Spiritual Exoskeletons and Endoskeletons - Which One Describes You?

This is part of my "grand unified theory" (ala Malcolm Gladwell) about the development of human spirituality. It is based on the work of Jonathan Heidt, James Fowler, Emanuel Swedenborg, Jean Piaget, and many other thinkers in the world of spirituality. (Yes. I believe that our morality is one face of our spiritual development.) This includes Object Relations theory as well.

James Fowler, author of The Stages of Faith (summarized here, though I believe people stay in the earlier stages of faith far longer than this optimistic projection) has built a model of spiritual development that echoes Jean Piaget's stages of psychological development. A developmental model of spirituality makes immediate sense to me, as we already speak of spiritual "growth." We develop physically, emotionally, psychologically, morally, and in all other ways. Spirituality is developmental too; how could it not be?

The main focus of my interest today is the shift between stage three (Synthetic-Conventional) (exoskeleton) and stage four (Individuative-Reflective) (endoskeleton) according to James Fowler. I know for myself that this shift reached a crisis point in my early forties. It dovetailed with a probable mid-life crisis. My trust in and reliance on my childhood faith had taken too many blows. I was being existentially ejected from (birthed from?) identification with that religious denomination. The process took years and was deeply painful. Another soul who was undergoing a similar birthing likened it to the process of becoming a butterfly after one has been a caterpillar.

"This is where things get crazy and kind of disgusting. The caterpillar does not simply rearrange itself into a butterfly or moth. It takes much more than that. The caterpillar starts to digest itself! That’s right, it releases enzymes that start to liquify almost the entire caterpillar. If you were to cut open a cocoon during this stage, a liquid caterpillar smoothie would ooze out." Mike Szydlowski, The Columbia Tribune, Oct. 2021

Goo

We found this analogy apt. It was NOT comfortable. Emanual Swedenborg would say that this shift is from "historical faith" to "living faith."

"There must be, for Stage 4, a relocation of authority to within the self. While others and their judgments will remain important to the Individuative-Reflective person, their expectations, advice and counsel will be submitted to an internal panel of experts who reserve the right to choose and who are prepared to take responsibility for their choices."  James Fowler, Stages of Faith

A Barrier Between Stages Three and Four

The shift from three to four can be very painful, especially if one has been in a denomination that requires its members to stay in stage three. Stage three relies on an outside authority. It relies on obedience and compliance within its membership. This outside authority serves as a spiritual exoskeleton to the membership. All of us require this stage as part of our development. It enables us to grow our spiritual core (endoskeleton), the place from which we can discern, sift, and organize our own authentic spirituality.

All denominations that need stage three adherents see this shift as a threat. Members who question the legitimacy of the teachings and rules threaten the leaders' authority. Eventually, these members vote themselves out of involvement as they realize their inability to change the denomination. Depending on the level of cult dynamics in the denomination, this ejection from the group can be hugely isolating, disillusioning, and painful. One can lose a sense of belonging in an otherwise cohesive and interconnected "family." The leaders generally invalidate the pain of such members and see their departure as "trimming dead wood." (I have heard this spoken explicitly.)

Exoskeleton

In truth, those who manage to launch from such a denomination are the living wood, and can eventually find root within a group that welcomes stage four spirituality. (I have found a home in a Unitarian Universalist congregation.) But many stay alone and isolated, unwilling to trust again or otherwise unable to find a new spiritual home. They are suffering from spiritual trauma and abandonment.

Endoskeleton

This shift from an authority-based faith to a living, inwardly reflective faith is part of our healthy spiritual growth. Our spirits call us to grow to this level and beyond. Unfortunately, many religious denominations see this shift as heresy, disobedience, rebellion, and "falling" from grace. These groups tend to punish, shun, vilify, and cast out such members. No wonder it can be hard to leave!

As those of us who have left such groups tend to remain isolated, we can be unaware of the huge and growing body of people on a similar path. If only we had a way to form our own, mutually supportive spiritual communities. Yet we tend to be gun-shy of belonging again.

I believe that authentic, unhampered spiritual growth requires that we make this shift. We are designed to think for ourselves based on years of spiritual work and learning from others.  We are built to continue growing spiritually, constantly deepening and adding greater nuance to our understanding. But we also need a spiritual community. Such supportive and non-dictatorial communities exist out there. They are just hard to find. They tend to mind their own business.

