© 2002 Yves Guillot-Goguet
© 2002 French-speaking Association of Readers of the Urantia Book
| A Glimpse of the General Organization of the Master Universe and Theory of Totality by the Researchers of Uversa | Le Lien Urantien — Issue 21 — Spring 2002 | Rotation |
The June 2001 issue of the “Journal of the IUA” particularly pleased me for the balanced and tolerant position of Andrés Rodriguez “The virginity of Mary”; the point of view is well argued and avoids any excess in one direction or another. But it is above all the article by Seppo Kanerva "Regarding religion, should we found a new church? which leads me to write to you.
The word “church” is understood as a human structure (such as a political party, union, association) having a hierarchy, rules, a liturgy, a doctrine, dogmas, etc.
The New Testament already shows us that Jesus very rarely used this notion: only Matthew took it up, first in the verse so controversial between Catholics and Protestants: “on this rock I will build my Church” (16, 18) and then in 18,17$.
This is extremely little and it shows, according to the evangelists, to what extent Jesus considered as completely secondary this human structure which, too often, blocks the approach of God.
The Acts of the Apostles speak of it on several occasions, as well as the epistles of the apostle Paul; but the term “church” is understood as much in the sense of communities having adhered to Jesus Christ the Savior who leads to the Father as in the broader sense of all those elected to the Christian faith. The flexibility of these churches contrasts sharply with the conception which has prevailed and which prevails in the great religions, organized, structured, hierarchical.
On the other hand, in the Gospels we very often find the term “Kingdom”.
“Kingdom of God” is used by all four evangelists, while only Matthew speaks of the “Kingdom of Heaven.”
We arrive at several definitions and characteristics of what the “Kingdom” is, but all come very close to those found in The Urantia Book.
We can particularly cite Luke 17, 21: “The kingdom of God is within you”.
What struck me when reading The Urantia Book is that, to my knowledge, Jesus did not use the term “church”; on the other hand, the kingdom comes up in almost every one of his speeches.
For me, one of the best descriptions of what the kingdom is is during his speech in the synagogue of Capernaum at the very beginning of his ministry (UB 137:8.13).
It is indisputable that the kingdom has only one meaning and it is spiritual:
““Be not deceived by those who come saying here is the kingdom or there is the kingdom, for my Father’s kingdom concerns not things visible and material. And this kingdom is even now among you, for where the spirit of God teaches and leads the soul of man, there in reality is the kingdom of heaven. And this kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.” (UB 137:8.9)
It does not seem at all that Jesus wanted to create a Church, in the same way as the already existing established religions.
He knew how to highlight everything that was positive in each of the great religions of his time (booklet 131: the religions of the world)
The stay in Rome is quite significant:
“For six months Jesus spent much of his leisure time in close association with these religious leaders, and this is how he instructed them.
He never once addressed their errors and never even mentioned the flaws in their teachings.
In each case he selected the portion of truth in their lessons, and then proceeded to embellish and illuminate that truth in their minds in such a way that in a very short time this enhancement of truth effectually drove out the previous error." (UB 132:0.4)
It seems to me that what was valid two thousand years ago is just as valid today.
There are a large number of Christian or Christian-like religions; there are also a large number of non-Christian religions.
Would Jesus shake everything up by establishing a new religion, a Church built according to human principles (with their weaknesses and their faults and they can be great), Churches already in place or would he encourage the men and women of this time to raise their eyes and their hearts beyond what is visible, fleeting and so fragile, in the search for the Father already present in the human mind?
