Bryn Athyn College Alumni Magazine Fall/Winter 2017-18 | Page 18

Stephen Cole (BS '73)
Plans are currently underway
by conference organizers
Jane Williams Hogan and
Devin Zuber to publish a
selection of the best pa-
pers from the conference
as a special volume with an
academic press. Bryn Athyn
College has also permanently
archived the entire confer-
ence, with access to high-
quality video recordings of each
talk and session, on its website.
ings ended up having
a broader impact, argu-
If you were unable to attend the
ably, on painters and
conference last June, you can still
poets than among the
view videos online, or read more
theologians and natu-
about what was said in the forth-
ral scientists at which
coming book. Please stay tuned.
Swedenborg’s
work
originally took aim.
Twenty-nine individu-
al presentations were arranged the critical introduction to the
into thematic panels over the New Century Edition versions of
course of the week, with ses- Secrets of Heaven, Hanegraaff’s
sions that ranged from “Vision- Swedenborg, Oetinger, Kant: Three
ary Architecture and Sound” to Perspectives on the Secrets of Heaven
“Swedenborg in World Litera- remains a major contribution
tures.” There were presentations to Swedenborg studies). Hane-
on painters such as George In- graaff’s talk at Bryn Athyn,
ness, William Keith, and Wasily “Imagining Swedenborg’s Heav-
Kandinsky; the architect Daniel en,” suggested the profound
Burnham; and a bevy of writers ways that Swedenborg’s ideas
including Feodor Dostoevsky, catalyzed new concerns with the
Jorge Luis Borges, and Henry faculty of imagination, using
James. Additionally, each day the work of the French Mesmer-
opened with special keynote ist, spiritualist, and Swedenbor-
lectures by significant scholars gian Louis-Alphonse Cahag-
of Swedenborg, art history and net (1809—1885) as a case-study
literature, or religious studies, for how Enlightenment empiri-
that helped frame the kinds of cism could become transferred
questions the conference sought into explorations of alternative
to explore.
forms of consciousness. The
The conference began with talk provoked a set of ques-
a keynote from Wouter Hane- tions about the close, perhaps
graaff, professor of Hermetic symbiotic, relationship between
Philosophy at the University attempts to describe spiritual
of Amsterdam, who is widely or mystical experience and the
regarded as one of the world’s nature of creativity and artistic
leading authorities on Sweden- production itself.
borg (in addition to authoring
The subsequent keynotes
18 | F A L L / W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 - 1 8
amplified this interest while
focusing on more particular
artistic contexts. Massimo In-
trovigne, founder and director
of CESNUR, proposed a way
to delineate “three concentric
circles” of influence as a means
of making a kind of typology
for the different ways Sweden-
borg’s work was being read and
received by artists. Linda Dal-
rymple-Henderson, the David
Bruton Jr. Centenial Professor
of Art History at the University
of Texas, Austin, and important
scholar on the relationship be-
tween science and the develop-
ment of modern art, brought
new light to bear on how Swe-
denborg’s concept of the spiri-
tual world permeated new pre-
occupations with the idea of a
“fourth dimension” that attract-
ed many early twentieth-century
avant-gardes.
For many of the academ-
ics attending and presenting, it
was their first time visiting Bryn
Athyn or encountering a New
Church educational setting. All
without exception felt warmly
welcomed, and deeply appreci-
ated the “long, unhurried, deep
and uplifting discussions with
many different folk in a beauti-
ful environment.” As one guest
put it, “Many friendships have
been made.” To complement the
panel sessions, the conference
also undertook special tours of
the Cathedral and Glencairn,
as well as walking tours of the
Bryn Athyn community and
the Lord’s New Church. Fur-
ther highlights were the open-
ing dinner at Cairnwood, and
a large conference banquet in
Glencairn.