Do you rely heavily on outside authorities and some declared text as literally the Word of God? Then you are probably in an exoskeleton stage of spirituality. There is nothing wrong with this stage, but we are meant to evolve beyond it.

Do you think for yourself, incorporating years of experience, thought, and observation into how you understand the human condition and our responsibilities to each other? Then you are probably in an endoskeleton stage of spirituality.

Do you do some of both? Do you feel wobbly and insecure about what to think and whom to trust? Then you are probably in transition.

All of these stages are normal. This model is not to be used to judge others but to assess oneself and understand others.

Cain and Abel and the Stages of Spirituality

So, I’m a student of the Psychology of Religion.

Scholars have done studies on the developmental stages of faith—meaning there ARE stages of faith from less mature to more mature. Early stages rely on an external authority. They are very rules-based and about doing things “right” according to the authority and the rules. There is usually an innocence or naïveté because folks don’t know better, they can’t be more progressive yet, and they absolutely want to be “saved".

The hardest shift is between level 3 and level 4 spirituality (according to James Fowler) when a person shifts from an external authority to an internal authority, and from a head-based religion to a heart-based religion. (Richard Rohr simplifies it as early life—stages 1, 2, 3—and later life—stages 4 and up.) The people around them who are still in a rules- and authority-based religion are particularly threatened by their shift and do not understand it. I liken it to learning to swim. People who have not learned to swim cling to the side of the pool and call out in fear at their loved ones who are starting to let go and swim in the water.

(Does this information help in understanding the ways people do religion that can be so different?)

If you are raised by people who are in stage 4 or higher level of spiritual development, you still have to go through your own stages, but everything about the way they live encourages you to move into a thoughtful, heart-based approach to life. But if you are raised by people who are “clinging to the side of the pool” in an authoritative “you will only be safe if you stick with us” religion, it is much much harder to take the next developmental step into heart-wisdom, because most of the people around you are screaming that you are going to “die”. They don't want you to notice all the people that you’re finding who are living from their hearts and yet are not "dead".

This theory has helped me a lot in understanding why people do religion the way they do. Levels five and higher in spiritual development don’t even look like “religion”, because they are so respectful of the individual spiritual journey. They tend to be empowering, not controlling.

How is this connected to Cain and Abel? (Genesis 4)

My childhood tradition's teachings say that Cain represents “the need to be right” and Abel represents “being loving from deep wisdom.” They are brothers because they are ways of doing religion. Cain is born first (early spirituality) and Abel second (later life spirituality). Cain resents and does not understand why God favors Abel (the more mature and genuine spirituality). Cain is threatened by Abel and wants God's favor too, not understanding the shifts he still has to make in his motivations and perspective. And threatened, Cain “kills” Abel thinking that that is the way to win God's attention and favor (someone clearly isn't reading the manual). Cain-energy in life will always kill Abel-energy. Judgy, controlling, need-to-be-perfect-and-right ways of doing religion (or politics) will always attack and criticize and invalidate loving, inclusive, service-focused ways of doing religion (and politics). It’s just the way people are. There's a foundational shift that needs to happen from "I've got mine, screw you" to "We are all in this together; if you are suffering, we are all suffering".

We all have a tendency to be drawn into the need to be right and "win" arguments. We value a sense of cognitive security and don't like perspectives that threaten our foundational narrative of how life (God, "salvation") works. Arguing with someone about how they are wrong is rarely effective because they are so emotionally invested in "staying alive" (maintaining the reality they have known and trusted until this point).

If you don't know how to swim, moving into deep water means death.

Questioning religious dogma is moving into deep water. It is essential that we learn to swim so as to be much freer and to realize how life-giving swimming can be. But everything in Cain-level development screams "death!" unless you are surrounded by loving swimmers encouraging you to try swimming.

The same way you can't teach a child to read until they have reached reading readiness, you can't force a lower level spiritual seeker to be ready to think for themselves until they are ready AND feel safe enough to try. Some birds are pushed from the nest, some fly with sufficient encouragement, but some have parents telling them that flying equals death.

So just love everybody to bits.

Try not to judge because people are (possibly stuck) where they are for good reason.

Learn to draw firm boundaries with those who want to push their beliefs on you (spiritual violation) even as you stop trying to push your beliefs onto others (still a spiritual violation, no matter how "right" you are).

