Reason and Revelation: Scholarly Essays about The Urantia Book

By Byron Belitsos

Proponents of the UB are overdue for serious dialogue with the intelligentsia of our society, including the academic community. This introductory anthology builds bridges to these serious thinkers, especially those unfamiliar with The Urantia Book. It is suitable for those with research interest in religious studies, philosophy, theology, history, and general humanities.

This anthology provides the highest quality research essays about The Urantia Book (UB) in one standalone introductory volume. Aside from their high quality of writing, these materials have been selected for three reasons:

• They showcase genuine scholarship and deep research on The Urantia Book
• These essays bridge to contemporary knowledge outside the UB
• Each piece is suitable for readers new the Urantia text.

Adherents of the UB are long overdue for serious dialogue with the academic community as well as with the intelligentsia of our society, most of whom are unfamiliar with The Urantia Book. In addition to introducing the UB to academics, thought leaders, and cultural influencers, Reason and Revelation is also designed as an introductory textbook for use in university classrooms, especially in fields such as religious studies, philosophy, theology, history, and general humanities. Like the Urantia revelation itself, this anthology is holistic and interdisciplinary. However, it does not provide essays on the social and natural sciences; these topics will be covered in a future volume. Reason and Revelation is divided into four parts:
I.   General Studies
II.  Origin and Influence Studies
III. Religion, Ethics, and Spirituality
IV. Philosophy and Theology

Because no prior knowledge of the UB is required, Part I provides a beginner’s orientation. The later sections further introduce UB teachings on more specific topics, building upon this earlier section. Most but not all of these later essays are chosen because they are comparative—they assess the UB’s teachings in relation to the contemporary academic understanding of the chosen topic. Several chapters simply provide studies of key topics at academic depth. To further aid readers, the anthology provides an extensive glossary, appendices, charts, and an index.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Origin Press
• Release date: May 15, 2024
• ISBN: 9781579830663

Book preview

REASON AND REVELATION

Scholarly Writings about

The Urantia Book

General Editor:

Byron Belitsos

Origin Press / Academic

Origin Press / Academic

www.OriginPress.org

Copyright © 2024 by Byron Belitsos

Front cover design by Derek Samaras

All rights reserved. This book is protected by copyright.

No part of it may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,

or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic,

mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise

without written permission from the author.

ISBN 978-1-57983-065-6 (paperback)

ISBN 978-1-57983-066-3 (ebook)

Printed in the United States of America

Contents

Editor’s Preface

Introduction: A Beginner’s Overview of the  Parts of The Urantia Book

Part I: General Studies

Prologue I: Excerpts on Epochal Revelation

1. A Pioneer’s Early Discovery of The Urantia Book

—Rev. Dr. Meredith J. Sprunger

2. A Brief Introduction to The Urantia Book

—Rev. Dr. Meredith J. Sprunger

3. The Urantia Book as a Compensatory Gift to Humankind

—Byron Belitsos

4. The Great Adventure:  Man in Partnership with God

—William Sadler, Jr

Part II: Origin Studies

Prologue II: Excerpts on the Origin of the Papers

5. A History of the  Urantia Movement

—The Contact Commission

6. The Human Sources and the Problem of Fallibility

—Byron Belitsos

7. Revelatory Mouthpiecing

—Zechariah Mann, PhD (pseudonym)

Part III: Religion, Ethics, and Spirituality

Prologue III: Excerpts on the Restated Gospel of Jesus

8. The First Two Beatitudes: The Bedrock of Attitudinal Transformation

—F. Gard Jameson, PhD

9. Philosophy of Living as a Path to Love: The Role of Truth, Beauty, and Goodness

—George Russell, PhD (pseudonymous)

10. The Grand Cosmos: A Universal  Theater for Soul Evolution

—Byron Belitsos

11. The Urantia Book on the Apostle Paul: The Question of Mystery Cult Influence

—Zechariah Mann, PhD (Pseudonym)

