David Kantor

Contents of this Study:

Introduction and questions for evaluating your religious experience
Faith as Ultimate Concern
Faith, Doubt, Risk, and Courage
Faith and Community
Faith and Belief
Faith, Love and Action
The Element of Immediate Religious Concern -- The Concrete Content of Faith

Introduction to the Stages of Faith Development (The Faith Development Stages will be presented as a Plenary at the Summer Study Session in Santa Cruz, August 2001.)

Primal Faith: The personality foundations of the faith adventure (Infancy to the beginning of language acquirement)

Stage 1 Faith: Trust in primary caregivers (From approximately 3 years of age until the arrival of a Thought Adjuster.)

Stage 2 Faith: Mythic/Literal Faith; Faith that beliefs and attitudes of the family as well as stories told within the family and community are literal representations of reality. (Arrival of Adjuster to the onset of puberty. The achievements of this stage may be sustained through life)

Stage 3 Faith: Conventional and Synthesized Faith; Faith attitudes which are synthesized from ones own experience as combined with the attitudes expressed within ones significant social communities. (Ages ~ Adolescence through early adulthood; in many people this stage is sustained through life.)

Stage 4 Faith: The Reflective Faith of an Individual; Faith attitudes developed as a result of critical thinking about the elements of ones beliefs. (Ages ~ Early Adulthood - Midlife; may be sustained through life)

Stage 5 Faith: Integrative/Expanding Faith; Faith attitudes which attempt to reach beyond the integrated unconscious processes and the intellectual constructs of the self. (Ages ~ Mid-Life and beyond unusual before mid-life)

Stage 6 Faith: Universalizing Faith: Faith attitudes of a personality consciously integrating with the Supreme -- the faith of Jesus. (Ages: Mid-life and beyond; very few persons achieve this level of living faith maturity due to its self-transcending and relatively sacrificial nature.)

Getting Through the Stages
Material for Additional Study: Stages of Development in the Life of Jesus

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The Challenges of Faith in the Quest for Cosmic Citizenship

Note: The following material is based on the work of Dr. James Fowler as set forth in his book, "Stages of Faith." Fowler's work is based on the stage theories of psychological and social maturation developed by Erik Erickson, Jean Piaget and Lawrence Kohlberg. I have taken their work and attempted to correlate it with The Urantia Book's material on faith and spiritual growth, in particular the ascent through the psychic circles of consciousness of progressive kinship with the cosmic actuality of the Supreme Being. In addition, there is significant material included on the nature of faith derived from the work of Dr. Paul Tillich in his essay, "Dynamics of Faith."

1114:2  101:7.4 "The great difference between a religious and a nonreligious philosophy of living consists in the nature and level of recognized values and in the object of loyalties. There are four phases in the evolution of religious philosophy: Such an experience may become merely conformative, resigned to submission to tradition and authority. Or it may be satisfied with slight attainments, just enough to stabilize the daily living, and therefore becomes early arrested on such an adventitious level. Such mortals believe in letting well enough alone. A third group progress to the level of logical intellectuality but there stagnate in consequence of cultural slavery. It is indeed pitiful to behold giant intellects held so securely within the cruel grasp of cultural bondage. It is equally pathetic to observe those who trade their cultural bondage for the materialistic fetters of a science, falsely so called. The fourth level of philosophy attains freedom from all conventional and traditional handicaps and dares to think, act, and live honestly, loyally, fearlessly, and truthfully."

Introduction

Everyone reading this study has begun the journey of faith; a journey whose destination we understand to be the presence of the Universal Father whose nature is ultimate reality, ultimate beauty, ultimate goodness, ultimate truth and divine love. While our creative spiritual imaginations provide us with insight into the nature of the goal of our journey of faith, we sometimes find ourselves puzzled and confused regarding the best way to attain that goal.

I would like to share with you a road map of the portions of this journey which we are likely to encounter during our lives here in this world as we progress from infancy to old age. The authors tell us that if we embark upon this journey, ". . . you are sure to encounter, and if you have the courage, to traverse, the rugged hills of moral choosing and spiritual progress."

If we know something about the path ahead, which winds through these rugged hills of moral choosing, perhaps we will be better equipped to deal with the uncertainty and difficulty which The Urantia Book guarantees we will encounter.

The Urantia Book refers to this process as the ascent through the psychic circles -- the path which leads from the first moments of self-consciousness in childhood, to a consciousness of universe citizenship later in life. It is important to understand that this ascent through the psychic circles relates to personality integration with the Supreme Being. Hence, growing through the psychic circles involves the attainment of ever more meaningful levels of functional personality integration with the social mileu in which we find ourselves living. We become more real as we achieve increasing integration with the lives and purposes of others in combination with a pursuit of the Father's will.

647:5  56:10.14 "The universe is a whole; no thing or being exists or lives in isolation. Self-realization is potentially evil if it is antisocial. It is literally true: "No man lives by himself." Cosmic socialization constitutes the highest form of personality unification. Said Jesus: "He who would be greatest among you, let him become server of all."

