Do the Teachings of The Urantia Book Constitute
a New Religion?
Should Believers in the Fifth Epochal Revelation
Establish a New Church?
Great confusion
prevails among believers in the fifth epochal revelation. They have become
convinced of the truthfulness of the teachings contained in The Urantia Book
and they are equally convinced that they should do something; they have a
strong urge to act, but they are nonplussed and uncertain as to what it is that
they are supposed to do; in what manner they are to act. In order to find a
solution to this uncertainty, a couple of fundamental issues need to be
explored. These fundamental issues and questions are: Do the teachings of The
Urantia Book constitute a new religion? If they do, shouldn’t believers in
that case institute a new church, create a new organised religion? Let us study
the teachings of the revelation itself.
I. Do the Teachings
of the Book Constitute a New Religion?
The unequivocal
answer to the above question is that yes, the teachings do present and
guide its reader to a new religion. Even so, since the answer is revelatory, we
may be assured that the new religion is not what we might expect. Although the
answer is affirmative it is not in line with traditional human thinking.
We should of course
clear our minds of all notions that The Urantia Book itself would be a
religion. I have to address briefly even this allegation because there is a
small number of readers who have become so grievously confused that they
believe the book to be their religion. The Urantia Book is a book; it
cannot be anybody’s religion. Religion is the living spiritual relationship
with God the Father that every believer and religionist nurtures in his heart.
The teachings of the book only describe the religion, shed light on this living
relationship between a believer and his Maker, and lead the reader to a better
understanding of his religion.
A study of this
genre is often commenced with a presentation of a number of definitions. This
case, however, is different even there. We need not find a definition for what
religion is! We may recall a statement on page 1119:
Observing minds and
discriminating souls know religion when they find it in the lives of their
fellows. Religion requires no definition; we all know its social, intellectual,
moral, and spiritual fruits. And this all grows out of the fact that religion
is the property of the human race; it is not a child of culture. True, one’s
perception of religion is still human and therefore subject to the bondage of
ignorance, the slavery of superstition, the deceptions of sophistication, and
the delusions of false philosophy. [1119:6]
Religion eludes
every definition. Another statement reveals the same circumstance in these
words:
And this diversity
of the interpretation of religious thought and experience is shown by the fact
that twentieth‑century theologians and philosophers have formulated
upward of five hundred different definitions of religion. In reality, every
human being defines religion in the terms of his own experiential
interpretation. [1129:8]
Religion is personal
so much so that theology, in reality, is not what it is traditionally conceived
to be. The following statement must be something new to an overwhelming
majority of the believers in The Urantia Book, it may be new even for
theologians:
Theology is always the
study of your religion; the study of another’s religion is psychology. [1135:3]
The statements
above, concerning the personal, individual, aspect of religion, constitute the
prelude to the characterisations of the new religion presented in the fifth epochal
revelation.
Ultimate universe
reality cannot be grasped by mathematics, logic, or philosophy, only by
personal experience in progressive conformity to the divine will of a personal
God. Neither science, philosophy, nor theology can validate the personality of
God. Only the personal experience of the faith sons of the heavenly Father can
effect the actual spiritual realization of the personality of God. [31:5]
Those are the
fundaments, the groundworks, of the new religion presented in The Urantia Book.
Above anything else, the new religion is personal.
1. Characterisations
of the new religion.
The new religion presented, advocated, endorsed, and mandated by the revelation
is endowed with several attributes. It is called the “religion of Jesus,” “true
religion,” “real religion,” “personal religion,” “religion of personal
experience,” and “religion of the spirit.” Irrespective of the qualifications
or attributes it comes with, in every instance it concerns the same religion.
Not once is institutionalised, organised, or collective religion described as
“true,” “real,” “genuine,” or “of spirit.”
The new religion is
personal. The new religion,
Jesus’ religion, is a religion of personal relationship with the Heavenly
Father; it is a personal religion; it is the religion of the spirit, in
contradistinction to the institutionalised and organised religions of the mind.
The teaching concerning this new religion is one of the most essential ones in The
Urantia Book. In the focus of this new religion we encounter the
individual, not the collective. Jesus is the founder of this new religion.
“And now are we
about to enter upon a deadly conflict with such a religion [of tradition] since we will shortly begin the
bold proclamation of a new religion—a religion which is not a religion in the
present-day meaning of that word, a religion that makes its chief appeal to the
divine spirit of my Father which resides in the mind of man; a religion which
shall derive its authority from the fruits of its acceptance that will so
certainly appear in the personal experience of all who really and truly become
believers in the truths of this higher spiritual communion.” [1730:0]
Those words have
bearing even today. The confusion in the ranks of the believers in the fifth
epochal revelation evinces that the traditional human thinking of
institutionalising a religion has much following, the idea of organising a
religion about and around the teachings of The Urantia Book is very appealing.
The Master never
founded an institutional or organised religion. Not once did Jesus teach
anything that would have concerned the socialisation of religion or a
collective religion. The Master’s personal gospel is the Fatherhood of God and
the universal brotherhood of all men (1084:0; see also 1590:5). The religion
of Jesus, grounded on his gospel, is a religion of personal experience:
Jesus founded the
religion of personal experience in doing the will of God and serving the human
brotherhood. [2092:4]
Religions cannot be
bestowed, received, loaned, learned, or lost. It is a personal experience which
grows proportionally to the growing quest for final values. [1095:2]
There is no danger
in religion’s becoming more and more of a private matter—a personal experience—provided
it does not lose its motivation for unselfish and loving social service. [1090:3]
They all [the apostles] discovered the great value of direct
and personal contact with men. They returned to Jesus more fully realizing
that, after all, religion is purely and wholly a matter of personal
experience. [1539:4]
... now have I come
to give you a personal religion. [1629:5]
The new religion is
dynamic, active, and heroic. Manifestations and expressions of religion in the lives of the
religionists are called the “fruits of the spirit.” (As concerns the fruits of
the spirit, you may wish to read again the presentations at 381:7 and 2054:3).
One of these fruits of the spirit, one of the manifestations of true and
real religion, is the compelling urge to serve, the irresistible need to
act. Even if the new religion is personal, it is by no means introvert.
It is no secluded contemplation and analysis of the self. Feeling, emotion, and
mysticism do not make up this new religion—even if feeling and emotion are
invariably concomitants of religion (1110:12). The new religion is exquisitely
extrovert. It is dynamically extrovert.
There is no real
religion apart from a highly active personality. [1120:4]
True religion must act. [1121:1]
Jesus had already
taught his followers that his religion was never passive; always were his
disciples to be active and positive in their ministry of mercy and in their
manifestations of love.
