Saint Sinner Posted July 22, 2015 Posted July 22, 2015 While living in Finland, I began to look more into this topic as a way of life.This philosophy allows for individual empowerment but also the establishment of community.I'm curious if there are historically and modernly transcendentalists within the Church.
Tacenda Posted July 22, 2015 Posted July 22, 2015 (edited) According to the links below and c/p, Joseph Smith was influenced by it. Why Mormons Should Care About Emanuel Swedenborg http://fromdctobc.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-forgotten-legacy-of-emanuel.html Someone asked me recently whom I would wish to meet someday. I answered Emanuel Swedenborg, because I think he played an intrinsic role in establishing the intellectual and cultural environment of Joseph Smith. Let me explain.In studying the Transcendentalists, I was intrigued by Emerson's numerous references to Emanuel Swedenborg. By the almost reverential veneration that Emerson gives him (no small feat!), I assumed that Swedenborg had to be an important person--and I set out on a research hunt. It turns out that Swedenborg is one of the intellectual and spiritual giants of the 18th century that no one really talks about anymore. That's a shame, because he was the first man to discover atomic theory (several centuries before Einstein) and was known as one of the most brilliant scientists of his time.But Swedenborg's life takes an interesting turn when he is 57. He claims to have had heavenly visions, where he was able to view heaven, speak to angels, and even describe the Last Judgement. He faithfully wrote down these visions, which allegedly happened for 27 years, instigating both fascination and contempt. One of the most interesting visions that Swedenborg explains is marriage in heaven, a goal that was possible for men and women who had the appropriate spiritual language or "conjugial love." As Mormons believe in marriage being able to continue on after this life, Swedenborg's view of marriage in heaven is perhaps the most obvious link to Mormon theology. His story may also sound familiar to Mormons as well, since his heavenly manifestations made him believe that the true church of Christ was not on the earth, leading his followers to establish "The New Church" (still in existence today).But I think that Swedenborg left an even greater impact on Mormonism than we might think.Joseph Smith's theology has already been connected with both Romanticism and Transcendentalism, as both movements divorced from the classic view of man's fallen state and considered how knowledge could be acquired by means other than rationality: experience, intuition, and human imagination. Both emphasized the obtaining of a relationship with the divine, often achieved through a oneness with nature. Swedenborg, however, was an important precedent to these beliefs outlines above. His series of visions defied what was considered "rational"; he was acquiring knowledge of heaven through a means that no one else had. Moreover, it was Swedenborg, not Emerson, who first taught of the intrinsic link between nature and man's soul. Robert Sampson, a Harvard theology student and Swedenborgian, gave a sermon in Boston that included the need for men to understand nature, where Emerson happened to be in attendance. Little wonder that his first treatise, Nature, was published several years later.I would argue that Swedenborg was a perpetrator of the Romantic and Transcendentalist air that Joseph Smith was a part of. When Joseph is 14, he certainly uses a sense of rationality in believing that James 1:5 applied to his situation, as he sought knowledge for himself. But in believing that God would give him an answer, as well as going into nature to acquire knowledge, he also shows himself as adhering to more recent, burgeoning intellectual traditions. Moreover, in claiming to have a divine manifestation, Joseph was also showing an adherence to Swedenborgian thought, as he also believed to be heaven's spokesman.As a Mormon, I believe that Joseph Smith saw God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ. I also believe that God works on a macro-level, as He helps work to propel certain intellectual movements, such as Romanticism and Transcendentalism, to accomplish his purposes. I also believe that Swedenborg was an important progenitor of the Restoration--and he deserves more credit than history has given him. And this: https://prezi.com/em6odjc5r9lv/mormonism-and-transcendentalism/ ETA: Ain't google great? Edited July 22, 2015 by Tacenda 2
mfbukowski Posted July 22, 2015 Posted July 22, 2015 Emerson preceded and greatly influenced William James. Joseph Smith's philosophy in Alma 32 preceded William James by 50 years- if you want to see it as "Joseph Smith's philosophy" There are tons of Jamesian Pragmatists in the church, because largely the epistemology of the church is based on Alma 32. Read Alma, read William James- that's my advice! 2
mfbukowski Posted July 22, 2015 Posted July 22, 2015 (edited) ETA: Ain't google great? Saw this just now.Yep! Incidentally, Henry James, father of William James was a Swedenborgian. William James grew up on the ideas of Swedenborg. Edited July 22, 2015 by mfbukowski
Calm Posted July 22, 2015 Posted July 22, 2015 William James grew up on the ideas of Swedenborg.So did I. 1
Saint Sinner Posted July 22, 2015 Author Posted July 22, 2015 Thank you Tacenda and mfbukowski for your informative responses.
