CURRENT COURSES
Fall 2024 Courses at the Center for Swedenborgian Studies
INCARNATIONAL THEOLOGY (SPST-3020)
Fridays, 9:40 am-12:30 pm
Instructor: Rebecca Esterson
This class will consider the theme of incarnation primarily in a Swedenborgian theological context, though readings from other Christian and non-Christian traditions will be incorporated. We will consider what it means to engage an embodied God, and how divinity manifests in the natural world, the human body and scripture. That right action and engagement in the affairs of the world is the ultimate incarnation, the end goal of all religious learning and practice, will be considered through a Swedenborgian interpretation of key biblical texts. A comparative component will incorporate selections from the Bhagavad Gita, Paul Tillich and Hasidic commentary, not for the sake of drawing generalized analogies, but to broaden our understanding of how the topic has been treated in different contexts.
WILLIAM BLAKE AND RELIGION (HRRA-5750)
Mondays, 2:10-5:00 pm
Instructor: Devin Zuber
As one of the most iconic figures associated with Anglo-Romanticism, William Blake offers a rich opportunity for theorizing the relationship between religion, art and literature. This seminar proposes reading Blake “theologically,” looking at how his major poems and images were catalyzed by his encounters with heterodox Protestant traditions (such as Swedenborgianism) and various religious cultures outside the pale of Romantic Britain (Hinduism and forms of African spirituality for example). Blake’s religious syncretism will let us explore how he transformed theological tropes—such as prophecy and apocalypse—into radical experimentations with word and image. Field trips, Guest Speakers. PhD / MA; Oral Presentation, Final Research Paper / Project.
SWEDENBORG IN HISTORY (HSHR-4701)
Thursdays, 2:10-5:00 pm
Instructor: Devin Zuber
This course will substantially engage with one strand of Swedenborg’s thought in cultural history: the ways his particular conceptualizations of mind, body, and soul impacted various alternative medicine currents in the 19th century, largely within an American context. We will begin by situating Swedenborg’s work as a scientist and visionary theologian within different interpretative frameworks, from western esotericism to wisdom literature, seeking to underscore the continuities between Swedenborg’s science and religion. The majority of the course will then focus on various fields where his role as “visionary scientist” or “scientific mystic” became amplified and transformed, from spiritualism and mesmerism, to osteopathy, to the emergence of the New Thought movement. This course is intended as a follow-up to “Introduction to Swedenborgian Thought,” though students need not have taken that as a prerequisite for this course. MA, MDiv; PhD can upgrade