[2064:3]
The religion of
Jesus is the most dynamic influence ever to activate the human race. Jesus
shattered tradition, destroyed dogma, and called mankind to the achievement of
its highest ideals in time and eternity—to be perfect, even as the Father in
heaven is perfect. [1091:2]
Jesus put the spirit
of positive action into the passive doctrines of the Jewish religion. In the
place of negative compliance with ceremonial requirements, Jesus enjoined the
positive doing of that which his new religion required of those who accepted
it. Jesus’ religion consisted not merely in believing, but in actually doing,
those things which the gospel required. He did not teach that the essence of
his religion consisted in social service, but rather that social service was
one of the certain effects of the possession of the spirit of true religion. [1769:10]
Any religious belief
which is effective in spiritualizing the believer is certain to have powerful
repercussions in the social life of such a religionist. Religious experience
unfailingly yields the “fruits of the spirit” in the daily life of the
spirit-led mortal.
[1091:5]
While religion is
exclusively a personal spiritual experience—knowing God as a Father—the
corollary of this experience—knowing man as a brother—entails the adjustment of
the self to other selves, and that involves the social or group aspect of
religious life. Religion is first an inner or personal adjustment, and then it
becomes a matter of social service or group adjustment. [1090:10]
But it is the
mission of religion to prepare man for bravely, even heroically, facing the
vicissitudes of life. Religion is evolutionary man’s supreme endowment, the
one thing which enables him to carry on and “endure as seeing Him who is
invisible.” [1121:1]
The new religion is
one of freedom and liberty. No one will come and tell you what is true, or how and what to believe.
Jesus’ religion is the religion of liberty. Jesus unlocked the door of the
prison of dogmas and creeds, crystallised, stagnated, and stifling ceremonials,
set prayers, rules of conduct, and professions of faith.
No wonder these
believers in the new religion would cry out, “Where the spirit of the Lord is,
there is liberty.”
[2065:2]
The religion of the
spirit leaves you forever free to follow the truth wherever the leadings of the
spirit may take you.
[1731:3]
You have come out
from among those of your fellows who choose to remain satisfied with a religion
of mind, who crave security and prefer conformity. You have elected to exchange
your feelings of authoritative certainty for the assurances of the spirit of
adventurous and progressive faith. You have dared to protest against the
grueling bondage of institutional religion and to reject the authority of the
traditions of record which are now regarded as the word of God... [1730:6]
His religion never
became crystallized (during his day) into creeds and theological laws; he left
not a line of writing behind him. His life and teachings were bequeathed the
universe as an inspirational and idealistic inheritance suitable for the
spiritual guidance and moral instruction of all ages on all worlds. And even
today, Jesus’ teaching stands apart from all religions, as such, albeit it is
the living hope of every one of them. [1583:3]
But if religion is
to stimulate individual development of character and augment integration of
personality, it must not be standardized. If it is to stimulate evaluation of
experience and serve as a value-lure, it must not be stereotyped. If religion
is to promote supreme loyalties, it must not be formalized. [1089:11]
The freedom is so
replete that it does not even know of or recognise any rules of conduct; there
are no moral rules or laws. God is the law. The self-control and
self-restraint of the believer and religionist will be the assurance of highly
ethical conduct in the kingdom of heaven, whose religion is this new religion.
“But I come with a
new message of self-forgetfulness and self-control. I show to you the way of
life as revealed to me by my Father in heaven.” [1609:3]
He taught ... that
the consciousness of being a member of the family of believers leads inevitably
to the practice of the precepts of the family conduct ... [1862:6]
... true religion is
the devotion of the self to the service of meaningful and supreme values. As
religion evolves, ethics becomes the philosophy of morals, and morality becomes
the discipline of self by the standards of highest meanings and supreme
values—divine and spiritual ideals. And thus religion becomes a spontaneous and
exquisite devotion, the living experience of the loyalty of love. [1012:6]
2. Manifestations of
the new religion. The
new religion manifests itself in the fruits of the spirit. The yielding of
these fruits of the spirit is incessant, constant, and permanent. This new
religion is a way of living; it is not a separate department of life, which
would be practised only occasionally, in some special life situations. No, it
is continuous; it never ends.
... religion is a
way of living as well as a technique of thinking. [1013:9]
This new religion of
Jesus was not without its practical implications, but whatever of practical
political, social, or economic value there is to be found in his teaching is
the natural outworking of this inner experience of the soul as it manifests the
fruits of the spirit in the spontaneous daily ministry of genuine personal
religious experience.
[1585:4]
The most prominent
fruit of the spirit and expression of the new religion is its dynamism. The
outstanding repercussion of the new religion is the urge to act and serve
one’s fellow mortals, the urge to transform the world. Even if group worship,
prayers and other collective actions of religionists are discussed in the
revelation, nowhere are these activities depicted as features of the new
religion.
Service. The new religion is one of service. This is the most
prominent feature of the new religion.
Jesus lived a
religion of service.
[67:5]
The religion of
Jesus does, indeed, dominate and transform its believers, demanding that men
dedicate their lives to seeking for a knowledge of the will of the Father in
heaven and requiring that the energies of living be consecrated to the
unselfish service of the brotherhood of man. [2083:2]
Transformation of
the world. The desire to be
involved in the transformation of the world, in making it a better place to
live, is closely related to the urge to serve. The involvement of true
religionists, genuine believers, in the world affairs is actually the only way
to transform the world in a manner that will result in a real and enduring
transformation. The believers are the hope of the world—even if the world, by
and large, doesn’t know or acknowledge it. True, genuine religion is not a
passive or impassive state of religious bliss; it is no basking in the sunshine
of the sonship and the kingdom of heaven. No, it is rather incessant yielding
of the fruits of the spirit. True religion acts; it acts aggressively and
dynamically.
There are three
important principles related to this aspect of the role of religion in the
transformation of the world: 1. Any transformation of enduring effect and of
value happens through the actions of religionists. 2. Religionists should pool
their efforts, but religion itself must not concern with anything but religion;
religious organisations are not to be transformed into political parties or
social reform movements; and 3. Religion is the source of the necessary energy
for world transformation and its role is that of a counsellor.
The social
characteristics of a true religion consist in the fact that it invariably seeks
to convert the individual and to transform the world. Religion implies the existence
of undiscovered ideals which far transcend the known standards of ethics and
morality embodied in even the highest social usages of the most mature
institutions of civilization. Religion reaches out for undiscovered ideals,
unexplored realities, superhuman values, divine wisdom, and true spirit
attainment. True religion does all of this; all other beliefs are not worthy of
the name. [1781:1]
Only the real
religion of personal spiritual experience can function helpfully and creatively
in the present crisis of civilization. [1087:4]
... for religion,
true religion, is the indispensable source of that higher energy which drives
men to establish a superior civilization based on human brotherhood.