As human beings we each have many concerns which demand our attention in our daily lives. We are concerned about our needs for shelter, food, clothing, economic security for our families, education and health care for our children. We have concerns about social and political matters. We also share some concerns about our spiritual lives and our personal relationships with God.

To help us think about these matters I would like to share some questions with you. These are questions which you should answer for yourself. Your answers will help you gain a deeper perspective on the primary elements of your spiritual life.

Some questions about those things which occupy your attention:

1. In daily life, to which tasks do you devote your best time, energy and thinking?

2. What are the causes, dreams, goals or institutions to which you contribute time or creative effort?

3. As you live your life, what power or powers do you rely on and trust?

4. To what or to whom are you committed in life? In death?

5. With whom or with what group do you share your most sacred and private hopes for your life and for the lives of those you love?

6. What are your most sacred hopes, your most compelling goals and the primary purposes in your life?

These questions are intended to help you become more aware of those realities which truly occupy the center of your life and command your creative attention.

Lets try to summarize all these questions with another question -- What is the central value, or set of values, relative to which all of your other life situations are evaluated or subordinated? Stated another way, What is your ultimate concern in life?

Do you structure your life around the needs of your job or career? Do you evaluate everything on the basis of how it will effect you economically? Do you base your major life decisions on what you believe people in your community might think of you? Is your life structured around the needs of your family?

That which truly constitutes our personal religious life is the devotion with which we pursue that which is of greatest importance to us that which we believe will bring fulfillment and meaning to our life. Our personal religion may be wholly material, social or spiritual, but we each have elements in our lives which we pursue with religious devotion. The task of religious growth as it relates to cosmic citizenship and personality integration, is to make sure that those central values to which we are devoted our ultimate concerns are truly spiritual in nature and cosmic in scope. The reason for this is to be sure that we dont develop our lives relative to some temporary phenomenon in the universe which will one day collapse and require us to start over.

1100:3  100:6.1 Religion is not a specific function of life; rather is it a mode of living. True religion is a wholehearted devotion to some reality which the religionist deems to be of supreme value to himself and for all mankind. And the outstanding characteristics of all religions are: unquestioning loyalty and wholehearted devotion to supreme values. This religious devotion to supreme values is shown in the relation of the supposedly irreligious mother to her child and in the fervent loyalty of nonreligionists to an espoused cause.

Carefully evaluating the above questions will also give us an idea of how our personal religious life appears when evaluated on the basis of the ideas given in The Urantia Book. In The Urantia Books view of personal religious experience, the behaviors in which we engage as we pursue whatever reality we deem to be of supreme value -- these constitute our religious life. From a psychological perspective, that to which we are supremely devoted plays the role of God in our lives.

Our God may be our career, our bank account, our family, our social image, or a role we play in a human institution or organization. Important as each of these are, if they are treated as the highest center in our lives, they become idolatrous because they take a position in our inner lives which should be dominated by our personal relationship with the Father and the desire to do his will.

I am not suggesting that we sacrifice these important and necessary elements of our personal lives. What is required is that we subordinate them to the pursuit of the Fathers will. That is to say, when we make decisions regarding our family lives, our careers, our economic needs, our social roles -- we learn to make them relative to a sincere seeking of the Fathers will. Our consideration of God and our desire to do his will in all things must become our supreme value. Thus our spiritual experience can come to coordinate and integrate all of the other concerns which affect us in daily life.

Given this understanding of the religious life, what is faith? Why is it important? How does it grow and develop over the course of a human lifetime?

Faith as Ultimate Concern

What is faith? For purposes of our discussion today we will consider faith to be our attitudes of devotion to that which is of greatest concern to us in life.

In much of the highly competitive developed world, economic success is the god to which many people are devoted. They may go to church on Sunday and consider themselves to be religious but their ultimate concern is with their economic success.

Faith is a state of being ultimately concerned; the nature of ones beliefs is significant in the life of the believer, but it does not matter for the formal definition of faith.

1780:5  160:5.3 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.

1088:7  99:3.6 Many individual social reconstructionists, while vehemently repudiating institutionalized religion, are, after all, zealously religious in the propagation of their social reforms."

Faith is not an act of the rational mind it is not a creation of the will. Neither is it an act of the unconscious. But it is an act in which both the rational and the nonrational elements of our being are transcended. Faith exists prior to any attempt to derive it from something else because any such attempt is itself an indicator of the existence of faith.

We are driven toward genuine spiritual faith by our awareness that we somehow belong to the infinite. Faith is similar to love in that we do not own love like a possession, but rather discover it as a quality of our interpersonal relationships. We learn how to enhance love, how to increase its presence through loyalty and devotion. Faith is like this; we cannot own it like a possession but we experience it as a quality of our orientation toward that which is of ultimate concern to us. And, as is the case with love, we learn how to enhance it and increase its power through loyalty and devotion. Faith has been described as the infinite passion. In reality, it is a passion for the infinite.

