True Christian Religion: Containing the Universal Theology of the New Church, which was Foretold by the Lord in Daniel, Chap. vii. 5, 13, 14, and in the Apocalypse, Chap. xxi. 1, 2
by Emanuel Swedenborg
| True Christian Religion | ||
 at the College of William & Mary. |
||
| Author | Emanuel Swedenborg | |
| Translator | John Clowes | |
| Published | Philadelphia: Printed by Francis Bailey, at Yorick's Head, in Market-Street. | |
| Date | 1789 | |
| Edition | Third | |
| Language | English | |
| Volumes | vol. 1 of 2 volume set | |
| Desc. | Octavo (22 cm) | |
Emanuel Swedenborg (1688 – 1772) was a Swedish scientist and theologian. In the year 1719, his family was ennobled by the Swedish queen, and the family name changed from Swedberg to Swedenborg.[1] Following a prolific career in the natural sciences and engineering, Swedenborg began having religious visions. Modern scientists postulate that these episodes were the product of epileptic seizures.[2] Nonetheless, while he was always a spiritual person, these visions elicited a crisis which drove Swedenborg into a more mystical phase. During the last 28 years of his life, beginning at age 57, Swedenborg published 18 works on Christian theology, believing that Christ had appointed him to reform Christianity.[3]
Swedenborg was a divisive figure. While he undeniably possessed scientific prowess, he was only "grudgingly" recognized by the scientific world.[4] This could be because Swedenborg’s scientific thought cannot cleanly be separated from his mysticism.[5] Even those who respected elements of his scientific work often believed he was "otherwise a harmless lunatic."[6] Swedenborg’s religious work was also polarizing. He preached a theory of scripture that emphasized the senses and the hidden messages within biblical texts.[7] His ideas were entirely unique for his time.[8] Yet, while many categorize his contributions as eccentric and abnormal, Swedenborg's influence is found within the works of many respected intellectuals, including Balzac and Baudelaire.[9] Thus, while Swedenborg is recognized as "a central figure in the Western esoteric tradition; he was also crucial to much mainstream Western culture as well."[10]
The True Christian Religion was Swedenborg's final work, originally published in Latin as Vera Christiana Religio in 1771, when he was 83. In it, Swedenborg summarizes his idea of the Christian trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as the essential qualities of God: love, wisdom, and activity. This trinity is reflected in human beings by soul, body, and mind, and all things in creation correspond to the divine love and and wisdom from the spiritual plane. Mankind's free will, Swedenborg says, however, has diverted the love of God to their own ego, and allowed evil to enter the world.[11]
True Christian Religion also takes care to distinguish Christian belief from Christian institutional structures. Within the book, he emphasized that truth was to be found directly from God, and not from any intermediaries.[12] He praised those who he believed maintained their focus on actual belief without any distortion or distraction from the institutions in charge.[13] Swedenborgian belief has thus be described as "the "communism" of the early Christians."[14]
However, while Swedenborg took care to distinguish revelations from God and revelations from intermediaries, he did not seem to view himself as an intermediary. He maintained that his own interpretations and his own revelations came directly from God. Swedenborg likened himself to the apostles, which "indicates a new feature of his religious self-consciousness. In his writings, Swedenborg frequently tried to prove that his own kind of prophecy was comparable to the truth and authority of the revelations of prophets in the old and new testaments."[15]
An early proponent of Swedenborg's writings in America was Robert Carter (1728–1804) of Nomony Hall, a plantation owner and politician from Virginia's Northern Neck.
