One Common Faith
by Baha'i International Community
Edition 1, (September 2006)
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CONTENTS
Baha'i Terms of Use
FOREWORD
ONE COMMON FAITH
"There is every reason for confidence that the period of history
now..."
"The reawakened interest in religion is clearly far from having
reached..."
"In addition to disillusionment with the promises of materialism, a..."
"Throughout history, the primary agents of spiritual development
have..."
"The dilemma is both artificial and self-inflicted. The world order,
if..."
"The objection most commonly raised against the foregoing
conception..."
"Freed from the thickets with which theology has hedged religious..."
"Confusion about the role of religion in cultivating moral..."
"The exigencies of the new age of human experience to which..."
"The power through which these goals will be progressively realized
is..."
"A corollary of the abandonment of faith in God has been a paralysis
of..."
"Everything in its history has equipped the Baha'i..."
"One of the distinguishing features of modernity has been the
universal..."
FOREWORD
At Ridvan 2002, we addressed an open letter to the world's religious
leaders. Our action arose out of awareness that the disease of sectarian
hatreds, if not decisively checked, threatens harrowing consequences that
will leave few areas of the world unaffected. The letter acknowledged with
appreciation the achievements of the interfaith movement, to which Baha'is
have sought to contribute since an early point in the movement's
emergence. Nevertheless, we felt we must be forthright in saying that, if
the religious crisis is to be addressed as seriously as is occurring with
respect to other prejudices afflicting humankind, organized religion must
find within itself a comparable courage to rise above fixed conceptions
inherited from a distant past.
Above all, we expressed our conviction that the time has come when
religious leadership must face honestly and without further evasion the
implications of the truth that God is one and that, beyond all diversity
of cultural expression and human interpretation, religion is likewise one.
It was intimations of this truth that originally inspired the interfaith
movement and that have sustained it through the vicissitudes of the past
one hundred years. Far from challenging the validity of any of the great
revealed faiths, the principle has the capacity to ensure their continuing
relevance. In order to exert its influence, however, recognition of this
reality must operate at the heart of religious discourse, and it was with
this in mind that we felt that our letter should be explicit in
articulating it.
Response has been encouraging. Baha'i institutions throughout the world
ensured that thousands of copies of the document were delivered to
influential figures in the major faith communities. While it was perhaps
not surprising that the message it contained was dismissed out of hand in
a few circles, Baha'is report that, in general, they were warmly welcomed.
Particularly affecting has been the obvious sincerity of many recipients'
distress over the failure of religious institutions to assist humanity in
dealing with challenges whose essential nature is spiritual and moral.
Discussions have turned readily to the need for fundamental change in the
way the believing masses of humankind relate to one another, and in a
significant number of instances, those receiving the letter have been
moved to reproduce and distribute it to other clerics in their respective
traditions. We feel hopeful that our initiative may serve as a catalyst
opening the way to new understanding of religion's purpose.
However rapidly or slowly this change occurs, the concern of Baha'is must
be with their own responsibility in the matter. The task of ensuring that
His message is engaged by people everywhere is one that Baha'u'llah has
laid primarily on the shoulders of those who have recognized Him. This, of
course, has been the work that the Baha'i community has been pursuing
throughout the history of the Faith, but the accelerating breakdown in
social order calls out desperately for the religious spirit to be freed
from the shackles that have so far prevented it from bringing to bear the
healing influence of which it is capable.
If they are to respond to the need, Baha'is must draw on a deep
understanding of the process by which humanity's spiritual life evolves.
Baha'u'llah's writings provide insights that can help to elevate
discussion of religious issues above sectarian and transient
considerations. The responsibility to avail oneself of this spiritual
resource is inseparable from the gift of faith itself. "Religious
fanaticism and hatred", Baha'u'llah warns, "are a world-devouring fire,
whose violence none can quench. The Hand of Divine power can, alone,
deliver mankind from this desolating affliction...." Far from feeling
unsupported in their efforts to respond, Baha'is will come increasingly to
appreciate that the Cause they serve represents the arrowhead of an
awakening taking place among people everywhere, regardless of religious
background and indeed among many with no religious leaning.
Reflection on the challenge has prompted us to commission the commentary
that follows. _One Common Faith,_ prepared under our supervision, reviews
relevant passages from both the writings of Baha'u'llah and the scriptures
of other faiths against the background of the contemporary crisis. We
commend it to the thoughtful study of the friends.
The Universal House of Justice
_Naw-Ruz, 2005_
ONE COMMON FAITH
"There is every reason for confidence that the period of history now..."
