Meredith Sprunger's Synopsis of The Urantia Book
Synopsis of Paper 160
RODAN OF ALEXANDRIA
1. On Sunday morning, September 18, Andrew announced that no work would be planned for the coming week... This week Jesus enjoyed a period of almost complete rest, but Nathaniel and Thomas were very busy with their discussions with a certain Greek philosopher from Alexandria named Rodan.
2. The more complex civilization becomes, the more difficult will become the art of living. The more rapid the changes in social usage, the more complicated will become the task of character development. Every ten generations mankind must learn anew the art of living if progress is to continue. And if man becomes so ingenious that he more rapidly adds to the complexities of society, the art of living will need to be remastered in less time, perhaps every single generation.
3. Social maturity is equivalent to the degree to which man is willing to surrender the gratification of mere transient and present desires for the entertainment of those superior longings the striving for whose attainment affords the more abundant satisfactions of progressive advancement toward permanent goals...When men dare to forsake a life of natural craving for one of adventurous art and uncertain logic, they must expect to suffer the consequent hazards of emotional casualties—conflicts, unhappiness, and uncertainties—at least until the time of their attainment of some degree of intellectual and emotional maturity.
4. Successful living is nothing more or less than the art of the mastery of dependable techniques for solving common problems... The great mistake is that, when life problems excite our profound fears, we refuse to recognize them ...Only a brave person is willing honestly to admit, and fearlessly to face, what sincere and logical mind discovers.
The wise and effective solution of any problem demands that the mind shall be free from bias, passion, and all other purely personal prejudices which might interfere with the disinterested survey of the actual factors that go to make up the problem presenting itself for solution.
5. Even though you are effectively armed to meet the difficult situations of life, you can hardly expect success unless you are equipped with that wisdom of mind and charm of personality which enable you to win the hearty support and cooperation of your fellows.
6. I am deeply impressed with the custom of Jesus in going apart by himself to engage in these seasons of solitary survey of the problems of living... to quicken and deepen the supreme purpose of living by actually subjecting the total personality to the consciousness of contacting with divinity…The relaxation of worship, or spiritual communion as practiced by the Master, relieves tension, removes conflicts, and mightily augments the total resources of the personality.
7. Prejudice blinds the soul to the recognition of truth... Prejudice is inseparably linked to selfishness. Prejudice can be eliminated only by the abandonment of self‑seeking and by substituting therefore the quest of the satisfaction of the service of a cause that is not only greater than self, but one that is even greater than all humanity.
8. Stability of personality can be experienced only by those who have discovered and embraced the living God as the eternal goal of infinite attainment. And thus to transfer one's goal from time to eternity...requires that man shall become the re‑created child of the divine spirit; that he shall gain entrance into the brotherhood of the kingdom of heaven. All philosophies and religions which fall short of these ideals are immature.
9. There are just two ways in which mortals may live together: the material or animal way and the spiritual or human way...The one distinction between man and the animal is that man can communicate with his fellows by means of symbols which most certainly designate and identify meanings, values, ideas, and even ideals ...It is this ability to communicate and share meanings that constitutes human culture and enables man, through social associations, to build civilizations. Knowledge and wisdom become cumulative because of man's ability to communicate these possessions to succeeding generations.
10. These associations of friendship and mutual affection are socializing and ennobling because they encourage and facilitate the following essential factors of the higher levels of the art of living:
1. Mutual self‑expression and self‑understanding. Many noble human impulses die because there is no one to hear their expression...Of all social relations calculated to develop character, the most effective and ideal is the affectionate and understanding friendship of man and woman in the mutual embrace of intelligent wedlock...
2. Union of souls—the mobilization of wisdom... Thus does the mind of one augment its spiritual values by gaining much of the insight of the other. In this way men enrich the soul by pooling their respective spiritual possessions...
3. The enthusiasm for living... Association with one's fellows is essential to the renewal of the zest for life and is indispensable to the maintenance of the courage to fight those battles consequent upon the ascent to the higher levels of human living... The presence of a friend enhances all beauty and exalts every goodness.
