Merriam-Webster defines “doctrine” as “a set of ideas or beliefs
that are taught or believed to be true.” You’ll find it in any religion. You’re a Christian? OK, here’s what Christians believe. You’re a Muslim? OK, here’s what Muslims believe. You’re a Buddhist? OK, here’s what Buddhists believe. It can be boiled down into pretty simple, general terms or explored in depth and complexity, but in general it attempts to put spiritual principles into forms that can be understood and applied.
Pretty simple, right? And it doesn’t sound like a big deal.
But it is -- or at least it certainly has been. Christians, Muslims and Jews believe in the same God, but have been slaughtering each other over doctrinal differences for centuries. Each of those belief systems is itself sliced up into factions and sub-factions by doctrine, and hundreds of thousands have died over those differences as well. And while we are (a bit) less violent in the modern world, there’s still plenty of argument and condemnation.
In fact, even in the small world of Swedenborgian believers, there were, at the time this was written, three major denominations divided by doctrine, along with a number of independent churches and smaller branches, each with their own doctrinal ideas.
Why is that so? And in light of it, what does Swedenborg mean in speaking of “doctrine”?
The problem is, in Swedenborgian terms, that God is infinite and we are finite. As finite beings, we need finite ideas and finite principles so we can bring order to our finite lives in our finite existence. So we ponder the infinite as best we can and extrapolate finite ideas that we can work with. No matter how well we do that, though -- no matter how humble and diligent we are in approaching the Lord -- we can never get the full picture. It’s kind of like using a camera to take two-dimensional pictures of a three-dimensional world; the pictures can be beautiful, true and useful, but they have built-in limitations. And if you walk 10 paces and shoot another picture, everything is going to look slightly different.
That’s kind of a built-in paradox. So it is perhaps fitting that there is a seeming paradox in the way Swedenborg advises approaching doctrine. That comes in a few essential aspects:
All doctrine should be drawn from the Word.
This is stated clearly in Arcana Coelestia No. 9424, which says that “all the doctrine of the church must be from the Word, and doctrine from any other source than the Word is not doctrine in which there is anything of the church, still less anything of heaven.”
Makes sense. When it comes to our most essential ideas about the Lord, we need to get them in the one place where the Lord speaks to us directly. But the fact is that there are countless Christian denominations reading the same Bible, purporting to believe it completely, and coming to widely varying conclusions about what it says. It seems like a troubled path.
That’s because...
We need doctrine to understand the Word.
This idea has a whole heading -- “The Word is not to be understood without doctrine” -- in True Christian Religion No. 226. It explains that “in the literal sense the Divine truths are rarely uncovered, but are clothed. They are then called appearances of truth, and in many cases are made suitable to be understood by the simple, who do not lift their gaze above what is in front of their eyes.” We can’t simply rely on the outward language of the Bible to develop our ideas, but need to understand its spiritual messages and correspondences.
Makes sense -- one of the essentials of Swedenborg is that the Bible is a spiritual document with the real meaning in its depths. That certainly seems like the place to get our doctrinal ideas.
But think about it: All doctrine must be drawn from the Word, but we need doctrine to draw anything meaningful from the Word. Where would we get the doctrine to understand the Word to get doctrine from it? The answer is...
We need to read the Word in a state of enlightenment.
Arcana Coelestia No. 10105 says that “truths drawn from the Word have to be marshalled into doctrine in order that they may be put to use. The marshalling must be done by those who see things in light received from the Lord…”
This makes sense too: We need to be open to the Lord to receive the Lord; if we let the Lord set our minds in order we will recognize the spiritual ideas as we read the Word. But it’s also troubling. How can we know that someone is “enlightened”? If we seek enlightenment ourselves, how can we know that we have achieved it? In a way it seems like hubris for anyone to attribute enlightenment to themselves; some might say that those claiming enlightenment are, by definition, the least enlightened of all. How can we approach this challenge?
Enlightenment comes from seeking truth because we love the truth.
