Change 3/Change - Issue 3 (1994-07)(The Seventh Sign).adf/txt/Bibliographic Essay

Text File | 1991-07-11 | 27KB | 1,075 lines

         A Bibliographic Essay on Some Human Books Used in

                          The Urantia Book

                                by

                           Matthew Block

                   3719 North Southport Avenue #217

                        Chicago, IL  60613

                           312/975-1764

                       22nd September, 1992





      Attached is a list of fifteen books which were used in the

 inditement of some of the Urantia Papers.  Each of these books

 contains sentences, paragraphs or even whole chapters whose

 phrasings and organization of thoughts or information are so

 closely paralleled in the Urantia Ppaers as to be unmistakable

 sources.  While a few of these have long been known to some

 readers (e.g., the books by Breasted, Bundy, Fosdick), most were

 apparently first discovered in libraries and used book stores in

 the Chicago area during the summer of 1992 in the course of my

 research into the UB's human sources.  The research so far has

 been so fruitful mainly because none of these books were obscure;

 they were all written by authorities in their respective fields

 (often by professors from prestigious American universities) and

 many were reviewed in the popular and academic press.  Further,

 the book titles themselves are often "dead giveaways" to the

 alert reader of the Urantia Papers; by their very titles, for

 instance, I targeted _Purposive Evolution_ and _The Architecture

 of the Universe_ (listed below) as likely primary sources.



      It is interesting to note that, while these books cover many

 fields, including religion, philosophy, archaeology, physics,

 astronomy and history, the revelators directly acknowledge using

 only the highest human concepts and insights pertaining to God

 and the seven superuniverses (p. 17) and to the life and

 teachings of Jesus (p. 1343).  I was thus quite surprised,

 initially, at the extent to which the revelators culled from

 books which do not focus on these areas.  But, regardless of the

 lack of specific acknowledgments, it is clear that many more

 human sources in various fields will eventually be traced.  I

 estimate that writings published before 1935 form the basis of at

 least 75% of Part III, and most of these works will probably be

 found within the next few years.  Eventually we will be able to

 map out the Urantia Papers according to which parts were

 "revealed for the first time" and which were not.  And, again,

 this will not be too difficult since the revelators, while

 avoiding extensive word-for-word borrowings, made no attempt to

 disguise their sources by departing widely from the original

 human expressions.



      Clearly, these findings are of fundamental importance to

 serious students of the Urantia Papers, sparking new questions

 and insights into _what this revelation really is_ and how human

 and superhuman voices and viewpoints interfaced in its

 production. As we gain a better grasp of how original it is, or

 how derivative, we will be better able to see how the revelation

 positions itself with regard to evolutionary human knowledge,

 wisdom, and faith.  We will also be better prepared to grapple

 with the perplexing questions of the nature and extent of the

 book's authority, applicability and accessibility in the decades

 and centuries to come -- questions such as:  What bearing does

 the book's being written in 1934-35 have on its future relevance

 and immediacy?  What does it mean that, "this book is intended

 for the coming age," when so much of it directly addresses and

 responds to the thought trends and world situation of the early

 20th century -- no longer our own, much less that of later

 generations?  (Of course, the revelators themselves broach these

 questions somewhat in "The Limitations of Revelation" and

 elsewhere.)



      These initial findings have already convinced me of two

 things.  First, while no longer equating "revelation" with

 complete superhuman originality, I have no doubt that the Urantia

 Papers were superhumanly "indited."  Each of the books below was

 deftly and creatively used so as to seamlessly integrate human

 observation with revelatory supplementations or correction.

 Thus, to give just one example, the adjutant mind spirits of

 worship and wisdom are incorporated into "The Origins of Worship"

 paper, a paper which is very largely derived from, _Origin and

 Evolution of Religion_ (see below), whose author held to a wholly

 natural motivation of the worship urge.



      Second, rather than being an embarassment to the Urantia

 Papers' credibility as a revelation, these humanly authored books

 are of great help in the understanding of the Papers which use

 them.  Often the revelators are obliged to present an abbreviated

 treatment of a concept or a history which is discussed at greater

 length by the human source.  For instance, my understanding of

 the book's puzzling reference to "cosmic self-maintenance" (p.

 482) was greatly enhanced when I came upon this concept presented

 at length in the Noble book (see below).  In light of these

 benefits to comprehension, both as to content and context, I feel

 it would be helpful for the readership to be made aware of these

 sources and perhaps some of these books with expired copyrights

 could be re-published.  Further, as an organization dedicated to

 furthering the study of the Urantia Papers, the Fellowship would

 do well to openly acknowledge the existence of these works in

 some way, perhaps even in our informational materials about the

 Urantia Papers.  We should be aware, as well, that a confident

 and well-reasoned acknowledgment would disarm debunkers of the

 Martin Gardner ilk who hold the notion that revelation always and

 necessarily means, to its gulled believers, complete superhuman

 inspiration.



      In the coming months, I intend to analyze some of these

 books at greater length, detailing the often ingenious ways the

 revelators make use of them.  One of my goals in each of the

 essays will be to show how and to what extent the superhuman

 presenters supplemented the human statements with revelatory

 information or insights.  I will also address the general

 question of context and applicability:  for instance, how does an

 improved contextual understanding  of the book's teachings on

 race and eugenics (obtained by the knowledge that much of these

 teachings are based directly on human writings reflecting the

 attitudes and reference frames of certain members of the all-

 white academic elite of the early 20th century) help us to

 determine relevance and applicability to today's situation?  Etc.



      In the meantime I and other readers will continue to be on

 the lookout for more human sources.  If anyone knows of books not

 included in this list, I'd be very grateful to hear from you.  If

 anyone has any questions these books or the projects, please feel

 free to contact me.

 =================================================================



 BREASTED, JAMES HENRY.

 1933.

 The Dawn of Conscience.

 Charles Scribners Sons, New York.

 Paper 95, "The Melchizedek Teachings in the Levant," sections 2-

 5; Paper 111, "The Adjuster and the Soul," preamble.  Breasted's

 analysis and assessments of early Egyptian social idealism and

 religion -- including the teachings of and Ikhnaton, the ka and

 the ba, Egypt's influence on the Hebrews, etc. -- are

 incorporated into the UB's corresponding discussions.



 BUNDY, WALTER E.

 1928.

 The Religion of Jesus.

 The Bobbs Merrill Company, Indianapolis.

 Paper 196, "The Faith of Jesus," preamble, sections 1-2; etc.

 Portions from every chapter of this book, whose thesis is that

 the human Jesus founded the religion of personal experience and

 that we must recover the religion _of_ Jesus from the religion

 _about_ Jesus, are deftly concentrated in Paper 196, with the

 retention of many of Bundy's exact wordings.



 CARUS, PAUL.

 1913-1927.

 The Canon of Reason and Virtue: Being Lao-tze's Tao Teh King.

 The Open Court Publishing co., LaSalle, IL.

 Paper 94, "The Melchizedek Teachings in the Orient," section 6;

 Paper 131, "The World's Religions," section 8.  This translation

 of the _Tao te Ching_ was used by the revelators in the

 references to Taoism in Parts I, III, and IV.



 COWDRY, E.V., editor

 1930.

 Human Biology & Racial Welfare.

 Paul B. Hoeber, Inc., New York.

 Paper 51 on Planetary Adams, section 4; Paper 65, "The

 Overcontrol of Evolution," section 2; Paper 82, "The Evolution of

 Marriage," section 6; etc.  The revelators use essays by

 Hrdlicka, Conklin and Davenport in their discussions of race

 differences, the dangers and benefits of race mixing, and the

 feasibility of a modest eugenics program.



 EDWARDS, TRYON, original compiler.

 1890-1934 and later.

 The New Dictionary of Thoughts.

 Classic Publishing Co., London & New York.

 Paper 48, "The Morontia Life," section 7.  The vast majority of

 the 28 "statements of human philosophy" in the Morontia Mota

 section are taken directly and consecutively from the first 50

 pages of this 750-page book, which is arranged alphabetically by

 subject.  The subjects from which the revelators cull quotations

 include:  Ability, Accident, Adversity, Affectation, Affliction,

 Anger, Anxiety, Art, Aspiration, etc.  These quotes are usually

 not reproduced verbatim in the Papers, but are recast so as to

 have a more cosmic and spiritual tone.



 FOSDICK, HARRY.

 1933.

 The Hope of the World.

 Harper and Brothers, New York & London.

 Paper 171, "On the Way to Jerusalem," section 7.  "Goodness is

 effective only when it is attractive," on p. 1874, is the essence

 of Fosdick's sermon, "The Fine Art of Making Goodness

 Attractive."



 FROST JR., S.E., compiler and editor.

 1943

 The Sacred Writings of the World's Great Religions.

 The New Home Library, New York.

 Paper 131, "The World's Religions."  This book is a selection

 from previous -- and, unfortunately, uncited -- translations of

 various holy books.  The UB appears to use this book's Jain and

 Shinto translations -- and selections -- in its "abstract of

 Ganis's manuscript" dealing with these religions.



 HARTSHORNE, CHARLES.

 1941.

 Man's Vision of God.

 Willett, Clark and Co., Chicago.

 Forword, section I.  Hortshorne's list of the seven conceivable

 types of perfection is reproduced verbatim on p. 3 of the UB.  I

 suspect that Hartshorne published an earlier (pre-1935)

 presentation of this system in a journal, so it was probably

 already in print before the Foreword was written.)



 HOPKINS, E. WASHBURN.

 1923.

 Origin and Evolution of Religion.

 Yale University Press, New Haven, CT.

 The whole of Paper 85, "The Origin of Worship," is taken directly

 and consecutively from the first eight chapters of this book,

 each section in the paper corresponding to a chapter in the book.

 Paper 92, "The Later Evolution of Religion," incorporates some of

 Hopkins' comments and ethnologic observation; the preamble and

 section 1 of Paper 104, "Growth of the Trinity Concept," are

 taken directly from Hopkins' chapters on "The Triad," "The Hindu

 Trinity," "The Buddhistic Trinity," and "The Christian Trinity."



 JONES, RUFUS M.

 1932.

 A Preface to Christian Faith in a New Age.

 Macmillan Co., New York.

 Paper 195, "After Pentecost," sections 5-10.  Every chapter of

 the book is used in the revelators' discussions of Christianity's

 struggle to awaken to its spiritual mission in the face of modern

 secularism and its own institutional shortcomings. Virtually

 every paragraph of Section 10, "The Future," is drawn

 consecutively from the last half of this book.



 NOBLE, EDMUND.

 1926.

 Purposive Evolution:  The Link Between Science and Religion.

 Henry Holt and Co., New York.

 Paper 42, "Energy -- Mind and Matter," section 11; Paper 116,

 "The Almighty Supreme," section 7.  Nobel's theory of cosmic self-

 maintenance (the universe as purposive) is referred to in the UB

 on p. 482; his chapter "Is the Universe an Organism?" (in which

 he gives a negative answer) seems to be responded to by the

 revelators on p. 1276-77:  "The Living Organism of the Grand

 Universe."



 OSBORN, HENRY FAIRFIELD.

 1928.

 Man Rises to Parnassus: Critical Epochs in the Prehistory of Man.

 Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ.

 Paper 64, "The Evolutionary Races of Color," sections 2,4; Paper

 80, "Andite Expansion in the Occident," sections 3,8,9; etc.

 This book seems to be the prime source for the UB's discussion of

 successive human races in Europe from the Foxhall peoples to the

 Neanderthals, the Cro-Magnons and the ancestors of the Nordics.

 The UB largely adheres to Osborn's geological, racial and

 cultural chronologies and to his characterizations of the

 cultures of these various peoples.  Osborn's discussion of the

 Bretons is paralleled exactly on p. 899 of the UB.



 PALMER, GEORGE HERBERT.

 1930.

 The Autobiography of a Philosopher.

 Greenwood Press reprint, New York, 1968.

 Paper 181, "Final Admonitions and Warnings," section 1.  Palmer's

 assertion of the superiority of the inner peace resulting from

 faith in the Father's loving care, over the "two inferior forms

 of hardihood" (optimism and stoicism), is paralleled in the UB's

 discussion on pgs. 1954-55.



 SABATIER, AUGUSTE.

 1904.

 Religions of Authority and the Religion of the Spirit.

 McClure, Phillips & Co., New York.

 Paper 155, "Fleeing Through Northern Galilee," sections 5& 6. The

 sections in the Urantia Papers on "The Discourses on True

 Religion," -- which distinguish the religions of authority from

 the religion of the spirit -- are an amplification of Sabatier's

 thesis.  The Papers' listing of the "three manifestations of the

 religious urge" on p. 1728 correspond to Sabatier's "Three

 Degrees of Religious Evolution."  Sabatier's book was quite

 influential; both Rufus Jones and Walter Bundy, among others,

 refer to the religions of authority and the religion of the

 spirit, attributing the origin of the latter to Jesus, as does

 Sabatier.



 SWANN, W.F.G.

 1934.

 The Architecture of the Universe.

 The Macmillan Co., New York.

 Paper 41, "Physical Aspects of the Local Universe;" Paper 42,

 "Energy --Mind and Matter," passim.  Swann's opening chapter on

 "The Dogmas of Natural Philosophy," is reporduced with little

 change in section 9, ("Natural Philosophy") of "Energy -- Mind

 and Matter."  Many of his temperature, size and distance

 estimates relating to intra-atomic and astronomic bodies are used

 in the Papers, as are several of his analogies and illustrations

 (e.g., if the volume of a proton should be magnifies to the size

 of a head of a pin, then, in comparison, a pin's head would

 attain a diameter equal to that of the earth's orbit around the

 sun.)

 ========================================================================

 From:         David Kantor <[e-mail]>

 Subject:      Updated Matthew Block list



 *****************************************************************

 The Book List



 Aston, W.G., "Shinto; The Way of the Gods" (New York: Longmans,

 Green and Co., 1905).



      Paper 131, "The World's Religions," section 7.  Sentences from

 Aston's translation of the "Wa Rongo" collection of Shinto Oracles,

 lightly rewritten or paraphrased, constitute the entire selection

 of Ganid's abstract of Shinto.





 Bishop, William Samuel, "The Theology of Personality" (New York:

 Longmans, Green and Co., 1926).



      Foreword, section XII; Paper 106, "Universe Levels of

 Reality," section 8.  Though there appears to be no superhuman

 lifting of content here, Bishop uses the terms "trinity,"

 "triunity," and - amazingly - "A Trinity of Trinities" in the

 expositon of his constructive theology.  These terms are completely

 reworked in the UB.







 Breasted, James Henry, "The Dawn of Conscience" (New York: Charles

 Scribners Sons, 1933).



      Paper 95, "The Melchizedek Teachings in the Levant," sections

 2-5; Paper 111, "The Adjuster and the Soul," preamble.  Breasted's

 analysis and assessments of early Egyptian social idealism and

 religion -- including the teaching of Ikhnaton, the ka and the ba,

 Egypt's influence on the Hebrews, etc. -- are incorporated into the

 UB's corresponding discussions.





 Bundy, Walter E., "The Religion of Jesus" (Indianapolis: The Bobbs

 Merrill Company, 1928).



      Paper 196, "The Faith of Jesus," preamble, sections 1-2, etc.

 Portions from every chapter of this book, whose thesis is that the

 human Jesus founded the religion of personal experience and that we

 must recover the religion of Jesus from the religion about Jesus

 are deftly concentrated in Paper 196, with the retention of many of

 Bundy's exact wordings.





 Bundy, Walter E., "The Recovery of Jesus" (Indianapolis: The Bobbs-

 Merrill Company, 1929).



      Paper 196, "The Faith of Jesus," preamble and sections 1-2.

 A companion volume to the preceding book, this one has material

 which parallels paragraphs in Paper 196 which were not paralleled

 by the preceding book.  The two books together supply about 95% of

 the basis of the preamble and the first two sections.  The last

 section differs in tone and content and may be original with the

 midwayers.





 Burton, Ernest DeWitt and Mathews, Shailer, "The Life of Christ"

 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1927).



      Part IV, passim.  The content of this book does not appear to

 be used but rather its chapter and section titles.  Parallel titles

 include: "The Crisis at Capernaum," "Discourse on Spiritual

 Freedom," "The Widespread Fame of Jesus [Christ]," "The Man with

 the Withered Hand," "The Woman Taken in Adultery," and "[More]

 Parables by the Sea."







 Carus, Paul, "The Canon of Reason and Virtue: Being Lao-tze's Tao

 Teh King" (LaSalle, Il: The Open Court Publishing Co., 1927).



      Paper 94, "The Melchizedek Teachings in the Orient," section

 6; Paper 131, "The World's Religions," section 8.  This translation

 of the Tao te Ching was used by the revelators in the references to

 Taoism in Parts I, III and IV.





 Cowdry, E.V., (ed), "Human Biology & Racial Welfare" (New York:

 Paul B. Hoeber, Inc., 1930).



      Paper 51 on Planetary Adams, section 4; Paper 65, "The

 Overcontrol of Evolution," section 2; Paper 82, "The Evolution of

 Marriage," section 6; etc.  The revelators use essays by Hrdlicka,

 Conklin and Davenport in their discussions of race differences, the

 dangers and benefits of race mixing, and the feasibility of a

 modest eugenics program.





 Edwards, Tyron, (compiler), "The New Dictionary of Thoughts" (New

 York: Classic Publishing Co., 1934).



      Paper 48, "The Morontia Life," section 7.  The vast majority

 of the 28 "statements of human philosophy" in the Morontia Mota

 section are taken directly and consecutively from the first 50

 pages of this 750-page book, which is arranged alphabetically by

 subject.  The subjects from which the revelators cull quotations

 include: Ability, Accident, Adversity, Affectation, Affliction,

 Anger, Anxiety, Art, Aspiration, etc.  These quotes are usually not

 reproduced verbatim in the Papers, but are recast so as to have a

 more cosmic and spiritual tone.





 Fosdick, Harry, "The Hope of the World" (New York: Harper and

 Brothers, 1933).



      Paper 171, "On the Way to Jerusalem," section 7.  "Goodness is

 effective only when it is attractive," on p. 1874, is the essence

 of Fosdick's sermon,  "The Fine Art of Making Goodness Attractive."





 Frost Jr., S.E., (ed), "The Sacred Writings of the World's Great

 Religions" (New York: The New Home Library, 1943).



      Paper 131, "The World's Religions."  This book is a selection

 from previous -- and unfortunately, uncited -- translations of

 various holy books.  The UB appears to use this book's Jain and

 Shinto translations -- and selections -- in its "abstract of

 Ganid's manuscript" dealing with these religions.





 Hartshorne, Charles, "Man's Vision of God" (Chicago: Willet, Clark

 and Co., 1941).



      Foreword, section I.  Harshortne's list of the seven

 conceivable types of perfection is reproduced verbatim on p. 3 of

 the UB.  I suspect that Hartshorne published an earlier (pre-1935)

 presentation of this system in a journal, so it was probably

 already in print before the Foreword was written.





 Hopkins, E. Washburn, "Origin and Evolution of Religion" (New

 Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1923).



      The whole of Paper 85, "The Origin of Worship," is taken

 directly and consecutively from the first eight chapters of this

 book, each section in the paper corresponding to a chapter in the

 book.  Paper 92, "The Later Evolution of Religion," incorporates

 some of Hopkins' comments and ethnologic observation; the preamble

 and section 1 of Paper 104, "Growth of the Trinity Concept," are

 taken directly from Hopkins' chapters on "The Triad," "The Hindu

 Trinity," "The Buddhistic Trinity" and "The Christian Trinity."





 Jones, Rufus M., "A Preface to Christian Faith in a New Age" (New

 York: Macmillan Co., 1932).



