The essays in this volume testify to the far-reaching effects of Emanuel Swedenborg's works in Western culture. From his early days as an ambitious young scientist in the ferment of the eighteenth-century Enlightenment Europe, through his mid-life entrance into an ongoing experience of the spiritual world, to his last decades as a researcher of things spiritual, Swedenborg built a career that left a unique legacy. His vivid descriptions of the nonphysical realm made a powerful impression on minds as diverse as Goethe, Blake, Emerson, Yeats, and Borges.

This book serves as a self-contained resource on Swedenborg's life and thought and as a gateway into further exploration of the labyrinthine garden of Swedenborg's works. It includes a biography, rich in fascinating detail; lively overviews of the content and history of Swedenborg's writings on spiritual topics; and essays tracing Swedenborg's impact in various regions of the world.

Best known for his focus on the intuitive force within, Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772) also anticipated major modern discoveries in mineralogy, psychology, and anatomy. In this succinct and readable collection, Stanley expertly brings the most significant writings from Swedenborg's oeuvre together, showing readers a man who created a hieroglyphic language, reimagined the Genesis story, influenced Blake, Balzac, Strindberg, and Yeats, and authored a number of anonymous works that put the Swedish clergy of his day on high alert. This is the fourth title in the "Western Esoteric Masters Series" from North Atlantic Books.