Who was Emanuel Swedenborg?

Born: 1688 (in Sweden) Died: 1772 (in London aged 84)

Nationality: Swedish

IQ: 205+ beyond measurable genius

Emanuel Swedenborg is a difficult man to describe, partly because his life was so unusual, varied and full, but also because much of it may be viewed by many of us as verging on fantasy; yet his character and achievements are well documented as being sound and true. His writings are vast. There are many biographies on Swedenborg which can be accessed on the internet.

Swedenborg was born as Emanuel Svedberg in Stockholm in 1688, His name was later changed to Swedenborg because his family was ennobled by the Monarchy. He attended university in Upsala in Sweden and soon afterwards took up residence in London and parts of Europe in order to widen his learning.

In his fifties, he began to have visions and was convinced by certain events in his life that the Lord God wanted him to write the theology of the New Church. So he retired from employment in order to write theology full time.  This he did for around thirty years until his death.

Leading up to his ‘conversion’, he determined to find the ‘seat’ of the human soul and so he began by understanding the human body and studied anatomy at very great depth, using all the knowledge of anatomy then in existence and taking it further. Around this time, he also expanded current knowledge of philosophy and effectively invented psychology. From all this he came up with a philosophical explanation of the nature, origin and seat of the soul.

Swedenborg was clearly one of the greatest geniuses in history. His mind was engaged in religious, mystical and spiritual things as well as excelling in all the known academic subjects of his time, including mathematics, physics, metallurgy and chemistry, engineering, philosophy and anatomy.

Swedenborg was proficient in most of the European languages and also Hebrew, Greek and Latin. In the latter part of his life he was ‘tasked’ (he says by the Lord Himself) to write a completely rational Christian theology. His whole life’s work had led up to this, and a trail of books running through his whole adult lifetime – scientific, philosophical, psychological and religious – culminated in his final work “The True Christian Religion” which he completed only months before his death in 1772. Swedenborg’s rational theology is entirely comprehensive and in it, apparent inconsistencies in the Bible are explained.