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What is Bahá’í Philosophy?
In her first post, Keri described philosophy as follows: “Philosophy, as I approach it now, sheds light on our assumptions, our patterns of thought and thus actions, the mental structures that guide how we understand our world and act within it.” After discussing this idea with her in the subsequent days, it became clear to us that this was part of what philosophy does in the Plan, but not all. In fact, it seems that there are at least four things that philosophy does, each one being vitally important for the progress of the Plan. We can tentatively call these four moments 1) the practical, 2) the scientific, 3) the critical, and 4) the metaphysical.
1. The Practical
Plato and Aristotle
Most people would find it surprising to consider practical knowledge an aspect of philosophy. But even Aristotle counted practical knowledge an essential part of philosophical reflection, so this is by no means a new idea. We develop practical knowledge by constantly acting and constantly reflecting upon the outcomes of our actions. As we develop in our practical knowledge, we acquire a better feel for things, a greater sensitivity for what is right in a given moment, and what is really going on in a particular situation. It is practical knowledge that allows us to listen to the promptings of the heart. Practical knowledge also enables us to discern between a purely theoretical issue and one that will impact the development of our community.
A Bahá’í community’s practical knowledge grows as it struggles day in and day out to learn the subtle dynamics of individual and community capacity building. It is this firm foundation in practical knowledge that allows our scientific, critical, and metaphysical insights to bring about lasting transformation, that prevents them from beginning and ending with words. At the same time, our scientific, critical, and metaphysical perspectives allow us to direct our practical efforts towards the most worthwhile ends.
2. The Scientific
For the ancient Greeks there was no difference between science and philosophy. To put it more precisely, they held the sciences to be branches of philosophy. I will follow the ancients in considering science to be a part of philosophy, but in order to know what this means, we must to answer the question, “What does science do?” This is not an easy question, though, and there are libraries full of books written by philosophers more knowledgeable than I trying to answer it. For our purposes, though, we can say that science seeks to systematically develop a conceptual framework that can explain and predict the things we experience. This conceptual framework evolves through a process of hypothesis formation, experimentation, and reflection.
Science emerges from practical knowledge when our activities become too complex to manage informally, their further development requiring systematic and conscientious learning. If we see science in this light, then we can have a science of more or less anything. Even the Bahá’í community’s efforts to learn the dynamics of expansion and consolidation, social and economic development, and participation in the discourses of society are scientific, and we are being asked to pursue them in a scientific manner.
3. The Critical
In its proper usage, critical thought is simply the attempt to become aware of the conceptual frameworks underlying our patterns of thought and action, and then to evaluate and improve these conceptual frameworks. This is the description of philosophy given by Keri in her first post, and it is an absolutely essential capacity for those working in the Plan. If you have ever said anything like, “Wait, I have been assuming the whole time that spirituality has nothing to do with social and economic development!” then you have already tasted the kernel of critical thought. Today, the idea of critical thought or criticism has become equivalent with fault-finding, and we thus consider someone to “understand” a situation when he is able to point out its faults. It is vitally important for us to develop a practice of critical thought oriented towards building the good and not destroying the bad.
We are constantly asked as Bahá’ís to engage in critical thought, to become aware of our conceptual frameworks, to evaluate them in light of Bahá’u’lláh’s Revelation, and to align them more fully with His vision. Critical thought also serves both our scientific and practical endeavors, as it allows us by become aware of the false dichotomies and assumptions that we often pick up from society and to constantly improve and expand our approaches.
4. The Metaphysical
"Reflection" (1910), by Odilon Redon
Though the word “metaphysical” may bring chills to some, the meaning of this concept for the ancient Greeks was in fact fairly straightforward. Aristotle’s metaphysics, for example, asks about how things can exist, about God’s nature, and about the patterns that structure reality as a whole. For many of those following Plato and Aristotle, most notably the Neoplatonists, metaphysical thinking was inseparable from spiritual discipline meant to bring the soul closer to God. All Bahá’ís are involved to some extent in this kind of metaphysical thinking, as they contemplate the Writings and pray every morning and night.
