by Shanda Heinrichs
In arguing for religious freedom for the nation, Madison opposed the traditional ideas that Christianity would fall if not supported by the civil government, and that government required the prop of established Christianity, contending that the state of Virginia “conspicuously corroborated the disproof” of this conception of the relationship of religion and the state (quoted in Alley 1985, 90). In his Memorial opposing religious establishment in Virginia, he presented an historical defense against the necessity of religious establishment, arguing that Christian religion had flourished originally with no “human laws” to support it, and in fact in the face of persecution, not only in the time of miracles, but also long after “it had been left to its own evidence and the ordinary care of Providence.”
by Fredrik Bryntesson
Targeting the HIV life cycle provides the basis for therapeutic intervention to HIV disease, and the more we learn about it the more sophisticated treatments can become available. Moreover, through examination of the HIV life cycle in the biology classroom, many biological processes and principles are illuminated, and furthermore, the HIV life cycle can also be used as a model to show how New Church principles apply to the natural world.
by David Simpson
While commentaries proliferate about Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment (1866)—for the reason that it is arguably one of the most powerful and influential novels ever written—comparatively little exists about the association between its author and the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg as a potential source for Dostoevsky’s literary devices and spiritual themes. With the exception of several works of the Writings of Swedenborg, most notably a Russian edition of Heaven and Hell from 1863 catalogued in Dostoevsky’s library, the empirical evidence is not abundant. Yet according to some scholars including Nobel Laureate Czeslaw Milosz in his essay “Doestoevsy and Swedenborg,” Dostoevsky had Swedenborg’s Heaven and Hell at his disposal while he was writing Crime and Punishment and he took from it what suited his purpose. The parallels between major themes in the two works are so strikingly similar as to further suggest that Dostoevsky may have not merely taken from Swedenborg what suited his purposes, but may have been re-purposed in his intentions toward Crime and Punishment by his encounter with Swedenborg’s revelation.
by Erik E. Sandstrom
The Linköping documents were photolithographed by Rudolf Tafel ca. 1869, and they included Swedenborg’s experiment titled “Om Echo,” (Regarding Echo) (1716) from which can be deduced a rough estimate of the speed of sound.
