>>Was Swedenborg influenced by the Talmud and Kabalah?>>
Emile:
There's something for everyone with Swedenborg. You can pick up any of his works, turn to any page and you will find elements that correspond with every other work-page as well as the core truths that flow through all of the all other great spiritual traditions.
Here's one example from an Islamic perspective:
nalanda.com.mx
8.- Swedenborg and Esoteric Islam
Herny Corbin
Swedenborg Foundation / Swedenborg studies monograph series 4
160 pp
$225.00
NOVEDAD SEPTIEMBRE 2004.
Grandes Tradiciones – Religiones / Gnosticismo – Neoplatonismo – Hermetismo / Cristianismo / Misticismo – Teosofía – Esoterismo Cristiano
Reseña: This first English translation contains two essays by the eminent French Islamic scholar Henry Corbin: "Mundus Imaginalis, or the Imaginary and the Imaginal" and "Comparative Spiritual Hermeneutics." Corbin called Swedenborg "the prophet of the internal sense of the Bible" and compared his biblical symbolism to the Quranic interpretations of the great Islamic mystics. >>
Emanuel Swedenborg was a master of the Divine Science of Correspondences. The Bible was written according to this Divine Science of correspondence. All of creation is a continual manifestation of the singular purpose and cause of the design of One (1) End exerting a Spiritual Causes that manifest as Natural Effects in the material-temporal worlds.
It's a holographic model of Divine Love and Divine Wisdom that reveals itself through our actions in correspondence with our understanding and knowledge. But the core of this model is a Divinely instituted and managed Providence that connects with and unifies everyone and everything.
Here's but a glimpse from another writer:
leewoof.org
There has been a persistent sense among Christians throughout the ages since Christ came to earth that the Bible is different from all other books, both sacred and secular. Yet the Christian Church has had a hard time coming up with a clear and unified answer as to why the Bible should hold a unique place in our spiritual lives. This is where, in our church, the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg come in. Swedenborg's writings in no way replace the Bible as the Word of God. But they do give us a new and deeper perspective on the Bible that we would never have discovered if the Lord had not seen fit to reveal it to a person such as Swedenborg who was specially prepared to bring a new message to us from the Lord.
The Bible is not the Word of God primarily based on literal authority, says Swedenborg, nor because it contains the history of God's relationship with humans, nor even because it tells the story of Jesus' life on earth - though all of these are parts of its position as God's Word. Rather, the Bible is the Word of God because it has a continuous, connected spiritual meaning that reaches up through all the deeper levels of human experience right to the Lord Himself. The literal meaning is where the Bible can express its power in our lives, but it is the spiritual meaning within that gives the Bible its holiness and its divine inspiration.
What is this spiritual meaning of the Bible? To understand this, we need to know a little bit about the structure of creation - including our own inner, human structure - as an expression of the nature of God. Our church teaches that there are three basic elements in God: love, wisdom and creative action. As human beings created in the image of God, we have these same parts in ourselves. The universe also expresses, in its own way, these three different aspects of God.
Perhaps we can understand the Bible's deeper meaning most clearly if we take our own inner nature as an example. At the core of our being is what we love. Whatever we love the most, it will be expressed either obviously or subtly in everything we do. This is true whether what we love most is ourselves, or money, or other people, or the Lord. It is love that makes us do the things we do.
However, what we love most is not always expressed outwardly in obvious ways. We have another level of our being that, in a sense, surrounds our love. That is the level of our knowledge, beliefs, understanding, and rationality. We may love money above everything else, but our knowledge of the ways of the world warns us that we will get into trouble if we don't go about getting it in legal ways. So our rational self does its best to keep our love of money flowing through safe channels.
The things that result from the interplay between our love and understanding form the third basic level of our existence: the level of our words and actions. This is what everyone else sees of our life. To make the parallel with the Bible, our words and actions are the "literal meaning" of our lives. And what appears to others does not always give a true impression of what is really inside us.
To use Swedenborg's memorable image, the Bible is like a fully clothed person. Only the person's hands and face are visible to other people. The rest is covered. Of course, most of the time we are able to interact with each other quite well even when all we see of each other is our hands and faces. Similarly, the literal meaning of the Bible has enough of the Lord's truth in it that we can find there the basic teachings we need to live a good and spiritual life.
