- A free lecture on Emanuel Swedenborg's contribution to Christian allegorical hermeneutics, at 2pm Saturday, January 21, 2006.
- Presented by the Cambridge Swedenborg Chapel. Lecture by Dr. James Lawrence, Dean of the Swedenborgian House of Studies at Pacific School of Religion, Berkeley, CA.
- “In the ‘road to Emmaus’ post-resurrection appearance, the two traveling companions of Jesus remark later how their “hearts were burning” while Jesus opened the scriptures to them as they walked on their journey (Luke 24:32). Swedenborgians have traditionally held that this “opening of the scriptures” referred to Jesus’ prophesied Second Coming, which would take place not as a physical return but as a spiritual return in the form of spiritual knowledge of the inner sense of the Word, as revealed by Christ’s servant, Swedenborg. But Swedenborg wasn’t the first one to claim an inner sense to the Judeo-Christian scriptures. An “inner sense” tradition was, in fact, the very first systematic method of scripture interpretation developed in the early church. Through a long host of such figures as Clement, Origen, Augustine, Cassian, Gregory the Great, Richard of St. Victor, Bernard of Clairvaux, Erasmus, and Madame Guyon, an “inner sense”—or the sensus spiritualis—method of interpretation flourished throughout Christendom for over a thousand years. Truly, it has never been completely lost. Swedenborg, however, brought a unique perspective to the task of “opening the scriptures,” and his work has led to burning hearts of thousands. This talk will explore the significance of the “inner sense tradition” as the original tradition of biblical understanding, and we will seek to discover what the Swedenborgian Church and the ancient spiritual exegetes might have to offer one another.”
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