Heaven And Hell (Swedenborg Book)
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''Heaven and Hell'' (also ''Heaven and its Wonders and Hell From Things Heard and Seen'' or, in ) is a book written by
Emanuel Swedenborg Emanuel Swedenborg (; ; born Emanuel Swedberg; (29 January 168829 March 1772) was a Swedish polymath; scientist, engineer, astronomer, anatomist, Christian theologian, philosopher, and mysticism, mystic. He became best known for his book on the ...
in
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, published in 1758. It gives a detailed description of the
afterlife The afterlife or life after death is a purported existence in which the essential part of an individual's Stream of consciousness (psychology), stream of consciousness or Personal identity, identity continues to exist after the death of their ...
; how people live after the death of the
physical body In natural language and physical science, a physical object or material object (or simply an object or body) is a wiktionary:contiguous, contiguous collection of matter, within a defined boundary (or surface), that exists in space and time. Usual ...
. The book owes its popular appeal to that subject matter.


Introduction

An article about Swedenborg includes a list of biographies about him, with a brief analysis of each biographer's point of view. Some of the things he claims to have experienced are that there are
Jews Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...
,
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and people of pre-Christian times (" pagans" such as Romans and
Greeks Greeks or Hellenes (; , ) are an ethnic group and nation native to Greece, Greek Cypriots, Cyprus, Greeks in Albania, southern Albania, Greeks in Turkey#History, Anatolia, parts of Greeks in Italy, Italy and Egyptian Greeks, Egypt, and to a l ...
) in Heaven. He says he spoke to married angel couples from the Golden Age who had been happy in heaven for thousands of years. The fundamental issue of life, he says, is that love of self or of the world drives one towards Hell, and love of God and of fellow beings drives one towards Heaven. The work proved to be influential. It has been translated into a number of languages, including Danish, French, English,
Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...
,
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,
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, Icelandic, Swedish, Serbian and Zulu. A variety of important cultural figures, both writers and artists, were influenced by Swedenborg, including
Johnny Appleseed Johnny Appleseed (born John Chapman; September 26, 1774March 18, 1845) was an American pioneer nurseryman who introduced trees grown with apple seeds (as opposed to trees grown with grafting) to large parts of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, I ...
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,
Ralph Waldo Emerson Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803April 27, 1882), who went by his middle name Waldo, was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, minister, abolitionism, abolitionist, and poet who led the Transcendentalism, Transcendentalist movement of th ...
,
John Flaxman John Flaxman (6 July 1755 – 7 December 1826) was a British sculptor and draughtsman, and a leading figure in British and European Neoclassicism. Early in his career, he worked as a modeller for Josiah Wedgwood's pottery. He spent several yea ...
,
George Inness George Inness (May 1, 1825 – August 3, 1894) was an American landscape painting, landscape painter. Now recognized as one of the most influential American artists of the nineteenth century, Inness was influenced by the Hudson River Schoo ...
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Henry James, Sr. Henry James Sr. (June 3, 1811December 18, 1882) was an American Theology, theologian and the father of the philosopher William James, the novelist Henry James, and the diarist Alice James. Following a dramatic moment of spiritual enlightenment ...
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Carl Jung Carl Gustav Jung ( ; ; 26 July 1875 – 6 June 1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist, psychotherapist, and psychologist who founded the school of analytical psychology. A prolific author of Carl Jung publications, over 20 books, illustrator, and corr ...
,
Immanuel Kant Immanuel Kant (born Emanuel Kant; 22 April 1724 – 12 February 1804) was a German Philosophy, philosopher and one of the central Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment thinkers. Born in Königsberg, Kant's comprehensive and systematic works ...
,
Honoré de Balzac Honoré de Balzac ( , more commonly ; ; born Honoré Balzac; 20 May 1799 – 18 August 1850) was a French novelist and playwright. The novel sequence ''La Comédie humaine'', which presents a panorama of post-Napoleonic French life, is ...
,
Helen Keller Helen Adams Keller (June 27, 1880 – June 1, 1968) was an American author, disability rights advocate, political activist and lecturer. Born in West Tuscumbia, Alabama, she lost her sight and her hearing after a bout of illness when ...
,
Czesław Miłosz Czesław Miłosz ( , , ; 30 June 1911 – 14 August 2004) was a Polish Americans, Polish-American poet, prose writer, translator, and diplomat. He primarily wrote his poetry in Polish language, Polish. Regarded as one of the great poets of the ...
,
August Strindberg Johan August Strindberg (; ; 22 January 184914 May 1912) was a Swedish playwright, novelist, poet, essayist, and painter.Lane (1998), 1040. A prolific writer who often drew directly on his personal experience, Strindberg wrote more than 60 pla ...
, D. T. Suzuki, and
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.
William Blake William Blake (28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his life, Blake has become a seminal figure in the history of the Romantic poetry, poetry and visual art of the Roma ...
came from a family of Swedenborgians and annotated his copy of this text, as well as referred to and criticized ''Heaven and Hell'' and Swedenborg by name several times in his poetical/theological essay '' The Marriage of Heaven and Hell''.
Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe (; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic who is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales involving mystery and the macabre. He is widely re ...
mentions this book in his work '' The Fall of the House of Usher''. It also plays an important role in
Honoré de Balzac Honoré de Balzac ( , more commonly ; ; born Honoré Balzac; 20 May 1799 – 18 August 1850) was a French novelist and playwright. The novel sequence ''La Comédie humaine'', which presents a panorama of post-Napoleonic French life, is ...
's novel '' Louis Lambert''. Swedenborg wrote about Heaven and Hell based on what he said was revelation from
God In monotheistic belief systems, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. In polytheistic belief systems, a god is "a spirit or being believed to have created, or for controlling some part of the un ...
. According to Swedenborg, God is love itself and intends everyone to go to heaven. That was His purpose for creation. Thus, God is never angry, Swedenborg says, and does not cast anyone into Hell. The appearance of Him being angry at evil-doers was permitted due to the primitive level of understanding of people in Biblical times. Specifically, holy fear was needed to keep the people of those times from sinking irretrievably into the consequences of their evils. The holy fear idea was in keeping with the fundamental truth that even they could understand, that everything comes from Jehovah. In the internal, spiritual sense of the Word, however, revealed in Swedenborg’s works, God can be clearly seen for the loving Person He actually is.


