Distance learning tutored module: Spiritual World
Swedenborg Open Learning Centre
Have you ever wondered what happens to us after our physical body dies? Where do we go? How do we get to heaven, or end up in hell? What will it be like when we get there?
Benjamin Franklin wrote: In this world nothing can be said to be certain except death and taxes.
Swedenborg wrote: man’s life from infancy to old age is nothing else than an advance from the world towards heaven, the last stage of which is death and the actual transition from one life to the next.
In his most widely read book, Heaven and Hell, Swedenborg describes life as angels in heaven and as evil spirits in hell. He tells us that the main purpose of creation is to maintain a heaven of angels from the human race. He defines hell not as a place of eternal punishment but as the best the Lord can do for people whose lives on earth show that they could not cope with all the love, peace and joy of heaven.
Swedenborg also describes the process of passing from this world into the spiritual world, introducing the “world of spirits” which lies midway between heaven and hell. This is the place where our spirits live while we are on this earth, and where we first awaken in the spiritual world after our earthly bodies die.
This module explores the major areas that Swedenborg details in Heaven and Hell. The topics covered are:
• The Divine life in heaven
• The communities of heaven
• Heaven in the form of the Divine Human
• Who are angels?
• Time and space in heaven
• What life is like in heaven
• What links us to heaven and to hell
• Children in heaven
• Marriage and work in heaven
• The world of spirits
• Finding the path to heaven or to hell
• Hell and hell fire
• The equilibrium between heaven and hell
• Mankind’s freedom to choose between heaven and hell.
