FAITH ALONE DOCTRINE 1997

FAITH ALONE DOCTRINE       Alexander Fox       1997

Dear Editor:
     I would like to comment on Rev. James Cooper's article on the Apostle Paul. I found the historical portion quite informative, but I am respectfully forced to take issue with his premise that the doctrine of salvation by faith through grace is based primarily, or even in large part, on the verses he cited.
     Following five years of New Church education (four at ANC high school and one at ANC college), I transferred to a secular college, confident in my ability to defend the Writings from charges of heresy.

517


That confidence was shattered the very first time I attempted to discuss religion with a fundamentalist Christian: I found myself speechless, unable to respond to a never-ending stream of Biblical quotations involving blood, sacrifice, faith, wrath, and so on.
     Deciding that I needed to understand the opposition, I attended a number of extracurricular Bible study classes, and engaged in several lengthy conversations with the conservative Lutheran minister who led them.
     Based on this experience, I have formed two conclusions:
     1)     Traditional Christian dogma is more substantially different from New Church theology than I had been taught in Bryn Athyn.
     2)     There are no simple refutations of individual Christian philosophies. The creed of salvation by faith through grace is inextricably bound to most of the other doctrines of fundamentalist Christianity.

The basic fundamentalist point of view, as it has been explained to me, is as follows:

First of all, God demands perfection from all who would enter heaven. This is based on quotations such as: "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23); "Therefore you shall be perfect just as your Father in heaven is perfect" (Matt. 5:48); "For whoever shall keep the whole and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all" (James 2:10).

Secondly, we are all incredibly evil and corrupt: "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked" (Jeremiah 17:9); "As it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one: there is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way; they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one" (Romans 3:10-12); "But we are like an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags" (Isaiah 64:6).

     Because of these two doctrines, it is evident to the fundamentalists that we cannot achieve salvation by ourselves.

518


Fortunately, the Father delivered up His Son as a sacrifice to cleanse the saved of their sins in His blood: "Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood He entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us" (Galatians 3:24); "Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus" (Romans 3:24-26); " . . . even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto but to minister, and to give His life as a ransom for many" (Matt. 20:28); "This is the work of God, that you believe on Him whom He hath sent" (John 6:29); "[Jesus] was delivered for our offenses, and was raised again for our justification" (Romans 4:25); " . . . being justified by His blood . . . we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son" (Romans 5:9,10).
     Now the only way to cash in on this sacrifice is to accept Christ as one's personal savior: "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned" (Mark 16:6); "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life; and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him" (John 3:36); "Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Romans 5:1); "According to your faith be it unto you" (Matt. 9:29); "Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved" (Acts 2:21); "To Him give all the prophets witness, that through His name whosoever believeth in Him shall receive remission of sins" (Acts 10:43).
     The idea in Galatians 3:24, 25 is that "wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster."

519


Therefore, any kind of good deeds that are done are only in tribute to salvation: "For you are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's" (1 Corinthians 6:20).
     Keep in mind that the person who chooses Christ has already been chosen by Him: "As many as were ordained to eternal life believed" (Acts 13:40); "I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which Thou hast given me; for they are thine" (John 17:9); "according as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world" (Ephesians 1:4); "Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me except it were given unto him of my Father" (John 6:65); "All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out" (John 6:37); "No man can come to me except the Father which hath sent me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day" (John 6:44); "So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen" (Matt. 20:16); "Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken and the other left" (Matt. 24:40); "Moreover, whom He did predestinate, them He also called, and whom He called, them He also justified: and whom He justified, them He also glorified" (Romans 8:29).
     I have used only a fraction of the quotes that a well-read fundamentalist would use to attack the premises of the New Church. I have neither the training nor the arrogance to suggest a "better" approach than the one Mr. Cooper has presented, but I can say from personal experience that attempting to interpret each quote one is presented with is not only extremely difficult for a layman, but also wholly unsatisfying, according to any standards of debate.
     I look forward to any response Mr. Cooper or other ministers may have to offer on this subject.
     Alexander Fox
     Charleston, SC

520


CARL LINNAEUS AND SWEDENBORG 1997

CARL LINNAEUS AND SWEDENBORG              1997




     Announcements





     Life Magazine put out a special fall issue in which it named a hundred significant individuals of the past thousand years.
     One might hope to find a picture of Swedenborg, and as it turns out, one does. However, Life intended to run a picture of Carl Linnaeus and inadvertently pictured Swedenborg on page 137 with comments on Linnaeus.
     What an apt time to learn about Linnaeus and Swedenborg! Well, an article has recently come out on precisely this. It begins as follows: "Emanuel Swedenborg and Carl Linnaeus are probably the two Swedes best known internationally in the Enlightenment period . . . . Linnaeus was born in 1707 . . . . They were distant relatives, and were acquainted with each other . . . . As president of the young Swedish Academy of Science, Linnaeus invited Swedenborg to become a member of that body in 1740."
     You can read the article by Lars Berquist in the latest (Vol. III, No. 3) Arcana Magazine. It is available from the Swedenborg Association, 278-A Meeting Street, Charleston, SC 29401.

524


GENERAL CHURCH OF THE NEW JERUSALEMPUBLIC WORSHIP AND DOCTRINAL CLASSES 1997

GENERAL CHURCH OF THE NEW JERUSALEMPUBLIC WORSHIP AND DOCTRINAL CLASSES              1997

     UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Alabama:
Birmingham
Dr. Winyss A. Shepard, 4537 Dolly Ridge Road, Birmingham, AL 35243. Phone: (205) 967-3442.
Huntsville
Mrs. Anthony L. Sills, 1000 Hood Ave., Scottsboro, AL 35768. Phone: (205) 574-1617.
Arizona:
Phoenix
Contact: Lawson & Carol Cronlund, 5717 E. Justine Rd., Scottsdale, AZ 85254. Phone: (602) 953-0478.
Tucson
Rev. Frank S. Rose, 9233 E. Helen, Tucson, AZ 85715. Phone: (520) 721-1091.
Arkansas:
Little Rock
Mr. & Mrs. Kenneth Holmes, 155 Eric St., Batesville, AR 72501. Phone: (501) 793-5135.
California:
Los Angeles
Rev. John L. Odhner, 5022 Carolyn Way, La Crescenta, CA 91214. Phone: (818) 249-5031.
Orange County
Rev. Cedric King, resident pastor, 21332 Forest Meadow, El Toro, CA 92630. Phone: home (714) 586-5142; office (714) 951-5750.
Sacramento/Central California
Bertil Larsson, 8387 Montna Drive, Paradise, CA 95969. Phone: (916) 877-8252.
San Diego
Rev. Stephen D. Cole, 941 Ontario St., Escondido, CA 92025. Phone: home (619) 432-8495; office (619) 571-8599.
San Francisco
Mr. & Mrs. Philip C. Pendleton, 501 Portola Road, Box 8044, Portola Valley, CA 94028. Phone: (415) 424-4234.
Colorado:
Boulder
Rev. David C. Roth, 4215 N. Broadway, Boulder, CO 80304. Phone: (303) 443-9220.
     Colorado Springs
Mr./Mrs. William Rienstra, 1005 Oak Ave., Canon City, CO 81212.
Connecticut:
Bridgeport, Hartford, Shelton
Mr. & Mrs. James Tucker, 45 Honey Bee Lane, Huntington, CT 06484. Phone: (203) 929-6455.
Delaware:
Wilmington
Mrs. John Furry (Marcia), 1231 Evergreen      Rd., Wilmington, DE 19803. Phone: (302) 762-8837.
District of Columbia: see Mitchellville, Maryland.
Florida:
Boynton Beach
Rev. Derek Elphick, 10621 El Clair Ranch Road, Boynton Beach, FL 33437. Phone: (407) 736-2843.
Jacksonville
Kristi Helow, 6338 Christopher Creek Road W., Jacksonville, FL 32217-2472.
Lake Helen
Mr. & Mrs. Brent Morris, 264 E. Kicklighter Road, Lake Helen, FL 32744. Phone: (904) 228-2276.
Pensacola
Mr. & Mrs. John Peacock, 5238 Soundside Drive, Gulf Breeze, FL 32561. Phone: (904) 934-3691.
Georgia:
Americus
Mr. W. Harold Eubanks, 516 U.S. 280 West, Americus, GA 31709. Phone: (912) 924-9221.
Atlanta
Rev. C. Mark Perry, 2119 Seaman Circle, Atlanta, GA 30341. Phone: office (770) 458-9673.
Illinois:
Chicago
Rev. Arthur W. Schnarr, 73A Park Drive, Glenview, IL 60025. Phone: (847) 724-5466.
Decatur
Mr. John Aymer, 1434 E. Whitmer St., Decatur, IL 62521.

525



Glenview
Rev. Eric Carswell, 73 Park Dr., Glenview, IL 60025. Phone: (847) 724-0120.
Indiana: see Ohio: Cincinnati.
Kentucky: see Ohio: Cincinnati.
Louisiana:
Baton Rouge
Mr. Henry Bruser, Jr., 6050 Esplanade Ave., Baton Rouge, LA 70806. Phone: (504) 924-3098.
Maine:
Bath
Rev. Allison L. Nicholson, HC 33 - Box 61N, Arrowsic, ME 04530. Phone: (207) 443-6410.
Maryland:
Baltimore
Rev. Willard L. D. Heinrichs, visiting minister, Box 717, Bryn Athyn, PA 19009. Phone: home (215) 947-5334; office (215) 938-2582.
Mitchellville
Rev. James P. Cooper, 11910 Chantilly Lane, Mitchellville, MD 20721. Phone: home (301) 805-9460; office (301) 464-5602.
Massachusetts:
Boston
Rev. Geoffrey Howard, 17 Cakebread Drive, Sudbury, MA 01776. Phone: (508) 443-6531.
Michigan:
Detroit
Rev. Grant Odhner, 395 Olivewood Ct., Rochester, MI 48306. Phone: (248) 652-7332.
East Lansing
Lyle & Brenda Birchman, 14777 Cutler Rd., Portland, MI 48875.
Minnesota:
St. Paul
Karen Huseby, 4247 Centerville Rd., Vadnais Heights, MN 55127. Phone: (612) 429-5289.
Missouri:
Columbia
Mr. & Mrs. Paul Johnson, 1508 Glencairn Court, Columbia, MO 65203. Phone: (314) 442-3475.
Kansas City
Mr. Glen Klippenstein, P. O. Box 457, Maysville, MO 64469-0457. Phone: (816) 449-2167.
New Hampshire:
Hanover
Bobbie & Charlie Hitchcock, 63 E. Wheelock St., Hanover, NH 03755. Phone: (603) 643-3469.
New Jersey:
Ridgewood
Jay & Barbara Barry, 474 S. Maple, Glen Rock, NJ 07452. Phone: (201) 445-3353.
New Mexico:
Albuquerque
Mrs. Carolyn Harwell, 1375 Sara Rd., Rio Rancho, NM 87124. Phone: (505) 896-0293.
North Carolina:
Charlotte
Rev. Fred Chapin, 6625 Rolling Ridge Dr., Charlotte, NC 28211. Phone: (704) 367-1930.
Ohio:
Cincinnati
Rev. Patrick Rose, 785 Ashcroft Court, Cincinnati, OH 45240. Phone: (513) 825-7473.
Cleveland
Wayne and Vina Parker, 11848 Mumford Rd., Garrettsville, OH 44231. Phone:
     (330) 527-2419.
Oklahoma:
Oklahoma City
Mr. Robert Campbell, 13929 Sterlington, Edmond, OK 73013. Phone:(405)478-4729.
Oregon:
Portland
Mr. & Mrs. Jim Andrews, Box 99, 1010 NE 365th Ave., Corbett, OR 97019. Phone: (503) 695-2534.
Pennsylvania:

Bryn Athyn
Rev. Thomas H. Kline, Box 277, Bryn     Athyn, PA 19009. Phone: (215) 947-6225.
Elizabethtown
Mr. Meade Bierly, 523 Snyder Ave., Elizabethtown, PA 17022. Phone: (717) 367-3964.
Erie
Mrs. Paul Murray, 5648 Zuck Road, Erie, PA 16506. Phone: (814) 833-0962.

