By Meredith J. Sprunger
It is difficult, if not impossible, to adequately review a
complex 2000 page book in thirty or forty minutes. So I have elected to share with you
how I found The Urantia Book, make a few general statements about its content,
and then open the meeting to a discussion period.
I have placed an Introduction sheet to The Urantia Book on
the tables, which gives an outline of the book's content, sources of
publication, basic theological positions, and organizations associated with
the book. I have also placed a
pamphlet on "The Origin of The Urantia Book" on the tables because usually the
first thing people wish to know about The Urantia Book is who wrote it - what
are the circumstances of its origin.
Thomas Kuhn in his classic book The Structure of
Scientific Revolutions points out that it is almost impossible, even for
experts in any scientific field, to introduce a new paradigm in that
scientific field. It usually
takes generations to make this transition. It is even more difficult to bring a
new paradigm into the field of theology and religion. This is probably good because
evolution is a more constructive methodology of change than disruptive
revolution.
Although The Urantia Book reinforces and enhances the
basic truths of traditional Christian theology and the best spiritual insights
of the major religions of the world, it does present a new paradigm of
spiritual reality. After forty
years of critical study and evaluation, I am confident that in the centuries
to come The Urantia Book will be generally recognized as one of the major
spiritual touch-stones on our planet.
You may be interested in knowing how I came across this
unusual and challenging book. In
December of 1955, my wife, Irene, and I stopped in to visit our friends Dr.
and Mrs. Edward Brueseke. Dr.
Brueseke was pastor of Zion United Church of Christ in Sound Bend,
Indiana. During the course of our
visit, Ed reached over and handed me a large blue book saying, "Judge
Hammerschmidt gave me this book.
Some businessmen think it's a new Bible." I opened the book to the Table of
Contents and read chapter titles like:
"The Nature of God" - author, A Divine Counselor; "The Universe of
Universes" - author, A Perfector of Wisdom; "Personalities of the Grand
Universe" - author, A Mighty Messenger.
This was enough to turn me off and strike me as ludicrous. We had a good laugh about Judge
Hammerschmidt's naivete and I assumed that was the last I would ever see of
the book.
Judge Louis Hammerschmidt was a prominent member of Zion
Church and a respected layperson in the larger United Church of Christ. He was instrumental in bringing a
Children's Hospital to Sound Bend and
he had donated a chapel to Elmhurst College. Hammerschmidt was also the lay member
of our Indiana-Michigan Conference Council. At the time I was Vice-President of
the Indiana-Michigan Conference and I picked up Hammerschmidt for our January
Council meeting in Jackson, Michigan.
During the drive
to Jackson, Judge cautiously mentioned his tentative investigation of
Spiritualism. He had lost his
wife about ten years before. What
he found in Spiritualism did not impress him. When he saw that I was not disturbed
by this discussion, he said, "Say, I've got a book that I would like to have
you read and tell me what you think about it." I knew what was coming, but I didn't
want to hurt his feelings, so I said, "O. K., Judge, send it to
me."
In about a week I
received this big blue book. I
tried various times to read sections but just couldn't get interested; and I
didn't want to waste my time reading 2000 pages of what appeared to be
gobbledygook. Because of the
esoteric names, I thought maybe it was some form of theosophy. I even took it along on vacation that
summer, but things didn't get boring enough to prompt me to read it. Finally, in September I realized that
I would be in a meeting with Hammerschmidt in October and I had to read
something to get off the hook. I
decided to read a small section and tell him what I thought about
it.
In examining the
Table of Contents again, I was reminded that it had a section of the Life and
Teachings of Jesus. I though with
my academic theological background I could make short work of this text. I had read the apocryphal stories of
the boy Jesus making clay birds and then turning them to life and this did not
impress me. I had read books like
The Aquarian Gospel and its philosophical-theological slanting was very
obvious to me. As I started
reading, I did not find what I had expected to find. It had the ring of reasonable
historicity. When the narrative
progressed to the story of John the Baptist and paralleled the New Testament
account, I was deeply impressed.
Sometimes I would read with tears running down my face. When I finished The Urantia Book
account, I not only realized it was solidly rooted in the New Testament
realities, but was the most profound and inspiring Life and Teaching of Jesus
in print.
