The Context of Swedenborg’s Words
To The Editors:
It is occasionally stated that Spiritual Diary 5936, which explicitly speaks
against preaching by women, and warns against the often unseen but serious
injury to the feminine mind that may result from this, is not authoritative
because it was not published by Swedenborg. But we should remember that
this particular passage was written after the Last Judgment had occurred, after
the whole of the Arcana Coelestia had been written and published, and after
the publication of The New Jerusalem And Its Heavenly Doctrine, Heaven and
Hell, The Last Judgment, Earths In the Universe, and The White Horse.
Spiritual Diary 5936 is not from early in the book, but was written well
into Swedenborg’s revelatory period. It came after the doctrine relating to the
feminine and masculine had been rather fully developed, and presented in
published and unpublished works alike – apparently including the long and
beautiful explanation of marriage in Apocalypse Explained.
Rev. Willard L. D. Heinrichs
Longmont, Colorado
The Duties of Citizenship
To The Editors:
In the January-February is