The Divine Love and Wisdom

by Emanuel Swedenborg

Swedenborg's Writings have a great deal to say about God as He is in Himself, and how, from Himself, He created the spiritual and natural universes. God is love itself and wisdom itself. That's where people, created in God's image, get their emotions (love) and thought (wisdom) processes. One way to obtain a rapid overview of the subject is to read the table of contents of the two books of the Writings that are most specifically focused on this subject, The Divine Love and Wisdom, the table of contents of  which follows, and The Divine Providence. (The numbers in parentheses refer to paragraph numbers in the work).

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Table of Contents

PART FIRST

Love is the life of man (n. 1).

God alone, consequently the Lord, is  love itself, because He is Life itself, and angels and men are recipients of life (n. 4).

The Divine is not in space (n.7).

God is very man (n. 11)

In God-Man Esse and Existere are one distinctly (n. 14)

In God-Man infinite things are one distinctly (n. 17)

There is one God-Man, from whom all things are (n. 23).

The Divine Essence itself is love and wisdom (n. 28)

Divine Love is of Divine Wisdom, and Divine Wisdom is of Divine Love (n. 34)

Divine Love and Divine Wisdom are substance and are form (n. 40)

Divine Love and Divine Wisdom are substance and form in itself, thus the very and the only (n.44).

Divine Love and Divine Wisdom must necessarily have being (esse) and have form (existere) in others created by itself (n.47).

All things in the universe are creations from the Divine Love and the Divine Wisdom of God-Man (n.52).

All things in the created universe are recipients of the Divine Love and the Divine Wisdom of God-Man (n.55).

All created things have relation in a kind of image to man (n.61)

The uses of all created things ascend by degrees from last things to man, and through man to God the Creator, from whom they are (n.65).

The Divine, apart from space, fills all spaces of the universe (n.69).

The Divine is in all time, apart from time (n.73).

The Divine in things greatest and least is the same (n.77).

PART SECOND

Divine Love and Divine Wisdom appear in the spiritual world as a sun (n. 83).

Out of the sun that takes form (existit) from the Divine Love and the Divine Wisdom, heat and light go forth. (n. 89).

The sun of the spiritual world is not God, but is a proceeding from the Divine Love and the Divine Wisdom of God-Man; so also are the heat and light from that sun (n. 93).

Spiritual heat and light, in proceeding from the Lord as a sun, make one, just as His Divine Love and Divine Wisdom make one (n. 99)

The sun of the spiritual world appears at a middle altitude, afar off from the angels, like the sun of the natural world from  men (n. 103).

The distance between the sun and the angels in the spiritual world is an appearance according to reception by them of Divine Love and Divine Wisdom (n. 108).

Angels are in the Lord, and the Lord in them; and because angels are recipients, the Lord alone is heaven (n. 113).

In the spiritual world the east is where the Lord appears as a sun and from that the other quarters are determined (n. 119).

The quarters in the spiritual world are not from the Lord as a sun, but from the angels according to reception (n. 124)

Angels turn their faces constantly to the Lord as a sun, and thus have the south to the right, the north to the left, and the west behind them (n. 129).

All interior things of the angels, both of mind and body, are turned to the Lord as a sun (n. 135).

Every spirit, whatever his or her quality, turns in like manner to his or her ruling love (n. 140).

Divine Love and Divine Wisdom proceeding from the Lord as a sun, and producing heat and light in heaven, are the Proceeding Divine, which is the Holy Spirit (n. 146).

The Lord created the universe and all things of it by means of the sun, which is the first proceeding of Divine Love and Divine Wisdom (n. 151).

The sun of the natural world is pure fire, consequently dead; nature also is dead, because it derives its origin from that sun (n. 157).

Without a double sun, one living and the other dead, no creation is possible (n. 163).

The end of creation has form (existat) in outmosts, which end is that all things may return to the creator and that there may be conjunction (n. 167).

PART THIRD

In the spiritual world there are atmospheres, waters and earths, just as in the natural world; only the former are spiritual, while the latter are natural (n. 173).

There are degrees of love and wisdom, consequently of heat and light, also degrees of atmospheres (n. 179).

Degrees are of a two-fold kind, degrees of height and degrees of breadth (n. 184).

Degrees of height are homogeneous, and one is from the other in succession, like end, cause and effect (n. 189).

The first degree is the all in every thing of the subsequent degrees (n. 195).

All perfections increase and ascend along with degrees and according to them (n. 199).

In successive order the first degree makes the highest, and the third the lowest; but in simultaneous order, the first degree makes the innermost, and the third the outermost (n. 205).

The outermost degree is the complex, containant and base of the prior degrees (n. 209).

The degrees of height are in fullness and in power in their outermost degree (n. 217).

