by Jane Williams-Hogan
This brief recitation of facts concerning Emanuel Swedenborg, his parents, and their roots places him in the center of Sweden’s history as it unfolded in the seventeenth century. Reviewing the key elements of that history supplies the context vital for an understanding of the man. Swedenborg concurred with this need to know his roots. On more than one occasion toward the end of his life, Swedenborg indicated the importance of his history to his mission. In 1768, after years of publishing his religious works anonymously, he signed his work Amore Conjugali (Marriage Love) “Emanuel Swedenborg, a Swede.” In 1769, upon the request of two of his English readers, Thomas Hartley (1708–1784) and Dr. H. Meissiter (n.d.), he wrote a short biography of his life. It was later published in an English magazine, Aurora, in 1800.
