Correspondence (theology)
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In theology, correspondence is a term referring to the relationship between spiritual and natural realities, or between mental and physical realities. The term was coined by the 18th century theologian Emanuel Swedenborg in his Arcana Celestia (1749-1756) and Heaven and Hell (1758) and other works.
Swedenborg states that there is a correspondence between, for example: thought and speech, between intention and action, between mind and body, and between God and creation. Correspondence is a causal relationship (i.e., thought is the cause of speech, intention is the cause of action).
The correspondence between spiritual and natural things extends to all objects in the physical world. 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. The various animals in creation correspond to the various affections in man. Ultimately, all things correspond to and symbolize qualities in God. Swedenborg's works available online at theheavenlydoctrines.org.
Swedenborg also wrote that the Word (or the Bible) was entirely written by God according to correspondences, so that even within its natural laws and histories, every minute detail is written to describe the spiritual realities relating to God and man, these being the true subject of the Word. His eight-volume Arcana Celestia provides verse-by-verse details of the inner meaning of all of Genesis and the first half of Exodus; his works Apocalypse Revealed and Apocalypse Explained do the same for the book of Revelation. In Arcana Celestia, for example, he explains the meaning of the seven days of creation in terms of God's forming and perfecting man's mind.
Despite teaching that the Word was written according to correspondences, Swedenborg wrote that all the essential teachings about the nature of God and the way to salvation could be found in the literal sense of the Word. Moreover, a person could use some knowledge of correspondences to twist what the Word actually taught if he was not bound at all to the literal sense; and so, Swedenborg writes, a church's doctrines must be founded on the literal sense of the Word, and correspondences must only be used to illustrate and confirm what has already been learned from the literal sense.
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