The old dispute between the established Church and William Blake's 'Jerusalem' recently resurfaced in the press. This is often written up as the trendy liberal C of E attempting to to ban the patriotic hymn. But really the ill feeling runs much deeper. Blake in his time was a thorn in the Church's side rejecting the doctrine of God as Lord and objecting to the Church suppressing natural desire and discouraging earthly joy.
To make matters worse Blake was for a long time influenced by the 17th/18th century Swedish scientist and Christian mystic Emanuel Swedenborg. Swedenborg believed in life on other planets and his book Heaven and Hell recounted the six steps of man's birth from a materialistic to a spiritual being. To him the Trinity was not a Trinity of persons, there was one God the Lord Jesus. Salvation had to come through faith and charity not faith alone. He spoke of a New Jerusalem symbolising a new era in God's relationship with humans. It was enough to earn him a heresy trial in Sweden.
Was Blake's Jerusalem influenced by Swedenborg? - there is considerable debate but the possibility hardly endears Blake with the church establishment. If you want to know more about Emanuel then it is possible to do a Swedenborg trip across London. He has a street and open space named after him in the shadow of The Tower- just off the famous Cable Street you will find Swedenborg Gardens. It contains a memorial to the first Swedish Church in London where Emanuel was buried before repatriation to Sweden. Onto Holborn where you will find the Swedenborg Society at 20/21 Bloomsbury Way WC1. Pick up a book by him or on him. Further west in Pembridge Villas at the end of Westbourne Grove you will find a bricks and mortar example of the New Church a movement based on Swedenborg's idea's.
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