The Source of the Divine Principle

Franco Famularo
January 5, 1999

While at Unification Theological Seminary some of us (students and professors) spent a considerable amount of time looking for parallels in a variety of Christian and other writings to practically every aspect of the Divine Principle. Virtually every concept in the DP has been spoken of in some form or another during the past several thousand years of recorded history. As the DP states quite clearly in the intro, "Scripture is a textbook teaching the truth, not the truth itself". The DP is no different. I am quite certain that Father did not have extensive theological training before writing his original manuscript and prior to authorizing the various renditions that appeared in the 1950s written by Mr. Eu for example.

There was also no wide availability of textbooks for Father to study from to find many of things he wrote in DP. Imagine Korea after WW II or the Korean war. Hardly a place where you could quietly do research on such matters. What's the point then? Father discovered the Divine Principle through prayer and study, received some aspects of it through inspiration, insights and other means. Some of the DP appears to be a synthesis of various theologies and religious views. Yet the Principle emphasizes that the "ultimate life giving truth, cannot be discovered through an exhaustive investigation of scriptures or scholarly texts, nor can it be invented by the human intellect.... it must appear as a revelation from God."

It does "appear" as a revelation, however it is clear that several individuals contributed to the present version of DP. Mr. Eu, Rev. Ahn, Young Oon Kim and others. They had access to many sources, but surely not to all. The "discovered" truth and did not invent it. Therefore, many aspects of DP can be found in the Apocrypha, the writings of Tertullian, Irenaeus and others. They also discovered truth, but as Father, did not invent it.