There is every reason for confidence that the period of history now
opening will be far more receptive to efforts to spread Baha'u'llah's
message than was the case in the century just ended. All the signs
indicate that a sea change in human consciousness is under way.
Early in the twentieth century, a materialistic interpretation of reality
had consolidated itself so completely as to become the dominant world
faith insofar as the direction of society was concerned. In the process,
the civilizing of human nature had been violently wrenched out of the
orbit it had followed for millennia. For many in the West, the Divine
authority that had functioned as the focal centre of guidance--however
diverse the interpretations of its nature--seemed simply to have dissolved
and vanished. In large measure, the individual was left free to maintain
whatever relationship he believed connected his life to a world
transcending material existence, but society as a whole proceeded with
growing confidence to sever dependence on a conception of the universe
that was judged to be at best a fiction and at worst an opiate, in either
case inhibiting progress. Humanity had taken its destiny into its own
hands. It had solved through rational experimentation and discourse--so
people were given to believe--all of the fundamental issues related to
human governance and development.
This posture was reinforced by the assumption that the values, ideals and
disciplines cultivated over the centuries were now reliably fixed and
enduring features of human nature. They needed merely to be refined by
education and reinforced by legislative action. The moral legacy of the
past was just that: humanity's indefeasible inheritance, requiring no
further religious interventions. Admittedly, undisciplined individuals,
groups or even nations would continue to threaten the stability of the
social order and call for correction. The universal civilization towards
the realization of which all the forces of history had been bearing the
human race, however, was irresistibly emerging, inspired by secular
conceptions of reality. People's happiness would be the natural result of
better health, better food, better education, better living conditions--and
the attainment of these unquestionably desirable goals now seemed to be
within the reach of a society single-mindedly focused on their pursuit.
Throughout that part of the world where the vast majority of the earth's
population live, facile announcements that "God is Dead" had passed
largely unnoticed. The experience of the peoples of Africa, Asia, Latin
America and the Pacific had long confirmed them in the view not only that
human nature is deeply influenced by spiritual forces, but that its very
identity is spiritual. Consequently, religion continued, as had always
been the case, to function as the ultimate authority in life. These
convictions, while not directly confronted by the ideological revolution
taking place in the West, were effectively marginalized by it, insofar as
interaction among peoples and nations was concerned. Having penetrated and
captured all significant centres of power and information at the global
level, dogmatic materialism ensured that no competing voices would retain
the ability to challenge projects of world wide economic exploitation. To
the cultural damage already inflicted by two centuries of colonial rule
was added an agonizing disjunction between the inner and outer experience
of the masses affected, a condition invading virtually all aspects of
life. Helpless to exercise any real influence over the shaping of their
futures or even to preserve the moral well-being of their children, these
populations were plunged into a crisis different from but in many ways
even more devastating than the one gathering momentum in Europe and North
America. Although retaining its central role in consciousness, faith
appeared impotent to influence the course of events.
As the twentieth century approached its close, therefore, nothing seemed
less likely than a sudden resurgence of religion as a subject of consuming
global importance. Yet that is precisely what has now occurred in the form
of a groundswell of anxiety and discontent, much of it still only dimly
conscious of the sense of spiritual emptiness that is producing it.
Ancient sectarian conflicts, apparently unresponsive to the patient arts
of diplomacy, have re-emerged with a virulence as great as anything known
before. Scriptural themes, miraculous phenomena and theological dogmas
that, until recently, had been dismissed as relics of an age of ignorance
find themselves solemnly, if indiscriminately, explored in influential
media. In many lands, religious credentials take on new and compelling
significance in the candidature of aspirants to political office. A world,
which had assumed that with the collapse of the Berlin Wall an age of
international peace had dawned, is warned that it is in the grip of a war
of civilizations whose defining character is irreconcilable religious
antipathies. Bookstores, magazine stands, Web sites and libraries struggle
to satisfy an apparently inexhaustible public appetite for information on
religious and spiritual subjects. Perhaps the most insistent factor in
producing the change is reluctant recognition that there is no credible
replacement for religious belief as a force capable of generating
self-discipline and restoring commitment to moral behaviour.
