© 2001 John Marks
© 2001 The Christian Fellowship of Students of The Urantia Book
What do faith and spirituality mean today? Both have fallen on hard times. The former, though it receives a good deal of lip service, especially among conservative Christians, ultimately appears to be having little lasting effect on our modern money-based, consumer-oriented, and technologically-driven culture. The latter, often associated with the New Age, has become a catchall term for all the vague longings of the many people searching for a meaning to their lives beyond that offered by the standard narratives of contemporary culture. Whereas faith is commonly viewed as adherence to certain foundational values as embodied in traditional religions, spirituality by contrast is usually interpreted as a rejection of the dated formulae of traditional religious belief systems and a search for something else to fill the void that neither religion or the material pursuits of modern life can fill.
Those of us who have been exposed to the enlightenment of The Urantia Book have the benefit of the most in-depth understanding of faith and spirituality ever presented. Indeed, no two concepts are stressed more in its 2097 pages, and the radical nature of its message lies in the fact that a spiritual vision of the universe is revealed, which can only be grasped by faith. This dynamic re-evaluation of these two vital notions is precisely what our culture needs today. In this paper I will explore aspects of The Urantia Book’s concepts of faith and spirit, and seek to explain why they are considered to be so important.
One of the overriding goals of The Urantia Book is to convey to readers the reality of spirit, that most elusive yet ultimately most important feature of our mortal experience. The whole book is designed to reveal to us that there is a complex, multifaceted spiritual universe, which complements our current scientific picture of the material universe. As defined in The Urantia Book, faith is the essential attitude for getting in touch with the unseen spiritual dimension; indeed it is defined as the natural mental response to our experience of spiritual reality, just as reason is the natural response to our experience with the material world:
“Reason grows out of material awareness, faith out of spiritual awareness, but through the mediation of a philosophy strengthened by revelation, logic may confirm both the inward and the outward view, thereby effecting the stabilization of both science and religion.” (UB 103:7.6)
“Science (knowledge) is founded on the inherent (adjutant spirit) assumption that reason is valid, that the universe can be comprehended. … Religion (the truth of personal spiritual experience) is founded on the inherent (Thought Adjuster) assumption that faith is valid, that God can be known and attained.” (UB 103:9.8)
In our contemporary, science-based society we have cultivated the rational response to material reality into highly sophisticated sciences and technologies, which are extremely adept at investigating and manipulating the natural world. And educational systems, especially in the West, emphasize the approach of reason and turn out young adults ready to continue reason’s development through the sciences, technology, and business
Those of us who have been exposed to the enlightenment of The Urantia Book have the benefit of the most in-depth understanding of faith and spirituality ever presented. Indeed, no two concepts are stressed more in its 2097 pages, and the radical nature of its message lies in the fact that a spiritual vision of the universe is revealed, which can only be grasped by faith. This dynamic re-evaluation of these two vital notions is precisely what our culture needs today.
Unfortunately, there is little appreciation of the faith response to spiritual reality in secular society, and our higher education system almost completely ignores this side of experience. This is the result of two historical factors. First, religion, traditionally the repository of spiritual wisdom, has been slow to respond to change for the last few centuries, and consequently has little to offer sophisticated people in this modern/postmodern age. Second, science has achieved unprecedented success in unraveling many of nature’s secrets and its rational approach to reality has become the prevailing world view.
Hence, our culture is currently unbalanced, the sciences having progressed so far beyond our still hidebound religions, that many educated people have begun to question the very value of religion as a cultural institution. With no strong cultural support for the faith approach to reality, it is no wonder that in contemporary society there is, on the one hand, much questioning of and skepticism about claims for the existence of spiritual reality from scientifically inclined people and, on the other hand, many manifestations of reactionary (fundamentalist) or naïve (New Age) displays of faith from spiritually inclined people with only a weak understanding of science. Religion is long overdue for a dynamic rediscovery of faith and for creating new techniques for the cultivation of faith that are in step with contemporary knowledge.