Some basic teachings


God is One

''Heaven and Hell'' opens with an affirmation of the many statements in the Old and New Testaments (''e.g.'', Deuteronomy 6:4, Isaiah 44:6, 45: 14, 21, Mark 12: 29,32, John 1:18, Revelation 11:17) and Swedenborg’s revelation (''e.g.'',) that there is a God and He is one. If God is all-powerful, He must be one. It is self-contradictory to say that there is more than one being who is all-powerful.


Angels

Swedenborg details a life after death that consists of real experiences in a world in many basic ways quite similar to the natural world. According to Swedenborg,
angel An angel is a spiritual (without a physical body), heavenly, or supernatural being, usually humanoid with bird-like wings, often depicted as a messenger or intermediary between God (the transcendent) and humanity (the profane) in variou ...
s in heaven do not have an ethereal or ephemeral existence but enjoy an active life of service to others. They sleep and wake, love, breathe, eat, talk, read, work, play, and worship. They live a genuine life in a real spiritual body and world. According to Swedenborg, we in the natural world can only see angels here when our spiritual eyes are opened. This corresponds to many instances in the Old Testament and New Testament (Matthew 18, Luke 2:14, Matthew 17, Luke 24, Revelation 1:10). Swedenborg received his revelation by the same process of his spiritual eyes being opened by God. An angel’s whole environment – clothes, houses, towns, plants, etc. – are what Swedenborg terms correspondences. In other words, their environment spiritually reflects, and thus "corresponds" to, the mental state of the angel and changes as the angel's state changes. Swedenborg writes that angels have no power of their own. God's power works through the angels to restrain evil spirits, one angel being able to restrain a thousand such spirits all at once. Angels exercise God's power chiefly in defending people against hell. Swedenborg is explicitly clear that angels have no power whatsoever of their own, they neither take nor like to receive thanks or accept any credit. In the
Christian world The terms Christendom or Christian world commonly refer to the global Christian community, Christian states, Christian-majority countries or countries in which Christianity is dominant or prevails.SeMerriam-Webster.com : dictionary, "Christen ...
it is believed that in the beginning angels and
devil A devil is the mythical personification of evil as it is conceived in various cultures and religious traditions. It is seen as the objectification of a hostile and destructive force. Jeffrey Burton Russell states that the different conce ...
s were created in heaven, also that the devil or Satan was an angel of light, but having rebelled he was cast down with his crew, and thus hell was formed. Swedenborg states that, on the contrary, every angel or devil began life as an inhabitant of the human race. In other words, there are no angels or demons who were not people on Earth first. Children who die go directly to heaven, where they are raised by angel mothers.


