n e w c h u r c h l i f e : m ay / j u n e 2 0 1 7
But something changed after Swedenborg’s spiritual eyes were opened:
Indexing became more important to him. Consider the fact that the first major
thing he wrote then was a series of six indexes to the Bible that total 2,515
manuscript pages. By the third of these six, he began including the spiritual
meaning of the text – a departure from mere signposting!
Consider also the fact that at that same time Swedenborg began writing
down his spiritual experiences, and then went over these and indexed them
at a rate of one page of index for every two pages of text. Anyone who has
worked on that material can tell you that his index entries are differently
worded, clearer, and sometimes longer than the thing they are supposedly just
indexing! Yet to the best of my knowledge this material has never before been
translated into any language.
The first ever translation is being done as we speak by the Rev. Kurt
Nemitz for the General Church Translation Committee. It has not been all that
important to us, but it was apparently very important to Swedenborg.
Consider also the humble fact that Swedenborg’s published theological
works (and a few major unpublished works) have sequential section numbers
that run from beginning to end and even across volume boundaries.
Swedenborg adopted this practice no doubt so that he could index and cross-
reference his works before pages were typeset. Proof of this is found in his
Revelation Explained (Apocalypse Explained), which stops abruptly long before
it was completed, but already has abundant cross-references in it. Swedenborg
must have created an index for this work, too, but it has not survived.
In fact, let’s consider how Swedenborg’s published theological writings
begin. After the title page of Secrets of Heaven (Arcana Coelestia), but before
you even reach No.1, what do you find? A string of forward cross-references,
and an index of spiritual experiences.
After he finished Secrets of Heaven in 1758 Swedenborg published five
works in one year. Stuart Shotwell, managing editor for the New Century
Edition, recently made this fascinating observation: when you arrange them
in the order in which they were originally written, the amount of indexlike
material increases.
In Other Planets (Earths in the Universe), such material constitutes six
percent of the work, all of it in the form of author’s footnotes. In Heaven and
Hell, that amount rises to 19 percent and is present in both footnotes and as
block text at the end of chapters. In Last Judgment, that amount rises to 22
percent, again in both footnotes and as block text. In New Jerusalem, that
amount rises to 69 percent, and none of it is in footnote form; it is all block
text at the end of chapters. And in White Horse, that amount rises yet again,
to 80 percent, and again, none of it is in footnotes; it forms one large appendix
after a brief chapter of biblical exegesis. Can we maintain that this material was
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