526



Freeport
Rev. Clark Echols, 100 Iron Bridge Road, Sarver, PA 16055. Phone: office (412) 353-2220.
Hatfield
Mr. Peter Sheedy, 1303 Clymer St., Hatfield, PA 19440. Phone: (215) 842-1461.
Hawley
Mr. Grant Genzlinger, Settlers Inn #25, 4 Main Ave., Hawley, PA 18428. Phone: (800) 833-8527.
Ivyland
The Ivyland New Church, 851 W. Bristol Road, Ivyland, PA 18974. Pastor: Rev. David Lindrooth. Phone: (215) 957-5965. Secretary: Sue Cronlund. (215) 598-3919.
Philadelphia New Church Korean Group: 851 W. Bristol Rd., Ivyland, PA 18974. Pastor: Rev. John Jin. Phone: (215) 443-2533 or (215) 947-8317.
Kempton
Rev. Robert S. Junge, 8551 Junge Lane, RD #1, Kempton, PA 19529. Phone: office (610) 756-6140.
Pittsburgh
Rev. Nathan D. Gladish, 299 Le Roi Road, Pittsburgh, PA 15208. Phone: church (412) 731-7421.
South Carolina:
Charleston area
Wilfred & Wendy Baker, 2030 Thornhill Drive, Summerville, SC 29485. Phone: (803) 851-1245.
South Dakota:
Hot Springs
Linda Klippenstein, 604 S. River St. #A8, Hot Springs, SD 57747. Phone: (605) 745-6629.
Virginia:
Richmond
Mr. Donald Johnson, 13161 Happy Hill Road, Chester, VA 23831. Phone: (804) 748-5757.
Washington:
Seattle
Rev. Erik J. Buss, 5409 154th Ave., Redmond, WA 98052. Phone: home (206) 883-4327; office (206) 882-8500.
Washington, DC: See Mitchellville, MD.
Wisconsin:
Madison
Mr. Warren Brown, 130 Greenbrier Drive, Sun Prairie, WI 53590. Phone: (608) 825-3002.
     OTHER THAN U.S.A.
     AUSTRALIA
Sydney, N.S.W.
Mr. Murray F. Heldon, 25 O'Briens Rd., Hurstville, NSW 2220. Phone: 61-2-9579-5248.
     BRAZIL
Rio de Janeiro
Rev. Cristovao Rabelo Nobre, Rod Mendes Vassouras, km 41, Caixa Postal 85.711, 27.700-000, Vassouras, RJ Brasil. Phone: 55-21-409-6586.
     CANADA
Alberta
Calgary
Mr. Thomas R. Fountain, 1115 Southglen Drive S.W., Calgary, Alberta T2W 0X2. Phone: (403) 255-7283.
Debolt
Ken & Lavina Scott, RR 1, Crooked Creek, Alberta T0H 0Y0. Phone: (403) 957-3625.
Edmonton
Mrs. Wayne Anderson, 6703-98th Street, Edmonton, Alberta T6E 3L9. Phone: (403) 432-1499.
British Columbia
Dawson Creek
Rev. Glenn G. Alden, Dawson Creek Church, 9013 8th St., Dawson Creek, B.C. V1G 3N3. Phone: home (604) 843-7979; office (604) 782-8035.
Ontario
Kitchener
Rev. Michael D. Cowley, 58 Chapel Hill Drive, Kitchener, Ontario N2G 3W5. Phone: office (519) 748-5802.
Ottawa
Mr. & Mrs. Donald McMaster, 684 Fraser Ave., Ottawa, Ontario K2A 2R8. Phone: (613) 725-0394.
Toronto
Rev. Michael Gladish, 279 Burnhamthorpe Rd., Etobicoke, Ontario M9B 1Z4. Phone: church (416) 239-3055.
Quebec
Montreal
Mr. Denis de Chazal, 29 Ballantyne Ave. So., Montreal West, Quebec H4X 2B1. Phone: (514) 489-9861.

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     DENMARK
Copenhagen
Mr. Jorgen Hauptmann, Strandvejen 22, 4040 Jyllinge. Phone: 46 78 9968.

     ENGLAND
Colchester
Rev. Kenneth J. Alden, 8 Stoneleigh Park, Lexden, Colchester, Essex CO3 5EY.
London
Rev. Frederick Elphick, 21B Hayne Rd., Beckenham, Kent BR3 4JA. Phone: 44-181-658-6320.
Manchester
Mrs. Neil Rowcliffe, "Woodside," 44 Camberley Drive, Bamford, Rochdale, Lancs. OL11 4AZ.
Surrey
Mr. Nathan Morley, 27 Victoria Road, Southern View, Guildford, Surrey GU1 4DJ.
     GHANA
Accra
Rev. William O. Ankra-Badu, Box 11305, Accra North.
Asakraka, Nteso, Oframase
Rev. Martin K. Gyamfi, Box 10, Asakraka-Kwahu E/R.
Madina, Tema
Rev. Simpson K. Darkwah, House No. AA3, Community 4, c/o Box 1483, Tema.
     HOLLAND
The Hague
Mr. Ed Verschoor, V. Furstenburchstr. 6, 3862 AW Nijkerk.
     JAPAN
For information about General Church activities in Japan contact Mr. Tatsuya Nagashima, 30-2, Saijoh-Nishiotake, Yoshino-cho, Itano-gun, Tokoshima-ken, Japan 771-14.
     KOREA
Seoul
Rev. Dzin P. Kwak, Seoul Church of New Jerusalem, Ajoo B/D 2F, 1019-15 Daechi-dong, Kangnam-ku, Seoul 135-281. Phone: home 82-(0)2-658-7305; church 82-(0)2-555-1366.
     NEW ZEALAND
Auckland
Mrs. H. Keal, 4 Derwent Cresc., Titirangi, Auckland 7. Phone: 09-817-8203.
     SOUTH AFRICA
Gauteng
Alexandra Township
Rev. Albert Thabede, 303 Corlett Dr., Kew 2090. Phone: 27-11-443-3852
Balfour
Rev. Reuben Tshabalala, P.O. Box 851, Kwaxuma, Soweto 1868. Phone: 27-11-932-3528.
Buccleuch
Rev. Andrew Dibb, P.O. Box 816, Kelvin 2054. Phone: 27-11-804-1145.
Diepkloof
Rev. Jacob M. Maseko, P. O. Box 261, Pimville 1808. Phone: 27-11-938-8314.
KwaZulu-Natal
Clermont and Enkumba
Rev. Ishborn Buthelezi, P.O. Box 150, Clernaville 3602. Phone: 27-31-707-1526.
Durban (Westville)
Rev. Lawson M. Smith, 8 Winslow Road, Westville 3630. Phone: 27-31-825-351.
Rev. Geoffrey S. Childs, 7 Sydney Drive, Westville 3630. Phone: 27-31-262-8113.
Empangeni and Impaphala
Rev. Chester Mcanyana, P. O. Box 770, Eshowe 3815.
Eshowe/Richards Bay/Empangeni
Mrs. Marten Hiemstra, P. O. Box 10745, Meerensee 3901. Phone: 0351-32317.
Hambrook, Kwa Mashu and Umlazi
Rev. B. Alfred Mbatha, P.O. Box H602, Kwa Mashu 4360. Phone: 27-31-503-2365.
Westville (see Durban)
Western Cape
Cape Town
Mrs. Sheila Brathwaite, 208 Silvermine Village, Private Bag #1, Noordhoek, 7985. Phone: 27-21-7891424.
     SWEDEN
Jonkoping
Rev. Ragnar Boyesen, Oxelgatan 6, S-565 21 Mullsjo.
Stockholm
Rev. Goran R. Appelgren, Aladdinsvogen 27, S-167 61 Bromma.
     Phone/Fax: 46-(0)8-26 79 85.
(When dialing from abroad, leave out zero in parentheses.) Note: Please send any corrections to the editor.

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WORDS OF SPIRIT AND LIFE 1997

WORDS OF SPIRIT AND LIFE              1997

The Spiritual Meaning of
The Sermon on the Mount

Rev. Leonard Fox has complied and edited this small pocket-size paperback which contains the Sermon on the Mount and extracted related quotations from the Writings.

The verse from Scripture appear on each left-hand page, and the explanation on the right. When no direct quotation from the Writings seems to apply, Mr. Fox used quotes from other well known commentaries.

Because it is so small, it is not an in-depth study, but it is very handy to carry around and frequently refer to.

Published 1997 by
The Swedenborg Association
Charleston, South Carolina

Price U.S. $7.95 plus postage U.S. $1.25



529


Notes on This Issue 1997

Notes on This Issue              1997


New Church Life

December 1997

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     The sermon in this issue is the first we have published by Rev. David Roth. He is the pastor of the New Church circle in Boulder, Colorado. You may recall the photos of the Sunday School there printed in the September issue.
     The second item in this issue is an article by Joel Brown, written when he was a student at the Academy of the New Church.
     As is usual in our December issue we are published the directory of the General Church, which contains quite a bit of information, including the addresses of the ministers of the church.
     In this issue we report baptisms, confirmations, betrothals and marriages that have been sent to us from at least a dozen places. Generally we report deaths of people who were members of the General Church. We would mention this month the death someone who was not a member but was well known both in Sweden and the United States. Sylvia Carlton died in Florida on April 10th at the age of 86. Dr. Horand Gutfeldt died in September. Among the things for which he will be remembered are his travels in Eastern Europe on behalf of the New Church.
     On page 562 we quote from the latest issue of SPI Newsletter. This issue mentions a forthcoming edition of Swedenborg's Rational Psychology which has for so long been out of print. It also mentions a forthcoming book by Eugene Taylor, A Psychology of Spiritual Healing. This is among the books being published by the Swedenborg Foundation.
     Daily Reading Calendar 1998: A calendar of daily readings from the Sacred Scriptures and the Writings will be available upon request from the office of the Assistant to the Acting Secretary of the General Church: Judith M. Hyatt, P.O. Box 743, Bryn Athyn, PA 1909.
Why the Lord Was Born on Our Planet 1997

Why the Lord Was Born on Our Planet              1997

     There are a number of reasons, which I have been told about from heaven, why the Lord was pleased to be born on our planet and not another and to take to Himself the Human (9350, Vol. 11 of Arcana Coelestia).

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JOY IN THE COMING OF OUR LORD 1997

JOY IN THE COMING OF OUR LORD       Rev. DAVID C. ROTH       1997

     A CHRISTMAS SERMON

"Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him . . . . And when they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy" (Matthew 2:2, 10).

