The New Church is a Christian faith based on the Old and New Testaments and the theological works of the 18th century Swedish scientist, philosopher and theologian Emanuel Swedenborg. It is the interpretation found in his books that inspired the Tabernacle model depicted here and kept on permanent exhibit at Glencairn Museum.

The New Church view as found in Emanuel Swedenborg's theological works is arguably the most complex and detailed interpretation of the Tabernacle of Israel written to date. It is hundreds of pages long and incorporates all of the basic concepts of New Church theology. Using the "science of correspondences," the idea that every word, story, and concept in the Word has an analogous spiritual counterpart, Swedenborg meticulously maps out correspondences for specific words, stories and concepts throughout the Bible. A discussion of the Tabernacle and its correspondences is found within a twelve-volume work, Arcana Caelestia, which explains the spiritual meaning, or "heavenly secrets," of Genesis and Exodus. The following is a simple summary of the New Church view, with references provided for a more in-depth study.

There are many levels of meaning in the account of the Tabernacle. It is a model of heaven, depicting realities that are experienced by people as they live after death (Arcana Caelestia 9485, 9594, 9613). It reflects the systems and organs of the human body (Arcana Caelestia 9496, 9514, 9613, 9632, 9643, 9670). And it symbolizes many of the aspects of the life of Christ, the one God of heaven and earth (Arcana Caelestia 9479, 9486, 9528, 9714-9715). However, here we will focus on perhaps the most pervasive level of meaning found in the New Church view: the Tabernacle as a model of how God works in the human mind.

Just as God dwells in the Tabernacle, God dwells in the individual. The Divine presence in both instances begins within and radiates outward. The Biblical description of the Tabernacle begins with the innermost article, the ark, and then proceeds out to the holy place, and ends with the court. We read in Arcana Caelestia that this signifies God's presence, first in the person's affections, then proceeding outward to a person's rational thoughts, and finally in a person's words and deeds, their interactions with the world.

These three levels of God's presence in the human mind are described as follows:

· The innermost level (the holy of holies) is the Celestial level, where love dominates.
· The middle level (the holy place) is the Spiritual level, in which faith and wisdom preside.
· The outermost level (the court) is the Natural level, which is the level of useful service and interaction with the world.

In Arcana Caelestia, each article and material of the Tabernacle is examined using a system of associations and symbols. Every physical aspect corresponds to a spiritual process in the human mind. Here we will examine only the more basic ideas.

The Celestial Level: the Ark
As the focus of the Tabernacle, the ark, mercy seat and cherubim are host to the presence of God. The holy of holies represents the deeply hidden center of a person's spirit, where God's Divine love, the essence of the Divine, is first received, providing life to every individual. Without this holy center, a person would cease to exist. And yet, paradoxically, most people aren't even aware of it. As the ark could not be seen by the public, or even by the priestly attendants of the Tabernacle, this area of the mind remains unknown (Arcana Caelestia 9543). (See also Arcana Caelestia 9485-9522.)

The Spiritual Level: The Holy Place
While the ark represents the presence of God's Divine Love, deeply rooted and hidden from a person's awareness, the holy place represents the more rational aspects of spiritual life. This is symbolized through the functions of the three articles of furniture in the holy place. The lampstand symbolizes the "reception of Divine Truth," or the faculty of rationality. The light it sheds symbolizes the illumination that comes through understanding (Arcana Caelestia 9548-9575, 9684). The table, and the bread within it, is the "reception of Divine Good," which sustains the life of religion by endowing a person with the essential element of spiritual life: free will. Free will is the gift of the ability to do God's will and to reject evil (Arcana Caelestia 9527-9546). And the golden altar represents the worship of God by means of both of these faculties: rationality and free will. The first two, the table and lampstand, are symbols of gifts from God that are necessary for life; just as one needs light, warmth and nourishment to survive physically, one needs both reason and freedom to survive spiritually. The third, the altar of incense, symbolizes giving back, worshipping God by means of these gifts (Arcana Caelestia 10177).

The Natural Level: The Court
The third area of the Tabernacle represents the level of doing and speaking. This includes sensory perception, where information is first gathered, sorted and processed. Just as the flesh was consumed on the altar and its ashes filtered through the brass grating, so too a person consumes information through their experiences and filters the information immediately in their mind in order to process it and make use of it. This is the beginning of all knowledge, feeding the inner spiritual processes (Arcana Caelestia 9714-9739). The basin represents cleansing and purification. In receiving and processing information from the world, moral sensibilities emerge. It is at this level of action and useful service that a person begins the process of rejecting evil and embracing goodness (Arcana Caelestia 10237).

Thus, in the New Church perspective, the various aspects of the Tabernacle's structure correspond perfectly to the faculties of the human mind, and testify to the presence of God with every individual. Each detail contributes to this correspondence. The metals gold, silver and bronze represent love, faith and the desire to do good things for other people. The layers of curtains represent different levels of understanding. The veil separating the ark from the priests represents the orderly progression of the Lord's influx from one level of the mind to another. And the one time a year when the high priest entered the holy of holies represents regeneration, or the purification of the spirit and the lifting of the human mind to its highest potential in the celestial realm.

More information about the New Church perspective on the Tabernacle, including readings and projects for children and families, can be found here at the General Church Office of Education's New Church Vineyard Web site ("The Tabernacle of the Lord," archived October 2002).

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