There are degrees of both kinds in the greatest and in the least of all created things (n. 222).

In the Lord the three degrees of height are infinite and uncreate, but in man the three degrees are finite and created (n. 230).

These three degrees of height are in every man from birth and can be opened successively; and as they are opened, man is in the Lord and the Lord in man (n. 236).

Spiritual light flows in with man through three degrees, but not spiritual heat, except so far as man flees from evils as sins and looks to the Lord (n. 242).

Unless the higher degree, which is the spiritual, is opened in a person, he or she becomes  natural and sensual (n. 248).

(i.) What the natural person is, and what the spiritual person (n. 251).

(ii.) The character of the natural person in whom the spiritual degree is opened (n. 252).

(iii.) The character of the natural person in whom the spiritual degree is not opened and yet not closed. (n. 253).

(iv.) The character of the natural person in whom the spiritual degree is entirely closed (n. 254).

(v.) Lastly, The nature of the difference between the life of a person merely natural and the life of a beast (n. 255).

The natural degree of the human mind regarded in itself is continuous, but by correspondence with the two higher degrees it appears when it is elevated as if it were discrete (n. 256).

The natural mind, since it is the covering and containant of the higher degrees of the human mind, is reactive; and if the higher degrees are not opened it acts against them, but if they are opened it acts with them (n. 260).

The origin of evil is from the abuse of the capacities proper to people, that are called rationality and freedom (n. 264).

(i.) A bad person equally with a good person enjoys these two capacities (n. 266).

(ii.) A bad person abuses these capacities to confirm evils and falsities, but a good person uses them to confirm goods and truth (n. 267).

(iii.) Evils and falsities confirmed in a person are permanent and come to be of his love and life (n. 268).

(iv.) Such things as have come to be of the love, and consequently of the life, are engendered in offspring (n. 269).

(v.) All evils and their falsities, both engendered and acquired, have their seat in the natural mind (n. 270).

Evils and falsities are in complete opposition to goods and truths, because evils and falsities are diabolical and infernal, while goods and truths are Divine and heavenly (n. 271).

(i.) The natural mind that is in evils and in falsities therefrom is a form and image of hell (n. 273).

(ii.) The natural mind that is a form or image of hell descends through three degrees (n. 274).

(iii.) The three degrees of the natural mind that is a form and image of hell, are opposite to the three degrees of the spiritual mind which is a form and image of heaven (n. 275).

(iv.) The natural mind that is a hell is in complete opposition to the spiritual mind which is a heaven (n. 276).

All things of the three degrees of the natural mind are included in the deeds that are done by the acts of the body (n. 277).

PART FOURTH

The Lord from eternity, who is Yehowah, created the universe and all things thereof from Himself, and not from nothing (n. 282).

The Lord from eternity, that is, Yehowah, could not have created the universe and all things thereof unless He were a Man (n. 285).

The Lord from eternity, that is, Yehowah, brought forth from Himself the sun of the spiritual world, and from that created the universe and all things thereof (n. 290).

There are in the Lord three things that are the Lord, the Divine of Love, the Divine of Wisdom, and the Divine of Use; and these three are presented in appearance outside of the sun of the spiritual world, the Divine of Love by heat, the Divine of Wisdom by light, and the Divine of Use by the atmosphere which is their containant (n. 296).

The atmospheres, of which there are three both in the spiritual and in the natural world, in their outmosts close into substances and matters such as are in earths (n. 302).

In the substances and matters of which earths are formed there is nothing of the Divine in Itself, but still they are from the Divine in Itself (n. 305).

All uses, which are ends of creation, are in forms, which forms they take from substances and matters such as are in earths (n. 307).

(i.) In earths there is a conatus to produce uses in forms, that is, forms of uses (n. 310).

(ii.) In all forms of uses there is a kind of image of creation (n. 313).

(iii.) In all forms of uses there is a kind of image of people (n. 317).

(iv.) In all forms of uses there is a kind of image of the Infinite and the Eternal (n. 318).

All things of the created universe, viewed in reference to uses, represent people in an image, and this testifies that God is a person (n. 319).

All things created by the Lord are uses; they are uses in the order, degree, and respect in which they have relation to people, and through people to the Lord, from whom [they are] (n. 327).

Uses for sustaining the body (n. 331).

Uses for perfecting the rational (n. 332).

Uses for receiving the spiritual from the Lord (n. 333).

Evil uses were not created by the Lord, but originated together with hell (n. 336).

(i.) What is meant by evil uses on the earth (n. 338).

(ii.) All things that are evil uses are in hell, and all things that are good uses are in heaven (n. 339).

(iii.) There is unceasing influx out of the spiritual world into the natural world (n. 340).

(iv.) Those things that are evil uses are effected by the operation of influx from hell, wherever there are such things as correspond thereto (n. 341).