[883:1]
The religious
challenge of this age is to those farseeing and forward‑looking men and
women of spiritual insight who will dare to construct a new and appealing
philosophy of living out of the enlarged and exquisitely integrated modern
concepts of cosmic truth, universe beauty, and divine goodness. Such a new and
righteous vision of morality will attract all that is good in the mind of man
and challenge that which is best in the human soul. [43:3]
We do well if we
note that the revelation exhorts farseeing and forward-looking men and women to
construe a new philosophy—not a new religion.
The duty of religion
is to act and give guidance in the process of world transformation, ever
mindful of the teaching that religion is not a separate department of life; it
is rather a way of living.
Religion has no new
duties to perform, but it is urgently called upon to function as a wise guide
and experienced counselor in all of these new and rapidly changing human
situations. [1087:1]
The paramount
mission of religion as a social influence is to stabilize the ideals of mankind
during these dangerous times of transition from one phase of civilization to
another, from one level of culture to another. [1086:6]
The religion of
living experience finds no difficulty in keeping ahead of all these social
developments and economic upheavals, amid which it ever functions as a moral
stabilizer, social guide, and spiritual pilot. [1088:1]
But the revelation
has much more to say regarding the transformation of the world. The transformation
is to happen through the actions of individual religionists, who act, work, and
perform in the field, out in the society.
It is the business
of religion to create, sustain, and inspire such a cosmic loyalty in the
individual citizen as will direct him to the achievement of success in the advancement
of all these difficult but desirable social services. [1089:8]
Genuine religion
renders the religionist socially fragrant and creates insights into human
fellowship. [1089:9]
The ultimate
objective of the religious transformation of the world is the establishment of
the brotherhood of man, based on the Fatherhood of God. Divine intervention in
human affairs, God’s forcing his will upon mankind, is absolutely not a
wherewithal in the establishment of the human brotherhood. Institutionalised
religions of authority acting on their own are incapable of accomplishing the
human brotherhood—no matter how much they should preach about it. No, it can
and will be achieved only through the work of true religionists, adherents of
the religion of the spirit.
The hope of human
brotherhood can only be realized when, and as, the divergent mind religions of
authority become impregnated with, and overshadowed by, the unifying and
ennobling religion of the spirit—the religion of personal spiritual experience. [1732:1]
... the religion of
the spirit will progressively draw men together and cause them to become
understandingly sympathetic with one another. [1732:2]
These individuals
may and should work together and in organisations with other people; after all
there are true religionists among the adherents of all institutionalised
religions. Yet, they must never do so as a religious group or as an
organisation of religionists.
Someday religionists
will get together and actually effect co‑operation on the basis of unity
of ideals and purposes rather than attempting to do so on the basis of
psychological opinions and theological beliefs. Goals rather than creeds should
unify religionists. Since true religion is a matter of personal spiritual
experience, it is inevitable that each individual religionist must have his own
and personal interpretation of the realization of that spiritual experience.
Let the term “faith” stand for the individual’s relation to God rather than for
the creedal formulation of what some group of mortals have been able to agree
upon as a common religious attitude. [1091:6]
The religionist is
not unsympathetic with social suffering, not unmindful of civil injustice, not
insulated from economic thinking, neither insensible to political tyranny. Religion
influences social reconstruction directly because it spiritualizes and
idealizes the individual citizen. Indirectly, cultural civilization is
influenced by the attitude of these individual religionists as they become
active and influential members of various, social, moral, economic, and
political groups. [1088:4]
But religion should
not be directly concerned either with the creation of new social orders or with
the preservation of old ones. [1086:2]
Religion must not
become organically involved in the secular work of social reconstruction and
economic reorganization. But it must actively keep pace with all these
advances in civilization by making clear‑cut and vigorous restatements of
its moral mandates and spiritual precepts, its progressive philosophy of human
living and transcendent survival. [1087:3]
But the
formalization of religious groups many times destroys the very values for the
promotion of which the group was organized. [1089:9]
Religionists must
function in society, in industry, and in politics as individuals, not as
groups, parties, or institutions. A religious group which presumes to function
as such, apart from religious activities, immediately becomes a political
party, an economic organization, or a social institution. Religious collectivism
must confine its efforts to the furtherance of religious causes. [1087:6]
The International
Urantia Association is constructed specifically with all of the above in mind.
The IUA is an organisation of religionists, believers in the fifth epochal
revelation; yet it is not a religious organisation; it is not a church, not
even a pseudo church, or an embryo of a church. The IUA is designed to serve,
to support and to inspire, impart knowledge and educate, practise and encourage
in-depth studies of the revelation, create opportunities for experience
sharing for those believers who are transforming the world. It is the
individuals so inspired, encouraged, educated, and supported that are transforming
the world. The IUA as a body is designed not to be or become an instrument of
any world reform.
Togetherness founded
on love is a prominent manifestation of the new religion. Whereas a religionist recognises another religionist
and once they share the same religion of the spirit, it is only natural that
they should love one another and seek for each other’s company. Yet, since the
new religion is not a separate department of life but rather a way of living,
it should be equally natural that the togetherness of religionists is not
limited to those activities that are traditionally viewed as “religious” or
“spiritual”, like group worship and prayer.
Spiritual growth is
mutually stimulated by intimate association with other religionists. Love
supplies the soil for religious growth—an objective lure in the place of
subjective gratification—yet it yields the supreme subjective satisfaction. And
religion ennobles the commonplace drudgery of daily living. [1094:2]
The new religion
does not seek ease, miracles, or direct divine intervention. One of the new and even revolutionary teachings of
The Urantia Book is the revelation of the different universe ages and the
respective evolving Gods: the finite age of time and space, the domain of the
actualisation of the Supreme, with evolution, experience, and progress
as its watch words; the absonite age of transcended space and supertime,
the domain of the actualisation of the Ultimate; and finally the absolute age,
the domain of the unfoldment of God the Absolute. We mortal humans are part of
the finite age, where two aspects are essential—evolution-growth and
experience. This circumstance is God-ordained, it is the Father’s will.
Evolution is the way progress happens in the finite universe
age. Evolution is divinely ordained, divinely controlled, divinely sustained,
but by and large evolution happens through the efforts of evolutionary
beings—the sons of God, mortals, midwayers, angels, Melchizedechs, Lanonadek
and Vorondadek Sons, Paradise Sons, Divine Ministers, the Spirit of Truth, the
Holy Spirit, the Master Spirits, assisted by Father fragments like the Thought
Changers / Adjusters / Controllers (Mystery Monitors) and many other divine
entities. Even so, direct and overt divine intervention is extremely
exceptional. Miracles hardly happen. There is no place for magic or
channelling—messages received by certain self-appointed “chosen people” from
allegedly superhuman or even divine beings. Direct verbal communication with
divine or spirit entities is truly exceptional. Evolution is programmed to
march forward; it is slow but it is extremely effective. The first principle of
evolution is that it is spontaneous, it happens by the free-will acts of all
involved. Gods do not force their will on anyone.