This is stated well in Arcana 9424, which says that a person is “in enlightenment when he is in the love of truth for the sake of truth, and not for the sake of self and the world.”
So maybe we can’t know for sure when we are enlightened, but we know where enlightenment lies. We need to set aside things of ourselves -- our biases, pre-conceived notions, emotions, pride and desire -- and seek a state of simply loving what is true if we are to find it.
Will we get there? Probably not -- or at least not all the way there. Swedenborg does say that real, true doctrine -- called “divine doctrine” -- does exist, but with our finite minds and imperfect hearts, it’s not something we can hope to achieve (and not something we could understand if we did). But as we work at it, we can find beautiful things and beautiful ways to express and apply them to help people toward heaven.
Which leads to one final point in this already-much-too-long discussion.
Arcana Coelestia No. 3316, discussing the meaning of the pottage (or porridge) Jacob served to Esau, compares this to early stages of our spiritual development. In them, it says, “all matters of doctrine regarding what is true are massed together” in a state comparable to “the undigested particles of some ingredient…”
We can relate to that: having a mass of ideas and facts all jumbled together and unsorted. It’s true of many things early in life, and true of the early stages of any new thing we learn. We have lots of bits of knowledge, but can’t yet see the pattern.
You might think that mass of ideas would be sorted out by some higher doctrinal system, but it is not so. “Those matters of doctrine are not brought into an ordered condition by anything within themselves, but by the good that must enter into them,” the number says, “and the amount of good entering into them, also the essential nature of that good, determine how far they become ordered and the nature of their then ordered condition.”
So in the end the desire to be good actually does the sorting and ordering, finding the truths it needs from the mass and putting them to work.
That’s a neat analogy. Our stomachs can only hold so much food -- they can’t hold all food. It’s important that the food we put in them is good -- nutritious and balanced. Our bodies will break down that food and turn it into both energy and all the fibers and other materials we need to live and grow -- organizing it by the uses it can perform.
So if we want the same thing spiritually, we need to build our own doctrine by filling our spiritual “stomachs” with ideas that are spiritually “nutritious and balanced,” and set out to do all the good things we want to do to serve the Lord. The very desire to be good and to do what is good will order those ideas into the unique doctrine that will serve the particular journey each of us is on.
So in the end our doctrine, if done right, is really the product of our loves more than our minds. We need to approach ideas in the first place with a love of what is true, then need to apply them with a desire to do what is good in order for them to mesh together into a system.
Passages from Swedenborg
Doctrine of Sacred Scripture (Dick) n. 54
The Word by means of doctrine is not only understood, but it also as it were gives light; because without doctrine it is not understood, and it is like a lampstand without a light, as was shown above. The Word, therefore, by means of doctrine is understood, and is like a lampstand with its lamp lit. Man then sees more things than he had seen before, and he also understands those things which he had not understood before. Things obscure and out of agreement he either does not notice and passes over, or he sees and explains them as in agreement with doctrine. The experience of the Christian world testifies that the Word is understood from doctrine, and also that it is explained according to doctrine. For all the Reformers see the Word from their own doctrine and they explain the Word according to it; so too the Roman Catholics see it from their doctrine and they explain it accordingly; and even the Jews do likewise; thus falsities are seen from false doctrine, and truths from true doctrine. Hence it is evident that true doctrine is like a lamp in darkness and a sign-post on the way.
Doctrine, however, must not only be taken from the sense of the Letter of the Word, but it must also be confirmed by that sense. For if not confirmed by it, the truth of doctrine appears as if it were only man's intelligence in it and not the Lord's Divine Wisdom; and thus doctrine would be like a house in the air, and not on the ground, and consequently without a foundation.
