the spirit of the academy
Swedenborg saw a magnificent temple in the spiritual world with the Latin
words Nunc Licet (“Now it is permitted”) inscribed over the door, which he
interpreted as meaning, “Now it is permitted to enter with understanding into
the mysteries of faith.” (True Christian Religion 508)
That temple signified the New Church, but I think it is also a prophecy of
the Academy of the New Church, because the Academy has enabled people to
enter with greater understanding than ever before into the “mysteries of faith.”
Before the Academy, the light of spiritual truth shed by the new revelation
was flickering and uncertain in the New Church. Membership had grown
nicely, but there was no common understanding of just what the doctrines
were. Thus there was also disagreement about what the New Church was. Was
it from the Lord, or was it Swedenborg’s brainchild? Was it a distinctly new
dispensation, or just a reform movement or new denomination of the existing
Christian Church?
Those questions had perplexed people from the very beginning of the
organized New Church. But as a result of the Academy movement in America
in the latter half of the 19th century, the light of the Heavenly Doctrine was
rekindled to burn brighter and more steadily than ever before.
Surely we can see the hand of providence in this. What would the New
Church on earth today be without the Academy?
The germ of the Academy movement existed in the New Church from its
very beginning. It was the recognition and acknowledgment by some readers
of the Writings of what they actually are: namely, the Word of the Lord.
And since the Lord is the Word, it was a realization that the new revelation
constitutes the Second Coming of the Lord.
That simple truth was the soul that would eventually form the institution