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In his Appendices to "A Study of the Master Universe," pp 298-307 (a study of the cosmology of The Urantia Book), Bill Sadler discusses Power-Personality Synthesis and concludes that while potential reality is synthesized, actual reality is not -- it is only a "becoming" even on the absolute or existential-actual level. The following is a presentation of a critique of that conclusion based on the author's study of The Urantia Book.

In the Appendices to his "A Study of the Master Universe," Bill Sadler Jr. concludes that on the absolute level, Power-Personality Synthesis did not occur when the Infinite Spirit (theoretically) came into existence. He reserves the concept of Power-Personality Synthesis only for the unification of Deity on experiential levels. He submits that instead of synthesis, God the Father unified all of Deity as the Trinity and left Paradise out. The Infinite Spirit then co-ordinates matter and spirit, but does not unify or synthesize them. He does not cite any specific reference in The Urantia Book which supports his conclusion. The book does not specifically say that the Infinite Spirit does not synthesize power and personality. He comes to this conclusion by observing that the tensions created by the Deity and Unqualified Absolutes are actually ONE absolute as unified by the Universal Absolute. However, he says, on the Actual level, we see three distinct Absolutes, the Eternal Son, Paradise and the Conjoint Actor. Therefore God could not have synthesized them, because they are distinct.

Instead, God unified all of his Deity in and as the Trinity and isolated Paradise. He speculates that because there was no synthesis of Actual Absolute reality, then the tensions (which are resolved in synthesis) are actually increased. (p.303) He claims that the Trinity is an unpredictable artistic outcome, whereas the synthetic unification of the potential absolutes is "a mathematical, or a mechanical, symmetrical balance." (Study, p.14). I believe that Bill Sadler points out very well that the origins and functions of the potential and actual Absolutes are distinct and different. I submit however that he has narrowed the use of the word "synthesis" and has defined it to mean unification as contra distinguished from the terms coordinate, correlate, integrate, or interrelate.

I believe that the words as they are used in The Urantia Book are, by and large, indistinguishable and are used variously to mean the same thing. There is one quote contrary to Bill's conclusion. It says that the Conjoint Actor is "the existential Deity synthesis of personality and power." (UB p. 1151) Elsewhere and dozens of times the Conjoint Actor is said to co-ordinate reality. But there are a few references to the Conjoint Actor as being unified. He is defined as being "unifier of all actual and actualizing reality." (UB p. 1156) "Unfailingly characterized by unity." (UB p. 1154) The term "co-ordinate" is not exclusively used to define the Conjoint Actor's technique. The power-personality synthesis is also described as being co-ordinated. "The evolution of the Almighty power of Supremacy by diverse divinity synthesis in the evolving universes eventuated in a new power presence of Deity which co-ordinated with the spiritual person of the Supreme in Havona by means of the Supreme Mind..." (UB p. 641 "The Supreme Being... is a synthetic co-ordinator." (UB p.11) Even the concept of personality "signifies the unification of all factors of reality as well as co-ordination of relationships." (UB p.1227) The Universal Absolute is also a co-ordinator. "The Universal Absolute...functions as the associative co-ordinator of these sum totals of existential potentialities." (UB p.14)

The point I wish to make here is that unity, co-ordination, correlation and integration are all variously used to designate the same concept. Therefore to say that the Infinite Spirit co-ordinates but does not unify or synthesize, is in my opinion incorrect. I believe that Power-Personality Synthesis occurs on both Actual and Potential Absolute levels, but that the outcome, nature, function and destiny of the synthesis is very, very different. (Particularly in time and space or on all non-absolute levels)

I don't see how Bill can say that the Trinity is artistic and the Potential Absolute is mechanical and predictable. I see it as just the opposite. The Trinity is considered to be "the absolute inevitability," (UB p.1266), whereas "There would seem to be no limit to the Deity Absolute's potential of Response to such unification of relationships between experiential Deity and the existential Paradise Trinity." (UB p.200) That seems pretty artistic to me. Bill Sadler defines synthesis and uses the concept as it originated with Hegel. This is all well and good, as this technique of logic has permeated philosophical thinking quite heavily, even through the 20th Century. I just don't understand how Bill can take the concept of synthesis as proposed by Hegel and then say that the Conjoint Actor is not synthetic. Let's look at what synthesis was to Hegel. First of all it is a conceptual way of bringing together two opposing ideas and constructing a new and higher concept which is elevated to reach ever new levels of discourse. (Friedrich, Hegel p.xli). The new synthesis thus becomes a thesis and can be negated which eventuates in a new synthesis and so on. The great example Hegel gives is Being (thesis) and non-Being (antithesis) and Becoming (synthesis). The meandering course of this dialectic is quite complicated and purely conceptual.

Power-Personality Synthesis on the Actual Absolute level then is as follows. Power (matter and spirit) is the thesis. The Absolute Power Pattern of Paradise is the material basis for the power which is the Father's expression of material Absoluteness. Spiritual power and personality comes from the Eternal Son who is the pattern person. The tension between a great material power machine and a powerful spiritual personality is the personality synthesis of a third personality who resolves that tension by co-ordinating aspects of both in ways never before imagined. This concept of Power-Personality Synthesis in no way contravenes or is opposed to the concept of the Deity Trinitization of the Conjoint Actor. Power-Personality Synthesis is the technique of the trinitization of the Conjoint Actor. The technique of Power-Personality Synthesis is differently manifested on experiential levels.

In conclusion, it seems that the biggest problem is semantic. In their efforts to overcome the limitations of the English Language, the authors use many words to try to convey similar concepts. I don't think we should be narrow in our definitions of these words or we risk losing the meaning of the broader concept which is being conveyed. Besides, after we die and become invested with the power of mota insight, all of what we thought was right down here, will probably seem quite erroneous.