Nine Queries Concerning the Trinity, &c.: Proposed to the Hon. Emanuel Swedenborg by the Rev. Thomas Hartley with the Answers Given by the Former to Each Question
by Thomas Hartley and Emanuel Swedenborg
| Nine Queries Concerning the Trinity | ||
 at the College of William & Mary. |
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| Author | Thomas Hartley, Emanuel Swedenborg | |
| Translator | Robert Hindmarsh | |
| Published | London: R. Hindmarsh | |
| Date | 1786 or 1790 | |
| Language | English | |
| Desc. | Octavo | |
Emanuel Swedenborg (1688 – 1772) was a Swedish scientist and theologian. Following a prolific career in the natural sciences and engineering, Swedenborg began having religious visions. Although 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.[1]
“Nine Queries Concerning the Trinity” contains metaphysical questions asked by Rev. Thomas Hartley, and answers provided by Emanuel Swedenborg. Harley asks questions concerning what God is, and how to understand the intersection of God and humanity. Swedenborg offers answers that rely heavily on his views on the Christian concept of the Trinity. Christianity typically understands the Trinity as the unity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, but Swedenborg expands upon this concept to argue that the conventional elements of the Trinity are instead merely representative of another Trinity, which is God’s Divine Wisdom, Divine Love, and Quickening Spirit. Swedenborg argues that these three main qualities of God are then reproduced in humans through their minds, bodies, and souls.[2] Swedenborg’s answers to Hartley’s questions do not necessarily rely on scripture or doctrine for validation. While he occasionally relates his arguments back to scripture, his theological approach is imprecise, and can be well described as having a “seraphic quality.” (Frothingham, 602) Instead of turning to doctrine, scripture, or precedent to build a case to prove and validate his views, “[h]e spoke with authority, less as an investigator than as a seer.”[3] The basis for his views mainly relied on his own opinion, or upon “the natural instinct of the heart.” (Frothingham, 602) As a result, Swedenborg’s answers to Hartley’s questions offer a view into his own personal spiritual interpretation and beliefs, more so than a doctrinal or scriptural view.
A translation, by Robert Hindmarsh, of 'Quaestiones novem de Trinitate, &c.', first issued in Latin in London, 1785.
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:[4]
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."[5] 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 Nine Queries Concerning the Trinity.
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"
- Short Account of the Honourable Emanuel Swedenborg and His Theological Writings
- True Christian Religion: Containing the Universal Theology of the New Church
- Wythe to Robert Carter, 17 October 1792
- Wythe's Library
References
- ↑ Alexander James Grieve, "Swedenborg, Emanuel." Encyclopædia Britannica, vol. 26, Hugh Chisholm, ed. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1911), 221-223.
- ↑ (in the book but also confirmed by Britannica)
- ↑ (Frothingham, 601)
- ↑ 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.