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Divine Providence
Divine Providence is one of the major works of the Enlightenment scientist and religious seer Emanuel Swedenborg. It provides a coherent and satisfying solution to what has been called “the problem of evil”: How are God’s goodness and power reconcilable with evil’s presences in the larger world and in the human mind and heart? By tackling an array of issues that commonly undermine belief in God, including war, suffering, and inequality—and by revealing the wise and loving laws that lie hidden behind these seemingly senseless phenomena— Divine Providence aims to restore our faith in the meaningfulness of the world. Despite its universal focus, Divine Providence is also a highly practical book on the personal level, demonstrating how we can put aside negative attitudes and behaviors and grow into positive thought and action.
The New Century Edition of the Works of Emanuel Swedenborg is a modern-language, scholarly translation of Swedenborg’s theological works. The series’ easy-to-read style retains the dignity, variety, clarity, and gender-inclusive language of Swedenborg’s original Latin, bringing his thought to life. This portable edition contains the text of the New Century Edition translation, but not the introduction, annotations, or other supplementary materials found in the deluxe editions.
The New Century Edition of the Works of Emanuel Swedenborg is a modern-language, scholarly translation of Swedenborg’s theological works. The series’ easy-to-read style retains the dignity, variety, clarity, and gender-inclusive language of Swedenborg’s original Latin, bringing his thought to life. This portable edition contains the text of the New Century Edition translation, but not the introduction, annotations, or other supplementary materials found in the deluxe editions.
322 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1764
151 people are currently reading
850 people want to read
About the author
Emanuel Swedenborg
1,625 books299 followersEmanuel Swedenborg (born Emanuel Swedberg; February 8, 1688–March 29, 1772) was a Swedish scientist, philosopher, Christian mystic, and theologian. Swedenborg had a prolific career as an inventor and scientist. At the age of fifty-six he entered into a spiritual phase in which he experienced dreams and visions. This culminated in a spiritual awakening, where he claimed he was appointed by the Lord to write a heavenly doctrine to reform Christianity. He claimed that the Lord had opened his eyes, so that from then on he could freely visit heaven and hell, and talk with angels, demons, and other spirits. For the remaining 28 years of his life, he wrote and published 18 theological works, of which the best known was Heaven and Hell (1758), and several unpublished theological works.
Swedenborg explicitly rejected the common explanation of the Trinity as a Trinity of Persons, which he said was not taught in the early Christian Church. Instead he explained in his theological writings how the Divine Trinity exists in One Person, in One God, the Lord Jesus Christ. Swedenborg also rejected the doctrine of salvation through faith alone, since he considered both faith and charity necessary for salvation, not one without the other. The purpose of faith, according to Swedenborg, is to lead a person to a life according to the truths of faith, which is charity.
Swedenborg's theological writings have elicited a range of responses. Toward the end of Swedenborg's life, small reading groups formed in England and Sweden to study the truth they saw in his teachings and several writers were influenced by him, including William Blake (though he ended up renouncing him), Elizabeth Barrett Browning, August Strindberg, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Charles Baudelaire, Balzac, William Butler Yeats, Sheridan Le Fanu, Jorge Luis Borges and Carl Jung. The theologian Henry James Sr. was also a follower of his teachings, as were Johnny Appleseed and Helen Keller.
In contrast, one of the most prominent Swedish authors of Swedenborg's day, Johan Henrik Kellgren, called Swedenborg "nothing but a fool". A heresy trial was initiated in Sweden in 1768 against Swedenborg's writings and two men who promoted these ideas.
In the two centuries since Swedenborg's death, various interpretations of Swedenborg's theology have been made (see: Swedenborgian Church), and he has also been scrutinized in biographies and psychological studies.
Swedenborg explicitly rejected the common explanation of the Trinity as a Trinity of Persons, which he said was not taught in the early Christian Church. Instead he explained in his theological writings how the Divine Trinity exists in One Person, in One God, the Lord Jesus Christ. Swedenborg also rejected the doctrine of salvation through faith alone, since he considered both faith and charity necessary for salvation, not one without the other. The purpose of faith, according to Swedenborg, is to lead a person to a life according to the truths of faith, which is charity.
