My Spiritual World

Sometimes the stories in the Bible can feel inapplicable, and even when we have access to the inner meanings behind them they take work to relate to. Here Susan uses the teachings of the New Church to find the humour, interest, and applicability in the story of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. -Editor.

Emanuel Swedenborg explained that laughter is a spiritual (as opposed to celestial) indicator. Reading Arcana Coelestia made parts of the New Testament funny to me, so ‘celestial’ is not me. I will not find myself sitting at the popular kids’ table in the afterlife. I will be snickering along with the other yahoos in the second heaven (I hope).

Martha (Luke 10:38-42) represents the spiritual realm while her sister Mary represents the celestial. Technically, they are the spiritual and celestial of the natural, but I will leave out the details and concentrate on how endearingly hilarious Martha is.

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Theistic Science

Contrary to current opinion, Susan proposes that science can be founded on religious ideas without any internal conflict. She feels that the rigor of its processes would not be weakened by its religious origin, and that this approach alone presents an alternative to materialism. -Editor

Whatever trials, tribulations, sadness and frustrations you have over your journey with Alzheimer's, please know that the essential you will always be there - to you and your loved ones. Sometimes you may have to send a search party in to find you though :)

That is an anonymous commenter on David Hilfiker's blog about his life with early stage dementia. What will happen to the sense of self as the disease progresses? Our awareness that our "I" does not change over our lifetime the way our physical body does perplexes much of current scientific thinking because of its penchant for materialist explanations.

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Dear Mr. Swedenborg

As a Roman Catholic that has been deeply touched by the words of Emanuel Swedenborg, Susan writes to him directly. She has been contemplating the reverence for Mary within her church and she's had some new ideas about this. Swedenborg clearly denounced hailing Mary as without sin, but what if he began looking at it from Susan's perspective? Would he feel the same way? -Editor

January 18, 2013

Dear Mr. Swedenborg,

I am one of your biggest fans! I read your series Arcana Coelestia as if I were memorizing it. No idea has ever hit me so hard or so changed my way of thinking. I recognized your truth as just what I had been longing to know. You explained it very well, btw. I loved the flow of beautiful detail and your kindness in taking so much time to make it clear. You had me from,

“From the mere letter of the Word of the Old Testament no one would ever discern the fact that this part of the Word contains deep secrets of heaven, and that everything within it both in general and particular bears reference to the Lord.”

I am exaggerating, of course, when I say you had me from your opening sentence. It took me months to ‘get it,’ but eventually I did.

I should mention that I am Roman Catholic. Oh, now, please don’t wince when you read that; the church has improved since your day. I never took offense when I read what you said about us because...well, because I know historically we had a lot of problems and the criticism helped clear them up. Also, you were engaging in some literary license to make your points by using things we already know about, such as the Catholic Church. In Apocalypse Revealed 631 you said,

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