Heaven and Hell is the common English title of a book written by mystic Emanuel Swedenborg in Latin, published in 1758.
The full title is Heaven and its Wonders and Hell From Things Heard and Seen, or in Latin: De Caelo et Ejus Mirabilibus et de inferno, ex Auditis et Visis.
This book is a detailed description of the afterlife, where people go after the death of the physical body. Topics range from details of the life of angels, including marriage in heaven (angels are married), time and space in heaven (there are not any), children in heaven, the enormous size of heaven, details of the after-death awakening process in the World of Spirits (which is midway between heaven and hell), going to hell, or heaven, in free will (as opposed to being sent to either place by God), and the eternity of hell – you could leave but you never want to, all of which the author claimed to have witnessed first hand.
Some of the things he claims to have experienced are that there are Jews, Muslims and people of pre-Christian times ("pagans" such as Romans and Greeks) in Heaven. He says he spoke to angels from the Golden Age who had been happy in heaven for thousands of years.[1] The fundamental issue, he says, is that love of self or of the world drives one towards Hell, and love of God and fellow beings towards Heaven.
The work proved to be influential. It has been translated into several languages, including Danish, French, Hindi, Russian, Spanish, Icelandic, Swedish and Zulu. Edgar Allan Poe also mentions this book in his work The Fall of the House of Usher. It also plays an important role in Honoré de Balzac's novel Louis Lambert.[2] William Blake referred to and criticized Heaven and Hell and Swedenborg by name several times in his poetical/theological essay The Marriage of Heaven and Hell.
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Swedenborg[3] wrote about Heaven and Hell, based on what he said was revelation from God.[4] According to Swedenborg, God is love itself.[5] and intends everyone to go to heaven. That was His purpose for creation.[6] Thus, God is never angry, Swedenborg says, and does not cast anyone into Hell. The appearance of Him being angry at evil-doers was permitted due to the primitive level of understanding of people in Biblical times. Specifically, holy fear was needed to keep the people of those times from sinking irretrievably into the consequences of their evils. The holy fear idea was in keeping with the fundamental truth that even they could understand, that everything comes from Jehovah, including anger at and punishment of wrong-doing.[7] In the internal, spiritual sense of the Word, however, revealed in Swedenborg’s works, God can be clearly seen for the loving Person He actually is.[8]
D. Michael Quinn suggests in his book Early Mormonism and the Magic World View that Heaven and Hell influenced Joseph Smith, Jr. in the creation of the Mormon view of the afterlife detailed in Doctrine and Covenants Section 76.
However, many of the similarities are rooted in Biblical language and by interpreting Biblical texts. For example, the general view of three Heavens in the resurrection appears to have its root from the writings attributed to the apostle Paul found in the New Testament, 1 Cor 15:40–42:
"There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory. So also is the resurrection of the dead."
Allegorically, Swedenborg likens both the nature of each heaven as well as the illumination in the sky of each heaven to the sun, moon, and stars (Heaven and Hell 119). He states that the sun of the celestial heaven and the moon of the spiritual kingdom is the Lord (Heaven and Hell 118). In Mormonism's view of I Cor 14:40–42, the resurrected bodies of those in three degrees of glory (celestial, terrestrial, and telestial heavens) are likened to the sun, moon, and stars.
Other historians, including Richard Bushman, propose that the similarities between the revelations of Smith and Swedenborg are due to the influence of Paul's writing on both of them.[9]