SCHELLING & SWEDENBORG: MYSTICISM & GERMAN IDEALISM (Swedenborg Studies) [Hardcover]

FRIEDEMANN HORN (Author), GEORGE F. DOLE (Translator)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0877851875 | ISBN-13: 978-0877851875 | Publication Date: September 7, 1997 | Edition: Translated

In this groundbreaking study, Friedemann Horn documents Friedrich Schelling's intense personal engagement with Emanuel Swedenborg's theological works, an engagement fueled to a considerable extent by the untimely death of two women whom Schelling loved. In Swedenborg's vision of the spiritual realm, Schelling found an invaluable resource that supplied an underpinning for his own romantic idealism. Horn details the linguistic similarities in the writings of the two philosophers and shows how, particularly in Clara and the Stuttgart Lectures, Schelling employs the ideas of the "seer of the North."

The scholar will find suggestive contacts with Goethe, Wagner, and Franz von Baader, and with a theosophical tradition whose importance may have been overshadowed by Kant's scathing criticism of Swedenborg. In giving access to that undercurrent, Horn provides a unique and neglected view of nineteenth-century thought.

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: German

About the Author

Friedemann Horn received his Ph.D. in Religious Science from Marburg University, where he studied under Ernst Benz, and has also studied languages, comparative religions, and Protestant theology. For the past forty years, he has been the editor of the bi-monthly journal Offene Tore; he has translated many Latin, English, Italian, and French works into German; and he has written articles for scientific publications. He was also the editor-in-chief of Swedenborg Verlag in Zurich, Switzerland.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Swedenborg Foundation Publishers; Translated edition (September 7, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0877851875
• ISBN-13: 978-0877851875
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,928,334 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Swabian Philosopher and the Seer of the North., April 12, 2001

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New Age of Barbarism "zosimos" (EVROPA.) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: SCHELLING & SWEDENBORG: MYSTICISM & GERMAN IDEALISM (Swedenborg Studies) (Paperback)

This beautifully written book describes the role of the theosophy of Emmanuel Swedenborg in the philosophy of Schelling. Schelling's reading of Swedenborg and his incorporation of Swedenborg's theology and notion of the "spirit world" into his own system are discussed. Schelling suffered immense pain with the death of the two women that he loved, including his wife. He was deeply troubled, and he sought out Swedenborg's writings, who allegedly had contact with the realm of spirits to comfort him. The existence of the realm of spirits and the special way by which Swedenborg was graced with knowledge of it raises many philosophical questions. Despite the fact that Kant had given Swedenborg a negative review in his _Dreams of a Spirit-Seer_ and thereby damaged his reputation, Schelling and others of a similar mind had gone back to Swedenborg's writings and examined his claims. Among these claims was that the souls of husband and wife were reunited in the afterlife. This meant that contrary to the traditional Christian view, gender was preserved in the afterlife. This idea was particularly comforting to Schelling. Also, Swedenborg claimed that the planets were inhabited by men and that Christ's redemptive act applied universally to all these inhabitants. This idea also was considered by Schelling. The book considers the unique role that the mind and spiritualism of Swedenborg played in the thought of Schelling. However, like many others Schelling eventually came to reject parts of the eschatology of Swedenborg because of it's "heretical content", that went against the orthodox view. While Swedenborg remains an unorthodox figure, many have come to consider him "the last of the Church fathers", endowed with a special gift. The book examines biblical and philosophical ways of assessing this gift of prophecy (especially in the letters of Paul). Whatever epistemic status may be assigned to his encounters with the spirt world, they certainly provide much interesting reading and a unique way of understanding the Christian message. This book provides an excellent introduction to Swedenborg and his influence upon Schelling, in his life and work.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An intelligent study of two philosophers, January 14, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: SCHELLING & SWEDENBORG: MYSTICISM & GERMAN IDEALISM (Swedenborg Studies) (Hardcover)

This book presents a detailed look at Friedrich Schelling's works and influences, namely Swedenborg. It studies how Schelling's philosophy changed throughout his life, while providing interesting background information about why these changes occured. The study is interesting and the personal information backs it up and keeps the reader hooked. This book is also helpful to those unfamiliar with Swedenborg's philosophical writings; it provides exerpts from the works being discussed.

4.0 out of 5 stars Dreams of a spirit-seer, November 24, 2011

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Ashtar Command "Seeker" (Stockholm, Sweden) - See all my reviews

This review is from: SCHELLING & SWEDENBORG: MYSTICISM & GERMAN IDEALISM (Swedenborg Studies) (Hardcover)

"Schelling and Swedenborg" is a scholarly monograph on the influence of Swedish mystic Emanuel Swedenborg on the German philosopher Schelling.

Before reading this work, I assumed that Schelling was a boring, bland pantheist with a Romantic crush on "nature" (read meadows, hills or something to that effect). In reality, of course, Schelling was a sophisticated thinker who constantly straddled the border between philosophy proper and theology. Eventually, he came to accept the existence of a spirit-world and even a kind of personal God whose highest revelation was "Johannine" Christinianity. For good or for worse, Schelling was strongly inspired by the Gnostic speculations of Jacob Böhme, something he shared with other Romantic thinkers as well. And then, he studied Swedenborg.

The author, Friedemann Horn, seems to be either a Swedenborgian himself, or some kind of sympathetic fellow traveller. He mentions both similarities and differences between Schelling and the "seer of the North". Schelling accepted Swedenborg's idea of spiritual corporeality. I admit that I don't quite understand this notion, but Schelling's point seems to be that spirits aren't a kind of abstract "ideas" or disembodied entities implying complete dualism between spirit and matter. Rather, spirits are in some sense "material" and hence very real, keeping their earthly personalities intact. At death, humans only shed the grossest, physical part of the body - a spiritualized body survives as a vehicle for the immortal soul. (Perhaps he had in mind what others would later call "the astral body"?)

Schelling was also interested in Swedenborg's ideas about heavenly marriage. Swedenborg apparently believed that spouses would be re-united in the spirit-world and continue to live there as husband and wife. Schelling had personal, psychological reasons for embracing both a very concrete personal immortality and heavenly marriage after the death of his beloved wife Caroline.

Other Swedenborgian notions discussed by Schelling include the theory of correspondences, Christology and eschatology. Interestingly, however, Schelling rejected Swedenborg's allegorical view of the apocalypse and resurrection in favour of a more "orthodox" position.

The book also contain more disturbing information, but not about Schelling. Apparently, both Schelling and Franz von Baader believed in a quite literal spirit-world, but Baader took the thing a bit too far, even carrying out bizarre experiments on his own daughter, whom he regarded as demon-possesed! Schelling started to avoid the Baader household after this. (Note that Baader was a well known and important intellectual and political figure in his native Bavaria!)

Obviously, I did some further reading on Schelling after digesting this book! What struck me is that Schelling accepted ideas that were decidedly non-philosophical. How do you philosophically "deduce" the spiritual corporeality of dead people? There seems to have been a tension in Schelling between a genuine religious longing, and demands of a strict philosophical Systeme. His rival Hegel strikes me as a very different kind of person!

"Schelling and Swedenborg" is a very specialized, in-house kind of book. Frankly, it *is* somewhat boring. Nor does it contain any sensational revelations, at least not if Schelling's intellectual evolution is taken into account. I mean, why shouldn't Schelling have read Swedenborg? Still, Horn's book could be of some interest to students of philosophy, theology and theosophy.

Perhaps F.W.J. Schelling at bottom wanted to be...a spirit-seer.