By Rev. Dr. Reuben P. Bell
In the Prologue to his second major work on human anatomy and physiology, Emanuel Swedenborg made an uncharacteristically emotional appeal to his readers. Filled with the excitement of his Age of Reason, and inspired by the limitless promise of his day, he proclaims that the time has come to take the scientific method out of the old world of orthodoxy, and free it to sail into the future. Old ideas and prejudices were being overcome, and new, scientific principles were taking their place, formed not just by careful observation alone, but with reason to lead the way. In an urgent appeal to the learned world, Swedenborg announced that it is time to put this New Philosophy into use.
Let us then gird up our loins for work. Experience is at our side with a full horn of plenty. The nine virgins are present also, adorned with the riches of nearly two thousand years: I mean, all the sciences, by whose abundance, powers, and patronage, the work is constructed. The sciences are indeterminate and of no profit or advantage, unless they be applied and made subservient to uses. What is knowledge of numbers, ratios, figures, and forms, in arithmetic and geometry, apart from its benefits in civil life? What are the philosophical sciences, with their predicates, qualities, modes, and accidents, without reference to reality? All things, at the present day, stand provided and prepared, and await the light. The ship is in the harbor; the sails are swelling; the east wind blows; let us weigh anchor and put forth to sea.
Prologue to The Soul’s Domain, n. 23, 1744
Despite Swedenborg’s intellectual might and his considerable efforts at introducing a rational model for spiritual-natural reality, his warning of the growing threat of Naturalism proved to be accurate. Modern science has come to disallow Aristotle’s final cause in its chain of being, and by this omission has set nature as the measure of all things. The dialogue between science and religion is becoming increasingly acrimonious, and both sides are resorting to heated rhetoric where conversation once prevailed. There is a call for a meaningful way to regard spiritual reality, in order to answer the incisive logic of its critics; and traditional theology is falling woefully short of a satisfactory answer to this call.
Many believe that Emanuel Swedenborg’s New Church theology can provide the answer to these critics. This may be true; but scientists do not speak the language of theology, and they do not abide in the abstract world of philosophical propositions. Theirs is the world of experience, and valid experience to them is delivered only by the senses. Their world of physical laws and natural causation, regardless (or perhaps even because) of the complexity it may generate, has no necessity for a creator god. Their questions are scientific, and they expect answers to come in that same language; high-end theology will not do.
But Swedenborg wrote more than theology. His scientific corpus came first, but since it gave way to such sublime theology, many dismiss this work as “preparatory” at best, or quaint science at the least. But he wrote his science books for scientists of his day, who, like those of today, were also struggling with the difficulties of finding both a need and a mechanism for the spiritual causes of natural things. He wrote in their language. To those natural philosophers he offered a program of research that “saved the phenomenon” of experience, yet explained how the connection of nature to its spiritual causes might be at work, underneath the senses. His goal was to serve the objective nature of science while retaining spiritual matters within this objectivity: spiritual and natural worlds, with a single reality to serve them both. I believe that this unlikely Eighteenth Century scientific corpus, essentially overlooked for 250 years, may be the prescription to answer that call.
Swedenborg’s ship of experience and reason was in the harbor; he was eager to weigh anchor, and put forth to sea. Was he ahead of his time? Or was he perhaps speaking to those in some future time who could raise the anchor of orthodoxy, both religious and scientific, and sail away? I believe that Swedenborg’s science – his doctrines and his method – today “stand provided and prepared and await the light. The ship is in the harbor; the sails are swelling; the east wind blows; let us weigh anchor and put forth to sea.”
Why do we separate the two – scientist and revelator, Swedenborg’s pretheological works and his theological Writings? Are they different? Enormously. Are they mutually exclusive? Hardly. Are they complementary? Yes, in a way, because they are sequential, as one is clearly built upon the other. From our modern era we have the luxury of viewing Swedenborg’s whole corpus through the retrospectoscope, a powerful intellectual instrument that may give us perspective, but which may also rob us of empathy for what he was trying to do.
Swedenborg the scientist worked steadily with one thing in mind: he wanted to find out how the world works. And it is essential to understand that to Swedenborg the natural world and the spiritual world were seamlessly related as the one world of spiritual-natural reality.
We tend to look backwards at this man’s works in an analytical way and see the perfection of the theological Writings and the often painful process of his earlier scientific work, and we are inclined to draw a line at his enlightenment. Most folks don’t cross that line into what went before. Why would they? His science is quaint, and incomplete. What good is it in this modern age?
I believe there is great utility in studying Swedenborg the man and his scientific works, if it is done in the proper way, with the proper expectations, and done with humility proper to the task. That’s what New Church scholarship is all about. Swedenborg’s corpus is sequential. Swedenborg didn’t fall out of the sky in 1745 and begin to write revealed truth. Who did the Lord enlist, of all the people in the world, when the Last Judgment was at hand? A man who had been wrestling with the right questions for almost thirty years, that’s who. If you don’t have the questions, what earthly good would the answers be?
Preparation comes in the form of a person’s loves, delights, interests, aptitude, and talents, and how these are developed over time. Pursuing these prepares a person for his or her own unique use. Swedenborg’s preparation was no different: He was led by the Lord but led in the freedom of pursuing his own interests – in his case, a systematic search for the soul’s operation in the body.
His science fell short of this ambitious goal. He would fail to find the nexus of spirit and nature until his spiritual eyes were opened. And fail we will, until we learn to let the Lord take over and lead us to our goals. Swedenborg finally did… and the Lord did… and what we find in the life-line of this curious man is a lesson for every one of us who strives to know the Lord and His creation: Curiosity, humility, and preparation are the ingredients for the enlightenment that follows.
We learn in Revelation Chapter 21 that there are twelve gates into the New Jerusalem. Swedenborg’s science is one of those gates, for those of us who speak the language of science.