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The Secret of Swedenborg: Being an Elucidation of His Doctrine of the Divine Natural Humanity (Classic Reprint)
The Secret of Swedenborg Being an Elucidation of His Doctrine of the Divine Natural Humanity - Classic Reprint Author:Henry James TEE SECRET OF SWEDEHBORG. — The fundamental problem of Philosophy is the problem of creation. Does our existence really infer a divine and infinite being, or does it not ? This question addresses itself to us now with special emphasis, inasmuch as speculative minds are beginning zealously to inquire whether creation can really be admitted any lon... more »ger, save in an accommodated sense of the word; whether men of simple faith have not gone too far in professing to see a hand of power in the universe absolutely distinct from the universe itself. That being can admit either of increase or diminution is philosophically inconceivable, and affronts moreover the truth of the creative infinitude. For if God be infinite, as we necessarily hold him to be in deference to our own finiteness, what shall add to, or take from, the sum of his being ? It is indeed obvious that God cannot create or give being to what has being in itself, for this would be contradictory. He can create only what is devoid of be
Table of Contents
CONTENTS; INTRODUCTION; Creation the fundamental problem of philosophy - Difficulties of the problem - Kant's attempt to reconcile them - A supernatural creation, that is, a creation which docs not conform to the order and methods of nature, inconceivable - The moral hypothesis of creation untenable- Morality not a creative end, but only a creative means - Swedcnborg and Hcgcl contrasted - Swedenborg's analysis of consciousness, establishing the superiority of its objective to its subjective element, and giving the key to the philosophy of creation, io his doctrine of the lord, or maxima* homoI -11; CHAPTER I; Swedenborg's private history and intellectual character-His biography, by William White ?-His doctrioe of the lord, or divine natural humanity, briefly stated11-15; CHAPTER II; Creation, according to Swedcnborg, is a composite, not a simple, movement, being bound to provide the creature wit« less