In true faith the ultimate concern is a concern about that which is truly ultimate. In idolatrous faith, finite realities are elevated to the rank of ultimacy. The inescapable consequence of idolatrous faith is deep disappointment, a disappointment which penetrates into the very heart of our existence. Idolatrous faith finds its center in something which is more or less on the psychological periphery. Therefore, the devotion of idolatrous faith leads to a loss of the center and to a disruption of the personality. The ecstatic character of even an idolatrous faith can hide this consequence only for a certain time. But finally it breaks into the open.

He who enters the sphere of faith enters the sanctuary of life. Where there is true spiritual faith, there is an awareness of holiness.

The human heart yearns for the infinite because that is where our finite nature wants to rest. In the infinite, the finite sees its own fulfillment. The feeling of being consumed in the presence of the divine is a profound expression of our relation to the holy. It is implied in every genuine act of faith, in every state of ultimate concern.

In many of the religious traditions of our world the holy is thought to have a destructive aspect as well as a creative aspect. The best example of this is Shiva, the Hindu deity whose eternal dance represents the simultaneous creation and destruction of the cosmos. For our purposes in this discussion, we will refer to these two aspects as the divine and the demonic aspects of holiness. In this view, the divine is characterized by victory of the creative over the destructive possibility of the holy; the demonic is characterized by the victory of the destructive over the creative possibility of the holy.

Our ultimate concern can destroy us just as it can heal us. But we can never be without an ultimate concern. The final test is to determine if our ultimate concern works to integrate us with the cosmos or if it works to create separation and isolation.

Faith, Doubt, Risk, and Courage

An act of faith is an act of a finite being who is attempting to orient himself with respect to the infinite. It is a finite act with all the limitations of a finite act. Faith is certain in so far as it is an experience of the holy. But faith is uncertain in so far as the infinite to which it is related is understood by a finite being. This element of uncertainty in faith cannot be removed, it must be accepted. And the element in faith which accepts this uncertainty is courage.

In the courageous acceptance of uncertainty, faith shows most visibly its dynamic character. Where there is daring and courage, there is always the possibility of failure. And in every act of faith this possibility is present. The content of our ultimate concern, whether it be our nation, our material success, or God himself, is a concern whose real nature may not be accessible to immediate awareness. But the risk must be taken.

There is risk if what was considered as a matter of ultimate concern turns out to be a matter of temporary or transitory concern as for example, the attainment of social status. The risk to faith in ones ultimate concern is that what was considered to be a matter of ultimate concern may prove to be a matter of transitory concern. This is indeed the greatest risk we can take in life. For if it proves to be a failure, if that to which we have devoted ourselves turns out to have been a temporal creation of our imagination, the meaning of our life breaks down; we find that we have surrendered ourselves to something which is not worthy of such surrender.

If faith is understood as belief that something is true, doubt is incompatible with the act of faith. If, on the other hand, faith is understood as the process of being ultimately concerned, doubt is a necessary element in it. Doubt is a consequence of the risk of faith. The most destructive form of doubt is not a doubt about facts or conclusions. Genuine skeptical doubt is an attitude of actually rejecting the possibility that we can be certain about anything. It is a doubt about whether it is possible to understand anything as being true. Therefore it cannot be refuted logically. Such an attitude necessarily leads either to despair or cynicism. And often, if this alternative becomes intolerable, it leads to indifference and the attempt to develop an attitude of complete unconcern. Skeptical doubt may serve an awakening and liberating function, but it also can prevent the development of a centered personality.

1766:4  159:3.8 "Faith is to religion what sails are to a ship; it is an addition of power, not an added burden of life. There is but one struggle for those who enter the kingdom, and that is to fight the good fight of faith. The believer has only one battle, and that is against doubt--unbelief."

But the doubt which is a part of every act of faith is not skeptical doubt. It is the normal, healthy doubt which accompanies every risk. It does not question whether or not a certain proposition is true or false; but it is aware of the element of insecurity in every concept which we attempt to elevate to the level of that which represents the infinite.

At the same time, the doubt which is a part of faith accepts this insecurity in an act of courage. Faith includes courage. Therefore, it can include the doubt about itself. Any act in which courage accepts risk is an indicator of the existence of faith.

1223:3  111:7.1 Uncertainty with security is the essence of the Paradise adventure--uncertainty in time and in mind, uncertainty as to the events of the unfolding Paradise ascent; security in spirit and in eternity, security in the unqualified trust of the creature son in the divine compassion and infinite love of the Universal Father; uncertainty as an inexperienced citizen of the universe; security as an ascending son in the universe mansions of an all-powerful, all-wise, and all-loving Father.

Faith and Community

In order to explore the content of our faith we need language and stories. The religious language of sacred stories is created in the community of believers and cannot be fully understood outside this community. But within the community, the religious language enables the act of faith to realize a richer content because it embodies the combined experience of many truth seekers. Faith needs its language; without language and stories, faith could not be conscious of itself. This is the reason why faith communities are important.

