Artist Spotlight
Richard E. (Rick) Warren found The Urantia Book on a bookshelf in 1986 at Boulder Creek, CA. He is a founding member of the Lone Star Association (1994), serving terms in all its offices. From 2002-6 Rick was the Dissemination Committee Chair on the ISB and he is currently serving on the Center for Unity’s writing team. In 2016 Rick began writing Urantia-based novels (nine and counting) and this is the focus of our artist spotlight.
The Urantia Book is flush with great stories about our planet’s checkered past. But, how to share them with people who would never pick up and read a 2100 page book? Maybe novelization was the answer.
I was nearly 70, that was 2016, when I wrote the first of eight novels and one short story. It was about a couple who awake in “Resurrection Hall” on Mansion World One. I had help from several seasoned readers in the writing and editing. Then I rewrote it a few years later. It was well received and I was inspired to write another book.
The second novel was “Battlefield Guardians – Angels in Vietnam.” I chose that setting because I felt a need to write about my experiences in that war, only I created an idealized version, the way I wish it might have been. The protagonist was a medic and at night, during sleep, he had encounters with his angels who revealed, not surprisingly, many of the concepts found in The Urantia Book.
After that, I asked, why not write seven novels? That resulted in the creation of “The Gardens of Eden – Life and Times of Adam & Eve” followed by “The Melchizedek Mission – Salvaging Truth,” then “The Midwayers – The Planet’s Permanent Citizens.”
All my books are between two and three hundred pages, published in paperback, Kindle, and Audible format. There are two exceptions, the midwayer story is 45 pages. The other exception is a short story, just 5000 words, almost all verbatim Urantia Book text with the title, “The First Humans – Andon and Fonta.” It is available only in Kindle and Audible versions.
My hope, my wish, in creating these Urantia-based novels, was to make the stories available to non-readers, and to interest new and seasoned readers in re-reading the source text. I have heard from readers of my novels that they have indeed been led to go back to the book, and that they have shared the novels with non-readers, who may have become interested in the source text. One man reported reading Resurrection Hall to a dying woman in hospice who was thrilled with the prospect of awakening in the heaven described in that novel. Other feedback has been very gratifying, all of which caused me to write more.
I want the whole world to know about the rebellion that descended on Urantia 200,000 years ago, and how civilization began. That desire culminated in “The Planetary Prince – Revelation & Rebellion.”
Imagine the first meeting of the Planetary Prince’s staff and the 100 humans who had been chosen by the celestials working on Urantia a half million years ago. That’s what I did with my novels, imagined what is given in the revelation and flesh out the scene. What was Van’s response to the Lucifer manifesto? What did Van say at Adam and Eve’s welcoming ceremony? What was Melchizedek’s encounter with Amdon like? I really enjoyed taking brief descriptions and creating full-blown scenarios. And my greatest wish is that someday these novels will be used to create movies. The Adam and Eve story is, after Jesus, the greatest story in our history. It has adventure, fandors, paradisical living, tragedy, betrayal, redemption, just to start! And practically no one knows the story, the true story, as presented in Papers 73-76.
After the first six stories, I wrote a spiritual-fiction novel, one that had two intertwined themes: “The Non-breathers & The First Fusers.” This was the longest of my novels to date and weaved together a tale about discovering the non-breathers (Paper 49:3) living on Ganymede, and a study group whose members decide to fuse rather than die.
Reviews for all my books are publicly available on Amazon. There are also Spanish, French, German, and Portuguese translations of some books. Links to all can be found on this page: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Richard-E-Warren/author/B07SF8DC3C?
Coming out in January 2026, is my latest novel, “Michael Mellowson – Child of God.” It is set in the present day and features a man who has a powerful religious experience that leads him to travel the world teaching about the indwelling presence of God and the fact that we are all children of this same loving God.
Next, I’m switching gears, attempting to write a screenplay about our mother and father 38,000 years ago, Eve and Adam. See you at the movies.
Here is the opening chapter of Resurrection Hall, where Kala Maylon awakes in her morontia body:
Chapter I – Awakening
Her eyes popped open. She drew her first breath, then another, deeper one. She was standing and having to focus on balance. Two beings were there to steady her, one on each side. She somehow knew they could be none other than her guardian angels.
Suddenly, her mind was flooded with recollections of her life as a human. Her faithful and beloved divine indweller—the fragment of God that inhabits human minds during life in the flesh—arrived with her personal memories. She hadn’t yet grasped that this is Resurrection Hall on the first mansion world, but she did realize and know she was alive again, in a new body and with a new mind.
This new body-mind now becomes the temple of her Earth-born soul, of her God-given personality, and of her divine indweller. It is an intense event of wonder and awe, also one of rapid adjustment.
Next, the two angels came directly in front of her. They moved in very close; she felt embraced like never before. She then realized she was standing on a mansion world, and that this was her first post-mortal experience. The thought occurred to her, “This is resurrection!”
During this angelic embrace, memories of Earth life continued filling her mind, as fast as she could assimilate them. As the seconds passed, the eternal significance of this event became clearer and clearer. She had indeed survived and was now breathing, thinking, and living on another world. “How wonderful, how great, how fulfilling!”
Then she noticed there were several other beings gathered around who seemed vaguely familiar. She felt so very warm, energized, confident, and fearless, but needed time to adjust. Former life events were connecting; she was rapidly remembering previous experiences in greater detail and establishing their chronological order.
But who were these others? Her beloved family, where were they? She thought to ask, but the words wouldn’t come. The angels were mumbling at her. What were they saying? It wasn’t making sense. Her mind was foggy for an instant, then clear, then foggy again. Finally, clarity began to dominate. After a moment more, her attention shifted to the immediate surroundings, primarily the astonishingly beautiful beings surrounding her. Their faces were so young, lovely, and well defined.
Yet more memories were surfacing. She was recalling beliefs she had about resurrection. Her soul began to soar on the recognition and realization of continuing life. Gratitude overtook her, she craved to shout, “I’m in heaven, thank you God, thank you!” But nothing came out.
With each breath she could feel powerful energy coursing through her marvelous, strong, pain-free, highly sensitive new body. The smell of the air was truly rich. She thought but couldn’t quite say: “What a lovely aroma here!”
Looking beyond her angels and the others, she noticed everything was beautifully clean, sparkling, and intricately appointed. The floor was a lustrous metal, and the low wall that surrounded her resurrection chamber was inlaid with jewels and gems, diverse in hue and form. The sky was a magnificent vault of deep blue, but without a sun, moon, or cloud.
As she gazed over the resurrection scene, the angel on her left put before her what appeared to be a three-dimensional mirror. She watched closely as the image rotated. In complete amazement, she felt the urge to ask, “This IS me?!” It had to be her, but what a change. There were no wrinkles and no glasses. She thought, “My face is so young! And vision is excellent!”
Next, she took note of her hands and feet, wiggling her fingers and toes, perfectly formed and very sensitive. She then looked down and scanned her body, tightly clothed in a super-shimmering fabric. ‘This must be a sort of morontia material,’ she thought. Morontia! She always enjoyed contemplating that word. And now she felt much like a super version of her old self, one she had often imagined when reading about morontia life. She then touched the image in the mirror and uttered, “This is morontia me, I am alive, I AM alive!”