Beyond the attention that religion, as formally conceived, has begun to
command is a widespread revival of spiritual search. Expressed most
commonly as an urge to discover a personal identity that transcends the
merely physical, the development encourages a multitude of pursuits, both
positive and negative in character. On the one hand, the search for
justice and the promotion of the cause of international peace tend to have
the effect of also arousing new perceptions of the individual's role in
society. Similarly, although focused on the mobilization of support for
changes in social decision-making, movements like environmentalism and
feminism induce a re-examination of people's sense of themselves and of
their purpose in life. A reorientation occurring in all the major
religious communities is the accelerating migration of believers from
traditional branches of the parent faiths to sects that attach primary
importance to the spiritual search and personal experiences of their
members. At the opposite pole, extraterrestrial sightings,
"self-discovery" regimens, wilderness retreats, charismatic exaltation,
various New Age enthusiasms, and the consciousness-raising efficacy
attributed to narcotics and hallucinogens attract followings far larger
and more diverse than anything enjoyed by spiritualism or theosophy at a
similar historical turning point a century ago. For a Baha'i, the
proliferation even of cults and practices that may arouse aversion in the
minds of many serves primarily as a reminder of the insight embodied in
the ancient tale of Majnun, who sifted the dust in his search for the
beloved Layli, although aware that she was pure spirit: "I seek her
everywhere; haply somewhere I shall find her."(1)
"The reawakened interest in religion is clearly far from having
reached..."
The reawakened interest in religion is clearly far from having reached its
peak, in either its explicitly religious or its less definable spiritual
manifestations. On the contrary. The phenomenon is the product of
historical forces that steadily gather momentum. Their common effect is to
erode the certainty, bequeathed to the world by the twentieth century,
that material existence represents ultimate reality.
The most obvious cause of these re-evaluations has been the bankruptcy of
the materialist enterprise itself. For well over a hundred years, the idea
of progress was identified with economic development and with its capacity
to motivate and shape social improvement. Those differences of opinion
that existed did not challenge this world view, but only conceptions as to
how its goals might best be attained. Its most extreme form, the iron
dogma of "scientific materialism", sought to reinterpret every aspect of
history and human behaviour in its own narrow terms. Whatever humanitarian
ideals may have inspired some of its early proponents, the universal
consequence was to produce regimes of totalitarian control prepared to use
any means of coercion in regulating the lives of hapless populations
subjected to them. The goal held up as justification of such abuses was
the creation of a new kind of society that would ensure not only freedom
from want but fulfilment for the human spirit. At the end, after eight
decades of mounting folly and brutality, the movement collapsed as a
credible guide to the world's future.
Other systems of social experimentation, while repudiating recourse to
inhumane methods, nevertheless derived their moral and intellectual thrust
from the same limited conception of reality. The view took root that,
since people were essentially self-interested actors in matters pertaining
to their economic well-being, the building of just and prosperous
societies could be ensured by one or another scheme of what was described
as modernization. The closing decades of the twentieth century, however,
sagged under a mounting burden of evidence to the contrary: the breakdown
of family life, soaring crime, dysfunctional educational systems, and a
catalogue of other social pathologies that bring to mind the sombre words
of Baha'u'llah's warning about the impending condition of human society:
"Such shall be its plight, that to disclose it now would not be meet and
seemly."(2)
The fate of what the world has learned to call social and economic
development has left no doubt that not even the most idealistic motives
can correct materialism's fundamental flaws. Born in the wake of the chaos
of the Second World War, "development" became by far the largest and most
ambitious collective undertaking on which the human race has ever
embarked. Its humanitarian motivation matched its enormous material and
technological investment. Fifty years later, while acknowledging the
impressive benefits development has brought, the enterprise must be
adjudged, by its own standards, a disheartening failure. Far from
narrowing the gap between the well-being of the small segment of the human
family who enjoy the benefits of modernity and the condition of the vast
populations mired in hopeless want, the collective effort that began with
such high hopes has seen the gap widen into an abyss.
Consumer culture, today's inheritor by default of materialism's gospel of
human betterment, is unembarrassed by the ephemeral nature of the goals
that inspire it. For the small minority of people who can afford them, the
benefits it offers are immediate, and the rationale unapologetic.
Emboldened by the breakdown of traditional morality, the advance of the
new creed is essentially no more than the triumph of animal impulse, as
instinctive and blind as appetite, released at long last from the
restraints of supernatural sanctions. Its most obvious casualty has been
language. Tendencies once universally castigated as moral failings mutate
into necessities of social progress. Selfishness becomes a prized
commercial resource; falsehood reinvents itself as public information;
perversions of various kinds unabashedly claim the status of civil rights.
Under appropriate euphemisms, greed, lust, indolence, pride--even
violence--acquire not merely broad acceptance but social and economic
value. Ironically, as words have been drained of meaning, so have the very
material comforts and acquisitions for which truth has been casually
sacrificed.