The Urantia Book awakens us to the reality of spirit in our lives. We are encouraged to expand old concepts to envision a bold new view of faith as a form of “empowerment” (to use a term currently in vogue). Faith, we are told, spiritualizes our minds, expands our ideals, and vastly enhances the meaning of our lives. Thus defined it is a powerful technique for living and for exploring new dimensions of experience, not mere intellectual adherence to a particular creed.
The weakness of current religion seems to be its emphasis on belief and a lack of understanding regarding the meaning of faith. According to The Urantia Book, Christianity stumbled into error early on by substituting a belief system based on the crucified and risen Christ for the living faith of Jesus in the Fatherhood of God and the spiritual fellowship of all humanity as God’s sons and daughters (“the kingdom of God”). Today, Christianity, knowing no better, perpetuates this error and over the ages has exacerbated the problem by becoming divided into so many different churches with variant creeds. Each church insists on the absolute validity of its particular creed, so religion, rather than being a unifying force based on spiritual ideals, has become a source of division based on disagreements over such issues as abortion, women’s role in the clergy, homosexuality, the types of rituals endorsed, dogma regarding the place of faith vs. works, etc. From the point of view of liberal secular culture, which values tolerance and a “Live and let live” attitude, this internecine squabbling does not make Christianity attractive. [1]
Faith, by contrast, in the words of The Urantia Book:
“…is a living experience concerned with spiritual meanings, divine ideals, and supreme values; it is God-knowing and man-serving. Beliefs may become groups possessions, but faith must be personal. … 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.” (UB 101:8.2)
The fact that faith is personal helps to explain why organized religion easily loses sight of the true meaning of faith. For in its effort to create a structure for worship it naturally tends toward belief systems, which can be used as the basis for organization. But when belief systems become too rigid and dogmatic, they tend to stifle personal faith and thus cut off the spiritual energy that is the lifeblood of religion. In the process, people become disaffected, feel alienated from the espoused principals of the leadership, over time membership falls away, and new splinter groups start up. This is the story of Christianity in modern times. The balancing act of any progressive religion is to maintain an organization that is at the same time broadly cohesive yet loose enough to encourage the free expression of personal, individualized faith. [2]
So what are the hallmarks of this “living faith” that The Urantia Book emphasizes? It must be significant that faith is so often described in The Urantia Book as “living.” Whereas intellectual formulations of belief -creeds, theologies, dogmas — give structure and a sense of security to the religious life, they are essentially lifeless crystallizations of thoughts at a particular time and place. Faith has life because it is always an act of a person’s living will, a living expression of personal spiritual experience. Beliefs are static, intellectual creations, whereas faith is a dynamic response of the whole person. When we recognize spirit as a sense of relatedness to some higherintelligence and source of wisdom and love, that is the basic act of faith, which The Urantia Book calls the faith response to spirit. Indeed, in our secular culture, it takes faith not to dismiss spiritual experience as mere fantasizing, wishful-thinking, idealistic longing, or some other psychological label. Psychology has been trying to rationalize away spiritual experience for about a century now.
As a matter of individual will, faith is completely subjective, and no objective evidence of the spirit perceived by faith can be offered other than the effect that such faith in spiritual reality has on the believing person (fruits of the spirit). A skeptic can never understand what the believer experiences unless he or she also wills to believe. In this respect, faith is somewhat like the experience of great art. I can wax enthusiastic about the music of J. S. Bach to people who don’t appreciate classical music, and these persons may then become curious enough to listen, but unless they make the effort to appreciate this music, they will never understand what I am experiencing. You must try it to understand.
