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s ._SWEDENBORG S IDEA OF THE UNIVERSE. 345
in the innermost of which is the Lord as love, surrounded
by the various orders of that world of exalted spirits of
whose actions love is the spring. In the second circle the
Lord appears as Divine truth ,
and this circle also is a
realm of spirits, but of those whose characteristic is
thought. The visible sensible world, including our
nature, forms the third circle."
But these circles, though concentric, are not in the same
plane. They are best conceived in the form of a cone, the
apex of which is the love of God, the source of all exist
ence. From this apex a downward movement takes place
through the circle of knowledge and truth to that of nature.
This movement begets by emanation the inhabitants and
other contents of the surrounding and subordinate circles.
In this way God himself advances from being (esse),
through development (fieri), to existence and reality
(effectus), until He at last is adequately realized in man.
The likeness of this thought to that of Hegel is obvious.
Besides this very Gnostic theory of the universe the
chief peculiarity of Swedenborg s theology is the position
which he (in company with Muggleton) assigns to our
Lord Jesus Christ. As is well known, he has what is
called a Sabellian, or Unitarian, doctrine of the Trinity.
But to him the only God is God becoming man in the person
of our Lord. Christ is the true one Man in whom dwells
the true Trinity God as divine existence, the idea of God,
and the sensible reality. We may, perhaps, find in this
peculiarity the special attraction which this doctrine has
had for a number of persons. It certainly enables the
followers of Christ to differentiate themselves from the
followers of all other religions, and to regard them as purely
heathen.32
Yet this is a philosophical rather than a theo
logical notion. He has but little reference to or interest in
the historical Christ, the Christ of the four Gospels. He
rejects as unnecessary the Atonement and the principle of
*2
See Nathan Soderblom :
Vater, Sohn und Geist unter den
heiligen Dreihciten und vor der religiosen Denkiveis der
Gegcnwart, pp. 63-4, Tubingen, 1909.
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