SOURCE: James, Henry. The Secret of Swedenborg: Being an Elucidation of His Doctrine of the Divine Natural Humanity, pp. 1-31. Boston: Fields, Osgood, & Co., 1869.

In the following excerpt, James compares Swedenborg favorably with other philosophers, particularly the idealist thinker Friederich Hegel. James shows Swendenborg to be a different kind of thinker, one who is interested in humanity's intimate fellowship with God and who affirms an absolute but empirical element in consciousness.

The fundamental problem of Philosophy is the problem of creation. Does our existence really infer a divine and infinite being, or does it not? This question addresses itself to us now with special emphasis, inasmuch as speculative minds are beginning zealously to inquire whether creation can really be admitted any longer, save in an accommodated sense of the word; whether men of simple faith have not gone too far in professing to see a hand of power...