“There are three things in general that perish from the literal sense of the Word when it becomes the internal sense, namely, what is of time, what is of space, and what is of person. … in the spiritual world nothing is regarded as determined to person … because directing the attention … to person narrows and limits the idea, instead of extending it and making it unlimited.” (Heavenly Secrets, paragraph 5253)

God is infinite and eternal, omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent. However, we are finite - limited by definition - we cannot understand all those things that we say God is. So, how do we even approach the topic?

“… the angels in heaven know and acknowledge nothing else Divine than the Lord’s Divine Human; for this they can form a mental picture of and can love. But they cannot form any such picture of, nor therefore love, the Divine, called the Father, since this is incomprehensible. … What is incapable of being seen or heard is incapable also of passing into the mind to form a mental picture and is incapable of passing into any affection and love. That which is to be comprehended in faith and love must be given objective reality in a suitable image.” (Heavenly Secrets, paragraph 10267)

“... think about God in terms of essence, and from this think about person. Thinking in terms of person about essence means thinking materially about essence too. But thinking about person in terms of essence means thinking spiritually also about person.” (True Christian Religion, paragraph 623, section 5)

Examples of thinking BEYOND PERSON: Friendship The Neighbour Angels

Considering the problems of getting stuck in ideas of person, we looked at the Biblical stories of Naaman and John the Baptist, as well as issues such as taking credit (what Swedenborg calls "Merit"), flattery, blame and scapegoating.

And we looked at two useful applications of the principle.

Recorded on Sunday 7th August 2022.