Reading Swedenborg at the Rim of the World: Perspectives on Swedenborgian thought from the Graduate Theological Union

The Graduate Theological Union (GTU) in Berkeley, California, was formed in 1962 as an ecumenical consortium for religious and theologicaleducation, part of a larger groundswell of interdenominational goodwill that included the liberalizing policies of the second VaticanCouncil (or “Vatican II”). Today the GTU is not only a leader in interdenominational divinity programs, but remains a pioneer of interreligiousgraduate education, with centers and programs for Jewish Studies, Buddhism, and Islamic Studies, in addition to its eight Protestant and Catholic-affiliated seminaries and theological institutions. Since 2002, the Swedenborgian House of Studies, formerly the Swedenborg School of Religion in Andover, Massachusetts, has resided at the Pacific School of Religion—one of the founding Protestant members of the GTU consortium—and has contributed distinctly Swedenborgian courses and theologyinto the broader GTU curricula over the last decade.