      Most likely each of us has our favorite story in relation to the Lord's birth. We may even ask ourselves whether it was the wise men or the shepherds who responded in a more favorable way to the announcement of the Lord's advent. But this question is not really very important when we reflect on the fact that both the wise men and the shepherds did respond. They both heeded the Lord's call but in different ways. All responded according to their own states-different states, yet states which were acceptable to the Lord. How can we then apply the responses of the wise men and shepherds to our own lives on this Christmas day? As we examine the stories of the shepherds and the wise men, the spiritual sense shows us clearly of their application to our lives.
     The first thing we must understand is the importance of the Lord's birth. Without His coming we could not be in freedom to be regenerated by Him. His coming has redeemed mankind; that is, He put the hells back where they belonged, put the heavens in order so that they could be safe from the attack of the hells, and began a new church where people could love the Lord and their neighbor (see TCR 86). By His birth and fulfilled life here on earth the Lord is now present with us fully and powerfully in His Word. We are not left alone. It was this message involving all this wonderful work to be done by the Lord which the shepherds were told of, and which the wise men sought to see fulfilled. As the angel of the Lord proclaimed to the shepherds, "Fear not, for behold I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord" (Luke 2:10, 11).

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The message was clearly one to pay attention to, one to be happy about. A Savior had come, of whose kingdom there would be no end.
     When we consider the call of the shepherds we see a unique response. The shepherds at this time of the year lived out in the fields with their flocks day and night, always keeping a watchful eye upon their tender fold. Perhaps we envision it being cold and dark, with the shepherds staying close to keep themselves warm. This is illustrative of the type of world into which the Lord was born-cold from the lack of charity and love, and dark because of the false understanding in which people's minds were engulfed. Yet even in all this cold and darkness there were a few who possessed an innocence and a willingness to be led and taught by the Word. We can see this in the story of the shepherds. A shepherd represents one who teaches the truths and goods of faith. A good shepherd, that is, one that guards and protects his flock, shows us a picture of someone who is learning, protecting and storing up goods and truths. This is a picture of a basically good person, yet one who believes that life is his own, and that most power is from himself. He has been working hard to learn the truths of the Lord's Word; however, he remains in a state of darkness as to how it all applies to his life, and how it leads him closer to the Lord and away from self. But with this learning of truth and innocent willingness the Lord is able to come to us and be born in our hearts.
     The first thing which the appearing angel said to the shepherds was, "Fear not." This represents a renewal of life, meaning that the Lord will create a new heart within us, a heart that acknowledges the Lord as our Savior and not ourselves. This actually can be a real cause for fear. We read, "For all who come suddenly from self-life into any spiritual life are at first afraid, but their life is renewed by the Lord" (AE 80). It can be a difficult and scary thing to give our life over to the care of the Lord when we feel so strongly that life is our own, and that we have the power from ourselves to conquer evil.

533


When the Lord draws near, the result is temptation, and if we are good we will fear for the loss of good and truth. His nearer presence makes us feel as if we are losing what good and truth we have. But it is when we do follow the Lord, when we listen to the angel's good tidings, that He can truly care for us. The manger in which the shepherds found the Lord represents spiritual nourishment. It is here in the presence of the Lord that we are nourished and instructed. The Lord does not lead us to Himself and then starve us; He will fill us to overflowing. The Babe wrapped in swaddling clothes means first truths-truths of innocence from the Lord's Divine Love. When we come to the Lord He nourishes and instructs us in those things which will make us ready for His kingdom, a kingdom of innocence, love, and use.
     After seeing the Babe, "the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told them" (Luke 2:20). This response by the shepherds signifies a true confession and worship, which comes when we acknowledge in our hearts that there is nothing of good in ourselves, and that we can do nothing of ourselves - and, on the other hand, that all good is from the Lord, and that the Lord can do all things (see AC 1210). The Heavenly Doctrines say further of this response, "When a person is in this acknowledgment, he puts aside what is his own, which belongs to the love of self, and opens all things of his mind, and thus gives room for the Divine to flow in with good and with power" (AC 1210). The shepherds heard the Lord's call and followed it. We can be like the shepherds ourselves when we make the same sort of acknowledgment regarding the power of the Lord. He will call us in His Word, but if we are looking to ourselves for strength we will not hear Him. We may celebrate the Lord's advent, but not with the same conviction for the Lord as we would have if we humbled ourselves and gave glory to the King of glory.
     From this beautiful picture of innocence as seen in the story of the shepherds we now turn to a different scenario: one of wisdom and perseverance-the story of the wise men.

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The wise men seemed to have a special quality about them. They knew about the advent of the Lord because they had a knowledge of the Word and its prophecies. We read concerning them, "The knowledge of correspondences survived among a number of the orientals, even until the Lord's advent, as is evident from the wise men of the east who came to the Lord at His birth" (SS 23). " . . . and that they knew of His advent by a star which appeared to them in the east" (AC 10177).
     It is interesting to think of the fact that those who were of the Jewish faith who had the Old Testament Word, and who should have known that the Lord was to be born, had no idea of it. When the wise men came and asked Herod, "Where is He who has been born King of the Jews?" he had no answer, but called the chief priests and scribes together to help. We can imagine that perhaps Herod was a bit embarrassed that he, the king, did not know this. The Word says that "He was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him." Whatever the nature of the response, again it was quite indicative of the state of the Jewish Church at the time. Not only was their knowledge of the Word lacking and false, but many, like Herod, had an all-out hatred for the Lord. This is plainly shown in Herod's plot to kill the infant Lord, a plot which resulted in the slaying of many innocent children in Bethlehem.
     The Jews at this time, it seems, were not planning for or looking for the Lord. And when they did find out that He had come, there was no room in their hearts nor their inns to greet Him. Yet, as with the shepherds, we see in the story of the wise men others who were ready for the Lord. But we observe a difference in their response to the Lord's coming, the main difference being that the wise men were actively seeking out the Lord. They had seen His star in the east and had come to worship Him. They travelled a long distance to see the star that had come out of Jacob, the Scepter that had risen out of Israel, He who was to be born King of the Jews.

535



     In the spiritual sense, the east represents love and the star that went before them signifies knowledge from heaven (see AC 3762, SS 23). The travelling of the wise men to the land of the east was representative of one who in his life is moving toward the good of faith. This, the Heavenly Doctrines teach, is nothing else than charity toward the neighbor, or a life according to the Lord's commandments (see AC 3249). In this spiritual picture we can see that it is the knowledges of good and truth found in the Lord's Word, represented by the star, which guide us to a life of charity or love, that is, which guides us to the Lord Himself. This paints a beautiful picture for each of us. We see that it is through the learning of the Lord's truths and commands that we can be led to Him.
     Still, the most beautiful aspect of the wise men's response to the Lord's advent is seen when they depart from Herod for Bethlehem and the star reappears before them. "And behold, the star which they had seen in the east went before them till it came and stood over where the young child was. And when they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy." Exceeding great joy! What kind of feeling did they have? It must have been an overwhelming feeling of excitement and internal peace over having embarked upon the last leg of the journey to their Savior, the star's reappearing to assure them that the Lord was with them as they continued their trek. Can we ever have such feelings of great joy in our religious life? We certainly can, and we must! Talking to a person who has recently become aware of the wisdom and love found in the Heavenly Doctrines can certainly emanate exceeding great joy. Or a newly engaged or married couple shows it to a certain degree. Perhaps we can even relate it to the expression a young child shows on Christmas morning. However, if we are raised in the New Church, do we lose this excitement or never let it show? If we do, how can we regain this feeling or bring it out so that others can share it? One answer is to be like the wise men: to seek out the Lord in His Word and then come to Him when we see the star-those knowledges from heaven contained in the Word.

536



     We should also be prepared to accept that we may not find the Lord right away. Even the wise men thought they would find the Lord in Jerusalem, but He wasn't there. They could have given up, but they asked others where He could be found. This illustrates how essential it is to talk with others about our beliefs and our quest for the Lord. They can add to our understanding and love for the Lord. And perhaps our picture then becomes clearer for us, which can eventually lead us to Him. Notice: the star showed itself again until it came and stood over where the young child was. It led the wise men right to the Lord. We need the truths and goods represented by the star to lead us, and to keep leading us throughout life.
     It is important to realize that truth will lead us to the Lord and make us happy, but the real joy for us in our spiritual lives will be when we come to the Lord offering gifts to Him, as the wise men did. These gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh were more than just earthly treasures. They represented testifications of the heart or will, the heart found in a person that is truly thankful for all that the Lord has done for him or her, and shows it by following His Word. These gifts represented things pleasing to God because their origin is in love and faith toward Him. Love is represented by the gold; our faith by the frankincense; and by the myrrh is represented our love and faith grounded in things external, which is a life in obedience and love to the Lord and to our neighbor. These are the gifts which the Lord is asking us to bear on Christmas day and beyond. But more important to know, they are the gifts which He gives us and wills to give each of us when we respond to His coming.
     So on this Christmas day let us ask ourselves the following question with the earnest desire to find the answer: "Where is He who has been born King of the Jews?" Let us then search diligently for His star in the east and come to worship Him-that is, live a life of charity and faith in Him, because it is in this kind of life where we too can share the vision of the shepherds and the excitement of the wise men.

537


"Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him . . . . And when they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy." Amen.

Lessons: Luke 2:1-20, Matthew 2:1-12, AE 661 COMPARISON OF THE OLD TESTAMENT, THE NEW TESTAMENT AND THE WRITINGS 1997

COMPARISON OF THE OLD TESTAMENT, THE NEW TESTAMENT AND THE WRITINGS       JOEL BROWN       1997

     The first and most cursory distinction that can be made among the three dispensations is that of the actual language of the letter, the Old Testament being written in Hebrew (except for small sections, like the second half of the book of Daniel, written in Aramaic), the New Testament being written in Koine Greek, and the Writings being written in Neo-Latin.
     It is interesting to note that with each of these languages there seem to be two forms: that of the classical and that in which the Sacred Scripture was written. I am not sure about the comparison of Hebrew and Aramaic (or the concept of the possibility of a Proto-Hebrew more closely associated with the science of correspondences), but the other two both fall neatly into this type of categorization. The Golden Age of Greece was in the sixth and fifth centuries BC; it was a time when Greece flourished both economically and culturally, and some of the output of the era includes the works of such famous philosophers as Socrates and his chronicler, Plato.

538


When Greek culture was to be carried to the land of Canaan with the conquests of Alexander (335-332 BC), the language of classical Greece was also to be imported. By the time of the Lord's advent the lingua franca of the intellectual world of the Mediterranean was Koine Greek.
     This was the language in which the New Testament was to be written by the evangelists in the first and second centuries AD; and the importance of this language in connection with the New Testament can best be seen in the Gospel of John (the most philosophical of the Gospels). From the opening verse of John, the Logos (or Word) is introduced as a concept that will be repeated as a theme throughout the Gospel. Embedded directly in the Greek language, as in all languages, are the philosophy, culture, custom and even idiosyncrasies of the people from which the language sprang, grew and spread. The Logos was the embodiment of the idea of "reason" which ruled the universe and which we would think of in terms of the Divine Truth, or in terms of Divine Wisdom. When John declares that Jesus is the Logos, he is making a huge claim, not some minor theatrical or rhetorical flourish. While Roman roads and Roman law allowed for the diffusion of the newly established Christianity, it was the Greek language and, to some extent the philosophy that it contained, that truly spread the "good news."
     It seems that as each church was dying away and the new church was being established, the canon was active and vital, a living, organic force that then became solidified and preserved for the use of later generations of the church (in fact, depending on what series you're looking at, a distinctly different church). This is true of the Old Testament canon that began to solidify in response to external pressures toward the centuries approaching the Lord's birth, but was not fully fixed until the sixty-some odd years after the Lord's death and resurrection, when a council of rabbis determined it at a gathering in Jamnia near Joppa in 90 AD (incidentally, probably the same year as the Apocalypse was being written by John on the Isle of Patmos).

