Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - Sidor ...
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has never been proofread. / Denna sida har aldrig korrekturlästs.
CHRISTIAN JOHANSEN
, 1247
in steel in Eskilstuna, and thus like Jacob Boehme, the shoemaker
in Görlitz of yore, by his calling was a mechanic. But his intellec
tual and moral endowments raised him immensely over the sphere
of those who chiefly busy themselves with physical labour. The
workshop was for him too contracted. His thoughts pressed into
higher and brighter regions ; and his heart attached itself altogether
to spiritual and celestial things. Like the above-named Teuton
philosopher, Johansen was even well-read in theology and philosophy,
and by nature endowed with an unusual profundity and a fine
discrimination in matters belonging to ethics and religion. Accord
ing to the testimony of all who knew him more intimately, his
character as it was ultimately formed, bore the stamp of Christian
forbearance, piety, and humility, and was well nigh angelic. He was,
indeed, what we should like to call ’ a spiritual genius.’ Besides
this he was well versed in the modern, classical, and oriental
languages, and therein was a match for many celebrated philologists ;
and, moreover, he was as familiar with Swedenborg’s doctrine of
correspondences and the higher understanding of his writings in
general, as was the Görlitz theologian with the nomenclature of
Paracelsus and the writings of the early mystics. It is a loss to
the New Church that many of Johansen’s articles and dissertations
have been lost, and that those that are still preserved, are only in
MS." One of these specimens, a spiritual explanation of Luke xvi,
1-10, which is written in Latin, Dr. Kahl communicates in his
Nya Kyrkan, Part III, pp. 112-118.
Johansen furnished to our collection Documents 285 and 286.
The "young Johansen" who is mentioned in Document 309,
p. 807, as having been employed in 1786 in copying the MSS.
of Swedenborg was either ristian Johansen, or his brother
Anders. The former in a list of the members of the Exegetic
Philanthropic Society, which C. F. Nordensköld communicated to
Dr. Im. Tafel, is described as a "manufacturer," and A. Johansen
as his "brother and partner in business." In the beginning of the
present century Anders Johansen spent several years in England,
and returned to Sweden in 1814. He is spoken of very highly in
some English and Swedish letters of that time which the Editor
found in Stockholm among the letters addressed to the Society Pro
Fide et Charitate, concerning which see Note 119.
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