True Christian Religion (Ager) n. 245
It is known that the church is in accordance with its doctrine, and that doctrine is from the Word; nevertheless it is not doctrine but soundness and purity of doctrine, consequently the understanding of the Word, that establishes the church. Neither is it doctrine, but a faith and life in accordance withdoctrine, that establishes and constitutes the special church in the individual man. So too it is not the Word that establishes and constitutes the church in particular in man, but a faith according to the truths, and a life according to the goods, which man derives from the Word, and applies to himself.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 4468
'And we will be one people' means being joined together in doctrine. This is clear from the meaning of 'people' as the truth of the Church, and therefore doctrine, 1259, 1260, 3295, 3581. 'Being one people' accordingly means being joined together through doctrine. There are two things which join members of the Church together - life and doctrine. When life joins them together doctrine does not separate them, but if doctrine alone joins them together, as happens within the Church at the present day, they separate themselves from one another and form as many Churches as there are varieties of doctrine, even though doctrine exists for the sake of life, and life ensues from doctrine. Their separation from one another if doctrine alone joins them together is evident from the fact that a person who subscribes to onedoctrine condemns him who subscribes to another, sometimes to hell. But doctrine does not separate people if life joins them together. This is evident from the fact that a person who leads a good life does not condemn another because he has a feeling about something different from his own but leaves it be as a matter of the other's faith and conscience. And this is an attitude which he adopts even towards those outside the Church, for he says in his heart that ignorance cannot condemn any of them, provided that they lead lives of innocence and mutual love, as young children do, who also, if they die, are in ignorance.
Arcana Coelestia (Potts) n. 9424
He who does not know the arcana of heaven must needs believe that the Word is supported without doctrine from it; for he supposes that the Word in the letter, or the literal sense of the Word, is doctrine itself. But be it known that all the doctrine of the church must be from the Word, and that the doctrine from any other source than the Word is not doctrine in which there is anything of the church, still less anything of heaven. But the doctrine must be collected from the Word, and while it is being collected, the man must be in enlightenment from the Lord; and he is in enlightenment when he is in the love of truth for the sake of truth, and not for the sake of self and the world.
True Christian Religion (Chadwick) n. 226
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(i) THE WORD IS NOT TO BE UNDERSTOOD WITHOUT DOCTRINE.
This is because the Word in its literal sense is composed of nothing but correspondences, in order that it should simultaneously hold spiritual and celestial meanings; and every single word is a container and support for these. That is why in the literal sense the Divine truths are rarely uncovered, but are clothed. They are then called appearances of truth, and in many cases are made suitable to be understood by the simple, who do not lift their gaze above what is in front of their eyes. Some appear to be contradictions, when in fact there is no contradiction, if the Word is looked at by its own spiritual light. Moreover in some passages of the Prophets there are collections of place-names and personal names, from which no sort of sense can be extracted. Seeing that the Word is like this in its literal sense, it can easily be established that it could not be understood without doctrine.
The Word is not to be understood without doctrine. Doctrine is to be drawn from the literal sense of the Word. But Divine truth, on which doctrine is based, is not visible to any but those who are enlightened by the Lord.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 3712
Divine doctrine is Divine Truth, and Divine Truth is the Word of the Lord in its entirety. Divine doctrine itself constitutes the Word in the highest sense, in which the only subject is the Lord. As a consequence Divine doctrine also constitutes the Word in the internal sense, in which the Lord's kingdom in heaven and on earth is the subject.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 3316
The first state of one who is being regenerated - that is, with whom truth is being joined to good - is a state in which first of all matters of doctrine regarding what is true are massed together, without any definite order, in his natural man, that is, in the storehouse there called the memory. The matters of doctrine present there at that time may be compared to the undigested particles of some ingredient, not compounded with anything else but massed together, and may be compared to a kind of chaos. But the chaos exists to the end that they may be brought into an ordered condition; for with anything that is brought into an ordered condition chaos exists at first. This is what is meant by the pottage that Jacob boiled, that is, massed together. Those matters of doctrine are not brought into an ordered condition by anything within themselves but by the good that must enter into them; and the amount of good entering into them, also the essential nature of that good, determine how far they become ordered and the nature of their then ordered condition. When good first craves and desires matters of doctrine, to the end that they may be joined to itself, it is seen in the form of an affection for truth. These are the considerations meant by 'Esau said to Jacob, Let me sip now from the red [pottage], this red [pottage]'.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 10105
