Letter To The Editors
Letters may be sent to the Editors of New Church Life at
Box 743, Bryn Athyn, PA 19009
or e-mailed to [email protected].
Concern About the Internal Sense
To The Editors:
“ . . . for there is absolutely nothing in the Word that has not what is Divine within it,
or that does not possess an internal sense .” (Arcana Coelestia 1988)
In New Church Life March/April 2017 my letter urged caution in the use
of Dr. Willard Mansfield’s book which claims to be an abridged version of the
Arcana, containing only those parts having an internal sense. My point was
that the Writings frequently say that only the angels and regenerate men can
see the internal sense of the Word. Thus no man can determine which parts of
the Arcana have an internal sense or not, or for that matter, which parts of the
Arcana are the internal sense of the Bible.
In his reply in the May/June issue Dr. Mansfield states: “ I am not sure how
Mr. Ridgway comes to the conclusion that I am deciding on ‘which parts of the
Word have an internal sense and which should be read and other parts which
have not and may be given scant attention or left out.’”
However, the full title to his book states that is exactly what he has done,
for it reads: “The Arcana – an abridged presentation for the laity of the New
Church presenting the continuous internal sense of the Word as revealed by
Emanuel Swedenborg’s Arcana Coelestia.” In other words, he has decided to
omit those parts of the Arcana he considers are not part of the continuous
internal sense of the Word. This is precisely why I urged caution. In this regard,
note carefully the first bullet point below quoting from Heaven and Hell.
In his review of Dr. Mansfield’s books, the Rt. Rev. Peter M. Buss Sr.
confirms this: “He (Dr. Mansfield) has left out the many sections where the
Lord explains the details of the internal sense,” and also, “over 15 years of daily
diligence he has carefully edited passages to keep the essential internal sense.”
I note, too, that Dr. Mansfield now quotes the Rev. Todd Beiswenger as
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