October-December 2008
In This Issue
Editorial Remarks
The contributions to this issue all have strong historical elements: Dr.
Fuller’s annual address on an aspect of the history of medicine; Dr.
Williams-Hogan’s article on Swedish society in the seventeenth century;
Miss Shanda Heindrichs’ paper on the building of the American constitution;
and Mr. Karl Birjukov’s book review in relation to twenty-first century
philosophy...
Transactions of the One Hundred and Eleventh Annual Meeting
The Annual Meeting of the Swedenborg Scientific Association was
held on April 26, 2008, in Cairnwood Village, Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania.
Dinner was served at 6:30 P.M., and the meeting was called to order at
7:40. The president, Rev. Dr. Reuben Bell, welcomed members and friends...
Publisher/Editor's Report
While the year 2006 could be described as one of high productivity, 2007
was one of high expectations only. However, with an expanded team of
part-time workers, we have good reason to believe that several titles out of
stock—Generation, Psychologica, A Philosopher’s Notebook, Harold Pitcairn’s
Concordance, and a new title The Doctrine of Reflection by George de Charms—
will appear during this year...
Swedenborg’s Brain And Sutherland’s Cranial Concept
David B. Fuller
We may sweat a thousand years and only scratch the surface of knowledge
about the brain and how it works
In the middle eighteenth century Emanuel Swedenborg developed and
described a sophisticated and unique model of brain and body function.
While Swedenborg referenced many anatomic works of his day, his
paradigm of the brain and body was unique and comprehensive. This
involved much of his work during his scientific, philosophic period. One
of the last major writings of this era was his work later published as The
Brain, written in 1743–1744...
Sweden: The Seventeenth-Century Setting
Jane Williams-Hogan
Emanuel Swedenborg was born in 1688 in Stockholm Sweden on Sunday,
January 29, according to the old style Julian calendar in use at that time. He
was the third child and second son of Jesper Swedberg (1653–1735) and
Sarah Behm (1666–1696). At the time of his birth, his father was a Lutheran
priest and Chaplain to the Life Guard Regiment of the king, Karl XI
(reigned 1672–1697), as well as a Chaplain to the Court. His status as a
priest offered him the possibility of participating in the Priestly Estate of
the riksdag, the national assembly. The other three Estates were the Nobility,
the Burghers, and the Peasants...
Religion: The "Indispensable Support" of the Nation
Shanda Heinrichs
When it came time to settle the place of religion in the new republic,
America’s founders chose complete freedom of worship and opted
for no religious establishment. Religion received no mention in the United
States constitution. But if religion was vital to the nation, and it clearly was
in their opinion, then why did they choose to be silent on the issue?
Although they were politicians who had great practical concerns to tackle,
and there was no one way in which the founders thought about religion
and the relationship of church and state, their decision was underscored
by the shared philosophical position that only freedom of conscience gives
rise to sincere and true religious belief. What is more, the two main
spokesmen in the fight for religious freedom, James Madison and Thomas
Jefferson, strongly believed that complete separation of church and state,
and not merely religious toleration, represented the only appropriate
relationship of the government to the individual’s religious will...
Book Review: The Arms of Morpheus—Essays on Swedenborg and Mysticism
Reviewed by Karl Birjukov
There is something missing in the fabric of the twenty-first century.
The Old Testament and other traditions had their prophets, their
messengers of a spiritual condition, while the modern world has completely
marginalised the notion of a “spiritual condition” by laying total
emphasis on the physical state. Yet between the old and the new there
have been several voices that have “kept the flag flying” so to speak.
Emanuel Swedenborg is one such voice, largely ignored and regarded
mostly as out of step with modernity. Consequently, he hardly figures in
academic courses on the history of ideas as they became swamped in the
tide of science and the exclusive rationality that fed on it and now defines
us...
Style Guide for The New Philosophy
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