© 1986 John M. Andrews
© 1986 The Urantia Book Fellowship (formerly Urantia Brotherhood)
It seems to me that we all construct a philosophy of living of one sort or another. It’s part of the natural mental function of integrating our expanding consciousness. The great challenge is to construct one with certain characteristics and based upon certain concepts. And the great promise is that such a philosophy of living will mightily help in furthering the religious evolution of all mankind, and in a way that the book cannot do by itself and that we cannot do without the book.
“… to construct a new and appealing philosophy of living …”
To meet this challenge, such a philosophy of living must be both new and appealing. It must be new: not just a patching of new bits of truth onto an old philosophical structure, but a new philosophical structure. And it must be appealing: not just true or beautiful, but good — effectively attractive. Others must be able to relate to it; it must satisfactorily address their true needs. From this consideration alone, it seems unlikely to me that the formalized religions of the world will be successful in meeting this challenge if they insist on holding fast to their old and (to many) unappealing philosophy.
“… out of the enlarged and exquisitely integrated modern concepts of cosmic truth, universe beauty, and divine goodness.”
To meet this challenge, such a philosophy of living must be constructed out of these concepts. Such a philosophy of living is not contained in the book, but is to be based on our experience with the teachings in the book. It is constructed out of interactive experiential study: becoming intellectually familiar with the teachings, applying them to life situations, and formulating a philosophical conception of how all this fits together in practice; and then cycling back through this experience again and again.
While we all, by nature, construct a philosophy of living, we will not all be able to meet “the religious challenge of this age.” There are some requirements:
“… farseeing and forward-looking men and women of spiritual insight who will dare …” And this is a formidable list of prerequisites. “Farseeing” implies broad experience and wisdom, “Forward-looking” implies a well-developed sense of direction and a positive motivation. “Spiritual insight” implies a sincere love of God and diligent efforts to find him. And to “dare” implies a profound assurance in the success of the undertaking in the face of all obstacles. All this adds up in my mind to robust faith — even approaching the faith of Jesus. It amazes me that we “mere mortals” can even aspire to such a thing. Such is the power potential of the religion of Jesus in our lives!
But if and when we are successful in constructing such a philosophy of living, the results will be invaluable, it will “… attract all that is good in the mind of man and challenge that which is best in the human soul.” I observe that the book, alone, seems to attract this and that in the mind of man: some coherence, some confusion; some stability, some strange isms. And it seems to challenge a broad range of soul inclinations, from family loyalty to personal glorification. I am greatly pleased at the prospect of a “self-selecting” device, such as this philosophy of living, that would attract only the good and challenge only the best. It would save us no end of trouble.
An important corollary to all this is that the book itself will neither so attract nor so challenge (not on a broad scale; not in our generation); but an appropriate philosophy of living developed from the teachings of the book will do both.
What a great promise! And what a challenge!
And how are we to accomplish this? How are we to meet this challenge? “Truth, beauty, and goodness are divine realities, and as man ascends the scale of spiritual living, these supreme qualities of the Eternal become increasingly co-ordinated and unified in God, who is love.”
As always, so it seems, the answer is love. Nowhere does it say that “revelation is the greatest thing in the universe,” but we are told repeatedly that love is! Nowhere are we told to derive our authority from the fact of revelation, but we are advised that “by their fruits you shall know them.” And Jesus gave us but one commandment: to love one another, “even as I have loved you.” Indeed, we must “dare to depend solely on Jesus.”
So let us love to learn of God, and let us learn to love each other. And out of the mental contemplation of our experience with divine love will emerge this philosophy of living, with which to attract and challenge our fellows abroad in the world.
— John Andrews
Juneau, Alaska