The Essential Swedenborg summarizes in modern terms the basic features of the theology propounded by Emanuel Swedenborg, scientist, inventor, statesman, philosopher, and theologian. The startling concepts of the “Northern Plato” caused the orthodox clergy of his day to consider him a heretic. For over 200 years, however, Swedenborg’s works have appealed to many of the world’s greatest intellects and contributors to modern culture — Balzac, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Blake, Emerson, Henry James, Sr., Czeslaw Milosz, and Yeats — to name a few.