Divine Love and Wisdom: The Deluxe New Century Edition
Divine Love and Wisdom: The Deluxe New Century Edition
Divine Love and Wisdom: The Deluxe New Century Edition
Divine Love and Wisdom: The Deluxe New Century Edition
Divine Love and Wisdom: The Deluxe New Century Edition

Swedenborg Foundation

Divine Love and Wisdom : The Deluxe New Century Edition

By: Emanuel Swedenborg

Sale price$100.00
Title: Hardback
Hardback
Forthcoming
7.0 x 10.0 in
2026-11-10
392685
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Swedenborg Foundation

At a Glance

Divine Love and Wisdom is the most philosophical of Emanuel Swedenborg's later theological writings—and one that has attracted readers well beyond any religious tradition. Where many of his other writings build from Scripture, Swedenborg relies here on reason, observation, and firsthand experience, an approach characteristic of the Enlightenment spirit of his age. He presents a unified account of reality that ranges across what philosophers would call metaphysics, epistemology, and ethics.

At the heart of this account is a single claim with far-reaching implications: that divine love and divine wisdom are the substance and form of everything that exists. Love, Swedenborg argues, is our very life—not something we generate on our own, but something we continually receive. He then turns to the nature of God, the purpose of creation, and the relationship between two distinct but connected worlds, the spiritual and the physical. In the spiritual world, he writes, divine love and wisdom appear as a sun, radiating a spiritual warmth and light that correspond to love and wisdom themselves. Everything in creation, from the highest angel to the mineral kingdom, is a vessel for receiving that divine life. God both fills and transcends this creation.

The God of Divine Love and Wisdom is universal: utterly loving, present with and within every person on earth regardless of race or religion, and condemning no one. It is this expansive vision—an underlying oneness beneath the visible variety of things—that has drawn readers from many backgrounds. Its central themes left their mark on William Blake, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Ralph Waldo Emerson. Henry James, Sr., was so taken by it that he went on to read the whole of Swedenborg, and Charles Peirce and William James derived their American pragmatism from its emphasis on usefulness and practical consequence.

Created as a premium edition for readers who want deeper engagement with Swedenborg's thought, this clothbound volume with gold foil stamping features a new introduction by Dr. Marcy Latta, "Swedenborg's Philosophical Theology." Latta guides readers through the book's major themes and situates its arguments within the history of ideas—from Plato and Aristotle to Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, and Kant. George F. Dole's translation is accompanied by extensive annotations, cross-references, and indexes prepared by a team of Swedenborg scholars, making this an edition as welcoming to the newcomer as it is useful to the specialist.

The New Century Edition of the Works of Emanuel Swedenborg is a modern-language, scholarly translation of Swedenborg's theological writings. Its clear, readable style preserves the dignity, variety, and gender-inclusive spirit of Swedenborg's original Neo-Latin, bringing the full range of his thought to life for contemporary readers.

Divine Love and Wisdom presents Swedenborg's philosophical theology: divine love and wisdom as the substance/form of all creation, unified through correspondences (heart/lungs = love/wisdom). This New Century Edition Deluxe hardcover features Dole's translation, a new Latta introduction, plus annotations and indexes for scholars and newcomers alike.

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About the Author

Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772) was a Swedish scientist, nobleman, and theologian who spent his life investigating the mysteries of the soul. Born in Stockholm to a staunchly Lutheran family, he graduated from the University of Uppsala and then traveled to England, Holland, France, and Germany to study with the leading scientists of the time. He gained favor with Sweden’s King Charles XII, who gave him the position of overseer of the Swedish mining industry. Later, he was given a seat on the Swedish House of Nobles by Charles XII’s successor, Queen Ulrika Eleonora. Between 1743 and 1745 he began to have visions of heaven, hell, and Jesus Christ, which resulted in a stream of books about the nature of God, the afterlife, and the inner meaning of the Bible. He devoted the last decades of his life to studying Scripture and presenting his own unique theology to the world.

George F. Dole earned a BA from Yale, an MA from Oxford, and a PhD from Harvard. He taught ancient languages, the Bible, and theology at the Swedenborg School of Religion and the Pacific School of Religion. He served as translator for many volumes of Swedenborg’s works, including Heaven and Hell, New Jerusalem, Revelation Unveiled, and Marriage Love, and he was also the author of Freedom and Evil, Sorting Things Out, A Book about Us, and The Universe and I.

Marcy E. Latta holds a BS in biology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and MA and PhD degrees in philosophy from Tufts University and the University of Pennsylvania. She teaches philosophy at Bryn Athyn College and currently serves as the college's Chief Academic Officer and Dean of Academics and Faculty.

