[Magdalen] Unexpected Pleasure.

[Jay Weigel]

I like that kind of exorcism!

On Wed, Mar 4, 2015 at 2:23 PM, H Angus <hangus at ctcn.net> wrote:

> When I taught at Urbana College a couple decades ago, I sat in on a Hebrew
> class taught by a Swedenborgian minister, Dr. Dorothea Harvey. She became a
> good friend. Once she came in to class and said to us, "I'm sorry I don't
> have all your papers marked. We were very busy at church last night. We had
> a pot luck supper and an exorcism."
>
> Obviously, she was playing the timing of her remarks for laughs, and she
> surely must have gotten one when she looked at our slack-jawed faces.
>
> But she was entirely serious about the exorcism. There was a house someone
> in the church had rented, and strange noises and other oddities were
> happening in it. So they went and did the Swedenborgian version of an
> exorcism, which is not at all like the Catholic devil-and-hellfire-and
> demonic battling that anyone saw in the movie of that name. A Swedenborgian
> minister assumes that the ghost simply doesn't realize yet that it's dead.
> So the minister gently explains to the ghost that this isn't his/her place
> any more, and that it's time to turn around and look at the light, and go
> toward that. Jesus will meet the deceased person and lead him or her into
> the realms of light, which Swedenborgians believe to include lots and lots
> of wonderful things to learn. The minster will explain to the ghost that
> there are wondrous adventures and knowledge awaiting them (tired of
> him/her), they they need to go embracxe it.
>
> Swedenborgians are/were very big on learning. Above the entrance to the
> college library in town is their motto: Nunc licet intellectualitur intrare
> in arecanum fidelii. (I'm sure I've misspelled some of the Latin.) It
> means, Now it is permitted to enter intellectually into the mysteries of
> faith.
>
> Heather
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Grace Cangialosi" <gracecan at gmail.com>
> To: "magdalen" <magdalen at herberthouse.org>
> Sent: Wednesday, March 4, 2015 11:43:40 AM
> Subject: Re: [Magdalen] Unexpected Pleasure.
>
> Yes, that Unitarian connection occurred to me, too, though I don't know
> much about the Swedenborgians.  think I'll check Beliefnet.
>
> On Wed, Mar 4, 2015 at 9:46 AM, ME Michaud <michaudme at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > They were rather thick on the ground once upon a time. And their
> influence
> > continues into our time through writers & artists like Balzac, the
> Jameses,
> > Blake
> > and Yeats, to name a few. Also the vision of the American impressionists.
> > All that God-in-nature stuff didn't come to us via traditional
> > Christianity.
> >
> > Many people Bostonians think were Unitarians were actually
> Swedenborgians.
> > I tend to think of them as proto-Unitarians.
> > -M
> >
> > On Wednesday, March 4, 2015, Grace Cangialosi <gracecan at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >
> > > I'm clueless as well, Jay, but I thought it was interesting, as I knew
> > she
> > > was a person of faith.
> > >
> > > > On Mar 4, 2015, at 9:28 AM, Jay Weigel <jay.weigel at gmail.com
> > > <javascript:;>> wrote:
> > > >
> > > > I didn't know that, Grace. I still have no clue what they believe,
> and
> >
>
>
>
> --
> Grace Cangialosi
> Ruckersville, VA
>
> It's a good thing Mary didn't have to wait for a Doctrine of the
> Incarnation
> before she said "Yes" to God.
>
>