Studying Swedenborg

After spending the first six weeks of class reading and discussing a biography of Swedenborg, we're finally focusing on this theology. The biography described several elements about Swedenborg's theology and visions which I had a hard time dealing with. (More than I want to go into here, but if you're curious, leave a comment and I'll elaborate.) Now that we're going through the theology, I'm reminded why this is the first church I've been able to attend in more than a decade. For example, he writes "There are many churches, each one of them called a church, and each one is a church to the extent that the good result of love and faith reigns in it" (HH 57). It's not about doctrine (although Swedenborg had some strong opinions on doctrinal matters) -- it's about how well the members of the church live lives that are guided by Love and Wisdom.

On the other hand, one of my tensions with Swedenborg is the density and importance of his doctrine of correspondences. When I first read about it, I laughed out loud because it seemed so very Pagan. He makes some vivid, beautiful points using this doctrine, but after a while I get tired of the complexity of it. At a very basic level, I'm a mystic: I find my connection to the Divine in the ancient injunction: "Be still and know that I am God." And yet, even the great mystics of the Christian tradition have usually admonished those who read their writings that the internal journey to God needed to be guided and balanced by an external counselor, who could help identify when the search for God became an exercise in self-delusion.

Balance, always balance: between internal and external authority, between the solitary path and the fellowship of community, between trust and challenge, between the rule of rationality and the rule of the heart. (Of course, Swedenborg would say that head and heart, love and wisdom, are two manifestations of the same Divine impulse, just as light and heat are two manifestations of the energy of the sun.)

Absent Professor

I am taking an online class through an accredited theological school. Tuition for the class is the same as if I were on campus: around $1,500 for the quarter. In exchange for my money, weekly participation in the online discussions about the assigned reading, and a competent 20-page paper, the school will award me a grade and three credits toward my M.Div. It's a nice arrangement, since I live in another state, and would not be able to take the class at all were it not offered online.

At least, it should be a nice arrangment. The fact is that our professor has been absent since about the second week of class. First it was because he had technical difficulties logging into the Bulletin Board site -- and it took him a month to get a solution. We heard from him two weeks ago saying he had access again, and would get to work responding to our comments and posting new lectures -- but we haven't heard from him since.

My fellow students are bright people, and have interesting comments on the readings, but if I wanted to join a theological book club, I would have done so, and saved myself $1,500 of student debt. I have no idea how Dr. X is justifying his absence to himself. If this were a traditional classroom, he could not hope to get by with not showing up for a month or more of seminars.

Last Thursday, I contacted the Program Director of the school, and she has assured me she will be subjecting Dr. X to pressure to meet his responsibilities. If the he doesn't materialize -- with substantial contributions -- by Thursday, I'm placing a phone call to the dean. The situation is absolutely unacceptable.