In this first installment of the Latin Playground, we’re bringing you three episodes from our first recording session. We come together to explore the fascinating intersection of language, translation, and spirituality in Emanuel Swedenborg’s 18th-century NeoLatin. You’ve arrived at Episode 1. In this episode, you meet the playground crew and we discuss the following topics.

Topics we explore:

• Why are language and words such a big part of soul-stirring?
• Why translation matters.
• The personal journeys each of us has taken into Latin studies.
• How language shapes our understanding of spiritual truth.
• Jonathan’s longing to sit down with people and look at the Latin directly.
• How the language you speak affects the way you think.
• How translating Swedenborg’s Latin in real time opens spiritual concepts in entirely new ways.
• NeoLatin - it exists!
• What Swedenborg says about who is associated with who in the spiritual world… guess what? Language supersedes religion as something that unites people!
• Our awe at the persistence of ancient linguistic patterns.
• Latin inflection and English word order.
• Latin can express tone of voice because inflection allows for freedom in word order.
• Kids as linguistic geniuses.

This is a podcast we are producing for the joy of it. We are at the mercy of our zoom connections and our limited skills and capacity for dressing up the podcast the way one is meant to be. So, a relatively informal production! But we couldn’t get together and talk about these things without sharing them! The subject matter is just too good not to!

If you enjoy the podcast, please subscribe and rate it wherever you listen to podcasts! If you’d like to support the translation work of the Swedenborg Foundation, please make a donation to the Jonathan S. Rose Translation Fund at swedenborg.com/donate and note that the Latin Playground inspired you to do so!

Thanks for playing with us on the Latin Playground! See you next time!

The Latin Playground is a project of the Swedenborg Foundation—a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, independent, educational organization. Everything we produce is on account of the generous giving of our donors. Learn more at www.swedenborg.com.