© 1993 Sue Tennant
© 1993 The Christian Fellowship of Students of The Urantia Book
The Urantia Book and Spiritual Renewal
This column features personal responses to The Urantia Book by both lay and clergy readers.
Seventeen years ago, The Urantia Book beckoned to me from an obscure shelf in a private library. What a strange book it seemed, over two thousand pages of prodigious names and profuse details! After flipping through the pages I was curious about a section on the life and teachings of Jesus. What began for me was a story so compelling in its use of language and sense of authenticity that I could barely tear myself away to eat or sleep.
In the months that followed other sections were read very slowly and very thoroughly because much of the information was so new that I often felt skeptical. Eventually the foreignness of the book dissipated and I began to view it cautiously as one might a unique and adventuresome friend. For two years, this friend gave me a profound appreciation of the spiritual potential of human beings. Reading The Urantia Book was private, personal, and thrilling, in fact the most wonderful experience of my life, and though I craved to discuss it, I failed to find anyone interested in serious study.
Reading The Urantia Book was private, personal, and thrilling, in fact the most wonderful experience of my life, and though I craved to discuss it, I failed to find anyone interested in serious study.
As reading continued, amazing questions surfaced from deep within me, then answers would suddenly appear on the book’s pages, followed by new questions emerging. This process of asking and then discovering answers seemed tailor-made for learning. My mind stretched. Visualizing the distant past and the eternal future and thinking in complex abstractions became easier with time. Deity concepts, principles of universe pattern, evolutionary purpose and spiritual values became real and relevant in my life. I began to live more loyally to my own ideals and took some seemingly huge steps in faith. It was clear that I would spend the rest of my life sharing The Urantia Book and its teachings because this was truly something extraordinary-an incomparable revelation of the reality and purpose of God.
In time, connections were made with other readers and study groups and numerous conferences for students of The Urantia Book became an important part of my life. I began to understand that at the very least, this book would help facilitate the conceptual changes needed to solve the urgent spiritual, social, economic, and political problems of our world. Our conflicting diversities need a transcendent unifying principle and new spiritual inspiration if global progress is to occur. The root cause of divisiveness is the failure of individuals to understand their common spiritual potential, the fact of the indwelling presence of God, the source of unity and love. Our world desperately needs a new vision of reality. How important it is to share with humankind the good news that an unprecedented vision of God is portrayed in The Urantia Book, and that unimagined creative opportunities to serve the whole human family are revealed in its insights with stunning clarity!
Sue Tennant attended Wycliffe College, Toronto School of Theology, and is presently completing her final year at The New Seminary in NYC. She is a former Toronto publicist and author of "CrossingCrossing Crossing Cultures in Business.”