Swedenborg's theological writings have elicited a range of responses. Toward the end of Swedenborg's life, small reading groups formed in England and Sweden to study the truth they saw in his teachings and several writers were influenced by him, including William Blake (though he ended up renouncing him), Elizabeth Barrett Browning, August Strindberg, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Charles Baudelaire, Balzac, William Butler Yeats, Sheridan Le Fanu, Jorge Luis Borges and Carl Jung. The theologian Henry James Sr. was also a follower of his teachings, as were Johnny Appleseed and Helen Keller.
In contrast, one of the most prominent Swedish authors of Swedenborg's day, Johan Henrik Kellgren, called Swedenborg "nothing but a fool". A heresy trial was initiated in Sweden in 1768 against Swedenborg's writings and two men who promoted these ideas.
In the two centuries since Swedenborg's death, various interpretations of Swedenborg's theology have been made (see: Swedenborgian Church), and he has also been scrutinized in biographies and psychological studies.
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
August 15, 2015
Swedenborg is one of those thinkers who continues to surprise me with his level of insight. In this book, he taught me more on the "essences" of things than any other metaphysical book I have read.
Some highlights from this read-through:
Anatomy as an image of the spiritual world, going into minute detail.
A solution to the mind-body problem, mentioned offhand (our spirit/mind as the "state" of brain fibers, considered as a collected whole).
The nature of the universe as a journey of being from God through the spiritual world to earth, and then from the earth back "up" again. See comparisons to anatomy here (fibers going to and from the brain and heart throughout the body).
Love described as needing to "see" its object through wisdom, which it unites to in wisdom. This structure of purpose, means, and result forms the entire structure of being.
Amazing stuff.
Some highlights from this read-through:
Anatomy as an image of the spiritual world, going into minute detail.
A solution to the mind-body problem, mentioned offhand (our spirit/mind as the "state" of brain fibers, considered as a collected whole).
The nature of the universe as a journey of being from God through the spiritual world to earth, and then from the earth back "up" again. See comparisons to anatomy here (fibers going to and from the brain and heart throughout the body).
Love described as needing to "see" its object through wisdom, which it unites to in wisdom. This structure of purpose, means, and result forms the entire structure of being.
Amazing stuff.
March 10, 2021
All I'm gonna say is, he says "Everyone's soul comes from his father, and is only clothed with a body by the mother" DP 277. Yeah, I made a kid. Don't think that's how that works.
November 22, 2017
I read Swedenborg’s huge book, “Divine Providence”, and I found the book to contain much important information and many good spiritual insights. However, I do have some complaints – issues on which I strongly disagree with the author.
I will list some issues concerning which I have reservations, as well as others regarding which I emphatically disagree. On page 214 Swedenborg says this: “Everything we willingly think and say and do becomes part of us and remains so, whether it is good or evil.”
This I seriously doubt. It would mean that character transformation is impossible regarding matters on which we had made conscious choices. This I simply do not believe. Good character, arising from good choices, can be corrupted by future wrong choices. Conversely, bad (evil) choices that corrupt character are amenable to being renounced, corrected, and the results being a transformation of the corruption into goodness and righteousness. I truly hope that I’m right about this and that Swedenborg is wrong.
One issue on which I have been persuaded that Swedenborg was wrong is the matter of free will (autonomy). Throughout this book he repeatedly seems to be denying that human beings have any genuine freedom of will – any TRUE AUTONOMY. This I believe to be a mistake. He, on fairly numerous occasions, refers to “our apparent autonomy”, but he seems to declare that genuine autonomy does not exist for humanity. A reference to “apparent autonomy” is found on page 224. On pages 271-272 the author declares this: “If we are in a hellish community, the only way the Lord can lead us out is under the laws of his divine providence. One of them says that we must see that we are there, must want to get out, and must ourselves make an effort with what seems to be our own strength.”