In responding to spirit through faith, The Urantia Book tells us, we are responding to a personal reality, and that is the personality presence of God:
“Spirit is the fundamental reality of the personality experience of all creatures because God is spirit…” (UB 12:8.14)
“Spirit (is) the highest personal reality.” (UB 12:8.12)
“Spirit is the basic personal reality in the universes, and personality is basic to all progressing experience with spiritual reality.” (UB 12:9.1)
Spiritual reality is thus the perceived presence of God’s personality, the recognition of which can only come through faith. We perceive the presence of God in similar fashion as we perceive the personality presence of people we know and love. God directs the personal presence of his spirit toward us, and if we respond, we can then direct our faith toward Him and experience this presence again and again. We feel His love and love in return, just as in human affairs we tend to love those who love us.
Eventually, this person-directed quid-pro-quo of the spirit between God and the individual human being (cf. Buber’s I and Thou)[3] teaches each of us to see all other people in a new way. We learn to expand the circle of family fellowship beyond blood-ties, cultural bonds, national heritage, or ethnic or racial membership, to include all members of the human race. In this way the relationship that is established between God and an individual person is extended in spiritual fellowship to all other persons. For spiritual reality, having to do with persons, is essentially relationship. Through faith we learn that we are all related in spirit to the original Spirit, which The Urantia Book calls the Father of us all. This is the supreme relationship that is the basis of all spiritual reality.
Thus, living faith opens the door to spirit, which reveals this vast web of relationships, and taps into the energy of spirit, which motivates the person to act in accordance with this inspired idealistic vision.
This may all sound very abstract but in the life of Jesus the practice of faith in pursuit of the spirit was made beautifully concrete. This is why, I believe, Part IV of The Urantia Book on the life of Jesus was added as the conclusion to The Urantia Book. It acts as a sort of capstone to the magnificent edifice of abstractions in the preceding 1300-plus pages and demonstrates perfectly how all the grand conceptions of the first three parts were put into practice in human life by the very Master of this life. There are so many examples of Jesus’ supreme faith as described in Part IV of The Urantia Book that one can turn to almost any page in this section and find inspiration for one’s own faith. I’d like to concentrate on a few less obvious examples, which nonetheless have important implications for everyone who tries to live a faith-based life.
The famous incident when the twelve-year-old Jesus wanders away from his mother and father during their Passover visit to Jerusalem is often cited as a manifestation of Jesus’ precocious intelligence. That seems to be the implication of the story as it is told in Luke’s gospel: “. . .they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them, and asking them questions. And all that heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers." (Luke 2:46-47) No doubt Jesus did display a precocious intellect, but what I find impressive in this story is the child’s reaction to his parents’ worry when they finally find him after an anxiety-ridden four days of searching:
“Why is it that you have so long sought me? Would you not expect to find me in my Father’s house since the time has come when I should be about my Father’s business?” (UB 125:6.7)
Previous to this encounter the book makes the point that “Jesus was strangely unmindful of his earthly parents; … Jesus did not seem to comprehend that they would be somewhat worried about his having lingered behind.” (UB 125:6.1) Already at twelve, Jesus has developed a faith that has so fully engaged his mind that he fails to foresee or understand the mundane worries that his pairents naturally felt in his absence. In fact his question seems to imply: How could you have worried? It’s as if he assumed their faith must have been as great as his, such that there should be no room for anxiety since it is clear (at least to him) that he has faithfully turned over his life to the loving care of the Father. When one fully trusts the Father in all things, one can never be truly lost.
To me this scene displays both precocious faith and a typical young boy’s self-absorption when he is fascinated with an activity; the world around him disappears while he focuses on the activity at hand and he forgets that others may have a different agenda. The later mature Jesus, the true master of human psychology, could not have overlooked his parents’ fears, but the young Jesus is still getting to know human nature. Yet on a spiritual level, he is already light-years ahead of everyone else and is actively pursuing the personal spiritual relationship that he long ago established with his Father. He knows God and God knows him; everything else is secondary and follows from that supreme relationship. Such faith motivates him to do extraordinary things and to step out of the expected role of a twelve-year-old boy.
