Read Parts of Swedenborg Concordance Online

Glancing around the Swedenborg Digital Library I found a page with links to parts of Potts' Swedenborg Concordance that are available to read online through Google Book Search. It's not the same as being able to digitally search and copy and paste the text and click on the references and view them (which I'm hoping will happen in my lifetime) but it's a start.

UPDATE:
I've now discovered that you can "Download PDFs of Pott's Concordance". You might also be interested to read Stephen Cole on Using Pott's Concordance vs. Electronic Tools for Studying the Heavenly Doctrines

Interesting New Bible Translation Approach Reviewed by Stephen Muires

The Ancient Roots Translinear Bible uses a fascinating, different approach to translating the Old Testament. For each Hebrew word it uses just one English word, rather than using different English words in different contexts to try to cover the range of meaning of the Hebrew word.

The author explains how this is different from an interlinear and why he wanted this sort of translation for himself.

[W]hat would happen if all the all the ancient words matched the English language 100% of the time? You wouldn’t need a cross reference column. You wouldn’t need to compare them in an Interlinear bible. You wouldn’t need to double check the original word in a concordance.

Or think about the number of footnotes in a typical study bible. Have you ever noticed that many footnotes tell you the "real" meaning of the word? In ARTB, the "real" word is in the text! So the number of footnotes is dramatically reduced. ...all those reference books could be put on a shelf, and you'd be free to soak in the word of God.

Theolog Stephen Muires was the one who told me about this translation and he wrote a really interesting review of it on Amazon.com.

I didn't believe at first that the Hebrew actually had these possible meanings, but with a concordance and a dictionary and an interlinear Bible I have to admit that these translations are probably good. Not "better", since they lack the poetic flow and the evocative imagery of the KVJ/NIV. But good, instructive, tantalizing, and prodding deeper research into the meaning of the words. It creates an effect of a deeper meaning shining out, not poetic, but more like metal ore shines out of hard stone.

You can read and search the whole text for free online.

A Belated Celebration of the Birth of New Church Thought

New Church Thought was born January 8th, 2008 and so is now over a year old and has passed 100 posts. I want to take this random day in March when I have some extra time to celebrate that and get some feedback on my blog.

When it was born I wrote,

The goal of New Church Thought is to collect good passages, good sermons, good articles, good posts, and good news, and to present them in short posts.

I explained it more in the welcome post. I think it all still applies. What I'm trying to figure out is whether I could accomplish this better by changing some things.

First, here are 2 changes I've made recently:

1. Recently I embedded some videos in my blog rather than just linking to them. I'm considering doing this with images as well.

2. I added two gadgets to the right side-bar so that you can now Follow and/or Subscribe to my blog. Please do! :)

Here are some changes I'm considering:

1. More posts and less detail. - My approach in a typical post has been to provide a short sentence about why I like something (it's interesting, fun, good, great, etc.) and then quote as much of it as I can to try to get you to read it yourself before I go past my 300 word limit (which I am breaking just this once). There are two ways I could change this:

a) If I spend less time looking through what I read or heard for the best parts to quote it would take me less time to post about it and so I would probably update my blog more frequently but the posts would be much shorter and less detailed. (e.g. “An interesting sermon by Rev. Louis King about how the infinite God can be present with us.”)

b) Instead of spending as much time as I do quoting things I could spend more time describing my response to them. (e.g. “I heard an interesting sermon by Rev. Louis King about how the infinite God can be present with us yesterday. I admit that my mind wandered off during it a couple of times—perhaps due to my state or perhaps because it lacked an obvious direction and progression. On the whole, though, I found it a good reminder of 2 basic truths: that I don't have to identify all the thoughts and feelings that I experience as myself and that the Lord is always present in my life, even when it's hard.”)

2. Remove my face from the header. - I can't decide whether to remove my face from the header or not. It looks a little goofy to me but I'm used to it by now and I can't think of a different image to put there.

3. Add a blog roll/other links. - Most blogs have a long list of other blogs and web sites on their sidebar. I'm thinking I'll add one of those but I'm worried that it might make things too cluttered.

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Please leave a comment if you have feedback on any of these or any other thoughts about what would improve New Church Thought or make it something that you would enjoy visiting regularly.

Thanks.

Malcolm

P.S.

Along with every other blogger in the world I would love to have more people comment and contribute to the blog so... please feel free to comment and let me know if you're interested in contributing. Want to share a cool passage that you just read? Want to comment on a good sermon you just heard? Want to ask a question that you haven't heard a good answer to yet? Email me and I'll post it for you. Or, if you're interested in contributing regularly, I'll probably offer to give you the ability to post for yourself.

What to do when the New Church is accused of being a cult

Rev. Derrick Lumsden sent me this short article from Church Marketing Sucks about what an Islamic mosque did when it was accused of being a recruitment center for terrorists. He said “I thought it might be a good way to respond when the NC is accused of being a cult.” It reminds me of Philip's response when Nathanael asked him if anything good could come out of Nazareth.

Why do I love the Lord?

I love the Lord, because He has heard My voice and my supplications. Because He has inclined His ear to me, Therefore I will call upon Him as long as I live. (Psalm 116:1-2)

We read this in church today and it really rang true for me. It also struck me that it would be hard for people to feel love for the Lord who feel as though the Lord hasn't heard their supplications.