The reason for a compilation such as is here presented should be
obvious. Swedenborg's theological writings comprise some thirty or
more substantial volumes, the result of the most concentrated labor
extending over a period of twenty-seven years. To study these writings
in their whole extent, to see them in their minute unfoldment out of
the Word of God, is a work of years. It is doubtful if there is a
phase of man's religious experience for which an interpretation is not
here to be found. Notwithstanding this immense sweep of doctrine there
are certain vital, fundamental truths on which it all rests:--the
Christ-God, Man a spiritual being, the warfare of Regeneration,
Marriage, the Sacred Scriptures, the Life of Charity and Faith, the
Divine Providence, Death and the Future Life, the Church. We have
endeavored to press within the small compass of this book passages
which give the gist of Swedenborg's teachings on these subjects.
The compilers would gladly have made room for the interpretative and
philosophical teachings which contribute so much to the content and
form of Swedenborg's theology; but they have confined their effort to
setting forth briefly and clearly the positive spiritual teachings,
where these seemed most packed with religious meaning and moment.
The translation of the passages here brought together has been
carefully revised.