Eco-critical Reading of "Influx" and "Correspondences" in Swedenborg `s Spiritual World

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
1 Islamic Azad University- Karaj Branch
2 Tehran University
Abstract
Eco Critical theory inspects the existing interconnections of the natural world and the human activities. Considering diverse philosophical perceptions of different philosophers discloses the deep existence and survival of ecocritical awareness in human being`s collective unconscious though it might have been articulated in dissimilar terminologies or technical terms. The interested reader can find traces of the same concerns in Swedish Swedenborg. The two notions of Correspondence and Influx signify the connection between spirit and matter, mind and body and it can be claimed to be what connects Man`s physical life with his/her perpetual nonphysical life. Investigating such notions in an Eco Critical realm the essay advocates a type of Eco Critical realization that requires us to unearth the covert long existing correlation between Man and the nature and the relation between this ecocritical notion and some of Swedenborgian specific philosophical notions. The purpose of this article is to analyze the components of ecocritical criticism in Swedenborg's works according to two philosophical concepts of Correspondence and Influx. This spiritual awareness clarifies that human beings cannot live in accord with the universe until they can manage to conduct their lives in harmony with Divinity since this God centric ideology does not let anything except reverence toward the environment as it is the epitome of God, the absolute creator.

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