Commentary

 

Memorable Occurrences in Swedenborg's Writings

This list of Memorable Occurrences in Swedenborg's Writings was originally compiled by W. C. Henderson in 1960 but has since been updated.

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Conjugial Love #151

Study this Passage

  
/ 535  
  

151. 9. Chastity cannot be ascribed to people who are born eunuchs or who have been made eunuchs. 1 By people who are born eunuchs we mean chiefly people in whom the outmost impulse of love is missing from birth. And because the highest and intermediate impulses then lack a foundation on which to rest, neither do these impulses develop. Or if they do, the people are not concerned with distinguishing between chaste and unchaste states, since either one is a matter of indifference to them. The diversities among people like this, however, are many.

The case with people who have been made eunuchs is almost the same, as with some who are born eunuchs; only that having become eunuchs, and being such, whether men or women, therefore they cannot help but regard conjugial love as a fantasy and its delights as fairy tales. If anything of the inclination remains in them, it becomes silent, which is neither chaste nor unchaste; and being neither, it is incapable of being classed in one category or the other.

Footnotes:

1. Cf. Matthew 19:12.

  
/ 535  
  

Many thanks to the General Church of the New Jerusalem, and to Rev. N.B. Rogers, translator, for the permission to use this translation.

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Doctrine of Faith #41

Study this Passage

  
/ 72  
  

41. Still, to show the nature of faith divorced from charity, and the nature of faith not divorced from it, I wish to communicate something I heard from an angel in heaven. The angel said that he had spoken with many of the Protestant Reformed and heard the nature of their faith. And he reported his conversation with one whose faith was divorced from charity, and his conversation with another whose faith was not divorced from charity, and what he learned from them. The angel said that he asked them questions, which they answered. Because they may shed light on the subject, I wish to present these conversations here.

  
/ 72  
  

Many thanks to the General Church of the New Jerusalem, and to Rev. N.B. Rogers, translator, for the permission to use this translation.