Winner of the Wallace Stegner Prize in American Environmental or Western History
Fredrick Swanson tells the story of Guy M. Brandborg and his impact on the practices of the U.S. Forest Service. As supervisor of Montana’s Bitterroot National Forest from 1935 to 1955, Brandborg engaged in a management style that promoted not only the well-being of the forest community but also the social and economic welfare of the local people. By relying on selective cutting, his goal was to protect the watersheds and wildlife habitats that are devastated by clear-cutting, and to prevent the job losses that follow such practices. Following his retirement, he became concerned that his agency was deviating from the practice of sustained-yield management of the forest’s timber lands, and led a highly visible public outcry that became known as the Bitterroot controversy. Brandborg’s behind-the-scenes lobbying contributed materially to the passage of the National Forest Management Act of 1976, the single most important law affecting public forestry since the creation of the Forest Service.
The Rocky Mountains of Idaho and Montana are home to some of the most important remaining American wilderness areas, preserved because of citizens who stood against massive development schemes that would have diminished important wildlife habitat and the abiding sense of remoteness found in such places. Where Roads Will Never Reach tells the stories of hunters, anglers, outfitters, scientists, and other concerned citizens who devoted themselves to protecting remnant wild lands and ecosystems in the Northern Rockies. Environmental historian Frederick Swanson argues that their heartfelt, dedicated work helped boost the American wilderness movement to its current prominence.
Based on newly available archival sources and interviews with many of the participants, this groundbreaking study explores for the first time the grassroots campaigns that yielded some of the largest designated wilderness areas in America.
Scientific advances and economic forces have converged to create something unthinkable for much of human history: a robust market in human body products. Every year, countless Americans supply blood, sperm, and breast milk to “banks” that store these products for later use by strangers in routine medical procedures. These exchanges entail complicated questions. Which body products are donated and which sold? Who gives and who receives? And, in the end, who profits? In this eye-opening study, Kara Swanson traces the history of body banks from the nineteenth-century experiments that discovered therapeutic uses for body products to twenty-first-century websites that facilitate a thriving global exchange.
More than a metaphor, the “bank” has shaped ongoing controversies over body products as either marketable commodities or gifts donated to help others. A physician, Dr. Bernard Fantus, proposed a “bank” in 1937 to make blood available to all patients. Yet the bank metaphor labeled blood as something to be commercially bought and sold, not communally shared. As blood banks became a fixture of medicine after World War II, American doctors made them a front line in their war against socialized medicine. The profit-making connotations of the “bank” reinforced a market-based understanding of supply and distribution, with unexpected consequences for all body products, from human eggs to kidneys.
Ultimately, the bank metaphor straitjacketed legal codes and reinforced inequalities in medical care. By exploring its past, Banking on the Body charts the path to a more efficient and less exploitative distribution of the human body’s life-giving potential.
Philadelphia sports—anchored by the Eagles, Flyers, Phillies, and 76ers—have a long, and sometimes tortured, history. Philly fans have booed more than their share and have earned a reputation as some of the most hostile in the country. They’ve been known, so the tales go, to jeer Santa Claus and cheer at the injury of an opposing player.
Strangely though, much of America’s perception of Philadelphia sports has been shaped by a fictional figure: Rocky. The series of Hollywood films named after their title character has told and retold the Cinderella story of an underdog boxer rising up against long odds. One could plausibly make the argument that Rocky is Philadelphia’s most famous athlete.
Beyond the major sports franchises and Rocky, lesser-known athletic competition in Philadelphia offers much to the interested observer. The city’s boxing culture, influence on Negro Leagues baseball, role in establishing interscholastic sport, and leadership in the rise of cricket all deserve and receive close investigation in this new collection. Philly Sports combines primary research and personal experiences—playing in the Palestra, scouting out the tombstones of the city’s best athletes, enjoying the fervor of a Philadelphia night with a local team in pursuit of a championship title. The essence of Philadelphia sport, and to a certain extent the city itself, is distilled here.
In December 1981, when the American Civil Liberties Union challenged the Nativity scene in the Christmas display put on by the city of Pawtucket, Rhode Island, an emotional controversy erupted. Two federal courts disallowed the crèche because its religious impact in the taxpayer-supported display overstepped the constitutional boundary between church and state. In March 1984, the United States Supreme Court by a 5-4 vote in Lynch V. Donnelly overruled the lower courts, deciding that in the predominantly secular context of Pawtucket’s display, the purpose and effect of the Nativity scene was not to promote religion, but only to acknowledge the spirit of the holiday season. The Christ Child Goes to Court traces the judicial history of a case that lasted more than two years and explores its implications for future issues concerning the relationship between religion and government.
Wayne R. Swanson describes how this compelling constitutional issue polarized public opinion in Rhode Island and generated "unimaginable vilification" of the Roman Catholic judge who first ordered the crèche removed. He reports the reactions of local citizens, which echoed the national debate on this issue. By carefully documenting the case’s trek through the judiciary, Swanson illustrates the workings of the judicial process in the United States, the political nature of the courts, and how their interpretation of the Constitution helps to shape the development of public policy.
An important conclusion of this critical examination of the courts’ approach to a controversial church-state question is that judicial decisions are usually interim in nature and often lead to imperfect solutions. Lynch V. Donnelly did not solve the problems posed by government-supported Nativity scenes or other religious symbols. The controversy lives on and the courts continue to struggle with one of the most difficult First Amendment problems.
Long considered the undisputed authority on the Indians of the southern United States, anthropologist John Swanton published this history as the Smithsonian Institution's Bureau of American Ethnology (BAE) Bulletin 103 in 1931. Swanton's descriptions are drawn from earlier records—including those of DuPratz and Romans—and from Choctaw informants. His long association with the Choctaws is evident in the thorough detailing of their customs and way of life and in his sensitivity to the presentation of their native culture.
Included are descriptions of such subjects as clans, division of labor between sexes, games, religion, war customs, and burial rites. The Choctaws were, in general, peaceful farmers living in Mississippi and southwestern Alabama until they were moved to Oklahoma in successive waves beginning in 1830, after the treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek.