When we participate in study groups we not only study The Urantia Book, but we also become more aware of the experiences and insights of others; we are enriched and we contribute to the strengthening of faith by the manner in which we participate

1094:2  100:0.2 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.

The problem which arises here is that the community itself, with its own needs and attractions, stands in danger of replacing the life of faith. Communities of believers must evolve in a way which facilitates the relationship between God and each participant. The challenge for the community is to learn how to mobilize faith in the hearts of believers without becoming obsessed with ideology, without becoming an idolatrous replacement for the spiritual faith which originally led to the creation of the community

1487:1  134:4.4-9 "Religious peace--brotherhood--can never exist unless all religions are willing to completely divest themselves of all ecclesiastical authority and fully surrender all concept of spiritual sovereignty. God alone is spirit sovereign.

"You cannot have equality among religions (religious liberty) without having religious wars unless all religions consent to the transfer of all religious sovereignty to some superhuman level, to God himself.

"The kingdom of heaven in the hearts of men will create religious unity (not necessarily uniformity) because any and all religious groups composed of such religious believers will be free from all notions of ecclesiastical authority--religious sovereignty.

"God is spirit, and God gives a fragment of his spirit self to dwell in the heart of man. Spiritually, all men are equal. The kingdom of heaven is free from castes, classes, social levels, and economic groups. You are all brethren.

"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.

"Freewill beings who regard themselves as equals, unless they mutually acknowledge themselves as subject to some supersovereignty, some authority over and above themselves, sooner or later are tempted to try out their ability to gain power and authority over other persons and groups. The concept of equality never brings peace except in the mutual recognition of some overcontrolling influence of supersovereignty."

Another problem faced by communities of believers deals with faith and doubt within the community of faith itself. The question is whether the dynamic concept of faith is incompatible with a community defined by creedal expressions or which relies on shared beliefs for the maintenance of social coherence. Such a situation will lead to problems if it excludes the element of doubt regarding the truth of the shared meanings which define the social boundaries of the community. The concept of the infallibility of a creed, shared beliefs, a decision by a council, a bishop, or the contents of a book excludes doubt as an element of faith in those who subject themselves to these authorities. They may have to struggle within themselves about their subjection; but after they have made the decision, no doubt can be admitted by them about the infallible statements of the authorities. Such a faith has become static, a non-questioning surrender -- not only to the ultimate, but also to its symbolic expression as formulated by the religious authorities. In this way something preliminary and conditional the human interpretation of the content of faith is treated as if it were ultimate and is elevated above the risk of doubt. This is idolatrous faith because its object is a human formulation which is merely representative of the infinite, but not the infinite itself.

When I speak of the content of faith," I am referring to the stories, rituals of expression, and other factors which enable us to socialize our faith experience to share it with other travelers on the journey. The "object of faith" is the infinite; the "content of faith" consists of the stories we tell ourselves and each other about the nature of the infinite and our relationship to it.

Pride and fanaticism are the unmistakable symptoms of doubt which has been repressed. Doubt is overcome not by repression but by courage. Courage does not deny that there is doubt, but it accepts doubt as an inevitable expression of its inability to fully grasp the infinite. Real courage does not need the safety of an unquestionable conviction or belief. Real courage enables us to live with the risk without which no creative life is possible. Living faith is not a matter of doubtless certainty, but rather a matter of daring courage which accepts the possibility of failure.

When we talk about the possibility of failure in relation to faith, it is important to understand that the real risk of faith is in the domain of what we have chosen to believe is true about reality as a result of our experience of the presence of the infinite. There is always the chance that our beliefs have been constructed upon erroneous assumptions, or that they have been created by unmet needs of our unconscious minds.

Without an element of doubt we lose the power to have a faith capable of powering an unending quest for truth which includes constant critical evaluation, discarding of illusions and restructuring of the concrete content of faith. We must equip ourselves to pursue the quest for the infinite itself, rather than becoming paralyzed by centering our lives on a set of beliefs which merely represent the infinite.

Communities of faith must be sure that they include a means for criticism and self-correction. The Urantia Book notes that Religion can be kept free from unholy secular alliances only by . . . a critically corrective philosophy. In this same section the revelators suggest guarding against fanaticism by the compensations of the scientific mental attitude.

One of the great dangers in the formation of religious communities is a paralysis of spiritual growth which occurs when members of the community construct their social identities out of the roles they imagine themselves to be playing in the community. This difficulty is compounded when those social roles are reinforced by other members of the community. Genuine spiritual growth will eventually demand the abandonment of identity based on roles played in human social systems.

Faith and Belief

One of the most ordinary misinterpretations of faith is to consider it an act of knowledge that has a low degree of evidence. In this situation, we are speaking of belief rather than faith. Often this takes the form of a type of knowledge which not only has a low degree of evidence, but which is supported by religious authority. In this case, an act of will by the believer is supposed to compensate for the lack of evidence to support the belief.

