ABSTRACT

As Helen Keller wrote in her inspiring little book My Religion, evil people 'enable man to see the evil he is to avoid as well as the good he is to choose. They keep alive the fires of ambition in him when he does not care about ideals or the public welfare but desires rather fame and honor. They sharpen some minds for unpleasant truths which the children of light must surely learn if they are to help guard humanity against brute force and every form of oppression whether it be by one or by many'. Helen Keller, the deaf and blind woman whose story was so powerfully portrayed in The Miracle Worker was a follower of the Swedish 17th century theologian Swedenborg, who subscribed to the belief that there is no such thing as predestination to hell and that 'all are born for heaven'.