and the Arts. I immediately discussed that suggestion with Brian Henderson,
Director of Glencairn. In September, I got another email from Massimo in
which he suggested the conference focus on Swedenborg and the Arts.
I brought that suggestion to President Brian Blair, which he whole-
heartedly endorsed, and the conference was born. The key elements here are:
networks, consistent involvement with scholarly organizations and a focus of
scholarship on Swedenborg.
Going forward: The Swedenborg and the Arts Conference has an outstanding
group of presenters. Many of them were invited to participate and the others
responded to our “call for papers.” Those invited were in the networks of
the two Co-Directors of the Conference, myself and Dr. Devin Zuber (a
Bryn Athyn College graduate), Massimo Introvigne, and Stephen McNeillly,
Executive Director of the Swedenborg Society, London.
The conference is a cooperative effort of many New Church organizations:
Bryn Athyn College; The Center for Swedenborg Studies at the Graduate
Theological Union in Berkeley, California; the Swedenborg Foundation; the
Swedenborg Society; and the Swedenborg Scientific Association. Maintaining
these connections and continued cooperation with them is vital to the College
for efforts like the conference going forward.
Emphasizing to the College faculty the importance of doing New Church
and Swedenborg-focused scholarship, and then presenting it to outside
scholarly organizations, is also an essential ingredient. It is also important to
encourage Bryn Athyn College faculty to develop and maintain relationships
with outside scholars, that is to develop and maintain networks.
The College should see holding scholarly conferences as a vital part of its
mission and develop funding for this. The College should also initiate visiting
professor positions at the College and find the funding to support these
positions. In addition, it would be wonderful if some of the activities I have
engaged in during my career at the College could, in fact, be institutionalized.
It should be clear from my perspective that what the conference means to
the College going forward is whatever we want it to mean. For such an event
to be meaningful, we must capitalize on it. We, the College, are the ones who
can do it. While invitations may come to us as a result of the conference, going
forward is basically up to us.
We can engage in scholarship, present at conferences, build networks, get
invitations to present and publish, and we can invite scholars to our events,
publish their papers and books and become the go-to place for Swedenborg
scholarship as more and more academics become aware of the influence of his
Writings on the world.
The conference promises to be a great event. I hope to see you there.
Contact: [email protected]
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