This circumstance
means that evolution consists in effort, striving, and struggle; it comes with
much affliction, pain, hardships, and suffering. It is not easy. The new
religion is aware of all of this and accepts it with joy. The new religion
strives to find out and to do the Father’s will and faces heroically the
challenges, the rugged realities, and the hardships inseparably attached to
progress.
You are my apostles,
and to your religion shall not become a theologic shelter to which you may flee
in fear of facing the rugged realities of spiritual progress and idealistic
adventure. [1733:6]
Evolutionary man
does not naturally relish hard work. To keep pace in his life experience with
the impelling demands and the compelling urges of a growing religious
experience means incessant activity in spiritual growth, intellectual
expansion, factual enlargement, and social service. There is no real religion
apart from a highly active personality. Therefore do the more indolent of men
often seek to escape the rigors of truly religious activities by a species of
ingenious self‑deception through resorting to a retreat to the false
shelter of stereotyped religious doctrines and dogmas. But true religion is
alive. Intellectual crystallization of religious concepts is the equivalent of
spiritual death. You cannot conceive of religion without ideas, but when
religion once becomes reduced only to an idea, it is no longer religion;
it has become merely a species of human philosophy. [1120:4]
But religion is
never enhanced by an appeal to the so‑called miraculous. The quest for miracles
is a harking back to the primitive religions of magic. True religion has
nothing to do with alleged miracles, and never does revealed religion point to
miracles as proof of authority. Religion is ever and always rooted and grounded
in personal experience.
[1128:3]
Tradition is a safe
refuge and an easy path for those fearful and halfhearted souls who
instinctively shun the spirit struggles and mental uncertainties associated
with those faith voyages of daring adventure out upon the high seas of unexplored
truth in search for the farther shores of spiritual realities as they may be
discovered by the progressive human mind and experienced by the evolving human
soul. [1729:6]
The proselytising of
the new religion is much different from that of the institutionalised religions. The primary method of winning souls for the kingdom
of heaven, of winning converts to the new religion, is not so much evangelising
and proselytising as it is your daily spiritual-fruit-bearing life, your way of
living.
You, as did his
apostles, should the better understand Jesus’ teachings by his life. He lived a
perfected life on Urantia, and his unique teachings can only be understood when
that life is visualized in its immediate background. It is his life, and not
his lessons to the twelve or his sermons to the multitudes, that will assist
most in revealing the Father’s divine character and loving personality. [1581:6]
“You are not merely
to proclaim the joys of heaven but also to exhibit in your daily experience
these spirit realities of the divine life since you already have eternal life,
as the gift of God, through faith.” [2043:1]
“The measure
wherewith truth seekers are drawn to you represents the measure of your truth
endowment, your righteousness. The extent to which you have to go with your
message to the people is, in a way, the measure of your failure to live the
whole or righteous life, the truth-co-ordinated life.” [1726:2]
The new religion’s
relationships with other religions. The new religion, Jesus’s religion, is said to be the
living hope of the traditional religions (1583:3). This piece of
knowledge of course doesn’t justify or entitle any arrogance and condescension
by new religionists in their relations with old religionists, and the
traditional religions. But yes, it does give those who have embraced Jesus’
religion the assurance that their religion will triumph one day (2075:3,
2076:7), that they need not espouse any of the doctrines and dogmas of the
evolutionary or partly revelatory old religions. The new religion must not be
amalgamated with any of the old doctrines.
Not so with regard
to the institutionalised, traditional religions, which need to undergo profound
transformations. Believers in those doctrines will increasingly realise that
they have to even radically modify, revise, and change their dogmas,
doctrines, creeds, ceremonials, and other religious practices. They do wisely
if they embrace ideas and notions of other religions, and particularly those of
the true religion. None of that belongs to the future of the real, true, and
genuine religion.
There is not a
Urantia religion that could not profitably study and assimilate the best of the
truths contained in every other faith, for all contain truth. Religionists
would do better to borrow the best in their neighbors’ living spiritual faith
rather than to denounce the worst in their lingering superstitions and outworn
rituals. [1012:4]
What the believers
of the true religion can and should do is that they look for those features and
approaches in other religions which unite, and refrain from putting too much
emphasis on the features that separate.
The many religions
of Urantia are all good to the extent that they bring man to God and bring the
realization of the Father to man. It is a fallacy for any group of religionists
to conceive of their creed as The Truth; such attitudes bespeak more of
theological arrogance than of certainty of faith. [1012:4]
This means that
religionists of the new religion will study other religions and do so in the understanding
emanating from the new religion and in the light of the revelatory teachings.
This doesn’t of course mean that the mistaken notions of other religions must
be embraced.
The teachers of the
religion of Jesus should approach other religions with the recognition of the
truths which are held in common (many of which come directly or indirectly from
Jesus’ message) while they refrain from placing so much emphasis on the
differences. [1670:6]
While your religion
is a matter of personal experience, it is most important that you should be
exposed to the knowledge of a vast number of other religious experiences (the
diverse interpretations of other and diverse mortals) to the end that you may
prevent your religious life from becoming egocentric—circumscribed, selfish,
and unsocial. [1130:2]
The true religion,
in its recognising the sovereignty of the Father, is no instigator of religious
rivalry nor any cause of religious strife. The new religion is a religion of
peace. The very opposite is the plague of the organised and institutionalised
religions, as we may witness every day.
But the moment you
lose sight of the spirit sovereignty of God the Father, some one religion will
begin to assert its superiority over other religions; and then, instead of peace
on earth and good will among men, there will start dissensions, recriminations,
even religious wars, at least wars among religionists. [1487:5]
If different
religions recognize the spirit sovereignty of God the Father, then will all
such religions remain at peace. Only when one religion assumes that it is in
some way superior to all others, and that it possesses exclusive authority over
other religions, will such a religion presume to be intolerant of other
religions or dare to persecute other religious believers. [1486:6]
3. Resistance to the
religion of the spirit, the religion of personal experience. Some professed believers in the fifth epochal
revelation either have not grasped the essentials of the revelation; or the
fifth epochal revelation is too much for them, they find it impossible to
render up the notions of their old belief systems; or they have only partially
understood the aspect of socialisation or collectivisation of religion. The
outcome is that we are witnessing resistance to the teachings concerning the
personal religion of the spirit; we are witnessing harking back to the old
religion of authority; we are witnessing endeavours to convert the new religion
into an old one, or to combine the two.