Clearly, materialism's error has lain not in the laudable effort to
improve the conditions of life, but in the narrowness of mind and
unjustified self-confidence that have defined its mission. The importance
both of material prosperity and of the scientific and technological
advances necessary to its achievement is a theme that runs through the
writings of the Baha'i Faith. As was inevitable from the outset, however,
arbitrary efforts to disengage such physical and material well-being from
humanity's spiritual and moral development have ended by forfeiting the
allegiance of the very populations whose interests a materialistic culture
purports to serve. "Witness how the world is being afflicted with a fresh
calamity every day", Baha'u'llah warns. "Its sickness is approaching the
stage of utter hopelessness, inasmuch as the true Physician is debarred
from administering the remedy, whilst unskilled practitioners are regarded
with favour, and are accorded full freedom to act."(3)
"In addition to disillusionment with the promises of materialism, a..."
In addition to disillusionment with the promises of materialism, a force
of change undermining the misconceptions about reality that humanity
brought into the twenty-first century is global integration. At the
simplest level, it takes the form of advances in communication
technologies that open broad avenues of interaction among the planet's
diverse populations. Along with facilitating interpersonal and intersocial
exchanges, general access to information has the effect of transmuting the
cumulative learning of the ages, until recently the preserve of privileged
elites, into the patrimony of the entire human family, without distinction
of nation, race or culture. With all the gross inequities that global
integration perpetuates--indeed intensifies--no informed observer can fail
to acknowledge the stimulus to reflection about reality that such changes
have produced. With reflection has come a questioning of all established
authority, no longer merely that of religion and morality, but also of
government, academia, commerce, the media and, increasingly, scientific
opinion.
Apart from technological factors, unification of the planet is exerting
other, even more direct effects on thought. It would be impossible to
exaggerate, for example, the transformative impact on global consciousness
that has resulted from mass travel on an international scale. Greater
still have been the consequences of the enormous migrations that the world
has witnessed during the century and a half since the Bab declared His
mission. Millions of refugees fleeing from persecution have swept like
tidal waves back and forth across the European, African and Asiatic
continents, particularly. Amid the suffering such turmoil has caused, one
perceives the progressive integration of the world's races and cultures as
the citizenry of a single global homeland. As a result, people of every
background have been exposed to the cultures and norms of others about
whom their forefathers knew little or nothing, exciting a search for
meaning that cannot be evaded.
It is impossible to imagine how different the history of the past century
and a half would have been had any of the leading arbiters of world
affairs addressed by Baha'u'llah spared time for reflection on a
conception of reality supported by the moral credentials of its Author,
moral credentials of the kind they professed to hold in the highest
regard. What is unmistakable to a Baha'i is that, despite such failure,
the transformations announced in Baha'u'llah's message are resistlessly
accomplishing themselves. Through shared discoveries and shared travails,
peoples of diverse cultures are brought face to face with the common
humanity lying just beneath the surface of imagined differences of
identity. Whether stubbornly opposed in some societies or welcomed
elsewhere as a release from meaningless and suffocating limitations, the
sense that the earth's inhabitants are indeed "the leaves of one tree"(4)
is slowly becoming the standard by which humanity's collective efforts are
now judged.
Loss of faith in the certainties of materialism and the progressive
globalizing of human experience reinforce one another in the longing they
inspire for understanding about the purpose of existence. Basic values are
challenged; parochial attachments are surrendered; once unthinkable
demands are accepted. It is this universal upheaval, Baha'u'llah explains,
for which the scriptures of past religions employed the imagery of "the
Day of Resurrection": "The shout hath been raised, and the people have
come forth from their graves, and arising, are gazing around them."(5)
Beneath all of the dislocation and suffering, the process is essentially a
spiritual one: "The breeze of the All-Merciful hath wafted, and the souls
have been quickened in the tombs of their bodies."(6)
"Throughout history, the primary agents of spiritual development have..."
Throughout history, the primary agents of spiritual development have been
the great religions. For the majority of the earth's people, the
scriptures of each of these systems of belief have served, in
Baha'u'llah's words, as "the City of God",(7) a source of a knowledge that
totally embraces consciousness, one so compelling as to endow the sincere
with "a new eye, a new ear, a new heart, and a new mind".(8) A vast
literature, to which all religious cultures have contributed, records the
experience of transcendence reported by generations of seekers. Down the
millennia, the lives of those who responded to intimations of the Divine
have inspired breathtaking achievements in music, architecture, and the
other arts, endlessly replicating the soul's experience for millions of
their fellow believers. No other force in existence has been able to
elicit from people comparable qualities of heroism, self-sacrifice and
self-discipline. At the social level, the resulting moral principles have
repeatedly translated themselves into universal codes of law, regulating
and elevating human relationships. Viewed in perspective, the major
religions emerge as the primary driving forces of the civilizing process.