I have a question about this: How can we make an effort UNLESS we possess some real strength with which to make the effort? If we only seem to use our strength to make an effort to get out of a hellish community, then we actually play no role in whether or not we get out. God is the only player in this – such is what Swedenborg seems to me to be saying. With this, I disagree.
On page 280 the author claims this: “Since this divine gift to us is in the smallest details of our nature, it follows that the Lord is in control of these smallest details in evil people as well as in good people; and the Lord’s control is what we call divine providence.”
This is, by my thinking, a grave charge to lay on the Divine. After all, if in every detail of every choice we make and every deed we perform, God is in control of our choices and our deeds, then God is the one who is responsible for every evil that is done, because His control over every vestige of our behaviors and character is complete. I vehemently reject this. This repudiates human free will, along with all human culpability and responsibility for evils that are done by humanity.
Swedenborg even admits that there seems to be a contradiction in what he claims, but he declares that there is none. I will quote at length from pages 281-282: “Everything we think and intend, and therefore everything we say and do, is the result of an inflow. If it is good, something is flowing from heaven; if it is bad, something is flowing from hell. In other words, if it is good it is flowing in from the Lord, and if it is bad it is flowing in from our own sense of self-importance.
“I do realize, though, that all this is hard to grasp because it differentiates between what flows in from heaven or from the Lord and what flows in from hell or from our own sense of self-importance, and at the same time it says that divine providence is at work in the smallest details of our thoughts and desires to the point that we cannot think or intend anything on our own. Since I am saying that we can think and intend from hell, or from our sense of self-importance, there does seem to be a contradiction. However, there is none, as we shall see below [294], once a few points are prefaced that will shed some light on the matter.”
I read all the way through the author’s discussion of this – including all his efforts to render this conundrum something other than a contradiction. I found his efforts to miserably fail. I was not at all convinced, and his “explanations” only decreased my (generally, very high) respect for the author.
I wish to quiz the author further, namely about his claims on page 283, where he says “I have often been shown that no one in hell originates a thought. They all depend on others around them, who again are not originating their thoughts but depend on still others. Thoughts and desires move from community to community in a pattern without people realizing that they are not thinking autonomously.”
Okay, further down on the same page the author says this: “I was told from heaven that, like others, I believed that I was thinking and intending on my own, when in fact nothing was coming from me. If it was good, it was coming from the Lord, and if it was bad, it was coming from hell. I was shown this at first hand by having various thoughts and desires imposed on me so that eventually I could feel and sense it. So, later, as soon as anything evil impinged on my volition or anything false on my thoughts, I asked where it was coming from and was shown. I was also allowed to talk with the people it came from, to rebut them, and to make them go away.”
So, Swedenborg claims that he was able to rebut the evil people’s thoughts that impinged on him. If he had no control (no freedom – autonomy), HOW could he rebut the evil thoughts? He seems to again be contradicting himself. I furthermore ask: If no creature of the Lord has autonomy by means of which to freely choose evil, then where, pray tell, does hell come from? This desperately needs to be answered. Swedenborg FAILS to explain this. How does hell ever get to exist, unless there are creatures that have voluntarily (autonomously) chosen evil? If they could not choose to introduce evil, then God must be the creator of hell. Does he create hells, and then punish innumerable creatures by determining that they will choose hellish living? This is OUTRAGEOUS!
