clear that those who place all Divine worship in oral piety, and not in practical
piety, err greatly. (Apocalypse Explained 325.3, my translation)
The Rev. Kurt P. Nemitz is retired and lives in Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania. He still works as a translator for the General
Church, focusing on the Index to Spiritual Experiences. He is the
husband of the late Melinda (Echols).
Contact: [email protected]
O U R N E W C H U RC H V O C A B U L A R Y
Part of a continuing series developed by the Rev. W. Cairns Henderson, 1961-1966.
HEREDITY
Although this term is used in Christian theology and in biology and
psychology, the Writings give to it a new and entirely different meaning. Heredity
covers all the characteristics transmitted by parents to their offspring. According
to the Writings what are thus transmitted are tendencies – which are not imputed
– to the goods or evils in which the parents have confirmed themselves and which
have become habitual with them.
The lives and loves of parents cannot be inherited, but inclinations to them
are passed on, and the sum total of these is the parental heredity. Thus a state
of damnation or of regeneration cannot be inherited; but we are told that the
children of regenerating parents receive inclinations to love and wisdom and the
things that wisdom teaches.
In this lies the hope of the human race. The parental heredity is twofold,
and the maternal, which is external, is put off by regeneration, while the paternal
heredity can never be eradicated. (See Arcana Coelestia 1313, 4317, 4563.)
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