THE COSMOGONIC REVELATIONS OF URANTIA AND OAHSPE

NEW RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS ORIGINATED FROM SACRED TEXTS OF THE UNITED STATES

Abstract

This paper analyzes two New Religious Movements (NRMs) that emerged in the United States, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, respectively: Oahspe and Urantia. The main feature is that both revolve around books that are considered new cosmic revelations for modern times. The first work is known as Oahspe – The Kosmon Bible. Written by John Ballou Newbrough, his followers believe that this book contains a revelation of God bequeathed to the world through his Ambassador Angels, who transmitted a new knowledge about the origin and working of the Universe. Likewise, the Urantian Movement emerged from The Urantia Book. However, unlike Oahspe, it does not have a specific author. The readers claim that its content has been transmitted to a group of individuals through celestial beings of various hierarchies. They call it Urantia’s Fifth Epochal Revelation - the cosmic name of our planet - and like Oahspe, it describes a complex cosmogony. Its culmination is found in the Documents about the life and teachings of Jesus, presenting a distinct narrative from Christianity. Using the two texts as sources and studies by researchers from the NRMs, we propose that both are classified based on the concept coined in this paper, as Cosmogonic Revelations.