© 1994 Meredith Sprunger
© 1994 The Christian Fellowship of Students of The Urantia Book
John B. Cobb, Jr., professor of religion at the Claremont Graduate School, in an article in the June 29th issue of The Christian Century entitled, “Faith Seeking Understanding: The Renewal of Christian Thinking,”says that theology no longer plays an important role in the church’s life, and calls for a renewal of Christian thinking. “Theology,” he observes, “has been relegated to professional specialists and increasingly abandoned by them as well.”
This stagnation of serious and relevant Christian thinking by the rank and file of contemporary church members has a far deeper root than is perceived by most theologians. There has been a procession of modern theologies attempting to restore the dynamism of the Christian faith: existential and neo-orthodox theology, liberation theology, theologies of hope, of play, and of story, process theology, and many others. These theologies, groping for spiritual relevancy, have been unable to sustain an inspiring interest in Christian thinking by the common person because they are based on a view of reality, a revelation, designed to serve the reality frames of reference of the prescientific views of early Western Civilization — or they lack the empowering foundations of a relevant and recognized epochal revelation.
This stagnation of serious and relevant Christian thinking by the rank and file of contemporary church members has a far deeper root than is perceived by most theologians.
The basis of an impelling and inspiring theology is a relevant view of reality, a revelation of truth configured to speak to the needs and longings stemming out of contemporary human experience. In our post-modern age, the latent potentials of the timeworn prescientific paradigm of reality are nearly exhausted. No amount of theological brilliance or perseverance can breathe life into the old paradigm. A new vision of reality is desperately needed.
And it is here in the form of The Urantia Book! Future experience on our planet will discover this fresh spiritual paradigm of reality that, in time, will transform our world. Its enlargement of theological parameters staggers the imagination. Its inspiring spiritual cosmology will once again stimulate the masses of humanity to be absorbed in the spiritual quest. Its Christology is sweeping in its inclusiveness without instigating interreligious rivalry, and yet is surprisingly “orthodox.” The renewal of theology awaits its discovery by the church. For each individual, however, this discovery can be now!