Part IV: Philosophy and Theology

Prologue IV: God’s Eternal Purpose

12. An Introduction to The Urantia Book for Conservative Christians

—Rev. Dr. Meredith J. Sprunger

13. The Great Transition: The Catholic Response to the Urantia Revelation

—Rev. James Thomas (pseudonymous)

14. The Urantia Revelation and the Problem of Evil

—Byron Belitsos

15. Do All Ascenders Survive?  A Comparative Study

—Reverend James Thomas (pseudonymous) with Byron Belitsos

Appendix A: Instruction for Teachers and Believers

Appendix B: Some Key Celestial Authors Identified in the UB

Appendix C: Urantia Cosmology and Contemporary Astrophysics

Appendix D: Mother Spirit and Christ Michael: Local Universe Representatives of the Trinity

Glossary

Editor’s Preface

This anthology aims to provide, in one introductory volume, the highest quality research essays about The Urantia Book, a dense text of 2,097 pages that is also known as the UB, Urantia revelation, Urantia text, or Urantia Papers. The UB is described by adherents as an epochal revelation to humankind and is felt by many to be a new bible for the postmodern world. Upon inspection, the UB comes across as a futuristic encyclopedia of theology, modern cosmology, science, spirituality, religion, philosophy, and history. One also discovers that 775 of its pages provide an audacious retelling of the life and teachings of Jesus, purportedly based on the angelic and human record of these events and intended to update or correct the errors of the New Testament. The Urantia Book was first published in 1955 in Chicago, the city where the manuscript originated through a contact commission of six individuals (as described in chapter 5). This group was led by a surgeon and psychiatrist named Dr. William Sadler, who studied with Sigmund Freud in Vienna for a year in 1910 and who later authored Theory and Practice of Psychiatry (1936), among numerous popular and professional books. Sadler and his supporters founded the Urantia Foundation, which today claims sales of over one million copies in more than 20 languages and a large following worldwide.

The pieces in this anthology were chosen because they showcase genuine scholarship or in-depth research. These essays were also selected because they are suited for readers who are new to the UB and in most cases provide such inquirers with a helpful bridge to contemporary knowledge outside the Urantia text. It is our further intention that this anthology may inspire scholarly publications that serve as valid contributions to religious studies, philosophy, theology, history, general humanities, or for classroom use in these fields of study.

One may well hope for such a salutary result, but as I write this in early 2024, the publication of scholarly works in venues not solely intended for the Urantia reader-believer community (as we call it) are very rare. In the decades since the book was first published in 1955, such an endeavor has been perilous for academics and professional researchers. As you read these essays, you’ll discover why; because of its claim to be revelatory information of epochal significance, The Urantia Book is regarded as transgressive—especially by mainstream scholars.

And it is for this reason that three of our most significant contributors chose to use pseudonyms. In fact, almost all deep students of this purported epochal revelation prefer to write for the wider community of UB students, thus avoiding controversy and rejection. Reason and Revelation is an early effort to put an end to this sharp division between the little-known Urantia community and the wider intelligentsia of today’s society.

Like the Urantia Book teachings themselves, this anthology is holistic and interdisciplinary. However, it does not provide essays covering the social and natural sciences, which will be collected in a future volume.

Reason and Revelation is divided into four parts:

I.   General Studies

II.  Origin and Influence Studies

III. Religion, Ethics, and Spirituality

IV. Philosophy and Theology

Because no prior knowledge of the UB is required, Part I provides a beginner’s orientation, as does the Introduction that follows this Preface. This preliminary material provides a general overview and should be considered required reading for those new to the Urantia text. For more advanced definitions and explanations of key concepts, readers can go to specific essays in Parts II, III, or IV or turn to the glossary. Please note also that each part begins with a Prologue that features epigrammatic UB quotes pertinent to that section.

Most but not all of the later essays in this anthology are chosen because they are comparative, that is, they assess the UB’s teachings in relation to the contemporary academic understanding of the chosen topic. Chapters 9, 10, and 11 were chosen especially because they showcase advanced studies of important topics written by professional academics, two of whom are anonymous; it is our hope that these essays will inspire readers to look up and study their many citations. And finally, to further aid readers, Reason and Revelation provides appendices and an extensive glossary, which covers the many words and phrases unique to the Urantia revelation.

