Dole has selected passages from Swedenborg's voluminous works and translated them from the Latin. He has organized the passages thematically, moving by chapter deeper into the theology of this unlikely prophet. At the beginning of each chapter, Dole gives an exposition on the topics Swedenborg will be addressing and discusses biographical information in an effort to unveil the man and the relevance of his theology to our times. It is easy to forget that mystics still must live in this world. They have not abandoned the terrestrial in toto but rather oscillate between this world and another. Blake knew this well and lived in poverty because of it. Dole's Swedenborg is eminently human, worrying about giving up his successful scientific career for vision and showing hesitancy to publish his spiritual experiences verbatim (even though, as he put it, "I have seen, I have heard, I have felt") for fear of being mocked. Furthermore, unlike Blake, who is portrayed by his biographers as being of a peevish disposition, Swedenborg was apparently of a kind and gentle nature.
His theology is about as practical as one could ask. Asceticism is not the way to God. Compassion is to be exercised with discrimination. Fame and wealth are fine, so long as one's true loves are God and neighbor. A good person is saved with any religion or with no religion.
At times Swedenborg even sounds somewhat antimystical, suggesting that life is designed to make us think that we, rather than God, are the authors of the good we do. "If it were not like this," he explains, "then the inflowing love and wisdom would have no seat; they would just flow through [us] without making any difference." He says that Jesus' cry on the cross, "My God, My God, why have you deserted me?", is an example of this feeling of independence.
Biblical exegesis, though, is not Swedenborg's main concern; rather it is the inward intent of our outward actions. "a thousand people can do the same thing, that is, can present deeds that look alike. These deeds can be so much alike that one can scarcely detect any difference in their outward form. And yet each one, seen in its own right, is different because it comes from a different intent."
A speck of underlyig self-interest is enough to taint outward love. Swedenborg writes, "Love consists in having one's own belong to another and in feeling another's joy as joy in oneself: that is loving. But feeling one's joy in another and not the other's in oneself is not loving; this is loving oneself; the other is loving the neighbor."
God has given us a choice, says Swedenborg, between righteous living and selfish living, and those choosing the latter create their own hell. Thus there are an infinite variety of hells, resembling chambers and crypts, ruined cities after a fire, crude huts that house "hellish souls, quarreling angrily, beating and stabbing each other." He says after death "no one is denied climbing into heaven," but upon entering selfish people reject heaven's joy to pursue with renewed vigor their "hellish delights."
If you want just one book on Swedenborg, I recommend A Thoughtful Soul, which makes the writing of this gentlemanly seer accessible and, with the help of Dole's introduction, more understandable.