In conclusion, let me concede that Emanuel Swedenborg was a highly learned and brilliant man, as well as blessed with profound spiritual insights. Yet, after having read three of his huge books, I come to the conclusion that he got many things quite badly wrong. He was human, after all, finite, fallible, and flawed. So is the author of this review, which counsels me to be humble in my pronouncements. I feel compelled, however, to never renounce logic and rational thought. By the way, for readers of Swedenborg’s writings, I will just add a closing comment to inform such readers of Swedenborg’s little book, “Life on Other Planets”. Therein he claimed to have had numerous communications with human-like “people” on planets in our solar system, including Mercury, Venus, Mars, Saturn, etc. He even described some of the vegetation, kinds of animals, kinds of houses, etc. on such planets. Given our privileged modern knowledge of astronomy due to space telescopes, space probes, satellites, etc., we know that Swedenborg was grossly in error. No such life forms exist on any planet in our solar system except on Earth. This is proof of how far afield a brilliant spiritual thinker and mystic can go from reality and truth.
All that having been said, I highly recommend Swedenborg’s writings – including the book being reviewed here – “Divine Providence”.
I will list some issues concerning which I have reservations, as well as others regarding which I emphatically disagree. On page 214 Swedenborg says this: “Everything we willingly think and say and do becomes part of us and remains so, whether it is good or evil.”
This I seriously doubt. It would mean that character transformation is impossible regarding matters on which we had made conscious choices. This I simply do not believe. Good character, arising from good choices, can be corrupted by future wrong choices. Conversely, bad (evil) choices that corrupt character are amenable to being renounced, corrected, and the results being a transformation of the corruption into goodness and righteousness. I truly hope that I’m right about this and that Swedenborg is wrong.
One issue on which I have been persuaded that Swedenborg was wrong is the matter of free will (autonomy). Throughout this book he repeatedly seems to be denying that human beings have any genuine freedom of will – any TRUE AUTONOMY. This I believe to be a mistake. He, on fairly numerous occasions, refers to “our apparent autonomy”, but he seems to declare that genuine autonomy does not exist for humanity. A reference to “apparent autonomy” is found on page 224. On pages 271-272 the author declares this: “If we are in a hellish community, the only way the Lord can lead us out is under the laws of his divine providence. One of them says that we must see that we are there, must want to get out, and must ourselves make an effort with what seems to be our own strength.”
I have a question about this: How can we make an effort UNLESS we possess some real strength with which to make the effort? If we only seem to use our strength to make an effort to get out of a hellish community, then we actually play no role in whether or not we get out. God is the only player in this – such is what Swedenborg seems to me to be saying. With this, I disagree.
On page 280 the author claims this: “Since this divine gift to us is in the smallest details of our nature, it follows that the Lord is in control of these smallest details in evil people as well as in good people; and the Lord’s control is what we call divine providence.”
This is, by my thinking, a grave charge to lay on the Divine. After all, if in every detail of every choice we make and every deed we perform, God is in control of our choices and our deeds, then God is the one who is responsible for every evil that is done, because His control over every vestige of our behaviors and character is complete. I vehemently reject this. This repudiates human free will, along with all human culpability and responsibility for evils that are done by humanity.
Swedenborg even admits that there seems to be a contradiction in what he claims, but he declares that there is none. I will quote at length from pages 281-282: “Everything we think and intend, and therefore everything we say and do, is the result of an inflow. If it is good, something is flowing from heaven; if it is bad, something is flowing from hell. In other words, if it is good it is flowing in from the Lord, and if it is bad it is flowing in from our own sense of self-importance.
“I do realize, though, that all this is hard to grasp because it differentiates between what flows in from heaven or from the Lord and what flows in from hell or from our own sense of self-importance, and at the same time it says that divine providence is at work in the smallest details of our thoughts and desires to the point that we cannot think or intend anything on our own. Since I am saying that we can think and intend from hell, or from our sense of self-importance, there does seem to be a contradiction. However, there is none, as we shall see below [294], once a few points are prefaced that will shed some light on the matter.”
I read all the way through the author’s discussion of this – including all his efforts to render this conundrum something other than a contradiction. I found his efforts to miserably fail. I was not at all convinced, and his “explanations” only decreased my (generally, very high) respect for the author.
I wish to quiz the author further, namely about his claims on page 283, where he says “I have often been shown that no one in hell originates a thought. They all depend on others around them, who again are not originating their thoughts but depend on still others. Thoughts and desires move from community to community in a pattern without people realizing that they are not thinking autonomously.”
