The latest translation in the New Century Edition of the Works of Emanuel Swedenborg is now available for purchase!
The Shorter Works of 1763, translated by George F. Dole, includes four short works that have often been published together as “The Four Doctrines”: The Lord, Sacred Scripture, Life, and Faith. Each of these works lays out an important principle of Swedenborg’s theology:
- The Lord explores the nature of Jesus’s divinity by drawing on passages from across the Old and New Testaments, arguing that the entire Bible is really about his life and glorification.
- Sacred Scripture presents the inner meaning of the Bible as a response to people who question its rationality and consistency, as it asserts that the Word within represents timeless truths.
- In Life, Swedenborg lays out the process of spiritual growth, including a commentary on each of the Ten Commandments and how they relate to not only our day-to-day lives but also our relationship with God.
- Faith challenges a common misconception of what faith is all about by asserting that faith is not a matter of blindly accepting what you’re told, but a matter of acknowledging what you know to be true in your heart.
Along with these four core works, this volume contains two even shorter works that were written as supplements to two of Swedenborg’s earlier writings: Last Judgment and Heaven and Hell. These additional short works have traditionally been published together as Continuation on the Last Judgment.
The introduction to the volume, written by Series Editor Rev. Dr. Jonathan S. Rose, is an in-depth exploration of Swedenborg’s pause in publishing between 1758 and 1763, including an analysis of how Swedenborg’s publishing and marketing strategies changed during those five years and of the ways in which he began changing his writing style depending on the audience he was hoping to reach. At nearly 100 pages in length, the introduction represents months of original research and contains information that has never before been published.
In addition, the volume includes extensive annotations throughout, an index to scriptural passages in the works, a table of parallel passages, and indexes to the works themselves as well as to the supplemental materials.
The Shorter Works of 1763 is now available for $29.95 in our online bookstore, as well as wherever fine books are sold. You can also buy the individual works in paperback: Life and Faith are published together in the same volume, Sacred Scripture is bound together with the short work White Horse, and The Lord is a standalone volume.
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