This edition includes a new foreword by Kenneth Carleton placing Swanton's work in the context of his times. The continued value of Swanton's original research makes Source Material the most comprehensive book ever published on the Choctaw people.
Bringing psychoanalysis to bear on the diagnosis of ecological crisis
Why has psychoanalysis long been kept at the margins of environmental criticism despite the many theories of eco-Marxism, queer ecology, and eco-deconstruction available today? What is unique, possibly even traumatic, about eco-psychoanalysis? The Environmental Unconscious addresses these questions as it provides an innovative and theoretical account of environmental loss focused on the counterintuitive forms of enjoyment that early modern poetry and psychoanalysis jointly theorize.
Steven Swarbrick urges literary critics and environmental scholars fluent in the new materialism to rethink notions of entanglement, animacy, and consciousness raising. He introduces concepts from psychoanalysis as keys to understanding the force of early modern ecopoetics. Through close readings of Edmund Spenser, Walter Ralegh, Andrew Marvell, and John Milton, he reveals a world of matter that is not merely hyperconnected, as in the new materialism, but porous and off-kilter. And yet the loss these poets reveal is central to the enjoyment their works offer—and that nature offers.
As insightful as it is engaging, The Environmental Unconscious offers a provocative challenge to ecocriticism that, under the current regime of fossil capitalism in which everything solid interconnects, a new theory of disconnection is desperately needed. Tracing the propulsive force of the environmental unconscious from the early modern period to Freudian and post-Freudian theories of desire, Swarbrick not only puts nature on the couch in this book but also renews the psychoanalytic toolkit in light of environmental collapse.
How films help us understand the inevitable death of Earth and humanity
Offering a bracing theoretical corrective to ecocriticism’s emphasis on pedagogies of care and interconnection, Negative Life: The Cinema of Extinction brings cinema studies, queer theory, and psychoanalysis into novel configuration around a concept inherent to yet critical of life: negative life, a sundering of the connections between human and nonhuman relations. Engaging questions and challenges such as the nothingness of existentialism, the aversive side of sex, and the immanent exception of the drive in psychoanalysis, coauthors Steven Swarbrick and Jean-Thomas Tremblay not only counter ecocritical pieties but cut a new path for theory. They engage a unique corpus of films and philosophies that reject the pastoralism of “entanglement” or “enmeshment,” which have functioned as an ethical and aesthetic alibi for extinction. Negative Life examines films by Julian Pölsler, Kelly Reichardt, Lee Isaac Chung, Mahesh Matai, and Paul Schrader, which exemplify the existential contradictions that have intensified amid the sixth mass extinction; meanwhile, a set of interludes on ecohorror supplement this focus on negative life and the philosophers and theorists who express it. Each case study testifies formally and thematically to negative life as a structural condition of thought and film. Together, the titles that compose the titular cinema of extinction reveal the unlivable dimension of life and art, where form, desire, and nonbelonging tarry with the future-oriented promise of ecostudies—where all that lives connects. Negative Life militates against this promise, showing that faith in connection is a dead end.
MEDIA: A Transdisciplinary Inquiry explores evolving definitions of media and interrogates how media technologies are transforming media theory and practice. The collection addresses the emerging roles of media across a wide range of disciplines, featuring contributions from an array of internationally known scholars and practitioners.
The definition of media itself is in a constant state of flux, expanding to include an ever-widening range of concepts, products, services, and institutions. Here, the authors reconceptualize media, drawing not only on media and communication studies, but also philosophy, sociology, political science, biology, art, computer science, and information studies, among other disciplines. The collection challenges traditional notions of media, explores emerging media, and reexamines concepts including technology, environment, and ecology; multimedia, mediation, and labor; and participation, repair, and curation. These timely and original discussions by established scholars in the field provide a valuable contribution to the fusion of media across disciplines.
Through careful analysis of Jack Kerouac’s On the Road, Omar Swartz argues that Kerouac’s influence on American society is largely rhetorical. Kerouac’s significance as a cultural icon can be best understood, Swartz asserts, in terms of traditional rhetorical practices and principles.
To Swartz, Kerouac is a rhetor who symbolically reconstructs his world and offers arguments and encouragements for others to follow. Swartz proposes that On the Road constitutes a “rhetorical vision,” a reality-defining discourse suggesting alternative possibilities for growth and change. Swartz asserts that the reader of Kerouac’s On theRoadbecomes capable of responding to the larger, confusing culture in a strategic manner. Kerouac's rhetorical vision of an alternative social and cultural reality contributes to the identity of localized cultures within the United States.
The Balkans have been so troubled by violence and misunderstanding that we have the verb “balkanize,” meaning to break up into smaller, warring components. While some of the region’s artists and thinkers have invariably fallen into nationalistic tendencies, the twenty-two prominent authors represented here, from the erstwhile Yugoslavia and its neighbors Albania and Bulgaria, have chosen to attempt to bridge these divides. The essays, biographical sketches, and stories in The Stranger Next Door form a project of understanding that picks up where politics fail. The English-language translation joins editions of the book that appeared concurrently in all of the participating countries.
In a formative period of Chinese culture, early medieval writers made extensive use of a diverse set of resources, in which such major philosophical classics as Laozi, Zhuangzi, and Classic of Changes featured prominently. Reading Philosophy, Writing Poetry examines how these writers understood and manipulated a shared intellectual lexicon to produce meaning. Focusing on works by some of the most important and innovative poets of the period, this book explores intertextuality—the transference, adaptation, or rewriting of signs—as a mode of reading and a condition of writing. It illuminates how a text can be seen in its full range of signifying potential within the early medieval constellation of textual connections and cultural signs.
If culture is that which connects its members past, present, and future, then the past becomes an inherited and continually replenished repository of cultural patterns and signs with which the literati maintains an organic and constantly negotiated relationship of give and take. Wendy Swartz explores how early medieval writers in China developed a distinctive mosaic of ways to participate in their cultural heritage by weaving textual strands from a shared and expanding store of literary resources into new patterns and configurations.
