© 1996 Meredith Sprunger
© 1996 The Christian Fellowship of Students of The Urantia Book
The quest for immortality is one of the perennial themes of religion. All of the major religions of the world have some conceptualization of this projected future state. Life after death in the Christian faith is closely associated with the geographic location of Paradise. Byron Belitsos in his recent Journal article, “Paradise: The Recentering of Theology,” shows that contemporary astrophysics and the cosmological picture of Paradise in The Urantia Book have some remarkably harmonious relationships. The theological historian, Jean Delumeau, has recently initiated a threevolume study of this persistent quest for immortality. The first volume,_ History of Paradise: The Garden of Eden in Myth and Tradition_ (Continuum,1995, 276 pp., $29.50), points out the continuing power of the Garden of Eden story up to the 19th century. Volume two will chart millennial projections, and volume three will study the hope and joy of Paradise expectations.
Caroline Walker Bynum in The Resurrection of the Body in Western Christianity, 200-1336 (Columbia University Press, 1995, 368 pp., $29.95) examines the early Christian belief in the literal resurrection of the body and the contemporary inclination to do away with such interpretations. She points out the embarrassing ambiguities in our view of life after death, and observes that if God cannot redeem the body that is so central to personal integrity, then God’s victory over death is partial and feeble.
A century from now, people will look back and marvel that it took so long for the great majority of humankind to discover its unparalleled message.
Here again, as in so many other theological difficulties, The Urantia Book presents a view of life after death that is coherent and meaningful. It describes the growth of the soul as contingent with our decisions and dedication to the realities of truth, beauty, and goodness (God’s will) and the permanence of each personality. We are resurrected with a morontia (part material, part spiritual) body that gradually evolves into a bona fide spiritual body. We continue our education and spiritual growth in the universe and eventually arrive on the Isle of Paradise, are embraced by the Universal Father and ushered into the Finaliter Corps of eternal service. For searching humanity who wonder about life after death and our relationship with loved ones who have made this transition, The Urantia Book description of the adventure of eternity is a rationally satisfying and emotionally comforting revelation. A century from now, people will look back and marvel that it took so long for the great majority of humankind to discover its unparalleled message.