"For the judgment was accomplished not only upon all the men of the Christian church, but also upon all who are called Mohammedans, and, moreover, upon all the Gentiles in the whole world"
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Universalism, delivered with the chill of a ledger entry. Swedenborg isn’t thundering like a prophet so much as cataloging souls the way an Enlightenment scientist might catalog minerals: systematically, comprehensively, and without much visible doubt. The line’s power comes from that bureaucratic sweep. “Not only… but also… and, moreover…” is a rhetorical widening lens, expanding the radius of accountability until there’s nowhere left to stand outside the event he’s describing.
Context matters: Swedenborg wrote in an 18th-century Europe where “Christian” was the default civilizational category and everyone else was a theological problem to be solved. Yet the sentence quietly undercuts the era’s comfortable assumption that judgment is a private Christian affair. He insists it reaches “Mohammedans” and “Gentiles” too - terms that carry the period’s casual othering, but also acknowledge religious plurality as a fact that the afterlife must contend with. His intent isn’t interfaith respect; it’s cosmic jurisdiction.
The subtext is institutional critique disguised as metaphysics. By saying judgment fell “upon all the men of the Christian church,” he implies the church isn’t the refuge it claims to be; it’s subject to scrutiny first. Then he globalizes the reckoning, suggesting moral evaluation isn’t tied to baptismal paperwork or European borders. Coming from a “scientist,” it reads like an attempt to make the supernatural behave like a universal law: impersonal, all-encompassing, and indifferent to human categories even as it names them.
Context matters: Swedenborg wrote in an 18th-century Europe where “Christian” was the default civilizational category and everyone else was a theological problem to be solved. Yet the sentence quietly undercuts the era’s comfortable assumption that judgment is a private Christian affair. He insists it reaches “Mohammedans” and “Gentiles” too - terms that carry the period’s casual othering, but also acknowledge religious plurality as a fact that the afterlife must contend with. His intent isn’t interfaith respect; it’s cosmic jurisdiction.
The subtext is institutional critique disguised as metaphysics. By saying judgment fell “upon all the men of the Christian church,” he implies the church isn’t the refuge it claims to be; it’s subject to scrutiny first. Then he globalizes the reckoning, suggesting moral evaluation isn’t tied to baptismal paperwork or European borders. Coming from a “scientist,” it reads like an attempt to make the supernatural behave like a universal law: impersonal, all-encompassing, and indifferent to human categories even as it names them.
Quote Details
| Topic | God |
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