Contents
Translator's Preface, by Jonathan S. Rose 000
Works Cited in the Translator's Preface 000
Selected List of Editions of True Christianity 000
True Christianity: An Introduction to Swedenborg's Most Comprehensive and Systematic Theological Writing from the Standpoint of the Religion of His Contemporaries, by R. Guy Erwin
Works Cited in the Introduction 000
Short Titles and Other Conventions Used in This Work 000
True Christianity
The Faith of the New Heaven and the New Church 000
Chapter 1: God the Creator 000
The Oneness of God 000
The Underlying Divine Reality or Jehovah 000
The Infinity of God: His Immensity and Eternity 000
The Essence of God: Divine Love and Wisdom 000
God's Omnipotence, Omniscience, and Omnipresence 000
The Creation of the Universe 000
Chapter 2: The Lord, The Redeemer 000
A Supplement 000
Redemption 000
Chapter 3: The Holy Spirit and the Divine Action 000
A Supplement 000
The Divine Trinity 000
Chapter 4: Sacred Scripture, the Word of the Lord 000
1. Sacred Scripture, the Word, Is Divine Truth Itself 000
2. The Word Has a Spiritual Meaning That Has Not Been Known until Now 000
3. The Word's Literal Meaning is the Foundation, the Container, and the Structural Support for Its Spiritual and Heavenly Meanings 000
4. In the Literal Meaning of the Word, Divine Truth Exists in Its Completeness, Holiness, and Power 000
5. The Church's Body of Teaching Has to Be Drawn from the Word's Literal Meaning and Supported by It 000
6. The Word's Literal Meaning Provides a Connection to the Lord and Association with Angels 000
7. The Word Exists throughout the Heavens; It Is the Source of Angelic Wisdom 000
8. The Church Is Based on the Word; The Nature of the Church in Individuals Depends on Their Understanding of the Word 000
9. There Is a Marriage between the Lord and the Church, and Therefore a Marriage between Goodness and Truth, in the Individual Details in the Word 000
10. People May Derive Heretical Ideas from the Word's Literal Meaning, but They Are Not Damned for Doing So unless They Become Adamant about Those Ideas 000
11. While in the World, the Lord Fulfilled Everything in the Word; By Doing So He Became the Word or Divine Truth Even on the Last or Outermost Level 000
12. Before the Word That Exists in the World Today, There Was a Word That Has Been Lost 000
13. Because of the Word, Even People Who Are outside the Church and Who Do Not Have the Word Have Light 000
14. If the Word Did Not Exist, No One Would Know about God, Heaven, Hell, or Life after Death, Still Less about the Lord 000
Chapter 5: The Catechism, or Ten Commandments, Explained in Both Its Outer and Its Inner Meanings 000
The Ten Commandments Were the Holiest Thing in the Israelite Church 000
In Their Literal Meaning the Ten Commandments Contain General Principles To Be Taught and Lived; in Their Spiritual and Heavenly Meaning They Contain Absolutely Everything 000
THE FIRST COMMANDMENT There Is To Be No Other God before My Face 000
THE SECOND COMMANDMENT You Are Not To Take the Name of Jehovah Your God in Vain, Because Jehovah Will Not Hold Guiltless Someone Who Takes His Name in Vain 000
THE THIRD COMMANDMENT Remember the Sabbath Day To Keep It Holy; For Six Days You Will Labor and Do All Your Work, But the Seventh Day Is the Sabbath for Jehovah Your God 000
THE FOURTH COMMANDMENT Honor Your Father and Your Mother So That Your Days Will Be Prolonged and It Will Be Well with You on Earth 000
THE FIFTH COMMANDMENT You Are Not To Kill 000
THE SIXTH COMMANDMENT You Are Not To Commit Adultery 000
THE SEVENTH COMMANDMENT You Are Not To Steal 000
THE EIGHTH COMMANDMENT You Are Not to Respond as a False Witness against Your Neighbor 000
