Upcoming Events & Programs
View the upcoming Spring 2025 Brochure here: 
Link to the 2025 Spring Program Brochure in PDF format
Zoom Program, Thursday, April 24, 6 PM Central
Paul Amongst the Gentiles: Strategies of Legitimization in the Work of Paul of Tarsus, with Dell Rose
Accounting for more than half of the New Testament, the letters of Paul remain some of the most influential writings ever. Yet their familiarity also masks their strangeness.
   Join us as Dell discusses Paul and his rhetorical strategies, examining their context in the first century world. We will examine Paul's relationship with the mystery religions of the ancient world, the influence of monotheistic practitioners of Greek and Roman religions, and the literature of oracles. Dell will focus especially on other Hellenic groups likewise seeking validation and converts. 
   Much of Paul's theology shares a common ancestry with other Hellenic groups, yet due to the prevalence of Christianity as a historical construction, this has mostly been forgotten. As Christianity's most important articulator, we will discuss Paul's motivations and reasons for lasting success. 
(Suggested reading: Matthew Sharp, Divination and Philosophy in the Letters of St. Paul, ©2024.)

Zoom Info:
Meeting Room ID 558 403 3057
Password: Swedenborg
Thursday, April 24, at 6 PM Central (room opens at 5:45 PM)
Saturday, April 26 at 6 PM Central
In the Swedenborg Library, and Via Zoom:
The Missouri Platonist Thomas Moore Johnson, with special guest Dr. Vadim Putzu of Missouri State University
"The Missouri Platonist," Thomas Moore Johnson amassed one of the largest philosophical libraries in the Midwest, the Bibliotheca Platonica, in Osceola Missouri. He was a major thinker in the transmission of hermetic philosophy in America and around the world. Johnson had extensive correspondence with members of the Theosophical Society, and with members of the Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor, which connected his small commuity with the wider intellectual world of the 19th century. Johnson was also an interesting node in the distribution of Swedenborg's works throughout the central U.S. 

Join us either in the Swedenborg Library, or via Zoom to learn more of this fascinating American. 

Location: Swedenborg Library, 77 W. Washington St. (at Clark St.), Chicago
Date/Time: Saturday, April 26, 6 PM central

Zoom information:
Meeting id: 558 403 3057
Password: Swedenborg
Zoom & In the Library: Wednesday, May 7, 6 PM Central
A New Swedenborg: Deguchi Onisaburo, Swedenborg, and the Quest for a New Kingdom in Manchuria with Dell Rose

"Emanuel Swedenborg was the greatest theologian of all time," wrote Deguchi Saburo, the flamboyant co-founder of the Omoto faith and one of the most significant figures in modern Japanese history. Onisaburo was a promoter of a form of 'Shinto Universalism,' and he sought to inform the world of the realm of the gods. 
   When he began to read Swedenborg in the late 1890s, Onisaburo found a kindred spirit in the Swedish seer, and utilized many of Swedenborg's concepts in defining his own cosmology. 
   Calling Swedenborg the 'greatest theologian' was far from a vague intellectual appreciation, but rather the grounds for political action. Deguchi used Swedenborg's depictions of Tartary, as the basis for an attempted theocratic coup in 20th century Manchuria. This tale is stranger than fiction!

Location: Swedenborg Library, 77 W. Washington St. (at Clark St.)
Date/Time: May 7, 6 PM Central

Zoom Info:
Meeting Room 558 403 3057
Password: Swedenborg  (Room opens at 5:45 PM central on Wednesday, May 7) 
In the Library and via Zoom: Thursday, May 15, 6 PM Central
The Language of Angels: Japanese Engagement 
with Dr. Avery Morrow, PhD

Dr. Avery Morrow, a Japanologist specializing in Japanese esotercism, will introduce us to the role that Swedenborg had within 20th century Japanese occult discourse, especially that relating to the origin of language. 
   The notion of a "language of the gods" had fascinated Japanese intellectuals for centuries, and the concept gained exceptional prominence in the nationalist culture of the Meiji-period and continued into the Showa. In the search for this universal language, several major Japanese occultists found inspiration in Swedenborg's notion of the language of angels, and sought to wed these theories to their own nationalist and occult projects. Linguistics, after chemistry, might rightly be called the first esoteric science. Japan gives us another testament to this attempt to get to the center of communication. 

Location: Swedenborg Library, 77 Washington St., Chicago
Date/Time: Thursday, May 15, 6 PM Central

Zoom Info:
Meeting Room ID 558 403 3057
Password: Swedenborg
Time: Room opens at 5:45 PM on May 15.