The Urantia Book -- Foreword
Foreword: Section XI
XI. The Three Absolutes
P13:6, 0:11.1 When the combined thought of
the Universal Father and the Eternal Son, functioning in the God of Action,
constituted the creation of the divine and central universe, the Father
followed the expression of his thought into the word of his Son and the
act of their Conjoint Executive by differentiating his Havona presence
from the potentials of infinity. And these undisclosed infinity potentials
remain space concealed in the Unqualified Absolute and divinely enshrouded
in the Deity Absolute, while these two become one in the functioning of
the Universal Absolute, the unrevealed
infinity-unity of the Paradise Father.
P13:7, 0:11.2 Both potency
of cosmic force and potency of spirit force are in process of progressive
revelation-realization as the enrichment of all reality is effected by
experiential growth and through the correlation of the experiential with
the existential by the Universal Absolute. By virtue of the
equipoising
presence of the Universal Absolute, the First Source and Center realizes
extension of experiential power, enjoys identification with his evolutionary
creatures, and achieves expansion of experiential Deity on the levels of
Supremacy, Ultimacy, and Absoluteness.
P14:1, 0:11.3 When it
is not possible fully to distinguish the Deity Absolute from the Unqualified
Absolute, their supposedly combined function or co-ordinated presence is
designated the action of the Universal Absolute.
P14:2, 0:11.4 1. The
Deity Absolute seems to be the all-powerful activator, while the Unqualified
Absolute appears to be the
all-efficient
mechanizer of the supremely unified
and ultimately co-ordinated universe of universes, even universes upon
universes, made, making, and yet to be made.
P14:3, 0:11.5 The Deity Absolute
cannot, or at least does not, react to any universe situation in a subabsolute
manner. Every response of this Absolute to any given situation appears
to be made in terms of the welfare of the whole creation of things and
beings, not only in its present state of existence, but also in view of
the infinite possibilities of all future eternity.
P14:4, 0:11.6 The Deity Absolute
is that potential which was segregated from total, infinite reality by
the freewill choice of the Universal Father, and within which all divinity
activities -- existential and experiential -- take place. This is the Qualified
Absolute in contradistinction to the Unqualified Absolute; but
the Universal Absolute is superadditive to both in the encompassment of
all absolute potential.
P14:5, 0:11.7 2. The
Unqualified Absolute is nonpersonal, extradivine, and undeified. The
Unqualified Absolute is therefore devoid of personality, divinity, and
all creator prerogatives. Neither fact nor truth, experience nor revelation,
philosophy nor absonity are able to penetrate the nature and character
of this Absolute without universe qualification.
P14:6, 0:11.8 Let it be made
clear that the Unqualified Absolute is a positive reality pervading
the grand universe and, apparently, extending with equal space presence
on out into the force activities and prematerial evolutions of the staggering
stretches of the space regions beyond the seven superuniverses. The Unqualified
Absolute is not a mere negativism of philosophic concept predicated on
the assumptions of metaphysical sophistries concerning the universality,
dominance, and primacy of the unconditioned and the unqualified. The Unqualified
Absolute is a positive universe overcontrol in infinity; this overcontrol
is space-force unlimited but is definitely conditioned by the presence
of life, mind, spirit, and personality, and is further conditioned by the
will-reactions and purposeful mandates of the Paradise Trinity.
P14:7, 0:11.9 We are convinced
that the Unqualified Absolute is not an undifferentiated and all-pervading
influence comparable either to the pantheistic concepts of metaphysics
or to the sometime ether hypothesis of science. The Unqualified Absolute
is force unlimited and Deity conditioned, but we do not fully perceive
the relation of this Absolute to the spirit realities of the universes.
P14:8, 0:11.10 3. The
Universal Absolute, we logically deduce, was inevitable in the Universal
Father's absolute freewill act of differentiating universe realities into
deified and undeified -- personalizable and nonpersonalizable -- values.
The Universal Absolute is the Deity phenomenon indicative of the resolution
of the tension created by the freewill act of thus differentiating universe
reality, and functions as the associative co-ordinator of these sum
totals
of existential potentialities.
P15:1, 0:11.11 The tension-presence
of the Universal Absolute signifies the adjustment of differential between
deity reality and undeified reality inherent in the separation of the dynamics
of freewill divinity from the statics of unqualified infinity.
P15:2, 0:11.12 Always
remember: Potential infinity is absolute and inseparable from eternity.
Actual infinity in time can never be anything but partial and must therefore
be nonabsolute; neither can infinity of actual personality be absolute
except in unqualified Deity. And it is the differential of infinity potential
in the Unqualified Absolute and the Deity Absolute that eternalizes the
Universal Absolute, thereby making it cosmically possible to have material
universes in space and spiritually possible to have finite personalities
in time.
P15:3, 0:11.13 The finite
can coexist in the cosmos along with the Infinite only because the associative
presence of the Universal Absolute so perfectly
equalizes the tensions
between time and eternity, finity and infinity, reality potential and reality
actuality, Paradise and space, man and God. Associatively the Universal
Absolute constitutes the identification of the zone of progressing evolutional
reality existent in the time-space, and in the transcended time-space,
universes of subinfinite Deity manifestation.
P15:4, 0:11.14 The Universal
Absolute is the potential of the
static-dynamic Deity functionally realizable
on
time-eternity levels as
finite-absolute values and as possible of experiential-existential
approach. This incomprehensible aspect of Deity may be static, potential,
and associative but is not experientially creative or evolutional as concerns
the intelligent personalities now functioning in the master universe.
P15:5, 0:11.15 The
Absolute. The two Absolutes -- qualified and unqualified -- while so
apparently divergent in function as they may be observed by mind creatures,
are perfectly and divinely unified in and by the Universal Absolute. In
the last analysis and in the final comprehension all three are one Absolute.
On subinfinite levels they are functionally differentiated, but in infinity
they are ONE.
P15:6, 0:11.16 We never
use the term the Absolute as a negation of aught or as a denial of anything.
Neither do we regard the Universal Absolute as self-determinative, a sort
of pantheistic and impersonal Deity. The Absolute, in all that pertains
to universe personality, is strictly Trinity limited and Deity dominated.