The Swedenborgian Asterisk: A Drag-in's Tale

Lauren Dale Anderson uses an author's note to explain the motivation for her project (below). Lauren offers the reader a window into her experience of coming into contact with members of the organized New Church. With humor and insight she illustrates some of the gaps in understanding, language, and culture between New Church Christians and non-New Church Christians. Lauren warmly encourages reader feedback in her ongoing effort to gather perspectives on the New Church. -Editor

Author's Note

This is the introduction to a book that is yet to be birthed from the folds of my mind and reading notes. I got the idea for it a few months ago on one of my many plane trips around the country and wrote the introduction and a brief purpose/outline, both of which I share with you below.

I had meant to keep this under wraps, afraid of what the response to it might be, until I had developed more of the text. I chose to share the current content with a much-trusted New Church pastor, in order to gauge his response, and he, in turn, became quite smitten with the idea. He encouraged me to post it here for you all to read and consider. So, with that endorsement, I am braving the scrutiny and (hopefully constructive) feedback of the very learned and exacting New Church society at large in hopes of developing ideas and direction for the book.

As you will hopefully be able to see, I’m trying to aim the book at a wider audience than just the New Church while also attempting to help Swedenborgians understand the potential thought processes of other Christians. So the target audience and voice may be a bit varied chapter to chapter, but the theme throughout will be an attempt to “bridge the gap” [in understanding; I won’t be trying to blend all doctrine into one]. Seeing, however, as I will be starting a PhD program in the fall in a subject quite different than New Church doctrine, as interesting as it is, I can’t promise that anything will come to fruition soon. Perhaps your feedback will encourage this project along though! Please enjoy and provide any comments you feel so inclined to contribute. Thanks, -Lauren Dale

Proposed Content (Not in Final Order)

1. Introduce general audience to Swedenborg and New Church (NC) doctrine
   1. Make info more accessible to non-NC public
   2. Briefly explain Emanuel Swedenborg’s background (I know there are other books on this subject, so the purpose here will be to relate him to the common man by establishing his position as a Enlightenment scientist with many contributions to society)
   3. Compare NC doctrine to other Christian doctrine (to bridge gap)
   4. Address potential stumbling blocks to the understanding and/or acceptance of NC doctrine
2. Explain non-NCers’ perceptions of NC doctrine to Swedenborgians
   1. What ideas scare us off (potentially) the most quickly
   2. The NC behavior/attitudes that can appear repulsive and discouraging
3. Recount the evolution of thought for a non-NC Christian
   1. The elements that were intriguing/attractive
   2. Elements of the doctrine I still struggle with
   3. Interacting with a significant other who had NC doctrine taught from birth; finding the balance of mutual teaching and learning

Introduction

I checked a heavy internal sigh from brandishing its blade of boredom on my face and chose a seat next to a new member in the University Choir. Hopefully he might provide a new flavor to the weekend-long singing retreat that I had attended for the past three years. To my delight, he bowed his head and folded his hands together over his burger as I set my own down on the picnic table beside him. I waited patiently for the blessing, muttered my own “Amen,” and wondered if I had found a fellow Christian at this secular school, someone who might not start most conversations with, “oh man, I was wasted last night, it was hilarious.” The new transfer student in the bass section confirmed he was a Christian and, when probed as to what denomination, vaguely replied, “Well that’s a long story, but I’m Protestant, pretty much.” And there it was: the Swedenborgian Asterisk.

The significance of this moment was lost to me at that time as I had no idea the kind of friendship that would develop between this bass and I, or any understanding of what “Protestant, pretty much” meant. Up until then, I had grown up in a world where the second coming of Christ was yet to occur, and if you were a Christian and not Catholic, then you were one of many Protestant denominations that all seemed very different and all looked much the same. The world I was yet unaware of – the world of the cryptic “pretty much” to which my introduction would be delayed by almost two years – was the world of Emanuel Swedenborg and the New Church doctrine.

