Afterlife: A Guided Tour of Heaven and Its Wonders (Second

215 Pages·2013·0.59 MB·English

Afterlife
Afterlife
A Guided Tour of
Heaven and Its Wonders
Second Edition
Emanuel Swedenborg
Abridged and Rearranged
Donald L. Rose, Editor
Swedenborg Foundation
West Chester, Pennsylvania
©2008 by the Swedenborg Foundation
First edition published in 2006
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or
transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,
including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval
system, without prior permission from the publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Swedenborg, Emanuel, 1688–1772
Afterlife: a guided tour of heaven and its wonders / Emanuel Swedenborg ;
abridged and rearranged, Donald L. Rose, editor
2nd ed. p. cm.
Abridged and rearranged edition of Heaven and hell.
ISBN 978-0-8778-325-1 (alk. paper)
1. Heaven. 2. Hell. 3. Future life. I. Rose, Donald L. II. Title.
BX8712.H5A35 2008
236'.24--dc22
2008032333
Designed and set in Goudy by Karen Connor
Printed in the United States of America
Chrysalis Books is an imprint of the Swedenborg Foundation, Inc.
For more information, contact:
Swedenborg Foundation Publishers
320 North Church Street
West Chester, PA 19380
or http://www.swedenborg.com.
Contents
Introduction by Donald L. Rose ix
Preface by Emanuel Swedenborg xvii
Part 1
The World of Spirits and Our State after Death
What the World of Spirits Is 3
Each of Us Is Inwardly a Spirit 4
Our Revival from the Dead and Entry
into Eternal Life 6
After Death, We Are in a Complete Human Form 12
After Death, We Enjoy Every Sense, Memory,
Thought, and Affection We Had in the World 15
Our Nature after Death Depends on the Kind of
Life We Led in the World 23
Our First State after Death 29
Our Second State after Death 34
Our Third State after Death Is a State of
Instruction for People Who are Entering Heaven 39
It Is Not So Hard to Lead a Heaven-Bound Life
as People Think It Is 42
AFTERLIFE
Part 2
Heaven
The Heavens Are Made Up of
Countless Communities 55
Each Community Is a Heaven in Smaller Form
and Each Angel a Heaven in Smallest Form 57
The Whole Heaven Reflects a Single Individual 59
Each Community in the Heavens Reflects
a Single Individual 62
Every Angel is in Perfect Human Form 63
Owing to the Lord’s Divine Human, in Its Entirety
and Its Parts, Heaven Reflects a Person 66
There is a Correspondence of Everything in Heaven
with Everything in the Human Being 70
There Is a Correspondence of Heaven with
Everything Earthly 72
The Sun in Heaven 80
Light and Warmth in Heaven 81
How the States of Angels in Heaven Change 84
Time in Heaven 87
The Clothes Angels Appear In 90
vi
Contents
Angels’ Homes and Houses 91
Space in Heaven 93
Forms of Government in Heaven 95
Divine Worship in Heaven 98
The Power of Heaven’s Angels 99
The Language of Angels 102
How Angels Talk with Us 106
Written Materials in Heaven 109
The Wisdom of Heaven’s Angels 112
The State of Innocence of Angels in Heaven 114
The State of Peace in Heaven 118
The Union of Heaven with the Human Race 121
Heaven’s Union with Us through the Word 126
Heaven and Hell Come from the Human Race 129
Non-Christians, or People Outside the
Church, in Heaven 131
Children in Heaven 135
Rich and Poor People in Heaven 141
Marriages in Heaven 146
What Angels Do in Heaven 152
Heavenly Joy and Happiness 156
The Vastness of Heaven 166
vii
Part 3
Hell
The Lord Governs the Hells 173
The Lord Does Not Cast Anyone into Hell:
Spirits Cast Themselves In 175
All the People Who Are in the Hells Are Absorbed
in Evils and Consequent Falsities because of
Their Loves of Themselves and the World 178
Hellfire and Gnashing of Teeth 184
The Malice and Unspeakable Skills of Hellish Spirits 187
The Appearance, Location, and Number of the Hells 190
The Equilibrium between Heaven and Hell 194
The Story of Heaven and Hell
In the year 1758, Emanuel Swedenborg brought a manu-
script on his experiences in heaven and hell to London
where he arranged for a thousand copies to be printed.
The book was written in Latin (and the authors hip was
anonymous), but it soon found its way to various countries
and was translated into one language after another. Today,
for example, a glossy Japanese version may be purchased
in Tokyo and a Russian version in Moscow. Each country
where the book is read has its own interesting story, usu-
ally involving voluntary translations by individuals who
performed their task as a kind of public service.
We focus here on the English version and its introduc-
tion in America.
The first readers in England were scholarly folks able to
read the Latin original. Some were well-to-do. A case in
point was William Cookworthy (1705–1780), the foun-
der of the British porcelain industry. Cookworthy at first
was indignant that a book would claim to describe the
afterlife, but upon reading it, undertook a personal mis-
sion to share this intriguing work with others. He brought
it to the attention of a distinguished clergyman, Thomas
Hartley (1709–1784), vicar of Winwick. Hartley also
became conv inced of the value of the book and collab-
orated with Cookw orthy in translating it into English.
The printing of this first English version cost Hartley
and Cookworthy £100 sterling. And so in 1778, twenty
ix