Christianity: The Logic of Creation

The incomparable depth and splendour of Swe- denborg’s genius are shewn in this, that he alone of men has ever dared to bring creation within the bounds of consciousness — within the grasp of the soul. He alone has dared to give to Nature human unity, to endow it with the proportions of man. This is the fundamental distinction be- tween his genius and that of all our other great writers, that while they, by exteriorating object to subject, Creator to creature, God to man, mate- rialize man’s motives, and so construct a grossly sensual Theology, and an utterly selfish Ethics ; he in interiorating object to subject, God to man, spiritualizes man’s motives, and consequently con- structs a Theology which places God exclusively within the soul, and an Ethics whose sanctions lie in the demands of our endless spiritual develop- ment, and no longer in the arbitrary pleasure of any foreign power. As it is impossible to com- prehend the laws of creation without a clear per- e 3