The Divine Principle or Exposition of the Divine Principle -in Korean, 원리강론/原理講論(Wolli gangnon)- is the main theological textbook of the Unification Church. It was co-written by church founder Sun Myung Moon and early disciple Hyo Won Eu and first published in 1966. A translation entitled Divine Principle was published in English in 1973. The book lays out the core of Unification theology, and is held to have the status of scripture by believers. Following the format of systematic theology, it includes [1] God's purpose in creating human beings, [2] the fall of man, and [3] redemption - the process through history by which God is working to remove the ill effects of the fall and restore humanity back to the relationship and position that God originally intended.[1]
Contents |
A brief overview with 12 theological statements about the teachings of the Divine Principle was written by thirty eight seminary students.[2]
1. God. There is one living, eternal, and true God, a being beyond space and time, who possesses perfect intellect, emotion and will, whose deepest nature is heart and love, who combines both masculinity and femininity, who is the source of all truth, beauty, and goodness, and who is the creator and sustainer of man and the universe and of all things visible and invisible. Man and the universe reflect His personality, nature, and purpose.
2. Man. Man was made by God as a special creation, made in His image as His children, like Him in personality and nature, and created to respond to His love, to be the source of His joy, and to share His creativity.
3. God's Desire for Man and Creation. God's desire for man and creation is eternal and unchanging; God wants men and women to fulfill three things: first, each to grow to perfection so as to be one in heart, will, and action with God, having their bodies and minds united together in perfect harmony centering on God's love; second, to he united by God as husband and wife and give birth to sinless children of God, thereby establishing a sinless family and ultimately a sinless world; and third, to become lords of the created world by establishing a loving dominion of reciprocal give-and-take with it. Because of man's sin, however, none of these happened. Therefore God's present desire is that the problem of sin be solved and that all these things be restored, thus bringing about the earthly and heavenly kingdom of God.
4. Sin. The first man and woman (Adam and Eve), before they had become perfected, were tempted by the archangel Lucifer into illicit and forbidden love. Through this, Adam and Eve willfully turned away from God's will and purpose for them, thus bringing themselves and the human race into spiritual death. As a result of this Fall, Satan usurped the position of mankind's true father so that thereafter all people are born in sin both physically and spiritually and have a sinful propensity. Human beings therefore tend to oppose God and His will, and live in ignorance of their true nature and parentage and of all that they have lost. God too, grieves for His lost children and lost world, and has had to struggle incessantly to restore them to Himself. Creation groans in travail, waiting to be united through the true children of God.
5. Christology. Fallen mankind can be restored to God only through Christ (the Messiah), who comes as a new Adam to become the new head of the human race (replacing the sinful parents), through whom mankind can be reborn into God's family. In order for God to send the Messiah, mankind must fulfill certain conditions which restore what was lost through the Fall.
6. History. Restoration takes place through the paying of indemnity for (making reparations for) sin. Human history is the record of God's and Man's efforts to make these reparations over time in order that conditions can be fulfilled so that God can send the Messiah, who comes to initiate the complete restoration process. When some effort at fulfilling some reparation condition fails, it must be repeated, usually by someone else after some intervening time-period; history therefore exhibits a cyclic pattern. History culminates in the coming of the Messiah, and at that time the old age ends and a new age begins.
7. Resurrection. The process of resurrection is the process of restoration to spiritual life and spiritual maturity, ultimately uniting man with God; it is passing from spiritual death into spiritual life. This is accomplished in part by man's effort (through prayer, good deeds, etc.) with the help of the saints in the spiritual world, and completed by God's activity of bringing man to rebirth through Christ (the Messiah).
8. Predestination. God's will that all people be restored to Him is predestined absolutely, and He has elected all people to salvation, but He has also given man part of the responsibility (to be accomplished through man's free will) for the accomplishment of both His original will and His will for the accomplishment of restoration; that responsibility remains man's permanently. God has predestined and called certain persons and groups of people for certain responsibilities; if they fail, others must take up their roles and greater reparations must be made.
9. Jesus. Jesus of Nazareth came as the Christ, the Second Adam, the only begotten Son of God. He became one with God, speaking the words of God and doing the works of God, and revealing God to the people. The people, however, rejected and crucified him, thereby preventing his building the Kingdom of God on earth. Jesus, however, was victorious over Satan in his crucifixion and resurrection, and thus made possible spiritual salvation for those who are reborn through him and the Holy Spirit. The restoration of the Kingdom of God on earth awaits the Second Coming of Christ.
