Servetus Swedenborg and the Nature of God
University
Press of America
 The
Trinity was defined at the Council of Nicaea and the relationship
of the human and divine natures of Christ was defined at Chalcedon.
Very few questioned the Church's depictions of the nature
of God. Two such mavericks, Michael Servetus (1509-1553) and
Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772), in spite of their Christian
educations, rejected the Church's creedal understanding of
God and the Trinity. Although they lived in two different
ages- the Reformation and Enlightenment, and there is no evidence
that Swedenborg ever read or even knew of Servetus- the two
men came to remarkably similar conclusions about the nature
of God. Each scholar stated that the Trinity does not rest
in three Persons, but rather takes form in the single person
of Jesus Christ, the visible God.
Servetus was a superb scholar in his day. He mastered the
Church Fathers and possessed an encyclopedic knowledge of
the Bible. Servetus tragically perished in the flames at Geneva
because of his beliefs. Swedenborg, likewise, was a well-known
and respected scholar, philosopher, and anatomist. He dedicated
the last thirty years of his life to biblical research, producing
a series of some thirty volumes (in English) of theological
writings. His work influenced many of the great thinkers and
artists of the nineteenth century and continues to be read
and studied in many parts of the world today.
TABLE OF CONTENTS FOR:
- Prologue
- Introduction
- Christology: Underlying Principles of
Christology; Underlying Principles of Servetian and Swedenborgian
Christology
- The History of the Trinity: The Earliest
Christology and Concepts of the Trinity; The Arian Controversy;
The Nicene Creed; The Athanasian Creed; The Divine and Human
in Christ; The Resolution of the Council of Ephesus
- Michael Servetus
- On the Errors of the Trinity in Seven Books
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Andrew M.T. Dibb is Associate Professor of
Theology at the Academy of the New Church Theological School.
Professor Dibb holds an M.Div. from the Academy of the New
Church Theological School and a doctorate in Church History
from the University of South Africa, Pretoria.
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