This volume is a companion to the New Century Edition of the works of Emanuel Swedenborg.¹ Although the New Century Edition translations have prefaces, introductions, and notes to provide background information and to set the works in the context both of Swedenborg’s other writings and of their intellectual milieu, the editorial committee perceived a need for a companion volume that would explore Swedenborg’s biography, writings, and influence more intensively. The volume has been divided into parts in accordance with this purpose: biography is treated in the section titled “Swedenborg’s Life”; writings in “Theological Works”; and influence in the sections titled “Cultural Impact,” “Organizational Impact,” and “An Alternative Approach to Studying Swedenborg’s Impact.”

The first part, “Swedenborg’s Life,” presents an overview by Richard Smoley of Swedenborg’s life and career, showing Swedenborg’s constant drive to investigate scientifically the phenomena of this world. Smoley explains the turn Swedenborg’s life took toward theological interests and spiritual experiences as an extension of this drive—that is, as stemming from a desire to see the deepest possible reality.

The second part, “Theological Works,” contains three essays on the material Swedenborg wrote as the result of his spiritual awakening. Jonathan S. Rose’s essay in this section uses a comparison between Swedenborg’s theology and the plan of his garden in Stockholm as an explanatory device to survey his theological perspective and some of its many interesting features.

George F. Dole then presents some thoughts on the sequence in which Swedenborg published his theological titles. Dole explains why these volumes are of greatly varying lengths, what pressures seem to have directed and shaped each work in the series, and even why individual titles seem to be aimed at widely different audiences.

Frank S. Rose follows this look at the published theological works with an analysis of the theological material Swedenborg left in unpublished form. Rose makes the observation that although these numerous manuscripts have often been seen as authorial false starts or dead ends, they were in fact critical to the development of the works actually published by Swedenborg.

After thus summarizing Swedenborg’s life and work, the volume shifts its focus to studies of his impact. It turns first to examine the great number of individuals, acting outside the organized Swedenborgian groups, who were significantly influenced by Swedenborg’s insights, and especially those among them who went on to found or participate in social, philosophical, or religious movements on which the label “Swedenborgian” does not fit well. Such individuals and movements are treated in the third part of the volume, “Cultural Impact.”

Olle Hjern begins this section by describing how his homeland of Sweden and the surrounding countries of Scandinavia were affected by Swedenborg’s writings. Hjern presents little-known and surprising evidence for the lasting resonance of Swedenborg’s works in Swedish Lutheran culture, as well as in Swedish ecumenicism and antislavery movements.

Jean-François Mayer then discusses the response to Swedenborg in the rest of continental Europe. From Mayer we learn how Goethe and Schelling took Swedenborg to heart, and thereby made his teachings a part of the Romantic movement. We learn that some see the architects of the French Revolution as moved by Swedenborg, although others deny any such connection. We also discover that Swedenborg’s teachings may have served as the basis of the Russian Project of the Holy Alliance; that they definitely had something directly to do with the emancipation of millions of Russian serfs; that they were held in high regard by Mouravieff and the Russian nobility; and that they proved significant in the development of Dostoevsky’s thought.

At the close of this section, Robert H. Kirven and David B. Eller deal with the area where Swedenborg’s writings had the most visible consequences: the English-speaking world—especially Great Britain and the United States. Kirven and Eller point to the response of Blake, Emerson, Whitman, and others; and to the incorporation of Swedenborgian concepts in several nineteenth-century movements, including Shakerism, utopianism, homeopathy, and vegetarianism.

From this survey of cultural impact, the topic shifts in the fourth part of the volume to what is here called “organizational impact” (in a distinction from “cultural impact” that is admittedly somewhat artificial), meaning the development of institutions that are self-described as “Swedenborgian” or “New Church” in orientation. For although Swedenborg himself took no steps to institutionalize his theological perspective, his writings did lead directly to the founding of a number of churches, publishing houses, and other organizations.

Institutions all over the world could have been included here, but the focus has been restricted to just two regions. The first is, once more, the English-speaking world of Great Britain, the United States, and Canada. Jane Williams-Hogan and David B. Eller survey the institutional responses to Swedenborg’s works in these lands—particularly the rather turbulent histories of the four major branches of the Swedenborgian church. In addition, they discuss the colleges, schools, and publishing houses that have arisen there in reaction to Swedenborg’s teachings. The second region is Africa, covered in a separate essay by Jane Williams-Hogan. She highlights two stories of Swedenborgian charismatic leaders who built sizable church organizations in that continent.

The fifth part of the volume, “An Alternative Approach to Studying Swedenborg’s Impact,” proposes, and briefly models, such an approach. Here Alice B. Skinner turns the scholarly microscope around, making a wide-angle telescope to study impact not by citing individuals and tracing the source of their ideas, but by following ideas as they spread among individuals. The essay sketches various responses over time to three powerful Swedenborgian concepts: the reality of the spiritual world; the principle of usefulness; and Swedenborg’s unique concepts of learning and knowledge.

The volume ends with a lengthy section of bibliographical material and an index. First, David B. Eller presents a compact list of “must-have” reference works—the best places for any research on Swedenborg to start and the volumes that should be considered for inclusion in any serious study collection devoted to Swedenborg.