With deepening financial problems, Allegheny Heath, Education and Research Foundation filed for bankruptcy in 1998—in the midst of its landmark merger of The Medical College of Pennsylvania and Hahnemann University. What resulted was another dire event in an escalating disaster. As civil and criminal investigations probed Allegheny's collapse, the survival of the medical school and other health sciences university schools, and the operation of the hospitals hung in the balance. Fortunately, a savior arrived in the form of Drexel University who used this opportunity to create its own medical school.
Merger Games is Judith Swazey's gripping account of this historic transaction. Based on extraordinarily detailed first-hand research and continuous inside access to the developments, this book clearly delineates who the players were and what this merger means for the future of medical education and institutional healthcare.
Merger Games is a definitive history of one of the most important academic medicine mergers in Philadelphia and the country, which happened at a time when medical care was becoming commodified in almost every state.
Sir Charles Scott Sherrington is credited with having single-handedly crystallized the field of neurophysiology. Judith Swazey’s study is the first book-length treatment of his early research, from the 1880s through the publication of The Integrative Action of the Nervous System in 1906. In this work he offered an experimentally documented account of how the nervous system, through the mechanism of reflex action, produces a coordinated motor organism. Swazey first analyzes the development of the concept of integrative action and then discusses the significance of the concept for neurophysiology and, on a broader level, for the nature of biological thought.
Focusing on the interests, events, and influences that shaped Sherrington’s career, the author surveys the relevant knowledge about reflex action and the functional anatomy of the spinal cord at the time he began his research. Continuing with a detailed analysis of the major lines of his work she covers such material and the anatomical studies of spinal degeneration, the mapping of sensory and motor root distribution in the macaque monkey, the role of sensory nerves in and from muscles, and the nature of reciprocal innervation.
The scope of Sherrington’s contributions—which included new and important techniques, apparatus, and methodological canons—clearly marks him as a major figure in the history of the neurosciences. The greater significance of his work, however, lies in his “synthetic attitude” in the fact that he perceived the interrelatedness of his varied researches. The integrative action concept and the data it embodied finally brought together the previously unconnected channels of neurophysiological, anatomical, and histological research. As a result of this unification, Sherrington was able to provide investigators of the nervous system with their first major paradigm and to establish guidelines which altered the course of scientific research after 1906.
The author has gathered a vast amount of material from published and unpublished sources for this comprehensive study of Sherrington’s life and work. Her analysis of his writings, her portrayal of his delightful and extraordinary personality, and her account of the scientific setting within which his work was carried out provide a model for historians of science.
In this volume, prominent Buddhist scholar Donald Swearer posits that the future requires a radical shift toward living in recognition of the interdependence of all life forms and the consequent ethic of communality and a life style of moderation or “enoughness” that flows from that recognition, which he calls “an ecology of human flourishing.” Swearer has assembled world-class thinkers to explore and imagine several dimensions of an ecology of human flourishing: economic, sociological, religious, ethical, environmental, historical, literary; how notions of human flourishing, quality of life, and common good have been constructed; and, in the contemporary world, how they are illuminated or are challenged by issues of distributive justice, poverty and economic inequality, global health, and environmental sustainability.
With contributors ranging from ecoactivist Bill McKibben and medical anthropologist Arthur Kleinman, to transformative theologian Sallie McFague and Malaysian critic of global injustice Chandra Muzzafar, this book expresses ethical and religious aspirations to remake the world in the midst of the contradictions, injustices, and problems of our daily lives and today's global economic and climate crises.
The scientific, political, and economic policy debates about the global environmental crisis have tended to ignore its historical, ethical, religious, and aesthetic dimensions. This book redresses that omission by highlighting these humanistic components that are integral to the fabric of our ecological understanding and, consequentially, essential to a broad, multidisciplinary approach to environmental studies and public policy initiatives.
In this slim volume, seven world-class scholars discuss the wide range of perspectives that the fields of literature, history, religion, philosophy, environmental ethics, and anthropology bring to the natural environment and our place in it. The preface summarizes the development of the religion and ecology movement; the editor’s critical introduction highlights the essays’ major themes. Bringing insights from the humanities to bear on ecological concerns, this volume will appeal to a wide audience in the humanities and environmental studies, policy makers, and the general public. The book represents a continuation of the Center for the Study of World Religions’ highly regarded Religions of the World and Ecology series.
As Austin grew from a college and government town of the 1950s into the sprawling city of 2010, two ideas of Austin as a place came into conflict. Many who promoted the ideology of growth believed Austin would be defined by economic output, money, and wealth. But many others thought Austin was instead defined by its quality of life. Because the natural environment contributed so much to Austin's quality of life, a social movement that wanted to preserve the city's environment became the leading edge of a larger movement that wanted to retain a unique sense of place. The "environmental movement" in Austin became the political and symbolic arm of the more general movement for place.
This is a history of the environmental movement in Austin—how it began; what it did; and how it promoted ideas about the relationships between people, cities, and the environment. It is also about a deeper movement to retain a sense of place that is Austin, and how that deeper movement continues to shape the way Austin is built today. The city it helped to create is now on the forefront of national efforts to rethink how we build our cities, reduce global warming, and find ways that humans and the environment can coexist in a big city.
The first major theological work of the Swedish scientist-turned-seer Emanuel Swedenborg, Secrets of Heaven is in one sense a traveler's account. It reveals the unseen realms that await beyond death--the light, the warmth, and harmony of the angelic heavens and the varied darkness of the multitudinous hells. But in addition, the work offers a detailed examination of Genesis and Exodus, providing a model for a new way to understand the entire Bible. Prized for both the simplicity of its explanation and the breadth and depth of its vision, Swedenborg's reading of Scripture discloses layer upon layer of inner meaning, all without undermining the power and import of the literal word.
This first of the multivolume work contains an introduction by Wouter J. Hanegraaff, professor of History of Hermetic Philosophy and Related Currents at the University of Amsterdam, and a reader's guide by Swedenborgian scholar William Ross Woofenden and New Century Edition Series Editor Jonathan S. Rose.
The New Century Edition of the Works of Emanuel Swedenborg is a modern-language, scholarly translation of Swedenborg’s theological works. The series’ easy-to-read style retains the dignity, variety, clarity, and gender-inclusive language of Swedenborg’s original Latin, bringing his thought to life. Introductions and annotations by eminent, international scholars place Swedenborg’s writings in their historical context and illuminate obscure references within the text, enabling readers to understand and trace Swedenborg’s influence as never before.
The first major theological work of the Swedish scientist-turned-seer Emanuel Swedenborg, Secrets of Heaven is in one sense a traveler's account. It reveals the unseen realms that await beyond death--the light, the warmth, and harmony of the angelic heavens and the varied darkness of the multitudinous hells. But in addition, the work offers a detailed examination of Genesis and Exodus, providing a model for a new way to understand the entire Bible. Prized for both the simplicity of its explanation and the breadth and depth of its vision, Swedenborg's reading of Scripture discloses layer upon layer of inner meaning, all without undermining the power and import of the literal word.
The New Century Edition of the Works of Emanuel Swedenborg is a modern-language, scholarly translation of Swedenborg’s theological works. The series’ easy-to-read style retains the dignity, variety, clarity, and gender-inclusive language of Swedenborg’s original Latin, bringing his thought to life.
This portable edition of Secrets of Heaven vol. 1 includes the text of the New Century Edition without the introduction, annotations, and other supplementary of the deluxe hardcover and paperback editions.
The first major theological work of the Swedish scientist-turned-seer Emanuel Swedenborg, Secrets of Heaven is in one sense a traveler's account. It reveals the unseen realms that await beyond death--the light, the warmth, and harmony of the angelic heavens and the varied darkness of the multitudinous hells. But in addition, the work offers a detailed examination of Genesis and Exodus, providing a model for a new way to understand the entire Bible. Prized for both the simplicity of its explanation and the breadth and depth of its vision, Swedenborg's reading of Scripture discloses layer upon layer of inner meaning, all without undermining the power and import of the literal word.
The New Century Edition of the Works of Emanuel Swedenborg is a modern-language, scholarly translation of Swedenborg’s theological works. The series’ easy-to-read style retains the dignity, variety, clarity, and gender-inclusive language of Swedenborg’s original Latin, bringing his thought to life.
This portable edition of Secrets of Heaven vol. 1 includes the text of the New Century Edition without the introduction, annotations, and other supplementary of the deluxe hardcover and paperback editions.
Secrets of Heaven is Emanuel Swedenborg’s magnum opus, a fifteen-volume work that delves into the inner, spiritual meaning of the Bible. Starting from the first verse, Swedenborg goes through Genesis and Exodus verse by verse, sometimes word by word, uncovering the fascinating teachings behind the literal account. By doing careful comparison of passages and tracing individual images and motifs through the Bible, he demonstrates that it contains a profound, coherent, and unified inner meaning.
The second volume covers Genesis 9–15, beginning with God’s covenant with Noah following the Flood and then following the familiar story of the patriarch Abraham. In the process, Swedenborg discusses the concept of regeneration, or spiritual rebirth, and describes the way the people act before and after rebirth. He also talks about an epoch of human history that he calls the ancient church and the spiritual state of the people in that church. Interspersed with the biblical commentary are chapters on related topics such as the lives of angels in heaven, how distance and time work in the spiritual world, and the nature of hell.
Secrets of Heaven provides essential insight into Swedenborg’s theology and lays the groundwork for the rest of his writings. This new translation, part of the New Century Edition series, makes his insights into Scripture and his accounts of his spiritual experiences more accessible than ever before.
Secrets of Heaven is Emanuel Swedenborg’s magnum opus, a fifteen-volume work that delves into the inner, spiritual meaning of the Bible. Starting from the first verse, Swedenborg goes through Genesis and Exodus verse by verse, sometimes word by word, uncovering the fascinating teachings behind the literal account. By doing careful comparison of passages and tracing individual images and motifs through the Bible, he demonstrates that it contains a profound, coherent, and unified inner meaning.
This fifth volume continues the exposition with an examination of Jacob’s story, as found in Genesis 27–30. Jacob’s flight to his uncle Laban’s house, where he initially labors for the right to marry, then weds Leah and Rachel, and eventually rises to great prosperity, parallels the stage of Jesus’ transformation in which his earthly self (represented by Jacob) had to climb from attachment to outer truth (Leah) to a love of inner truth (Rachel) so that his earthly self could become fully divine. Within each chapter, Swedenborg also addresses the decline of the Christian church and unfolds his foundational premise that heaven, as a whole and in detail, is in God’s image and can therefore be called the “universal human.”
This new translation, part of the New Century Edition series, makes Swedenborg’s insights into Scripture and his accounts of his spiritual experiences more accessible than ever before.
Divine Love and Wisdom has been called the most profound work of the Enlightenment scientist and seer Emanuel Swedenborg. It demonstrates how God’s love, wisdom, and humanity are reflected in creation and in ourselves, and suggests that the act of Creation is not a mystery of the past, but a miracle ongoing in every instant of the present. Like a blueprint of things unseen, Divine Love and Wisdom makes visible the hidden design of the universe, as well as the qualities of its Architect. Its vivid depiction of the spiritual mechanism of the world has impressed thinkers such as William Blake, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Henry James, Sr.
The New Century Edition of the Works of Emanuel Swedenborg is a modern-language, scholarly translation of Swedenborg’s theological works. The series’ easy-to-read style retains the dignity, variety, clarity, and gender-inclusive language of Swedenborg’s original Latin, bringing his thought to life.
This portable edition contains the text of the New Century Edition translation, but not the introduction, annotations, or other supplementary materials found in the deluxe edition.
Divine Providence is one of the major works of the Enlightenment scientist and religious seer Emanuel Swedenborg. It provides a coherent and satisfying solution to what has been called “the problem of evil”: How are God’s goodness and power reconcilable with evil’s presences in the larger world and in the human mind and heart? By tackling an array of issues that commonly undermine belief in God, including war, suffering, and inequality—and by revealing the wise and loving laws that lie hidden behind these seemingly senseless phenomena—Divine Providence aims to restore our faith in the meaningfulness of the world. Despite its universal focus, Divine Providence is also a highly practical book on the personal level, demonstrating how we can put aside negative attitudes and behaviors and grow into positive thought and action.
The New Century Edition of the Works of Emanuel Swedenborg is a modern-language, scholarly translation of Swedenborg’s theological works. The series’ easy-to-read style retains the dignity, variety, clarity, and gender-inclusive language of Swedenborg’s original Latin, bringing his thought to life.
This portable edition contains the text of the New Century Edition translation, but not the introduction, annotations, or other supplementary materials found in the deluxe editions.
What happens to us when we die? Are heaven and hell real? If so, what are they like? Heaven and Hell contains the answers to these questions as seen by Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772).
This new translation of Swedenborg’s most popular work paints a detailed picture of life in the spiritual realms. A Swedish Enlightenment scientist of extraordinary accomplishment, Swedenborg underwent a spiritual crisis that led to an unparalleled series of paranormal experiences. He spent his last twenty-seven years in almost daily experience of heaven and hell, recording his observations and conversations, many of which are reported in Heaven and Hell. This sustained and detailed description of the nonphysical realms has left its impression on the minds of many great thinkers, including Goethe, Blake, Coleridge, Emerson, Borges, and Milosz.
This deluxe edition contains an introduction by religious historian Bernhard Lang setting the volume in the context of its time.
The New Century Edition of the Works of Emanuel Swedenborg is a modern-language, scholarly translation of Swedenborg’s theological works. The series’ easy-to-read style retains the dignity, variety, clarity, and gender-inclusive language of Swedenborg’s original Latin, bringing his thought to life. Introductions and annotations by eminent, international scholars place Swedenborg’s writings in their historical context and illuminate obscure references within the text, enabling readers to understand and trace Swedenborg’s influence as never before.What happens to us when we die? Are heaven and hell real? If so, what are they like? Heaven and Hell contains the answers to these questions as seen by Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772).
This new translation of Swedenborg’s most popular work paints a detailed picture of life in the spiritual realms. A Swedish Enlightenment scientist of extraordinary accomplishment, Swedenborg underwent a spiritual crisis that led to an unparalleled series of paranormal experiences. He spent his last twenty-seven years in almost daily experience of heaven and hell, recording his observations and conversations, many of which are reported in Heaven and Hell. This sustained and detailed description of the nonphysical realms has left its impression on the minds of many great thinkers, including Goethe, Blake, Coleridge, Emerson, Borges, and Milosz.
The New Century Edition of the Works of Emanuel Swedenborg is a modern-language, scholarly translation of Swedenborg’s theological works. The series’ easy-to-read style retains the dignity, variety, clarity, and gender-inclusive language of Swedenborg’s original Latin, bringing his thought to life.
This portable edition contains the text of the translation, but not the introduction, annotations, or other supplemental materials found in the deluxe edition.
What happens to us when we die? Are heaven and hell real? If so, what are they like? Heaven and Hell contains the answers to these questions as seen by Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772).
This new translation of Swedenborg’s most popular work paints a detailed picture of life in the spiritual realms. A Swedish Enlightenment scientist of extraordinary accomplishment, Swedenborg underwent a spiritual crisis that led to an unparalleled series of paranormal experiences. He spent his last twenty-seven years in almost daily experience of heaven and hell, recording his observations and conversations, many of which are reported in Heaven and Hell. This sustained and detailed description of the nonphysical realms has left its impression on the minds of many great thinkers, including Goethe, Blake, Coleridge, Emerson, Borges, and Milosz.
The New Century Edition of the Works of Emanuel Swedenborg is a modern-language, scholarly translation of Swedenborg’s theological works. The series’ easy-to-read style retains the dignity, variety, clarity, and gender-inclusive language of Swedenborg’s original Latin, bringing his thought to life.
This portable edition contains the text of the translation, but not the introduction, annotations, or other supplemental materials found in the deluxe edition.
What happens to us when we die? Are heaven and hell real? If so, what are they like? Heaven and Hell contains the answers to these questions as seen by Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772).
This new translation of Swedenborg’s most popular work paints a detailed picture of life in the spiritual realms. A Swedish Enlightenment scientist of extraordinary accomplishment, Swedenborg underwent a spiritual crisis that led to an unparalleled series of paranormal experiences. He spent his last twenty-seven years in almost daily experience of heaven and hell, recording his observations and conversations, many of which are reported in Heaven and Hell. This sustained and detailed description of the nonphysical realms has left its impression on the minds of many great thinkers, including Goethe, Blake, Coleridge, Emerson, Borges, and Milosz.
The New Century Edition of the Works of Emanuel Swedenborg is a modern-language, scholarly translation of Swedenborg’s theological works. The series’ easy-to-read style retains the dignity, variety, clarity, and gender-inclusive language of Swedenborg’s original Latin, bringing his thought to life.
This portable edition contains the text of the translation, but not the introduction, annotations, or other supplemental materials found the deluxe edition.
Emanuel Swedenborg understood the city of New Jerusalem--as described in the book of Revelation--to mean not a physical city but an epoch of history, a new spiritual age that was just beginning to take shape during his lifetime in the eighteenth century.
This short work, presented as a series of teachings that characterize this spiritual age to come, is also one of Swedenborg's most concise and readable summaries of his own theology. Building on fundamental concepts such as good, truth, will, and understanding, he describes the importance of love and usefulness in spiritual growth. In the second half of the volume he focuses on how this new theology relates to the church of his day and to church teachings about the Bible, the Lord's incarnation on earth, and rites such as baptism and the Holy Supper. Each short chapter is followed by extensive references back to his theological magnum opus, Secrets of Heaven.
This volume is an excellent starting point for those who want an overview of Swedenborg's theology presented in his own words.
Swedish scientist and theologian Emanuel Swedenborg wrote volumes upon volumes based on the understanding he gained through visits to the spiritual world and from conversations with its inhabitants. For new readers of Swedenborg, knowing where to start and what to read can present an insurmountable task. This volume is a good starting point and provides samples of some of his most powerful writings, now available in new, contemporary translations.
What happens to our souls after we die? What is the afterlife like? What is the nature of God? Of evil? What can we do during our lives to help guide us to heaven? What kinds of answers can we find in the Bible? Selections from some of Swedenborg’s most popular works—Heaven and Hell, Divine Love and Wisdom, Divine Providence, Secrets of Heaven, and True Christianity—answer these questions and more.
Ideal for those new to Swedenborg’s theology, A Swedenborg Sampler offers tastes from a rich smorgasbord of spiritual insight.
Divine Love and Wisdom has been called the most profound work of the Enlightenment scientist and seer Emanuel Swedenborg. It demonstrates how God’s love, wisdom, and humanity are reflected in creation and in ourselves, and suggests that the act of Creation is not a mystery of the past, but a miracle ongoing in every instant of the present. Like a blueprint of things unseen, Divine Love and Wisdom makes visible the hidden design of the universe, as well as the qualities of its Architect. Its vivid depiction of the spiritual mechanism of the world has impressed thinkers such as William Blake, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Henry James, Sr.
The New Century Edition of the Works of Emanuel Swedenborg is a modern-language, scholarly translation of Swedenborg’s theological works. The series’ easy-to-read style retains the dignity, variety, clarity, and gender-inclusive language of Swedenborg’s original Latin, bringing his thought to life.
This portable edition contains the text of the New Century Edition translation, but not the introduction, annotations, or other supplementary materials found in the deluxe edition.
Divine Providence is one of the major works of the Enlightenment scientist and religious seer Emanuel Swedenborg. It provides a coherent and satisfying solution to what has been called “the problem of evil”: How are God’s goodness and power reconcilable with evil’s presences in the larger world and in the human mind and heart? By tackling an array of issues that commonly undermine belief in God, including war, suffering, and inequality—and by revealing the wise and loving laws that lie hidden behind these seemingly senseless phenomena—Divine Providence aims to restore our faith in the meaningfulness of the world. Despite its universal focus, Divine Providence is also a highly practical book on the personal level, demonstrating how we can put aside negative attitudes and behaviors and grow into positive thought and action.
The New Century Edition of the Works of Emanuel Swedenborg is a modern-language, scholarly translation of Swedenborg’s theological works. The series’ easy-to-read style retains the dignity, variety, clarity, and gender-inclusive language of Swedenborg’s original Latin, bringing his thought to life.
This portable edition contains the text of the New Century Edition translation, but not the introduction, annotations, or other supplementary materials found in the deluxe editions.
What happens to us when we die? Are heaven and hell real? If so, what are they like? Heaven and Hell contains the answers to these questions as seen by Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772).
This new translation of Swedenborg’s most popular work paints a detailed picture of life in the spiritual realms. A Swedish Enlightenment scientist of extraordinary accomplishment, Swedenborg underwent a spiritual crisis that led to an unparalleled series of paranormal experiences. He spent his last twenty-seven years in almost daily experience of heaven and hell, recording his observations and conversations, many of which are reported in Heaven and Hell. This sustained and detailed description of the nonphysical realms has left its impression on the minds of many great thinkers, including Goethe, Blake, Coleridge, Emerson, Borges, and Milosz.
The New Century Edition of the Works of Emanuel Swedenborg is a modern-language, scholarly translation of Swedenborg’s theological works. The series’ easy-to-read style retains the dignity, variety, clarity, and gender-inclusive language of Swedenborg’s original Latin, bringing his thought to life.
This portable edition contains the text of the translation, but not the introduction, annotations, or other supplemental materials found in the deluxe edition.
In his classic Heaven and Hell, Swedenborg takes the reader on a journey through the afterlife, describing the spiritual world in intricate detail. Our Life after Death is a collection of writings from that volume that focus specifically on what happens to us as we cross over and what we experience as new souls in the world of spirits, where we prepare to find our soul’s permanent home.
Swedenborg tells us that it is not God who judges people and send them to either heaven or hell, but rather it is we who judge ourselves. In this book Swedenborg reveals the process by which people confront who they were on earth, discover their true selves, and use that self-knowledge to discover their final home in the afterlife.
An introduction by near-death researcher Dr. Kenneth Ring draws parallels between Swedenborg’s experiences and those of millions of modern people who have had near-death experiences. This book provides a brief but thought-provoking introduction to Swedenborg’s afterlife for those who want to delve deeper into this fascinating subject.
The four main short works in this volume by Swedish theologian Emanuel Swedenborg (1688–1772) form the basic foundation of his thought. Although originally printed as if they were stand-alone volumes, they have nearly always been published together, generally under the collective title “The Four Doctrines.”
The Lord discusses the nature of the man known as Jesus Christ, his divine nature, and the meaning of his crucifixion. For Swedenborg, Jesus was not simply a man, but the eternal divine that came to earth for the salvation of humanity.
Sacred Scripture is about the Word, by which Swedenborg means the parts of the Bible that he feels reflect a deep spiritual teaching. Swedenborg believes that study of the Word—which contains a wisdom that predates the written Bible and also transcends it—is the key to humanity’s spiritual development and its eventual union with the Lord.
Life discusses the nature of good and evil and the necessity of shunning sin and evil in order to experience true faith and become a spiritual person. In other words, this work is about how we ought to live.
Faith talks about faith as an acknowledgment of inner truth and the necessity of expressing such faith through good actions rather than simply holding beliefs. Swedenborg also delves into the true nature of charity and the way that it interweaves with faith to produce true goodness.
In addition to these short works, the volume includes a fifth work, which consists of two supplements to previous works by Swedenborg: a brief addition to Last Judgment and a longer addition to Heaven and Hell.
This volume contains four shorter works by the influential eighteenth-century mystic Emanuel Swedenborg. Translators George F. Dole and Jonathan S. Rose have produced an accessible rendering of these important yet easily overlooked works.
New Jerusalem: In this work Swedenborg outlines his theology in twenty-three brief chapters on major Christian topics such as love, faith, regeneration, the inner self and outer self, and the nature of the Bible. Nearly every chapter ends with what is in effect an index to that topic as it appears in his much larger study Secrets of Heaven.
Last Judgment: This work on the “end times” asserts that the Last Judgment foretold in the Bible does not involve the end of the physical world. Rather, the Last Judgment was an event of tremendous upheaval in the spiritual world, a nonmaterial apocalypse which has already occurred and which Swedenborg himself witnessed.
White Horse: This brief work is divided into two parts. The first presents the inner meaning of the white horse mentioned in chapter 19 of the book of Revelation. The second is effectively an index to passages concerning the Bible and its inner meaning in Swedenborg’s much larger work Secrets of Heaven. This work is a good short introduction to Swedenborg’s principle of correspondences between the spiritual and physical worlds, as well as to his unique view of the nature of the Bible.
Other Planets: Building on the eighteenth-century fascination with the possibility of life on other worlds and with traveler’s tales of other cultures, this work describes life on other planets in our solar system and elsewhere in the universe. Swedenborg undertook this work specifically to demonstrate that Jesus is God not just of planet Earth but also of the universe as a whole.
Swedish scientist and visionary Emanuel Swedenborg (1688–1772) writes that the Ten Commandments are the most important part of the Bible. They encapsulate what we need to do to grow as spiritual people, with a meaning that penetrates far beyond the surface level of words and deeds.
One of the fundamentals of Swedenborg’s theology is the concept that underlying the literal text of the Bible is an inner spiritual meaning. Using this method of interpretation, Swedenborg peels back the layers of the Ten Commandments to reveal a cohesive set of teachings with both practical applications and far-reaching spiritual implications.
Although Swedenborg discusses the Ten Commandments in many places throughout his writings, he wrote four extended commentaries on the subject in four separate volumes: Secrets of Heaven (volume 7, published in 1754), True Christianity (1771), the short work Life (1763), and the posthumously published Revelation Explained (1758–1759). Those four commentaries are now being combined in a single volume for the first time, allowing the reader to compare and contrast Swedenborg’s approach across a seventeen-year span.
This book offers new insights for spiritual seekers and students of Swedenborg alike, illuminating what is at once a familiar set of biblical teachings and one of the cornerstones of Swedenborg’s system of personal growth.
What happens to us after we die? What is heaven like? How do angels live? In his classic work Heaven and Hell, Swedish visionary Emanuel Swedenborg gives readers a detailed road map to the afterlife, describing the process that our soul goes through after death, the nature of heaven and hell, angels and demons, all in meticulous detail. Afterlife is an abridged version of Heaven and Hell, with passages specially chosen to highlight the essence of Swedenborg's work.
This Spanish edition of the English-language Afterlife takes the essence of Emanuel Swedenborg’s classic Heaven and Hell and presents it chronologically, starting with the process of awakening after death and then taking the reader on a journey through both heaven and hell. This shorter format provides an eye-opening introduction to Swedenborg’s philosophy.
“A través de mucha experiencia, se me ha demostrado que cuando somos trasladados del mundo natural al espiritual, lo cual ocurre al morirnos, nos llevamos todo lo que pertenece a nuestro carácter menos el cuerpo terrenal. Lo que es más, cuando entramos en el mundo espiritual o en nuestra vida después de la muerte, estamos en un cuerpo como cuando estábamos en este mundo. No parece haber ninguna diferencia, puesto que no sentimos ni vemos que nada haya cambiado. . . . Entonces, cuando nos hemos convertido en espíritus, no tenemos la sensación de que ya no estamos en el cuerpo que habitamos en el mundo, y por consiguiente, no nos damos cuenta de que hemos muerto.”
– Emanuel Swedenborg, Un recorrido por los cielos y sus maravillas
True Christianity presents a satisfying and sensible alternative to mainstream Christianity. The last book published by Swedish scientist-turned-seer Emanuel Swedenborg, it serves as both the keystone in the architecture of his theology and the summary of his far-reaching psychological insights. This volume, the first of two, provides unique answers to humankind’s perennial questions about the nature of God and about Jesus—not only what his purpose was and how he fulfilled it, but why his life and death are still relevant to us now.
This volume features an introduction by R. Guy Erwin of California Lutheran University setting the work in its theological and historical context.
The New Century Edition of the Works of Emanuel Swedenborg is a modern-language, scholarly translation of Swedenborg’s theological works. The series’ easy-to-read style retains the dignity, variety, clarity, and gender-inclusive language of Swedenborg’s original Latin, bringing his thought to life. Introductions and annotations by eminent, international scholars place Swedenborg’s writings in their historical context and illuminate obscure references within the text, enabling readers to understand and trace Swedenborg’s influence as never before.True Christianity presents a satisfying and sensible alternative to mainstream Christianity. The last book published by Swedish scientist-turned-seer Emanuel Swedenborg, it serves as both the keystone in the architecture of his theology and the summary of his far-reaching psychological insights. This volume, the first of two, provides unique answers to humankind’s perennial questions about the nature of God and about Jesus—not only what his purpose was and how he fulfilled it, but why his life and death are still relevant to us now.
The New Century Edition of the Works of Emanuel Swedenborg is a modern-language, scholarly translation of Swedenborg’s theological works. The series’ easy-to-read style retains the dignity, variety, clarity, and gender-inclusive language of Swedenborg’s original Latin, bringing his thought to life.
This portable edition contains the full text of the New Century Edition translation, but not the introduction, annotations, or other supplemental materials found in the deluxe edition.
True Christianity presents a satisfying and sensible alternative to mainstream Christianity. The last book published by Swedish scientist-turned-seer Emanuel Swedenborg, it serves as both the keystone in the architecture of his theology and the summary of his far-reaching psychological insights. This volume, the first of two, provides unique answers to humankind’s perennial questions about the nature of God and about Jesus—not only what his purpose was and how he fulfilled it, but why his life and death are still relevant to us now.
The New Century Edition of the Works of Emanuel Swedenborg is a modern-language, scholarly translation of Swedenborg’s theological works. The series’ easy-to-read style retains the dignity, variety, clarity, and gender-inclusive language of Swedenborg’s original Latin, bringing his thought to life.
This portable edition contains the full text of the New Century Edition translation, but not the introduction, annotations, or other supplemental materials found in the deluxe edition.
In the final years of his life, Emanuel Swedenborg wrote True Christianity, an opus that served both to contextualize his theology within contemporary Christianity and to serve as a road map for the new spiritual age that would follow. This second volume covers topics such as freedom of choice, repentance, the transformation of a person’s inner being during spiritual awakening, the rites of baptism and the Holy Supper (communion), and the second coming of the Lord.
This new translation is part of the New Century Edition of the Works of Emanuel Swedenborg, an ongoing project to render Swedenborg’s theological works in clear, contemporary language that reflects the simple and engaging style of the original Latin. The deluxe hardcover and paperback editions include extensive notes on historical aspects of the text and reference tables; they also have an index to both volumes.
In the final years of his life, Emanuel Swedenborg wrote True Christianity, an opus that served both to contextualize his theology within contemporary Christianity and to serve as a road map for the new spiritual age that would follow. This second volume covers topics such as freedom of choice, repentance, the transformation of a person’s inner being during spiritual awakening, the rites of baptism and the Holy Supper (communion), and the second coming of the Lord.
This new translation is part of the New Century Edition of the Works of Emanuel Swedenborg, an ongoing project to render Swedenborg’s theological works in clear, contemporary language that reflects the simple and engaging style of the original Latin. The portable edition contains the text of the New Century Edition translation, but not the annotations or other supplementary materials found in the deluxe edition.
In the final years of his life, Emanuel Swedenborg wrote True Christianity, an opus that served both to contextualize his theology within contemporary Christianity and to serve as a road map for the new spiritual age that would follow. This second volume covers topics such as freedom of choice, repentance, the transformation of a person’s inner being during spiritual awakening, the rites of baptism and the Holy Supper (communion), and the second coming of the Lord.
This new translation is part of the New Century Edition of the Works of Emanuel Swedenborg, an ongoing project to render Swedenborg’s theological works in clear, contemporary language that reflects the simple and engaging style of the original Latin. The portable edition contains the text of the New Century Edition translation, but not the annotations or other supplementary materials found in the deluxe edition.
These two shorter works by Swedish theologian Emanuel Swedenborg (1688–1772), originally published separately and very different in content, both represent Swedenborg’s own effort to summarize complex areas of his thought.
Published toward the end of Swedenborg’s life, Survey of Teachings of the New Church was a forerunner to his final theological work, True Christianity. In Survey, Swedenborg discusses some key tenets of Christian doctrine, both Catholic and Protestant, and describes how his own theology differs from it. He focuses on key concepts such as the Trinity, the nature of faith and charity, and the spiritual nature of the Last Judgment described in the book of Revelation. Taken as a whole, the piece is a brief summation of the doctrines that Swedenborg felt were critical for the coming spiritual age.
Soul-Body Interaction addresses a crucial area of Swedenborg’s thought: the way that life flows from the transcendent God into all living things. Swedenborg describes the nature and structure of the spiritual world, including heaven, hell, and the intermediate world of spirits, and describes how the higher levels of being reflect a more perfect conjunction with God. He also traces the flow of the Lord’s love and wisdom into the soul of all living people, showing how it gives life regardless of their current spiritual state.
This allegorical retelling of the biblical creation story blends science, poetic understanding, and the spiritual revelations of Swedish visionary Emanuel Swedenborg (1688–1772). Starting with the creation of the earth from the substance of the universe, Swedenborg takes the reader through the formation of plants, animals, and finally human beings. He puts particular emphasis on the spiritual nature of Adam and Adam’s marriage to Eve. Although not considered one of Swedenborg’s theological works, this book was written just prior to his visionary period and contains the seeds of many of his later ideas, particularly the biblical commentary in Secrets of Heaven. This edition is a reprint of a 1914 English translation by Alfred H. Stroh and Frank Sewall.
The Essential Swedenborg summarizes in modern terms the basic features of the theology put forward by Emanuel Swedenborg (1688–1772), scientist, inventor, statesman, philosopher, and theologian.
The startling concepts of the “Northern Plato” caused the orthodox clergy of the time to consider him a heretic. For more than two hundred years, however, Swedenborg has inspired many of the world’s greatest intellects and contributors to modern culture—Balzac, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Blake, Emerson, Henry James, Sr., Czeslaw Milosz, and Yates among them—with a visionary belief system for all people, regardless of background, that emphasizes good works, personal responsibility, and one’s inner connection to divine love.
This edition provides new translations of selections from Swedenborg’s works on some of his key theological topics, including use, charity, life after death, the destiny of humanity, and divine providence.
This new translation of De Novo Hierosolyma Et Ejus Doctrina Coelesti (alternatively translated The New Jerusalem and Its Heavenly Doctrine) by Emanuel Swedenborg presents the ideas of this Swedish visionary in simple, modern English. In the short work, Swedenborg discusses our motivations and inner natures, love and selfishness, and ways in which we can develop ourselves as spiritual people. He also covers different aspects of religion, such as the Bible, observances like baptism and the Holy Supper (Eucharist), the nature of heaven and hell, and how we can apply all these ideas to our daily lives.
Charity is not only about giving to those in need, but in a broader sense about loving your neighbor and doing good things for other people without thought of reward. So wrote Swedish visionary Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772), who believed that charity, along with faith, was part of the foundation of spiritual practice.
This work combines two of Swedenborg's unpublished manuscripts to form a practical, inspirational handbook for applying the principle of doing good to daily life.
Diverse approaches to biblical theology
This volume presents a collection of studies on the methodology for conceiving the theological interpretation of the Hebrew Bible among Jews and Christians as well as the treatment of key issues such as creation, the land of Israel, and divine absence. Contributors include Georg Fischer, SJ, David Frankel, Benjamin J. M. Johnson, Soo J. Kim, Wonil Kim, Jacqueline E. Lapsley, Julia M. O’Brien, Dalit Rom-Shiloni, Marvin A. Sweeney, and Andrea L. Weiss.
Features:
Visions of the Holy is a collection of essays by Marvin A. Sweeney on the study of biblical and postbiblical theology and literature. The volume includes previously published and unpublished essays related to the developing field of Jewish biblical theology; historical, comparative, and reception-critical studies; and the reading of texts from the Pentateuch, Former Prophets, Latter Prophets, and Ketuvim. Additional essays examine Asian biblical theology, the understanding of Shabbat, intertextuality in Exodus–Numbers, Samuel, Isaiah, and the Twelve in intertextual perspective, and the democratization of messianism in modern Jewish thought. The volume is an excellent resource for scholars, students, and clergy interested in theological readings of the Hebrew Bible.
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