Okay, further down on the same page the author says this: “I was told from heaven that, like others, I believed that I was thinking and intending on my own, when in fact nothing was coming from me. If it was good, it was coming from the Lord, and if it was bad, it was coming from hell. I was shown this at first hand by having various thoughts and desires imposed on me so that eventually I could feel and sense it. So, later, as soon as anything evil impinged on my volition or anything false on my thoughts, I asked where it was coming from and was shown. I was also allowed to talk with the people it came from, to rebut them, and to make them go away.”
So, Swedenborg claims that he was able to rebut the evil people’s thoughts that impinged on him. If he had no control (no freedom – autonomy), HOW could he rebut the evil thoughts? He seems to again be contradicting himself. I furthermore ask: If no creature of the Lord has autonomy by means of which to freely choose evil, then where, pray tell, does hell come from? This desperately needs to be answered. Swedenborg FAILS to explain this. How does hell ever get to exist, unless there are creatures that have voluntarily (autonomously) chosen evil? If they could not choose to introduce evil, then God must be the creator of hell. Does he create hells, and then punish innumerable creatures by determining that they will choose hellish living? This is OUTRAGEOUS!
In conclusion, let me concede that Emanuel Swedenborg was a highly learned and brilliant man, as well as blessed with profound spiritual insights. Yet, after having read three of his huge books, I come to the conclusion that he got many things quite badly wrong. He was human, after all, finite, fallible, and flawed. So is the author of this review, which counsels me to be humble in my pronouncements. I feel compelled, however, to never renounce logic and rational thought. By the way, for readers of Swedenborg’s writings, I will just add a closing comment to inform such readers of Swedenborg’s little book, “Life on Other Planets”. Therein he claimed to have had numerous communications with human-like “people” on planets in our solar system, including Mercury, Venus, Mars, Saturn, etc. He even described some of the vegetation, kinds of animals, kinds of houses, etc. on such planets. Given our privileged modern knowledge of astronomy due to space telescopes, space probes, satellites, etc., we know that Swedenborg was grossly in error. No such life forms exist on any planet in our solar system except on Earth. This is proof of how far afield a brilliant spiritual thinker and mystic can go from reality and truth.
All that having been said, I highly recommend Swedenborg’s writings – including the book being reviewed here – “Divine Providence”.
June 11, 2012
Fascinating book with the very early seeds of some profound existential ideas--mixed up with an interesting alternative take on christianity--by one of the strangest and most brilliant men who ever lived, albiet crazy, but unquestionably brilliant.
June 18, 2022
Let’s start with the stuff that people might think Swedenborg was crazy for. He claimed he talked to spirits and to angels and much of his writings was revealed to him this way.
This is a work of Christian metaphysics and as such is a bit different than what one might be used to. He argues that volition, discernment, love, and wisdom are very important. But without the write volition or discernment, either nothing would happen or it would be evil.
Levels are always a big part of this work. He claims there are three heavens, three kinds of angels, and three levels of spirituality. Where we are in our spirituality determines whether we make it to the lower heaven, intermediate heaven, or to the third heaven.
One thing I did disagree with (and this is the main reason for the 4 star review) is that he seems to disagree with the Trinity. He claims God has a physical body and there is a Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. But God cannot be all three having a physical body. It’s an interesting read as he makes some approaches from science. But it is pretty different from the major Christian philosophers we are familiar with.
For more in depth reviews and chats check out https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC82t...
Thanks again for the support.
This is a work of Christian metaphysics and as such is a bit different than what one might be used to. He argues that volition, discernment, love, and wisdom are very important. But without the write volition or discernment, either nothing would happen or it would be evil.
Levels are always a big part of this work. He claims there are three heavens, three kinds of angels, and three levels of spirituality. Where we are in our spirituality determines whether we make it to the lower heaven, intermediate heaven, or to the third heaven.
