E-text prepared by Marilynda Fraser-Cunliffe, Diane Monico,
and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
The reason for a compilation such as ishere presented should be obvious. Swedenborg'stheological writings comprise somethirty or more substantial volumes, the resultof the most concentrated labor extending overa period of twenty-seven years. To study thesewritings in their whole extent, to see them intheir minute unfoldment out of the Word ofGod, is a work of years. It is doubtful if thereis a phase of man's religious experience forwhich an interpretation is not here to be found.Notwithstanding this immense sweep of doctrinethere are certain vital, fundamental truthson which it all rests:—the Christ-God, Man aspiritual being, the warfare of Regeneration,Marriage, the Sacred Scriptures, the Life ofCharity and Faith, the Divine Providence,Death and the Future Life, the Church. Wehave endeavored to press within the smallcompass of this book passages which givethe gist of Swedenborg's teachings onthese subjects.
The compilers would gladly have maderoom for the interpretative and philosophicalteachings which contribute so much to thecontent and form of Swedenborg's theology;but they have confined their effort to settingforth briefly and clearly the positive spiritualteachings, where these seemed most packedwith religious meaning and moment.
The translation of the passages herebrought together has been carefully revised.
JULIAN K. SMYTH.
Emanuel S