© 1984 Mario C. J. Harrington
© 1984 The Urantia Book Fellowship (formerly Urantia Brotherhood)
The West has been fortunate in that many European peoples were able to develop into nationhood under the aegis of one or more of the many sects of Christianity, which in turn had evolved from the guiding principles of Jesus. Ecumenical movements under way are attempting to reconcile the separate theologies of the Roman Catholic Church, the Church of England, Lutheranism, and the Greek Orthodox Church, as well as other divergent Eastern rites. However, if the influence of The URANTIA Book is to touch other peoples that have not been directly affected by Jesusonian teachings, it behooves us then to understand their religious traditions, and, in particular, their cultural ascendancies linked up where possible with the previous currents engendered long ago by the Sethite priesthood. The “URANTIAN Journal” will offer its readers over the coming issues papers about the important religions of Asia, which will point out the intuitive feelings of the different paths taken toward spiritual development in that most populous part of our globe. To achieve the brotherhood of man we must take the effort to understand the way of thinking of other important groups of men, including their idiosyncrasies.
Since the most heavily populated nation of Urantia is China with a population over the one billion mark and since China has been furthest removed from the many religious centers in West Asia, it would seem appropriate to start the series of papers on the religions of China with an appreciation of its religio-philosophical approach while being sensitive to the social cohesiveness it achieved long before other nations gave it a cultural continuity which has endured through the twentieth century.
— Mario Harrington
Oakland Park, Florida
“We cannot judge religion by the status of its accompanying civilization; we had better estimate the real nature of a civilization by the purity and nobility of its religion. Many of the world’s most notable religious teachers have been virtually unlettered. The wisdom of the world is not necessary to an exercise of saving faith in eternal realities.” (UB 102:8.2)