The Baha'i Faith and the Perennial Mystical Quest: A Western Perspective (original) (raw)
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The Baha’i Faith and the Western Esoteric Tradition
The Baha’i Faith claims to be the eight largest and second most widespread religion in the world, superficially it appears to be a fusion of Shiite millennialism, Western social radicalism and a benign globalist perspective. This paper seeks to reappraise a forgotten aspect of the introduction of the Baha’i Faith to the West, the importance of individuals seeped in the mystical, the occult and esoteric to the creation of the synthesis of modernity and mysticism which underpins the Baha’i perspective.
This article offers a systematic and comprehensive overview of Baha'i theology and philosophy. Since Bahá'í thought is still in very nascent stages of development, without any established philosophical or theological schools, it is discussed within the comparative framework of what has already been long established in both of these scholarly fields. Bahá'í religious texts contain a great deal of philosophical passages and speculation, sometimes of a highly technical nature. Bahá'í scriptures make use of such Aristotelian terms as essence, substance, essential and accidental attributes, four-fold causality, potentiality, and its actualization, and so on. In addition to Aristotelian philosophical ideas, the Bahá'í Writings make use of a Neoplatonist concept of emanation. Overall, the article explores Bahá'í views in the areas of epistemology, ontology, philosophical anthropology, philosophy of religion and history, social and political philosophy, ethics, and aesthetics.
2010
An examination of the words mysticism, mystical, and m y s t i c reveals six key features associated with the word or concept m y s t i c i s m. They are: 1. the experience of mystical union or direct communion with ultimate reality, 2. inducing a feeling of awe or wonder, 3. having a spiritual meaning or reality that is neither apparent to the senses nor obvious to the intell i g e n c e , 4. anything based upon intuition, insight, or similar subjective experience, 5. of or relating to mysteries or esoteric rites: occult, 6. having magical powers. In this paper, the first two features would constitute what this author terms types one and two mysticism. The third and the fourth features constitute the third type of mysticism. The fourth type mysticism is unique and not des cribed in the dictionary as m y s t i c i s m. Features five and six form the fifth and the sixth type mysticism collectively, not respectively. The Types of Mysticism-A Classification Inferred from Bahá'í Writings There are six types or classes of mysticism: Class One or "True Mysticism" : The ecs tatic joy that results from communion with the Souls of the Manifestations leading to physical martyrdom 5 or the living of a life of self-sacrifice and saintliness. 6 This is a more refined state of Incipient True Mysticism. (The meaning of self-sacrifice is explained under the discussion on s e l f-s u rre n d e r and in note 1.) Class Two or "Incipient True Mysticism" : The state of spiritual communion or feeling (which is the core of religious faith) which can be chiefly brought about and maintained by means of worship, prayer and meditation, for the sake of union with God and the acquis ition of human virtues and powers for the development of the individual and society. 7 Class Three or "Cognitive or Coronary Mysticism" : The realm of spiritual meanings and realities not apparent to the senses or obvious to the intelligence. This has to do with reflection upon s criptural and religious writings, and striving to unravel the abstruse or the mystic meanings of the words and symbols in the Holy Wr i t , the profound emanations of sages and mystics, or the spiritual significance of certain religious acts. (The reason for describing this type of mysticism as " c o ro n a ry " is explained in note 4.) Class Four or "Biological and Societal Mysticism" : This is the adolescent, developmental stage of an individual or the stage in the evolution of the organisation of human society. .. in the collective life of mankind. .. endowing the whole human race with such potentialities of well-being as shall provide. .. the chief incentive required for the eventual fulfillment of its high destiny. 8 Class Five or "Natural" or "Mundane Mysticism" : Mystic concepts and practices not purely for communion with God and the development of human virtues, but aimed basically at solving mundane and orthodox occult problems and, in some cases, keeping harmony between the living world on one hand, and the world of spirit and the spirit of ancestors on the other. These concepts are, larg e l y, either upheld in a general way by the Bahá'í teachings or they are neutral, meaning that the Bahá'í teachings are silent over them. They are basically true.