To argue otherwise is surely to ignore the evidence of history.
Why, then, does this immensely rich heritage not serve as the central
stage for today's reawakening of spiritual quest? On the periphery,
earnest attempts are being made to reformulate the teachings that gave
rise to the respective faiths, in the hope of imbuing them with new
appeal, but the greater part of the search for meaning is diffused,
individualistic and incoherent in character. The scriptures have not
changed; the moral principles they contain have lost none of their
validity. No one who sincerely poses questions to Heaven, if he persists,
will fail to detect an answering voice in the Psalms or in the Upanishads.
Anyone with some intimation of the Reality that transcends this material
one will be touched to the heart by the words in which Jesus or Buddha
speaks so intimately of it. The Qur'an's apocalyptic visions continue to
provide compelling assurance to its readers that the realization of
justice is central to the Divine purpose. Nor, in their essential
features, do the lives of heroes and saints seem any less meaningful than
they did when those lives were lived centuries ago. For many religious
people, therefore, the most painful aspect of the current crisis of
civilization is that the search for truth has not turned with confidence
into religion's familiar avenues.
The problem is, of course, twofold. The rational soul does not merely
occupy a private sphere, but is an active participant in a social order.
Although the received truths of the great faiths remain valid, the daily
experience of an individual in the twenty-first century is unimaginably
removed from the one that he or she would have known in any of those ages
when this guidance was revealed. Democratic decision-making has
fundamentally altered the relationship of the individual to authority.
With growing confidence and growing success, women justly insist on their
right to full equality with men. Revolutions in science and technology
change not only the functioning but the conception of society, indeed of
existence itself. Universal education and an explosion of new fields of
creativity open the way to insights that stimulate social mobility and
integration, and create opportunities of which the rule of law encourages
the citizen to take full advantage. Stem cell research, nuclear energy,
sexual identity, ecological stress and the use of wealth raise, at the
very least, social questions that have no precedent. These, and the
countless other changes affecting every aspect of human life, have brought
into being a new world of daily choices for both society and its members.
What has not changed is the inescapable requirement of making such
choices, whether for better or worse. It is here that the spiritual nature
of the contemporary crisis comes into sharpest focus because most of the
decisions called for are not merely practical but moral. In large part,
therefore, loss of faith in traditional religion has been an inevitable
consequence of failure to discover in it the guidance required to live
with modernity, successfully and with assurance.
A second barrier to a re-emergence of inherited systems of belief as the
answer to humanity's spiritual yearnings is the effects already mentioned
of global integration. Throughout the planet, people raised in a given
religious frame of reference find themselves abruptly thrown into close
association with others whose beliefs and practices appear at first glance
irreconcilably different from their own. The differences can and often do
give rise to defensiveness, simmering resentments and open conflict. In
many cases, however, the effect is rather to prompt a reconsideration of
received doctrine and to encourage efforts at discovering values held in
common. The support enjoyed by various interfaith activities doubtless
owes a great deal to response of this kind among the general public.
Inevitably, with such approaches comes a questioning of religious
doctrines that inhibit association and understanding. If people whose
beliefs appear to be fundamentally different from one's own nevertheless
live moral lives that deserve admiration, what is it that makes one's own
faith superior to theirs? Alternatively, if all of the great religions
share certain basic values in common, do not sectarian attachments run the
risk of merely reinforcing unwanted barriers between an individual and his
neighbours?
Few today among those who have some degree of objective familiarity with
the subject are likely, therefore, to entertain an illusion that any one
of the established religious systems of the past can assume the role of
ultimate guide for humankind in the issues of contemporary life, even in
the improbable event that its disparate sects should come together for
that purpose. Each one of what the world regards as independent religions
is set in the mould created by its authoritative scripture and its
history. As it cannot refashion its system of belief in a manner to derive
legitimacy from the authoritative words of its Founder, it likewise cannot
adequately answer the multitude of questions posed by social and
intellectual evolution. Distressing as this may appear to many, it is no
more than an inherent feature of the evolutionary process. Attempts to
force a reversal of some kind can lead only to still greater
disenchantment with religion itself and exacerbate sectarian conflict.
"The dilemma is both artificial and self-inflicted. The world order,
if..."