The resistance
appears as distrust in the power and capacities of the new religion of the
spirit, Jesus’ religion. This distrust manifests itself basically as a
two-pronged resistance: 1. Something as ancient as Deus ex machina, in
other words, expectations of a direct divine or superhuman intervention, belief
in channelled messages, in gurus, in charismatic leaders. 2. Advocacy of a
return to the old patterns and practices of organised religions. Today some
readers are suggesting and even working for the establishment of a Urantia
Church, a new organised religion.
Is any of that what
we really want? Do the new religionists, the adherents of personal
religion of the spirit, in a docile manner, let it happen that all of the
wonderful vistas opened by Jesus’ religion become lost? A new organised
religion would automatically mean that religious liberty would be lost, the
dynamism of a personal religion would be lost, the hope of world
transformation would be lost, the chances for one global religion would be
lost, and the many other wonderful features of Jesus’ religion would be lost,
and we would instead have all the evils of an institutionalised religion and of
ancient superstition and mysticism, masquerading as something reliable and
trustworthy. No, we don’t want any of it, and we will not let any of it come
true.
II. Should Believers
in the Revelation Establish a New Church?
The unequivocal
answer to the above question is no, absolutely not. The believers
must not form a new church or an organised religion.
The next question
is: Why not? A brief answer to the “why not” is that organised religion is an
expression of introversion; organised religion is incapable of transforming
the world; a new organised religion would just increase, instead of
decreasing, the number of religions—and we should help mankind’s march towards
one race, one language, and one religion; a new organised religion would
unavoidably become part of the religious division and rivalry in the world;
and last but not least, a new religion, especially if is attached to The Urantia
Book and if it its name has the word “Urantia” in it, would effectively
obstruct and ultimately stop the efforts to disseminate the fifth epochal
revelation. This would be felt everywhere in the world, but more particularly
in those regions where the knowledge of the existence of this revelation is
marginal or even nonexistent.
Organised religion,
institutionalised churches, are however an inevitable feature of human
evolution. Organised religion has served certain good purposes in the evolution
of man.
The fact of man’s
gregariousness perforce determines that religious groups will come into
existence. [1090:10]
The organised
religions, a feature of the human evolution as they are, are also obedient, if
grudgingly, to the immutable laws of evolution. There is a unique feature in
the development and evolution of organised religion, and that is its
tardiness; it is extremely slow. The reasons for this tardiness are explained
in the revelatory teachings:
... human loyalties,
once mobilized, are hard to change. [1488:6]
The cult resists
development because real progress is certain to modify or destroy the cult
itself; therefore must revision always be forced upon it. [1006:1]
Religion is the most
rigid and unyielding of all human institutions, but it does tardily adjust to
changing society. Eventually, evolutionary religion does reflect the changing
mores, which, in turn, may have been affected by revealed religion. Slowly,
surely, but grudgingly, does religion (worship) follow in the wake of wisdom—knowledge
directed by experiential reason and illuminated by divine revelation. [1004:4]
Organized religion
has proved to be conservatively tardy. The prophets have usually led the people
in religious development; the theologians have usually held them back.
Religion, being a matter of inner or personal experience, can never develop
very far in advance of the intellectual evolution of the races. [1128:2]
1. The suggested
“Urantia religion” or “Urantia Church” would be a repetition of the evils of
institutionalised religions.
Even if organised religions have played an important part in the evolution man
and his civilisation, the revelation presents also a long list of the evils of
institutionalised religions, features that are intrinsically and inseparably attached
to organised religions. What is presented hereunder is by no means an
exhaustive exposé of these negative traits.
Rodan of Alexandria
presented this classification of religions:
All religions based
on fear, emotion, tradition, and philosophy I term the intellectual religions,
while those based on true spirit experience I would term the true religions.
The object of religious devotion may be material or spiritual, true or false,
real or unreal, human or divine. Religions can therefore be either good or
evil. [1780:5]
A new organised
religion would be similar to the old ones: a religion of the mind. The
very fact of an organised religion’s being distinct from the true religion of
the spirit turns it into an intellectual religion, a religion of the mind. A
suggested Urantia religion could not make any exception to this rule. Its basic
tenets would perforce be based on an undefinable number of teachings taken from
The Urantia Book and subsequently modified in accordance with human
reasoning, which is subject to periodical change. Human reasoning again and
always reflects fears and emotions, it tends to be tradition-bound. Such a Urantia
religion would, therefore, be a religion under the influence of fear, emotion,
tradition, and philosophy.
These are Jesus’
words to Andrew:
“But when you enter
upon the co-ordination of divergent human interpretations of religious
questions and upon the socialization of religion, you are destined to solve all
such problems by your own decisions...” [1624:14]
If theology
dominates religion—as is does in organised religion—and as it would inevitably
do in a Urantia Church, the religion dies:
When theology
masters religion, religion dies; it becomes a doctrine instead of a life. [1141:4]
A potential Urantia
Church would not be saved from the need to determine its rituals. First there would be group prayer and group worship,
next step is to determine what more rituals the believers need to perform
together, and who is to officiate; subsequently a number of rules are decided
upon regarding the ceremonials, a dress code (first minimal, some time later,
full; first concerning only the officiant, some time later, all); the need to
determine the proper number, colour, and shape of candles and flower
arrangements, and whether wine is or is not served at remembrance suppers will
have to be determined, and so on. The midwayers, the authors of Part IV, make
the following pronouncement:
Throughout his
entire earth life Jesus gave his followers very little instruction regarding
the socialization of religion. [1642:6]
Since The Urantia
Book is mostly silent about the aspect of the socialisation of religion,
and since an institutionalised Urantia religion would therefore be unable to
resort to or draw from any pertinent revelatory teachings, this aspect would
very soon become an issue of interminable discord and sectarianism.
It is conceivable
that the suggested new Church has for example to determine the wording of its
creed or profession of faith, whether to pattern it, mutatis mutandis,
according to the Apostolic Creed, or whether to try to agree upon something
else; it has to determine which rituals to endorse, whether baptism is one of
the rites of the church, whether babies will be baptised; it has to determine
the formula for funeral rites and whether the concentric circles, instead of
the Christian cross or the Moslem crescent, should be engraved on tombstones;
it has to determine whether to celebrate Jesus’ birthday on 21 August or on 25
December, or whether on both days; it has to determine whether to celebrate
Easter on 9 April or whether to go with one of the Christian traditions; it has
to determine if every member of the church will have the authority to officiate
at divine services, or whether this function is to be performed only by those
who are specifically trained (Urantia priests, ministers, bishops); it has to
determine a proper ceremonial for weddings; it has to determine whether the
wedded couple has to be of two genders, or whether also couples of the same
gender will be sanctioned by the church, etc. —indefinitely.