4. The enhanced defense against all evil. Personality association and mutual affection is an efficient insurance against evil. Difficulties, sorrow, disappointment, and defeat are more painful and disheartening when borne alone.
11. The effort toward maturity necessitates work, and work requires energy. Whence the power to accomplish all this?... Look to your Master. Even now he is out in the hills taking in power while we are here giving out energy. The secret of all this problem is wrapped up in spiritual communion, in worship. From the human standpoint it is a question of combined meditation and relaxation.
12. On every mountaintop of intellectual thought are to be found relaxation for the mind, strength for the soul, and communion for the spirit. From such vantage points of high living, man is able to transcend the material irritations of the lower levels of thinking—worry, jealousy, envy, revenge, and the pride of immature personality.
13.The essentials of the temporal life, as I see them are:
1. Good physical health.
2. Clear and clean thinking.
3. Ability and skill.
4. Wealth ‑ the goods of life.
5. Ability to withstand defeat.
6. Culture ‑ education and wisdom.
14. Ability is that which you inherit, while skill is what you acquire. Life is not real to one who cannot do some one thing well, expertly. Skill is one of the real sources of the satisfaction of living... But life will become a burden of existence unless you learn how to fail gracefully. There is an art in defeat which noble souls always acquire; you must know how to lose cheerfully; you must be fearless of disappointment...Make no attempt to hide failure under deceptive smiles and beaming optimism...Success may generate courage and promote confidence, but wisdom comes only from the experiences of adjustment to the results of one's failures.
15. And it is in this business of facing failure and adjusting to defeat that the far‑reaching vision of religion exerts its supreme influence. Failure is simply an educational episode—a cultural experiment in the acquirement of wisdom—in the experience of the God‑seeking man who has embarked on the eternal adventure of the exploration of a universe. To such men defeat is but a new tool for the achievement of higher levels of universe reality.
16. Religion symbolizes our supreme devotion to that which represents our highest concept of the ideals of reality and the farthest reach of our minds toward eternal possibilities of spiritual attainment.. .religion is always and forever a mode of reacting to the situations of life... If you are not a positive and missionary evangel of your religion, you are self‑deceived in that what you call a religion is only a traditional belief or a mere system of intellectual philosophy.
17. The social characteristics of a true religion consist in the fact that it invariably seeks to convert the individual and to transform the world. Religion implies the existence of undiscovered ideals which far transcend the known standards of ethics and morality embodied in even the highest social usages of the most mature institutions of civilization.
18. The religion of Jesus transcends all our former concepts of the idea of worship in that he not only portrays his Father as the ideal of infinite reality but positively declares that this divine source of values and the eternal center of the universe is truly and personally attainable by every mortal creature who chooses to enter the kingdom of heaven on earth, thereby acknowledging the acceptance of sonship with God and brotherhood with man. That, I submit, is the highest concept of religion the world has ever known, and I pronounce that there can never be a higher since this gospel embraces the infinity of realities, the divinity of values, and the eternity of universal attainments.
19. I see in the teachings of Jesus, religion at its best. This gospel enables us to seek for the true God and to find him. But are we willing to pay the price of this entrance into the kingdom of heaven? Are we willing to be born again? to be remade? Are we willing to be subject to this terrible and testing process of self‑destruction and soul reconstruction?
20. The religion of Jesus demands living and spiritual experience. Other religions may consist in traditional beliefs, emotional feelings, philosophic consciousness, and all of that, but the teaching of the Master requires the attainment of actual levels of real spirit progression.
Discussion Questions
1. There is no known evidence for the existence of Rodan of Alexandria. Why do you think the authors included these Synopsis of Papers on Rodan?
2. How often do we have to relearn the art of living?
3. Is our social maturity greater now than it was a hundred years ago?
4. Next to the home, what is the most constructive association of people in our society?
5. Do you sense in Rodan’s philosophy an abstraction not present in Jesus’ teachings?
6. Are the associations of friendship more helpful in religious organizations than the teachings they present?
7. If failure is an educational episode in acquiring wisdom, should we be more adventurous in attempting difficult tasks?
A Service of
The Urantia Book Fellowship