Is The Urantia Book a Religion?

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By Claire Mylanus, Associate Trustee, Urantia Foundation, Brittany, France

When you encounter The Urantia Book, you have to put aside many of your ideas about religion. The Urantia Book presents a new approach to belief, faith, and religion.

When we think about religion, we think of institutions, religious systems, dogmas, priesthoods, places of worship, and ways of differentiating ourselves from non-believers or believers in other religions. The word "religion" or "religious" has a different meaning in The Urantia Book.

First of all, The Urantia Book does not separate religion from science and philosophy. The Urantia Book unites science, philosophy, and religion and views them from a cosmic perspective.

To be religious is to attempt to reach God, to attempt the understanding of universal meanings and values, and to integrate them into our daily lives. Jesus frequently referred to "the kingdom of God within you." The Urantia Book emphasizes going into "partnership with God." The personal contact with the divine fragment within us is contact with God the Father. It is fraternizing with God and constitutes having personal religious experience based on faith. Spiritual growth, ever-increasing God consciousness, is a process between ourselves and our divine monitor. It is individual and expresses itself in our daily life by our decisions and choices. It is a living truth-experience having its origin at the level of the spirit with consequent effects, first, at the level of the mind and, thereafter, at the level of the flesh.

That is why I believe that The Urantia Book presents a new and refreshing concept that each of us can experience in our lives. This concept and the resulting experience is religious but does not constitute a religion.