All of the above is
the sure way to convert the dynamic true religion into an impotent organised
religion:
Prayer is the
technique whereby, sooner or later, every religion becomes institutionalized.
And in time prayer becomes associated with numerous secondary agencies, some
helpful, others decidedly deleterious, such as priests, holy books, worship
rituals, and ceremonials.
[999:2]
A new organised
religion would be a religion about The Urantia Book. The revealed religion of The Urantia Book
is the true religion, genuine religion, real religion, Jesus’ religion, the
religion of the spirit. The suggested new organised religion, while it is not
the religion of The Urantia Book, would perforce be a religion about
The Urantia Book. We do well in recalling how the revelation describes
the great error of Christianity:
And so, under the
vigorous leadership of Peter and ere the Master ascended to the Father, his
well‑meaning representatives began that subtle process of gradually and
certainly changing the religion of Jesus into a new and modified form of
religion about Jesus.
[2051:5]
The proposed
“Urantia religion” would repeat all of that.
Complacency, conceit
and stagnation in the place of effort and spiritual struggle. We have learned above that the religion of the spirit
consists of incessant effort, struggle, self-improvement, and progress towards
perfectedness. An organised religion, a church, is by definition organised
around a number of tenets which the adherents of that religion hold in common.
The authorities of the religion, the theologians of the Church, have
established the “truth,” worded in these doctrines. The tenets are given; they
are not questioned; there is no development of the “truth” of the religion. Any
elaboration of the “truth” is strongly discouraged. This bespeaks of standstill
and stagnation. There is complacency and conceit in the place of
truth-seeking. And why should there be any search for truth; after all the
religion claims that it is already in the possession of the “truth”,
which other religions are still short of or which they have distorted.
Religious liberty is lost. A “Urantia Church” would by no means be free from
this evil.
The religion of the
spirit means effort, struggle, conflict, faith, determination, love, loyalty,
and progress. The religion of the mind—the theology of authority—requires
little or none of these exertions from its formal believers. [1729:6]
Since the suggested
Urantia religion or church would allegedly derive its dogma and doctrine from a
revelation it would be particularly prone to feel superiority. Many of its
adherents would feel to be “chosen people.” The church would be arrogant in
its relations with other institutionalised religions. All of that would
effectively curb its chances of cooperating with other organised religions.
Jesus himself discussed these issues in his Urmia lectures:
But the moment you
lose sight of the spirit sovereignty of God the Father, some one religion will
begin to assert its superiority over other religions; and then, instead of
peace on earth and good will among men, there will start dissensions,
recriminations, even religious wars, at least wars among religionists. [1487:5]
If different
religions recognize the spirit sovereignty of God the Father, then will all
such religions remain at peace. Only when one religion assumes that it is in
some way superior to all others, and that it possesses exclusive authority over
other religions, will such a religion presume to be intolerant of other
religions or dare to persecute other religious believers. [1486:6]
Religious
peace—brotherhood—can never exist unless all religions are willing to
completely divest themselves of all ecclesiastical authority... [1487:1]
Impassive
introversion in the place of dynamic extroversion. An organised religion is basically an institution of
like-minded people huddling together. The urge to serve or the need to act is
not excessively prominent. Instead, the prominent need is personal security
and protection of the church and its dogma against heretics, watch for its
orthodoxy, and assuring that an occasional convert will profess the same faith.
The focus of such a church is in the enjoyment of the companionship of its
members. The religion is self-centered—introvert—seeking for satisfaction and
security for the self; protection against the world.
A Urantia church
would be no different from the traditional organised churches. An organised
Urantia religion would mean that some readers of the book huddle together,
worship and pray together, and enjoy of their mutual companionship. True
religion, as was described above, does not strain itself with issues of
orthodoxy or heterodoxy. It acts. It acts dynamically. It does not seek for
security; it seeks to serve the fellow man and transform the world.
While the religion
of authority may impart a present feeling of settled security, you pay for such
a transient satisfaction the price of the loss of your spiritual freedom and
religious liberty...
[1731:3]
A Urantia religion
would be a secondhand religion instead of a firsthand faith. An organised religion is by definition a body of
like-minded people who yield to the authority of the church and who accept the
dogma and doctrines of the mind religion, as defined not by the religionist
himself but rather by theologians and priests. Organised religion is just one
department of an individual’s life; it is something practised periodically and
at some special occasions, always officiated and conducted by somebody else. It
is not the constant communion with Deity, the way of living, of the religion of
the spirit, which all students of the revelation should know about. Religion
is secondhand, it is only in a circumscribed fashion a firsthand experience. In
this respect, a potential Urantia religion would be no different from the traditional
religions. The fifth epochal revelation deplores this circumstance:
The world needs more
firsthand religion. Even Christianity—the best of the religions of the twentieth
century—is not only a religion about Jesus, but it is so largely one
which men experience secondhand. They take their religion wholly as handed down
by their accepted religious teachers. What an awakening the world would
experience if it could only see Jesus as he really lived on earth and know,
firsthand, his life‑giving teachings! [2083:4]
In likeness with
other institutionalised religions, the suggested Urantia religion would be
plagued by sectarianism. Because
each individual understands and interprets the teachings of the revelation in
his particular and personal way, a religion, even if grounded on the very
teachings and philosophy of the fifth epochal revelation, would suffer from
grave internal differences of opinion. The differences would concern almost
everything. The heated reader debates on the Internet discussion lists
constitute a striking proof thereof. Because the suggested church would be an
institution, it would need to have the normal bodies of an organisation; it
would need to have leaders and a certain structure. It then would behove these
leaders to determine “where the church stands” with regard to these multiple
issues of contention and discord. Along with a decision concerning these
difficulties an official, sanctioned, doctrine begins to take shape. Even
here the Urantia church would in no essential way be different from other organised
religions.
Even so, there would
be people who consider it impossible to yield to the decisions of the church
leaders. These members of the church will not desist from advocating and
disseminating their personal interpretations and views, nor will they be hiding
their rejection of the rulings of the leadership. It is inevitable that they
will—at least to some extent—find following within the church. And alas, a sect
is born! If the irreconcilable differences are sufficiently disturbing and
distracting there is a need to find a solution to this unbearable situation.
There are two options: Either the leadership severs the church’s ties with the dissenting
group—and in so acting it gives birth to church discipline. Or the sectarians
themselves leave the church and form a new one, the True Urantia Church. This
new church will be advertised as the only orthodox one. And ah! the era of
rivalrous Urantia churches has finally dawned.