539


We again see this pattern playing out as the early Christian Church neared its demise at the Council of Nicea in 325 AD. Once again it was in response to external pressures that the canon became fixed and formalized, and once again it was at the end of the active internal life of the church.
     To return to the concept of language, and to round out the series of the churches and their testaments, the classic Latin language had been fixed for many years by the time the eighteenth century rolled around. In the Latin language there was also contained the thought of a people now long past, but the language also contained a wealth of terminology that had been accrued through its use as the lingua franca of scientific Europe since the Enlightenment, and before that as the theological language of the Roman Catholic Church, including such resounding names as Augustine and Thomas Aquinas.
     It is no accident that Swedenborg was to study Latin intensively at university, in fact defending a Latin thesis as his graduation requirement. The Writings themselves contain the superstructure and at times content (though obviously in this case Divinely infilled and ordered) of the philosophy of the times and the times preceding. Thus the Renaissance can be seen as a great preparation for the coming of the New Church. Perhaps every major growth spurt in the church is encouraged by a revival of the sacred languages. (In the college and church at the moment there is great enthusiasm for the sacred languages-a sign that bodes well for the future of the church.)
     The question of canon must inevitably arise, and rather than being a divisive issue, I think that the discussion centered on and around the topic is of great value to the church, for the topic of what is the Word leads to some of the most fundamental and essential concepts that need to be examined and could be rephrased in Pilate's question, "What is truth?" The "great conversation" that has occurred throughout the ages, in modern times, especially those of the past thirty years, has become more of a "great cacophony."

540


In literature we have deconstructionism, in philosophy relativism; in art we have expressionism, often with no attempt at objectivity in either form or meaning (in fact, much modern art seems to have almost no meaning). This same trend is seen again in the western world as the dumbing down of ideas.
     Even in the General Church there has been a recent trend away from intellectualism and toward application. (Granted, it is tricky to maintain a balance among good, truth and use, and the gyre will always be shifting as the pendulum is always swinging. But some aspects of the church seem to be too far to one side, and therefore subtle heresies arise when truths get overemphasized, sometimes unmarried to good, and even sometimes used as swords to swing at other members of the church.) We should be discussing doctrine; instead we think we are arguing about ritual, when in reality, sometimes, we are having a clash of personalities (similar perhaps to the Nova Hierosolyma split of 1936 except it doesn't seem that there is going to be a schism this time). Or, like the rest of the world, we are having a clash of generations within the church. Perhaps the pendulum had to swing and genuine concerns were being addressed, including the church's past failure to address the needs and states of many of the broken-hearted, but now some of the broken-hearted seem to be throwing stones. Perhaps all this needed to come out; perhaps it didn't have to be so painful, but it is a battle of brother and brother, sister and sister, and sadly, of brother and sister. It is a family fight. And in this kind of squabble, people often say and do things they later regret. Also, often people going through these states, as we all may at times of deep emotion in our lives, confuse anger and zeal. It is sometimes tricky to know whether we're throwing stones or building walls, that is, until you get hit with a stone.
     Though we are given the canon of the Old and New Testaments in the Writings (see AC 10,325) as those books of the Bible that contain a continuous internal sense, we are not told in the Writings themselves what their own canon is.

541


We are told in TCR 779 that these doctrines are to be received by a man that is able to "publish them by the press," but we are not told exactly what these books are. A mere one hundred years ago when the General Church was being founded there was a deep veneration for the pre-theological works that put them on a status on or near that of the Writings.
     Though today we can see that the pre-theological works may be useful, they are not necessary, that is, they are not essential, and in short, they are not the Word. They may help us understand the Word in the same way that an understanding of Israelitish history or Greek language will help us understand the Word, but they are not the Word Itself. As to the question of the Apocalypse Explained and the Spiritual Diary, their mere existence helps facilitate discussion in the church that is good and useful.
     Maybe in future generations as the church regenerates and our enlightenment increases we will clearly see their place. But in the meantime we struggle with the questions of our day, as well we should, and these in turn will lead to answers for future generations, as indeed we are indebted to the gifts of George de Charms and W. F. Pendleton.
     The most basic doctrinal distinction that can be made among the three dispensations is that they fall into a series that seems to relate to the series of sensual, middle natural, and rational (the degrees of the natural mind), though all three contain appearances of truth. As to the question of correspondences, representatives and significatives, with each dispensation this gets us into the doctrinal depths of language development and function, and the numerous details that this topic comprises. A basic understanding of a difference between the Old Testament and the following two can be seen in the fact that Hebrew reads from right to left (as the Most Ancients from good saw truth, and we from love seek ways to help those whom we love, so in the very ultimates of the language, in the Hebrew language itself we see this pattern of thought reflected).

542


But the succeeding dispensations, the Greek New Testament and the Latin Writings, read from left to right (as indeed this paper was typed and as is this sentence that you are currently reading and wondering why it is so long).
     The term "the Writings," I believe, was taken from one of Swedenborg's letters in which he refers to "my writings." Maybe it is as good a term as any, though it could be confused with the Hebrew term hagiographa or "Holy Writings." But still, the point is that whatever you call the Writings they are the Word; as Sigstedt relates in the Swedenborg Epic of a man in Sweden who was locally renowned for his wisdom, when asked whether the Writings were the Word he answered, "It doesn't matter so much what you call them so long as you live by them." This is the short answer, and it is given by some ministers in the church today in response to these questions, namely, that they aren't essential for salvation; but still they are good and useful questions that through the search if not the answer, the church and its doctrine will grow. As some put it, "The important thing is not to stop questioning." With the Word I would attach only the qualification of "with reverence and humility."
     In the Word we have the series of the letter, the sense of the letter, the internal sense, and the supreme sense. We again see this series as the natural, the natural sense, the spiritual sense, and the celestial sense. All these series rest and reside in the letter, because it is in the sense of the letter that the Word is in its fullness, integrity and power. The issue of a New Church translation of the Bible has arisen, and it seems that we are nearing that day when such a thing will be needed, if indeed we haven't already reached it; for a translation from the light of doctrine would doubtless be better for the church. Even if all translation is only approximation, accurate and artistic approximation in the light of truth is just that much nearer the Lord. So while the New King James version is beautiful, we perhaps need to go back to the Textus Receptus and other manuscripts with our increased knowledge from revelation, and retranslate the Scripture.

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     In the church today there does not seem to be as much veneration for the sense of the letter as when I was growing up. Often I hear attacks against the Lord's name (the first degree of profanation), and people don't seem to value the book of the Bible as much as they used to. I am not sure exactly what is the sense of holiness that should be accorded the book. It is a book after all, and the Lord would not be hurt or upset if a Bible was lost or forgotten. It is not profane if a Bible has something spilled on it or written in its margin. But the sense of respect and reverence we take toward the book because of what it contains within it is significant. It is the Word of God, and if we understand what that means, this is no small thing.
     Somewhere there is a balancing point between respect and questioning, as indeed there is a balancing point with our relationship to our parents between respecting them and being friends. It is not all one attitude or the other, but more of the attitude behind and within what we do and why we do it. I would never want to see someone, for fear, not be able to go to the Word and search and question and grapple and try to understand. It is only in this way that we come to answers in life. But it brings to mind the memorable relation contained in the True Christian Religion of the Word as a purse of gold and the children by it whom Swedenborg was told to treat as wise angels and not as infants (see TCR 277). In all innocence, if we approach the Lord in the Word or the Lord in prayer, we can bring sincere and sometimes troubling questions. And He hears us. One of the things the hells would most like us to do is to stay away from the Word. But there are cherubim who guard its sacred contents, and we should remember to have holy fear of the Lord, not that of anguish or angst, but of love and respect for who He is, our Lord and our God.
     The sense of the letter of the Word holds endless fascination. Within words there is so much meaning, and how much more so within the direct words the Lord has chosen to speak to us, His children. In all language is enfolded the heart's desire.

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It could be no other way, for the essence of language is love. It's not the words; it's why you're speaking them. But when, as they should, the internals align with their corresponding externals, and the series becomes full, then we see in the outermost things the reflections of the soul's desire. As the series descended to us through the finition of creation, the Divine Itself, out of the Divine Love, created through the Divine Wisdom the first of creation, the spiritual sun, out of which flow the heat and light of the spiritual world that descend through appearances to us and are clothed in the language of the Word. When we approach the Lord in the Word, the Lord can build the series back up-not through anything of our own intelligence but if the Lord chooses to reveal it. Then we see in the Word the doctrine of genuine truth, the glowing face of the Divine Human Himself. The Lord can reopen the series to us and so reveal to us the spiritual sense with the opening of our spiritual eyes and even, if He so wills, revealing to us the celestial sense of the Word, and causing us to say, "Surely the Lord is in this place" (Genesis 28:16).
FOLLOWING QUOTATIONS ARE FROM VOL. 11 OF THE ARCANA, the Translation by John Elliott: 1997

FOLLOWING QUOTATIONS ARE FROM VOL. 11 OF THE ARCANA, the Translation by John Elliott:              1997

TAUGHT BY THE LORD - People are taught by the Lord when they read the Word not for any selfish or worldly reason but for goodness' and truth's sake, for they are enlightened then (9188).

WITHHELD FROM THE PROPRIUM - To the extent that a person can be withheld from his proprium, the Lord can be present with him, and therefore to the same extent holiness resides with him (9229).

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DIRECTORY 1997

DIRECTORY              1997

     GENERAL CHURCH OF THE NEW JERUSALEM

          Officials
          Bishop:     Rt. Rev. Peter M. Buss
          Bishops Emeriti:     Rt. Rev. Louis B. King
               Rt. Rev. Willard D. Pendleton
          Acting Secretary:     Mrs. Susan V. Simpson

     Consistory

     Rt. Rev. Peter M. Buss
Rt. Rev. Louis B. King; Rev. Messrs. Alfred Acton, William O. Ankra-Badu, Kurt Ho. Asplundh, Christopher D. Bown, Eric H. Carswell, Geoffrey S. Childs, James P. Cooper, Michael D. Gladish, Daniel W. Goodenough, Daniel W. Heinrichs, Robert S. Junge, Brian W. Keith, Thomas L. Kline, David H. Lindrooth, B. Alfred Mbatha, Donald L. Rose, Frank S. Rose, Frederick L. Schnarr, Grant R. Schnarr, Philip B. Schnarr, and Lawson M. Smith


     "GENERAL CHURCH OF THE NEW JERUSALEM"

     (A Corporation of Pennsylvania)

          Officers of the Corporation
          President:     Rt. Rev. Peter M. Buss
          Vice President:     Rt. Rev. Louis B. King
          Secretary:     Mr. E. Boyd Asplundh
          Treasurer:     Mr. Neil M. Buss
          Controller:     Mr. Ian K. Henderson



     BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF THE CORPORATION



Debra G. Accomazzo, Thomas R. Andrews, Stewart L. Asplundh, Maxwell Blair, Jill A. Brickman, Michael A. Brown, R. Andrew Damm, Nancy S. Dawson, Robert L. Glenn, Howard B. Gurney, Zenon Harantschuk, Thelma P. Henderson, Justin K. Hyatt, John A. Kern, William L. Kunkle, Debra M. Lermitte, Paul C. P. Mayer, Roger S. Murdoch, Tatsuya Nagashima, Ronald Nater, Wayne M. Parker, Cameron C. Pitcairn, Duncan B. Pitcairn, Lincoln F. Schoenberger, Beryl C. Simonetti, John A. Snoep, James G. Uber, Kenneth L. York


          Ex-officio Members:     Rt. Rev. Peter M. Buss
               Rt. Rev. Louis B. King
               Mr. Neil M. Buss
          Honorary Life Member:     Rt. Rev. Willard D. Pendleton



     BISHOPS



Buss, Peter Martin. Ordained June 19, 1964; 2nd degree, May 16, 1965; 3rd degree, June 1, 1986. Continues to serve as Executive Bishop of the General Church, General Pastor of the General Church, Chancellor of the Academy of the New Church, President of the General Church in Canada, and President of the General Church International, Incorporated. Address: P.O. Box 711, Bryn Athyn, PA 19009.