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Table of Contents

Contents
Translator’s Preface, by George F. Dole
Works Cited in the Translator’s Preface
Selected List of Editions of Divine Love and Wisdom
On Divine Love and Wisdom: Swedenborg’s Philosophical Theology, by Marcy Latta
Works Cited in the Introduction
Short Titles and Other Conventions Used in This Work
 
Part 1
[1] §§1–3 / Love is our life.
[2] §§4–6 / God alone—the Lord—is love itself, because he is life itself. Both we on earth and angels are life-receivers.
[3] §§7–10 / Divinity is not in space.
[4] §§11–13 / God is the essential person.
[5] §§14–16 / In the Divine-Human One, reality and its manifestation are both distinguishable and united.
[6] §§17–22 / In the Divine-Human One, infinite things are distinguishably one.
[7] §§23–27 / There is one human God who is the source of everything.
[8] §§28–33 / The true divine essence is love and wisdom.
[9] §§34–39 / Divine love is a property of divine wisdom, and divine wisdom is a property of divine love.
[10] §§40–43 / Divine love and wisdom is substance and is form.
[11] §§44–46 / Divine love and wisdom are substance and form in and of themselves, and are therefore wholly “itself” and unique.
[12] §§47–51 / Divine love and wisdom cannot fail to be and to be manifested in others that it has created.
[13] §§52–54 / Everything in the universe was created by the divine love and wisdom of the Divine-Human One.
[14] §§55–60 / Everything in the created universe is a vessel for the divine love and wisdom of the Divine-Human One.
[15] §§61–64 / All the things that have been created reflect the human in some respect.
[16] §§65–68 / The useful functions of everything created tend upward, step by step, from the lowest to us, and through us to God the Creator, their source.
[17] §§69–72 / Divinity fills all space in the universe nonspatially.
[18] §§73–76 / Divinity is in all time, nontemporally.
[19] §§77–82 / Divinity is the same in the largest and smallest things.
 
Part 2
[20] §§83–88 / In the spiritual world, divine love and wisdom look like a sun.
[21] §§89–92 / Warmth and light emanates from the sun that arises from divine love and wisdom.
[22] §§93–98 / That sun is not God. Rather, it is an emanation from the divine love and wisdom of the Divine-Human One. The same is true of warmth and light from that sun.
[23] §§99–102 / The spiritual warmth and light that result from the emanation from the Lord as the sun form a single whole just as his divine love and wisdom do.
[24] §§103–107 / The sun of the spiritual world is seen at a middle elevation, as far from angels as our physical world’s sun is from us.
[25] §§108–112 / The distance between the sun and angels in the spiritual world is an apparent distance that depends on their acceptance of divine love and wisdom.
[26] §§113–118 / Angels are in the Lord and the Lord is in them; and since angels are vessels, the Lord alone is heaven.
[27] §§119–123 / The east in the spiritual world is where the Lord is seen as the sun, and the other directions follow from that.
[28] §§124–128 / The regions in the spiritual world are not caused by the Lord as the sun but by the angels, depending on their receptivity.
[29] §§129–134 / Angels always face the Lord as the sun, so south is on their right, north on their left, and west behind them.
[30] §§135–139 / Everything in the deeper reaches of angels’ minds and bodies alike is turned toward the Lord as the sun.
[31] §§140–145 / Every kind of spirit turns toward her or his ruling love in the same way.
[32] §§146–150 / The divine love and wisdom that emanate from the Lord as the sun and constitute heaven’s warmth and light is the emanating Divinity that is the Holy Spirit.
[33] §§151–156 / The Lord created the universe and everything in it by means of that sun that is the first emanation of divine love and wisdom.
[34] §§157–162 / The physical world’s sun is nothing but fire and is therefore dead; and since nature has its origin in that sun, nature is dead.
[35] §§163–166 / There would be no creation if it were not for this pair of suns, one living and one dead.
[36] §§167–172 / The goal of creation—that everything should return to the Creator and that there should be a union—becomes manifest in outermost forms.
 