In a form very appropriate to my black-or-white, all-or-nothing personality, when I was introduced to the New Church faith, I didn’t just receive a polite handshake, I received a huge bear hug of doctrine and a parade of ministers to match. The bass, who had become my best friend and boyfriend very late in our senior year thanks to the Argentine tango, had a theology department for a family. His mother’s father, his father, two of his brothers, and a future brother-in-law who had not yet entered seminary, were all trained ministers. In addition, all three of the married siblings in the family had married children of other New Church pastors, and half of the other people my bass knew, it seemed, were – or had been – ministers, including his farming-town barber.

If I looked back along the branches of my own family lineage, I had one minister (that I knew of) to my name: a Thomas K. Anderson of Texas. He was my father’s paternal grandfather and a Methodist. I’m not sure which of my traits, undoubtedly endowed by the sheer grace of God, prevented me from immediately hitting the “Eject” button on this inundation of new doctrine. My bass claims it was a heaven’s worth of patience. More likely, it was a scientist’s inquisitiveness and a near-masochistic love of outliers. No matter what the reason, I found myself on a journey that would test my convictions as a nominal Christian torn between nurture and nature (training in earth science, to be exact), as a daughter torn between childhood and intellectual independence, and as an individual torn between faith and belief (a distinction I will elucidate later).

About a year after my immersion in New Church thought, I was sitting around the Easter Sunday dinner table with the Smith’s (the theology department-family) and the topic of my current New Church perceptions was breached. I welcomed the opportunity to muse over the past year of my experiences and did my best to answer them with a fair and honest assessment of my thought-progression. The honest answer was by no means a short one, however, and a truly fair response would require an extensive comparison of the Christian convictions that had been nurtured in me since birth and those that the Lord was potentially planting in my mind and heart. This was the point I tried to convey over the salmon, unleavened bread, and honey that afternoon.

One observation I let go unspoken, for the sake of time and courtesy, was a persistent awareness of “us” and “the others” within the New Church congregation. I wish to do no injustice in representing the people of New Church faith because all of those whom I have met are some of the kindest and most enjoyable people I’ve encountered in my early 20’s life-experience. I did find, however, the society to be small enough and isolated enough to have become victim to a very singular sense of Christianity. Be it what it may, an outsider’s inaccurate perception or a chronic subconscious New Church characteristic, the manifestation of such often created a barrier in understanding and communication. I have termed this behavior the “Swedenborgian Asterisk” to represent how it seems to modify the user’s belief or religion, and therefore the people with which they might connect.

In the case of my bass, when surrounded by a secular group of atheists, agnostics, or believers of indeterminate faith, the Swedenborgian Asterisk exhibited as an almost apologetic modifier on the title of “Christian.” Among a community of New Church members, it became an immediate question of “do you know the Lord?” if one didn’t attach a Swedenborgian Asterisk to their faith. I found this disconnect between New Church Christian believers and non-New Church Christian believers insulting to my own convictions at worst, but mostly unfortunate due to its hindrance of common fellowship in the Lord. I was bemused by the asterisk and intrigued to discover the cause of this “us-and-them” mentality in an otherwise very welcoming congregation of people. What was this Swedenborgian Asterisk on the name of their faith? What could they possibly believe or be hiding that prevented a more general, mutual understanding between followers of Christ? The answers that I would find to these questions were indeed shocking, but not so much so to me as the reaction I would have to them in the end. And that is my story: the tale of the drag-in, if you will, that I impart to you now.

In this recount of my own experiences exploring the world of the New Church, I hope to introduce a wider audience to the Swedish renaissance man, the scientist, and the seer, Emanuel Swedenborg. In doing so, I also wish to enlighten the Christians of a Swedenborgian Asterisk-persuasion (i.e., members of the New Church) of an outsider’s perception of their religion in order to facilitate more frequent and productive conversations between non-intersecting believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. Beyond the research required for the content of this book and the wonderful discourses I have undertaken with the Smith family theology department, I claim no expertise or exceptional knowledge of the New Church or any other Christian doctrine.

My purpose here is to create a vehicle for dialogue that can be employed by the reader to explore one’s own perceptions and convictions; a dialogue that, optimally, will be shared with others. If this book does nothing more than leave the reader with one lasting impression, then I hope that message will be that exploring one’s religion and faith with the same probing inquisitiveness and passion as a scientist’s critical mind is a powerful and valuable road to faith and love. It is the very road, in fact, that Emanuel Swedenborg himself traveled.

