In 1758, Emanuel Swedenborg traveled to London to oversee the printing of five new books: New Jerusalem, Last Judgment, White Horse, Other Planets, and Heaven and Hell. In contrast with Secrets of Heaven-Swedenborg's magnum opus on the inner meaning of the books of Genesis and Exodus, which he had completed two years earlier-these new books were short and geared toward a broader audience. One of them was destined to make Swedenborg an international sensation.

De Coelo et Ejus Mirabilibus, et de Inferno, ex Auditis et Visis, known in English as Heaven and Hell, gave detailed descriptions of what happens to people after death, how souls find their way to either heaven or hell, and how angels and devils live. Whereas Secrets of Heaven emphasized Biblical exegesis in a way that made it challenging for some laypeople, Heaven and Hell was written in straightforward language and contained few references to Scripture. It may have been an attempt on Swedenborg's part to reach out to a broader audience-an attempt that ultimately succeeded.

Heaven and Hell introduced some of Swedenborg's key revelations: that the earth is a proving ground for the soul; that marriages on earth can continue in heaven; and that people move toward heaven or hell according to their ruling love, be it a selfless desire to serve others or a selfish obsession with worldly pleasures. In a departure from the theology of the time, the book asserts that people of all faiths can be accepted into heaven, and that even unbaptized children will go there after death.

The initial printing of Heaven and Hell consisted of only 1,000 copies, which were distributed internationally. The first English translation didn't come until twenty years later, in 1778, when British industrialist William Cookworthy (1705-1780) and vicar Thomas Hartley (1709- 1784) collaborated on the translation and sponsored the publication of A Treatise concerning Heaven and Hell.

Shortly after the publication of that English translation, activities on both sides of the Atlantic sparked the spread and popularization of Swedenborg's ideas.

In 1782, a young printer named Robert Hindmarsh (1759-1835) was lent two books written by Swedenborg. One of those is known today as Soul-Body Interaction, and the other was the new English edition of Heaven and Hell. Hindmarsh became an immediate convert and two years later formed the first Swedenborgian society in England. While that society dissolved a few years later, Hindmarsh led a contingent from the original group to establish itself as a church, holding its first service on January 27, 1788. That service marked the beginning of the Church of the New Jerusalem. Heaven and Hell crossed the Atlantic with Scotsman James Glen (?-1814), who traveled to the newly-formed United States of America to spread the word of Swedenborg. On June 5, 1784, he gave the nation's first public lecture on Swedenborg at a bookstore in Philadelphia. Among the attendees was Francis Bailey (1735?-1815), who became the first person to publish the works of Swedenborg in America. Another was jurist John Young (1762-1840), who later gave a copy of Heaven and Hell to John "Appleseed" Chapman (1774-1845).

Johnny Appleseed planted apple tree nurseries throughout the frontier region, and he carried a copy of Heaven and Hell wherever he went. He distributed pages from the book at settlements throughout Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri, and it was said that as he entered each town he cried, "Good news right fresh from heaven!"

By the end of the nineteenth century, Swedenborgian thought had permeated the intellectual and artistic culture of the West, and no work was featured more prominently than Heaven and Hell.

Swedenborg's writings were published at the birth of the Romantic movement, and his visionary experiences captured the imagination of the age's most influential writers. One of the earliest was William Blake (1757-1857), who studied the writings of Swedenborg in his twenties and even attended the 1789 General Conference in England. He disagreed with the doctrines of the young church, however, and ultimately rejected Swedenborg. Blake's The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1793) is in part a satire of Swedenborg's ideas, particularly his description of heaven and hell. The book refutes Swedenborg by name: "Now hear a plain fact: Swedenborg has not written one new truth. Now hear another: he has written all the old falsehoods."

Despite these harsh words, Swedenborg's influence remained strong throughout Blake's later writings, and Blake stayed in contact with prominent New Church leaders of the time, some of whom considered him a fellow Swedenborgian.

Other Romantic writers influenced by Swedenborg include poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834), considered one of the founders of Romanticism in England, who said that "as a moralist, Swedenborg is above all praise," and German novelist Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832), who referred to Swedenborg as "that divinely chosen seer of our age."

But Heaven and Hell's influence was felt far beyond the field of literature, and it continued even into the modern age. Perhaps the most impressive visual expression of Swedenborgian thought was at the World's Columbian Exposition-the 1893 Chicago World's Fair.

The centerpiece of the World's Columbian Exposition was The White City, the brainchild of Swedenborgian architect Daniel Burnham (1846-1912). The White City was so named because its neoclassical buildings were made of white stucco, and the streets were lit by electric lights at night, causing the whole area to gleam against the drab backdrop of Chicago. Although most visitors didn't know it, The White City's overall layout and design reflected the structure of the New Jerusalem described in Heaven and Hell. The White City gave visitors a vision of what the urban landscape could be, and that potential was realized in Burnham's 1909 proposal titled The Plan of Chicago. Burnham's Plan, as it became known, involved an ambitious redesign of the center of Chicago.

The plan called for the city to be designed in three concentric zones, inspired by Heaven and Hell's description of the three heavens that radiate outward from the Godhead (the heavenly, the spiritual, and the earthly).

On the innermost of the three concentric rings, just beyond the political heart of the city, were the elite of the banking, financial, and corporate sectors. The second ring was designed to be the intellectual center, containing museums and libraries. The outermost ring contained the core of the population center. Each zone had a curved boundary with streets laid out in a rectangular pattern, and buildings of a uniform height, again following descriptions and concepts from Heaven and Hell.

Developed in response to a commission from civic leaders, the plan was legally adopted and put into practice by the city in 1909. While the reality never completely matched Burnham's original design, the city does follow the plan in principle, especially in placement of major museums and in waterfront development.

Nor did Swedenborg's literary influence end with the nineteenth century. Poet Edwin Markham (1852-1940) once said in a public lecture that Heaven and Hell was "a volume unique in the literature of the world. Thus [Swedenborg] was called to reveal new truths for the New Age."

Literary and philosophical giant Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986) wrote of the work: "Unlike the heaven referred to by other visionaries, Swedenborg's heaven is more precise than earth." Great works of literature and art are an enduring testament to Swedenborg's influence, but perhaps the most important legacy of Heaven and Hell is the number of people whose faith it inspired. One well-known example was Helen Keller.

In 1893, at the age of thirteen, Keller made the acquaintance of John Hitz, the Swiss consul-general in Washington, D.C. He gave her a copy of Heaven and Hell in braille.

"I wish I might be able to radiate the spiritual illumination that came to me when I read with my own fingers Heaven and Hell," she wrote in Light in My Darkness, a spiritual autobiography. "All the days of my life have since 'proved the doctrine' and found it true."

Over the past 250 years, generations of people have found Heaven and Hell to be a true blessing.

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