10. The Bible. The Old and New Testament Scriptures are the record of God's progressive revelation to mankind. The purpose of the Bible is to bring us to Christ, and to reveal God's heart. Truth is unique, eternal, and unchanging, so any new message from God will be in conformity with the Bible and will illuminate it more deeply. Yet, in these last days, new truth must come from God in order that mankind be able to accomplish what is, yet, undone.
11. Complete Restoration. A proper understanding of theology concentrates simultaneously on man's relationship with God (vertical) and on man's relationship with his fellowman (horizontal). Man's sin disrupted both these relationships, and all the problems of our world result from this. These problems will be solved through restoration of man to God through Christ, and also through such measures as initiating proper moral standards and practices, forming true families, uniting all peoples and races (such as Orient, Occident and Negro), resolving the tension between science and religion, righting economic, racial, political, and educational injustices, and overcoming God-denying ideologies such as Communism.
12. Second Coming or Eschatology. The Second Coming of Christ will occur in our age, an age much like that of the First Advent. Christ will come as before, as a man in the flesh, and he will establish a family through marriage to his Bride, a woman in the flesh, and they will become the True Parents of all mankind. Through our accepting the True Parents (the Second Coming of Christ), obeying them and following them, our original sin will be eliminated and we will eventually become perfect. True families fulfilling God's ideal will be begun, and the Kingdom of God will be established both on earth and in heaven. That day is now at hand.
God is viewed as the creator,[2] whose nature combines both masculinity and femininity,[2] and is the source of all truth, beauty, and goodness. Human beings and the universe reflect God's personality, nature, and purpose.[2]
"Give-and-take action" (reciprocal interaction) and "subject and object position" (initiator and responder) are "key interpretive concepts",[3] and the self is designed to be God's object.[3] The purpose of human existence is to return joy to God.[4] The "four-position foundation" is "another important and interpretive concept",[4] and explains in part the emphasis on the family.[4]
The Divine Principle upholds a belief in spiritualism, that is communication with the spirits of deceased persons. Moon and early church members associated with spiritualists, including the famous Arthur Ford.[5][6] The introduction to the Divine Principle says about Moon:
Divine Principle follows systematic theology in its structure: God's creation, the human fall, human redemption.[8] It has two parts, with a total of 13 chapters. The first part deals primarily with theological concepts, such as the nature of God and His creation, the human fall, and others. The second part deals with the process through history by which God continues to work to eliminate the ill effects of the human fall, and restore humankind to the relationship with God that would have existed if the fall had not occurred.
God is viewed as the creator, whose nature combines both masculinity/positivity and femininity/negativity (positivity and negativity in the electromagnetic sense, not in the social value sense), and is the source of all truth, beauty, and goodness. Human beings and the universe reflect God's personality, nature, and purpose.[9]
"Give-and-take action" (reciprocal interaction) and "subject and object position" (initiator and responder) are "key interpretive concepts", and the self is designed to be God's object.[10] The "four-position foundation" is "another important and interpretive concept",and explains in part the emphasis on the family.[11]
Returning resurrection is a theological concept of the Unification Church explained in the Divine Principle. It posits that departed souls can expiate their sins and achieve spiritual growth by "returning" to earth and cooperating with living people to good deeds.[12] The text cites a scripture justifying the concept: "Apart from us they may not be made perfect".[13]
Unification Church theologian Young Oon Kim explained that returning resurrection is not the same as reincarnation. She emphasized that failure to make the distinction has led many dead people to try to "reincarnate", but wound up only possessing other people - to their mutual detriment.[14]
Indemnity, in the context of Unification Church beliefs, is a part of the process by which human beings and the world are restored to God's ideal.[15][16][17][18] The concept of indemnity is explained at the start of the second half of the Divine Principle, "Introduction to Restoration":
