© 2001 Meredith Sprunger
© 2001 The Christian Fellowship of Students of The Urantia Book
Recently, I read a little book entitled, The End of Christendom and the Future of Christianity, written by Douglas John Hall, a Canadian theologian, who is Professor of Christian Theology at McGill University. The thesis of the book is that Christianity is undergoing a major transition. “I believe that commitment to the established institutional model of the church — to Christendom in its various institutional forms — is the single most important cause of inertia and the retardation of intentional and creative response to this great transition.” (p. 7)
Professor Hall believes the hand of God is in this change. He thinks that this intentional disestablishment must be “a work of theology.” This Post-Christian era must “rediscover our own distinctive ontological foundations.” (p. 54) Dr. Hall does not specifically say that we must rediscover the religion of Jesus, but I think he implies that this is the goal of the new spiritual paradigm of the future. We must make a new beginning. “Today we are constrained by the divine Spirit to rediscover the possibilities of littleness.” (p. 66)
This book is illustrative of the reoccurring motif of the imaginative prophetic thinking in the growing edge of contemporary Christianity. The Most Highs, in my judgment, are preparing our world for the Fifth Epochal Revelation. The conflict and lawsuits in the Urantia movement are minor distracting events in the major mission and purpose of the Fifth Epochal Revelation.