King, Louis Blair. Ordained June 19, 1951; 2nd degree, April 19, 1953; 3rd degree, November 5, 1972. Retired. Bishop Emeritus of the General Church; Interim Pastor to Phoenix Society. Address: P.O. Box 743, Bryn Athyn, PA 19009.

Pendleton, Willard Dandridge. Ordained June 18, 1933; 2nd degree, September 12, 1934; 3rd degree, June 19, 1946. Retired. Bishop Emeritus of the General Church and Chancellor Emeritus of the Academy. Address: P.O. Box 338, Bryn Athyn, PA 19009.

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     PASTORS



Acton, Alfred. Ordained June 19, 1964; 2nd degree, October 30, 1966. Regional Pastor in the Southeast United States; Chairman of the General Church Translation Committee; Secretary of the Council of the Clergy; Assistant Professor at Bryn Athyn College; Professor at Academy Theological School. Address: P.O. Box 717, Bryn Athyn, PA 19009.

Alden, Glenn Graham. Ordained June 19, 1974; 2nd degree, June 6, 1976. Continues to serve as part-time Pastor of Dawson Creek and Visiting Pastor to Crooked Creek. Address: 9013 8th Street, Dawson Creek, B.C., Canada V1G 3N3.

Alden, Kenneth James. Ordained June 6, 1980; 2nd degree, May 16, 1982. Continues to serve as Pastor of the Colchester Society and Visiting Minister of the Manchester Circle and Oxford Group. Address: 8 Stoneleigh Park, Lexden, Colchester, Essex, England C03 5FA.

Alden, Mark Edward. Ordained June 10, 1979; 2nd degree, May 17, 1981. Unassigned; presently working in the medical field. Address: P. O. Box 204, Bryn Athyn, PA 19009.

Ankra-Badu, William Ofei. Ordained June 15, 1986; 2nd degree, March 1, 1992. Continues to serve as a Pastor of the Accra-Abelenkpe New Church in Ghana. Address: P.O. Box 11305, Accra-North, Ghana, West Africa.     

Anochi, Nicholas Wiredu. Ordained June 4, 1995; 2nd degree, November 2, 1997. Continues to serve as a pastor in Ghana, West Africa. Address: c/o Box 11305, Accra-North, Ghana, West Africa.

Appelgren, Goran Reinhold. Ordained June 7, 1992; 2nd degree, July 3, 1994. Continues to serve as Resident Pastor of the Stockholm Society. Address: Aladdinsvogen 27, S-167 61 Bromma, Sweden.

Asplundh, Kurt Horigan. Ordained June 19, 1960; 2nd degree, June 19, 1962. Retired. Address: P.O. Box 26, Bryn Athyn, PA 19009.

Asplundh, Kurt Hyland. Ordained June 6, 1993; 2nd degree, April 30, 1995. As of July 1, 1997 teacher in the Academy Secondary Schools and Bryn Athyn College. Address: P. O. Box 707, Bryn Athyn, PA 19009.

Barnett, Wendel Ryan. Ordained June 7, 1981; 2nd degree, June 20, 1982. Continues to serve as Assistant Pastor of the Olivet Society (Toronto) and Senior Chaplain to the 514 AMW at McGuire AFB, New Jersey. Address: 134 Smithwood, Etobicoke, Ontario, Canada M9B 4S4.

Bau-Madsen, Arne. Ordained June 6, 1976; 2nd degree, June 11, 1978. Continues to serve as Associate Pastor to Kempton, Visiting Pastor to the Wallenpaupack Circle and the Wilmington, Delaware Group; translator. Address: 37 Sousley Road, Lenhartsville, PA 19534.

Bown, Christopher Duncan. Ordained June 18, 1978; 2nd degree, December 23, 1979. Continues to serve as an instructor in the Academy Theological School and the Bryn Athyn College, and in the graduate program for lay people and distance learning through the Internet; Visiting Pastor of the Connecticut Circle.     Address: P. O. Box 717, Bryn Athyn, PA 19009.

Boyesen, Bjorn Adolph Hildemar. Ordained June 19, 1939; 2nd degree, March 30, 1941. Retired; translator of the Writings from Latin to modern Swedish. Address: l Bruks?ter, S?terfors 10, S-566 91, Habo, Sweden.

Boyesen, Ragnar. Ordained June 19, 1972; 2nd degree, June 17, 1973. Continues to serve as Pastor of the Jonkoping, Sweden and Copenhagen, Denmark Circles. Address: Oxelgatan 6, S-565 33, Mullsjo, Sweden.

Burke, William Hanson. Ordained June 7, 1981; 2nd degree, August 13, 1983. Retired. Address: 755 Arbour Glenn Court, Lawrenceville, GA 30043.

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Buss, Erik James. Ordained June 10, 1990; 2nd degree, September 13, 1992. Continues to serve as Pastor of the Cascade New Church, Seattle, Washington, and Visiting Pastor of the Northwest District. Address: 5409 -154th Ave. NE, Redmond, WA 98052.

Buss, Peter Martin, Jr. Ordained June 6, 1993; 2nd degree, June 18, 1995. Continues to serve as Assistant Pastor of the Immanuel Church. Address: 2700 Park Lane, Glenview, IL 60025.

Buthelezi, Ishborn M. Ordained August 18, 1985; second degree, August 23, 1987. Recognized as a General Church minister, November 19, 1989. Continues to serve as Pastor of the Clermont Society, Enkumba Society and also Hambrook Society at times. Address: P.O. Box 150, Clernaville, Kwa Zulu-Natal, 3602, Rep. of South Africa.

Carlson, Mark Robert. Ordained June 10, 1973; 2nd degree, March 6, 1977. Unassigned. Address: P.O. Box 707, Bryn Athyn, PA 19009.

Carswell, Eric Hugh. Ordained June 10, 1979; 2nd degree, February 22, 1981. Continues to serve as Pastor of the Glenview Society, President of the Midwestern Academy, and Regional Pastor of the Midwest United States. Address: 73 Park Drive, Glenview, IL 60025.

Chapin, Frederick Merle. Ordained June 15, 1986; 2nd degree, October 23, 1988. Continues to serve as Pastor of the Charlotte Circle and Visiting Pastor of the Southeast District. Address: 6625 Rolling Ridge Drive, Charlotte, NC 28211.

Childs, Geoffrey Stafford. Ordained June 19, 1952; 2nd degree, June 19, 1954. Retired; continues to serve as Bishop's Representative in South Africa and EVP of the General Church in South Africa Corporation. Address: 7 Sydney Drive, Westville, KwaZulu-Natal, 3630, Rep. of South Africa.

Childs, Robin Waelchli. Ordained June 6, 1984; 2nd degree, June 8, 1986. Continues to serve as a teacher of religion and counsellor in the Academy Secondary Schools. Address: P. O. Box 707, Bryn Athyn, PA 19009.

Clifford, William Harrison. Ordained June 6, 1976; 2nd degree, October 8, 1978. Resigned. Address: 1544 Giddings Ave. SE, Gorand Rapids, MI 49507-2223.

Cole, Robert Hudson Pendleton. Ordained June 16, 1963; 2nd degree, October 30, 1966. Retired. Address: P.O. Box 356, Bryn Athyn, PA 19009.

Cole, Stephen Dandridge. Ordained June 19, 1977; 2nd degree, October 15, 1978. Continues to serve as Pastor of the San Diego Society and Visiting Pastor to the Albuquerque Circle. Address: 941 Ontario Street, Escondido, CA 92025.

Cooper, James Pendleton. Ordained June 13, 1982; 2nd degree, March 4, 1984. Continues to serve as Pastor of the Washington Society and Principal of the Washington New Church School. Address: 11910 Chantilly Lane, Mitchellville, MD 20721.     

Cowley, Michael Keith. Ordained June 13, 1982; 2nd degree, May 13, 1984. Continues to serve as Pastor of the Carmel Church Society, Kitchener, Ontario, Canada. Address: 58 Chapel Hill Drive, Kitchener, Ontario, Canada N2G 3W5.

Cranch, Harold Covert. Ordained June 19, 1941; 2nd degree, October 15, 1942. Retired. Continues to serve as Acting Pastor of the Sacramento Circle and assisting local pastors as needed. Address: 501 Porter Street, Glendale, CA 91205.

Darkwah, Simpson Kwasi. Ordained June 7, 1992; 2nd degree, August 28, 1994. Continues to serve as Pastor of the Tema, Ghana Circle and Visiting Pastor of the Madina Circle. Address: House #AA3 - Community 4, Box 1483, Tema, Ghana, West Africa.

de Padua, Mauro Santos. Ordained June 7, 1992; 2nd degree, June 12, 1994. Continues to serve as Assistant to the Pastor of the Glenview Society and traveling minister to the Midwestern District. Address: 74 Park Drive, Glenview, IL 60025.

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Dibb, Andrew Malcolm Thomas. Ordained June 6, 1984; 2nd degree, May 18, 1986. Continues to serve as Pastor of the New Church Buccleuch, Visiting Pastor of the Cape Town Circle, and Dean of the South African Theological School. Address: P.O. Box 816, Kelvin, Gauteng, 2054, Rep. of South Africa.

Echols, John Clark, Jr. Ordained August 26, 1978; 2nd degree, March 30, 1980. Continues to serve as Pastor of The Sower's Chapel, the Freeport Society. Address: 980 Sarver Road, Sarver, PA 16055.

Elphick, Derek Peter. Ordained June 6, 1993; 2nd degree, May 22, 1994. Continues to serve as Pastor of the Boynton Beach Society and also serving Melbourne. Address: 10621 El Clair Ranch Road, Boynton Beach, FL 33437.

Elphick, Frederick Charles. Ordained June 6, 1984; 2nd degree, September 23, 1984. Continues to serve as Pastor of the Michael Church, London, England, and Visiting Pastor to the Surrey Circle. Address: 21B Hayne Road, Beckenham, Kent, England, BR3 4JA.

Gladish, Michael David. Ordained June 10, 1973; 2nd degree, June 30, 1974. Continues to serve as Pastor of the Olivet Church (Toronto), Executive Vice President of the General Church in Canada, and continues to do national travel work. Address: 2 Lorraine Gardens, Etobicoke, Ontario, Canada, M9B 4Z4.

