Indexing His Way
into Further Enlightenment:
Discovering Swedenborg’s
Process Through Translation
The Rev. Dr. Jonathan S. Rose
(This is a written version of a talk with slides given to the Friends of the Swedenborg
Library Annual Meeting, February 12, 2017)
B
y “translation” in this title I mean both the rendering of Latin words in
English and also the editing and reference-checking that go along with it.
My thesis, briefly put, is that what I might call Swedenborg’s “indexlike”
and “cross-reference” material – where there’s a statement followed by a string
of numbers – has more value than we give it credit for.
In Swedenborg’s published theological works this indexlike material is
presented, broadly speaking, in one of three ways:
1. As a momentary cross-reference inserted into the flow of the main text;
2. As an author’s footnote to the main text;
3. As a solid block, equivalent to his main text.
And why would I link these together? They are all based on Swedenborg’s
indexes. In fact, the same content sometimes appears in one place as one type
of text and in another place as another.
Swedenborg, of course, also had other kinds of indexes. At the end of
two of his later theological works, Marriage Love and True Christianity, he
published an index of memorable occurrences. Plus, many indexes survive
that he left in manuscript form, and we know there were still more that have
not survived.
This kind of material has often been treated by later editors and translators
as inferior to the main text.
Admittedly, the first kind of indexlike material, the embedded cross-
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