The Urantia Book has a whole section devoted to this topic, on page 1114 with additional material on page 1108. I encourage you to review this important material as part of this study. These selections contain some of the clearest commentary about the nature of faith and belief in The Urantia Book.

1114:5  101:8.1 "Belief has attained the level of faith when it motivates life and shapes the mode of living. The acceptance of a teaching as true is not faith; that is mere belief. Neither is certainty nor conviction faith. A state of mind attains to faith levels only when it actually dominates the mode of living. Faith is a living attribute of genuine personal religious experience. One believes truth, admires beauty, and reverences goodness, but does not worship them; such an attitude of saving faith is centered on God alone, who is all of these personified and infinitely more.

"Belief is always limiting and binding; faith is expanding and releasing. Belief fixates, faith liberates. But living religious faith is more than the association of noble beliefs; it is more than an exalted system of philosophy; it is a living experience concerned with spiritual meanings, divine ideals, and supreme values; it is God-knowing and man-serving. Beliefs may become group possessions, but faith must be personal. Theologic beliefs can be suggested to a group, but faith can rise up only in the heart of the individual religionist.

"Faith has falsified its trust when it presumes to deny realities and to confer upon its devotees assumed knowledge. Faith is a traitor when it fosters betrayal of intellectual integrity and belittles loyalty to supreme values and divine ideals. Faith never shuns the problem-solving duty of mortal living. Living faith does not foster bigotry, persecution, or intolerance.

"Faith does not shackle the creative imagination, neither does it maintain an unreasoning prejudice toward the discoveries of scientific investigation. Faith vitalizes religion and constrains the religionist heroically to live the golden rule. The zeal of faith is according to knowledge, and its strivings are the preludes to sublime peace."

1108:3  101:3.4 "Through religious faith the soul of man reveals itself and demonstrates the potential divinity of its emerging nature by the characteristic manner in which it induces the mortal personality to react to certain trying intellectual and testing social situations. Genuine spiritual faith (true moral consciousness) is revealed in that it:

1. Causes ethics and morals to progress despite inherent and adverse animalistic tendencies.

2. Produces a sublime trust in the goodness of God even in the face of bitter disappointment and crushing defeat.

3. Generates profound courage and confidence despite natural adversity and physical calamity.

4. Exhibits inexplicable poise and sustaining tranquillity notwithstanding baffling diseases and even acute physical suffering.

5. Maintains a mysterious poise and composure of personality in the face of maltreatment and the rankest injustice.

6. Maintains a divine trust in ultimate victory in spite of the cruelties of seemingly blind fate and the apparent utter indifference of natural forces to human welfare.

7. Persists in the unswerving belief in God despite all contrary demonstrations of logic and successfully withstands all other intellectual sophistries.

8. Continues to exhibit undaunted faith in the soul's survival regardless of the deceptive teachings of false science and the persuasive delusions of unsound philosophy.

9. Lives and triumphs irrespective of the crushing overload of the complex and partial civilizations of modern times.

10. Contributes to the continued survival of altruism in spite of human selfishness, social antagonisms, industrial greeds, and political maladjustments.

11. Steadfastly adheres to a sublime belief in universe unity and divine guidance regardless of the perplexing presence of evil and sin.

12. Goes right on worshiping God in spite of anything and everything. Dares to declare, "Even though he slay me, yet will I serve him."

Faith, Love and Action

The concern of faith is identical with the desire of love; union with that to which one belongs and from which one feels estranged. We could even ask, Is there such a thing as love without faith? There is certainly love without the acceptance of doctrines; faith as a set of accepted and defended doctrines does not produce acts of love. But faith as the state of being ultimately concerned implies love the desire and urge toward union with that from which we feel separated. The more love is present, the more faith has conquered its demonic-idolatrous possibilities. An idolatrous faith which gives ultimacy to a secondary concern stands against all other secondary concerns and excludes love relations between the representatives of contrasting claims. The fanatic cannot love that against which his fanaticism is directed, for "love is the desire to do good to others." Idolatrous faith is also confronted with the challenge of repressing the doubts which always characterize the elevation of something secondary to a level of ultimacy.

Lastly we must understand that faith as a state of being ultimately concerned reaches out into the world as action. This is faith which seeks to transform and unite with God all that which appears to be separated from him.

2047:6  192:2.2 "If you love me, Peter, feed my lambs. Do not neglect to minister to the weak, the poor, and the young. Preach the gospel without fear or favor; remember always that God is no respecter of persons. Serve your fellow men even as I have served you; forgive your fellow mortals even as I have forgiven you. Let experience teach you the value of meditation and the power of intelligent reflection."

1780:5  160:5.3 "If something has become a religion in your experience, it is self-evident that you already have become an active evangel of that religion since you deem the supreme concept of your religion as being worthy of the worship of all mankind, all universe intelligences. If you are not a positive and missionary evangel of your religion, you are self-deceived in that what you call a religion is only a traditional belief or a mere system of intellectual philosophy."

The element of immediate religious concern the concrete content of faith

Again, when I speak of the content of faith I am referring to the beliefs, stories, rituals of expression, and other factors which enable us to socialize our faith experience to share it with other travelers on the journey.

Faith is never experienced in isolation from some form of content. It is experienced in, with and through it's content -- the ideas, language, stories, and rituals of a faith community. An analytic mind can understand the concrete content of faith as being something different from the spiritual experience of faith.

The Urantia Book contains stories about reality which help us understand our experience of faith as it relates to a personal universe -- a universe structured around relationships between personalities, each of whom is also involved in the faith adventure. For most of us, these stories form a significant part of the content of our faith. Many people in our world use stories from the Bible or some other sacred text to accomplish the same spiritual purpose -- the illumination of the values which enable us to progress in our moral and spiritual lives.

What is important to appreciate is that the goal of our experience of faith is infinite, while the stories with which we attempt to understand and to socially express this experience of faith are finite. Therefore we should be aware from the beginning that our stories, our understandings, our sacred texts, our revelations, are always going to fall short of fully expressing that to which they point. It is a fact that, because of our extreme finitude as human beings, any way in which we attempt to symbolize the infinite is going to be very limited.

The Urantia Book refers to the paradigms within which we do our thinking and choosing as universe frames" and we find a brief overview of the topic on page 1260. The revelators comment that,

1260:2  115:1.1 "Partial, incomplete, and evolving intellects would be helpless in the master universe, would be unable to form the first rational thought pattern, were it not for the innate ability of all mind, high or low, to form a universe frame in which to think. If mind cannot fathom conclusions, if it cannot penetrate to true origins, then will such mind unfailingly postulate conclusions and invent origins that it may have a means of logical thought within the frame of these mind-created postulates. And while such universe frames for creature thought are indispensable to rational intellectual operations, they are, without exception, erroneous to a greater or lesser degree.

"Conceptual frames of the universe are only relatively true; they are serviceable scaffolding which must eventually give way before the expansions of enlarging cosmic comprehension. The understandings of truth, beauty, and goodness, morality, ethics, duty, love, divinity, origin, existence, purpose, destiny, time, space, even Deity, are only relatively true. . . . Man must think in a mortal universe frame, but that does not mean that he cannot envision other and higher frames within which thought can take place."

Farther on in this study, when we discuss the stages of faith, we will see that the ascent through the psychic circles involves moving through a series of universe frames. We live within each one for a season, learning and growing. These are paradigms, frames of reference constructed of meanings and values. But sooner or later there comes a breakdown of our conceptual scaffolding, our universe frame, and we must move on to a more expanded one within which we can experience further growth.

One of the great dangers of religious life is that we can easily mistake a particular universe frame for reality itself and become arrested in our development. This is the basis of religious conflict and religious wars. When we have an experience of the presence of God, this experience may be made possible because of a relationship we have with a book, with a person, with a group, with a place, with an object, with a piece of music almost anything is capable of mediating the presence of God to us. The problems begin when we mistake the medium through which the presence of God is experienced for the experience itself.

These concepts should help us understand the nature of doubt. Once we have embarked upon the journey of faith, that which is at risk when we find ourselves doubting, is the concrete content of our faith. We might find ourselves asking, Does The Urantia Book really contain the truth about reality? Or we might ask, Does the Bible really contain the truth about reality? We may have doubts about whether or not a particular book is a faithful guide which can be trusted to lead us to our goal. But the fact that such doubts disturb us is proof in itself that faith is operating in our lives we are ultimately concerned even when we are experiencing doubt about the way in which we understand or express our involvement with that ultimate concern.

If we understand this, and if we understand why The Urantia Book warns us about the relativity of concept frames, we can more easily appreciate why maintaining a ruthless quest for truth must ever be our guiding principle. If we are truly growing in our faith experience, we will move through a number of universe frames during our mortal lives, each providing a conceptual environment within which we can experience growth, but each of which stands in danger of becoming an idolatrous substitute for the transcendent goal of faith -- an idolatrous substitute which can prevent further growth.

1097:6  100:4.2 Religious perplexities are inevitable; there can be no growth without psychic conflict and spiritual agitation. The organization of a philosophic standard of living entails considerable commotion in the philosophic realms of the mind. Loyalties are not exercised in behalf of the great, the good, the true, and the noble without a struggle. Effort is attendant upon clarification of spiritual vision and enhancement of cosmic insight. And the human intellect protests against being weaned from subsisting upon the nonspiritual energies of temporal existence. The slothful animal mind rebels at the effort required to wrestle with cosmic problem solving.

We will find that meaningful growth demands a willingness to experience difficulty.

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The Stages of Faith Development

(Note: The description of the successive stages of faith development will be presented as a Plenary at the Summer Study Session in Santa Cruz, August 2001.)