Gladish, Nathan Donald. Ordained June 13, 1982; 2nd degree, November 6, 1983. Continues to serve as Pastor of the Pittsburgh New Church and Principal and Head Teacher of the Pittsburgh New Church School. Address: 299 Le Roi Road, Pittsburgh, PA 15208.

Goodenough, Daniel Webster. Ordained June 19, 1965; 2nd degree, December 10, 1967. Continues to serve as President of the Academy of the New Church. Address: P.O. Box 711, Bryn Athyn, PA 19009.

Gyamfi, Martin Kofi. Ordained June 9, 1991; 2nd degree, August 28, 1994. Continues to serve as Resident Pastor for Asakraka-Kwahu Group and Visiting Pastor for Nteso and Oframase Groups. Address: The New Church, P. O. Box 10, Asakraka-Kwahu, E/R, Ghana, West Africa.

Halterman, Barry Childs. Ordained June 5, 1994; 2nd degree, September 8, 1996. Continues to serve as Assistant to the Executive Vice President of the General Church in Canada and Executive Director of Information Swedenborg, Inc. Address: 90 Great Oak Drive, Etobicoke, Ontario, Canada M9A 1N5.

Heilman, Andrew James. Ordained June 18, 1978; 2nd degree, March 8, 1981. Continues to serve as Assistant Pastor to the Kempton Society and teacher in the Kempton New Church School. Address: 1050 Mountain Road, Kempton, PA 19529.

Heinrichs, Daniel Winthrop. Ordained June 19, 1957; 2nd degree, April 6, 1958. Retired. Address: 9115 Chrysanthemum Drive, Boynton Beach, FL 33437-1236.

Heinrichs, Willard Lewis Davenport. Ordained June 19, 1965; 2nd degree, January 26, 1969. Continues to serve as an instructor in the Academy Theological School and Bryn Athyn College and a Visiting Pastor to the Baltimore Society. Address: P.O. Box 717, Bryn Athyn, PA 19009.

Howard, Geoffrey Horace. Ordained June 19, 1961; 2nd degree, June 2, 1963. Continues to serve as Pastor of the Boston Society and Visiting Pastor to Eastern Massachusetts and Southern New Hampshire. Address: 17 Cakebread Drive, Sudbury, MA 01776.

Jin, Yong Jin. Ordained June 5, 1994; 2nd degree, June 16, 1996. Continues to serve as Pastor to the Korean-speaking members of the Church in the greater Philadelphia area, and responsible for outreach to the Korean-speaking community in this area. Address: P. O. Box 743, Bryn Athyn, PA 19009.

549




Junge, Kent. Ordained June 10, 1979; 2nd degree, June 24, 1981. Resigned.

Junge, Robert Schill. Ordained June 19, 1955; 2nd degree, August 11, 1957. Continues to serve as Pastor of the Kempton Society. Address: 8551 Junge Lane, RD 1, Kempton, PA 19529.

Keith, Brian Walter. Ordained June 6, 1976; 2nd degree, June 4, 1978. Continues to serve as Dean of the Academy Theological School and Regional Pastor of the Northeast United States. Address: P.O. Box 717, Bryn Athyn, PA 19009.

King, Cedric. Ordained June 10, 1979; 2nd degree, November 27, 1980. Continues to serve as part-time Pastor of the El Toro New Church Circle, and Marriage and Family Therapist in the Orange County area. Address: 21332 Forest Meadow, Lake Forest, CA 92630.

Kline, Thomas Leroy. Ordained June 10, 1973; 2nd degree, June 15, 1975. Continues to serve as Pastor of the Bryn Athyn Society. Address: P.O. Box 277, Bryn Athyn, PA 19009.

Kwak, Dzin Pyung. Ordained June 12, 1988; 2nd degree, November 11, 1990. Continues to serve as a Pastor of the General Church in Korea (on special assignment). Address: #101-704, Jinlo Apt., B-2 block, Deangchon-dong, Kangseo-Ku, Seoul, Korea 157-031.

Larsen, Ottar Trosvik. Ordained June 19, 1974; 2nd degree, February 16, 1977. Resigned. Address: 2145 Country Club Drive, Huntingdon Valley, PA 19006.

Lindrooth, David Hutchinson. Ordained June 10, 1990; 2nd degree, April 19, 1992. Continues to serve as Pastor of the Ivyland New Church. Address: 851 W. Bristol Road, Ivyland, PA 18974.

Maseko, Jacob. Ordained November 29, 1992; 2nd degree, September 18, 1994. Continues to serve as Pastor of the Diepkloof Society. Address: P. O. Box 261, Pimville, Gauteng, 1808, Rep. of South Africa.

Mbatha, Bekuyise Alfred. Ordained June 27, 1971; 2nd degree, June 23, 1974. Recognized as a General Church minister November 26, 1989. Continues to serve as Pastor of the Kwa Mashu Society and Visiting Pastor to the Hambrook Society and Dondotha and Umlazi Groups. Address: H602, Kwa Mashu, KwaZulu-Natal, 4360, Rep. of South Africa.

Mcanyana, Chester. Ordained November 12, 1989; 2nd degree, September 25, 1994. Continues to serve as Pastor of the Impaphala Society and Visiting Pastor of the Empangeni Group. Address: P.O. Box 770, Eshowe, KwaZulu-Natal, 3815, Rep. of South Africa.

McCurdy, George Daniel. Ordained June 25, 1967; Recognized as a priest of the New Church in the second degree July 5, 1979; received into the priesthood of the General Church June 9, 1980. Retired. Address: P. O. Box 707, Bryn Athyn, PA 19009.

Nemitz, Kurt Paul. Ordained June 16, 1963; 2nd degree, March 27, 1966. Unassigned. Address: P. O. Box 164, Bryn Athyn, PA 19009.

Nicholson, Allison La Marr. Ordained September 9, 1979; 2nd degree, February 15, 1981. Retired. Continues to serve as Pastor of the Bath Society. Address: HC33, Box 61N, Arrowsic, ME 04530.

Nobre, Cristovao Rabelo. Ordained June 6, 1984; 2nd degree, August 25, 1985. Continues to serve as Pastor of the Rio de Janeiro Society and Campo Gorande Group. Address: Rod Mendes Vassouras, km 41, Caixa Postal 85.711, 27.700-000, Vassouras, RJ, Brazil.

Odhner, Grant Hugo. Ordained June 7, 1981; 2nd degree, May 9, 1982. Continues to serve as Pastor of the Oak Arbor Society and Principal of the Oak Arbor Church School. Address: 395 Olivewood Court, Rochester, MI 48306.

Odhner, John Llewellyn. Ordained June 6, 1980; 2nd degree, November 22, 1981. Continues to serve as Pastor of the New Church at La Crescenta and Visiting Pastor to San Francisco Bay Area Circle. Address: 5022 Carolyn Way, La Crescenta, CA 91214.

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Orthwein, Walter Edward III. Ordained July 22, 1973; 2nd degree, June 12, 1977. Recognized as a priest of the General Church June 12, 1977. Continues to serve as a teacher in the Bryn Athyn College and the Academy Theological School, and Visiting Pastor of the Central Pennsylvania Group. Address: P.O. Box 717, Bryn Athyn, PA 19009.

Pendleton, Dandridge. Ordained June 19, 1952; 2nd degree, June 19, 1954. Retired. Address: P.O. Box 278, Bryn Athyn, PA 19009.

Pendleton, Mark Dandridge. Ordained June 9, 1991; 2nd degree, May 29, 1994. Continues to serve as Assistant Pastor of the Oak Arbor Church and Visiting Pastor to the North Ohio Circle. Address: 4535 Oak Arbor Drive, Rochester, MI 48306.

Perry, Charles Mark. Ordained June 9, 1991; 2nd degree, June 19, 1993. Continues to serve as Pastor of the Atlanta New Church and travel in the southeast (Macon, GA and Birmingham, AL). Address: 5155 Paisley Court, Lilburn, GA 30047.

Riley, Norman Edward. Ordained June 14, 1950; 2nd degree June 20, 1951. Recognized as a priest of the General Church January, 1978. Retired. Address: 69 Harewood Road, Norden, Rochdale, Lancs., England, OL11 5TH.

Rogers, Prescott Andrew. Ordained January 26, 1986; 2nd degree, April 24, 1988. As of July 1, 1997 Principal of the Bryn Athyn Church School. Address: P.O. Box 277, Bryn Athyn, PA 19009.

Rose, Donald Leslie. Ordained June 16, 1957; 2nd degree, June 23, 1963. Continues to serve as Editor of New Church Life and Assistant to the Pastor of the Bryn Athyn Society. Address: P.O. Box 277, Bryn Athyn, PA 19009.

Rose, Frank Shirley. Ordained June 19, 1952; 2nd degree, August 2, 1953. Continues to serve as Pastor of Sunrise Chapel, Tucson and Bishop's Representative for the Western United States. Address: 9233 E. Helen Street, Tucson, AZ 85715.

Rose, Jonathan Searle. Ordained May 31, 1987; 2nd degree, February 23, 1997. Continues to serve as Chaplain at the Bryn Athyn College, Assistant Professor of Greek and Religion at the Bryn Athyn College, and as a translator. Address: P.O. Box 717, Bryn Athyn, PA 19009.

Rose, Patrick Alan. Ordained June 19, 1975; 2nd degree, September 25, 1977. Continues to serve as Pastor of the Cincinnati Society, Visiting Pastor to Indiana, Southern Ohio and Kentucky; Visiting Pastor to the Twin Cities Circle; also provides various pastoral services for youth via the Internet. Address: 785 Ashcroft Ct., Cincinnati, OH 45240.

Rose, Thomas Hartley. Ordained June 12, 1988; 2nd degree, May 21, 1989. Continues to serve as Assistant to the Pastor of the Bryn Athyn Society. Address: P. O. Box 277, Bryn Athyn, PA 19009.

Roth, David Christopher. Ordained June 9, 1991; 2nd degree, October 17, 1993. Continues to serve as Pastor of the New Church at Boulder, Colorado Circle. Address: 4215 N. Broadway, Boulder, CO 80304.

Sandstrom, Erik. Ordained June 10, 1934; 2nd degree, August 4, 1935. Retired. Address: 3566 Post Road, Huntingdon Valley, PA 19006.

Sandstrom, Erik Emanuel. Ordained May 23, 1971; 2nd degree, May 21, 1972. Continues to serve as Assistant Professor of religion in the Academy Theological School and Bryn Athyn College; Head of Religion and Sacred Languages Division in the Bryn Athyn College; Curator of Swedenborgiania; Assistant to Missionary Program for Bryn Athyn College; Visiting Pastor to the New Jersey Circle. Address: Box 740, Bryn Athyn, PA 19009.

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Schnarr, Arthur Willard, Jr. Ordained June 7, 1981; 2nd degree, June 19, 1983. As of July 1, 1997 Pastor of the Chicago New Church. Address: 73A Park Drive, Glenview, IL 60025.

Schnarr, Frederick Laurier. Ordained June 19, 1955; 2nd degree, May 12, 1957. Retired. Address: 11019 Haiti Bay, Boynton Beach, FL 33436.

Schnarr, Grant Ronald. Ordained June 12, 1983; 2nd degree, October 7, 1984. Continues to serve as Director of Evangelization. Address: P. O. Box 743, Bryn Athyn, PA 19009.

