FRYEBURG, Emerson and Swedenborg

Complete works of
Ralph Waldo Emerson

''There is one man of genius, who has done much for this philosophy of life, whose literary value has never yet been rightly estimated; — I mean Emanuel Swedenborg. The most imaginative of men, yet writing with the precision of a mathematician, he endeavored to engraft a purely philosophical Ethics on the popular Christianity of his time. Such an attempt, of course, must have difficulty, which no genius could surmount. But he saw and showed the connection between nature and the affections of the soul. He pierced the emblematic or spiritual character of the visible, audible, tangible world. Especially did his shade-loving muse hover over and interpret the lower parts of nature; he showed the mysterious bond that allies moral evil to the foul material forms, and has given in epical parables a theory of isanity, of beasts, of unclean and fearful things.''
- Ralph Waldo Emerson (excerpted from his oratory, ''The American Scholar'')

(Emerson is also well known as a mentor and friend of fellow Transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau.)

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Fryeburg New Church 
(Established as The church of the New Jerusalem in 1879)

The Fryeburg New Church is actually not so new! We’ve been an active part of the Fryeburg community for well over 100 years. We are part of the Church of the New Jerusalem, a denomination which has been in existence for nearly 300 years. Johnny Appleseed, Helen Keller, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Benjamin Franklin, Abraham Lincoln and many others have been readers of Emanuel Swedenborg, the 18th Century scientist and philosopher whose teachings, along with the Bible, form the basis of our Church.
Today, we are a unique Christian church that places freedom and responsibility with the individual. While we believe that there is good and truth to be found in all spiritual traditions and that heaven is not exclusively for Christians, there are three essential beliefs that are the basis of our faith:

1. The Divinity of the Lord
2. The Sacredness of the Word 
3. The Life of Faith and Charity