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The True Christian Religion (2 vols)

by Emanuel Swedenborg

Synopsis

The last book to be published by Swedenborg, The True Christian Religion is his theological summa, and his treatment of the main tenets of theology: the Trinity, the Bible, the Ten Commandments, faith, charity, free will, repentance, baptism, and the Eucharist. The work seems to be addressed to a primarily Lutheran audience, for it was, in part, written as a refutation of the accusation of heresy levelled at Swedenborg’s writings by the Gothenburg Consistory in 1769. (At this time Sweden was a Lutheran country with strict censorship legislation, which was why Swedenborg published his works in Britain and Holland). Swedenborg wanted to use approved Lutheran authorities to demonstrate that his teaching was not only not heretical, but was in fact ‘True Christianity’. In The True Christian Religion, Swedenborg was not just presenting a summary of his theology, but a proposal to rethink and recast the traditional doctrine of Lutheranism and all Christian Churches.

Additional Information
An essay describing the translation of this work, entitled 'On Translating The True Christian Religion' is printed in Swedenborg and His Readers, the first volume of the Journal of the Swedenborg Society.

Contributors
This edition contains a Translator's Preface by Dr John Chadwick.