As we deepen our souls and expand our minds, we become greater receptacles for the spiritual force that alone can build the civilization we seek to construct. Bahá’ís are called to deepen their metaphysical capacities through daily prayer, meditation, and study of the Writings. Philosophical metaphysics simply pursues this task more deliberately and with greater discipline.
Bahá’í Philosophy in the Plan
Each of these four kinds of philosophical reflection already plays a role in the Bahá’í community. I am only trying to name them. To draw on four recent examples of Bahá’í literature, consider: your reflections gathering reports fall under the practical moment, the document Attaining the Dynamics of Growth prepared by the International Teaching Center would fall under the scientific moment, Mr. Lample’s Revelation and Social Reality aligns most with the critical moment, and Mr. Dunbar’s Forces of Our Time more with the metaphysical moment. I believe that a distinctly Bahá’í school of philosophy will emerge as these four tasks of thought develop harmoniously alongside the advancement of the Plan.
In order to think clearly about what philosophy can and will do for the Plan, we must first understand that there are distinct ways of being philosophical. I have suggested four, but others could also be given. These four ways should not be read as hard and fast categories under which all intellectual endeavors will neatly fall. I offer these distinctions simply as orienting generalizations, as they are broad enough to interpret a great deal of literature. They have helped me to orient my studies more coherently and to understand how certain seemingly unconnected ideas can contribute to my efforts in the Plan. This is the task given us by Shoghi Effendi, and I share these ideas in a spirit of service to those who seek to fulfill it:
“It is hoped that all the Bahá’í students will … 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.”
- 6 August 1933, on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to an individual believer
“Consider what it is that singles man out from among created beings, and makes of him a creature apart. Is it not his reasoning power, his intelligence? Shall he not make use of these in his study of religion? I say unto you: weigh carefully in the balance of reason and science everything that is presented to you as religion. If it passes this test, then accept it, for it is truth! If, however, it does not so conform, then reject it, for it is ignorance!” –‘Abdu’l-Bahá
The independent investigation of truth is the cornerstone of the Bahá’í Faith, and impossible without the act of reflection. So many of the problems in the world come from the blind adoption of the patterns of thought and practice of our society, parents, or community. How often I come across prejudices, unfounded but nevertheless accepted because someone they trust believes them—a parent, a spouse, a friend. It is only when we investigate reality for ourselves, when we reflect, that we are able to find truth for ourselves. Bahá’í’s believe it is the right and responsibility of every person to engage in the reflective process in order to discern what is true.
How did we come to this point?
When I was younger, I saw religion through the lens of faith, and at that time, I understood faith in terms of the commonly heard phrase, the “leap of faith.” Faith was something separate from the rational mind; one had to close their eyes, and even if they didn’t have answers to the questions they may have (such as, are people of other faiths really going to hell?), trust in that love and power they felt in their heart and just believe.
As I understand it, Bahá’u’lláh takes this concept of the leap of faith and turns it on its head. He says, “One hour’s reflection is preferable to seventy years of pious worship.” Instead of blindly taking the leap of faith, we must seek out the answers to our questions. There are answers, and these answers will not and cannot contradict reason. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, the son of Bahá’u’lláh and the interpreter of His words, said, “If religion were contrary to logical reason then it would cease to be a religion and be merely a tradition.”
So if religion must not contradict reason, what then is meant by faith? ‘Abdu’l-Bahá has explained: “By faith is meant, first, conscious knowledge, and second, the practice of good deeds.” Faith is first conscious knowledge. What a relief! The mind and heart do not have to be separated! In fact, they must embrace! And secondly, faith is the practice of good deeds. Faith is something that compels us to act, to play our part in making this world beautiful.
“All religions teach that we must do good, that we must be generous, sincere, truthful, law-abiding, and faithful; all this is reasonable, and logically the only way in which humanity can progress.” – ‘Abdu’l-Bahá
As Bahá’ís working in the midst of this Plan, are we fully aware of the exalted station of reason? Do we understand the spiritual underpinnings of every part of the Plan as “reasonable,” as ‘Abdu’l-Bahá says above, “and logically the only way in which humanity can progress?” I think this is a topic definitely worthy of reflection.
