As the global pandemic continues and social distancing guidelines tighten, you may be contained to your home, feeling helpless while so many around us suffer. Remember, Swedenborg’s words from Divine Love and Wisdom passage #336: “Whatever love brings forth it calls useful.”
Useful service includes not only doing good deeds and helping people, but also doing our daily work and taking care of ourselves. And right now, the simple useful act of staying home and healthy benefits the entire world community. It’s actually a beautiful illustration of Swedenborg’s concept of use.
To keep your spirit rooted in faith and connected to others, we’ve compiled a list of free and low-cost content to watch and read from the Swedenborg Foundation, as well as online gatherings being offered by other Swedenborgian communities! Browse through and digest what you need for your spiritual nourishment:
offTheLeftEye
On Monday, March 23 we aired a special episode of Swedenborg & Life that saw Curtis, Karin, Chris, and Chelsea offering viewers spiritual tools to help manage fear and anxiety during the coronavirus pandemic. The New Century Edition books that inspired and informed this episode are: Heaven and Hell, Secrets of Heaven, and Divine Providence. You can download one or all of these books for free!
More Relevant offTheLeftEye Videos:
“How Earth Reveals God’s Love”
“The Purpose of Spiritual Struggles”
And find hundreds more ad-free videos on related topics on our offTheLeftEye YouTube channel!
Blog Posts
Is Global Spiritual Evolution Possible? (Spirituality in Practice)
How Usefulness Became a Cornerstone Swedenborgian Spiritual Growth Method (Scholars on Swedenborg)
And there’s much more to read on our Spirituality in Practice and Scholars on Swedenborg blogs!
Books
The New Century Edition of the Works of Emanuel Swedenborg:
New Jerusalem – This short work, presented as a series of teachings that characterize this spiritual age to come, is also one of Swedenborg’s most concise and readable summaries of his own theology.
Life / Faith – In Life, Swedenborg focuses on the conscious process of spiritual rebirth. In Faith, he rejects the notion of faith without rational sense, while emphasizing that true faith occurs only when we love others and treat them well.
Modern Authors:
Seven Days of Spiritual Evolution: The Genesis of Personal Transformation – Using Swedenborg’s language of correspondences, author E. Kent Rogers shows us how the inner meaning of Genesis 1 describes our psychological landscape as it unfolds along the horizons of our inner journey toward God.
The Universe and I: Where Science & Spirituality Meet – Join theological scholar Dr. George Dole on a journey that investigates our origins, our complex present, and how we can continue to advance humanity and goodwill for all.
You can also browse through all of our free / low-cost e-books!
Audio Books
Divine Providence Audio Download – Swedenborg’s solution to the “problem of evil”—that is, to the question of how one is to reconcile the notion of a loving God with the existence of evil, hardship, and suffering.
See all of our audio and video titles!
Online Community
Our Watching & Reading Swedenborg Facebook group is a great place to connect with others who are also seeking spiritual support and camaraderie like you!
Here are a few other online gatherings and resources we found being offered by other Swedenborgian communities:
New Church Audio* – A collection of audio recordings, including worship services, doctrinal classes, audio books, addresses, special events, and symposia from New Church societies across North America.
The San Francisco Swedenborgian Church* – Rev. Junchol Lee is livestreaming meditations on Thursdays at 5 p.m. PST and church services Sundays at 11 a.m. PST on their Facebook page.
Swedenborg Chapel of Cambridge, Massachusetts* – Rev. Sage Cole is hosting online worship services Sundays at 11 a.m. EST.
*Not affiliated with the Swedenborg Foundation.
Transcendiots Videos
George Dole on the Science and Spirituality Debate, Consciousness, and More
Rev. Junchol Lee on Being Buddhist, Taoist, and Swedenborgian
Find more interviews host Rev. Cory Bradford-Watts had with people from across the spiritual spectrum on the Swedenborg Foundation YouTube channel!
If you haven’t already, be sure to check out Free Resources to Inspire Hope and Connection in Times of Crisis: Part One and Part Three
Stay well and we’ll be back with more resources to share next week!