Men and women

Angels are men and women in every detail just as they were here on earth, only they are spiritual and thus more perfect. See Chapter on “Marriage in Heaven” in ''Heaven and Hell'' and Swedenborg’s book on the topic, ''Marriage Love'' (''Conjugal Love'' in older translations). The spiritual conjunction of husband and wife that is the basis of true marriage in this world and the next is explained in ''Heaven and Hell'' # 366ff. and ''Marriage Love'' #156ff. Swedenborg says that this true married love was known in antiquity but largely lost since then, mainly due to loss in belief that this love is eternal and that there is life after death.


The Christian marriage ideal

According to Swedenborg, married life continues after death as before, agreeing with the instinctive conviction of poets and lovers whose inward assurances tell them their love will surmount death and that they will live again and love again in human form. In other words, there is no “till death do us part” of happily married couples. (See “The Lord God Jesus Christ on marriage in heaven”) Swedenborg also says that Christian marriage - the love of one man and one woman - is the highest of all loves, the source of the greatest bliss. “For in themselves Christian marriages are so holy that there is nothing more holy. They are the seminaries of the human race, and the human race is the seminary of the heavens.” The spiritual conjunction of husband and wife that is the basis of Christian marriage in this world and the next, is explained in ''Heaven and Hell'' # 366ff. and ''Marriage Love'' (''Conjugial Love'' in older translations) #156ff. Evidence of this conjunction is found in the fact that husband and wife together are called ne“man” or “one flesh” in Genesis 1:27, 2:22-24, 5:2, and Mark 10:8. In heavenly marriages neither partner tries to dominate the other since love of dominion of one partner eliminates the delight of that marriage. The ancients believed in a fountain of perpetual youth. In heaven their dream is realized, for those who leave this world old, decrepit, diseased in body or deformed, renew their youth, and maintain their lives in the full vigor of early manhood and womanhood. Swedenborg says that couples who lived in a chaste love of Christian marriage are more than all others in the order and form of heaven, and therefore in all beauty, and continue unceasingly in the flower of youth. The delights of their love are ineffable, and increase to eternity. What their outward delights are it is impossible to describe in human words.


Polygamy

Polygamy Polygamy (from Late Greek , "state of marriage to many spouses") is the practice of marriage, marrying multiple spouses. When a man is married to more than one wife at the same time, it is called polygyny. When a woman is married to more tha ...
” is used here to describe any marital relationship between men and women other than one
husband A husband is a man involved in a marital relationship, commonly referred to as a spouse. The specific rights, responsibilities, and societal status attributed to a husband can vary significantly across different cultures and historical perio ...
with one
wife A wife (: wives) is a woman in a marital relationship. A woman who has separated from her partner continues to be a wife until their marriage is legally dissolved with a divorce judgment; or until death, depending on the kind of marriage. On t ...
. A further variant is “Multiple Partners, but One at a Time” (''i.e.'', serial monogamy). If done for evil reasons, such as lust, it constitutes “successive polygamy.” Swedenborg said in his revelation that true Christian marriage love between one husband and several wives is impossible for its spiritual origin, which is the formation of one mind out of two, is thus destroyed. He says that love that is divided among a number of Christian partners is not true marriage love, but lasciviousness. According to Swedenborg, a Christian who marries more than one wife commits not only natural adultery but also spiritual adultery.''Marriage Love,'' #339ff. In the highest sense to commit adultery means to deny the divinity of Jesus Christ and to profane the Word. Adultery is so great an evil, Swedenborg says, "that it may be called diabolism itself". After death the damnation of Christian polygamists is more severe than the damnation of those who committed only natural adultery. In the other life adulterers love filth and live in filthy hells.


