For the Swedish radical utopian August Nordenskiöld (1754-1792) the world was in fetters to a false idol, a spirit of Moloch which required human lives for gold. He promoted a radical agenda of alchemical  liberation. 

Nordenskiöld was one of what would become an international community of activists engaged in an array of different social causes, united by the conviction that the writings of the Swedish prophet Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772) held the key to a more just society. 

Swedenborg’s descriptions of heaven became the foundation for a new terrestrial vision, one that would overcome the challenges of the time with insight drawn from Swedenborg's revelations. 

The promoters of this tradition were on both sides of the political spectrum, with Nordenskiöld being on the radical fringe of the libertarian wing of this tradition, advocating the abolition of money, legal marriage, and racial oppression. 

Join us as we honor one of the most important intellectual currents of 18th and 19th-century social reform, and gain a more complete vision of the intellectual heritage of modern political activism.

Location: Swedish American Museum, 

5211 N. Clark St., Chicago

Date/Time: Thursday, May 29, 6–7 PM

Fee: $10 at the door, or for tickets:

Tickets: See Swedish-American Museum Tickets

Dell J. Rose develops and hosts programs for the Swedenborg Library in Chicago. Dell holds the position of Swedenborg Doctoral Fellow with the Swedenborg Society in the United Kingdom, and he is a doctoral candidate at the Centre for the History of Hermetic Philosophy and Related Currents at the Universities van Amsterdam. His research focuses on the intersection of Western esotericism and political reform, particularly with Swedenborgianism in 19th century Britain.