Swedenborg, Oetinger, Kant:
Three Perspectives on the Secrets of Heaven
Swedenborg Foundation: Western Chester 2017.
xxiii + 171 pp.
ISBN: 978-0-87785-321-3
Foreword by Inge Jonsson
Part I of this small monograph provides a structural analysis of Emanuel Swedenborg's main work, the Arcana Coelestia (Secrets of Heaven), published in Latin in eight large volume from 1749 to 1756. It focuses on Swedenborg's method, his view of history, and the nature of his doctrine; then analyses his approach to biblical exegesis; and finally provides an overview of his visionary accounts.
Part II is focused on the early reception history of the Arcana Coelestia in Germany, notably by the Christian theosopher Friedrich Christoph Oetinger and the great Enlightenment philosopher Immanuel Kant, but also by such major figures as Johann Georg Hamann, Johann Caspar Lavater, and Johann Wolfgang van Goethe.
The volume was originally conceived as an introduction to the "New Century Edition" of the works of Swedenborg, and appears in abridged form in the first volume of that series.
"... a fascinating story. Hanegraaff's scholarship is meticulous ... The style of the book is also highly readable and engaging. Since it appears as a volume in the Swedenborg Studies series it will most likely be read by Swedenborg scholars and Swedenborgians. Kant scholars would also greatly benefit from this work, but since Kant has succeeded so well in misleading most of them with his irony they are likely to ignore it". Glenn Alexander Magee, Aries 9:2 (2009).