Then follows Jonathan S. Rose’s annotated bibliography of Swedenborg’s works. It begins with an index to virtually all the English titles by which these works have been known and covers both the works published by Swedenborg and those left unpublished by him, as well as treating some documents no longer extant or of disputed authorship. All these works are here assigned convenient descriptive titles, many of which reflect the relationships between published and unpublished material highlighted in Frank S. Rose’s essay in the second part of the volume. The list ends with a chronology of the works, which allows readers to see the ebb and flow of Swedenborg’s wide-ranging interests over time.

The volume concludes with a list of all works cited in the essays and an index to the whole.

Scope of the Volume

It must be emphasized that the present volume is far from all-inclusive. Although broad in scope, it necessarily omits much, for the simple reason that the requisite information is not readily obtainable. In the case of what is here termed cultural impact, this lack of resources makes it difficult to establish and characterize Swedenborg’s effect on thinkers, artists, and writers who have not explicitly taken up his banner. In the case of those who have joined Swedenborgian organizations and thus have identified themselves as responding to his teachings, the researcher has to cope with the humble and practical consideration that these individuals were often too busy to chronicle their own labors. True, as Jean-François Mayer’s essay points out, they have published out of all proportion to their small numbers;² but publication is just one aspect of their industry: they have been exceptional entrepreneurs, architects, artists, dreamers, and doers in every walk of life; and they have not always felt it appropriate to record actions taken in accordance with their creed that one must be useful in society.

Two examples may be given of the limitations in coverage that have resulted from this obstacle. First, the map of Swedenborgian worship communities that accompanies the essay by Jane Williams-Hogan and David B. Eller covers only the United States and Canada. Similar research in Great Britain, continental Europe, Australia, and other lands would make an extension of the map possible; but such research simply was not feasible for the editorial committee to undertake. Second, the full story of Swedenborg’s influence around the world is much greater than any regional narratives might suggest. Thus the article by Jane Williams-Hogan on Swedenborgian church organizations in Africa is offered as only an example of the many narratives that could be written detailing Swedenborgian influence on church movements in that region, or in Australia, Asia, or many other areas around the world.

The volume as a whole is tendered to the reader, then, as the beginning, not the end, of a path.

That said, it must be added that in many respects the volume also extends beyond the scope of previous works in the field,³ making several unique contributions to Swedenborgian studies. The biographical treatment and the general introduction are fresh in their approach. The explanations of the purpose of Swedenborg’s many works and manuscripts are more thorough-going than their predecessors. The documentation of Swedenborg’s influence is the most panoramic attempt to date. The bibliography of Swedenborg’s works is the most inclusive and thoroughly cross-referenced yet compiled. In short: Never have Swedenborg’s life, work, and impact been documented together in so compact and usable a form.

Acknowledgments

Any work that attempts, as does the present volume, the accurate representation of over a thousand items of bibliography, countless in-text cross-references, and biographical data on hundreds of individuals, to say nothing of historical information, is promising more than the very human abilities of its writers and editors can perfectly accomplish. The authors and the editorial committee take responsibility for any errors that may remain, and will vigilantly correct in future editions any errors pointed out to them.

It is not enough, however, for the editorial committee merely to state its willingness to bear this responsibility. It should further note that the present volume could not have been published without the assistance of numerous libraries, archives, and individuals in the United States and Europe. All cannot be mentioned, but it would be remiss not to name those whose contributions were extraordinary.

The major research institutions, and employees thereof, providing such assistance were the following: Carroll Odhner and Rachel O. Longstaff at the Swedenborg Library in Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania, along with Erik E. Sandström of the Swedenborgiana Library (a collection within the Swedenborg Library), and Cynthia H. Walker and Martha McDonough of the Swedenborg Library’s Archives; Michael Yockey, librarian at the Swedenborgian House of Studies at Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, California; Maria Asp of the Kungliga Vetenskapsakademien (the Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences) in Stockholm; the Swedenborg Society in London, England; and the Swedenborg Memorial Library at Urbana University in Urbana, Ohio.

The individuals who also deserve special notice are these: C. Alan Anderson, Derek Antrobus, Christopher Bamford, Martha Bauer, Reuben P. Bell, Maria Berggren, Hugh A. Blackmer, Kate Blackmer, Peter G. Bostock, Kate Bristow, Sarah Buteux, Lynn Clarke, Carolyn Andrews Cole, Dandridge Cole, Stephen D. Cole, James P. Cooper, Will Cooper, Kate Cuggino, Alicia L. Dole, Clark Echols, Carla Friedrich, Anders Hallengren, Willard L. D. Heinrichs, Martie Johnson, Inge Jonsson, Kristin King, Caroline Kline, Thomas L. Kline, Carol S. Lawson, John L. Odhner, John Perry, Luken Potts, Edward Rogers, Donald L. Rose, Frank S. Rose, Patrick Rose, Norman Ryder, Susan V. Simpson, Wickham Skinner, Lee Woofenden, William Ross Woofenden, Susan N. Wright, and Sewall Foster Young. Even this considerable list will leave some unnoticed.

Finally, special acknowledgment goes to Jean-François Mayer, whose initial suggestions for the structure of the volume provided a solid framework on which to build; and to the late Robert H. Kirven, a founding member of the editorial committee, whose insights helped in many ways to plan and shape our work.