The Writings for the New Church consist of over thirty books written in Latin by Emanuel Swedenborg in the 18th century. Today, these books continue to be translated into many languages, including English, French, German, Portuguese, Russian, Korean, and Japanese. The Writings for the New Church reveal a new way of thinking about religion and a new way of living your life. They contain discussions of the Lord and His Word, the nature of heaven and hell, the life of religion, marriage, Divine Providence, creation, the Last Judgment, and many other topics.

These new ideas are revealed by unfolding the inner meanings of the stories on the Old and New Testaments. Every story of the Word is a parable that teaches us something about the spiritual life of religion. Sometimes these teachings are readily apparent, as in the Sermon on the Mount, but most are relatively more obscure.

The valuable truths contained in these stories are revealed by means of correspondences, or the idea that everything spiritual has a natural counterpart (just as the soul has the body). Everything in the natural world, and thus everything mentioned in the Bible, has a corresponding spiritual object.

All of the stories in the Bible are about spiritual interactions taking place inside all of us. For example, the stories of creation are about how a people are spiritually re-born to become angels, the story of David and Goliath involves our spiritual combat against lusts and false notions, and the prophecies of Isaiah teach us how to prepare ourselves for the Lord to return to our hearts and minds.

The full, searchable text of the entire Writings for the New Church can be found at www.heavenlydoctrines.org.