But his faith also enabled him later in life to keep hope alive when faced with the trials and dreary ordinary hardships of daily life. After the accidental death of his father when Jesus was only fourteen, a seemingly cruel blow of fate, he became responsible, as the oldest male, for the welfare of the family. Together they faced many difficult years of poverty and struggle, trying to make ends meet to keep food on the table for a family of ten. The child of great promise had suddenly to face the reality of very limited horizons and a foreseeable future of difficult toil in the carpenter’s shop while helping his mother to raise an infant and seven children aged one to ten.
“Within a few years after his father’s death all their property was gone… No youth of Urantia will ever be called upon to pass through more testing conflicts or more trying situations than Jesus himself endured during those strenuous years from fifteen to twenty.” (UB 127:0.2)
“His mother grieved to see him work so hard; she sorrowed that he was day by day toiling at the carpenter’s bench earning a living for the family instead of being, as they had so fondly planned, at Jerusalem studying with the rabbis.” (UB 127:1.8)
“Apparently all Jesus’ plans for a career were thwarted. The future did not look bright as matters now developed. But he did not falter; he was not discouraged. He lived on, day by day, doing well the present duty and faithfully discharging the immediate responsibilities of his station in life. Jesus’ life is the everlasting comfort of all disappointed idealists” (UB 126:5.4)
Perhaps the low point of this trying period was when his baby brother, Amos, died after a week’s illness with a high fever. At eighteen, with his mother grief-stricken and his family pushed to the limit of their meager resources by the funeral expenses, Jesus was the family’s pillar of strength.
“Jesus possessed the ability effectively to mobilize all his powers of mind, soul, and body on the task immediately in hand. He could concentrate his deep-thinking mind on the one problem which he wished to solve, and this, in connection with his untiring patience, enabled him serenely to endure the trials of a difficult mortal existence — to live as if he were ‘seeing Him who is invisible.’” (UB 127:3.15)
This was the extraordinary power of his faith. It enabled him later to formulate those exquisite formulations of faith in the Sermon on the Mount: “Happy are they who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” Jesus knew a good deal about trying experiences and occasions for mourning. Though often surrounded by people, he sometimes felt very alone, for there was no other human being with whom he could share his unique human problems. He had to walk alone down a very difficult and uncertain path, guided only by his faith. Yet we are told he was always cheerful and a source of encouragement to all. In the end he voluntarily accepted the greatest trial of faith — an awful, humiliating death as a common criminal and desertion by most of this followers, friends, and family — to underscore the saving power of faith.
Such faith as he possessed foresees the light of hope even from the depths of the darkest valley of doubt and confers on character the strength and patience to endure the difficult times and the reassurance that a better future is ahead. It allows the spirit to influence the mind, expanding its horizons beyond its present limits to envision a more hopeful future. A mind that can thus foretaste the future through spirit contact is not only comforted but is energized to act in an effort to realize such encouraging potentials.
But the benefits of spirit influence can hardly be realized unless faith is first exercised. That assent of the human will to the appeal of the spirit in the human heart is the necessary first step to permit spirit to act on the mind. Realizing that one can interact in a personal intimate relationship with the spirit of the infinite God is a powerful resource that enables one to face any challenge. As the life of Jesus demonstrates, cultivating this relationship with God is the best habit of mind that any human being can develop.
