Eccoci nel 21° secolo. Sappiamo che l'universo è un posto enorme. Siamo pieni di conoscenze scientifiche. Ma come stiamo andando con le idee pari pari? Le nostre società umane sembrano cancellarle, o ignorarle - forse pensiamo di essere troppo occupati per loro.

Qui, sul sito del Nuovo Studio della Bibbia Cristiana, invertiremo la tendenza. Vogliamo esplorare le grandi idee che ci danno un quadro per vivere una vita migliore. Ecco un inizio di una lista di grandi idee da una nuova prospettiva cristiana. Per ogni idea, c'è una nota a piè di pagina che elenca alcuni riferimenti nelle opere teologiche di Swedenborg:

1. Dio esiste. Un solo Dio, che ha creato e sostiene l'intero universo in tutte le sue dimensioni, spirituali e fisiche. ¹

2. L'essenza di Dio è l'amore stesso. E' la forza che guida tutto. ²

3. L'essenza di Dio nasce, cioè esiste, nel e attraverso la creazione. ³

4. Ci sono livelli, o gradi, della creazione - che vanno da quelli spirituali che non possiamo rilevare con i nostri sensi fisici o sensori, al livello dell'universo fisico dove la maggior parte della nostra consapevolezza è quando siamo vivi qui. ⁴

5. L'universo creato emana da Dio, ed è sostenuto da Dio, ma in modo importante è separato da Dio. Vuole che sia separata, in modo che la libertà possa esistere. ⁵

6. Dio opera dall'amore attraverso la saggezza - volendo le cose buone, e comprendendo come realizzarle. ⁶

7. Il livello fisico della creazione esiste per fornire agli esseri umani l'opportunità di scegliere in libertà, con razionalità, se riconoscere o meno e cooperare con Dio. ⁷

8. Dio fornisce a tutte le persone in ogni luogo, indipendentemente dalla loro religione, la libertà di scegliere di vivere una vita d'amore a Dio e al prossimo. ⁸

9. Dio ama tutti. Egli sa che la vera felicità arriva solo quando siamo disinteressati; quando siamo veramente motivati da un amore per il Signore che si fonda sull'amore per il prossimo. Egli cerca di guidare tutti, ma non ci costringerà a seguirli contro la nostra volontà. ⁹

10. Dio non ci giudica. Ci dice ciò che è bene e ciò che è male, e scorre nelle nostre menti per condurci verso il bene. Tuttavia, siamo liberi di rifiutare la sua guida e di scegliere invece di amare noi stessi più di tutti. Giorno dopo giorno, creiamo abitudini di generosità o di egoismo, e viviamo una vita in accordo con queste abitudini. Queste abitudini diventano il vero "noi", il nostro amore dominante. ¹⁰

11. I nostri corpi fisici alla fine muoiono, ma la parte spirituale della nostra mente continua ad andare avanti. Sta già operando su un piano spirituale, ma la nostra consapevolezza cambia - in modo che diventiamo pienamente consapevoli della realtà spirituale. ¹¹

Бележки под линия:

16. It therefore stands to reason that God is a person and in this way is God manifest--not manifest from himself, but manifest in himself. The one who is manifest in himself is the God who is the source of all.

410. (12) Love or the will joins itself to wisdom or the intellect, and causes wisdom or the intellect to be joined to it in return. The fact that love or the will joins itself to wisdom or the intellect is apparent from their correspondence with the heart and lungs.

Anatomical observation shows that the heart is engaged in its life's motion when the lungs are no longer or not yet engaged in theirs. Observation shows this from the empirical evidence of people who suffer loss of consciousness and those who are suffocated, and from that of fetuses in the womb and chicks in the egg.

Anatomical observation also shows that during the time the heart alone is functioning, it forms the lungs and so equips them that it may be able to breathe there, and that it forms all the rest of the organs as well in order to be able to carry on various useful activities in them - the organs of the face in order to be able to feel sensation, the organs of motion in order to be able to act, and the rest of the organs in the body in order to be able to accomplish useful ends corresponding to the affections of love.

[2] It follows from this, first, that as the heart produces such effects for the sake of the various functions it is going to carry on in the body, so love in its recipient vessel called the will produces like effects for the sake of the various affections which compose its form - that form being the human form, as we have shown above.

Now because the first and most immediate affections of love are an affection for knowing, an affection for understanding, and an affection for seeing that which it knows and understands, it follows that love forms for them the intellect, and that it enters into these affections actually when it begins to feel sensation and to act, and when it begins to think.

That the intellect contributes nothing to this effort follows from the parallel with the heart and lungs, as discussed above.

[3] It can be seen from this that love or the will joins itself to wisdom or the intellect, and not wisdom or the intellect to love or the will. And it follows from this as well that the knowledge which love acquires for itself from an affection for knowing, and the perception of truth which it acquires from an affection for understanding, and the thought that it acquires from an affection for seeing that which it knows and understands, are not properties of the intellect, but are the properties of love.

[4] Thoughts, perceptions, and consequently knowledge do indeed flow in from the spiritual world. But still they are received not by the intellect, but by love in accordance with its affections in the intellect. It appears as though the intellect receives them, and not love or the will, but that is a fallacious appearance.

It also appears as though the intellect joins itself to love or the will, but that, too, is a fallacious appearance. Love or the will joins itself to the intellect and causes the intellect to be joined to it in return. That the intellect is joined to it in return is owing to the marriage of love with it. Because of that marriage a seemingly reciprocal conjunction is formed by the life and consequent power of love.

[5] The like is the case with the marriage of good and truth, for goodness is a property of love, and truth a matter of the intellect. Goodness initiates everything, and it receives truth into its home and unites itself with it in the measure that it accords. Goodness can also admit truths that do not accord, but it does so because of its affection for knowing, understanding and thinking, when it has not yet determined itself to useful applications which are its ends and which it calls its goods.

A reciprocal conjunction, or one of truth with good, does not occur at all. That truth is joined to good in return is owing to the life belonging to good.

[6] It is because of this that every person, and every spirit and angel, is regarded by the Lord in accordance with his love or goodness, and no one in accordance with his intellect or truth apart from his love or goodness. For a person's life is his love, as we have shown above, and his life is what it is according as he has elevated his affections by truths, that is, according as he has perfected his affections in accord with wisdom. For love's affections are elevated and perfected by truths, thus by wisdom; and love then acts in conjunction with wisdom, as though prompted by it, but doing so of itself through wisdom, as through a form its own, which takes nothing whatever of its quality from the intellect, but everything from some determination of love, called affection.