The two focal points of this work, Spirit and culture, enable us to see some of Jesus' significance for our present time. In popular understanding, minimally there are two worlds, one the Spirit world where God lives, the other where we live.
 
    Whether we are church people, or not, Jesus' life is a vivid testimony to the reality of Spirit--a reality affirmed and known in every society prior to the modern period. However, this reality is poorly understood in the modern world, both in the academy and in the church.

   For Christians in particular, what the historical Jesus was like can be a potent source of renewal. Not only is he a witness to the reality of Spirit as an element of experience, but his passionate involvement in the culture of his own time--his "social world"--connects two realities which Christians have frequently separated.

   Throughout the centuries as well as in our own time, Christians have tended to view culture as having little or no religious significance. But it was not so for Jesus. He sought the transformation of his social world--its culture. (The term "culture" in this work refers to any distinctive grouping of people that has developed habits of living by which it can be identified as a functional group.)

   The Jesus who emerges in these pages is thus deeply spiritual and deeply political.

   He was spiritual in that his relationship to the Spirit of God was the central reality in his life, the source of all that he was; we cannot glimpse the historical Jesus unless we take with utmost seriousness his relationship to the world of Spirit. (TUB 2:6.2; 103:4.4; 140:10.5;142:7.4;143:1.3)

   For example, The Urantia Book has:"The one characteristic of Jesus' teaching was that the morality of his philosophy originated in the personal relation of the individual to God--this very child-father relationship. Jesus placed emphasis on the individual, not on the race or nation. While eating supper, Jesus had the talk with Matthew in which he explained that the morality of any act is determined by the individual's motive. Jesus' morality was always positive. The golden rule as restated by Jesus demands active social contact; the older negative rule could be obeyed in isolation. Jesus stripped morality of all rules and ceremonies and elevated it to majestic levels of spiritual thinking and truly righteous living."  (TUB 140:10.5) And:

   "Jesus next explained that the "kingdom idea" was not the best way to illustrate man's relation to God; that he employed such figures of speech because the Jewish people were expecting the kingdom, and because John (the Baptist) had preached in terms of the coming kingdom. Jesus said: "The people of another age will better understand the gospel of the kingdom when it is presented in terms expressive of the family relationship--when man understands religion as the teaching of the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man, sonship with God." (TUB

142:7.4) And:

   "I have come into this world to do the will of my Father and to reveal his loving character to all mankind. That, my brethren, is my mission. And this one thing I will do, regardless of the misunderstanding of my teachings by Jews or gentiles of this day or of another generation….But I declare to you that my Father in Paradise does rule a universe of universes by the compelling power of his love. Love is the greatest of all spirit realities. Truth is a liberating revelation, but love is the supreme relationship. And no matter what blunders your fellow men make in their world management of today, in an age to come the gospel which I declare to you will rule this very world." (TUB 143:1.3)

   Jesus was political in the sense that the mainstream of his tradition was political: concerned about creating a community within history whose corporate life reflected faithfulness to God. What happens in history matters to the God of Jesus and his tradition.

   This work is simultaneously polemical and apologetic. It is polemical in that it is critical of much that is central to modern culture, and apologetic in that it seeks to show how the gospel portraits of Jesus, seen historically, make sense. From his life and teaching flows a convincing and persuasive understanding of reality.

   The challenge which the historical Jesus presents is not the sacrifice of the intellect but the sacrifice of something much deeper within us. It has everything to do with taking seriously what Jesus took seriously.

   For the interested inquirer this work sketches a credible picture of the historical Jesus. For the reader who wishes to reflect about what it means to follow Jesus, it also sketches a picture of the life of discipleship.