We do not currently possess an explicit philosophy within the Bahá'í Faith. This is due to the Faith's youthful and evolving nature. Philosophy traditionally emerges in religious traditions as they transition from dynamic developmental phases to scholastic eras. This is not a denial of the Faith's rich philosophical background but an acknowledgment that the development of knowledge in a faith tradition typically follows a process of expansion and consolidation. As faith traditions move beyond periods of heroism and persecution, establishing a foundation of authority, the sense of urgency and mission is replaced by a more serene environment conducive to intellectual discourse. 1 However, this general statement should not be misconstrued as a suggestion that Baha'i's must await a golden age to formulate their philosophical thinking. On the contrary, if philosophy involves engaging in higher reflective considerations, solid reasoning, a sense of inquiry, and the ability to synthesize and integrate, then the need for philosophy is paramount in the present. Care is essential to prevent prematurely identifying any system of thinking with the potential characteristics of a comprehensive model of Bahá'í philosophy destined to fully develop in the future. The Bahai writings underscore the pivotal role of religion in catalyzing positive change in the world, emphasizing a belief in the dynamic nature of existence. According to Abdul Baha, religion is the outer expression of the divine reality and must be living, vitalized, and progressive to reflect the divine life; otherwise, it becomes stagnant and lifeless. 2 This perspective challenges 1 This concept was thoroughly expounded upon by Dr. Alimorad Davoudi, a Baha'i philosophy professor at Tehran University. Following the Islamic Revolution in Iran, he was abducted due to his beliefs and is presumed to have been later murdered. 2 Religion is the outer expression of the divine reality. Therefore, it must be living, vitalized, moving and progressive. If it be without motion and nonprogressive, it is without the divine life; it is dead. The divine institutes are continuously active and evolutionary; therefore, the revelation of them must be progressive and continuous. All things are subject to reformation. This is a century of life and renewal. Sciences and arts, industry and invention have been reformed. Law and ethics have been reconstituted, reorganized. The world of thought has been regenerated. Sciences of former ages and philosophies of the past are useless today. Present exigencies demand new methods of solution; world problems are without precedent. Old ideas and modes of thought are fast becoming obsolete. Ancient laws and dimensions of a new paradigm of knowledge that incorporates consciousness-related phenomena. This paradigm recognizes the intricate interplay between the physical and metaphysical realms, acknowledging the interconnectedness of human experiences. By synthesizing diverse elements of knowledge, the Bahá'í philosophy aims to foster a holistic understanding that transcends reductionism and materialism. The integrative Bahá'í philosophy seeks to offer a nuanced perspective on the unity of knowledge, serving as a guiding framework for Bahá'í education and scholarship. Its ambitions extend beyond intellectual exercises, striving to contribute meaningfully to the realization of a world characterized by unity, justice, and the harmonious integration of material and spiritual dimensions. Ultimately, A Bahá'í-inspired philosophy, if distilled into the scheme of the sciences, holds the potential to provide human understanding with a meaningful sense of wholeness.
Bahá’í Faith: The Basics (Routledge, 2021) Preview
Bahá’í Faith: The Basics, 2021
Released by publisher online: eBook Preview PDF (front matter, Chapter 1, and References), https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9780429023088 Baha’i Faith: The Basics By: Christopher Buck Edition: 1st Edition First Published: 2021 eBook Published: 27 November 2020 Pub. location: London Imprint: Routledge DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429023088 Pages: 262 pages eBook: ISBN9780429023088 Subjects: Humanities Bahá’í Faith: The Basics provides a thorough and accessible introduction to a fascinating, independent world religion. Examining its historical development, current “community-building” efforts and the social contributions of the Bahá’í Faith in the world today, this introduction covers: • Beliefs: Bahá’í spiritual teachings. • Principles: Bahá’í social teachings. • History: Bahá’u’lláh and his covenant. • Scripture: Bahá’í sacred texts and inspired guidance. • Institutions: The Bahá’í Administrative Order. • Building community: What Bahá’ís do. • Social action: Bahá’í social and economic development projects. • Public discourse: The Bahá’í International Community. • Vision: Foundations for a future golden age. With features including a glossary of terms, and references to the Bahá’í writings throughout, this is the ideal text for students and interested readers wanting to familiarize themselves with the Bahá’í Faith. Reviews "This excellent, beautifully organized introduction provides an accurate and unusually rich entré into a relatively new and still somehow frequently misunderstood religion. The author, Christopher Buck, is a leading scholar of the Baha'i religion. His book is richly enhanced with quotations from official translations of the Baha'i sacred writings, insights into the formation of distinctive Baha'i institutions and rare glimpses of key moments in Baha'i intellectual history from an introduction to the influential African-American Baha'i philosopher, Alain Locke (d. 1954) known as 'the father of the Harlem Renaissance', to a discussion of the more recent development of the Ruhi Institute process. This introduction goes beyond existing textbooks in both scope and detail. It will be warmly welcomed by researchers and students of the Baha'i Faith." Todd Lawson, University of Toronto, Canada Christopher Buck is an independent scholar and former professor at Michigan State University, USA; Quincy University, USA; Millikin University, USA; and Carleton University, Canada.
