Thought from the Understanding: Swedenborg’s Library and the Shape of a Mind
Location: Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania (optional remote attendance)
Date: October 26, 2024
This one-day interdisciplinary conference invites scholars to explore Emanuel Swedenborg’s personal library for points of connection between the works he held in his library and the ideas presented in his own philosophical and theological works. Long before he embarked on the spiritual journey which led to the revolutionary works of theology he published, Swedenborg was a voracious learner, and his many fields of interest are reflected in his wide-ranging library, which included works of philosophy, anatomy, history, physics, chemistry, metallurgy, engineering, and classical learning, as well as, of course, Biblical and religious thought. Conference papers will investigate connections between Swedenborg’s works and some of the most important texts and figures in his library. See schedule below.
Participants may attend the conference in person or remotely.
This one-day conference is free for members, $15 for non-members. For those attending the conference in person, we suggest an additional $10 contribution for participants wishing to attend the reception at the end of the conference.
To become a member, visit Institute for Swedenborg Studies | Bryn Athyn College. If you are uncertain about whether or not your membership is current, please send an inquiry to InstituteforSwedenborgStudies@brynathyn.edu.
Schedule:
| Saturday, October 26, 2024 | |
|---|---|
| 1:00pm | Welcome |
| 1:10pm | The Most Esteemed Church Father: Swedenborg’s Reading of Augustine | Jim Lawrence |
| 1:45pm | For Sailors and Seers: Swedenborg’s References to the Work of Hugo Grotius | Andrew Dibb |
| 2:20pm | Break |
| 2:40pm | Swedenborg’s Bibles | Stephen Cole |
| 3:15pm | Judaism and the Covenant in Swedenborg and the Epistle of Barnabas | Michael Goos |
| 3:50pm | Response | Rebecca K. Esterson |
| 4:10pm | Wrap Up |
|
For participants in person on Bryn Athyn’s campus: |
|
| 4:15pm |
Swedenborgiana Display | Swedenborg Library |
| 5:15pm |
Reception |
Dr. Rebecca K. Esterson is the Dean of the Center for Swedenborgian Studies and the
Dorothea Harvey Professor of Swedenborgian Studies. She teaches in the Department
of Sacred Texts and Their Interpretation at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley.
Her areas of teaching and research interests include: Swedenborgian thought and theology,
the history of biblical interpretation, hermeneutics, Jewish-Christian relations,
eighteenth century intellectual culture, Christian Hebraism, and comparative religious
studies. Her book 
Vincent Roy-Di Piazza is a historian of science and religion. He recently obtained
his PhD at the University of Oxford, with a dissertation on Swedenborg and the soul-body
problem. He is currently a postdoctoral associate at Oxford, a research fellow at
the Karolinska Institute, and a lecturer at the University of Stockholm. He has published
on various aspects of Swedenborg’s life and thought. Follow his research on social
media and/via his website: 
Rev. Dr. Jim Lawrence grew up an every-Sunday kid in a Disciples of Christ church
in Houston. During college he majored in developmental economics for impoverished
countries due to an overwhelming concern for suffering in the world. It was also during
these young adult years that he lost his faith due precisely to the world’s massive
misery index. He concluded the universe is heartless and pointless. That perspective
changed, however, through a spiritual renewal that opened up a new sense for meaning
and purpose. Becoming immersed in the post-Reformation scientist and theologian Emanuel
Swedenborg provided one impetus toward interpreting life as meaningful again. His
vision shifted toward spiritual renewal as the world’s greatest need, so after rapidly
finishing his degree in economics at the University of Texas, he dove into studies
at a Disciples of Christ seminary. The “Swedenborg bug,” however, would not go away,
and so he committed what many of his colleagues felt was professional suicide by jumping
ship to the Swedenborgian seminary in Boston. After graduation and ordination, he
found tremendous satisfaction working during the next 17 years in the congregational
leadership in three church ministries spanning small town, suburban, and urban settings.
During these years he also earned the Doctor of Ministry degree focusing on the performative
practice of writing as a communications ministry strategy. To date he has been author,
editor, contributor, or publisher of more than 150 bound works and author of dozens
of ministry and spirituality articles for the lay public. In 2001 he was called to
return to the academy, complete a Ph.D. degree in Christian Spirituality, and become
Dean of Convention’s theological school, for which he led the effort to relocate to
Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley as the Swedenborgian House of Studies, which
in 2015 became a Center of Distinction at the Graduate Theological Union as the Center
for Swedenborgian Studies, where he is still Dean. He has remained on the faculty
at Pacific School of Religion directing the Doctor of Ministry degree program. He
is currently President-Elect of the Swedenborgian Church of North America.