Spiritual values are abstract...

 ... because the spirit dimension is far from us, yet near us. They look abstract, wispy and ethereal because of this separation and distance. They manifest as intellectual concepts. In the other dimension, they are very real and in addition to being concepts, they manifest as concepts-in-substance i.e. as spiritual objects.  This is different from Plato's 'world of forms'.

Found a Unification Church article I really like...

I did find a Unification Church web post by Andrew Wilson that I really like and that is so very Swedenborgian (except for a few terminology differences and very few conceptual differences). For instance, "angels" in this article mean something different from what's in Swedenborg:

As  for  angels,  they  were  all  created  male,  and  have 
existed that way for billions of years, although they can manifest male
or female form at will.

Only once perfected humans arrive in the spirit
world and take up residence there, does conjugal love appear there for
the  first  time.

Meanwhile,  angels  await  the  advent  of  this  human 
conjugal love in the spirit world before their female counterparts will be
created and given them in marriage.

Regardless of such discrepancies with Swedenborg, the article is very good.  BTW, Swedenborg preceded the Rev. Moon in time - and if the Unification Church  (like the Mormons) learn from Swedenborg, then all the better.

Swedenborgians of all official persuasions (including non-Swedenborgian ones), enjoy the article at this link:

Research into the Ontolo gy of Spirit World and Spirit Persons in Unification Thought 

(Parenthetically I am not a Unification Church  member,) 

Let is not pretend, in misguided kindness, and refuse to acknowledge that ---

It isn't perfect, and we are incomplete

Kind and good people try to sugar coat physical reality by framing it as different  from what it really is. Sometimes, they actually want to believe the sugarcoating.

Swedenborgians, including preachers, sometimes fall into this trap. For instance, I heard one such preacher saying that one is complete even if single, and one is able to live fully in the single state. But we know better - we are meant to be coupled in joy with a truly compatible soul mate of the opposite gender, and that is our eternal destiny. With this as the backdrop, we do not need to whitewash any current lack and pretend that all is well - or pressure others to pretend hard to be well in a faux manner. And, if we are crippled, we need not pretend that we are differently able because we know that we will be in a beautiful, whole spiritual body that has all the attributes of the physical one, a body that is more solid yet more fluid to thought and will, more sensate in every way.

And so we do not need to euphemize or rationalize our (and others') twistednesses and negative quirks, knowing that for the willing, these will be removed for the asking in the spirit world. We can truly afford to be brutally honest, and yet totally loving, with ourselves and others. With others, of course, our brutal honesty needs to be subservient to their ability to use our criticism for their spiritual advancement rather than fall into despair. We do not need to, out of false kindness, affirm that certain sexual perversions are normal and wholesome -- as if there isn't healing to address what might not be healable in the physical realm.
 

The Basics of Swedenborg's Christian Theology

1. Doug Webber wrote: 

   "... I would sum up everything under two principles: that God is one in person, who appeared in human form as Jesus Christ, and (2) it is necessary to live a life according to the commandments. And that is it! All of his writings revolve around those 2 principles."

   To which I replied:

   "Yes, that is indeed the a good summary of Swedenborg's theology. I would add a third basic principle: We are spiritual human beings meant for a spiritual human eternity of happiness, growth and use in the context of marriage and community. Note that I have highlighted human."

Why the spiritual body is no greater an illusion that the physical body

Response to a reader who said that afterlife married relationships needed no more than a meeting of the minds and souls and, perhaps, a little bit of hugging and kissing

I believe that the human form is one of God's masterpieces and I do not know of anything in the physical universe that is more complex or beautiful. In the spiritual dimension we will be more than disembodied minds. We will have a substantial (though not physical) human form that corresponds to (is similar to) our present human form, which is one of God's fundamental ideas that is replicated (with a few minor differences) throughout out globe, throughout the physical universe, and through the after-death dimension of reality.

That being so, why would real sex be absent between married couples, when it is hallowed here on earth? For animals, sex serves the purpose of reproduction. For humans, it serves the additional purpose of ecstatic marital bonding.

I have read the Near Death Accounts and the immediate experience after death is of being a disembodied spirit. But that is only the first phase when the mind/soul/spirit separates from the physical body. After the initial phases reported in NDEs, the "soul" enters another matrix of reality. The tangible expression of this association is the spiritual body that is coherent with the other framework of reality. People who have had long after-death experiences report seeing cities of light, gorgeous physical landscapes etc. Of course, one may say that all of that (including the spiritual body) is an illusion. You would be partially right - the after-death "body" and "world" are  a lesser order of reality than God and the soul. But the same is true for the present physical reality that surrounds us, and the physical bodies we currently inhabit. These too are the "field" (Sanskrit: Maya) and the "objects" of experience unlike God (Sanskrit: Brahman) and the soul  (Sanskrit: Atman) who are the "subjects" of experience.

Perfect Introduction to Swedenborg

I have always been wondering how to introduce Swedenborg in a few minutes to someone who knows nothing about his teachings. I finally found the perfect video to do so. I recommend you view it in the full screen format.

Jesus' Appearance - not a long-haired Renaissance prince

What did Jesus look like?  Like a medieval European potentate with long hair? Neither  Jewish nor Gentile men sported hippie hairstyles.  Here is what 1 Corinthians 11:14 says:  Does not even nature itself teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a dishonor to him?

Wikipedia has a a comprehensive analysis of this subject, and a must watch video model of what Jesus might have actually looked like: