THE WORSHIP AND LOVE OF GOD

During and following his spiritual crisis, Swedenborg began writing The Worship and Love of God. This work, a drama written in poetic language showing the influence of Ovid, tells the story of the first chapters of Genesis: the Creation, and the first days of Adam and Eve. In subject matter The Worship and Love of God points towards the biblical exegesis he would soon undertake; in style it harkens back to his first literary pursuits as a poet; and in the lengthy footnotes that run throughout the text is contained the knowledge Swedenborg gleaned from his scientific, philosophical and anatomical studies. One footnote alone, in which he described the formation of the firmament (the stars beyond our solar system) particularly impressed S T Coleridge, who commented ‘Note (b) would of itself suffice to mark Swedenborg as a man of philosophic genius, radicative and evolvent’. The book marks the change in Swedenborg’s life from that of the scientist to that of a seer.

This edition is a joint publication between the Swedenborg Society and the Swedenborg Foundation. A revised edition.