One thing I did disagree with (and this is the main reason for the 4 star review) is that he seems to disagree with the Trinity. He claims God has a physical body and there is a Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. But God cannot be all three having a physical body. It’s an interesting read as he makes some approaches from science. But it is pretty different from the major Christian philosophers we are familiar with.
For more in depth reviews and chats check out https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC82t...
Thanks again for the support.
August 16, 2018
I found this book to be very interesting an thought-provoking. I was put off by his comments about bees collecting wax and similar, I like it a lot better when he talks about what he saw vs. him trying to apply it to life, explaining correspondences between this world and the spiritual world. But still it was a great book so 4 stars, I will definitely read this again. I also bought 3 other books by the author.
March 27, 2020
This book serves as a wonderful exercise of discernment, very useful in practice between bouts of readings of polarized media. The language is presented in an accommodating vernacular of love, soul, God, spirit, anatomy, Christian mythologisms, etc. The grind through the material purposes a rounded mediation and a temperance of character. Boring and neutralizing but also practical and fair. There's a reason why his catalogue is referred to as the Swedenborg "foundation".
March 15, 2022
Really good book but found it a bit hard going. Definitely persevere.
April 10, 2022
One of the most profound books I have ever read. I studied him and his works many years ago and am now revisiting.
November 14, 2022
The reason I am giving this book 2 stars because of the repetition
March 3, 2024
very good book
- Swendenborg one of the best metaphycians.
- The book that everyone must read in there basis life of being human!
- Swendenborg one of the best metaphycians.
- The book that everyone must read in there basis life of being human!
January 17, 2016
I had read Swedenborg's Heaven And Hell some time ago and thought it was a decent book, albeit somewhat delusory. This one I probably liked better, but it wasn't free of the same problems. There are some pretty profound ideas though. I especially liked Swedenborg's spiritual analogies (he calls them correspondences) between light/heat and wisdom/love respectively. He later on (specifically in section 9 -probably the best part of the book), makes a further analogy between love and wisdom and the heart and lungs. I must say that analogy sparked my interest and I thought it a profound notion. Some of the book suffers from contradiction, vain imaginings and theology that has more in common with Kabbalah than Christianity.
As with the Christian mystic Jacob Boehme, I have some amount of ambivalence towards Swedenborg. He can be profound, but also deluded. I do believe it is worth reading him because there is some gold among the dross. But I would really only recommend writers like this to Christians that are more mature and not easily given over to vain speculation.
As with the Christian mystic Jacob Boehme, I have some amount of ambivalence towards Swedenborg. He can be profound, but also deluded. I do believe it is worth reading him because there is some gold among the dross. But I would really only recommend writers like this to Christians that are more mature and not easily given over to vain speculation.
April 14, 2024
This book took me over a year to finish, not because of its length, but because of how dense in information it was. This is really the kind of book where you need to stop, ponder and digest. Sometimes for a long time.
In the end, it was a beautiful description of the age long problem: How can there be a God if there is so much suffering?
It also answers some other questions: What if you're born into a country that practices a "wrong" religion? How can we have free will if a God is guiding us? Can an evil person who asks for repentance really be sent to heaven, while a good person who does not goes to hell?
Again, Swedenborg pushes theological questions to the extreme, yet explains them in a way that makes you wonder why you've never considered things to be this way before.
In the end, it was a beautiful description of the age long problem: How can there be a God if there is so much suffering?
It also answers some other questions: What if you're born into a country that practices a "wrong" religion? How can we have free will if a God is guiding us? Can an evil person who asks for repentance really be sent to heaven, while a good person who does not goes to hell?
Again, Swedenborg pushes theological questions to the extreme, yet explains them in a way that makes you wonder why you've never considered things to be this way before.
January 23, 2023
Why is there something rather than nothing? How has christianity gotten the story of creation all wrong? 18th Century mystic and scientist Emanuel Swedenborg provides a convincing theory of why anything exists at all.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews