Das Urantia Buch - the German Translation

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Urs Ruchti

By Urs Ruchti, France

Urs Ruchti is a concert pianist and former dentist who lives near Paris.

Born in 1934 in the German part of Switzerland, at the age of twenty, I began my spiritual quest, which intensified when I met my future wife, Nicole, in Paris. Together we found The Urantia Book and frequently visited its French translator, Jacques Weiss. Nicole suggested that I follow Jacques Weiss’s example by translating the book into German. Without translation experience, but having always been a great admirer of beauty in literature art and music, I accepted the challenge.

Discouraged by a first attempt in 1973, I finally began the work in earnest in 1984, at first alone, and several years later in collaboration with Urantia Foundation. I was guided by the idea my German-speaking brothers and sisters deserved the most harmonious text possible so as to allow them to more easily assimilate the demanding content. I was inspired by the book itself which exalts the marriage of truth, beauty and goodness. This marriage meant being rigorously faithful to the ideas and concepts of the original text with flowing sentences and love for the unknown future reader. Did I succeed? Now I say Godspeed to my “baby” as I rededicate myself to my piano music.

Until recent times, Germans were known as thinkers and philosophers. Should not the next generation remember that tradition and add to it a true spiritual dimension? Many signs invite me to entertain such a hope. In The Urantia Book are present all the elements for the building of an entirely new civilization. Each nation will participate in this gigantic task in accordance with its proper genius. What contributions will be made by the Germans, the Austrians, and the Swiss?

Das Urantia Buch is selling rather well. Readers meet in Frankfurt, Freiburg, Zurich, Karlsruhe, and several smaller communities.