The dilemma is both artificial and self-inflicted. The world order, if it
can be so described, within which Baha'is today pursue the work of sharing
Baha'u'llah's message is one whose misconceptions about both human nature
and social evolution are so fundamental as to severely inhibit the most
intelligent and well-intentioned endeavours at human betterment.
Particularly is this true with respect to the confusion that surrounds
virtually every aspect of the subject of religion. In order to respond
adequately to the spiritual needs of their neighbours, Baha'is will have
to gain an in-depth understanding of the issues involved. The effort of
imagination this challenge requires can be appreciated from the advice
that is perhaps the most frequently and urgently reiterated admonition in
the writings of their Faith: to "meditate", to "ponder", to "reflect".
A commonplace of popular discourse is that by "religion" is intended the
multitude of sects currently in existence. Not surprisingly, such a
suggestion at once arouses protest in other quarters that by religion is
intended rather one or another of the great, independent belief systems of
history that have shaped and inspired whole civilizations. This point of
view, in turn, however, runs up against the inevitable query as to where
one will find these historic faiths in the contemporary world. Where,
precisely, are "Judaism", "Buddhism", "Christianity", "Islam" and the
others, since they obviously cannot be identified with the irreconcilably
opposed organizations that purport to speak authoritatively in their
names? Nor does the problem end there. Yet another response to the enquiry
will almost certainly be that by religion is intended simply an attitude
to life, a sense of relationship with a Reality that transcends material
existence. Religion, so conceived, is an attribute of the individual
person, an impulse not susceptible of organization, an experience
universally available. Again, however, such an orientation will be seen by
a majority of religiously minded persons as lacking the very authority of
self-discipline and the unifying effect that give religion meaning. Some
objectors would even argue that, on the contrary, religion signifies the
lifestyle of persons who, like themselves, have adopted severe regimens of
daily ritual and self-denial that set them entirely apart from the rest of
society. What all such differing conceptions have in common is the extent
to which a phenomenon that is acknowledged to completely transcend human
reach has nevertheless gradually been imprisoned within conceptual
limits--whether organizational, theological, experiential or ritualistic--of
human invention.
The teachings of Baha'u'llah cut through this tangle of inconsistent views
and, in doing so, reformulate many truths which, whether explicitly or
implicitly, have lain at the heart of all Divine revelation. Although in
no way a comprehensive reading of His intent, Baha'u'llah makes it clear
that attempts to capture or suggest the Reality of God in catechisms and
creeds are exercises in self-deception: "To every discerning and illumined
heart it is evident that God, the unknowable Essence, the divine Being, is
immensely exalted beyond every human attribute, such as corporeal
existence, ascent and descent, egress and regress. Far be it from His
glory that human tongue should adequately recount His praise, or that
human heart comprehend His fathomless mystery."(9) The instrumentality
through which the Creator of all things interacts with the ever-evolving
creation He has brought into being is the appearance of prophetic Figures
who manifest the attributes of an inaccessible Divinity: "The door of the
knowledge of the Ancient of Days being thus closed in the face of all
beings, the Source of infinite grace ... hath caused those luminous Gems
of Holiness to appear out of the realm of the spirit, in the noble form of
the human temple, and be made manifest unto all men, that they may impart
unto the world the mysteries of the unchangeable Being, and tell of the
subtleties of His imperishable Essence."(10)
To presume to judge among the Messengers of God, exalting one above the
other, would be to give in to the delusion that the Eternal and
All-Embracing is subject to the vagaries of human preference. "It is clear
and evident to thee", are Baha'u'llah's precise words, "that all the
Prophets are the Temples of the Cause of God, Who have appeared clothed in
divers attire. If thou wilt observe with discriminating eyes, thou wilt
behold Them all abiding in the same tabernacle, soaring in the same
heaven, seated upon the same throne, uttering the same speech, and
proclaiming the same Faith."(11) To imagine, further, that the nature of
these unique Figures can be--or needs to be--encompassed within theories
borrowed from physical experience is equally presumptuous. What is meant
by "knowledge of God", Baha'u'llah explains, is knowledge of the
Manifestations Who reveal His will and attributes, and it is here that the
soul comes into intimate association with a Creator Who is otherwise
beyond both language and apprehension: "I bear witness", is Baha'u'llah's
assertion about the station of the Manifestation of God, "...that through
Thy beauty the beauty of the Adored One hath been unveiled, and through
Thy face the face of the Desired One hath shone forth...."(12)
Religion, thus conceived, awakens the soul to potentialities that are
otherwise unimaginable. To the extent that an individual learns to benefit
from the influence of the revelation of God for his age, his nature