Time and space in the spiritual world

There is neither time nor space as we understand them in the other world. Both are replaced by a sense of state. See Chapter 18, “Time in Heaven” and Chapter 22, “Space in Heaven,” in Swedenborg E. ''Heaven and Hell,'' Swedenborg Foundation 1946, # 70, 191


World of Spirits

The "World of Spirits" is not to be confused with “the spiritual world,” which is a general term referring to the whole extent of Heaven, Hell and the World of Spirits. The traditional Christian idea was of resurrection on Judgment Day at the end of history. Swedenborg says judgment takes place in the World of Spirits immediately after each individual’s death. After we die, we wake up in the intermediate region of the spiritual world, neither in Heaven nor Hell, but in a neutral "no man's land" that Swedenborg terms the "World of Spirits." Here we gradually lose the ability to pretend and the spiritual “real us” comes out. The resulting stripping of one's self bare, even to one's most secret thoughts and intentions, is the judgment. “There is nothing concealed that shall not be uncovered, and nothing secret that shall not be known …” (Luke 12:2, 3; Matthew 10:26, ''Heaven and Hell,'' #498). Following this judgment the new spirit goes on to Heaven or Hell of his or her own free will. God does not force them. Spirits gather with those that are alike to themselves, whether in Heaven or Hell. Each Spirit is granted Angels and good Spirits, though evil spirits cannot endure their presence and so depart.


Equilibrium and spiritual free will

According to Swedenborg, people are kept in spiritual freedom by means of the equilibrium between Heaven and Hell.
So who sends people to Heaven or Hell? Nobody but themselves. There is no inquiry as to their faith or former church affiliations, or whether they were baptized, or even what kind of life they lived on Earth. They migrate toward a heavenly or hellish state because they are drawn to its way of life, and for no other reason.
Anyone can enter heaven. However, as soon as an evil person inhales the air there they have excruciating torment so they quickly shun it and escape to a place in keeping with their true state. As the old saying goes, “Where the tree falls, there it lies.” The basic spiritual orientation of a person toward good or evil cannot be changed after death. Thus, an evil spirit could leave hell, but never wants to.


Heaven

Swedenborg proposed that there were a multiplicity of heavens, divided into "celestial", "spiritual", and "natural" parts. In ''Heaven and Hell'', Swedenborg allegorically likens both the nature of each heaven as well as the illumination in the sky of each heaven to the sun, moon, and stars respectively. He states that the sun of the celestial heaven and the moon of the spiritual kingdom is the Lord.Heaven and Hell, #118


Parallel with Latter Day Saint afterlife beliefs

Swedenborg's multiple-heavens conception of the afterlife resembles the Latter Day Saint view of the afterlife described in
Doctrine and Covenants The Doctrine and Covenants (sometimes abbreviated and cited as D&C or D. and C.) is a part of the open scriptural canon of several denominations of the Latter Day Saint movement. Originally published in 1835 as Doctrine and Covenants of the Chur ...
Section 76. On February 16, 1832
Joseph Smith Joseph Smith Jr. (December 23, 1805June 27, 1844) was an American religious and political leader and the founder of Mormonism and the Latter Day Saint movement. Publishing the Book of Mormon at the age of 24, Smith attracted tens of thou ...
—the progenitor of the Latter Day Saint movement—and
Sidney Rigdon Sidney Rigdon (February 19, 1793 – July 14, 1876) was a leader during the early history of the Latter Day Saint movement. Biography Early life Rigdon was born in St. Clair Township, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, on February 19, 1793. He ...
—a former Baptist minister associated with Alexander Campbell's movement who converted to the
Church of Christ Church of Christ may refer to: Church groups * Christianity, the Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ * Christian Church, an ecclesiological term used by denominations to describe the true body of Christia ...
and served as a scribe and assistant to Smith—had a joint visionary experience in Hiram, Ohio while meditating on the meaning of John 5:29. The vision they described was recorded as a revelation known to early Latter Day Saints as "the Vision" and later canonized as Doctrine and Covenants 76. Like ''Heaven and Hell'', "the Vision" rejected a binary afterlife of eternal heaven or hell as inconsistent with God's love for humanity. Instead, "the Vision" described a heaven divided into three " degrees of glory" called the celestial, terrestrial, and telestial kingdoms and likened to the "glory of the sun," moon, and stars respectively. The shared conception of a multi-tiered heaven may derive from the New Testament writings attributed to the apostle Paul, available to both Smith and Swedenborg through the Bible: :"There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory. So also is the resurrection of the dead." ()


Print versions

* Swedenborg, E. ''Heaven and its wonders and Hell from things heard and seen.'' Swedenborg Foundation, December 1, 2001. Translator: George F. Dole, Language: English. * A 1958 translation:


References


Bibliography

* *


External links

*
Online version
of ''Heaven and Hell'' {{Authority control 1758 non-fiction books 18th-century Christian texts 18th-century books in Latin Afterlife in Christianity Angelology God in Christianity Heaven Hell Swedenborgianism Texts in Latin Visionary literature Works by Emanuel Swedenborg