If you’re a Harvard student interested in religion, you’ve likely stumbled upon the Harvard Chaplains’ website at least once. Looking through the list of represented traditions the other day, I had a good (or at least general) idea of the way most traditions worked and what their practitioners believe. But reading further down the list, I came across a word that was unfamiliar: Swedenborgian. Googling the term pulled up results related to everything from the afterlife to spiritualism to extraterrestrials. Needless to say, I was fascinated by what I found. I decided to get in touch with Reverend Sage Cole, Harvard Swedenborgian Chaplain and Pastor of Swedenborg Chapel in Cambridge, to find out the truth about this little-known religious tradition.
Back in the glory days when we were all on campus, you probably passed by Swedenborg Chapel hundreds of times without even knowing it. The chapel is situated on Kirkland Street right across from William James Hall. Originally constructed in 1901, the beautiful gray stone structure is where Rev. Cole presides over worship services (or would, were we not in the midst of a pandemic). The Cambridge chapel is part of the liberal branch of the church which currently has about 33 congregations scattered across the U.S. According to Rev. Cole, the mission of the church is relatively simple: “We’re here to learn to love and to learn to grow in our love, and that’s how we participate in Heaven.”
According to the Swedenborg Foundation, Emanuel Swedenborg was an Enlightenment-era polymath. He spent most of his early life conducting scientific research in fields such as chemistry, physics, metallurgy, and human anatomy. In the year 1743, however, Swedenborg began having mystical experiences which led him to devote the latter part of his life to theological studies and the exploration of the spiritual. His first theological work, Arcana Coelestia (Secrets of Heaven), is a “verse-by-verse discussion of the inner meaning of the Bible.” In the book, Swedenborg argues that the Bible shouldn’t be interpreted literally; instead, he claims that every verse has a deeper spiritual meaning. Swedenborg went on to write about topics as diverse as the afterlife, life on other planets, eschatology, and love.
Rev. Cole explained that Swedenborg never requested that anyone form a church in his name, but rather wrote about “a kind of universal transformation of the church.” Nevertheless, after Swedenborg’s death on March 29, 1772, which he allegedly predicted, his teachings were taken up by other ministers and theologians who went on to found the Swedenborgian denomination of Christianity. “The church,” stated Rev. Cole, “really formed to be a Christian organization that lived by their faith as illuminated by the writings of Swedenborg.” Reading that, you might be tempted to think about Swedenborg as a sort of prophet for the Swedenborgians. Rev. Cole said that different Swedenborgians refer to Swedenborg using different terms but her favorite way to think of him is as a “mystic theologian.” Clarifying, she said, “He’s not revered as a saint or as a holy person himself, but we reveal the revelation that he shared, and we believe he had these true mystical experiences and that there’s wisdom to be gained from them.”
Rev. Cole emphasized that there wasn’t one universal path that all Swedenborgians follow or one central dogma that Swedenborgians must subscribe to in order to attend the church. Some members are interested in delving deep into the theology, while for others, “this is their church, this is their community… they’re in line with the basics and they find a home here.” In the Swedenborg tradition, some of the basics are the belief that the Bible has an “inner sense,” the belief that the Second Coming of Christ is not an upcoming moment in time but an unfolding spiritual process, and a strong belief in the presence and reality of the spiritual world.
In addition to these comparatively common ideas, the Swedenborg tradition also holds some views that distinguish it from more traditional Christian denominations. Because he spent much of his early life as a scientist, Swedenborg often intertwined his mystical experience with observable phenomena in the natural world. Consequently, Swedenborgians today tend to be “really interested in scientific discovery and what it tells us about our spiritual life and why we’re here.” Swedenborg’s interpretation of the afterlife also differs pretty significantly from more traditional traditions. Rev. Cole explained that Swedenborgians tend to believe that, “We live our love. So if our love is limited, then we may be living this more Hellish existence, whereas if our love becomes more expansive, we enter into a more Heavenly existence.” They also tend to believe that the afterlife in which we end up depends less on our beliefs and traditions and more on “our love and our heart.”
Perhaps the most interesting of Swedenborg’s ideas come from his book called Earths in the Universe. “It’s an interesting read, and it describes spirits from different planets,” Rev. Cole said. She went on to clarify that she doesn’t think that Swedenborg was claiming that physical extraterrestrials live on other planets. Drawing an analogy with astrology, she said, “Different planets correspond to angels with different temperaments.” Rev. Cole didn’t imply these ideas played a key role in the tradition saying, “There is certainly a crew of Swedenborgians that are really interested in the most bizarre things he ever said. I don’t discount what he said… but he wasn’t laying out that this is necessarily what’s happening in the universe.”
Because some of Swedenborg’s views are a bit out of the ordinary, some of the more fundamentalist Christian traditions have claimed that Swedenborgianism is a cult. When asked what she made of that assertion, Rev. Cole replied, “Some of that probably did come because of the move of the more traditional, the more Conservative, church to create communities together.” She thinks that some of the confusion might also arise from the fact that the church was a product of the Enlightenment rather than the Reformation. Arguing against the assertion that the church is a cult, she said, “One of the foundational ideas of Swedenborgianism is that everyone is forging their own path with God, and that we have to be in freedom, to follow that path which is sort of antithetical to, I would think, how a cult would operate.” She thinks that anyone who would call the church a cult at this point is likely just misinformed. “If anything,” Rev. Cole said, “I like to say that we’re like Unitarian Universalists but with a lot of theology.”
Before COVID-19 struck, Swedenborg Chapel was gearing up to begin a fundraising campaign to build the Hellen Keller Spiritual Life Center. Named for author, activist, and unofficial Swedenborgian, Hellen Keller, the building is meant to be “a project to honor all of those people who have been influenced by the church and it’s affected their lives, but haven’t been interested in signing up and being members.” That project was placed on hold by the pandemic, but Rev. Cole remains excited about the church’s future. “We’re at a moment of choice right now in the world,” asserted Rev. Cole, “I just see us at a crossroads where we can either slowly pack our bags and fold up shop and not be the church anymore, or we can really get into the fight for a world that can persist for generations.”
As we concluded our Zoom meeting, Rev. Cole shared this final word of encouragement: “Whatever your faith is or however you ground yourself, it’s just so vital to trust and believe that there’s something bigger going on than just our choices and our actions.”
The church is holding services via Zoom for the duration of the pandemic. Rev. Cole encourages anyone who is interested in learning more to visit the chapel’s website.
Cade Williams ’23 (cadewilliams@college.harvard.edu) thinks Swedenborg is pretty interesting for a STEM guy!