Simons, David Restyn. Ordained June 19, 1948; 2nd degree, June 19, 1950. Retired. Address: 561 Woodward Drive, Huntingdon Valley, PA 19006.

Simons, Jeremy Frederick. Ordained June 13, 1982; 2nd degree, July 31, 1983. Continues to serve as Assistant Pastor of the Bryn Athyn Society. Address: P. O. Box 277, Bryn Athyn, PA 19009.

Smith, Christopher Ronald Jack. Ordained June 19, 1969; 2nd degree, May 9, 1971. Continues to serve as a religion teacher in the Academy Secondary Schools. Address: P.O. Box 707, Bryn Athyn, PA 19009.

Smith, Lawson Merrell. Ordained June 10, 1979; 2nd degree, February 1, 1981. Continues to serve as Pastor of the Durban Society. Address: 8 Winslow Road, Westville, KwaZulu-Natal, 3630, Republic of South Africa.

Stroh, Kenneth Oliver. Ordained June 19, 1948; 2nd degree, June 19, 1950. Retired. Address: P.O. Box 629, Bryn Athyn, PA 19009.

Synnestvedt, Louis Daniel. Ordained June 6, 1980; 2nd degree, November 8, 1981. Unassigned. Address: 151 Vole Hollow Lane, Kempton, PA 19529.

Taylor, Douglas McLeod. Ordained June 19, 1960; 2nd degree, June 19, 1962. Retired. Address: 2704 Huntingdon Pike, Huntingdon Valley, PA 19006.

Thabede, Ndaizane Albert. Ordained August 29, 1993; 2nd degree, March 2, 1997. Continues to serve as Pastor of the Alexandra Township Society. Address: 303 Corlett Drive, Kew, Gauteng, 2090, Rep. of South Africa.

Tshabalala, Njanyana Reuben. Ordained November 29, 1992; 2nd degree, September 18, 1994. Continues to serve as Pastor of the Balfour Society. Address: P.O. Box 851, Kwaxuma, Soweto, Gauteng, 1868, Rep. of South Africa.

Weiss, Jan Hugo. Ordained June 19, 1955; 2nd degree, May 12, 1957. Unassigned. President of New Church Outreach. Address: 2650 Del Vista Drive, Hacienda Heights, CA 91745.

Zungu, Aaron. Ordained August 21, 1938; 2nd degree, October 3, 1948. Recognized as a General Church minister November 25, 1989. Retired; still works on translation of the Writings into Zulu. Address: Box 408, Ntumeni, KwaZulu-Natal, 3830, Rep. of South Africa.



     MINISTERS

Barry, Eugene. Ordained June 15, 1986. Resigned. Address: 116 High Street, Clawson, MI 48017-2185.

Bell, Reuben Paul. Ordained May 25, 1997. Assistant Professor of Biology in the Bryn Athyn College and Pastor of the Hatfield New Church Group. Address: P. O. Box 707, Bryn Athyn, PA 19009.

Fitzpatrick, Daniel. Ordained June 6, 1984. Unassigned. Address: 5845 Aurora Court, Lake Worth, FL 33643.

Rogers, N. Bruce. Ordained January 12, 1969. Continues to serve as a General Church translator; member of the Translation Committee Executive Board; Associate Professor of religion and Latin in the Bryn Athyn College; and member of the Academy Publication Committee. Address: P.O. Box 717, Bryn Athyn, PA 19009.

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Schnarr, Philip Bradley. Ordained June 5, 1996. Continues to serve as Director of the Office of Education. Address: P. O. Box 743, Bryn Athyn, PA 19009.

Schorran, Paul Edward. Ordained June 12, 1983. Unassigned. Address: 631 Old Philly Pike, Kempton, PA 19529.



     AUTHORIZED CANDIDATES

Conroy, Stephen Daniel. Address: P. O. Box 717, Bryn Athyn, PA 19009.

Guerra, Vin?cius Reis. Address: Rua Osvaldo Pereira Lira, 30 Campo Gorande - RJ, C.E.P. 23.070-060 Brazil.

Lee, Jong-Ui. Address: P. O. Box 717, Bryn Athyn, PA 19009.

Nzimande, Edward E. Address: 1701 - 31st Avenue, Clermont Township, P. O. Clernaville, KwaZulu-Natal, 3602, Rep. of South Africa.



     ASSOCIATE MINISTERS



Nicolier, Alain. Ordained May 31, 1979; 2nd degree, September 16, 1984. Address: Bourguignon, Meursanges, 21200 Beaune, France.

Sheppard, Leslie Lawrence. Ordained June 7, 1992. Invited by the Brisbane New Church to take up a pastorate in the Association of the New Church in Australia, for whom he is working as President of the Australian Association of the New Church. This assignment was taken up with the full support of the Bishop of the General Church. Address: 3 Shadowood Street, Kenmore Hills, Brisbane, Queensland 4069, Australia.



     EVANGELIST

Eubanks, W. Harold. Address: 516 US 280 West, Americus, GA 31709.
          
     SOCIETIES AND CIRCLES

     Society                         Pastor or Minister

     Alexandra Township, R.S.A.          Rev. N. Albert Thabede
     Atlanta, Georgia                    Rev. C. Mark Perry
     Balfour, R.S.A.                    Rev. N. Reuben Tshabalala
     Baltimore, Maryland               Rev. Willard L. D. Heinrichs
     Bath, Maine                         Rev. Allison L. Nicholson
     Boston, Massachusetts               Rev. Geoffrey H. Howard
     Boynton Beach, Florida               Rev. Derek P. Elphick
     Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania          Rev. Thomas L. Kline
                         Rev. Jeremy F. Simons, Assistant Pastor
                         Rev. Donald L. Rose, Assistant to Pastor
                         Rev. Thomas H. Rose, Assistant Pastor
     Buccleuch, R.S.A.                    Rev. Andrew M. T. Dibb
     Chicago, Illinois                Rev. Arthur W. Schnarr, Jr.
     Cincinnati, Ohio                    Rev. Patrick A. Rose
     Clermont, R.S.A.                    Rev. Ishborn M. Buthelezi
     Colchester, England               Rev. Kenneth J. Alden

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     Detroit, Michigan                    Rev. Grant H. Odhner
     (Oak Arbor Church)               Rev. Mark D. Pendleton, Assistant Pastor
     Diepkloof, R.S.A.                    Rev. Jacob Maseko
     Durban, R.S.A.                    Rev. Lawson M. Smith
     Enkumba, R.S.A.                    Rev. Ishborn M. Buthelezi
     Freeport, Pennsylvania               Rev. J. Clark Echols, Jr.
     Glenview, Illinois               Rev. Eric H. Carswell
                         Rev. Peter M. Buss, Jr., Assistant Pastor
                         Rev. Mauro S. de Padua, Assistant to Pastor
     Hambrook, R.S.A.                    Rev. B. Alfred Mbatha
     Hurstville, Australia     
     Impaphala, R.S A.                    Rev. N. Chester Mcanyana
     Ivyland, Pennsylvania               Rev. David H. Lindrooth
     Kempton, Pennsylvania               Rev. Robert S. Junge
                         Rev. Andrew J. Heilman, Assistant Pastor
                              Rev. Arne Bau-Madsen, Associate Pastor
     Kitchener, Ontario, Canada          Rev. Michael K. Cowley
     (Carmel Church)     
     Kwa Mashu, R.S.A.                    Rev. B. Alfred Mbatha
     La Crescenta, California          Rev. John L. Odhner
     London, England                     Rev. Frederick C. Elphick
     (Michael Church)           
     Phoenix, Arizona                    Rt. Rev. Louis B. King
     Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania          Rev. Nathan D. Gladish          
     Rio de Janeiro, Brazil               Rev. Cristovao R. Nobre
     San Diego, California               Rev. Stephen D. Cole
     Stockholm, Sweden                    Rev. Goran R. Appelgren
     Toronto, Ontario, Canada          Rev. Michael D. Gladish
     (Olivet Church)                    Rev. Wendel R. Barnett, Assistant Pastor
                         Rev. Barry C. Halterman, Assistant to Pastor
     Tucson, Arizona                    Rev. Frank S. Rose
     Washington, D. C.                    Rev. James P. Cooper



          Circle                    Visiting Pastor or Minister

     Albuquerque, New Mexico               Rev. Stephen D. Cole
     Americus, Georgia                    W. Harold Eubanks, Evangelist
     Auckland, New Zealand     
     Boulder, Colorado                    Rev. David C. Roth
     Cape Town, South Africa               Rev. Andrew M. T. Dibb
     Charlotte, North Carolina          Rev. Fred M. Chapin
     Connecticut                         Rev. Christopher D. Bown
     Copenhagen, Denmark               Rev. Ragnar Boyesen
     Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas
     Dawson Creek, B. C., Canada          Rev. Glenn G. Alden
     El Toro, California               Rev. Cedric King
     Erie, Pennsylvania               Rev. Brian W. Keith, Regional Pastor
     The Hague, Holland     
     Jonkoping, Sweden                    Rev. Ragnar Boyesen
     Lake Helen, Florida     
     Madina, Ghana                    Rev. S. Kwasi Darkwah
     Manchester, England               Rev. Kenneth J. Alden

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     Montreal, Quebec, Canada     
     New Jersey                         Rev. Erik E. Sandstrom
     North Ohio                         Rev. Mark D. Pendleton
     Puget Sound, Washington               Rev. Erik J. Buss
      (Cascade New Church)
     Sacramento, California               Rev. Harold C. Cranch
     St. Paul/Minneapolis,                Rev. Patrick A. Rose
     Minnesota (Twin Cities)
     San Francisco, California          Rev. John L. Odhner
     South Ohio                         Rev. Patrick A. Rose
     Surrey, England                    Rev. Fred C. Elphick
     Tamworth, Australia
     Tema, Ghana                         Rev. S. Kwasi Darkwah
     Wallenpaupack, Pennsylvania          Rev. Arne Bau-Madsen



     Note: Besides the General Church societies and circles there are groups in various geographical areas that receive occasional visits from a minister. This information is published in New Church Life periodically in "General Church Places of Worship" (see November 1997 issue, p. 524).

     New Assignments for Ministers

     1997-1998

     All effective July 1, 1997:

The Rev. Kurt Hyland Asplundh has accepted a call to teach at the Academy of the New Church, in the Secondary Schools and in the Bryn Athyn College.

The Rev. Prescott A. Rogers has accepted a call to become Principal of the Bryn Athyn Church School.

The Rev. Arthur W. Schnarr has accepted a call to become Pastor of the Chicago New Church.
          
     EDITOR'S NOTE

     From the above we count 36 societies and 29 circles. A circle consists of members of the General Church in any locality who are under the leadership of a regular visiting pastor appointed by the Bishop, and who are organized by their pastor to take responsibility for their local uses in the interim between his visits.
     A society consists of the members of the General Church in any locality who have been organized under the leadership of a resident pastor to maintain the uses of regular worship, instruction, and social life.
     There are also "groups," which consist of interested receivers of the Heavenly Doctrines who meet together for worship and are occasionally visited by pastors.

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REVIEW 1997

REVIEW       Linda Simonetti Odhner       1997

The Temple of Wisdom by Karin Alfelt Childs, paperback, Fountain Publishing, Rochester, Michigan, 1997, $5.95.

