© 1999 Meredith Sprunger
© 1999 The Christian Fellowship of Students of The Urantia Book
Religions usually evolve around charismatic or prophetic personalities. When religious sentiments and practices achieve indigenous group identity and institutionalization in a society it becomes a permanent part of that culture. The theology, polity, and practice of a religion may undergo change over the years but it maintains its historic identity. Never has a new and advanced religious paradigm won over the power structure of the older religions.
The history of religion has many illustrations of the failure of reform movements to transform older religious traditions. The founder of Jainism, Mahavira, and the originator of Buddhism, Gautama, both started their teachings in an attempt to reform Hinduism, not start a new religion. Nanak, the architect of Sikhism, made yet another attempt to restructure Hinduism which would also include the followers of Islam. His message was “There is no Muslim and there is no Hindu.” Nanak’s teaching attracted both Hindus and Muslims.
There is a charming legend about his death. As Nanak was about to die his Hindu and Muslim followers had a dispute about disposing of his remains. Nanak, in an attempt to resolve the controversy, asked each group to place flowers beside him and the group whose flowers were still fresh could dispose of his body. When both factions agreed, Nanak covered himself with a sheet and during the night died. The next morning both sets of flowers were fresh, but the body of Nanak was gone. The result of Nanak’s reform efforts is that neither Hinduism or Islam was changed but a new religion was born.
Jesus tried to up-step Judaism, and his followers started as a sect of Judaism, but in order to continue teaching their enlarged spiritual message they were forced to do so as a separate organization that became known as Christianity. Bahaullah attempted religious and social reforms in Islam but was imprisoned and executed, resulting in the formation of the Baha’i religion. Historic attempts to up-step religions have ended in failure. It is the nature of human society to resist change. Thomas S. Kuhn, in his classic book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, observes that considerable time elapses between the breakdown of a scientific paradigm and the emergence of a new orientation. And, he points out, the originators of the new paradigm are either very young or very new to the field where the new discoveries are made. Indoctrination and tradition seem to inhibit creative innovation.
This phenomenon of resistence to change applies to epochal revelations. All of the former epochal revelations have met with obstacles. The Fifth Epochal Revelation is experiencing some of the same difficulties. The Midwayer sponsors of The Life and Teachings of Jesus appear to be attempting to upstep Christianity. During the past forty years I have tried to get Christian theologians and ministers to seriously examine The Urantia Book with virtually no success. Even those ministers who recognize its quality and use its teachings do so covertly. It is clear that any religious organization stemming out of the Fifth Epochal Revelation will be a new religious organization. There obviously will be numerous such organizations in the centuries ahead. Hopefully, such organizations and institutions in their theology, polity, and practice will benefit from the spiritual wisdom of the Urantia Papers. During these early years of development preceding the advent of new religious organizations the mission of this Journal is to Promote Theological, Philosophical, and Polity Discussions Germane to An Appropriate Symbolism and Socioreligious Expression of the Fifth Epochal Revelation. Hopefully, these discussions will contribute to the spiritual wisdom that will be available when these new religious organizations make their appearance.