An Essay on Bahá'í Philosophy: Expanded with an Additional Section
We do not currently possess an explicit philosophy within the Bahá'í Faith. This is due to the Faith's youthful and evolving nature. Philosophy traditionally emerges in religious traditions as they transition from dynamic developmental phases to scholastic eras. This is not a denial of the Faith's rich philosophical background but an acknowledgment that the development of knowledge in a faith tradition typically follows a process of expansion and consolidation. As faith traditions move beyond periods of heroism and persecution, establishing a foundation of authority, the sense of urgency and mission is replaced by a more serene environment conducive to intellectual discourse. 1 However, this general statement should not be misconstrued as a suggestion that Baha'i's must await a golden age to formulate their philosophical thinking. On the contrary, if philosophy involves engaging in higher reflective considerations, solid reasoning, a sense of inquiry, and the ability to synthesize and integrate, then the need for philosophy is paramount in the present. Care is essential to prevent prematurely identifying any system of thinking with the potential characteristics of a comprehensive model of Bahá'í philosophy destined to fully develop in the future. The Bahai writings underscore the pivotal role of religion in catalyzing positive change in the world, emphasizing a belief in the dynamic nature of existence. According to Abdul Baha, religion is the outer expression of the divine reality and must be living, vitalized, and progressive to reflect the divine life; otherwise, it becomes stagnant and lifeless. 2 This perspective challenges 1 This concept was thoroughly expounded upon by Dr. Alimorad Davoudi, a Baha'i philosophy professor at Tehran University. Following the Islamic Revolution in Iran, he was abducted due to his beliefs and is presumed to have been later murdered. 2 Religion is the outer expression of the divine reality. Therefore, it must be living, vitalized, moving and progressive. If it be without motion and nonprogressive, it is without the divine life; it is dead. The divine institutes are continuously active and evolutionary; therefore, the revelation of them must be progressive and continuous. All things are subject to reformation. This is a century of life and renewal. Sciences and arts, industry and invention have been reformed. Law and ethics have been reconstituted, reorganized. The world of thought has been regenerated. Sciences of former ages and philosophies of the past are useless today. Present exigencies demand new methods of solution; world problems are without precedent. Old ideas and modes of thought are fast becoming obsolete. Ancient laws and
The Bahá’í Writings: A Meta-ethical Excursion Part I: Background and a First Dive into the Writings
2016
This paper is part of an on-going project of studying the philosophic principles explicitly and implicitly embedded in the Bahá’í Writings and correlating them with other religions and/or philosophies. Shoghi Effendi recognized the necessity of such correlation work as early as 1933,1 when he wrote, It is hoped that all the Bahá’í students will follow the noble example you have set before them and will, henceforth, be led to investigate and analyse the principles of the Faith and to correlate them with the modern aspects of philosophy and science. Every intelligent and thoughtful young Bahá’í should always approach the Cause in this way, for therein lies the very essence of the principle of independent investigation of truth.2 In this statement, Shoghi Effendi not only asserts the
Baha’i Studies Review, 1997
Christopher Buck, Reviews of Peter Smith, A Short History of the Baha’i Faith; and Moojan Momen, A Short Introduction to the Baha’i Faith. Baha’i Studies Review 7 (1997): 95–99. ABSTRACT Book Review – Introductory books on the Bahá’í Faith A Short History of the Bahá’í Faith Author: Peter Smith Publisher: Oneworld, Oxford, 1996, 168 pages A Short Introduction to the Bahá’í Faith Author: Moojan Momen Publisher: Oneworld, Oxford, 1997, 150 pages Reviewer: Christopher Buck If the academic study of religion could be thought of as a graph, the x-axis might represent the history of religions, while the y-axis would represent the phenomenology of religion. The former is diachronic (historical), the latter synchronic (systemic, structural). This is one way of appreciating how usefully the two volumes by Peter Smith and Moojan Momen complement each other. . . . After treating the Shí’í and Shaykhí background of the Bábí movement, Smith distinguishes the paradigm-shift that took place in the latter part of the Báb’s ministry: “Although still employing Shí’í and particularly Shaykhi terminology and