© 1994 Merlyn Cox
© 1994 The Christian Fellowship of Students of The Urantia Book
| The Metamorphosis of the Church | Spring 1994 — Index | The Urantia Book: Toward a Context for Theological Evaluation |
As we approach the beginning of another century-as well as the next millennium-many denominations are trying to forecast the changes that might occur. Many are looking for a new direction, for some new insight that will help rejuvenate the church.
Leaders are exploring new models of growth, new models of worship, and new models of authority. Some of these have proved “successful” in a given setting, but few show the promise of widespread acceptance across a diverse spectrum. All carry their own theological assumptions that help or hinder them, depending on the environment. We seem locked in the current malaise without any clear cut way out.
The church has discovered the language and importance of paradigms, but that does not always help us to see outside the ones that now shape our perspectives and actions. By and large, we continue to tinker with programs that are the outgrowth of the present ones.
It seems increasingly obvious that there is no institutional fix for a lack of empowering vision. Vision is not something we create as much as something that we discover, something that first shapes us. It is empowering to the degree that it reflects the underlying truth of things-timeless truth as it impinges on current time and space.
The empowerment of a new vision, I believe, will not likely happen until a new coherent philosophical and theological paradigm is in place. Until such a vision emerges, churches will likely continue to polarize between a dogmatic fundamentalism and a sterile liberalism, with both sides drawing energy from its own social agendas. We will also likely continue to move toward the privatization of religion, with religious identities less defined by denominational loyalties.
It may well be that we will face increasing aridity and restlessness in the church just when the world at large increasingly hungers for meaning beyond its abundant material resources.
I’m convinced, however, that this stagnation and malaise will eventually give way to a new vision of life, one more adequate to empower us for graceful, grateful, and hopeful living, one in which the ultimate realities will again be more discernable in the commonplace.
Such an empowering vision is available now in the The Urantia Book, and I cannot help but believe that over the next several generations, its leaven will increasingly work its way into the life and thought of more and more people, providing the foundation for a truly new world-and universe — understanding.
| The Metamorphosis of the Church | Spring 1994 — Index | The Urantia Book: Toward a Context for Theological Evaluation |