In a section of The Urantia Book entitled "The Lures of Maturity.” (UB 160:3), the Greek philosopher, Rodan of Alexandria, points out that the life of faith and the habit of communing with the spirit of God are the secrets of Jesus’ mastery of the problems of life:
“Look to your Master. Even now he is out in the hills taking in power while we are here giving out energy. The secret of all this problem is wrapped up in spiritual communion, in worship. From the human standpoint it is a question of combined meditation and relaxation. Meditation makes the contact of mind with spirit; relaxation determines the capacity for spiritual receptivity. And this interchange of strength for weakness, courage for fear, the will of God for the mind of self, constitutes worship…”
“When these experiences are frequently repeated, they crystallize into habits, strength-giving and worshipful habits, and such habits eventually formulate themselves into a spiritual character, and such a character is finally recognized by one’s fellows as a mature personality. These practices are difficult and time-consuming at first, but when they become habitual, they are at once restful and time-saving. The more complex society becomes, and the more the lures of civilization multiply, the more urgent will become the necessity for God-knowing individuals to form such protective habitual practices designed to conserve and augment their spiritual energies.” (UB 160:3.1-2)
This is what our educational system, what our whole Western civilization, is sadly lacking today. Religion in the future must focus on this dynamic definition of faith and spirit, and provide practical means of allowing people to cultivate the habit of spiritual communion. It is the key to getting to know the God within us and learning what His will for us is. In this respect, the West can take a lesson from the East, where the Hindu, Buddhist, and Eastern Orthodox traditions have instilled an appreciation for the value of meditation and silent retreat. In the West we are so used to reasoning, arguing, formulating concepts, or pursuing agendas that it may be difficult to let go for a while of all our mental constellations and just listen, trying to be as receptive and as attuned as possible to the message of the silence. But this is clearly what Jesus often did. Throughout his life he followed a consistent practice of solitary retreat to restore his spiritual balance before engaging the practical challenges of the world. And his very active life and full involvement with people show that such periods of silent communion do not necessarily turn one into a hermit.
In short, this means that we need to rediscover the meaning and value of worship and, in turn, worshipful living. Through faith we come to realize our true place in this huge universe, and when we see through faith that we are part of a gigantic network of relationships that extend far beyond this world, that we are all related through spiritual kinship ties in the family of God, then we are naturally inclined to worship, to commune with the spiritual progenitor of this vast family, whom Jesus taught us to call “Father.”
When religion rediscovers this living web of relationships, it will inspire a new enlightenment of spiritual awareness, one even more exciting than the scientific enlightenment that has created our modern world.
It is just because the gospel of Jesus was so manysided that within a few centuries students of the records of his teachings became divided up into so many cults and sects. This pitiful subdivision of the Christian believers results from failure to discern in the Master’s manifold teachings the divine oneness of his matchless life. But someday the true believers in Jesus will not be thus spiritually divided in their attitude before unbelievers. Always we may have diversity of intellectual comprehension and interpretation, even varying degrees of socialization, but lack of spiritual brotherhood is both inexcusable and reprehensible. UB 170:5.20
The same might be said of the other two great religions of the Book: Judaism and Islam. In each there seems to be greater emphasis on adherence to specific creedal formulations and the letter of the law than on the unifying spirit. Just as in Christianity, one also finds many sects across the whole spectrum from orthodox to liberal. ↩︎
The Urantia movement is currently struggling to achieve a generally agreeable balance between organizational overcontrol and individual spiritual freedom, and will continue to do so in the future. On the one hand, there is a wide diversity of individual paths, from simple study groups of interested people, who read and discuss the book, to the Teaching Mission with its channelers. This indicates a very loose overall structure with little central control. On the other hand, the hard-line stance of the Foundation toward copyright infringement and the split between the Foundation and the Fellowship over the way to disseminate the book reveal a dogmatic and literalist (fundamentalist?) side of the movement. Though everyone seems to agree on the spiritual value of the book, there is a wide range of opinions regarding practical ways to attract new readers and to represent its teachings to the world. Perhaps this is the only way it can be. It is well to remember that the situation of the still-young Urantia movement is not unlike that of early Christianity, which had little unity, differing practices, various centers of influence, and much dissension over theology for three hundred years after the death of Jesus. Religion is an evolutionary, trial and error, and initially chaotic process, until some galvanizing set of practices and/or leaders come along that attract the majority of believers and naturally provide the basic foundation for overall structure. ↩︎
The English translation of Martin Buber’s classic work, Ich and Du, as I and Thou is misleading because the connotation of the German word du, the familiar form of you used only when addressing family members or close friends, is not conveyed by the archaic Middle English Thou. What Buber means to express in using du as the form for addressing God is that the relationship between a human being and God should be one of greatest intimacy, comparable to the relationship between intimate family members or friends. ↩︎