Correspondence (theology)

The term "correspondence" was coined by the 18th century theologian Emanuel Swedenborg in his Arcana Coelestia (1749–1756), Heaven and Hell (1758) and other works.

In the terminology of Swedenborg’s revelation, “correspondence” is a basic relationship found between two levels of existence.

Thus, for instance, light corresponds to wisdom because wisdom enlightens the mind as light enlightens the eye. Warmth corresponds to love because love warms the mind as heat does the body. Swedenborg says that the Word (Bible) was written by God entirely according to correspondences so that within its natural laws and histories every detail describes the spiritual realities relating to God and man, these being the true subject of the Word. Swedenborg’s 12-volume Arcana Coelestia provides verse-by-verse details of the inner meaning of Genesis and part of Exodus; the work Apocalypse Revealed does the same for the book of Revelation. The Arcana Coelestia, for example, explains how the creation and development of the human mind corresponds to the seven days of creation in Genesis.

According to Swedenborg angels speak to each other in correspondences and in the early days of the Golden Age people on this earth also could speak in correspondences so that they could communicate directly with the angels. They had a holy book, the Ancient Word, written in correspondences, which is still used in heaven. As the human race fell into evil the ability to understand correspondences was lost, as was most of the Ancient Word. What was preserved of the Ancient Word, according to Swedenborg, are the first eleven chapters of Genesis. The first seven of these chapters were copied verbatim. The Bible also refers to various books of the Ancient Church now lost, including the “Wars of Jehovah” (Numbers 21:14-15), “Enunciators” or “Prophetic Enunciations” (Numbers 21:27-30) and the “Book of Jashar” or “Book of the Upright” (Jeremiah 48: 45, 46; 2 Samuel 1:17, 18; Joshua 10: 12, 13).

Of note is that the stories from the Ancient Word were all made-up history, written in correspondences. That is thus true for the first 11 chapters of Genesis as well. Making up such stories was an accepted custom in churches of antiquity and spread widely. In fact, the actual history recorded in the Word was chosen because it had correspondence to an internal sense. Psalm 78 tells the history of Israel and actually says it is a parable.

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