Meredith Sprunger's Synopsis of The Urantia Book
Synopsis of Paper 99
THE SOCIAL PROBLEMS OF RELIGION
1. Religion achieves its highest social ministry when it has least connection with the secular institutions of society ...religion should not be directly concerned either with the creation of new social orders or with the preservation of old. ones.
2. This new and oncoming social order will not settle down complacently for a millennium. The human race must become reconciled to a procession of changes, adjustments, and. readjustments. Mankind is on the march toward a new and unrevealed planetary destiny. Religion must become a forceful influence for moral stability and. spiritual progression functioning dynamically in the midst of these ever‑changing conditions and never‑ending economic adjustments.
3. Religion must not become organically involved in the secular work of social reconstruction and. economic reorganization. But it must actively keep pace with all these advances in civilization by making clear‑cut and. vigorous restatements of its moral mandates and spiritual precepts, its progressive philosophy of human living and transcendent survival. The spirit of religion is eternal, but the form of its expression must be restated. every time the dictionary of human language is revised..
4. Institutional religion is now caught in the stalemate of a vicious circle. It cannot reconstruct society without first reconstructing itself; and being so much an integral part of the established order, it cannot reconstruct itself until society has been radically reconstructed.
Religionists must function in society, in industry, and in politics as individuals, not as groups, parties, or institutions…Religious collectivism must confine its efforts to the furtherance of religious causes...Its only proper attitude consists in the teaching of nonviolence.
5. Modern religion finds it difficult to adjust its attitude toward the rapidly shifting social changes only because it has permitted itself to become so thoroughly traditionalized, dogmatized, and institutionalized..
6. The church, because of overmuch false sentiment, has long ministered to the underprivileged. and the unfortunate, and this has all been well, but this same sentiment has led to the unwise perpetuation of racially degenerate stocks which have tremendously retarded the progress of civilization.
7. Religion can be kept free from unholy secular alliances only by:
1. A critically corrective philosophy.
2. Freedom from all social, economic, and. political alliances.
3. Creative, comforting, and love‑expanding fellowships.
4. Progressive enhancement of spiritual insight and the appreciation of cosmic values.
5. Prevention of fanaticism by the compensations of the scientific mental attitude.
Religionists, as a group, must never concern themselves with anything but religion, albeit any one such religionist, as an individual citizen, may become the outstanding leader of some social, economic, or political reconstruction movement.
8. Religion puts new meaning into all group associations—families, schools, and. clubs. It imparts new values to play and exalts all true humor...But if religion is to stimulate individual development of character and augment integration of personality, it must not be standardized …. If religion is to promote supreme loyalties, it must not be formalized.
9. During the psychologically unsettled times of the twentieth century, amid the economic upheavals, the moral crosscurrents, and the sociologic rip tides of the cyclonic transitions of a scientific era, thousands upon thousands of men and women have become humanly dislocated; they are anxious, restless, fearful, uncertain, and unsettled; as. never before in the world's history they need the consolation and stabilization of sound religion. In the face of unprecedented scientific achievement and mechanical development there is spiritual stagnation and philosophic chaos.
10. Modern science, particularly psychology, has weakened only those religions which are so largely dependent upon fear, superstition, and. emotion. Transition is always accompanied by confusion, and there will be little tranquility in the religious world until the great struggle between the three contending philosophies of religion is ended:
1. The spiritistic belief (in a providential Deity) of many religions.
2. The humanistic and idealistic belief of many philosophies.
3. The mechanistic and naturalistic conceptions of many sciences.
And thus three partial approaches to the reality of the cosmos must eventually become harmonized by the revelatory presentation of religion, philosophy, and cosmology which portrays the triune existence of spirit, mind, and energy proceeding from the Trinity of Paradise and attaining time‑space unification within the Deity of the Supreme.
11. Always keep in mind: True religion is to know God as your Father and man as your brother. Religion is not a slavish belief in threats of punishment or magical promises of future mystical rewards. The religion of Jesus is the most dynamic influence ever to activate the human race. Jesus shattered tradition, destroyed dogma, and called mankind to the achievement of its highest ideals in time and eternity—to be perfect, even as the lather in heaven is perfect.
12. Any religious belief which is effective in spiritualizing the believer is certain to have powerful repercussions in the social life of such a religionist. Religious experience unfailingly yields the "fruits of the spirit" in the daily life of the spirit‑led mortal.
13. Someday religionists will get together and actually effect co‑operation on the basis of unity of ideals and purposes rather than attempting to do so on the basis of psychological opinions and theological beliefs. Goals rather than creeds should unify religionists... "Have you faith? Then have it to yourself."
14. Future religionists must live out their religion, dedicate themselves to the wholehearted. service of the brotherhood. of man. It is high time that man had a religious experience so personal and so sublime that it could be realized and expressed only by "feelings that lie too deep for words."
15. Sectarianism is a disease of institutional religion, and dogmatism is an enslavement of the spiritual nature.
16. There is a real purpose in the socialization of religion. It is the purpose of group religious activities to dramatize the loyalties of religion; to magnify the lures of truth, beauty, and goodness; to foster the attractions of supreme values; to enhance the service of unselfish fellowship; to glorify the potentials of family life; to promote religious education; to provide wise counsel and spiritual guidance; and to encourage group worship.
17. But as religion becomes institutionalized, its power for good is curtailed, while the possibilities for evil are greatly multiplied. The dangers of formalized religion are: fixation of beliefs and crystallization of sentiments; accumulation of vested interests with increase of secularization; tendency to standardize and fossilize truth; diversion of religion from the service of God to the service of the church; inclination of leaders to become administrators instead of ministers; tendency to form sects and. competitive divisions; establishment of oppressive ecclesiastical authority; creation of the aristocratic "chosen‑people" attitude; fostering of false and exaggerated ideas of sacredness; the routinizing of religion and. the petrification of worship; tendency to venerate the past while ignoring present demands; failure to make up‑to‑date interpretations of religion; entanglement with functions of secular institutions; it creates the evil discrimination of religious castes; it becomes an intolerant judge of orthodoxy; it fails to hold the interest of adventurous youth and gradually loses the saving message of the gospel of eternal salvation.
18. Religion inspires man to live courageously and. joyfully on the face of the earth; it joins patience with passion, insight to zeal, sympathy with power, and ideals with energy . ...Man is naturally a dreamer, but science is sobering him so that religion can presently activate him with far less danger of precipitating fanatical reactions.
Discussion Questions
1. Why shouldn’t religious institutions be involved with secular institutions?
2. What new planetary destiny are we heading toward?
3. What are forms of loveless zeal in religion?
4. Has science and academic learning strengthened or weakened religion in America?
5. How can we prevent religion from being stereotyped and formalized?
6. How can we separate psychological opinions and theological beliefs from the ideals and purposes of religion?
7. What is necessary before religion can reconstruct itself?
A Service of
The Urantia Book Fellowship