Urantia Book/Introduction
If you have come to Wikiversity to learn about the Urantia Book, you should not expect to learn about it's mysterious origin or anonymous authorship. A great deal of material has been written on those subjects that is very easily found, on Wikipedia and elsewhere. These pages on Wikiversity and meant to teach the student the lessons put forth in the Urantia Book. The book essentially teaches one to cultivate a personal relationship with our spiritual father, God, while encouraging the highest ideals of social relationships as the method of creating spiritual experiences with our mortal brothers that form the foundation of our potentially infinite existence.
Outline[edit | edit source]
The following is an abridgment of David Kantor's outline of the papers; in the introduction, he states:
There are four summary papers which may be considered separately. These are the Foreword, Paper 56, Paper 118 and Paper 196. The Foreword and Paper 56 studied together will provide significant insights, but to be productive such a study must be preceeded by a thorough reading of Papers 1 through 55.
Paper 118 examines the theological implications of the materials developed in Parts I, II and III, and provides a conceptual foundation upon which future theological insights may be developed through a combination of rational philosophic extension and personal revelation.
Paper 196 provides a meditative reflection on the implications of the faith of Jesus for our personal spiritual lives.
- Foreword: Orientation to some conceptual structures and relationships developed in the text.
- Papers 1-10: Primary Deity Relationships; Primary cosmological foundations of The Urantia Book's model of reality.
- Papers 11-15: Physical Cosmography; Overview of the architecture of the master universe in the present universe age; the relationship between existential and evolutionary structures and systems.
- Papers 16-31: Personality in the Universe; Introduction to the interpersonal Deity relationships which constitute the architectural structure of the personal cosmos in the present universe age.
- Papers 32-40: The Local Universe of Nebadon
- Papers 41-42: Physical Energy
- Papers 43-44: The Constellations
- Papers 45-55: The Local System
- Paper 56: A Unified Cosmology. A philosophic essay on the nature of the cosmic unity integrating the realities explored in The Urantia Papers. Paper 56 is a special Paper; Papers 1-55 build a conceptual foundation upon which the philosophic developments in Paper 56 reasonably may be made. Paper 56 also summarizes the cosmology presented in the preceeding papers. Paper 56 and the Foreword should be studied together as a review of the material in the first 55 Papers.
- Papers 57-65: The Evolutionary Process
- Papers 66-77: The Fostering of Civilization
- Papers 78-92: Evolution of Human Institutions
- Papers 93-103: Conceptual Foundations of the Fourth Epoch. Recent epochal revelations and the development of present day levels of theological understandings about the nature of Deity.
- Papers 104-118: Conceptual Foundations for the Fifth Epoch. The revelators compose the highest achievements of human theology and philosophy into a platform from which future philosophical and theological development may proceed. This involves a revealed integration of Trinitarian and Process theologies. If it is felt that the revelators had a specific purpose in ordering the Papers, the student might ask why the gap in the material in this section between that related to the Trinity and that related to the Supreme is bridged with a discussion of the Thought Adjusters and the Seraphim of Planetary Supervision.
- Papers 119-121: The Context of Michael's Bestowal
- Papers 122-134: Jesus of Nazareth
- Papers 135-147: Beginning the Public Work. The public work of Jesus, the son of man.
- Papers 148-158: Continuing the Public Work
- Papers 159-170: Concluding the Public Work
- Papers 171-188: Arrest, Trial, and Crucifixion of Jesus
- Papers 189-193: The Post-Resurrection Jesus
- Papers 194-196: Into the Fifth Epoch