Part 3
[37] §§173–178 / There are atmospheres, liquids, and solids in the spiritual world just as there are in the physical world, but they are spiritual, while ours are physical.
[38] §§179–183 / There are levels of love and wisdom, consequent levels of warmth and light, and also levels of atmosphere.
[39] §§184–188 / There are two kinds of level, vertical levels and horizontal levels.
[40] §§189–194 / Vertical levels are matched in kind, with one following from another in sequence like a purpose, a means, and a result.
[41] §§195–198 / The first level is the sum and substance of all the levels.
[42] §§199–204 / All processes of perfection increase and rise by and according to levels.
[43] §§205–208 / In a sequential arrangement, the first level is the highest and the third the lowest, while in a simultaneous arrangement, the first level is the center and the third level is the circumference.
[44] §§209–216 / The final level is the composite, vessel, and foundation of the prior levels.
[45] §§217–221 / The vertical levels find their full realization and power in their final form.
[46] §§222–229 / There are levels of both kinds in everything that has been created, no matter how large or small.
[47] §§230–235 / There are three infinite and uncreated vertical levels in the Lord, and three finite and created levels in us.
[48] §§236–241 / These three vertical levels exist in each of us from birth and can be opened in sequence. As they are opened, we are in the Lord and the Lord is in us.
[49] §§242–247 / Spiritual light flows in within us through three levels, but not spiritual warmth except to the extent that we abstain from evils as sins and turn to the Lord.
[50] §§248–255 / If that higher level, the spiritual level, is not opened in us, we become focused on the physical world and our sense impressions.
[51] §§256–259 / In its own right, the earthly level of the human mind is a continuum, but because of its responsiveness to the two higher levels, it seems to have distinct levels when it is raised up.
[52] §§260–263 / The earthly mind, being the envelope and vessel of the higher levels of the human mind, is reactive. If the higher levels are not opened, it acts against them; whereas if they are opened, it acts with them.
[53] §§264–270 / The origin of evil is in the abuse of the abilities proper to us called rationality and freedom.
[54] §§271–276 / Evil and false things are absolutely opposed to good and true things because evil and false things are demonic and hellish, while good and true things are divine and heavenly.
[55] §§277–281 / Everything in the three levels of the earthly mind is enclosed in the works that are done by our physical actions.
 
Part 4
[56] §§282–284 / The Lord from eternity, who is Jehovah, created the universe and everything in it not from nothing but from himself.
[57] §§285–289 / The Lord from eternity, or Jehovah, could not have created the universe and everything in it except as a person.
[58] §§290–295 / The Lord from eternity, or Jehovah, brought forth the sun of the spiritual world out of himself, and created the universe and all its contents from it.
[59] §§296–301 / There are three things in the Lord that are the Lord—a divine element of love, a divine element of wisdom, and a divine element of service. These three things are made visible outside the sun of the spiritual world—the divine element of love through its warmth, the divine element of wisdom through its light, and the divine element of service through the atmospheres that enclose it.
[60] §§302–304 / The atmospheres—three in number in each world, spiritual and physical—in their final forms terminate in the kinds of material substance characteristic of our earth.
[61] §§305–306 / There is nothing of absolute Divinity in the material substances that make up earth, but they are still derived from absolute Divinity.
[62] §§307–318 / All useful functions, which are the goals of creation, are in forms, and they get these forms from the material substances characteristic of earth.
[63] §§319–326 / From a functional point of view, everything in the created universe is in our image; and this testifies that God is human.
[64] §§327–335 / All of the Lord’s creations are useful functions; and they are useful functions in the sequence, on the level, and in the specific way that they relate to humanity and through humanity to the Lord, their source.
[65] §§336–348 / Evil functions were not created by the Lord. Rather, they came into being along with hell.
[66] §§349–357 / What we can see in the created universe bears witness to the fact that nature has brought forth nothing and brings forth nothing. Divinity brings forth everything from itself, and does so through the spiritual world.
 
Part 5
[67] §§358–361 / The Lord has created and formed within us two vessels and dwellings for himself called will and understanding. Will is for his divine love and understanding for his divine wisdom.
[68] §§362–370 / The will and the understanding, the vessels of love and wisdom, are in the whole brain and every part of it and therefore in the whole body and every part of it.
[69] §§371–393 / There is a correspondence between the will and the heart and between the understanding and the lungs.
[70] §§394–431 / From the correspondence of the heart with the will and the lungs with the understanding, we can learn everything that can be known about the will and understanding or love and wisdom—everything, therefore, that can be known about the human soul.
[71] §432 / The nature of our first stage after conception.
 
Notes and Indexes
Notes
Works Cited in the Notes
Index to Preface, Introduction, and Notes
Index to Scriptural Passages in Divine Love and Wisdom
Table of Parallel Passages
Index to Divine Love and Wisdom
Biographical Note
PublisherSwedenborg Foundation
Publication Date 2026-11-10
Language English
Print Length 376
ISBN-10 —
ISBN-13 Hardback: 9780877855088 EPUB: 9780877857181
Item Weight 2.1 lb
Dimensions 7.0 x 10.0 in