This is my distillation of theology and psychology. It is not to be used as a club to force others to agree. Just a balm and guide for those who need a helpful perspective.

For more scholarship on the stages of faith you might start here:

https://www.institute4learning.com/2020/06/12/the-stages-of-faith-according-to-james-w-fowler/

For counseling and empowerment on your spiritual journey, you may contact me here:

https://pastoralison.com/

I do talk therapy as well as weddings.

Spiritual Evolution - sermon April 26

“Spiritual Evolution”

Rev. Alison Longstaff, April 26, 2015

Bath Church of the New Jerusalem

Originally preached April 19, 2015, at Creekside New Church, PA 

Jeremiah 15:15–21, Matthew 16:21–28; HS 3603:3

Heavenly Secrets 3603:3 “During the first stage [of regeneration] nothing more than memory is involved in knowing things in the Word and in knowing things of doctrine about faith. During this stage we believe we are good because we know many things from the Word and from doctrine, and are able to apply some of them not to our own life but to the lives of others.”(Emphasis mine) Emanuel Swedenborg

I am going to talk about the stages of the spiritual journey through the lenses of James Fowler, M. Scott Peck, and Emmanuel Swedenborg.  I hope I am going to illustrate how these stages are described in fine detail in the Bible, and just how many resources there are available to us already if we wish to understand this process better.  Finally, I hope to assure you that this tool is for personal use only.  Analysis of where someone else is on the inner spiritual journey is none of your business.  To the extent that you use this tool to compare yourself to others you need to put the tool down.  Where we are on the road is God’s business, and our only focus should be what our next step is.  Period.  Applying truth to others (not ourselves) is a sign of a very primitive version of spirituality.

In the realm of psychology, scholars have been researching and mapping stages of development since Jean Piaget began exploring children’s early cognitive development in the 1930s.  He discovered that children were not “dumb” or “wrong,” but that their perspective of reality was progressing along a normative, measurable pathway.  For a child to move from a more simplistic world view to one more sophisticated, it required “readiness,” and this happened of its own accord in its right time.

In my Psych undergrad at Bryn Athyn College I had the privilege of using some of Piaget’s tests with the kindergarten children.  With birthdays spanning approximately a year from the oldest to the youngest, these kids were just around the age where most of us commonly make the transition from one stage to the next.  During the test, some of the children answered clearly with the earlier stage perspective; some clearly with the later stage perspective.  But I remember the one or two student who would answer according to the first perception and then say, “Wait…” and their brow would be furrowed, and I could see them wrestling with the possibility that their answer might not be what they first expected.  They were standing on the edge of readiness to move into a more sophisticated way of viewing the world.

From my perspective, each child was “right,” because each child was seeing reality in an age-appropriate way. It wasn't for me to impose my “correct” world view upon them or push them somewhere they were not ready to be. I was simply measuring where they were.  It was fascinating.

The concept of there being normal developmental stages along which humans progress began to extend into many areas of psychological research.  We now have Lawrence Kohlberg’s stages of morality and James Fowler’s stages of spirituality to guide us in our understanding of human development. I did a double take when I learned that there is a whole academic discipline called “The Psychology of Religion; I would have jumped disciplines right then if I had been able to do so and stay as an ordination track student.

But think about this. Psychologists have been mapping in increasingly fine detail what is required for a child to move from each stage of cognitive development to the next.  We now have many specific, almost laser-pointed therapies to aid children across developmental hurdles, thanks to decades of research.  The vast majority of us navigate these large developmental stages by ourselves without needing support.  But for those children who need a bit of help we have ever more pointed strategies and tools to help them along their educational and developmental paths.   

Just imagine if we could extrapolate this wisdom across disciplines to apply to human spiritual development.  Imagine if we could map in finer and finer detail what is required for each spiritual developmental leap such that spiritual practitioners could, if it was appropriate and welcomed, apply similar tools to aid the spiritual traveler across spiritual hurdles.

We do have one map already.

It was Rev. Dr. George Dole that introduced me to the idea that the Word of God—the Bible—isn't just “full of correspondences.”  He put forward that the Bible, as disjointed and edited and pieced-together as it is, contains the arc of our spiritual development from our spiritual awakening until the moment we enter the spiritual Holy City.  It took me awhile to comprehend how this could be, but ever since, the idea has grown and grown on me.  It works for me. You can take it how you like.