concepts, these later writings indicate that, as well as superseding Islamic law, the Báb was also now presenting a new religious framework distinct from that of Islam. There was a clear contrast with his earlier writings, which were written within an Islamic paradigm” (37). What, then, represents the paradigm-shift from Bábism to the Bahá’í Faith? Smith writes: “The Bahá’í concept of the future millennium has also become linked with a specific programme of social reform and transformation. This does not have any real precedent in the Bábí movement” (156). One distinctive dynamic evident in the Bahá’í paradigm has not received sufficient attention: that Bahá’u’lláh made peace, equality and unity sacred. In incorporating theretofore secular concerns, from disarmament to gender equality, Bahá’u’lláh generated a process that may be characterized as “sacralizing the secular.” Turning now to A Short Introduction to the Bahá’í Faith, . . . [w]ithout anachronism, retrojection, or romanticization, Momen’s approach is the inverse of Smith’s and this is another aspect of their complementarity. Steering clear of any historicism or similar reductionism, the author also distances Bahá’í teachings from any alleged eclecticism or syncretism. Allowing that “all religions, including the Bahá’í Faith, will, to some extent, contain echoes of each other,” Momen states his intent: “I hope to show that the Bahá’í Faith also has its own teachings that are new and innovative” (3). Does the author deliver on this promise? Momen’s elaboration of Bahá’í teachings is systematic, clear, and, in all major respects, comprehensive. The author finally does identify the distinctiveness of the Bahá’í paradigm towards the end of the book: “The key difference between the Bahá’í Faith and the main established religions of the world is the fact that its vision was created within the last hundred years, and so has an immediacy and relevance that visions that had their origins a thousand years ago or more lack. . . . The Bahá’í Faith presents a unique integrated vision of the present state of the world and its future direction. This vision embraces politics, economics, environmental considerations, social issues, social administration, community development, ethical issues and spirituality” (139). To the credit of these two academics, the drawbridge of the ivory tower has been lowered across the moat of disciplinary obfuscation above the murky and forbidding currents of academic discourse, over which the scholar must walk in order to speak to an audience for whom matters of the head are also matters of the heart.
Bahá’í Faith: The Basics (Review by Jack McLean, Jan. 2021)
2021
Jack McLean, “Baha’i Faith: The Basics by Christopher Buck: Review (2020).” Published online (January 15, 2021). Excerpts: One outstanding feature of this book for either Bahá’ís or non-Bahá’ís is its contemporary relevance. Even well-informed readers could not possibly be fully aware of the overview presented by Buck of all the multifarious activities taking place in the Bahá’í world community. … Buck’s treatment of the material is throughout well-researched, and rich in the detail that an alert reader expects. In sum, despite its unpretentious title, this book is more than the Basics of the Bahá’í Faith. It not only covers well the religion’s early history, three central holy figures, spiritual and social teachings and organization, but also it presents a complete contemporary picture of the remarkably diverse economic, social, and spiritual activities that are being planned and executed by the Bahá’í community in all countries of the world.
Making the invisible visible: introductory books on the Baha'i religion (the Baha'i Faith)
Religion, 2013
The present review examines five books, one by a non-Baha'i, three by a Baha'i academic, and one by a Baha'i non-academic. The non-Baha'i volume, which is very short, is by a Danish sociologist of religion, Margit Warburg. It forms a solid explanatory text informed by a lengthy experience of the Baha'is both in Denmark and abroad. This review discusses, inter alia, three volumes by a Baha'i sociologist, Peter Smith. While the three titles are very different books, taken together they form an intelligent presentation of the religion from the perspective of a thoughtful insider. Finally, the article looks at a completely different sort of book, an intelligent portrayal of Baha'ism from its spiritual and moral perspectives by Moojan Momen. This last brings readers closest to typical fare for believers and new converts. KEY WORDS Baha'i; Baha'ism; Baha'i faith; Babism; religious minority; new religious movement; world religion; Baha' Allah; Baha'u'llah; Bab; 'Abd al-Baha'; 'Abdu'l-Baha; Shoghi Effendi; Iran; sociology of religion Five introductions to the Baha'i faith