Instructor:
Start Date:
Marvin Gawryn, Elisabeth Callahan
Fall 2023
End Date:
TBD
Time:
TBD
Duration:
10 Weeks
Course Description
This course opens the door to the Urantia revelation to truthseekers, equipping them to comfortably begin a full exploration of the text and to participate in the growing Urantia movement.When spiritual seekers first encounter The Urantia Book, they are usually intrigued but often overwhelmed by its size and complexity and all the strange new terms and concepts. After initial attempts, many of them give up trying to read it. Without a little help, it is difficult for them to cross the threshold into a serious study of the text. And so they may never experience the joys and spiritual transformation that come from fully exploring this revelation.
Urantia University Institute (UUI) has developed a New Reader Course, in cooperation with the Urantia Book Fellowship Education Committee, to help such fledgling readers cross the initial threshold, equipping them to comfortably begin a full exploration of the text and to participate in the growing Urantia movement.
Urantia Book New Readers Course
Format: One 2.5 hour webinar per week using Zoom video conferencing
How do I access the materials? Course materials will be accessed using UUI's Online Campus
Level: Beginner ~ someone just starting to explore The Urantia Book.
Language: English
Size: Class is limited to 30 participants.
Required Effort: The group meets 2.5 hours per week. There is no other class time or work required. A handout of the weekly class material is emailed to students a few days in advance of each class, should they wish to review it before the class.
Participants are urged, but not required, to attend all the weekly meetings.
A video recording of the Zoom meeting will be available for the benefit of those who miss a session.
Weekly Outline
The course is structured as a series of 10 weekly Zoom meetings, each about two and a half hours long, with no additional work requirements.
Week 1
After first getting to know a bit about each other’s spiritual journeys, and considering some often-asked questions about the book’s nature and origins, the first class meeting will focus on an overview of the course. We will emphasize personal sharing in all of the class sessions.
Week 2 - Week 9
The heart of the course – the next 8 sessions – uses the book's "Table of Contents" and the natural grouping of the Papers as a sort of overview of the text, allowing us to “drop into” and briefly sample its many different “regions.”
We will share many short passages, all of which have been carefully selected to both intrigue new readers and expose them to the incredibly varied types of material in the different sections of the text.
Along the way we will explain many new terms ("morontia," "Thought Adjuster," "the Supreme", "Central/Super/and Local Universes," etc.), so that by the end of the course, students will be quite comfortable with the book’s “vocabulary.”
Week 10
In the last session, in addition to summarizing and sharing our class experience, we will provide information on study groups, organizations, conferences and the culture of the emerging Urantia movement, in order to help new readers begin to participate, insofar as they are motivated.
Learning Outcomes