The more I have worked with this idea, the more it seems to me that the Bible is a manual full of reassurances about the way we simply are.  Not only does God know we will lose our way, God has described the many ways we will lose our way and the ways we will get back on track again and again.  The story of the Children of Israel turning back in fear the first time they approach the Holy Land isn't there so that we will know better and not do that too.  It is there because that is what we do.  All the elements in every story—every single spy, not just Caleb and Joshua—make up each person’s inner reality.  Sometimes a fearful turning back is what we choose, rather than a courageous plunge forward.  And so God lets us take another lap and try again, like a horse that has balked at a jump, or a soloist that has missed her entrance.

According to Fowler and the Bible, we start out needing rules about how to “do religion right.” At that stage we excel at noticing all the other people who are breaking the rules, while being astonishingly blind to our own foibles. “Thank goodness I am not like all those critical, judgmental people!”

But over the course of our spiritual walk, as in the Biblical arc, we soften, and broaden, and learn. After a lot of loss and hardship, the message becomes gentler and more internalized.  There is a new quality in the Greek testament. Jesus tells us not to worry so much about the rules, but to look at our hearts and intentions.  As we move more and more deeply into a genuine walk with a living God, we are stretched and opened to new avenues and perspectives of wisdom. Yes, there is something inside each of us that cannot stand this new openness, which participates in the crucifixion of the new living Divine Human which has entered our story.  But there is also within us the parts of us who have remained as loyal as possible, and who experience the terrible loss.  Even this new, living, breathing spirituality needs to relinquish its earthly ties to fully mature. Jesus’ resurrection into a fully spiritual life enables us to continue our walk on toward the Holy City, where the gates are open in all directions and never close, to which all are invited, and in which all the nations will be healed. 

Step by step, with cycles that seem to repeat and repeat the same lesson over and over, the Bible describes every facet of every challenge we will face.  We don’t need to see how.  It just is in there. It describes the very journey our Lord and Savior walked because He walked the same path we must so that we never again need to walk it alone. Every step of every stage and sub-stage of human regeneration in right there for us in the Holy Word, and we are only just beginning to see how many ways it always has said what we have done, are doing, and are going to do, no matter where we are on the path.  It is God with us in a more intimate way than we have ever imagined.

When I suggested pursuing a doctorate taking Fowler’s and Peck’s and Swedenborg’s stages of faith and working on producing a guide for pastors and spiritual leaders (that could help them assess congregations and parishioners, so as to know what tools or materials would be most meaningful and supportive to that stage) my adviser got very nervous.

His primary concern was that such a body of work would primarily be used to judge people and box them into “stages” with some folks claiming a greater level of “spiritual evolution” than others. 

But superiority, comparison, and judging are all markers of the earliest stages of the journey.  To the extent that you are judging others, to that extent you are not very far into the loving phase of growth.  The higher angels wouldn't even consider judging the souls they help, they would simply get down to serving from use and love.  They would help and support with subtlety and respect, and with no sense of superiority. 

The psychometrists and psychologists who work with delayed children do not feel superiority or contempt toward the children.  It is not even on the radar.  The ones most likely to feel contempt are the other kids who are the same age or a grade or two ahead of the child in question.  Just be aware of that next time you are feeling judgmental—what does it say about you?  (Because judging is always about you anyway, not the one you are judging.)

Finally, after lots of personal work, one reaches a point where someone else’s location along the spiritual trek is utterly irrelevant. The goal is service. The absolute attitude is respect for the other’s spiritual well-being; and help is given in relationship and with respect.  

This topic has interested me a long time. I still might pursue finding fine-honed tools for aiding individuals and congregations over spiritual developmental hurdles. 

Meanwhile I am developing a simplified lining up Fowler’s Stages of Faith alongside Scot Pecks and Swedenborg’s.  It is a beginning exploration of the ways these different theories align.  James Fowler’s Stages of Faith have transformed my thinking.  It has explained a lot of things to me and given me a much gentler and more compassionate lens through which to view all the different religious voices and energies I encounter.  Copies of this tool are available from me.  Just ask and I will email it to you.