      Paper 195, "After Pentecost," sections 5-10.  Every chapter of

 the book is used in the revelators' discussions of Christianity's

 struggle to awaken to its spiritual mission in the face of modern

 secularism and its own institutional shortcomings.  Virtually every

 paragraph of Section 10, "The Future," is drawn consecutively from

 the last half of this book.





 Jones, Rufus M., "The Inner Life" (New York: Macmillan Co., 1916).



      Paper 102, "The Foundations of Religious Faith," preamble.

 Jones quotes the same two extracts of Bertrand Russell's "A Free

 Man's Worship" (1906?) which the Melchizedek prarphrases in the

 first two paragraphs of the paper.  Both Jones and the Melchizedek

 use these passages to illustrate materialistic despair, which can

 only be remedied by faith in God and a spiritual interpretation of

 the universe.





 Noble, Edmund, "Purposive Evolution: The Link Between Science and

 Religion" (New York: Henry Hold and Co., 1926).



      Paper 42, "Energy -- Mind and Matter," section 11; Paper 116,

 "The Almighty Supreme," section 7.  Nobels's theory of cosmic self-

 maintenance (the universe as purposive) is referred to in the UB on

 p. 482; his chapter, "Is the Universe an Organism?" (in which he

 gives a negative answer) seems to be responded to by the revelators

 on p. 1276-77, "The Living Organism of the Grand Universe."





 Osborn, Henry Fairfield, "Man Rises to Parnassus: Critical Epochs

 in the Prehistory of Man" (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University

 Press, 1928).



      Paper 64, "The Evolutionary Races of Color," sections 2, 4;

 Paper 80, "Andite Expansion in the Occident," sections 3, 8, 9:

 etc.  This book seems to be the prime source for the UB's

 discussion of successive human races in Europe from the Foxhall

 peoples to the Neanderthals, the Cro-Magnons and the ancestors of

 the Nordics.  The UB largely adheres to Osborn's geological, racial

 and cultural chronologies and to his characterizations of the

 cultures of these various peoples.  Osborn's discussion of the

 Bretons is paralleled exactly on p. 899 of the UB.





 Palmer, George Herbert, "The Autobiography of a Philosopher" (New

 York: Greenwood Press, 1930, reprint).



      Paper 181, "Final Admonitions and Warnings," section 1.

 Palmer's assertion of the superiority of the inner peace resulting

 from faith in the Father's loving care, over the "two inferior

 forms of hardihood" (optimism and stoicism), is paralleled in the

 UB's discussion on pgs. 1954-55.





 Sabatier, Auguste, "Religions of Authority and the Religion of the

 Spirit" (New York: McClure, Phillips & Co., 1904).



      Paper 155, "Fleeing Through Northern Galilee," sections 5 & 6.

 The sections in the Urantia Papers on the discourses on true

 religion which distinguish the religions of authority from the

 religion of the spirit are an amplification of Sabatier's thesis.

 The Papers' listing of the "three manifestations of the religious

 urge" on p. 1728 correspond to Sabatier's "Three Degrees of

 Religious Evolution."  Sabatier's book was quite influential; both

 Rufus Jones and Walter Bundy, among others, refer to the religions

 of authority and the religion of the spirit, attributing the origin

 of the latter to Jesus, as does Sabatier.





 Swann, W.F.G., "The Architecture of the Universe" (New York: The

 Macmillan Co., 1934).



      Paper 41, "Physical Aspects of the Local Universe," Paper 42,

 "Energy -- Mind and Matter," passim.  Swann's opening chapter on

 "The Dogmas of Natural Philosophy," is reproduced with little

 change in section 9, ("Natural Philosophy") of "Energy -- Mind and

 Matter."  Many of his temperature, size and distance estimates

 relating to intra-atomic and astronomic bodies are used in the

 Papers, as are several of his analogies and illustrations (e.g., if

 the volume of a proton should be magnified to the size of a head of

 a pin, then, in comparison, a pin's head would attain a diameter

 equal to that of the earth's orbit around the sun.)