But I am curious about your question. Do you have a reason to believe there was a contact? And if so, how did it effect either?

spread as much Swedenborgianism as he did apples. Don't know if the met, but JS got his Swedenborgianism but he clearing got it from somewhere.

Some would say that Swedenborgianism is part of the background of folk beliefs in the US although the # of actual followers is small.

Some examples, Jesus visiting the founder, 3 level heaven, eternal marriage, apostasy of the original church, a restoration, free will.

I am trying to establish when Swedenborgianism found it's way into Joseph's theology. I was wondering if Johnny Appleseed could have clued him in.

Jacob.

I wonder is Appleseed left a diary? We pretty much know were JS was day to day. Were they ever close to each other.

JS left a lot of writing when do the most salient Swedenborgian ideas start to show up.

Good luck.

. . . causing permanent brain damage and inspiring hallucinations.

Hence, the beginnings of Mormonism.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/02/2011 04:01PM by steve benson.

I'm sorry, but "Swedenborgianism" sounds like something Hugh Hefner would do in a hot tub with three gorgeous blonds...

What the hell, so would I!

Italianborgianism, personally.

I saw a documentary on apples a while back. It said that the seeds Jonny Appleseed planted didn't grow apples used for eating like we eat apples today. They would have been good for making hard cider....that's pretty much all they were used for back then.

To get sweet apples, you have to graft from a tree that produces sweet apples, and to get sweet apples you have to graft, as the seeds from any given apple can produce a very different apple when grown.

So if Jonny and Joseph had any contact with each other, it was probably over a few glasses of hard cider at the local pub:)

Disclaimer: I'm not an apple expert so if I got some factoid wrong above, you'll just have to deal with it yourself:)

However, it would n't have been necessary for JS to have learned about Swedenborg's theology from Appleseed. And he wouldn't have needed to read Swedenborg. The New Church movement -- a restorationist church based on Swedenborg's teachings -- was one of the many alternate religions floating around the country. JS could have met several New Churchers over the years. After all, the official JS history says the Smiths had been checking out various religions. That didn't need to be limited to the big denominations.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/01/2011 07:11PM by Stray Mutt.