As you use this tool to speculate on where you might be, remember that we do a lot of forward and backward movement.  One part of us may be stuck in an earlier stage while another aspect of us might have moved along pretty far.  It is not black and white, and it is especially not for judging others.  Even if you suspect that someone you know is at an earlier stage than you are, that is none of your business.  That is in God’s hands and according to God’s timeline.  Your job and my job is to love each other the way God loves us, and to treat each person the way we would want to be treated.  I know I have always preferred patience and compassion and grace over judgment and contempt every time.

Stay safe out there, and be kind to each other.

Amen

The Readings

Genesis 12:1-4 (Holman Christian Standard)

The Lord said to Abram: Go out from your land, your relatives, and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.  I will make you into a great nation, I will bless you, I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, I will curse those who treat you with contempt, and all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you.

So Abram went, as the Lord had told him.

Revelation 22 (portions, Living Bible blended with New King James)

And he pointed out to me a river of pure Water of Life, clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and the Lamb, coursing down the center of the main street. On each side of the river grew Trees of Life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, with a fresh crop each month; the leaves were used for medicine to heal the nations.

There shall be nothing in the city that is evil; for the throne of God and of the Lamb will be there, and his servants will worship him. And they shall see his face; and his name shall be written on their foreheads. And there will be no night there—no need for lamps or sun—for the Lord God will be their light; and they shall reign forever and ever.

Then the angel said to me, “These words are trustworthy and true: 

“Pay attention, I am coming quickly, and my reward is with me, to give to everyone according to how he or she has given. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and Last. 

The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come.’ Let each one who hears them say the same, ‘Come.’ Let the thirsty one come—anyone who wants to; let that one come and drink the Water of Life freely. 

“He who has said all these things declares: Yes, I am coming quickly!”

Amen! Come, Lord Jesus!

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen!

The value of THE TRUTH, or "Was Jesus Married?"

The following is adapted from a recent assignment in seminary. The professor used an actual event from his own life to ask us to examine and put into words our own faith in response to such a situation.

Spiritual Reflection #2

By Alison Longstaff

For TH680 A

October 26th , 2012

The Scenario

     Maria and Susan have been colleagues for 10 years. They know each other very well and often enjoy their conversations while working at the Air Canada Check‐In counter at Pearson International Airport. Maria is from the Philippines and Susan from a small town in southwestern Ontario. They like to talk about current affairs. It is two o’clock in the afternoon when I arrive at their counter to check in for my flight.
       “So where are you headed?” asked Maria.
       “To a conference,” I responded.
       “Oh, that must be interesting. What do you do?” Maria continued.
       “I teach at a theological school,” I said. “It is a theological conference.”

With absolutely no one behind me and no one at Susan’s counter, Maria went on, “Really, that is interesting. We were just talking about Karen King; you know the one that found this old document that said Jesus was married.”
      “Oh yes,” I said, “I read about that in the newspaper.”
       Maria said, “She went running off to the press with all that stuff before she checked it out. Remember the St. James’ Ossuary (Burial Box)? It was a fake in the end. The Vatican sayes this document is a forgery too. I am a lifelong Catholic. I know what I believe, but Susan says ‘What does it matter?’ So you’re a theologian. What do you think?”

Here is my response for the professor, grade TBD.

     The question of whether Jesus was married or not typically threatens a long-held and well-established point of faith for many. It is possible that for one or both of these women the deeper question might be, “If ‘the church’ (the Vatican, the Pope, authorities through the ages, their own trusted ministers, etc) has been wrong about this all these years, what else have they been wrong about?” Looked at this way, my response could threaten the spiritual foundations of anyone still reliant on an official outside authority to define what they should believe (as opposed to their own personal, internalized synthesis of faith). That is, of course, if they didn't dismiss me out of hand, as I am neither a Catholic, nor even a man. The very fact that this original scenario was encountered by a mature, Anglo-Saxon male with a beard already changes the significance of how my response will be weighted by the questioners.

      Nevertheless, this situation calls me to examine how I view my role in relation to such casual yet deeply significant questions. I will likely never see these women again, and it is not my desire in any way to undermine their need to believe what they already believe. My heart desire is to support people in formulating their own faith in intelligent, conscious, and well-informed ways, and not simply to impose my understanding on them. While on the one hand I want to give them a response that invites them to continue to deepen their faith intelligently, on the other hand I do not want to so challenge their faith that they are thrown into crisis.

