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.

In Swedenborg's writings, the structure of heaven is described in terms of a human being, the Divine Human, with the various communities in heaven corresponding to part of the human body. The Human Body describes that relationship in detail, giving us a deep, personal view of how every person relates to heaven. However, just as in The Animals and The Plants, Worcester also provides in-depth discussion of all the aspects of each body part, relating function to spiritual principle for a multifaceted understanding of our own anatomy.

Interwoven with the text is a description of death and our rebirth in heaven, concluding with a long chapter on regeneration, a process of spiritual rebirth that can begin while we are still alive and continue in heaven. The Human Body provides the capstone for our understanding of the deep spiritual meaning that lies within our everyday world.

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.