Thus motivated by
the high quality of this 700 page Life and Teachings of Jesus, I began reading
the Forward and read the entire book.
It is the most complete and integrated picture of science, philosophy,
and religion I have ever read.
Its enlarged description of Spiritual Reality was mind-boggling. After contemplating this new paradigm
of Reality for some time, I said to myself, "If this is not an authentic
picture of Reality, it is the way it ought to be!"
I contacted Judge
Hammerschmidt to inquire as to where he had gotten the book and he informed me
that a friend, Mr. W. F. Harrah, the co-founder of the National-Standard Co.,
had given him the book. Mr.
Harrah was a member of a group in Chicago who received the papers. A luncheon meeting was arranged with
William Harrah who informed me that Dr. William S. Sadler was the leader of
the group who published the book.
I knew Dr. Sadler by reputation.
He is sometimes referred to as the father of American psychiatry and I
had friends who tad taken his course of Pastoral Counseling at McCormick
Theological Seminary.
Mr. Harrah wrote
me a check to get copies of the book to share with around a dozen of my young
ministerial colleagues. All but
one, who admitted that he did not read the book, were as impressed as I
was. On May 7, 1958 our
ministerial group arranged a meeting with Dr. Sadler to begin research on the
origin of The Urantia Book. This
is a story, which we probably do not have time to relate today, but the origin
pamphlet summarizes the basic findings of this
research.
AN APPROACH TO A
TIME OF TESTING FOR THE Urantia BOOK
I should like to
conclude the formal part of this presentation by suggesting an approach to a
time of testing for this remarkable book. The basic theological positions of The
Urantia Book, as I have said, reinforce the essential tenets of mainline
Christianity, but on a vastly enlarged universe scale. Without mass media publicity or
promotion, the book has sold more than 250,000 copies. Translations are available in French,
Spanish, and Finnish. Work
continues on the Dutch and Russian translations, with editions in Korean,
German, Swedish, Hungarian and Italian translations on the drawing board. In the judgment of tens of thousands
of discriminating people, including many ministers, the book contains the
greatest stimulus to spiritual growth in contemporary literature. It certainly merits critical
examination and evaluation by all who are seriously interested in the future
of religion on our world.
Since The Urantia
Book purports to be the Fifth Epochal Revelation, authored by supermortal
personalities, it is important to have a clear understanding of the
philosophic criteria of truth necessary in evaluating such claim. First of all, claim of authority is
not a philosophic criterion of truth.
Secondly, knowing the origin and/or authorship of a book may give some
insights, but it is not a reliable philosophic criterion of truth. Whether supermortals or human beings
wrote the book, it must be evaluated by the quality of its content, not by
what it claims, or who may have written it.
The central
objective in evaluating The Urantia Book is to assess the quality of its
spiritual truth and insight. This
must be done by individuals using their total capacity to evaluate its
philosophic coherence and experiential spiritual relevance. Is the spiritual quality and insights
of the book inferior to, equal with, or superior to our traditional sources of
spiritual truth? During this
period of testing, gradually a consensus will evolve regarding its
quality. If the general opinion
is negative, the book will fade into obscurity. If the consensus is positive,
continued evaluation will determine the level of its spiritual resource, or
does it have the quality of revelation?
My philosophic hypothesis is that if it has the spiritual quality of
revelation, its influence will continue to grow in the church, the society,
and the world.
My personal view,
after forty years of critical study and evaluation, is that The Urantia
Book is of superior quality in at least four categories:
-
Its comprehensive view of Deity and Reality, including
the Trinity.
- The presentation of an enlarged spiritual cosmology, which is
commensurate with our gigantic material astronomical cosmology.
- An overview of a vast array of spiritual personalities that function
in an hierarchical system of ability and power, which must exist if we are
to make any sense of the spiritual cosmos.
- And finally, a greatly expanded presentation of the life and teachings
of Jesus, that is solidly rooted in the New Testament realities.
In short, The Urantia Book is the best view of an
integrated universe, the best model of total reality that I have
encountered.
Let's now open the meeting to a discussion period to see
what questions or comments you may have.
