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