Introduction

A Beginner’s Overview of the Parts of The Urantia Book

Claimed by its authors to be an epochal revelation, the UB comes across at first glance as a futuristic encyclopedia of theology, cosmology, spirituality, science, religion, philosophy, and history. Upon deeper inspection, one discovers something startling: 775 of its 2,097 pages recount the life and teachings of Jesus, purportedly based on the angelic record of these events as well as on human records.[1] This unprecedented narrative comprises the last of the book’s four sections.

Other large sections describe the local universe of over six million inhabited planets and the five-billion-year story of our planet, whose universe name is said to be Urantia. All of this is framed very broadly by Part I, which provides a theology, philosophy, and multidimensional map of the cosmos that we believe is commensurate with our age of quantum physics, artificial intelligence, evolutionary biology, and multiverse cosmology.

Following is an overview of the anatomy and contents of The Urantia Book, which features a lengthy Foreword plus 196 Papers (or chapters) and is divided into four large parts.

Part I. The Central and Superuniverses presents the infinitely loving and merciful nature of the Universal Father, the First Source and Center of all things and beings whose attributes are utterly beyond gender. It also depicts his absolute and coordinate deity equals—the Eternal Son and the Infinite Spirit—as well as the self-distributions of the Trinity into all domains of reality.

The three eternal Persons are distinct source-personalities with differing attributes, but they can act as one perfectly unified Trinity and may also function in various permutations for diverse purposes. This section further depicts the universe activities associated with the reality domains of each of member of the Trinity, plus the nature and functions of the high universe personalities created by them—while offering still other disclosures about the ultimate nature of deity, divinity, and the cosmos including the so-called Seven Absolutes of Infinity (which embraces all personal and impersonal realities in all universes).

Part I also describes the far-flung domains of universal creation, painting a riveting picture of the perfect, eternal, and extra-dimensional central universe that lies at the center of the evolving time-space universe and that serves as its infinite source. At the very core of this eternal mother universe is Paradise, the everlasting residence of the Persons of the Trinity as well the home of a unique population of perfect citizens, its permanent inhabitants. The Isle of Paradise, as it is often called, is also the longed-for destiny of all ascending pilgrims hailing from the lowly material planets. Paradise is the motionless center-point of infinity and the absolute paragon, pattern, and source of all forms of energy, gravity, and matter in all domains and dimensions. Entirely surrounding the central universe is a region called Havona—which contains the highest-dimension spheres, worlds that exist from eternity and are populated by non-experiential perfect citizens. The central universe is, again, extra-dimensional and is therefore invisible to those looking inward toward it from the time-space domains. Encircling Havona is a stupendous ring of material galaxies containing inhabited planets and comprising the grand universe (as noted). And beyond this are four regions of organized creation containing trillions of uninhabited galaxies called the outer space levels, now coming into better visibility thanks to the James Webb Space Telescope. I believe there is nothing in world literature comparable to the lofty exposition of the cosmic and theological realities depicted in Part I, or the complex overview provided in the Foreword.

Part II. The Local Universe details the origin, nature, and structure of the local sector of our Milky Way galaxy that contains about six million inhabited planets, also covering its history, administration, and governance. The organization of a local universe features many subdivisions down to the level of local systems that encompass up to 1,000 inhabited worlds. In addition, this section details the vast celestial (or angelic) host of the local creation who, as mentioned earlier, ministers in co-creative fashion to the human inhabitants on each material planet and also provides for the implantation and overcontrol of all forms of evolving life.

Part II offers considerable detail on the ascension scheme, the divine plan for each person’s afterlife ascent toward ultimate perfection that proceeds in a long series of graduations upwards through increasingly more rarefied worlds. The final stop in the local universe is the glorious headquarters sphere called Salvington, the last step before entering the more advanced superuniverse regime of ascent that leads upward and inward to the central universe and then to Paradise.