becomes progressively imbued with the attributes of the Divine world:
"Through the Teachings of this Day Star of Truth", Baha'u'llah explains,
"every man will advance and develop until he ... can manifest all the
potential forces with which his inmost true self hath been endowed."(13)
As humanity's purpose includes the carrying forward of "an ever-advancing
civilization",(14) not the least of the extraordinary powers that religion
possesses has been its ability to free those who believe from the
limitations of time itself, eliciting from them sacrifices on behalf of
generations centuries into the future. Indeed, because the soul is
immortal, its awakening to its true nature empowers it, not only in this
world but even more directly in those worlds that lie beyond, to serve the
evolutionary process: "The light which these souls radiate", Baha'u'llah
asserts, "is responsible for the progress of the world and the advancement
of its peoples.... All things must needs have a cause, a motive power, an
animating principle. These souls and symbols of detachment have provided,
and will continue to provide, the supreme moving impulse in the world of
being."(15)
Belief is thus a necessary and inextinguishable urge of the species that
has been described by an influential modern thinker as "evolution become
conscious of itself".(16) If, as the events of the twentieth century
provide sad and compelling evidence, the natural expression of faith is
artificially blocked, it will invent objects of worship however
unworthy--or even debased--that may in some measure appease the yearning for
certitude. It is an impulse that will not be denied.
In short, through the ongoing process of revelation, the One Who is the
Source of the system of knowledge we call religion demonstrates that
system's integrity and its freedom from the contradictions imposed by
sectarian ambitions. The work of each Manifestation of God has an autonomy
and an authority that transcend appraisal; it is also a stage in the
limitless unfolding of a single Reality. Because the purpose of the
successive revelations of God is the awakening of humankind to its
capacities and responsibilities as the trustee of creation, the process is
not simply repetitive, but progressive, and is fully appreciated only when
perceived in this context.
In no sense can Baha'is profess to have grasped at this early hour more
than a minute portion of the truths inherent in the revelation on which
their Faith is based. With reference, for example, to the evolution of the
Cause, the Guardian said, "All we can reasonably venture to attempt is to
strive to obtain a glimpse of the first streaks of the promised Dawn that
must, in the fullness of time, chase away the gloom that has encircled
humanity."(17) Apart from encouraging humility, this fact should serve
also as a constant reminder that Baha'u'llah has not brought into
existence a new religion to stand beside the present multiplicity of
sectarian organizations. Rather has He recast the whole conception of
religion as the principal force impelling the development of
consciousness. As the human race in all its diversity is a single species,
so the intervention by which God cultivates the qualities of mind and
heart latent in that species is a single process. Its heroes and saints
are the heroes and saints of all stages in the struggle; its successes,
the successes of all stages. This is the standard demonstrated in the life
and work of the Master and exemplified today in a Baha'i community that
has become the inheritor of humanity's entire spiritual legacy, a legacy
equally available to all the earth's peoples.
The recurring proof of the existence of God, therefore, is that from time
immemorial He has repeatedly manifested Himself. In the larger sense, as
Baha'u'llah explains, the vast epic of humanity's religious history
represents the fulfilment of the "Covenant", the enduring promise by which
the Creator of all things assures the race of the unfailing guidance
essential to its spiritual and moral development, and calls on it to
internalize and give expression to these values. One is free to dispute
through historicist interpretations of the evidence the unique role of
this or that Messenger of God, if that is one's purpose, but such
speculation is of no help in accounting for developments that have
transformed thought and produced changes in human relationships critical
to social evolution. At intervals so rare that the known instances can be
counted on one's fingers, the Manifestations of God have appeared, have
each been explicit as to the authority of His teachings and have each
exerted an influence on the advance of civilization incomparably beyond
that of any other phenomenon in history. "Consider the hour at which the
supreme Manifestation of God revealeth Himself unto men", Baha'u'llah
points out: "Ere that hour cometh, the Ancient Being, Who is still unknown
of men and hath not as yet given utterance to the Word of God, is Himself
the All-Knower in a world devoid of any man that hath known Him. He is
indeed the Creator without a creation."(18)
"The objection most commonly raised against the foregoing conception..."
The objection most commonly raised against the foregoing conception of
religion is the assertion that the differences among the revealed faiths
are so fundamental that to present them as stages or aspects of one
unified system of truth does violence to the facts. Given the confusion
surrounding the nature of religion, the reaction is understandable.
