BOOK REVIEW
The Abridged Arcana Coelestia
By Dr. Willard Mansfield
Reviewed by the Rt. Rev. Peter M. Buss Sr.
A
remarkable gift to the Church has been made by Dr. Willard Mansfield
of South Africa. He has worked for many years on an abridgment of the
Arcana Coelestia, which he offers for lay people who find the challenge of
reading the entire twelve-volume work too daunting, as indeed many do.
A little background about Willard Mansfield: I have known him all my
life. We grew up together in what was then the Durban Society (now the New
Church Westville). From the time he was about 20 (he is now 83), he has been
active within the Church.
From those early years, when he was part of the “youth movement” that
generated interest and commitment, on through the decades, he has worked
together with pastors to encourage others to get involved. This included
the time, under the Rev. Daniel Heinrichs, that the congregation moved to
Westville and the tiny Kainon School was extended into a full primary school.
Willard was a prime mover in the development of the school, which today has
130 students, and a pre-school of around 100.
Willard has a Ph.D. in chemistry, and degrees in business. After many
years of work in various corporations, he spent the last 15 years of his career as
a professor, teaching business at Natal University. He had several opportunities
for lucrative jobs in Johannesburg, the economic hub of South Africa, but
refused them in order to keep his children in Kainon School and to support
the Church. In his retirement years he has invested the Church’s funds so well
that they have more than trebled in the last 10 years or so.
But it is Willard’s other activity in retirement that is important to this
review. From discussions with lay people he found that the full Arcana was too
daunting for the majority of them, so they did not read it and benefit from its
wonders. Even those who were quite well-read found it a challenge. Willard is
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