Heaven and Hell (also Heaven and its Wonders and Hell From Things Heard and Seen or, in ) is a book written by Emanuel Swedenborg in Latin, published in 1758. It gives a detailed description of the afterlife; how people live after the death of the physical body.
The work proved to be influential. It has been translated into a number of languages, including Danish, French, English, Hindi, Russian, Spanish, Icelandic, Swedish, Serbian and Zulu. A variety of important cultural figures, both writers and artists, were influenced by Swedenborg, including Johnny Appleseed, Jorge Luis Borges, Daniel Burnham, Arthur Conan Doyle, Ralph Waldo Emerson, John Flaxman, George Inness, Henry James, Sr., Carl Jung, Immanuel Kant, Honoré de Balzac, Helen Keller, Czesław Miłosz, August Strindberg, D. T. Suzuki, and W. B. Yeats. William Blake 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 mentions this book in his work The Fall of the House of Usher.Perry, B. Little Masterpieces. Poe, E.A. The Fall of the House of Usher, Garden City, MY, Doubleday 1921 It also plays an important role in Honoré de Balzac's novel Louis Lambert.
Swedenborg wrote about Heaven and Hell based on what he said was revelation from God.Swedenborg, E Heaven and its Wonders and Hell. From Things Heard and Seen (Swedenborg Foundation, 1946). According to Swedenborg, God is love itselfSwedenborg, Heaven and Hell 545ff.) and intends everyone to go to heaven. That was His purpose for creation.Swedenborg, E Angelic Wisdom concerning The Divine Providence (Swedenborg Foundation, 1954, #234:6,7) 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.Swedenborg, E Arcana Coelestia. The heavenly arcana contained in the Holy Scripture or Word of the Lord unfolded, beginning with the book of Genesis together with wonderful things seen in the World of Spirits and in the heaven of angels. Swedenborg Foundation, 1956 #6997:2, 7632) 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.Heaven and Hell, #546ff.
Basic teachings
God is One Heaven and Hell opens with an affirmationSwedenborg, E. Heaven and Hell Swedenborg Foundation 1946, #2 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.,Swedenborg E. The True Christian Religion Swedenborg Foundation, 1946 # 5-7Swedenborg E. The Divine Love and Wisdom Swedenborg Foundation 1946, # 23)) 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.Kingslake, p. 20
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, angels 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.Synnestvedt, S. The Essential Swedenborg, Swedenborg Foundation 1977, p. 104
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.True Christian Religion, #779”From things heard and seen,” part of Heaven and Hell book title.
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.Heaven and Hell #179, 183
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.E. Swedenborg: The Arcana Coelestia, Swedenborg Foundation 1946, #6344
In the Christian world it is believed that in the beginning angels and devils 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.Heaven and Hell #311 In other words, there are no angels or demons who were not people on Earth first.Benz, E. Emanuel Swedenborg. Visionary Savant in the Age of Reason, Swedenborg Foundation, 2002, p. 403; Originally published as Emanuel Swedenborg. Naturforscher und Sehr, Zurich; Swedenborg Verlag 1948Heaven and Hell #311-317, 544
Children who die go directly to heaven, where they are raised by angel mothers.See Chapter on "Children in Heaven" in Heaven and Hell #332ff.Kingslake, p. 49
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 HellMarriage Love Swedenborg Foundation 1946, Chapter 40, # 366ff. and Swedenborg’s book on the topic, Marriage Love (Conjugal Love in older translations).E. Swedenborg Marriage (“Conjugial”) Love Swedenborg Society 1953, # 27ff. 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.Marriage Love# 58
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.Trobridge, p. 193 “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.” Arcana Coelestia# 9961 In heavenly marriages neither partner tries to dominate the other since love of dominion of one partner eliminates the delight of that marriage.Heaven and Hell #369, 380
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.Heaven and Hell # 489
Polygamy “Polygamy” is used here to describe any marital relationship between men and women other than one husband with one wife.Marriage Love #332ff. 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.” Marriage Love #317ff.
Swedenborg said in his revelation that true 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.Marriage Love, # 379 He says that love that is divided among a number of partners is not true marriage love, but lasciviousness.Arcana Coelestia # 1907. According to Swedenborg, a man 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".Swedenborg, E. Doctrine of Life (Swedenborg Foundation 1946, #74) After death the damnation of 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.Arcana Coelestia, # 5394, 5722Synnestvedt, p. 74ff.Sigstedt, p. 356ff.
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.Benz, p. 390 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."See Chapter on “World of Spirits” in Heaven and Hell. Swedenborg Foundation, 1946, pp. 421ff. Here we gradually lose the ability to pretend and the spiritual “real us” comes out.Kingslake, B. Inner Light. Swedenborg Explores the Spiritual Dimension, J. Appleseed & Co., 2001, p. 44 The resulting stripping of one's self bare, even to one's most secret thoughts and intentions, is the judgment.Kingslake, B. Inner Light. Swedenborg Explores the Spiritual Dimension, J. Appleseed & Co., 2001, p. 44 “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.Heaven and Hell, #545
Equilibrium and spiritual free will