This kind of
development is part of the history of every religion, notoriously so with
regard to Christianity. A Urantia church would be particularly prone to
disunity. After all, the “Holy Book” of a Urantia Church is a revelation,
something that people feel exceedingly passionate and jealous about.
It is far better to
have a religion without an institutional church with its dogma and
doctrines—which have killed the true religion—than to have a church without
religion. The revelation has much to say about sects. Here are a few of such
pronouncements:
Sectarianism is a
disease of institutional religion, and dogmatism is an enslavement of the
spiritual nature. It is far better to have a religion without a church than a church
without religion.
[1092:1]
All these religions
... can never hope to attain a uniformity of creeds, dogmas, and rituals—these
are intellectual; but they can, and some day will, realize a unity in true
worship of the Father of all, for this is spiritual, and it is forever true, in
the spirit all men are equal.
[1012:5]
The latter quotation
guides us to work and exert pressure upon the existing religions and help them
realise that the unity of all world religionists lies in true worship of the
Universal Father. This will be conducive to their ultimately recognising the
sovereignty of the Father—instead of the sovereignty of the church.
A Urantia religion
would be incapable of advancing the transformation of the world. As reported above, only true religion, the religion
of Jesus, is capable of spiritual world transformation. An organised religion
is not a dynamic force; such a religion prefers to conserve rather than to
reform.
Institutional
religion cannot afford inspiration and provide leadership in this impending
world‑wide social reconstruction and economic reorganization because it
has unfortunately become more or less of an organic part of the social order
and the economic system which is destined to undergo reconstruction. Only the
real religion of personal spiritual experience can function helpfully and
creatively in the present crisis of civilization. [1087:4]
Formal religion
restrains men in their personal spiritual activities instead of releasing them
for heightened service as kingdom builders. [1092:4]
Institutional
religion’s contribution in the transformation of the world has been minimal.
The world has of course become transformed a great deal since the early days,
but not much of the effected transformation can be ascribed to the institutionalised
religions—it has rather happened in spite of them. The church, particularly the
Christian Church—once persecuted Christians became persecuting Christians—has,
in the course of two millennia, walked hand in hand with kings, princes, lords,
and finally presidents and prime ministers fighting against and fending off
freedom and liberty, democracy, the emancipation of women; acting in
perpetuation of oppression, poverty, and inequality; defending the vested
interests of the Church and the mighty, successfully exacting and coaxing the
state to persecute heterodox believers and “heretics;” oppressing women,
dismembering and mutilating “witches” and homosexuals and burning them at the
stake; instituting the Inquisition and its torture chambers; interfering in
the private lives of believers and nonbelievers alike; forcing unnatural and
involuntary celibacy on a large section of its adherents and servants;
dictating and sanctioning religious wars and genocide; persecuting Jews, Moslems,
and fellow Christians; persecuting scientists and suppressing scientific
findings; killing dissidents, massacring millions of people—particularly in the
newly conquered (termed as “converted”) regions of the world; mobilising
crusades; shedding blood; disseminating division and hatred; proscribing and
burning books and destroying and deforming other works of art; toppling
thrones, shaking governments, and so on. The list is without end. And all of
that was masquerading as religion! All of that happened in the name of Christ
Michael!
Those activities
have only partially stopped, and where they have stopped, it has happened only
recently. Those activities did not cease because of the self-correcting acts
of the Church, but rather because true religionists forced the Church into it.
These true religionists did not very often act as religionists. These reformers
have included inspired humanists, philosophers, scientists, professors,
teachers, leaders and members of revivalist movements, even politicians, kings,
and princes—who finally refused to yield to the dictates of the Church— not
forgetting the secularists and finally the rank and file of the popular masses
who have embraced the alluring secular doctrines of freedom and turned their
backs on the Church—for good.
Because organised
religions have lost their appeal, and the peoples of the world, particularly in
the West, are indifferent towards organised religions, the experience of an
organised Urantia religion wouldn’t be as dramatic as that of the Christian Church.
But in principle, all the same elements are there. A church comes automatically
with ecclesiastical power; it comes unavoidably with pronouncements concerning
morals and ethics, it comes with rules of conduct, it comes with statements on
a correct theological understanding and interpretation of the “Scripture”; it
comes with priesthood, even priestcraft, and it comes with a lot of
administration. In short, the liberty of the true religion is lost—lost
irrevocably—and with that loss dissipates also its capacity for world
transformation and spiritual regeneration of mankind.
But as religion
becomes institutionalized, its power for good is curtailed, while the
possibilities for evil are greatly multiplied. The dangers of formalized
religion are: fixation of beliefs and crystallization of sentiments; accumulation
of vested interests with increase of secularization; tendency to standardize
and fossilize truth; diversion of religion from the service of God to the
service of the church; inclination of leaders to become administrators instead
of ministers; tendency to form sects and competitive divisions; establishment
of oppressive ecclesiastical authority; creation of the aristocratic “chosen‑people”
attitude; fostering of false and exaggerated ideas of sacredness; the
routinizing of religion and the petrification of worship; tendency to venerate
the past while ignoring present demands; failure to make up‑to‑date
interpretations of religion; entanglement with functions of secular
institutions; it creates the evil discrimination of religious castes; it
becomes an intolerant judge of orthodoxy; it fails to hold the interest of
adventurous youth and gradually loses the saving message of the gospel of
eternal salvation.
[1092:3]
There is nothing in
the above quotation which would not concern and have bearing on an organised
Urantia Church and institutionalised Urantia religion. Do the believers in the
fifth epochal revelation, the revelation of spiritual liberty, really want any
of that? Do the believers in the fifth epochal revelation continue to be
fearful?
The ultimate raison
d’être of an institutionalised religion is fear, fear of facing the
pressures of evolutionary life. Institutionalised religions are built on the
sentiments of fear. Organised religion is viewed as a safe heaven, a shelter,
and an avenue of escape:
Again, there are
other types of unstable and poorly disciplined souls who would use the
sentimental ideas of religion as an avenue of escape from the irritating
demands of living. When certain vacillating and timid mortals attempt to escape
from the incessant pressure of evolutionary life, religion, as they conceive
it, seems to present the nearest refuge, the best avenue of escape...
Mysticism, however, is often something of a retreat from life which is embraced
by those humans who do not relish the more robust activities of living a
religious life in the open arenas of human society and commerce. True religion
must act. Conduct will be the result of religion when man actually has it, or rather
when religion is permitted truly to possess the man. Never will religion be
content with mere thinking or unacting feeling. [1121:1]
We have been
exhorted to be of good cheer and face bravely, even heroically, the
vicissitudes of life (1121:1).
