Synopses & Reviews
This collection of essays highlights the influence of Swedish visionary Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772) on art, spirituality, and culture. Opening with an essay by Spanish-language writer and metaphysician Jorge Luis Borges, from which the collection draws its name, the volume includes a description of Swedenborg's influence on Fyodor Dosteovsky by Czleslaw Mloscz; a look at Swedenborg from a mystical perspective from Wilson Van Dusen; the transcendentalist connection with Ralph Waldo Emerson in an essay by Eugene Taylor; and Buddhist scholar D. T. Suzuki's describes similarities between Swedenborg's philosophy and Buddhism. Essays by Kathleen Raine on Swedenborg's poetic influence and Colin Wilson on the psychological perspective on Swedenborg's visions round out the collection.
Synopsis
This collection of essays highlights the influence of Swedish visionary Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772) on art, spirituality, and culture. Opening with an essay by Spanish-language writer and metaphysician Jorge Luis Borges, from which the collection draws its name, the volume includes a description of Swedenborg's influence on Fyodor Dosteovsky by Czleslaw Mloscz; a look at Swedenborg from a mystical perspective from Wilson Van Dusen; the transcendentalist connection with Ralph Waldo Emerson in an essay by Eugene Taylor; and Buddhist scholar D. T. Suzuki's describes similarities between Swedenborg's philosophy and Buddhism. Essays by Kathleen Raine on Swedenborg's poetic influence and Colin Wilson on the psychological perspective on Swedenborg's visions round out the collection.
Synopsis
This collection of essays describes the influence of Swedish scientist-turned-seer Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772) on religion, psychology, and literature. Contributors include Jorge Luis Borges, Czeslaw Milosz, poet Kathleen Raine, and Zen scholar D. T. Suzuki.
Synopsis
In the history of the rebellion of man against God and against the order of nature, Swedenborg stands out as a healer who wanted to break the seals on the sacred books and thus make the rebellion unnecessary. Here are presented a number of his essays to that end.
About the Author
Jorge Luis Borges was a perennial candidate for the Nobel Prize in literature and received numerous literary honors during his lifetime. Czeslaw Milosz, a Lithuanian-born poet, novelist, essayist, translator, critic, and literary scholar who writes in Polish. He received the Nobel Prize for literature in 1980 and the Neustadt International Prize for literature in 1978. Kathleen Paine is a poet, critic, translator, an editor who was educated at Girton College, Cambridge, England Colin Wilson is regarded as a preeminent British writer on the subject of spirituality and the esoteric. Wilson Van Dusen is a natural scholar whose interests lie between religion and psychology. With a PH.D. in clinical psychology, he worked many years with the mentally ill. Eugene Taylor received his A.B. and M.A from Southern Methodist University and his PH.D. from Boston University.