Divine Providence - Swedenborg, Emanuel

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Résumé :
Emanuel Swedenborg's Divine Providence is one of his major theological works, addressing the problem of evil, the freedom of the human will, and the hidden order by which God governs creation. First published in Latin in Amsterdam in 1764 as Sapientia Angelica de Divina Providentia, the book asks how a loving and all-powerful God can permit suffering, disorder, war, injustice, and human evil. Swedenborg's answer is neither simple optimism nor abstract doctrine: he argues that divine providence works continually toward the formation of heaven from the human race, while preserving human freedom as the necessary condition for spiritual life. At the centre of the book is Swedenborg's conviction that love and wisdom are not merely attributes of God, but the living structure of divine action. Providence does not compel the human mind from outside...

Biographie:
I would lead with RELIGION / Christian Theology / General, followed by RELIGION / Philosophy and RELIGION / Spirituality. If the platform offers a more precise providence/theodicy-related heading, use it, but I would not force this into Christian Living. BISG's Religion list is the verification source for these religion headings.About the AuthorEmanuel Swedenborg was a Swedish scientist, philosopher, theologian, and religious visionary whose writings became the foundation of Swedenborgian thought and the New Church tradition. Born in Stockholm in 1688, Swedenborg first achieved distinction as a scholar and public servant, writing on natural science, engineering, anatomy, mining, mathematics, and philosophy before turning, in midlife, toward an extensive body of theological works. His religious writings claimed to present a revealed understanding of Scripture, heaven and hell, divine love and wisdom, spiritual regeneration, and the relation between the natural and spiritual worlds.Swedenborg's theological works are marked by unusual breadth. They combine biblical interpretation, metaphysical argument, visionary experience, moral psychology, and spiritual instruction. In Divine Providence, he addresses one of the central problems of theology: how divine goodness and divine governance can be reconciled with human freedom and the existence of evil. His answer depends on the idea that God's providence works through order, freedom, and rational consent rather than coercion, guiding each person toward spiritual life while preserving the liberty necessary for genuine love and faith.Swedenborg's influence has reached far beyond the formal boundaries of Swedenborgian religion. His writings affected later religious thinkers, poets, mystics, philosophers, and artists interested in symbolism, spiritual worlds, the correspondence between matter and spirit, and the moral structure of human life. He died in 1772, leaving behind one of the most distinctive bodies of theological and visionary writing in eighteenth-century Europe....

Sommaire:
it works through freedom, reason, conscience, repentance, and the gradual turning away from evil. Swedenborg's treatment is therefore theological, philosophical, and practical at once. The Swedenborg Foundation describes the work as Swedenborg's solution to the problem of evil and notes its concern with how divine love can be reconciled with suffering, hardship, and evil in the world. For readers of Christian theology, Swedenborgian thought, spiritual philosophy, free will, providence, theodicy, and religious classics, Divine Providence remains a central text. It belongs to the great body of eighteenth-century religious writing, but its questions remain permanent: whether evil has the final word, whether human freedom has eternal meaning, and whether the apparent disorder of the world can be understood within a larger divine purpose....