All pilgrims from our planet will awake after death on what is known as the first mansion world—the very first of the abodes of heavenly life. (Cf. John 14:2: In my Father’s house are many mansions.) Each ascender begins their afterlife career on that world, embarking on a vast regime of self-understanding, personal healing, spiritual training, holistic education, and cosmic socialization (a process whose full description is spread across Parts I–III in the text.)

One of the highlights of Part II is the introduction of the Father-Creator of our local universe known as Christ Michael. It is he who incarnated as Jesus of Nazareth on Urantia. Also introduced is Michael’s complemental deity partner and perfectly coequal Co-Creator (with him) of this local universe, the Universe Mother Spirit. They both reside on Salvington as our compassionate Creators and local-universe rulers.

Part III. The History of Urantia narrates the astrophysical origin of our solar system and offers a chronological account of the entire history of earth (Urantia) beginning with the implantation and evolution of all life on the planet, and including the biological, anthropological, racial, and spiritual history of humankind. This section also unveils and unpacks the story of the four previous epochal revelations to Urantia—The Urantia Book being the fifth.

Significantly, Part III includes detail about the Lucifer Rebellion that traumatized Urantia as well as 36 other planets in the local system. This event occurred in the far-distant past but its effects are still profoundly felt. This rare disaster of planet-wide angelic rebellion led to the default and wreckage of the first two phases of epochal revelation on our sphere.[2] This gloomy start to humankind’s history was the key reason why Christ Michael chose to incarnate on our lowly sphere as Jesus of Nazareth. We are told that Urantia’s disastrous history—its unique burden of sin and suffering—offered the starkest backdrop against which to demonstrate Michael’s sublime and merciful love for his most wayward human creatures.

Part III then provides a comprehensive picture of the seven-stage process known as cosmic individuation. This complex but coherent discussion details the nature and function of the soul and the phenomenon of soul evolution before and after death; the true nature and function of religion; the nature of personhood as well as the concept of the Indwelling Spirit, also called the Father Fragment, that is dispatched to live within the minds of each one of us to guide us to perfection. This entity of pure divinity works in tandem with our powers of choice to co-create our soul as we engage in the work of soul-making.

Whereas Part I introduced the Eternal Trinity on Paradise, Part III reveals the evolving cosmic deity known as the Supreme Being, the dynamic repository and synthesis of the totality of ongoing creator-Creator experience in the grand universe.

Part IV. The Life and Teachings of Jesus contains a comprehensive account of Jesus’s life, in actuality a coherent restatement based on human, biblical, and angelic sources. This expansive narrative often covers events day by day and sometimes hour by hour—including the story of the lost years of Jesus’s childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood. It also contains an extensive account of his private and public ministries, his miracles, and his wide proclamation of the Gospel in the form of personal instruction, parables, sermons, and interactions with the Apostles and close disciples.

In its 180-page closing section, Part IV details the last week of his life, his death and resurrection (and  nineteen post-resurrection appearances), and ends with the story of the bestowal of his Spirit of Truth at Pentecost. Perhaps the most inspirational material is its culminating paper, The Faith of Jesus, a summa of Jesus’s life and message.

Ultimately, readers of Part IV are able to uplift and renew their understanding of Jesus, thanks to a seamless narrative that builds both upon the sacred foundation of the biblical record along with numerous previously unknown episodes. They also discover an elevated portrayal of a Jesus who teaches a Gospel of loving service, self-respect, soul evolution, artistic living, love for one’s enemies, self-mastery, and sublime worship of the God on Paradise in the context of the UB’s advocacy for planetary and cosmic citizenship.

In regard to its relationship to Christianity, it may be little wonder that some regard the UB as a postmodern Bible, but it is more appropriate to say that it provides a very wide range of vital corrections and updates to key biblical narratives and Christian tenets, now transplanted into a modern evolutionary framework and a post-Einstein cosmology.

