Swedenborg – Was he sexist?
The spiritual writer Emanuel Swedenborg is often seen as sexist. He wrote that a woman’s heart can remain elevated to a higher heat longer than a man’s heart. According to this view, women, more than men, are capable of a deeper and more sustained feeling of affection and affection.
On the contrary, Swedenborg wrote that a man’s mind can remain elevated to a higher light for longer than a woman’s. In other words, it is easier for a man to think rationally and for longer. You are concerned that the sensitive thoughts in your head are directing your actions, or if they don’t, you want them to appear so.
“The feminine nature is to feel and wish to reign, instead of understanding to reign and it is said that it is vice versa in man “(Arcana Coelestia 568)
“It is masculine to perceive from the understanding and feminine to perceive from love” (Conjugal love 168)
Gender roles according to Swedenborg
As a consequence of her view on the essence of being a woman or a man, she says that men cannot do what women can do because they do not have distinctive feminine feelings of affection.
Consequently, he writes that a man tends to know things in childhood, to understand them in adolescence, and to act wisely in adulthood. So he saw men engaged in jobs where the thinking side predominates.
“To ensure the feeding of babies and the upbringing of children of both sexes, and to teach girls up to the age when they are married and transferred to the company of their husbands, is the proper duty of the wife. But ensuring the education of children between infancy and adolescence, and beyond until they become independent, is the husband’s own duty. “ (CL 176)
Swedenborg looks sexist
Today it appears that by discriminating between men and women, Swedenborg was being sexist. He wrote his books in Europe three hundred years ago. Since then there has been a sea change in the way the Western world views men and women. People these days now view men and women as much more alike mentally and emotionally than previous generations did.
Women have entered the professions and have risen to prominence in the public domain and have the same value as men.
Individuals show a combination of gender-related behaviors and traits to some extent. For example, not all men are more aggressive than all women and not all women are kinder than all men and this applies to a variety of characteristics. In common parlance, we speak of a man struggling to get in touch with “his feminine side.”
There is now such a considerable overlap between what men and women do that many think that what they see as a polarized view of the gender difference from Swedenborg is outdated and sexist.
In keeping with this contemporary way of thinking, we need to free our understanding of what women and men can be. Some even say that there is no fundamental difference between the sexes other than the bodily ones. Heterosexual attraction in this view is based purely on bodily differences.
I’m not so sure Swedenborg was sexist
I am suggesting that Swedenborg was not sexist as he valued both women and men. It is true that he often wrote in absolutist terms in a dogmatic style. However, I would say that by doing so you are providing general concepts. Then move on to the details that show some degree of variation.
Swedenborg qualified what he had said about men and women. He suggested that both sexes understand the truth and have affection for the good. But in different proportions.
“… because man is born to be an understanding of the truth, therefore the one that predominates in him, and the woman is born to be the affection of the good, therefore it predominates in her.” (Revelation 121 Explained)
I would suggest that the differences between the sexes are trending: the female tends toward a subjective mindset and the male toward an objective mindset. This does not mean that it cannot be objective or subjective, but that it is often oriented to the personal angle rather than the impersonal one. His inclination is to be concerned with the practical application and implications of ideas. Rather, you are more interested in the facts, logic, and principles behind the ideas themselves. She is inclined to express her heart and he her head.
Personal growth
According to Swedenborg’s view on gender, it could be said that for a man to grow spiritually, he needs to learn from women: he needs to be influenced when women express feelings of care and sensitivity to personal problems, in order for him to win. moral wisdom. At the same time, a woman needs to learn from men. She benefits when men think objectively and rationally.
Is it really sexist to value each sex like this, albeit in different ways?
There is the idea that the “physical chemistry” between man and woman reflects their opposite inner nature. According to this point of view, we are attracted to complementary elements of the other sex. These are unconscious in oneself.
