Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772) was a Swedish nobleman widely known as a scientist, engineer, inventor, and (in later life) visionary theologian. A graduate of Uppsala University, he spent most of his career as an overseer on Sweden's Board of Mines, and he was also a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and an active member of the Swedish parliament. He is best known for his prolific theological writings, which he produced and published following a spiritual awakening in his mid-fifties, and for the substantial influence those works have had on philosophical thought and spiritual/religious movements in the centuries since his death.

George F. Dole (translator) holds a BA from Yale, an MA from Oxford, and a PhD from Harvard. Now professor emeritus, Dr. Dole taught ancient languages, the Bible, and theology at the Swedenborg School of Religion in Newton, Massachusetts. He has served as translator for other volumes of Swedenborg's works, and he is also the author of Freedom and Evil, Sorting Things Out, A Book about Us, and The Universe and I. He lives in Bath, Maine.