#66 - Christopher Augustus Barber - Taste & See for Yourself

<p>Chris Barber is an ordained New Church priest, religion teacher at the Academy of the New Church, and President of the Swedenborg Foundation. He has dedicated much of his life to studying Emanuel Swedenborg—not just his theology, but the man behind it.</p><p>Chris helps bring consciousness to the remarkably human story of the man whose writings inspired the New Church—from an ambitious scientist wrestling with ego to a life increasingly oriented toward humility and the spiritual. In many ways, Swedenborg’s story is our story: the lifelong movement from the natural toward the spiritual.</p><p>Those same ideas run through Chris’s own story. Once an atheist who thought religious people were deluded, he now wonders what his younger self would make of the priest he became: “Would you hate to see the man you’ve become?” </p><p>We explore his deliberate effort to fairly represent and hold progressive thought and doctrinal faith in conversation with one another—and wrestle honestly with both, the importance of meeting people where they are, as they are, and a faith that leaves room for uncertainty.</p><p>Because ultimately, Chris can’t prove Swedenborg saw what he said he saw. His answer is much simpler: “Taste and see that the Lord is good.” Try it. Live it. See what it produces.</p><p><br></p><p><strong>Chris&#39;s Show Notes:</strong></p><p>We covered a lot of ground in this conversation! I wanted to provide a few clarifications to a few things I said from memory, along with some titles for listeners who would like to explore the media we referenced.</p><p><strong>A Few Clarifications</strong></p><p>Re: Swedenborg&#39;s flying machine. I described his design as unpublished. Although the original drawing remained in manuscript during his lifetime, Swedenborg did publish a written proposal in his scientific journal, <em>Daedalus Hyperboreus</em>, in 1716.</p><p>Re: Jesper Svedberg and the Swedish Bible. I conflated some of Jesper&#39;s résumé. He was an important contributor to a Bible project in the 1690s and advocated a new translation from the original languages. The Bible I briefly referenced that was published in 1703, however, was a revision of the earlier Swedish Bible.</p><p><strong>To Learn More about Swedenborg and the New Church:</strong></p><p>Swedenborg Foundation’s <em>Guide to the Theological Works of Emanuel Swedenborg</em> (<a href="https://swedenborg.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/OD_NCEGuide.pdf" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer"