Weird III: Not So Miraculous

How much more weird can we take? Weird III is part three of Todd Beiswenger's series attempting to put weird sounding religious ideas in context. This time he goes after miracles. Almost by definition miracles are shocking and strange, if not weird. Or are they? Beiswenger suggests that they might have more natural world explanations than we usually think. You can catch up on the rest of the weird series here: Weird I; Weird II. -Editor

I was flying from Phoenix to San Jose when I entered into a delightful conversation with the person sitting next to me. It didn’t take long before I knew that he was a software engineer for HP, and a devout Christian. I explained that I was a Christian too, just a denomination he’d never heard of before. I said that though I believed the Abraham and later stories to be historically true, I also believed in a deeper meaning to the Bible. He gave me a puzzled look, but asked, “Do you believe that God parted the Red sea?”

Click to read more ...

Weird II: What Kind of Weird Are You?

Todd Beiswenger hits us with a second article in his weird series. Weird II explores ideas of astral travel and beings from other planets. Todd puts Swedenborg's unusual ideas in the the context of similar ideas from the New Age movement. You can catch up on his first weird article here and the final piece in the series here. -Editor

For those of us who regard the Writings as an absolute authority on any topic contained therein, there is no more vexing a book than Earths in the Universe (more recently translated as Worlds in Space). This wasn’t a problem over 100 years ago when the General Church deemed the revelation from God, not Swedenborg, but it is now. How do we reconcile the existence of the book with what space exploration is telling us? My solution: think weird.

Click to read more ...

Weird I: How Weird Are You?

Every other week, for the next six, we will publish an article by Todd Beiswenger. Weird I; Weird II and then Weird III. In Weird I Todd introduces the concept of this series, which is to explore the weird sounding ideas of the New Church with an effort to explain or contextualize them. -Editor

Over the last 200 years or so, people accused Swedenborg of insanity, and many have thought the same about followers of the Writings. While we probably are not insane, I do think we have a track record of being a little weird. That’s what a comprehensive theology can do to you. However, I will go on record as to thinking that perhaps we are not as weird as we should be. More weird? As if believing the second coming has already happened isn’t weird enough, let us consider some of the weird ideas the Writings allow us to embrace.

Click to read more ...