The idea of hell - quite popular in more punitive ages - has
become somewhat controversial in modern times. Why, people ask, would a loving God want to punish anyone? What's the point of making people suffer? So a number of people - including many who are devoutly religious - have rejected the idea altogether.
That argument, however, hinges on one key assumption: That hell is a punishment, and that anyone who goes there will be miserable.
Another reason people question hell is because it seems rather arbitrary. Most religious systems teach that only their own believers can reach heaven and live in paradise; those who believe the "wrong" things will go to hell and be punished. So people might be good, caring, loving and devoted in life, but end up miserable in hell because they rejected "the truth."
Swedenborg’s take on hell (and on heaven) is quite different. It stems from the idea that we are what we love: that our deepest affections and feelings determine our true character, not what we’ve done or even the thoughts and ideas we have.
After we die, Swedenborg says, our affections come to the surface so that everyone can see them, and then we are in a sense free to associate with anyone we want to. It also says that we go through a sort of purification process: If we are essentially good people, our temptations and urges toward evil will be removed so we can live in internal peace. If we are essentially evil people, any lingering urge for good is removed - which might sound devastating, but actually allows us to be who we truly are in peace, without internal conflict.
As this process becomes complete, we naturally we find people with similar affections so we can live together and share the things we love.
Heaven, then, is simply a state where good people can share their lives with other good people. Even better, they share their lives with others who love the same specific good things, and can work on those good things together.
Hell, on the flip side, is simply a place where nasty, selfish people congregate with others of a like mind. They can plot and plan, vie for power, steal, lie, cheat and otherwise pursue all their dark goals. Swedenborg says people in hell generally have engrossing fantasy lives in which they imagine they are getting what they desire.
This does not mean they are all fulfilled. Since the Lord is life itself and humanity itself, those who are good (and thus receptive of life the Lord) are as fully alive and as fully human as they can be; those who are evil (rejecting life from the Lord) are barely alive and barely human. People in hell might feel happy, alive, free and human, but they have no concept of what those things can actually be.
They also face frustrations. Swedenborg says that since they’re all evil, they all want to hurt and dominate each other, so it’s a rather endless struggle. And since the Lord prevents them from really hurting each other, they never get full satisfaction. But that torture from within is the only torture there is; the Lord has no desire to and no reason to punish them; they punish themselves. In fact, he still loves them and wishes for them to be as happy as they can be, considering what they have chosen to become.
So why, you might wonder, don't the evil people ("evil spirits" is the common term in Swedenborg) go attack people in heaven? Seems like they would be easy targets.
The answer Swedenborg offers is that the sphere of heaven is so bright and warm and loving that the evil spirits - dark and cold as they are on the inside - cannot stand it, cannot even come near it, and will flee back to hell if they try to approach it.
For more, please see the entry on "heaven and hell."
Who (or What) is Swedenborg?
The ideas on this site are based on the works of Emanuel Swedenborg, an 18th-century Swedish scientist and theologian. Swedenborg claimed that his religious writings, the sole focus of the last three decades of his life, were done at the behest of the Lord himself, and constituted a revelation for a successor to the Christian Church.
In keeping with Swedenborg’s own statements, modern believers downplay his role as author, attributing the ideas to the Lord instead. For this reason they generally refer to Swedenborg’s theological works as “the Writings,” and some resist the label “Swedenborgian” as placing emphasis on the man rather than the message.
Since “the Writings” would be an unfamiliar term to new readers, we have elected to use the name “Swedenborg” as a label for those theological works, much as we might use “Isaiah” or “Matthew” to refer to books of the Bible. The intent, however, is not to attribute the ideas to Swedenborg, any more than we would attribute the divinity of the Bible to Isaiah the man or Matthew the man.
So when you read “according to Swedenborg” on this site, it’s really shorthand for “according to the theological works from the Lord through Swedenborg.” When you read “Swedenborg says,” it’s really shorthand for “the theological works of Swedenborg say.”