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Introductory Materials for The Urantia Book

What is The Urantia Book?

The Urantia Book presents a comprehensive world view composed from the concepts and ideas of more than 2,000 individuals who have contributed to the fields of science, philosophy, religion, history, sociology and theology during the last 2,000 years, integrated with an illumination of some of the most ancient stories, legends, and texts known to humanity — a comprehensive perspective of human origins and history, as well as an exciting preview of human destiny and the nature of eternal life.

The Urantia Book illuminates the meanings and revitalizes the values of Judeo-Christian religion by retelling in great detail stories of Adam and Eve, the rebellion of Lucifer, the evolution of Judeo-Christian monotheism, and a spiritually compelling account of the life and teachings of Jesus.

The Urantia Book provides a cosmology—a model of universe processes—consistent with contemporary scientific understandings and the highest values of the world's religions.

What's In It?

Part I: The Universe of Universes: A purposeful personal universe, evolving in time and space toward a transcendent destiny is described. This creation includes millions of inhabited worlds in various stages of biological, intellectual, social and spiritual evolution. The nature of God and his relationship to the evolving creation is explored in great detail.

Part II: The Local Universe: The evolutionary plan for fostering the evolving social structures of the universes is detailed. Personality survival is determined by our free will decisions related to our personal relationship with God. Most important are the values which we choose to organize and conduct our personal lives. Growth toward perfection should be our fundamental orientation. This growth is evolutionary, cumulative, and virtually endless. It is achieved through the love of God and unselfish service to our fellow beings.

Part III: The History of our Planet, Urantia: A geophysical and cultural history of our planet. An overview of the development of civilization, culture, government, religion, the family, and other social institutions is described from the viewpoint of superhuman observers. The meanings and values contained within human religious civilization are revitalized, strengthening the foundations upon which further cultural development may take place. A description of human destiny is provided including a description of the worlds we will inhabit immediately following mortal death.

Part IV: The Life and Teachings of Jesus: Seven hundred pages devoted to the life of Jesus make up the most spiritually compelling biography of Jesus anywhere in print. The Urantia Book relates over 16 times as much information about Jesus' life and teachings than does the Bible. The literary depth of The Urantia Book clearly reveals and touchingly portrays his combined humanity and divinity.

Who Wrote It?

The Urantia Book is an anthology of 196 "papers" indited between 1928 and 1935 by superhuman personalities whose names are given with their respective papers in the book.

The humans into whose hands the papers were delivered are now deceased. The means by which the papers were materialized was unique and is not clearly understood.

The contents are a compilation of the best thinking of more than 1,000 human authors writing between the first century and the present era, edited and combined with information and commentary by a superhuman revelatory commission.

Current research is beginning to identify the human sources used in this undertaking.

Although the Urantia Papers have been in print for more than fifty years, no formal religion has sprung from their teachings.

The spiritual insights of the book are used by teachers, ministers, and lay persons of many faiths to enrich the highest values in their own traditions.

Many individuals outside established religious institutions have developed rich, personal spiritual lives as a result of reading The Urantia Book.

An international network of independent study groups continues to develop. Numerous translations exist and more are currently in progress.

Full text of The Urantia Book online