In his proclaiming
religious liberty, Jesus opened the door to the prison cell of traditional
dogma and institutionalised religion. Now, some of his professed followers
refuse to leave the cell and are straining themselves in pulling the door shut
again. They are unwilling to leave the seclusion and the safety of the cell.
They even endeavour to draw others into the same place.
2. The goal is one
religion, not a multiplication of religions. To found and establish yet another religion would run
counter to the explicit teachings of the revelation, which instructs us that
there will ultimately be just one global religion, or at least religions with a
global viewpoint. It is a fallacy to believe that another institutional
religion would be the discussed global religion, even if some of its doctrines
were patterned according to revelatory teachings. The suggested Urantia
religion would not be prone to increase, rather than decrease, the number of
religions—and not by just one, but who knows by how many, because such a
religion would in a very short time splinter into sects and a multitude of
rivalling Urantia religions.
A Urantia religion
would effectively block the dissemination of the revelatory teachings, and the
real religion, the religion of Jesus. Other institutionalised religions would
look with suspicion and opposition at this newcomer. Most people do not care
about institutionalised religions, they don’t want any of that. But yes, they
can be won over to the true religion unless it is tainted with some connection
or association with this organised Urantia religion.
The goal, anyhow, is
one religion:
[In the
post-bestowal age, on normal planets] There are many nations, mostly
determined by land distribution, but only one race, one language, and one
religion. [597:1]
By this time [of the era of light and life] the worlds are
progressing under the momentum of one language, one religion, and, on normal
spheres, one race. [624:7]
No evolutionary
world can hope to progress beyond the first stage of settledness in light and
life until it has achieved one language, one religion, and one philosophy. [626:11]
... and there will
be at least some hope of sometime having a global religion—or religions with a
global viewpoint. [1491:5]
III. Socialisation
and Collectivisation of Religion
It was stated above
that The Urantia Book is mostly silent about the socialisation or
collectivisation of religion (1642:6); the revelators explicitly tell us that
they do not impart any detailed instructions concerning the socialisation
aspect of religion, be it institutional or otherwise:
But when you enter
upon the co‑ordination of divergent human interpretations of religious
questions and upon the socialization of religion, you are destined to solve all
such problems by your own decisions... [1624:14]
In what manner the
religion of Jesus is going to be manifested in collective religious practices
is an issue that mankind has to figure out on its own. In the light of all of
the above, it is however perfectly evident that another church is not the
answer.
Just as certainly as
men share their religious beliefs, they create a religious group of some sort
which eventually creates common goals. Someday religionists will get together
and actually effect co‑operation on the basis of unity of ideals and
purposes rather than attempting to do so on the basis of psychological opinions
and theological beliefs. Goals rather than creeds should unify religionists.
Since true religion is a matter of personal spiritual experience, it is
inevitable that each individual religionist must have his own and personal
interpretation of the realization of that spiritual experience. Let the term
“faith” stand for the individual’s relation to God rather than for the creedal
formulation of what some group of mortals have been able to agree upon as a
common religious attitude.
[1091:6]
We have learned that
the goal of the evolution is one global religion. We have learned that the
religion of Jesus will triumph one day. May we conclude that the one religion
is the true religion, the religion of Jesus? When the true religion, the
personal religion, is the dominant religion in the world, there will be no
religious rivalry; everyone will recognise the sovereignty of the Universal
Father. Then, and only then, the time has come for us to be visualising the
possible outer expressions of this religion, the collective manifestations of
the personal religion.
I tend to think
that, for example, in our current conditions, a good study group meeting—even
without any attempt at group worship or formal prayer—is one instance where a
personal religion finds an expression in a collective and social setting. The
worshipful attitude of gratitude to God and the reality of human brotherhood
are present. They are present even if they should never be verbalised. By and
large, I feel that true religionists should figure out something better than an
imitation of the ceremonial practices of traditional religions. We should be
creative, we should create something that would be a better expression of our
true sentiments.
Will group prayer
and worship be part of the outer expression of the religion of the spirit, the
inner religion? We shall see. In any case religious collectivism must be based
on common goals. A study group has a goal shared by all.
That there will be
some kind of collective—not organised or institutionalised—religion, an outward
expression of the personal religion of the spirit, is inevitable:
The fact of man’s
gregariousness perforce determines that religious groups will come into
existence. What happens to these religious groups depends very much on
intelligent leadership.
[1090:10]
This has ever been
the error of the religious leaders: Seeing the evils of institutionalized
religion, they seek to destroy the technique of group functioning. In place of
destroying all ritual, they would do better to reform it. [1076:4]
(The symbols of
socialized religion are not to be despised as channels of growth, albeit the
river bed is not the river.)
[1098:4]
The revelators
pronounce that even the restatement of the religion of Jesus must develop a
new and appropriate symbolism. [966:1]. We should note what the revelators
do not say. They do not say that the fifth epochal revelation
must develop a symbolism, it needs rather to be developed for the “restatement
of the religion of Jesus.” And we remember that the religion of Jesus is the
true and personal religion portrayed above.
Right after the above statement the revelators present a long list of criteria that the new symbolism has to meet: 1) It must arise out of religious living, spiritual experience; 2) it must be predicated on the concept of the Fatherhood of God and be pregnant with the ideal of the brotherhood of man; 3) it must be the outgrowth of applied love; 4) it must foster sentiment, satisfy emotion, and promote loyalty; 5) it must facilitate spiritual progress; 6) it must enhance cosmic meanings; 7) it must augment moral values; 8) it must encourage social development; 9) it must stimulate a high type of personal religious living; 10) it must provide supreme goals of living which are both temporal and eternal—social and spiritual; 11) it must be based on the biologic, sociologic, and religious significance of the home; 12) it must symbolise that which is permanent in the presence of unceasing change; 13) it must glorify that which unifies the stream of ever-changing social metamorphosis; 14) it must recognise true meanings; 15) it must exalt beautiful relations; 16) it must glorify the good values of real nobility; 17) it must embody some masterful mystery and conceal some worthful unattainable; 18) it must not only be significant for the group but also meaningful to the individual; 19) its forms must be those which the individual can carry out on his own initiative and which he can enjoy also with his fellows; 20) it must not be too complex; 21) it must demand for devotion, the response of loyalty; 22) it must not be crystallised into cramping, deforming, and stifling stereotyped ceremonials which can only handicap and retard social, moral, and spiritual progress. (966:1—5)
The criteria are
impossible to meet in the current situation of the world. The day when it will
be possible must be far in the future. We must perhaps wait until the time
when the religion of Jesus will have triumphed. And we know that it will one
day.
Seppo
Kanerva