This is exactly the kind of “realism” I was responding to in my post, “The Voice of Protest: I am a Realist.” Courtesy of Heunemmaniac.
Though the author presents a more moderate view, this approach tends to treat belief in God, spirit, religion, immortality, revelation, a living cosmos, even morality and the progress of history, etc., as a kind of childish wishful thinking, a series of fanciful whims that we must overcome if we are to deal with what is really true and actually make any change in the world.
Of course, there are many defensible reasons for not believing in God, spirit, or historical progress, but to assume on principle that all such notions should be treated with mistrust is an entirely different matter. The underlying motivation seems to stem from a strange kind of optimistic pessimism in which the more pessimistic view somehow enables the more optimistic future.
I would love to hear some peoples’ comments on the Party Pooper Principle.
Heres the re-post:
“The more I think about it, the more I am inclined to adopt the following operational principle:
Behold the austerity of the real
THE PARTY-POOPER PRINCIPLE:
Given two, roughly two equal theories, the one that is less attractive is more likely to be true.
Theories can be attractive in a variety of ways. Some theories meet deep-seated wishes, like the wish for immortality, or for free will, or to see human beings as especially noble and special sorts of beings. Some theories are just groovy, like the panpsychist view that our consciousness exists because every material thing in the universe has special flavorings inherent in it, or the view that the pyramids were made by super-intelligent aliens. Some theories give us hope, like the theory that God (or Mother Earth) won’t let global warming take us down as a species.
The problem with being attractive is that attractiveness introduces irrelevant motivations for our belief. We like to believe what puts us in a good light, or makes us feel groovy, or hopeful. That attraction is likely to skew our critical faculties, consciously or unconsciously, and get us to adopt a belief when a more clinical, detached perspective would tell us otherwise. Thus, we need to compensate for attractiveness. Thus, we need to be party-poopers.
Yes, the P-PP is pessimistic, and it is certainly possible that the flattering, groovy, hopeful theory turns out to be true. But, because of our attraction to attractive theories, we need to cultivate some bias against them, and insist that they prove themselves according to more stringent standards. In a way, the insistence levels the argumentative playing field, since the attraction tilts the field in their favor.
So, the Pragmatic Party-Pooper Corollary: If you really want to believe it, don’t.”
Here is the reference from Shoghi Effendi Keri quoted in her recent essay.
From a letter on behalf of Shoghi Effendi dated 15 February 1947, cited in Unfolding Destiny 445
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-splitting is meant, not a sound branch of learning like philosophy.
We have no historical proof of the truth of the Master’s statement regarding the Greek philosophers visiting the Holy Land, etc. but such proof may come to light through research in the future. 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 Bahá’í 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.
"Painting is not done to decorate apartments. It is an instrument of war." - Pablo Picasso
I hear this expression quite frequently these days, “I am a realist…,” particularly when I speak about the Bahá’í Faith’s view of humanity’s future. I explain that for Bahá’ís no matter how sophisticated or well intentioned any political, economic, or technological program may be, a spiritual revival born of the consciousness of the organic unity of humanity is prerequisite for their success. Nevertheless, peace will be achieved. As Bahá’u’lláh, the Prophet-Founder of the Bahá’í Faith, explains, “these fruitless strifes, these ruinous wars shall pass away, and the ‘Most Great Peace’ shall come.” Then comes the fated response from my interlocutor: Ben, I am a realist…
Most often some sort of brutal assessment of how things really work or what really motivates human beings follows: The world is corrupt and built upon lies. It is only for money’s sake that things actually happen. If we want to make the world a better place, if we actually want peace, we have to accept these uncomfortable truths and adjust our efforts accordingly. Because that is how things actually happen.
