The Soul, or Rational Psychology

...knowledge, achieving a great primary gain: the author’s clear understanding of the doctrine of Correspondence The belief that everything in the natural world has a corresponding spiritual cause or meaning., along with its related doctrines of Series, Degrees Distinct levels of existence, such as the relationship between an end (purpose), its cause, and the final effect., Orders, Uses, and Society. In these grand logical structures, we find the foundations of a truly spiritual science—a theology that makes the knowledge of God a positive knowledge Knowledge based on certain facts rather than abstract speculation.. This is achieved not by dragging the Divine down to a material level, but by illuminating the material and natural world with a heavenly light and showing it to be driven by a Divine presence.

While we argue that it is the knowledge of the things that correspond that is supernatural in Swedenborg’s disclosures, and not the science of Correspondence itself, we feel it is worth distinguishing more carefully than readers usually do between "revelation" in its highest sense and "knowledge." Revelation, in its strictest sense, refers to the opening of the spiritual meaning of the Bible. Knowledge of the spiritual world comes from "things heard and seen." While these experiences are truly supernatural, they cannot be called revealed in the same sense.

It has been common to treat the author’s accounts of "things heard and seen" in the spiritual world and his explanation of the internal meaning of the Scriptures both as "revelation." But according to the author himself, there is a clear distinction between these two types of truth. Strictly speaking, the only things that should be called "revelation" are those doctrines which the author declares he received "not from any angel but from the Lord alone while reading the Word." In these instances, truth is taught synthetically and a priori original: "synthetically and a priori"; reasoning from general principles or causes to specific facts or effects. in the fullest and most sublime sense. On the other hand, the knowledge the author shares from his own experience—from being consciously admitted into the spiritual world—is knowledge gained by a purely experimental method. Therefore, it is just as inductive and analytic original: "strictly inductive and analytic"; reasoning from specific observations to reach general conclusions. as the knowledge gained in any branch of natural science. This fact distinguishes Swedenborg’s theology from all previous theological writing; it gives his work not only a strictly scientific form but a factual content that is absolutely free from speculative theories.

This twofold character of his writing is shown in the titles of his various works. For example, the title of the Heavenly Secrets original Latin: Arcana Coelestia reads as follows: "Heavenly Secrets which are in the Holy Scripture or Word of the Lord, uncovered; here first those which are in Genesis. Together with the Wonders which were seen in the World of Spirits and in the Heaven of Angels." original: "Arcana Coelestia quae in Scripturae Sacra seu Verbo Domini sunt, detecta ; hic primum quae in Genesi. Una cum Mirabilibus quae visa sunt in Mundo Spirituum et in Coelo Angelorum." The inner truths of the Word are "uncovered" (detecta), while the things of the spiritual world are "seen" (visa). In the same way, his explanation of the Book of Revelation in the New Testament is called The Apocalypse Revealed: "The Apocalypse Revealed, in which the Secrets are uncovered which were predicted there and which until now have lain hidden." original: "Apocalypsis Revelata, in qua deteguntur Arcana quae ibi praedicta sunt et hactenus recondita latuerunt." Here again, mysteries are "uncovered" in the fullest sense of revelation, and these uncov—