The choice you have made for your course of study is surely most
interesting and will be of inestimable service in your work for the Cause.
Even though every branch of study will have some interest for a Baha'i who
is looking how the spirit of the Cause and of the the new age is awakening
the minds, yet a study of the condition of society will better show us the
needs of the world, hence the part that the Teachings can play in
satisfying them.
(5 January 1930 to an individual believer) [53]
54: "Philosophy, as you will study it and later teach it, is certainly
not..."
Philosophy, as you will study it and later teach it, is certainly not one
of the sciences that begins and ends in words. Fruitless excursions into
metaphysical hair-splittings is meant, not a sound branch of learning like
philosophy....
As regards your own studies: he would advise you not to devote too much of
your time to the abstract side of philosophy, but rather to approach it
from a more historical angle. As to correlating philosophy with the Baha'i
teachings: this is a tremendous work which scholars in the future can
undertake. We must remember that not only are all the teachings not yet
translated into English, but they are not even all collected yet. Many
important Tablets may still come to light which are at present owned
privately.
(15 February 1947 to an individual believer) [54]