….actually…actually…actually…
I am stunned by this word “actually,” my breath knocked out by the force of its obviousness. It is as if my interlocutor invokes the very success of science in his tone, challenging me with a kind of mocking incredulity to generate any empirical data to the contrary: Our most advanced understanding of economics, evolution, international relations, the brute fact of human barbarism arising time and time again throughout history, they all affirm Hobbes dizzying insight: ‘the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.’
Yet, he tells me, peace is possible: We can build a better world, as long as we remain firmly rooted in the sometimes uncomfortable truths of reality, and are not whisked away by one or another romantic utopian allure. But religion? You think religion can actually change anything, even more some obscure new religion with only five or six million followers? Look at how many wars have been fought over religion throughout history, how many people have died because of their unwavering allegiance to some theological schema. It was only by pushing religion out of the public sphere that the great liberating force of democracy was born in Europe, perfected in the United States, and is now spreading to the whole world under the generally beneficial influence of the free market. What could religion possibly add?
Yes, the Bahá’í Faith does have praiseworthy principles – the harmony of science and religion, the equality of men and women, the need to eradicate all forms of prejudice, the independent investigation of truth, universal education, world peace – but you do not need to be a Bahá’í to believe these. Furthermore, the Bahá’í Faith is still young, its members enthusiastic and idealistic. Soon enough the Bahá’í Faith will be corrupted like all the rest, particularly if it becomes the next great world religion as Bahá’í seem to believe.
I admit, there may be some cultural and psychological value to religious community, narrative, yadda yadda, all that stuff, but can you honestly say that it does more good then harm? If you want some kind of religion, why not be a Buddhist? At best you will have better concentration, and if you go totally fanatic wacko then you’ll just end up in a mountain monastery somewhere not hurting anybody.
Though I have acquired enough tricks throughout my education to respond to each and every one of these points, no argument hides the fact that this logic is still sickly seductive both to myself and people of faith throughout the world. We have been raised in a culture of doubt, and whether we like it or not we have received our patterns of thought from this culture. In fact, it will not be until the kind of social-spiritual transformation I mentioned above takes place that such patterns of thought will loosen their grip upon our lives.
Still I must respond, even if only to that “realist” voice of protest that leaps up within my breast from time to time, naming the Bahá’í vision as just one more utopian fantasy, because spirit is real and the Bahá’í Faith is realist. The following excerpt from a 1974 letter written by the Universal House of Justice in response to a question from a Bahá’í concerning the proper response to material suffering, explains perfectly the orientation of the Bahá’í Faith’s realism:
“The principal cause of this suffering, which one can witness wherever one turns, is the corruption of human morals and the prevalence of prejudice, suspicion, hatred, untrustworthiness, selfishness and tyranny among men. It is not merely material well- being that people need. What they desperately need is to know how to live their lives — they need to know who they are, to what purpose they exist, and how they should act towards one another; and, once they know the answers to these questions they need to be helped to gradually apply these answers to everyday behaviour. It is to the solution of this basic problem of mankind that the greater part of all our energy and resources should be directed.
“Because of such an attitude…Bahá’ís are often accused of holding aloof from the ‘real problems’ of their fellowmen. But when we hear this accusation let us not forget that those who make it are usually idealistic materialists to whom material good is the only ‘real’ good, whereas we know that the working of the material world is merely a reflection of spiritual conditions and until the spiritual conditions can be changed there can be no lasting change for the better in material affairs.
“We should also remember that most people have no clear concept of the sort of world they wish to build, nor how to go about building it. Even those who are concerned to improve conditions are therefore reduced to combating every apparent evil that takes their attention. Willingness to fight against evils, whether in the form of conditions or embodied in evil men, has thus become for most people the touchstone by which they judge a person’s moral worth. Baha’is, on the other hand, know the goal they are working towards and know what they must do, step by step, to attain it. Their whole energy is directed towards the building of the good, a good which has such a positive strength that in the face of it the multitude of evils — which are in essence negative — will fade away and be no more. To enter into the quixotic tournament of demolishing one by one the evils in the world is, to a Baha’i, a vain waste of time and effort. His whole life is directed towards proclaiming the Message of Bahá’u'lláh, reviving the spiritual life of his fellowmen, uniting them in a divinely created World Order, and then, as the Order grows in strength and influence, he will see the power of that Message transforming the whole human society and progressively solving the problems and removing the injustices which have so long bedevilled the world.”
