Arcana Cœlestia

The Arcana Cœlestia, quae in Scriptura Sacra seu Verbo Domini sunt, detecta, usually abbreviated as Arcana Coelestia ("Heavenly Mysteries") or under its Latin variant, Arcana Caelestia^[1], is the first and largest work published by Emanuel Swedenborg in his theological period. It was written and published in Neolatin, in eight volumes, one volume per year, from 1749 to 1756.^[2]

It consists of an exposition of the spiritual sense of the books of Genesis and Exodus, according to the doctrine of correspondence (theology), and demonstrated by many supporting quotations from the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament. While not denying the historicity of the stories of the Patriarchs (Bible) and The Exodus from Egypt, it explains them as describing symbolically the process of spiritual growth and struggles in each individual person.

Footnotes

^ Cf. Michelle Grier, 'Swedenborg and Kant on Spiritual Intuition' in On the True Philosopher: Essays on Swedenborg, ed. Stephen McNeilly (London: Swedenborg Society, 2002), p. 1. Accessed November 11, 2010.
^ In the standard edition of the Arcana Coelestia, revised and edited by Rev. John Faulkner Potts and published by the Swedenborg Foundation in 1956, the prefatory notes by the reviser contains a summary of the publishing history for the work originally published by Swedenborg.

Bibliography

ISBN 0877852146
ISBN 978-0877852148

External links

Arcana Coelestia
First Translation of Swedenborg's theological writings - 16th Chapter of Genesis as explained in the Arcana Cœlestia - This translation from Latin into English was commissioned by Swedenborg himself and is a photocopy of a first edition copy (PDF - 12MB).