     The Temple of Wisdom by Karin Alfelt Childs is a medieval quest fantasy about two young boys, nephews of a dying king, who embark on a search for the Temple of Wisdom in the Jahaziel Mountains. There one of them will receive a new scepter as a sign that he is chosen to be the next king. The temple matches the one described in TCR 387, a major inspiration for the story.
     The author shows the connection between the natural and spiritual worlds in several ways. She has made the Jahaziel Mountains a natural realm where spiritual realities are closer and more easily seen than usual, and thus a plausible setting for the incidents based on accounts of the spiritual world from the Writings. There the two princes and the girl who joins their quest gain insights based on correspondences. Also, loved ones who have died appear to the young people in dreams, assuring them of the reality of life after death and the continuing love and care of those from whom they are parted.
     The emotional heart of the story is the love, respect, and closeness that grows between cousins Brandun and Kempe as they learn about themselves and each other in the course of their journey. Their exchange becomes light and joyous as they come to take themselves and their rivalry less seriously. This transformation brings them closer to their goal and redeems mistakes from the past, and more than once it moved me to tears.
     In the end, the companions on the quest succeed in bringing the ideals they have learned and experienced down from the Jahaziel Mountains into the world which is too often harsh, deceptive, and unjust, and this gives great strength to the story. The characters seek ways to use their God-given love and insight to further good ends and weaken the power of evil, and their search is rewarded with real and meaningful answers. The fulfillment of the quest brings about a whole series of resolutions in their lives, which makes for a deeply satisfying ending.

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     Each element of the tale receives just the right emphasis: authentic background details to anchor the tale, but not enough to distract from it; a romantic interest which adds to the plot, and helps to define the relationship between the two princes, but remains secondary to the main story line; and a pleasing balance between the internal and external aspects of the quest. All these things work together to create a shapely and graceful narrative.
     The quality of the writing rarely lapses from the same level of excellence. For the most part the words are well chosen to unfold the story; and while the premise of the first episode in the quest seemed a little pat and predictable to me, it was only because the beginning had already led me to expect something more original -an expectation amply gratified as the story gained momentum.
     The Temple of Wisdom marks a major event in New Church literature. Its weaving of images and ideas from the Writings into a fantasy adventure goes beyond anything published that I have read. Indeed, it stands up to comparison with well known children's fantasies, and promises to delight readers both inside and outside the organized New Church for years to come.
     Linda Simonetti Odhner

     The Temple of Wisdom

     There is here a palace which we call the Temple of Wisdom; but no one can see it who thinks himself very wise, much less one who thinks he is wise enough, even less one who thinks he is wise on his own account. The reason is that these people do not have a love of genuine wisdom to enable them to receive the light of heaven. Genuine wisdom is when a person sees by the light of heaven that what his knowledge, intelligence and wisdom embrace compared with what they do not are as a drop of water is to the ocean, consequently virtually nothing.
                              True Christian Religion 387 (AR 875)
                              Translation by John Chadwick

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ANCIENT AND POWERFUL SAYING RECORDED BY LUKE 1997

ANCIENT AND POWERFUL SAYING RECORDED BY LUKE       Editor       1997

     One of the grandest verses of all Scripture is Revelation 1:8:

I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, says the Lord, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.

     Notice what the Writings say about that verse. "It has pleased the Lord to describe His infinity by these words." This is from Apocalypse Revealed 31, which goes on to say, "These words, therefore, include all things which angel and man can ever think, spiritually and naturally, concerning the Divine."
     In that same number there is reference to another grand phrase.
     The passage speaks of the Lord's power and our dependence. "In a word, 'from Him we live, and move, and have our being.'" That last phrase is the subject of this editorial. It was used by ancient poets centuries before it found its way into the Bible.
     Number 301 of Divine Love and Wisdom says that in the whole created universe nothing lives except from the Lord "so that it is a truth that in God we live, and move, and have our being."
     A number in the Arcana consists of one powerful sentence. It reads as follows:

The Divine Providence of the Lord extends to the most minute things of a person's life; for there is only one fountain of life, which is the Lord, from whom we live, and act and have our being (AC 10774, repeated in NJHD 268).

     In another passage we read of the phenomenon of movement in the spiritual world. And this passage concludes as follows:

As "going" and "moving" signify living, it was therefore said by the ancients, that "in God we move, live and have our being"; and by "moving" they meant the external life, by "living" its internal, and by "being" its inmost (AC 5605).

     Elsewhere we read about freedom and peace:

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"He who lives in good and believes that the Lord governs the universe, and that all the good which is of love and charity and all the truth which is of faith are from the Lord alone; nay, that life is from Him, and thus that from Him we live, move and have our being, is in such a state that he can be gifted with heavenly freedom and together with it with peace; for he then trusts solely in the Lord and has no care for other things, and is certain that all things are tending to his good, his blessedness, and his happiness to eternity" (AC 2892).
     Finally a passage about being in the Lord quotes this saying and identifies it as coming from the book of Acts, chapter 17 verse 28 (see AE 1225:3).
     The phrase is quite ancient. One commentary traces it back to around 600 BC as spoken by the Cretan poet Epimenides. In around 270 BC it was used by the poet Aratus. The people of Athens would have known this saying, and so when the Christian message was preached to them, it was dramatically used. Luke the evangelist describes the scene in the book of Acts:

"Men of Athens," proclaimed the Christian missionary, "God who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands . . . . He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on the face of the earth . . . so that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said" (see Acts 17:22-28).
APPEAL FOR COINCIDENCES 1997

APPEAL FOR COINCIDENCES              1997

     Twenty years ago Rev. Douglas Taylor arranged a program in which coincidences were related. People have often referred to that memorable program.
     We will be attempting another one on Friday evening, January 16, 1998. If you have a coincidence to submit for the program, send it to the editor of New Church Life. Please include dates.

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We are also including some accounts of how individuals discovered the New Church. The point, of course, is to promote reflection on Divine Providence. Sometimes, we are told, people get to "see events in some wonderful series" and inwardly acknowledge Providence (DP 187).
NEW CHURCH IN SRI LANKA 1997

NEW CHURCH IN SRI LANKA       Rev. Grant R. Schnarr       1997

Dear Editor:
     Mr. Walter Jayawardane is a man who found the Writings several years ago, and has been spreading the church in Sri Lanka ever since. Last month Rev. Nicholas Anochi was able to visit Mr. Jayawardane in Sri Lanka, and also to meet more than a hundred people who know about the Heavenly Doctrines, desire to affiliate with the New Church, and wish to learn more. Nicholas preached to several congregations, and met with some religious leaders there who also wish to be instructed in the Heavenly Doctrines. He baptized dozens of people into the New Church. Besides this, Mr. Kanchana Jayawardane, Walter's nephew, is now studying at the Bryn Athyn College, looking toward training as a minister to go back and serve this growing congregation. Kanchana was baptized into the New Church at the Bryn Athyn cathedral in November. We hope to have a full report about the growth of the church in Sri Lanka in a future issue of New Church Life.
     Rev. Grant R. Schnarr
     Bryn Athyn, PA

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ALDOUS HUXLEY'S COMMENT ABOUT SWEDENBORG 1997

ALDOUS HUXLEY'S COMMENT ABOUT SWEDENBORG       Bill Hall       1997

Dear Editor:
     The British-born writer Aldous Huxley, who lived in the United States from about 1937, followed the way of Mahayana Buddhism. Even with his poor eyesight, Huxley was a prodigious reader. Without doubt, Huxley's books and lectures influenced a large portion of the earth's population. The following is what Huxley said about Swedenborg:
          Another celebrated visionary was the eighteenth-century Swedish scientist and man of affairs, Swedenborg, who had visions of life in the next world of an enormous elaboration and detail which must have come to him with a complete sense of reality (Aldous Huxley, The Human Situation, Lectures at Santa Barbara 1959, St. Albans, Herts, England: Triad/Panther Books, 1980, p. 162).
          Huxley does not say how much he read of Swedenborg, but his comment must be regarded as fair and courteous.
     Bill Hall
     Queensland, Australia
TRANSLATION CORRECTION 1997

TRANSLATION CORRECTION       Drake Kaiser       1997

Dear Editor:
     I have recently come across a significant error in the Swedenborg Foundation's standard edition that, I believe, merits the attention of your readers.
     The standard edition of Arcana Coelestia 9440 reads (all the emphasis was added):

But he should know that in their first cause and origin the spaces and distances, and consequently the progressions, which appear in the spiritual world, are changes of state of the interiors, and that they appear with angels and spirits in accordance with these changes.

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     However, the Latin (including the original manuscripts) reads:

Sed sciat quod spatia et distantiae, et inde progressiones, quae apparent in mundo naturali, in sua prima causa et origine sint mutationes status interiorum, et quod apud angelos et spiritus secundum eas appareant.



     The standard edition is in error when it renders in mundo naturali as "in the spiritual world." Hence, the Swedenborg Society 1890 edition is more correct when it reads:

Yet let him know that the spaces and distances, and hence the progressions, which appear in the natural world, in their first cause and origin are changes of the state of the interiors, and that their appearance with the angels and spirits is according to these changes.



     What are the implications of this?
     Drake Kaiser
     Charleston, SC
WANTED: Wisdom about Marriage in Story Form 1997

WANTED: Wisdom about Marriage in Story Form       Rev. Erik Buss       1997

Dear Editor:
     I am writing a book on marriage and I'm collecting stories from people about their marriages. Would you be willing to share insights you've had about your marriage and preparation for marriage? What wisdom have you gained from your experience that you would like others to benefit from? The stories can be about the things that always worked, those that still aren't working, or about things you have worked through-something that gave you an "Aha!" about marriage. Any insights, especially in the form of stories, would be great. Tell as many as you want!
     I will change all the stories a bit to make them unrecognizable (whether or not it matters to you if people know who it is), so let me know if you are already changing elements to maintain your own privacy. And, of course, no one but me will ever see your story with your name attached to it. Talk to me if you have questions.

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     Also, if you know others who would have great stories to tell, could you ask them to tell them? They can either send them directly to me or to me via you and I will never know who they are. That would be wonderful! Thank you.
     Ways of contacting me-phone: (425) 882-8500; address: 5409 154th Ave NE, Redmond WA 98052; or [email protected].
     Rev. Erik Buss
SPI NEWSLETTER 1997

SPI NEWSLETTER              1997

     From the fall issue of the newsletter of Swedenborg Publishers International we quote the following: "Alexander Vasiliev reports that Divine Love and Wisdom in Russian was published jointly in September by the Initiative and Manuscript publishing houses in the Ukraine. 5000 copies were printed for distribution in the Ukraine and Russia. It is expected that Divine Providence will be published soon also."
     "Mikhail Roshchin and Vladimir Maliavin (both of Moscow) have completed the translation and editing of a new edition of Conjugial Love. Publication is anticipated in 1998."
     "Vladimir Maliavin, now in Taipei as a visiting professor at a university there, reports that he is presenting Swedenborg's ideas in his classes. He also reports that the translation of The Swedenborg Epic into Russian is advancing, with the expectation of publication in 1998."
     There was a meeting of SPI on October 3rd, 1997, held in Bryn Athyn, when the main item was a discussion of the proposal of the project presented by . . . Lenka Machova and Joanna Hill. The presented project concerns evangelization in the Czech Republic by means of translating and publishing New Church literature, creating the Czech New Church Web-Site, and publishing a new Czech New Church magazine.
     Under the heading "NewEarth Swedenborg BBS" Mr. Michael David manages to tell in a single column much of the story of communication by computer among New Church people.

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