# XIII: The Deliverer explained — The Inferno

> Chapter companion for The Inferno by August Strindberg.

## What happens

Strindberg, guided by Swedenborg's writings, interprets his physical and psychological sufferings as a spiritual catharsis or purification. He finds exact correspondences between his symptoms and Swedenborg's descriptions of corrective spirits, leading him to affirm the reality of a hell on earth and to reconceptualize evil spirits as benevolent agents of reform. He concludes that Providence governs through departed souls, offering comfort to all who suffer.

## Themes in this chapter

### Suffering and Punishment

Strindberg's physical and mental torments are reinterpreted as a necessary spiritual purification, a 'devastation' leading to salvation.

### Religion and Spiritual Crisis

The chapter details Strindberg's conversion from doubt to a firm belief in a hell on earth and a providential order, mediated by Swedenborg's theology.

### The Invisible and the Occult

Swedenborg's detailed descriptions of spirits, their modes of operation, and the correspondence of symptoms affirm the reality of an invisible spiritual world.

## Character check-ins

### August Strindberg

The narrator who discovers in Swedenborg's works the explanation for his own torments and spiritual journey.

### Swedenborg

The prophet whose writings on spiritual catharsis, corrective spirits, and the correspondence of symptoms provide the key to understanding Strindberg's experiences.

### Balzac

Mentioned as the one who introduced Strindberg to Swedenborg through the book Séraphita.

### St. Vincent de Paul

Referenced as St. Paul, whose concept of handing someone over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh is cited as a parallel to Strindberg's own catharsis.

### Nietzsche

Mentioned as the herald of the Superman, a rod of chastisement prematurely used and cast into the fire.

### Dante

His hell is compared to Swedenborg's hell, suggesting a common spiritual reality.

## Key lines

> All my sufferings I find described by Swedenborg—the feelings of suffocation (angina pectoris), constrictions of the chest, palpitations, the sensation which I called the 'electric girdle'—all exactly correspond, and these phenomena, taken together, constitute the spiritual catharsis (purification) which was already known to St. Paul.

Strindberg realizes that every one of his physical and mental agonies is precisely catalogued in Swedenborg's works, and that this collective suffering is a form of spiritual cleansing, a concept also found in St. Paul's writings.

_Key moment of recognition: Strindberg finds his personal ordeal validated and explained by Swedenborg's system._

> Accordingly, there exists no Satan, as an autonomous personality opposed to God, and the undeniable apparitions of the Evil One in his traditional form must be regarded as a scarecrow conjured up by Providence—Providence the Supreme and Good, which carries on its government by means of an enormous comprehensive staff, consisting of departed souls.

Strindberg concludes that Satan is not a real, independent being; instead, frightening visions of the devil are merely tools used by a benevolent Providence, which rules the world through a vast hierarchy of human souls.

_Radical reinterpretation of evil: evil spirits are recast as corrective agents, and the devil is reduced to a pedagogical illusion._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_inferno_se/chapters/xiii-the-deliverer
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_inferno_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_inferno_se/chapters