Part I

General Studies

Prologue I: Excerpts on Epochal Revelation

" And when the kingdom shall have come to its full fruition, be assured that the Father in heaven will not fail to visit you with an enlarged revelation of truth and an enhanced demonstration of righteousness. "  Jesus to the apostles on Mt. Olivet (176:2.3)

* * *

" Revelation is a technique whereby ages upon ages of time are saved in the necessary work of sorting and sifting the errors of evolution from the truths of spirit acquirement. "  (101:5.1)

* * *

"The Urantia Papers. The papers, of which this is one, constitute the most recent presentation of truth to the mortals of Urantia. These papers differ from all previous revelations, for they are not the work of a single universe personality but a composite presentation by many beings. But no revelation short of the attainment of the Universal Father can ever be complete. All other celestial ministrations are no more than partial, transient, and practically adapted to local conditions in time and space. While such admissions as this may possibly detract from the immediate force and authority of all revelations, the time has arrived on Urantia when it is advisable to make such frank statements, even at the risk of weakening the future influence and authority of this, the most recent of the revelations of truth to the mortal races of Urantia. "  (92:4.9)

* * *

" Revelation is evolutionary but always progressive. Down through the ages of a world’s history, the revelations of religion are ever-expanding and successively more enlightening. It is the mission of revelation to sort and censor the successive religions of evolution. But if revelation is to exalt and upstep the religions of evolution, then must such divine visitations portray teachings which are not too far removed from the thought and reactions of the age in which they are presented. Thus must and does revelation always keep in touch with evolution. Always must the religion of revelation be limited by man’s capacity of receptivity. "  (92:4.1)

* * *

" The time is ripe to witness the figurative resurrection of the human Jesus from his burial tomb amidst the theological traditions and the religious dogmas of nineteen centuries. Jesus of Nazareth must not be longer sacrificed to even the splendid concept of the glorified Christ. What a transcendent service if, through this revelation, the Son of Man should be recovered from the tomb of traditional theology and be presented as the living Jesus to the church that bears his name, and to all other religions! Surely the Christian fellowship of believers will not hesitate to make such adjustments of faith and of practices of living as will enable it to follow after the Master in the demonstration of his real life of religious devotion to the doing of his Father’s will and of consecration to the unselfish service of man. . . . Indeed, the social readjustments, the economic transformations, the moral rejuvenations, and the religious revisions of Christian civilization would be drastic and revolutionary if the living religion of Jesus should suddenly supplant the theologic religion about Jesus. "  (196:1.2)

1

A Pioneer’s Early Discovery of The Urantia Book

Rev. Dr. Meredith J. Sprunger

Our first two pieces were written by the most influential early advocate for The Urantia Book outside of the inner circle that received the original papers.

Meredith Sprunger became the first influential Christian pastor and academic to embrace the Urantia Revelation, discovering it soon after it was published in 1955. He attend a Christian seminary and served in the role of a United Church of Christ pastor with a congregation, later earning a masters in theology from Princeton Theological Seminary and doctorate in psychology from Purdue University. In addition he led a distinguished career as a college professor and later as president of Indiana Technical University. Dr. Sprunger was personally acquainted with three of the six individuals who made up the Contact Commission, the original group that interfaced with the revelators in the compiling of The Urantia Book (see chapter 5). Sprunger wrote extensively on topics related to the spread of The Urantia Book into the Christian church and on many other topics related to the revelation. Below we provide the story of how he discovered the UB in 1955, followed by a sample of one of his many essays introducing the text.

My life has been shaped by a series of peak experiences that led me through academic majors in philosophy and theology preparatory to ordination as a minister in the United Church of Christ. After years of developing sermons and papers formulating my own spiritual experience that was centered in the religion of Jesus rather than the religion about Jesus, I realized that a new spiritual approach was needed in mainline Christian theology. I tentatively outlined a couple of books that needed to be written, and after some procrastination, I finally committed myself to the discipline of writing these books. Shortly after making this decision, The Urantia Book was placed in my hands.

In December of 1955