Within the literal language of the Bible is a deeper spiritual meaning that points the way toward a greater understanding of faith and of our own role in the world. Eighteenth-century scientist and theologian Emanuel Swedenborg described that inner language of the Bible as “correspondences.” More than a century later, John Worcester used Swedenborg’s teachings as the foundation for a three-volume road map to the correspondences of the natural world. Correspondences of the Bible remains one of the most highly regarded references on the subject today.

Correspondences of the Bible: The Animals covers both the familiar and the exotic, from farmyards to remote jungles. Animals are grouped by function and by similarities in their correspondences, and Worcester discusses how certain character traits can overlap by species, sometimes manifesting in a positive way in one animal and negatively in another. He draws from Bible verse, Swedenborg’s writings, and the science of his time to shed a fascinating new light on the living world around us.

The Rev. John Worcester (1834–1900) was born in Boston and lived in Massachusetts for most of his life. The son of a minister, he was trained by his father in theology and studied physiology and related subjects at the Lawrence Scientific School, which later became part of Harvard University. He was the pastor to the Newtonville New Church Society in Massachusetts for forty-two years, and taught at the New Church Theological School for many years, serving as the school’s president from 1881 to 1894. In addition to his books on correspondences, he published a number of volumes with his sermons and lessons on Genesis, Exodus, the Psalms, and the gospels of Matthew and Luke.