|
Background
The movement’s core teachings are contained in a book called Divine Principle, just short The Principle or the ‘black book’. It consists of two parts with a total of 13 chapters plus an introduction. Newer reprints are called ‘Exposition of the Divine Principle’. The contents is the same but one version comes with highlighting in red, blue and yellow. Red for the important parts, then blue, then yellow - to make sure everybody gets it right.
An easier and more comprehensive introduction is found in a study guide called ‘Outline of THE PRINCIPLE’or simply the ‘Level 4’. It’s been out of print for a decade or so.
In addition there are the numerous speeches of Sun Myung Moon. Many are available on the internet. For example, there is www.ffwpu.org - the official web site of the Unification Movement in USA. A larger assortment of speeches are on www.unification.net and www.tparents.org - both unofficial sites. On unification.net you find the full text of the Divine Principle and of the Level 4, but without illustrations.
Sun Myung Moon’s speeches offer deeper insights into the details and motivation of Divine Principle. The habit to post every word Sun Myung Moon ever spoke, verbatim, results in considerable redundancy. Also, opponents have a field day to search the speeches for controversial statements – context notwithstanding.
It is said that the teaching is a revelation from the spirit world, that Sun Myung Moon conversed with spirits and angels and even God in his search for the truth.
The teaching is not entirely unique. Even the more unusual parts could be traced back to Christian groups in North Korea with similar teachings at that time. For example, a group headed by a woman named Ho Ho Bin, believed that Jesus was to be born again as a man in Korea, in her life time. Another source might be the teaching of Kim Baek Moon, leader of another religious group in the 1940/50s. Even the teaching that the fall of man involved an illicit sexual relationship between humans and angels has been taught elsewhere at that time.
However, the way how the Principle combines these issues and fills the gaps, is quite powerful. The applications to history - ancient and modern day - are enticing. On the other hand, many of the issues that Sun Myung Moon talks about off the written record have probably never been told elsewhere.
Quite a few members believed – and had been told – that the Principle is completely new. When they later found out that this was not so, they began to doubt its truth. Some left the movement.
However, for most members the issue - whether the Principle is unique - is not relevant for the position and role of Sun Myung Moon as a religious leader.
Sun Myung Moon sees his work as part of a developing and expanding divine providence. As a consequence things held dear at one point may become obsolete. Nowadays Moon talks much less about Christian and Jewish history, but rather about a world of spirituality without religion, without the need of a savior, of a time ‘after the coming of heaven’.
It appears that a large part of the movement has a hard time following. The term paradigm shift is heard often, but in reality, the movement seems to be stagnant internally and externally with little progress in the forward direction – not a unique phenomenon among religious groups.
A newer development is the involvement of Moon’s children - called the ‘True Children’ - in the affairs of the movement. All have advanced degrees from prime universities. Whether they will manage to give the movement a new lease on life in the 21st century remains to be seen.
On this site you find a brief overview and comments on the most relevant parts of the Divine Principle. That is certainly the first chapter, describing the principles behind creation that are also like natural laws in a spiritual sense. The second chapter - called The Fall of Man - helps to understand the movement’s perception of evil, its roots and the nature of the solution. Both chapters and their application also have a strong influence on the culture within the movement itself.
Much of the remainder of the book then is an application of these principles to Christian and Jewish history. One goal is to explain to Christians that Sun Myung Moon is the second coming of Christ, the fulfillment of history.
However, these parts can also be seen as case studies that show how the principles of creation are put to work in the process of rebuilding the ideal, a process which is called ‘restoration’ or ‘re-creation’. The ‘laws’ governing the process are also termed the ‘principles of restoration’ but they are really application of the original principles to the problem of fixing the fall (chapter two).
The fact that the ‘providence of restoration’ focused on Christianity during the last 2000 years might lead to the conclusion, that values from Western, Christian based societies play a major role in the movement. At this moment that is not so.
This appears to be a major inconsistency between theory and practice and is occasionally subject of internal discussions. It may also be one cause behind the movement’s formidable failures in its effort to grow in Western societies. Some of these issues and their implications are discussed in the section ‘The Movement’.
|
