A visitor to a Swedenborgian service in the 1790s might have found little to distinguish it from a Lutheran meeting: hymns, a sermon, a collection plate. But the man whose name they bore, Emanuel Swedenborg, never founded a church. He died in 1772 insisting that the new revelation he had received was meant for all Christians, not a sect. Within fifty years, his followers had split into two bodies that still disagree on what it means to be a Swedenborgian. The Church of the New Jerusalem (General Church) and the Swedenborgian Church of North America (Convention) share a canon of texts. They do not share a single communion table.
The distinction is not a footnote. It shapes how each group reads Swedenborg, who leads its worship, and whether a member can be a Unitarian and a Swedenborgian at the same time.
What Is the Swedenborgian Movement?
Swedenborgianism is the body of Christian thought derived from the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg (1688–1772), a Swedish scientist, engineer, and mystic who claimed that from 1743 onward he conversed with angels and witnessed the spiritual world. His multivolume works, including Heaven and Hell (1758) and Arcana Coelestia (1749–1756), reinterpret the Bible as a symbolic code describing the inner life of the soul and the afterlife. Swedenborg taught that the Second Coming of Christ was not a physical event but a gradual spiritual awakening made possible through his own writings.
The term “Swedenborgian” is the older, broader label. “Church of the New Jerusalem” refers specifically to the denomination that tried to preserve Swedenborg’s doctrine as a closed system, rejecting later liberalizing trends.
Where Did the Split Come From?
Swedenborg himself never started a church. He believed that the “New Church” foretold in the Book of Revelation was a spiritual body, not an institution. After his death, small reading circles formed in England, Sweden, and the United States. The first formal organization, the General Conference of the New Church, appeared in London in 1789.
In the United States, the Swedenborgian Church of North America (the Convention) was founded in 1817 in Philadelphia. It was loose in its polity: each congregation had wide autonomy, and ministers were not required to affirm every line of Swedenborg’s theology. Over the nineteenth century, the Convention became influenced by Transcendentalism (Ralph Waldo Emerson read Swedenborg closely) and liberal Protestant theology. By the 1870s, some members questioned the divinity of Jesus, the reality of hell, and the necessity of baptism.
That drift provoked a reaction. In 1890, a group of conservative Swedenborgians broke away from the Convention and formed the General Church of the New Jerusalem, headquartered in Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania. They insisted that Swedenborg’s writings were “divinely revealed,” not merely inspired, and that the church must be governed by a single bishop and a unified priesthood.
The two groups have not reunited since. A third body, the Lord’s New Church, split off from the General Church in 1937 over a dispute about the nature of the divine human.
What Do They Actually Disagree On?
The core difference is authority. The General Church (often called “Bryn Athyn”) holds that Swedenborg’s theological works are the Word of God, equal in status to the Bible. The Convention treats Swedenborg as a “divinely illuminated” interpreter but does not require members to view his writings as infallible.
That single difference cascades into several others.
Christology. The General Church teaches that Jesus Christ is the only God, in whom the divine trinity resides as a trinity of person, not of persons. They reject the Nicene Trinity. The Convention includes a range of views: some congregations are Unitarian, some trinitarian, some agnostic. The General Church considers the Convention’s diversity a departure from Swedenborg’s core teaching.
The afterlife. Swedenborg described heaven as a series of spheres, each with a different kind of love. The General Church treats this geography as literal spiritual fact. The Convention often reads it as metaphor or psychological insight. A General Church member will speak of “the angelic society” as a real place. A Convention member might call it a poetic description of spiritual growth.
Worship and liturgy. The General Church uses a fixed liturgy, the Book of Divine Worship, with prescribed prayers, responses, and a lectionary. The Convention largely follows free-church Protestant patterns: the minister chooses the hymns, the sermon is the centerpiece, and the service varies week to week.
Leadership. The General Church is episcopal: a single bishop (the “Executive Bishop”) ordains all clergy, and the church is governed by a General Council. The Convention is congregational: individual churches call their own ministers and manage their own affairs without a central authority.
How Do Their Practices Compare?
A visitor to the Bryn Athyn Cathedral (completed 1919, designed by architect Raymond Hood) will see a formal space: stone pillars, stained glass windows depicting scenes from the Arcana Coelestia, a marble altar. The service is recited, not preached from notes. The congregation sits quietly. The focus is on the internal sense of the Word.
A visitor to a Convention congregation in Cambridge, Massachusetts, might find a Sunday school, a coffee hour, and a sermon titled “Swedenborg and the Environment.” The language is less doctrinal. The pews are mixed. The service may include a blessing of pets.
The General Church runs Academy of the New Church, a K–12 school and a college in Bryn Athyn, where students study Latin, Greek, and Swedenborg’s original texts. The Convention runs Swedenborgian House of Studies at the Pacific School of Religion, a more academic program that teaches Swedenborg in the context of comparative religion.
What Do Swedenborg’s Followers Actually Practice?
Both groups read the same core texts. Emanuel Swedenborg, Heaven and Hell, Divine Love and Wisdom, Divine Providence, The Doctrine of the Lord, The Doctrine of the Sacred Scripture. The General Church adds a list of works it considers “divinely revealed” (about thirty volumes). The Convention treats the same texts as authoritative but not binding.
Neither group practices magic, divination, or spirit communication. Swedenborg explicitly condemned mediums and séances, though his own visionary experiences resembled them. The modern “Spiritualist” movement, which began in the 1840s, borrowed heavily from Swedenborg’s descriptions of the spirit world, but Swedenborgians have always kept their distance.
Common Misconceptions
“Swedenborgians are a cult.” No. Both groups are mainstream Christian denominations, members of the National Council of Churches (Convention) and the World Council of Churches (General Church). They affirm the Nicene and Apostles’ Creeds, though they interpret them differently.
“Swedenborgians believe in reincarnation.” They do not. Swedenborg taught that people live once, then enter the spiritual world where they are judged by their dominant love. No rebirth.
“All Swedenborgians are the same.” The split between Convention and General Church is real, doctrinal, and over a century old. Members of the two groups rarely commune together.
FAQ
Can a Swedenborgian be a Unitarian?
In the Convention, yes. Some congregations are explicitly Unitarian. In the General Church, no. The General Church teaches that Jesus is the one God.
Do Swedenborgians believe in hell?
Yes. Swedenborg described hell as a state of self-love, not a punishment imposed by God. The General Church treats it as a literal place; the Convention tends to see it as a metaphor.
What is the New Jerusalem?
Swedenborg used the term for the spiritual church that would replace the old Christian churches. The General Church believes it is embodied in their institution. The Convention sees it as an ideal.
The Organic Tie
The Church of the New Jerusalem and the Swedenborgian Church of North America are branches of the same root. They share a canon, a vocabulary, and a founder. They disagree on whether that founder’s words are the final Word. That disagreement, small in the abstract, has shaped two distinct ways of being a follower of Swedenborg. One worships in a cathedral with a bishop. The other worships in a meetinghouse with a sermon. Both read the same dense, strange books about angels, correspondences, and the spiritual world.
For anyone curious about the Western esoteric tradition that informed Blake, Emerson, and the Theosophists, these two groups are the living heirs of that current. They are not occultists. They are Christians who read the Bible through a visionary lens. And they are not the same.
For a broader look at Christian esoteric movements, see our guide to esoteric traditions. To understand the symbolic language Swedenborg used, visit the glossary entry on correspondences. And for a deeper study of the historical context of Swedenborg’s visions, read our study of the spiritualist movement.