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Getting Through the Stages

How do we go about traversing these stages of growth? These stages should not be viewed as levels of achievement, but rather descriptions of stages we will encounter in a natural, evolutionary process. Our efforts should be directed toward the tasks of the stage in which we find ourselves, rather than an effort to force a transition to the next stage.

In our efforts to traverse the psychic circles, we might ask, "What is it that retards our growth and prevents us from moving into the next higher circle?" The answer is "fear." It is fear, The Urantia Book tells us, which is the opposite of faith. We are told that one of the great tasks of mortal life is to transmute the fear inherited from our evolutionary origins into the faith of our spiritual heritage.

It is fear which keeps us from progressing -- most often a fear that critical evaluation of our beliefs and assumptions might expose illusions which we have found comforting and upon which we have come to depend for identity. One of the greatest betrayals of spiritual integrity in which we might engage is to use the concept of "faith" as an excuse to avoid critical evaluation. "Unreasoned fear is a master intellectual fraud practiced upon the evolving mortal soul."

The boundary between our present circle of attainment and the next circle is really the boundary between our faith and our fear; the boundary represents unconquered fear. For example, in the seventh circle when the ascender's social consciousness is based on the immediate family and the family's community, it is fear and uncertainty regarding personal relationships outside this boundary which keeps the ascender confined to this circle.

When this fear is transmuted into faith, the ascender's social boundaries expand and it is possible to move into the next higher circle. This higher circle, in turn, has a boundary of fear or uncertainty which must be conquered before additional progress may be made. Thus it is a process of transmuting fear into faith which enables us to traverse these circles and eventually become comfortable functioning as a cosmic citizen. Any time we find that we are dividing people up into "us" and "them" categories and relating to members of the different categories with different sets of values, we can be sure that we are in one of the lower stages of development and that fear -- conscious or unconscious -- is playing a dominant role in shaping our behavior.

The admonitions to spiritual growth which we find in The Urantia Book will work at any stage and will faithfully guide us on our path.

These admonitions for growth are:

1. The continual seeking of the Fathers will.
2. Worship evolving friendship with God.
3. Service the unselfish service of our fellows.
4. The unending quest for truth

One of the beauties of the teachings of Jesus is that if we simply follow his great commandment -- which leads to worship and service -- we will find ourselves progressing in a natural manner. Jesus was not an administrator who came to give us rules and regulations, he is our creator and he came to tell us how the system works and how to live progressively and meaningfully within the system which he created.

1773:5  160:1.8 The wise and effective solution of any problem demands that the mind shall be free from bias, passion, and all other purely personal prejudices which might interfere with the disinterested survey of the actual factors that go to make up the problem presenting itself for solution. The solution of life problems requires courage and sincerity. Only honest and brave individuals are able to follow valiantly through the perplexing and confusing maze of living to where the logic of a fearless mind may lead. And this emancipation of the mind and soul can never be effected without the driving power of an intelligent enthusiasm which borders on religious zeal. It requires the lure of a great ideal to drive man on in the pursuit of a goal which is beset with difficult material problems and manifold intellectual hazards.

1209:4  110:6.4 "When the development of the intellectual nature proceeds faster than that of the spiritual, such a situation renders communication with the Thought Adjuster both difficult and dangerous. Likewise, overspiritual development tends to produce a fanatical and perverted interpretation of the spirit leadings of the divine indweller. Lack of spiritual capacity makes it very difficult to transmit to such a material intellect the spiritual truths resident in the higher superconsciousness. It is to the mind of perfect poise, housed in a body of clean habits, stabilized neural energies, and balanced chemical function--when the physical, mental, and spiritual powers are in triune harmony of development--that a maximum of light and truth can be imparted with a minimum of temporal danger or risk to the real welfare of such a being. By such a balanced growth does man ascend the circles of planetary progression one by one, from the seventh to the first."

These factors, if embraced, can lead us through these stages of growth. Not only do they lead from one stage to another, but they provide for a full realization of the potentials within each stage. Jesus commented to John that he must have . . . faith in the effectiveness of the supreme human desire to do the will of God -- to be like God.

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Distribution of Stages of Faith by Age in the Research Sample
Research of Dr. James Fowler
(Stages with two numbers such as 5-6 indicate persons in transition between the two stages.)

Suggested reading:

Fowler, James W., Stages of Faith, Harper: San Francisco, 1981
Jung, C. G., The Undiscovered Self, Penguin: New York, 1958
Tillich, Paul, Dynamics of Faith, Harper: New York, 1958

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Additional Study: The quotes below refer to stages of development in the life of Jesus. Do you think there is any relationship between these stages and those which are described in the Plenary presentation?

Developmental Stages in the Life of Jesus

1376:4  124:6.18 Thus ends the career of the Nazareth lad, and begins the narrative of that adolescent youth‑‑the increasingly self‑conscious divine human‑‑who now begins the contemplation of his world career as he strives to integrate his expanding life purpose with the desires of his parents and his obligations to his family and the society of his day and age.