[2] The words 'employing the truths of doctrine seen in light received from the Lord' are used because truths drawn from the Word have to be marshalled into doctrine in order that they may be put to use. The marshalling must be done by those who see things in light received from the Lord; and those so enlightened when they read the Word are people who desire truth for its own sake and for the sake of goodness of life, not those who desire it for the sake of self-glorification, reputation, or gain. Doctrinedrawn from the Word is wholly essential for understanding the Word, see 9025, 9409, 9410, 9424, 9430; and those who gather doctrine from the Word must see things in light received from the Lord, 9382, 9424.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 2568
Regarding the doctrine of faith from rational ideas occurs when someone does not believe in the Word, that is, in doctrine drawn from it, until he is persuaded on rational grounds that the thing is so. But regarding rational ideas from the doctrine of faith occurs when someone first of all believes in the Word or doctrine drawn from it and then confirms the same by rational ideas. The first approach is an inversion of order and leads to belief in nothing, whereas the second is genuine order and leads to greater belief.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 2231
[2] In general there is only one doctrine, that is to say, the doctrine of charity, for, as stated in 2228, all things of faith have charity in view. No other difference exists between charity and faith than that which exists between willing what is good and thinking what is good - for one who wills what is good also thinks what is good - thus than that which exists between will and understanding. People who reflect on the matter know that the will is one thing and the understanding another. The same is also well recognized in the learned world, and it is plain to see in the case of those who will what is evil and yet from thought utter what is good. From such persons it is evident to anyone that the will is one thing and the understanding another, and thus that the human mind is divided into two parts which do not then make a single whole. Yet man was created in such a way that those two parts should constitute one single mind, and no other difference should exist between them than, to use a comparison, between that of a flame and the light shining from it. Love to the Lord and charity towards the neighbour were to be like the flame, and all perception and thought like the light shining from it. Thus love and charity were to constitute the whole of perception and thought, that is, to exist in every single part. Perception or thought regarding the essential nature of love and charity is that which is called faith.
[3] But because the human race started to will what was evil, to hate the neighbour, and to practice revenge and cruelty, with the result that the part of the mind called the will was completely corrupted, men started to make a distinction between charity and faith, and to attribute to faith all those matters ofdoctrine which belonged to their religion and to refer to them by the single term faith. At length they went so far as to say that people could be saved by faith alone, by which they meant their doctrine. They said that provided they believed that doctrine people could be saved no matter how they lived. Charity was accordingly separated from faith, and when that happens it is nothing else, to use a comparison, than some kind of light that has no flame, like sunlight in winter-time which is so cold and icy that the earth's vegetation languishes and dies. But faith that is derived from charity is like the light of spring-time and summer-time which causes all things to sprout and come into flower.
Who (or What) is Swedenborg?
The ideas on this site are based on the works of Emanuel Swedenborg, an 18th-century Swedish scientist and theologian. Swedenborg claimed that his religious writings, the sole focus of the last three decades of his life, were done at the behest of the Lord himself, and constituted a revelation for a successor to the Christian Church.
In keeping with Swedenborg’s own statements, modern believers downplay his role as author, attributing the ideas to the Lord instead. For this reason they generally refer to Swedenborg’s theological works as “the Writings,” and some resist the label “Swedenborgian” as placing emphasis on the man rather than the message.
Since “the Writings” would be an unfamiliar term to new readers, we have elected to use the name “Swedenborg” as a label for those theological works, much as we might use “Isaiah” or “Matthew” to refer to books of the Bible. The intent, however, is not to attribute the ideas to Swedenborg, any more than we would attribute the divinity of the Bible to Isaiah the man or Matthew the man.
So when you read “according to Swedenborg” on this site, it’s really shorthand for “according to the theological works from the Lord through Swedenborg.” When you read “Swedenborg says,” it’s really shorthand for “the theological works of Swedenborg say.”