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| Johnny
Appleseed's Adopted Religion |
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 Johnny
Appleseed must have been one of the earliest Swedenborgians
in America. The first General Convention of the New Jerusalem
in the United States of America met in Philadelphia in 1817.
This is the name by which the Swedenborgian Church in North
America is incorporated. Four months prior to the Convention,
a report of Johnny's labors was published in Manchester, England.
From a report of the Society for Printing, Publishing and
Circulating the Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg, dated January
14, 1817:
"There is in the western country a very extraordinary missionary
of the New Jerusalem. A man has appeared who seems to be almost
independent of corporeal wants and sufferings. He goes barefooted,
can sleep anywhere, in house or out of house, and live upon
the coarsest and most scanty fare. He has actually thawed ice
with his bare feet. He procures what books he can of the New
Church Swedenborg, travels into the remote settlements, and
lends them wherever he can find readers, and sometimes divides
a book into two or three parts for more extensive distribution
and usefulness. This man for years past has been in the employment
of bringing into cultivation, in numberless places in the wilderness,
small patches (two or three acres) of ground, and then sowing
apple seeds and rearing nurseries.
These become valuable as the settlements approximate, and the
profits of the whole are intended for the purpose of enabling
him to print all the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg, and distribute
them through the western settlements of the United States."
At the Fifth General Convention, also held at Philadelphia,
Johnny Appleseed's missionary work was again reported at some
length in the proceedings. A report recounts the same basic
details, it concludes with this way: "Having no family, and
inured to hardships of every kind, his operations are unceasing.
He is now employed in traversing the district between Detroit
and the closer settlements of Ohio. What shall be the reward
of such an individual, where, as we are told in holy writ, 'they
that turn many to righteousness shall shine as the stars forever.'"
In a letter dated May 15, 1821, Daniel Thunn wrote to Margaret
Bailey at Cincinnati:
" . . . to add something more to the New Church news, there
is a Mr. John Chapman near Wooster, Ohio, who wrote lately to
Mr. Schlatter that he found an increase of Receivers all around
his neighborhood and that they are spreading as far as Detroit,
he proposed to make a Deed over to the New Church for a Quarter
Section of Land and take payment in Books for the New Church.
We contemplate how best to fulfill his wishes. This is the Appleseed
man you certainly must have heard of, who goes around in the
Country to plant Apple Trees."
The Swedenborgian Church
Swedenborgianism is based on the teachings of a Swedish scientist,
Emanuel Swedenborg [1688-1772] who felt called by God to bring
a new dispensation of truth. The thirty volumes comprising this
extensive revelation cover Bible interpretation, the nature
of Christ's life, life after death, and how to live a truly
spiritual life. This "new Christianity" led to many circles
of readers, primarily in England in the 1780s. Soon thereafter,
some, called "Separatists", left their respective denominations
and to begin a new church, which they called The New Jerusalem
church. The same process happened in America, as well. Today
there are approximately 100 Swedenborgian churches and centers
in North America, including several in the regions where Johnny
Appleseed carried his Swedenborg books with such lively conviction.
As an historical scientist, Swedenborg is one of the world's
geniuses. A Stanford University I.Q. study cited Swedenborg
as one of the three highest intelligences in history. The Ripley
Museum in San Francisco created a display entitled, "The World's
Greatest Achiever," illustrating an enormous list of scientific
achievements of distinction in seventeen separate sciences.
But it is only when he turned to the inner world of the soul
that he made his most lasting contributions. His work on dreams
anticipated Freud and Jung. And at the age of 54, he underwent
a spiritual crisis that led to an experience with God that changed
the direction of his life work. He felt commissioned by God
to help communicate spiritual understanding to a new humanity,
and for the next twenty seven years he worked ceaselessly at
this task.
His teachings became known as "Swedenborgianism," and besides
John Chapman, many other well known people have attested to
their help and insight. Helen Keller was so greatly helped that
she wrote her outstanding book, My Religion, to express how
greatly Swedenborg's writings influenced her. William Blake,
Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Honore Balzac,
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Jorge Luis Borges, Czeslaw Milosz,
and D.T. Suzuki are just a few significant minds who have found
enlightenment along with Johnny Appleseed in the ideas of Swedenborg.
Visit other links listed here to learn more about Johnny Appleseed
and his adopted religion.
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