"The world is full of resonances. It constitutes a cosmos of things exerting a spiritual action. The dead matter is a living spirit." - Wassily Kandinsky
This is a re-post from State of Formation, where I am a Bahá’í Contributing Scholar.
I remember sitting in a train with a friend, trying to describe what my husband studies—what on earth is “phenomenology”?—and all her questions boiled down to one: “what’s the point?” This was probably more a reflection on my failed attempts to explain the field, but nevertheless, it raises a question many have: what is the point of philosophy? It is a field that most people see as specialized metaphysical hair-splitting, an elite academic space for intellectual hanky-panky.
And yet, for Bahá’ís, as Shoghi Effendi, a former head of the Bahá’í Faith, so aptly writes, philosophy “is certainly not one of the sciences that begins and ends with words.” So what is philosophy for Bahá’ís, and what does it offer to our efforts to build a new civilization?
My name is Kerilyn. I’m married to Ben and hope to be a regular contributor to this blog. I am involved in the field of education, specifically the empowerment of “junior youth” between the ages of 11 and 15. I coordinate what is known as the Junior Youth Spiritual Empowerment Program within the Flemish-speaking portion of Belgium; this program is one part of the Bahá’í “Plan” to build a better world. I have hardly any formal education in the field of philosophy, nor do I plan to. So what contribution do I have to make to a space for “philosophical reflections” in the midst of the Plan?
I believe philosophy affects all of us to a greater degree than we realize. The way we think, act, develop, our aims in life… these are all generated within a conceptual framework that we each have, regardless of whether we are conscious of it or not. One does not have to be a professional philosopher to reflect upon one’s conceptual framework. In fact, the mere act of reflecting on one’s conceptual framework is the very origin of philosophy. Philosophy, as I approach it now, sheds light on our assumptions, our patterns of thought and thus actions, the mental structures that guide how we understand our world and act within it.
Not only do individuals adhere to a conceptual framework, but so, too, does any social initiative; all adhere to a certain philosophy of social change. In my work with youth within this Plan, I have found myself increasingly interested in the philosophy of education, particularly how certain philosophies actually manifest themselves in educational programs. The philosophy of an educational program would be that which defines the purpose of education and guides the means of realizing that purpose. It defines not only how we understand “knowledge” but also the means by which we acquire it.
So what then is the philosophy behind the Bahá’í approach to education? As I understand it, the conceptual framework of the Bahá’í educational initiatives are emerging. They come from a conscious and consistent effort to apply Bahá’í principles to the analysis of social conditions. Through decades of learning how to take the beautiful teachings found within the Bahá’í Faith and actually translate them into reality, a conceptual framework and philosophy of social change is taking shape.
The Ruhi Institute
In these posts, I hope to explore the emerging conceptual framework of Bahá’í initiatives for social change, particularly the educational program for junior youth. My contributions will draw primarily upon the insights and work of the Ruhi Institute, the educational institution which developed the junior youth empowerment program mentioned above, as well as two Bahá’í inspired organizations in particular: the Institute for Studies in Global Prosperity, a non-profit organization, dedicated to building capacity in individuals, groups and institutions to contribute to prevalent discourses concerned with the betterment of society; and FUNDAEC, a non-profit organization that has been working in the field of social and economic development, with extensive experience in the field of education, since the early 1970’s.
The Los Angeles Times has just posted a very interesting article on Claremont School of Theology, which has just been given a 40 million dollar donation to transform its pastoral training into a program of interfaith clerical training. At this point, only Imams, Rabbis, and Pastors will be trained, though they suggest that Hindu and Buddhist leaders could be added in the future.
The United Methodist Church, long-time supporter of Claremont’s pastoral program, has not surprisingly voiced its displeasure with this development, though it will continue to fund the Christian pastoral program.