      Therefore, as I look into the eyes of these women, I must ask myself this: What is the most pastoral response that I can give, knowing that I am seen as a “religious authority figure,” and specifically not wanting my answer to stir up contention between them or precipitate a crisis of faith in the questioners?

Foundations

      My natural teaching style is to lead any student to their own understanding by reflecting a question back to them in a respectful and inviting way. A person’s own attempt to articulate what he or she believes helps them understand and integrate their own beliefs more deeply. I wish to show respect for both Susan and Maria’s faith traditions --- to do no violence to either one’s sacred beliefs while being yet true to my own tradition and formulation.

      Further, I am Swedenborgian and a psych undergrad. For me, spiritual and psychological development is entwined and inseparable. James Fowler’s stages of faith development shapes my pastoral response to these women. Fowler’s findings echo statements in Swedenborg’s own material, written over two-hundred years earlier.[1] If I could know for certain where each woman was in her spiritual journey, I could shape my response accordingly. But I cannot.

         In terms of my own doctrinal integrity in addressing the significance of whether Jesus was married or not, my tradition has two points that speak to this. First is the teaching that Sacred Scripture holds a continuous deep inner meaning. [2] This belief frees me from worrying about any literal accuracy, as the integrity and value lies in the inner meaning, not the letter. What may or may not be historically accurate is a curiousity to me, but in no way threatens the foundations of my faith. Secondly, Swedenborg promotes throughout his theology that marriage is a metaphor for the spiritually evolved or “regenerated” human. Marriage represents the inner union within a person’s psyche of intellect and heart, or true integrity---the intellect is suffused with a deep sense of love and connectedness with the rest of humanity, while the heart is steered toward useful service by the intellect. Jesus being “married” makes absolute sense to me through the lens of this metaphor. On the other hand, it has been in God’s providence so far that we have primarily believed that Jesus was unmarried. I trust God’s leadership and timing, and the detail of Jesus’ marital status is not significant to me.

             Finally, I also believe strongly that what we believe is not as important as how we live. This is also supported in Swedenborg.[3] Looking this way at the effect of my beliefs on my living was brought home to me during a lively debate with friends a few years ago. The question was whether or not hell was eternal. After debating back and forth within this group one dear friend said at last, “All I know is that believing that God gives us as long as we need to get straightened out, instead of us having to get it right in our short time on earth makes me a kinder, gentler human being.”

That one statement revolutionized the way I go about examining my beliefs. When my core value is the Golden Rule, the question, “In what way does this belief affect how I treat my neighbour?” is of more value to me than whether it is the “perfect truth.” Swedenborg would say that any truth that is not softened and informed by love ceases to be true anyway, no matter how accurate it is.[4]

I will leave it there. My response would be pastoral according to what and how these women responded to me. I would invite these women to tell me more about their beliefs, and I would respond further according to the tensions and unmet needs I might sense within their answers. For my part, it isn't about what is “THE TRUTH.” It is about what these two souls need from me to be more peaceful, more fulfilled, and more wisely loving. That is my job in this encounter, and that is all.

---

[1] Swedenborg describes at least four stages of faith or “regeneration” loosely paralleling Fowler’s six stages, in Arcana Coelestia (henceforth cited as AC) §3603:3

[2] This is most succinctly described in Swedenborg’s De Verbo, §1 and following.

[3] Swedenborg promotes “charity” or loving-kindness first.  Kindness without wisdom still comes from the heart, whereas faith not lived in acts of service is seen as dead. AC §7884 and AC §1100

[4] Beliefs not informed by love actually slay loving-kindness as Cain slew Abel. AC §369

 References

Fowler, James W. (1981). Stages of faith : the psychology of human development and the quest for meaning. San Francisco: Harper and Row.

Swedenborg, E. (1983). Arcana Coelestia (J. Elliot Trans.). London, England: Swedenborg Society. (1748).

Swedenborg, E. (1934). De Verbo (J. Chadwick Trans.). London, England: Swedenborg Society. (1762).

A Note About Page Numbers in citations from Swedenborg Text citations from Swedenborg=s material do not refer to page numbers but to passage or paragraph numbers.  This numbering system is used consistently throughout all his editions. Citations may include Name of Publication as Translated, date the translation came to print, name of the translator from the Latin, and the passage number preceded by the symbol §.