Swedenborg's Alleged Insanity
Rev.
Brian M. Talbot, B.A., Dip. Ed.
How do you know that someone is telling the whole truth and
nothing but the truth? Maybe the person's reputation for honesty
and integrity, or his or her expertise or specialty or interest in the subject
under discussion, or even our past experiences of the person concerned?
Maybe the person's beliefs, biases or presuppositions are enough like ours
or exactly like ours to justify believing the person? If we're talking to
someone, maybe it's their body language or their facial expressions,
which convince us of their sincerity, or then maybe we rely wholly or solely
on our instincts or 'gut reaction'? Maybe it's because their argument or case
is reasonable, or their explanation of known or agreed facts is the
best? Maybe a lot of their case is based on a commonly accepted authority
figure or book, such as the inspired books of the Bible? Maybe we can be
convinced by how confident or erudite the speaker is? I remember one of
my Mathematics lecturers at university, warning us undergraduates never
to believe anyone who said something was "clearly true," and there
are advocates on both sides of any debate who use superlatives and state
how clearly, obviously and indisputably true their opinion is.
How do we know that anyone from over 200 years ago is telling
the whole truth and nothing but the truth? Some of my suggestions
listed above, such as the person's body language or facial expressions, will
not be able to be brought into finding an answer. This is the question
people will have to ask when they consider the story which originated with
a certain John Paul Brockmer, a Londoner of the Moravian faith, in
whose house Swedenborg lodged around 1744 and possibly
later,1 and who claimed that Swedenborg called himself the Messiah, foamed at the
mouth, ran into the street naked and jumped into the mud. (This story will
be examined in much greater detail later on this article.)
Permission to reprint this study was kindly granted by the
author. It was originally published in a series as follows: "Swedenborg's
Alleged Insanity." New-Church Magazine Part 1 (March 1996): 22: 228;
Part 2 (May 1996): 23: 228; Part 3 (December 1996): 24: 46. Note: In
endnotes to Swedenborg's works, the numbers refer to paragraphs. Where reference
is made to articles formatted in columns, "a" and "b" refer
to the column on a given page.
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