The most important aspect that can be taken from the teachings of Jesus is that religion must go beyond the dogmatic side to become deeply embedded in the daily reality of life:
“Some day a reformation in the Christian church may strike deep enough to get back to the unadulterated religious teachings of Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. You may preach a religion about Jesus, but, perforce, you must live the religion of Jesus. In the enthusiasm of Pentecost, Peter unintentionally inaugurated a new religion, the religion of the risen and glorified Christ. The Apostle Paul later on transformed this new gospel into Christianity, a religion embodying his own theologic views and portraying his own personal experience with the Jesus of the Damascus road. The gospel of the kingdom is founded on the personal religious experience of the Jesus of Galilee; Christianity is founded almost exclusively on the personal religious experience of the Apostle Paul. Almost the whole of the New Testament is devoted, not to the portrayal of the significant and inspiring religious life of Jesus, but to a discussion of Paul’s religious experience and to a portrayal of his personal religious convictions. The only notable exceptions to this statement, aside from certain parts of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, are the Book of Hebrews and the Epistle of James. Even Peter, in his writing, only once reverted to the personal religious life of his Master. The New Testament is a superb Christian document, but it is only meagerly Jesusonian.” (UB 196:2.1)
I also really liked certain passages from works of great spiritual significance showing that religion must above all be lived:
“To all questions that concern both God and man, a satisfactory answer can only be given when we stop relegating God to the periphery of our existence.
God must be at the very heart of our life, exactly in the place where hope must be found: where man must face the problems of his profession, those which cause his successes and his failures.
Where, in the political and economic domain, oppositions clash harshly; where passions become the motives of life, where they push us to impulses and repercussions; where we must allow ourselves to be challenged by various situations of a family, professional, personal or social nature: there is the place of God.
Man must therefore decide to seek God on the periphery of his existence to put him back at the center.”
(“Fire from Heaven” by Otto von Huhn — Apostolat des Editions)
“Religion is for everyone, religion has the characteristic of connecting all men to each other and to God the Father of all…
Religion is for everyone: it therefore only requires what is within everyone’s reach…
The function of religion is to develop and satisfy in us requirements superior to those of human animality…
This is the meaning of the word Christianity: “A true Christian is another Christ”, that is to say a man penetrated to his very marrow by divine life, by faith in God, by the love of God…
The extent of belief for each of us must be proportionate to the extent of our personal vision; and not to the extent of a Creed wherever it comes from"
(“The Christianity of Christ and that of his vicars” by Abbé Alta, Vigot Frères Editeurs)
This work by Abbé Alta, published in 1921 and which I am happy to own, had a great impact on me because of its incomparable spiritual richness and what this Catholic priest, a doctor of the Sorbonne, dared to write at a time when it was necessary to conform to the rigidity of the Roman Church.
In many ways, he anticipated what I have been discovering for less than two years with these wonders of the Urantia Book.
Abbot Alta had no idea, at a time when The Urantia Book had not yet been published, that he was predicting such an event:
“I am, alas!: “a voice crying in the wilderness”
“But I firmly believe that our century is the decisive passage for Christianity towards the blossoming that Christ clearly indicated to it”
I took away an extremely positive memory from this last stay at Notre Dame des Lumières and among the elements which struck me I felt an absence of criticism towards established religions; and what was best, was that the belonging of each person to this or that religion was of no interest.
This is why I feel totally close to Seppo Karneva’s arguments showing complete disagreement with the possibility of the creation of a Urantian Church.
The message of Jesus as it is proposed in The Urantia Book will have a much deeper and more lasting impact if it is expressed through men and women opening up new and dynamic perspectives in their respective Churches.
that if it seeks to impose itself through the appearance of a new spiritual movement; this new movement will in any case be very weak numerically, very often inferior in number to many sects, and risks very much not even being united, because just as the Bible has led to serious splits due to divergences of interpretation, this could just as easily happen again with The Urantia Book.
Yves Guillot Goguet
Intellectual self-consciousness can discover the beauty of truth, its spiritual quality, not only by the philosophic consistency of its concepts, but more certainly and surely by the unerring response of the ever-present Spirit of Truth. Happiness ensues from the recognition of truth because it can be acted out; it can be lived. Disappointment and sorrow attend upon error because, not being a reality, it cannot be realized in experience. Divine truth is best known by its spiritual flavor. (UB 2:7.6)
| A Glimpse of the General Organization of the Master Universe and Theory of Totality by the Researchers of Uversa | Le Lien Urantien — Issue 21 — Spring 2002 | Rotation |