mfbukowski Posted July 23, 2015 Posted July 23, 2015 So did I. Holy cow that is why you are you and totally get this stuff!
mfbukowski Posted July 23, 2015 Posted July 23, 2015 (edited) These guys are a few miles away from me. Very cool stuff. I had a friend who got married there. http://www.wayfarerschapel.org/services/emanuel-swedenborg/ Look at some of the symbols you see on the right side here and notice how similar they are to what you see on LDS temples. http://www.wayfarerschapel.org/services/the-swedenborgian-church/ Squares and circles. I wonder how that happened And thishttp://www.swedenborgstudy.com/articles/marriage/fls67.htm Edited July 23, 2015 by mfbukowski 2
mfbukowski Posted July 23, 2015 Posted July 23, 2015 So where does Swedenborg go "wrong"? I believe in his preservation of an untenable philosophy that God is transcendent. Such a god is unkowable and cannot interact with his children- indeed cannot have children He has ALMOST everything "right" but clings to an essentially NeoPlatonic metaphysics which just doesn't work in the final analysis. But he is SO close, I am sure he was inspired. Did he influence Joseph? That philosophy was definitely in the air in Romanticism in general and perhaps Joseph could not help but absorb some of it as an American, after Emerson. Manifest Destiny is the idea that we are to go out and tame the wilderness and create civilization out of matter unorganized. You could not be an American of that time and not believe that! But that is not for today- maybe some day we can get into that.
Calm Posted July 23, 2015 Posted July 23, 2015 Holy cow that is why you are you and totally get this stuff!Blame it on my mom for reading everything she could get her hands on and fixating on him for awhile and me being the only one to talk to for that time period (how I got to know Jung and Campbell and a few other guys too)...and my dad because he gave me the skepticism to get rid of the extra stuff and focus on what worked being the result guy that he was. 1
bjw Posted July 23, 2015 Posted July 23, 2015 (edited) The Martinist Order has his picture up at their headquarters, also some of their degree material uses some of his texts as required reading. Edited July 23, 2015 by bjw
Kevin Christensen Posted July 23, 2015 Posted July 23, 2015 When I was at San Jose State several decades ago, for class on American Literature I wrote an 30+ page essay comparing Joseph Smith and Ralph Waldo Emerson. They were born within 3 years and a hundred miles of each other. I found it easy to quote Emerson and Smith on a range of topics, showing many points of close comparison, with Smith, it turns out, saying it first. One big difference is that Emerson lost faith in a personal God early on, due to his encounters with skeptical Biblical scholarship. His mystical experience in the woods fits directly with his impersonal Oversoul. While Emerson was notably skeptical in his essays about the survival of personality in an afterlife, his poem Threnody, about the loss of his son, Waldo, turns out to contradict all of that, in that it features a Personal God assuring him that he will see Waldo again. In my essay, I compared Threnody with the Letters from Liberty Jail. In later life, Emerson stopped in Salt Lake City, attended a sermon in the Tabernacle and after hearing Brigham Young speak, journaled that the experience quite mended his opinions of the man. While he had a handshake meeting with Young, Young apparently had no idea of Emerson, though one of Brigham's secretaries knew exactly who Emerson was. I did get an A on the paper. Some of the thoughts I had about Emerson and Smith survive in my essay on "A Model of Mormon Spiritual Experience." FWIW Kevin Christensen Bethel Park, PA 3
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