Lauren Dale Anderson

Lauren currently lives in Seattle, WA where she is attending the University of Washington to pursue a PhD program in geochemistry and astrobiology. She received her BS (2009) and MS (2010) degrees in geology from Lehigh University (Bethlehem, PA), where she met her bass. One of her passions is travel, especially having just finished a month of backpacking in Alaska and a cross-country trip with her younger brother, and she hopes to visit Australia and South Africa soon. Lauren dislikes eating vinegary jellyfish, listening to scratchy radio stations, and spending hours in the mall. Lauren enjoys making handmade greeting cards, hiking in the mountains, eating bacon, and talking with her fiancé.

Comments

[Eliza]

Lauren, I really appreciate your writing style, your perspective on this and your future of work in this area. Welcome! from another multi-minister connected relative! :) -Eliza

[Tirah]

This is sooo Great!!! As a "Raise-in" and a 3rd generation PK, I really am looking forward to more of this book!!! It would be really helpful to me to understand more how my perception of "us" vs "them" effects how I interact with the people around me.
Thanks so much for this article. I look forward to meeting you in person someday (an assumption based on the fact that my sister is married to Malcolm so we've got a family connection), and to reading the rest of your book! Blessings on your current studies,
Tirah

[Mac]

Lauren, you have GOT to write this book. Or at least post a few more articles on this vein that may eventually be part of the book. Speaking as a pastor and evangelist in the New Church, this is EXACTLY the story I most want and need to read.

I spend a good deal of time studying what the Christian world is saying about itself, about what non-Christians say about them, and what they say about non-Christians. I do this because I crave data. I'm trying to plant churches and connect with new people, and the best benchmarks I have to go by are in the literature of evangelicals and emergents that are trying to think outside of their own respective boxes. It's useful, but fairly general. It's the story of how non-Christians interact with the mostly baptist branch of Christianity. It contains lessons useful to any religious movement. But if I had your book on my shelf, I'd drop everything else and read your story.

But you asked for constructive feedback, and so far all I've given you is "Go GO GO!" So here are two suggestions:

1) Stick with your true voice. You're already doing it (I assume). Don't veer away from that. And don't apologize for your personal perspective. And, while keeping that in mind...

2) Maybe seek out some other people with similar experiences encountering this faith and the communities surrounding it, and include some of their perspectives as well. That would double the value of this already much needed project.

But more than anything else, keep telling us this story! I'm loving it so far!

[Kay Alden]

Fantastic. This is a much needed perspective. It is easy to read and rings true.

[Lori Odhner]

Dear Lauren, Thank you so much for articulating your story. I really enjoyed it and feel like I learned from you. I too look forward to actually having a conversation with you someday, perhaps seeing you two do the fateful tango at your wedding! Hey I would love to send you the CfM newsletter that Garrett's article is in. What is your address? You can email it to me.
Love, Lori

[Aunt Jennifer]

This is so great, says Aunt Jennifer, Mr. Smith's sister, and married to another minister, Uncle Stephen, and mother of another minister, Nathan Cole, and mother-in-law to another minister Matthew Genzlinger! This looks to be a great help and resource for seekers! We are so glad you have come into this great great family!

[Derrick Lumsden]

Lauren,

I would ditto what Mac said above. I would love to see this project completed.

Having grown up in a New Church family and small New Church congregation in Atlanta, I had lots of interaction with Bible-belt Christians. I feel fairly comfortable rubbing shoulders with the Christian perspective. Still there is no substitute for an inside perspective, or a helping hand like one who's "been there."

[Lincoln and Becca]

Lauren, we laughed a lot while reading this, because it's true. Thanks for starting the conversation. It's going to be a good one. My own asterisk is quite present most of the time. The asterisk assumes it's just too much of a leap for most people to consider this religion, or even want to hear about it. Me and my attitude problem will be looking forward to more of your story.
Love,
Lincoln and Becca