swedenborgian

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. Pertaining or relating to Emanuel Swedenborg (1688–1772), a Swedish scientific and religious author, or to Swedenborgianism.
2. n. A believer in the theology and religious doctrines of Swedenborg; a New Churchman. Swedenborg held Rev. xxi. 2, “And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven,” to be a prediction of the establishment of a new dispensation, the initiation of which took place by the execution of the last judgment in the spiritual world in the year 1757, whereby man was restored to moral freedom by the restriction of evil infestations, the power of which had threatened its utter extinction. In proof of this belief, his followers point to the unparalleled spiritual and material progress of mankind since that date. They were first organized in London (where Swedenborg long resided) in 1788, under the name of the “Society of the New Church signified by the New Jerusalem,” usually abbreviated to New Church. Professed Swedenborgians, though widely scattered, have never been numerous; but Swedenborg himself appears not to have contemplated the formation of a separate church, trusting to the permeation of his doctrines through the existing churches. Swedenborgians believe that this process is going on, and that thus the new dispensation is making its way independently of their own organization or efforts, and even without the conscious knowledge of most of those affected by it. Swedenborg considered himself the divinely appointed herald and expounder of this dispensation, being prepared for the office by open intercourse during many years with spirits and angels (all originally human beings), and with God himself, who revealed to him the spiritual or symbolic sense of the Divine Word (which the world had not previously been in a state to receive or apprehend), setting forth spiritual and celestial truths in every part through the correspondence of all material things with the spiritual principles, good or evil, of which they are the outgrowth and manifestation. This doctrine of correspondences is the foundation of his system, which he elaborated with uniform consistency in many volumes, all first published in Latin. In this correspondence consists the plenary inspiration of the Word, which includes only the Pentateuch, Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, the Prophets and Psalms, the four Gospels, and the Apocalypse; the other books of the Bible are valuable for instruction, but lack this divine character.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. One who holds the doctrines of the New Jerusalem church, as taught by Emanuel Swedenborg, a Swedish philosopher and religious writer, who was born a. d. 1688 and died 1772. Swedenborg claimed to have intercourse with the spiritual world, through the opening of his spiritual senses in 1745. He taught that the Lord Jesus Christ, as comprehending in himself all the fullness of the Godhead, is the one only God, and that there is a spiritual sense to the Scriptures, which he (Swedenborg) was able to reveal, because he saw the correspondence between natural and spiritual things.
2. adj. Of or pertaining to Swedenborg or his views.