There is a reason that the "body" of the Bible is covered except for the hands and face. When the Lord told the parable of the sower to a crowd of people, He did not explain its meaning to them. Later, when the disciples asked Him what the parable meant, He began by telling them why He used parables. He said:
You have been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God; but to others I speak in parables so that "seeing they may not perceive, and listening they may not understand." (Luke 8:9,10)
Now this is strange. Why wouldn't the Lord have wanted all the people to perceive and understand the meaning of His words?
The analogy to our body and its clothing is helpful. While we are out among the people in our community, we do not go naked. This is not because there is something wrong with the human body - no, our body was created pure and perfect by God. Rather, we wear clothing because we need its protection when we are out and about. Yes, we need its protection from the weather, and often from things that would hurt our skin as we work and play. But perhaps more than that, we need clothing to protect us from the words and actions of people who would take advantage of us if our bodies were unclothed and unprotected.
Similarly, the Lord veiled the Word in a clothing of literal history, stories, poetry, and prophecies to protect its deep and sacred purposes. There is a power in the truth - a power to sway people's minds and hearts. In the hands of the wrong people, that power becomes a power for destructiveness. So to protect the truth, the Lord veils most of it over, leaving only the hands and face bare so that anyone, in any state of mind, can grasp at least some of it if he or she is willing.
What about those of us who do not want to misuse the truth, but who want it in order to correct our faults so that we can be more loving and caring people? When this is the source of our desire for truth, the veils that cover the deeper meanings within the Bible can be gradually removed for us as we are ready. We must be ready not only to understand the truth we find there, but to use it in our lives. Then the knowledge of spiritual meanings that we find in Swedenborg's writings can begin to unlock for us the deeper levels of meaning with the Bible.
Swedenborg describes three basic levels of meaning within the Bible. These levels correspond to the levels of our being described above. The deepest level of meaning within the Bible is the heavenly (or "celestial") meaning. It speaks directly to the love within us, and it speaks primarily of the Lord. The next level is what Swedenborg calls the "spiritual" meaning. It speaks more to our understanding and beliefs, and relates especially to the way we as individuals grow and develop spiritually. Swedenborg gives several names to the lowest of the three deeper meanings within the Bible. Sometimes he calls it the "natural" meaning. In other places, he calls it the "internal historical" meaning, because it tells of the spiritual history of the human race. In other words, it tells about our relationship with God over the ages, and how that has been expressed in our societal patterns of living.
All of these levels of meaning are available to us. However, the one that, for most of us, most of the time, is most helpful is the spiritual meaning. This is the meaning that tells how we as individuals are born, grow up, and mature as spiritual beings. In a sense, it is a map or guidebook for spiritual living. It shows us where we are on our spiritual journey, and what steps we need to take next along the path. If we search for this meaning in the Bible with the help of the teachings of our church, we will find an inexhaustible supply of wisdom from the Lord, which will guide us in our daily lives.
It is worth repeating, though, that this inspiration will come to us only if we go to the Bible to learn how to live and care for each other. If we have any other motivation - such as convincing people how "spiritual" we are so that they will look up to us - the deeper, spiritual meanings will be veiled from our sight. We may think we see them for a short time, but soon nothing but dead words will be left.
This is the message contained in the parable of the sower. Sometimes the seed falls on the path and is trampled underfoot, neglected in the busyness of our lives; other times it falls on rocky ground and grows quickly at first, but then withers in the sun of adversity because its spiritual roots are shallow; other times it grows, only to be choked out by the thorns of material concerns.
When we look to the Word of God from a good and honest heart, then its deeper meanings will grow in us and bear fruit. Only when our heart is filled with love for each other and for the Lord can the veils that hide the deeper meanings of the Bible from our sight be removed for us. This is the Bible that has been lost over the ages, but now can be found for each one of us if we approach it with a loving heart.
The beauty of our church's teaching about the Bible is that it opens up the deep and fertile soil of spiritual meaning within the Bible so that our inner roots can row stronger and deeper with each passing year. We do not need to get drawn into arguments over the literal or historical accuracy of the Bible. We have available to us a much more precious treasure. It is the treasure of the seed of spiritual truth that can grow in our lives until we are strong and fruitful in the loving work of the Lord. Amen.
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Peace and God Bless,
Fred |