Chiefly, however, such an objection offers Baha'is an invitation to set
the principles reviewed here more explicitly in the evolutionary context
provided in Baha'u'llah's writings.
The differences referred to fall into the categories of either practice or
doctrine, both of them presented as the intent of the relevant scriptures.
In the case of religious customs governing personal life, it is helpful to
view the subject against the background of comparable features of material
life. It is most unlikely that diversity in hygiene, dress, medicine,
diet, transportation, warfare, construction or economic activity, however
striking, would any longer be seriously advanced in support of a theory
that humanity does not in fact constitute one people, single and unique.
Until the opening of the twentieth century, such simplistic arguments were
commonplace, but historical and anthropological research now provides a
seamless panorama of the process of cultural evolution by which these and
countless other expressions of human creativity came into existence, were
transmitted through successive generations, underwent gradual
metamorphoses and often spread to enrich the lives of peoples in far
distant lands. That present-day societies represent a wide spectrum of
such phenomena, therefore, does not in any way define a fixed and
immutable identity of the peoples concerned, but merely distinguishes the
stage through which given groups are--or at least until recently have
been--passing. Even so, all such cultural expressions are now in a state of
fluidity in consequence of the pressures of planetary integration.
A similar evolutionary process, Baha'u'llah indicates, has characterized
the religious life of humankind. The defining difference lies in the fact
that, rather than representing simply the accidents of history's ongoing
method of trial and error, such norms were explicitly prescribed in each
case, as integral features of one or another revelation of the Divine,
embodied in scripture, their integrity scrupulously maintained over a
period of centuries. While certain features of each code of conduct would
eventually fulfil their purpose and in time be overshadowed by concerns of
a different nature brought on by the process of social evolution, the code
itself would lose none of its authority during the long stage of human
progress in which it played a vital role in training behaviour and
attitudes. "These principles and laws, these firmly-established and mighty
systems", Baha'u'llah asserts, "have proceeded from one Source, and are
the rays of one Light. That they differ one from another is to be
attributed to the varying requirements of the ages in which they were
promulgated."(19)
To argue, therefore, that differences of regulations, observances and
other practices constitute any significant objection to the idea of
revealed religion's essential oneness is to miss the purpose that these
prescriptions served. More seriously, it misses the fundamental
distinction between the eternal and the transitory features of religion's
function. The essential message of religion is immutable. It is, in
Baha'u'llah's words, "the changeless Faith of God, eternal in the past,
eternal in the future".(20) Its role in opening the way for the soul to
enter into an evermore mature relationship with its Creator--and in
endowing it with an ever-greater measure of moral autonomy in disciplining
the animal impulses of human nature--is not at all irreconcilable with its
providing auxiliary guidance that enhances the process of civilization
building.
The concept of progressive revelation places the ultimate emphasis on
recognition of the revelation of God at its appearance. The failure of the
generality of humankind in this respect has, time and again, condemned
entire populations to a ritualistic repetition of ordinances and practices
long after these latter have fulfilled their purpose and now merely
stultify moral advance. Sadly, in the present day, a related consequence
of such failure has been to trivialize religion. At precisely the point in
its collective development where humanity began to struggle with the
challenges of modernity, the spiritual resource on which it had
principally depended for moral courage and enlightenment was fast becoming
a subject of mockery, first at those levels where decisions were being
made about the direction society should take, and eventually in
ever-widening circles of the general population. There is little cause for
surprise, then, that this most devastating of the many betrayals of trust
from which human confidence has suffered should, in the course of time,
undermine the foundations of belief itself. So it is that Baha'u'llah
repeatedly urges His readers to think deeply about the lesson taught by
such repeated failures: "Ponder for a moment, and reflect upon that which
has been the cause of such denial...."(21) "What could have been the
reason for such denial and avoidance...?"(22) "What could have caused such
contention...?"(23) "Reflect, what could have been the motive...?"(24)
More detrimental still to religious understanding has been theological
presumption. A persistent feature of religion's sectarian past has been
the dominant role played by clergy. In the absence of scriptural texts
that established unarguable institutional authority, clerical elites
succeeded in arrogating to themselves exclusive control over
interpretation of the Divine intent. However diverse the motives, the
tragic effects have been to impede the current of inspiration, discourage
independent intellectual activity, focus attention on the minutiae of
rituals and too often engender hatred and prejudice towards those
following a different sectarian path from that of self-appointed spiritual
leaders. While nothing could prevent the creative power of Divine
intervention from continuing its work of progressively raising
consciousness, the scope of what could be achieved, in any age, became
increasingly limited by such artificially contrived obstacles.