1482:1  133:9.6 -- the end of the mission of Joshua the teacher

1749:2 157:6.3 Jesus now entered upon the fourth and last stage of his human life in the flesh. The first stage was that of his childhood, the years when he was only dimly conscious of his origin, nature, and destiny as a human being. The second stage was the increasingly self‑conscious years of youth and advancing manhood, during which he came more clearly to comprehend his divine nature and human mission. This second stage ended with the experiences and revelations associated with his baptism.

1749:2 157:6.3 The third stage of the Master's earth experience extended from the baptism through the years of his ministry as teacher and healer and up to this momentous hour of Peter's confession at Caesarea‑Philippi. This third period of his earth life embraced the times when his apostles and his immediate followers knew him as the Son of Man and regarded him as the Messiah.

1749:2 157:6.3 The fourth and last period of his earth career began here at Caesarea‑Philippi and extended on to the crucifixion. This stage of his ministry was characterized by his acknowledgment of divinity and embraced the labors of his last year in the flesh. During the fourth period, while the majority of his followers still regarded him as the Messiah, he became known to the apostles as the Son of God. Peter's confession marked the beginning of the new period of the more complete realization of the truth of his supreme ministry as a bestowal Son on Urantia and for an entire universe, and the recognition of that fact, at least hazily, by his chosen ambassadors.

2091:2 196:1.6 Just as men must progress from the consciousness of the human to the realization of the divine, so did Jesus ascend from the nature of man to the consciousness of the nature of God. And the Master made this great ascent from the human to the divine by the conjoint achievement of the faith of his mortal intellect and the acts of his indwelling Adjuster. The fact‑realization of the attainment of totality of divinity (all the while fully conscious of the reality of humanity) was attended by seven stages of faith consciousness of progressive divinization. These stages of progressive self‑realization were marked off by the following extraordinary events in the Master's bestowal experience:

2091:2 196:1.6 1. The arrival of the Thought Adjuster.

1425:1 129:4.2 The purely human religious experience‑‑the personal spiritual growth‑‑of the Son of Man well‑nigh reached the apex of attainment during this, the twenty‑ninth year. This experience of spiritual development was a consistently gradual growth from the moment of the arrival of his Thought Adjuster until the day of the completion and confirmation of that natural and normal human relationship between the material mind of man and the mind‑endowment of the spirit‑‑the phenomenon of the making of these two minds one, the experience which the Son of Man attained in completion and finality, as an incarnated mortal of the realm, on the day of his baptism in the Jordan.

2091:2 196:1.6 2. The messenger of Immanuel who appeared to him at Jerusalem when he was about twelve years old.

1398:4 127:2.12 This year (his 17^th year) Jesus made great progress in the organization of his mind. Gradually he had brought his divine and human natures together, and he accomplished all this organization of intellect by the force of his own decisions and with only the aid of his indwelling Monitor, just such a Monitor as all normal mortals on all postbestowal‑Son worlds have within their minds. So far, nothing supernatural had happened in this young man's career except the visit of a messenger, dispatched by his elder brother Immanuel, who once appeared to him during the night at Jerusalem.

2091:2 196:1.6 3. The manifestations attendant upon his baptism.

[See "The Baptism of Jesus," Page 1510, Paper 136, Section 2]

2091:2 196:1.6 4. The experiences on the Mount of Transfiguration.

1513:2 136:3.5 While he tarried on the mountain, talking with Gabriel, the Constellation Father of Edentia appeared to Jesus and Gabriel in person, saying: "The records are completed. The sovereignty of Michael No. 611,121 over his universe of Nebadon rests in completion at the right hand of the Universal Father. I bring to you the bestowal release of Immanuel, your sponsor‑brother for the Urantia incarnation. You are at liberty now or at any subsequent time, in the manner of your own choosing, to terminate your incarnation bestowal, ascend to the right hand of your Father, receive your sovereignty, and assume your well‑earned unconditional rulership of all Nebadon. I also testify to the completion of the records of the superuniverse, by authorization of the Ancients of Days, having to do with the termination of all sin‑rebellion in your universe and endowing you with full and unlimited authority to deal with any and all such possible upheavals in the future. Technically, your work on Urantia and in the flesh of the mortal creature is finished. Your course from now on is a matter of your own choosing."

[See Plans for Public Work page 1514, Paper 136, Section 4]

2091:2 196:1.6 5. The morontia resurrection.

[See The Morontia Transit page 2020, Paper 189, Section 1]

2091:2 196:1.6 6. The spirit ascension.

[See The Masters Ascension page 2057, Paper 183, Section 5]

2091:2 196:1.6 7. The final embrace of the Paradise Father, conferring unlimited sovereignty of his universe.

[See The Last Group Prayer page 1963, Paper 182, Section 1]

Parallels between major contemporary structural theories of
psycho-social development

Correlation between contemporary structural-developmentl theories and
The Urantia Book's structural stages of psycho-spiritual development