(v.) This is effected by the lowest spiritual separated from what is above it (n. 345).

(vi.) There are two forms into which the operation by influx takes place, the vegetable and the animal form (n. 346).

(vii.) Each of these forms receives with its existence the means of propagation (n. 347).

The visible things in the created universe bear witness that nature has produced and does produce nothing, but that the Divine, out of Itself and through the spiritual world, has produced and does produce all things (n. 349).

PART FIFTH

Two receptacles and abodes for Himself, called will and understanding, have been created and formed by the Lord in man; the will for His Divine Love, and the understanding for His Divine Wisdom (n. 358).

Will and understanding, which are the receptacles of love and wisdom, are in the brains, in the whole and in every part of them, and therefrom in the body, in the whole and every part of it (n. 362).

(i.) Love and wisdom, and will and understanding therefrom, make the very life of a person (n. 363).

(ii.) The life of a person in its first principles is in the brains, and in its derivatives in the body (n. 365).

(iii.) Such as life is in its first principles, such it is in the whole and in every part (n. 366).

(iv.) By means of first principles life is in the whole from every part, and in every part from the whole (n. 367).

(v.) Such as the love is, such is the wisdom, consequently such is the person (n. 368).

There is a correspondence of the will with the heart, and of the understanding with the lungs (n. 371).

(i.) All things of the mind have relation to the will and understanding, and all things of the body to the heart and lungs (n. 372).

(ii.) There is a correspondence of the will and understanding with the heart and lungs, consequently a correspondence of all things of the mind with all things of the body (n. 374).

(iii.) The will corresponds to the heart (n. 378).

(iv.) The understanding corresponds to the lungs (n. 382).

(v.) By means of this correspondence many arcana relating to the will and understanding, thus also to love and wisdom, may be disclosed (n. 385).

(vi.) A person's mind is his or her spirit, and the spirit is the person, while the body is an external by means of which the mind or spirit feels and acts in its world (n. 386).

(vii.) The conjunction of a person's spirit with his or her body is by means of the correspondence of his or her will and understanding with his or her heart and lungs, and their separation is from non-correspondence (n. 390).

From the correspondence of the heart with the will and of the lungs with the understanding, everything may be known that can be known about the will and understanding, or about love and wisdom, therefore about the soul of a person (n. 394).

(i.) Love or the will is a person's very life (n. 399).

(ii.) Love or the will strives unceasingly toward the human form and all things of that form (n. 400).

(iii.) Love or the will is unable to effect anything by its human form without a marriage with wisdom or the understanding (n. 401).

(iv.) Love or the will prepares a house or bridal chamber for its future wife, which is wisdom or the understanding (n. 402).

(v.) Love or the will prepares all things in its own human form, that it may act conjointly with wisdom or the understanding (n. 403).

(vi.) After the nuptials, the first conjunction is through affection for knowing, from which springs affection for truth (n. 404).

(vii.) The second conjunction is through affection for understanding, from which springs perception of truth (n. 404).

(viii.) The third conjunction is through affection for seeing truth, from which springs thought (n. 404).

(ix.) Through these three conjunctions love or the will is in its sensitive life and in its active life (n. 406).

(x.) Love or the will introduces wisdom or the understanding into all things of its house (n. 408).

(xi.) Love or the will does nothing except in conjunction with wisdom or the understanding (n. 409).

(xii.) Love or the will conjoins itself to wisdom or the understanding, and causes wisdom or the understanding to be reciprocally conjoined to it (n. 410).

(xiii.) Wisdom or the understanding, from the potency given to it by love or the will, can be elevated and can receive such things as are of light out of heaven, and perceive them (n. 413).

(xiv.) Love or the will can in like manner be elevated and can receive such things as are of heat out of heaven, provided it loves wisdom, its consort, in that degree (n. 414).

(xv.) Otherwise love or the will draws down wisdom, or the understanding, from its elevation, that it may act as one with itself (n. 416).

(xvi.) Love or the will is purified in the understanding, if they are elevated together (n. 419).

(xvii.) Love or the will is defiled in the understanding and by it, if they are not elevated together (n. 421).

(xviii.) Love, when purified by wisdom in the understanding, becomes spiritual and celestial (n. 422).

(xix.) Love, when defiled in the understanding and by it, becomes natural, sensual, and corporeal (n. 424).

(xx.) The capacity to understand called rationality, and the capacity to act called freedom still remain (n. 425).

(xxi.) Spiritual and celestial love is love towards the neighbor and love to the Lord; and natural and sensual love is love of the world and love of self (n. 426.)

(xxii.) It is the same with charity and faith and their conjunction as with the will and understanding and their conjunction (n. 427).

What a person's beginning is from conception (n. 432).

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