Evidence for Inclusion in Wythe's Library
A 1792 letter from Robert Carter to George Wythe is reprinted in an article by John Whitehead in a Swedenborgian newsletter, the New-Church Messenger (Chicago) from 1917, "The Early History of the New Church in America, VIII." In the letter, dated October 11, 1792, Carter states he is sending Wythe four volumes of Swedenborg's writings: Nine Queries Concerning the Trinity (1786, or 1790), A Short Account of the Honourable Emanuel Swedenborg and His Theological Writings, by Robert Hindmarsh (1792), The Liturgy of the New Church Signified by the New Jerusalem in the Revelation (1792), and the first volume of True Christian Religion, published in Philadelphia by Francis Bailey, 1789. Carter also mentions Swedenborg's A Treatise Concerning Heaven and Hell (London: W. Chalklen, 1789) being sold by a local merchant in Richmond:[16]
Under a particular Influence I present to you the following Books, viz., the first vol. of the True Christian Religion, 9 Questions concerning the Trinity proposed to E. S. by the Rev. Thos. Hartley, also, His Answers. A short account of the honorable E. S. and His Theological Writings, and the Liturgy of the New Jerusalem Church. The Liturgy is a Production arising from the Baron's Writings; for Societies are established in several of the most principal towns in Great Britain, styled members of the New Jerusalem Church, which was foretold was to be by the Lord, by the Prophet Daniel and the Evangelist John in the Revelation.
It is said that many copies of a Treatise on Heaven and Hell by E. S. were imported by a merchant of Richmond Town, which work communicates much comfort to Believers.
Wythe replied in October, 1792, thanking Carter for the books and stating, he wished "I had power to remunerate your beneficence by sending books to you which would do to you no less good than those handed to me by Mr. Dawson ought in your opinion to do to me."[17] Swedenborg's works do not appear in Thomas Jefferson's inventory of books received from Wythe's estate after his death in 1806. Wythe may not have kept the four books gifted from Carter, giving them away or otherwise disposing of them. To date, the Wolf Law Library has been unable to locate a copy of True Christian Religion.
See also
- The Liturgy of the New Church Signified by the New Jerusalem in the Revelation
- "The Early History of the New Church in America, VIII"
- Nine Queries Concerning the Trinity, &c. Proposed to The Hon. Emanuel Swedenborg by the Rev. Thomas Hartley
- Short Account of the Honourable Emanuel Swedenborg and His Theological Writings
- Wythe to Robert Carter, 17 October 1792
- Wythe's Library
References
- ↑ Elizabeth Foote-Smith and Timothy J. Smith, “Emanuel Swedenborg,” Epilepsia 37, no. 2 (1996): 211.
- ↑ Foote-Smith and Smith, “Emanuel Swedenborg,” 212.
- ↑ Alexander James Grieve, "Swedenborg, Emanuel." Encyclopædia Britannica, vol. 26, Hugh Chisholm, ed. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1911), 221-223.
- ↑ O.B. Frothingham, "Swedenborg," The North American Review 134, no. 307, (1882): 600.
- ↑ Frothingham, "Swedenborg," 601.
- ↑ Frothingham, "Swedenborg," 601.
- ↑ Frothingham, "Swedenborg," 605.
- ↑ Frothingham, "Swedenborg," 604.
- ↑ Gary Lachman, Swedenborg: An Introduction to His Life and Ideas (Penguin, 2012), xvii.
- ↑ Lachman, Swedenborg, xvii.
- ↑ Encyclopaedia Britannica. "Emanuel Swedenborg," Encyclopedia Britannica. Accessed September 12, 2025.
- ↑ Ernst Benz and Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke, Emanuel Swedenborg: Visionary Savant in the Age of Reason (Swedenborg Foundation, 2011), 206.
- ↑ Charles Arthur Hawley, "Swedenborgianism and the Frontier," Church History 6, no. 3 (1937): 209
- ↑ Hawley, "Swedenborgianism," 207.
- ↑ Benz and Goodrick-Clarke, Emanuel Swedenborg, 205.
- ↑ Robert Carter to George Wythe, October 11, 1792. Reprinted in John Whitehead, "The Early History of the New Church in America, VIII," New-Church Messenger (Chicago) 112, no. 10 (March 17, 1917), 186-187.
- ↑ George Wythe to Robert Carter, October 17, 1792, in Library & Archives, Maine Historical Society.