The Divine Principle goes on to explain three types of indemnity conditions. Equal conditions of indemnity pay back the full value of what was lost. The biblical verse "life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth" (Exod.21:23-24) is quoted as an example of an equal indemnity condition. Lesser conditions of indemnity provide a benefit greater than the price that is paid. Faith, baptism, and holy communion are mentioned as examples of lesser indemnity conditions. Greater conditions of indemnity come about when a person fails in a lesser condition. In that case a greater price must be paid to make up for the earlier failure. Abraham's attempted sacrifice of his son Isaac (Gen. 22:1-18) and the Israelite's 40 years of wandering in the wilderness under Moses (Num.14:34) are mentioned as examples of greater indemnity conditions.[19] The Divine Principle then explains that an indemnity condition must reverse the course by which the mistake or loss came about. Jesus' statement that God had forsaken him (Matt.27:46) and Christianity's history of martyrdom are mentioned as examples of this.[19] The Divine Principle then states that human beings, not God or the angels, are the ones responsible for making indemnity conditions.[19][20][21]
Christian commentators have criticized the concept of indemnity as being contrary to the Christian doctrine of salvation by faith. Radio and television evangelist Bob Larson said, "Moon's doctrine of sinless perfection by 'indemnity', which can apply even to deceased ancestors, is a denial of the salvation by grace offering through Jesus Christ." Christian historian Ruth Tucker said: "In simple language indemnity is salvation by works."[20][21] Donald Tingle and Richard Fordyce, ministers with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) who debated two Unification Church theologians in 1977, wrote: "In short, indemnity is anything you want to make it, since you establish the conditions. The zeal and enthusiasm of the Unification Church members is not so much based on love for God as it is compulsion to indemnify one's own sins."[22] The Unification Church has also been criticized for saying that the First World War, the Second World War, the Holocaust, and the Cold War served as indemnity conditions to prepare the world for the establishment of the Kingdom of God.[23]
Unification Church teachings are based on the Bible, but include new interpretations not found in Jewish and Christian tradition.[24] The Divine Principle draws parallels between Jewish history, as recorded in the Bible, and later Christian history; saying that Jesus should have been accepted as the Messiah during his lifetime. This has been a source of controversy for both Christians and Jews.[25]
The American Jewish Committee (AJC) released a report by Rabbi A. James Rudin in 1976 which stated that the Divine Principle contained "pejorative language, stereotyped imagery, and accusations of collective sin and guilt."[26] In a news conference by the AJC, and representatives of Catholic and Protestant churches, panelists stated that the text 'contained over 125 anti-Jewish references.' The panelists noted Moon's public recent condemnation of "antisemitic and anti-Christian attitudes", and called upon him to make a "comprehensive and systematic removal" of antisemitic and anti-Christian references in Divine Principle as a demonstration of good faith.[27]
In 1977 the Unification Church issued a rebuttal to the report, stating that it was neither comprehensive nor reconciliatory, but was rather had a "hateful tone" and was filled with "sweeping denunciations." It denied that Divine Principle teaches antisemitism and gave detailed responses to 17 specific allegations contained in the AJC's report, showing that allegations as distortion of teaching and obscuration of real passage content or as accurate summaries of Jewish scripture or New Testament passages.[28]
In 1989 Unification Church leaders Peter Ross and Andrew Wilson issued "Guidelines for Members of The Unification Church in Relations with the Jewish People" which stated: "In the past there have been serious misunderstandings between Judaism and the Unification Church. In order to clarify these difficulties and guide Unification Church members in their relations with Jews, the Unification Church suggests the following guidelines." This was followed by nine "guidelines" and a "conclusion."[29]
The True Family, in Unification Church terminology, is the family of church founder and leader Sun Myung Moon and his wife Hak Ja Han.[30] Church members regard Moon as the Second Coming of Christ,[31][32][33] and he and his wife as the "True Parents" of humankind, who have realized the ideal of true love as the incarnation of God's Word.[34][35] The members of the Unification Movement generally address or refer to Rev. and Mrs. Moon as "Father" and "Mother" or "True Father" and "True Mother."[36] Their children are known as the "True Children."[37]
Sun Myung and Hak Ja Han are regarded to have achieved the status of True Parents on January 1, 1968, at the end of their "7-year course" of marriage together, representing the perfection of God's masculine and feminine aspects. Unification theology teaches that Jesus achieved this perfection only on the individual level (a lesser accomplishment than that of Sun Myung Moon and Hak Ja Han, they believe that had Jesus not died on the cross he would have married, together they would have become "True Parents" and created a "True Family" and they would save humanity and perfect the world. Unfortunately Jesus was unable to complete his mission of perfecting the world and went the way of the cross, but his death was not a complete defeat because Jesus died for our sins giving us spiritual salvation).[38][39][40] The primary mission of True Parents is to engraft all people on earth and in the spirit world to the original sinless lineage of God, removing them from the satanic lineage established at the fall of humanity (the original sin in the Garden of Eden).[41][42]