THE NINTH AND TENTH COMMANDMENTS You Are Not To Crave Your Neighbor's Household; You Are Not to Crave Your Neighbor's Wife or His Servant or His Maid or His Ox or His Donkey or Anything That Is Your Neighbor's 000
The Ten Commandments Contain Everything about How to Love God and How to Love Our Neighbor 000
Chapter 6: Faith 000
1. The Faith That Saves Us Is Faith in the Lord God Our Savior Jesus Christ 000
2. Briefly Put, Faith Is Believing That People Who Live Good Lives and Have Proper Beliefs Are Saved by the Lord 000
3. The Way We Receive Faith Is by Turning to the Lord, Learning Truths from the Word, and Living by Those Truths 000
4. The Greater the Quantity of Truths We Have Tied Together like a Bundle, the More Powerful and Complete Our Faith Becomes 000
5. Faith without Goodwill Isn't Faith; Goodwill without Faith Isn't Goodwill; Neither of Them Is Living Unless It Comes from the Lord 000
6. The Lord, Goodwill, and Faith Come Together the Way Our Life, Our Will, and Our Intellect Come Together in Us; If We Split Them Up, Each One Collapses like a Pearl That Is Smashed to Powder 000
7. The Lord Is Goodwill and Faith in Us; We Are Goodwill and Faith in the Lord 000
8. Goodwill and Faith Come Together in Good Works 000
9. There Is Faith That Is True, Faith That Is Illegitimate, and Faith That Is Hypocritical 000
10. Evil People Have No Faith 000
Chapter 7: Goodwill (or Loving Our Neighbor) and Good Actions 000
There Are Three Universal Categories of Love: Love for Heaven; Love for the World; and Love for Ourselves 000
When The Three Universal Categories of Love Are Prioritized in the Right Way They Advance Us; When They Are Not Prioritized in the Right Way They Damage Us and Turn Us Upside Down 000
All Humankind as Individuals Are the Neighbor We Are to Love, but [in Different Ways] depending on the Type of Goodness They Have 000
Humankind on a Wider Scale in the Form of Smaller and Larger Communities and Humankind in the Aggregate as a Country of Such Communities Are the Neighbor We Are to Love 000
On an Even Higher Level the Church, and on the Highest Level the Lord's Kingdom, Are the Neighbor We Are to Love 000
Loving the Neighbor Is Not in Fact Loving the Person but Loving the Goodness That Is inside the Person 000
Goodwill and Good Works Are Two Distinct Things, Just Like Having Good Will and Doing Good 000
Goodwill Itself Is Working Justly and Faithfully in the Position, Business, or Line of Work We Are in and with the People We Have Any Interaction with 000
Doing Favors Related to Goodwill Is Giving to the Poor and Helping the Needy, although with Prudence 000
There Are Obligations That Are Related to Goodwill. Some of Them Are Public; Some Relate to the Household; and Some Are Personal 000
The Recreations Related to Goodwill Are Lunches, Dinners, and Parties/Social Events 000
The First Step of Goodwill Is Removing Evils; the Second Step Is Doing Good Things That Are Useful to Our Neighbor 000
As Long As We Believe That Everything Good Comes from the Lord, We Do Not Take Credit for the Things We Do As We Practice Goodwill 000
As Long As We Believe That Everything Good Comes from the Lord, We Do Not Take Credit for the Things We Do As We Practice Goodwill 000
A Love-Bond That We Form with Others Regardless of Their Spiritual Nature Is Damaging after Death 000
There Are Such Things as Illegitimate Goodwill, Hypocritical Goodwill, and Dead Goodwill 000
The Bond of Love between Evil People Is Actually a Deep Hatred for Each Other 000
The Connection between Loving God and Loving Our Neighbor 000
Notes and Indexes 000
Works Cited in the Notes 000
Biographical Note 000
