Revelation of Arès

"The Revelation of Arès" is a book about a supernatural revelation experienced by Michel Potay in Arès, France, during the 1970s. After Potay publicily announced his experiences and described his understanding of their significance and meaning, a small group of followers came to consider Potay a prophet.They are called The Ares Pilgrims. Written by Potay, the book describes 40 apparitions that he claims were of Jesus in 1974 ("The Gospel delivered in Ares"), as well as five theophanies he says he received from God in 1977 ("The Book"). Potay's followers consider "The Revelation of Ares" to be the most important revelation since the Bible and the Qur'an.

Content

The Revelation of Ares has two parts. "The Gospel Delivered in Ares" which Michel Potay says he took down from Jesus from January 15 to April 13, 1974, and "The Book" that he said he collected from God himself from October 2 to November 22, 1977. [ [http://www.freespirituality.net/MP-RdA/story.html My story by Michel Potay] ]

The basic message of The Revelation of Ares is that humanity will not gain happiness by any religious or political system, but by simply recreating itself good, becoming once again the positive image and likeliness of the Creator, and encouraging others to do the same. [ [http://www.the-revelation-of-ares-info.com The Revelation of Ares back cover] ]

The Arès pilgrim movement

Potay's followers do not consider themselves to be part of a new religion. Potay himself, once a cleric, left organized religion after his revelations in 1974 and 1977. Since that time, many of Potay's followers have been making a pilgrimage each summer to Arès, France. [ [http://freesoulblog.net/jFB/jFBuv.html The Pilgrimage in Ares] ]

They describe themselves as free believers, humanists, existentialists, who live in the world. [ [http://www.freespirituality.net/MP-RdA/faith.and.action.html The Ares Pilgrims] ]

Enquirers may learn more by viewing Brother Michel's bi-lingual Web site, freesoulblog.net.

Bibliographical information

*The Revelation of Ares" First bilingual edition in 1995. ISBN 2-901821-07-3 OCLC|36797899
*cite book | last = Melton |first= J. Gordon | authorlink = J. Gordon Melton | coauthors = Martin Baumann | title = Religions of the world : a comprehensive encyclopedia of beliefs and practices | publisher = ABC-CLIO | month = September | year = 2002 | location = Santa Barbara, Calif. | pages = 71-72 | url = http://www.loc.gov/catdir/description/abcclio041/2002005617.html | doi = | id = | isbn = 1576072231
*cite journal
title= Oh, Gods!
journal= The Atlantic Monthly
month= February | year= 2002
first= Toby
last= Lester
volume= 289
issue= 2
pages=
id=
url= http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200202/lester|format=|accessdate=2008-01-26
quote= The ultimate dream for any ambitious student of new religious movements (NRM), of course, is to discover and monitor the very early stirrings of a new movement and then to track it as it evolves and spreads around the globe. Everybody acknowledges how unlikely this is. But the idea that it "could" happen is irresistible. One scholar I met in London who admitted to harboring such hopes was Jean-François Mayer, a tall, bearded, boyishly enthusiastic lecturer in religious studies at the University of Fribourg, in Switzerland. For the past twenty years Mayer has been following a small French movement known as the Revelation of Arès. Founded in 1974 by a former Orthodox bishop named Michel Potay, and based near Bordeaux, the movement describes itself as the corrective culmination of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. "It is an NRM," Mayer told me, "that has all of the constitutive elements of a new religion of the book: new scriptures incorporating previously revealed scriptures, new rituals, and a new place of pilgrimage. When I study such a group, I see such obvious similarities with the birth of Christianity and the birth of Islam that for me it's fascinating and exciting. Sometimes I let myself think that I might be witnessing something similar at its initial stage." Even if the movement doesn't take off—which, Mayer readily admits, is likely—it is a perfect example of what many NRM scholars like to study.

References

External links

* [http://www.adira.net ADIRA] : The Revelation of Arès International Diffusion Association
* [http://freesoulblog.net/ Michel Potay's blog in english]
* [http://www.freespirituality.net/MP-RdA/welcome.html Michel Potay presents The Revelation of Ares in english]
* [http://www.michelpotay.info/ Michel Potay presents The Revelation of Ares in french]