From a Bahá’í perspective, such developments clearly exemplify the general movement towards one common faith spoken of by Bahá’u'lláh. It is one small step, of course, but one to be celebrated, as humanity’s common spiritual heritage and future is becoming increasingly manifest to people of faith everywhere.
As One Common Faith, prepared under the direction of the Universal House of Justice, explains concerning Bahá’u'lláh’s vision of humanity’s future:
“The declared purpose of history’s series of prophetic revelations, therefore, has been not only to guide the individual seeker on the path of personal salvation, but to prepare the whole of the human family for the great eschatological Event lying ahead, through which the life of the world will itself be entirely transformed. The revelation of Bahá’u’lláh is neither preparatory nor prophetic. It is that Event. Through its influence, the stupendous enterprise of laying the foundations of the Kingdom of God has been set in motion, and the population of the earth has been endowed with the powers and capacities equal to the task. That Kingdom is a universal civilization shaped by principles of social justice and enriched by achievements of the human mind and spirit beyond anything the present age can conceive. ..The process bears within itself the assurance of its fulfilment. For those with eyes to see, the new creation is today everywhere emerging, in the same way that a seedling becomes in time a fruit-bearing tree or a child reaches adulthood. Successive dispensations of a loving and purposeful Creator have brought the earth’s inhabitants to the threshold of their collective coming-of-age as a single people. Bahá’u’lláh is now summoning humanity to enter on its inheritance: ‘That which the Lord hath ordained as the sovereign remedy and mightiest instrument for the healing of all the world is the union of all its peoples in one universal Cause, one common Faith.’”
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by Charles Taylor
Taylor, Charles. A Secular Age. Cambridge, MA: Belknap of Harvard UP, 2007.
After the great response to my post on secularism as a belief system, I though to continue the reflection on secularism by presenting Charles Taylor’s masterpiece, A Secular Age. Charles Taylor, professor of philosophy at McGill University in Canada, is widely regarded as one of the today’s foremost philosophers and intellectual historians. A Secular Age is widely regarded as his magnum opus, received universally as a landmark volume.
In A Secular Age, Taylor both examines the constituting elements of secular society and narrates the intellectual history of its development. His main question is to understand how Western society transformed from a society structured around the belief in God, to one in which religious belief was one among many options, and then to understand the nature of this secular world view. Taylor is particularly concerned with the closed and predominately anti-religious structures that seek to dominate the pluralism opened by secularism. Taylor, himself a Catholic, argues for the authenticity and inevitability of the experience of transcendence, and seeks to positively revise our understanding of the role of religion in modern society.
This is the definitive intellectual history of secularism, and particularly relevant for the intellectual challenges facing Bahá’ís and their friends in the midst of the Plan.
Outlines adequate for those not interested in digging through Taylor’s 800 page argument in A Secular Age can be found on Wikipedia, the New York Times, and here.
Phil Zuckerman, founder of first "secular studies" major at Pitzer College in California
Here is an interesting article from the New York Times about the founding of the first secular studies major in the United States at Pitzer College in California.
The very fact that a program such as this is now being offered for undergraduates signifies Western society’s progress towards becoming aware of its secular worldview (read liberal-democracy, relativism, capitalism, and materialism) as a worldview like any other, structured by metaphysical presuppositions concerning the nature and purpose of reality. The sense for many decades has been that the secular worldview is simply a neutral perspective, a scientific view of reality, a self-evident way of seeing things, a pluralistic worldview, and thus it makes no sense to treat such ideas as we would other belief systems. Though much intellectual energy has already been dedicated to this problem in Western thought, it is encouraging to hear the undergraduates will learn to conceptualize and examine this worldview.
Yet, if you read the article closely, you will see that the author attributes to Professor Zuckerman, the founder of the secular studies major at Pitzer, the idea that secularism is “nonbelief.” In the very next line though, she offers a quotation in which Zuckerman speaks of wanting to study the contents of the secular belief system. Regardless of whether the slip came from the author or Zuckerman himself, it signifies the depth to which this narrow conception of secularism still shapes our patterns of thought today.
The following excerpt from p. 89 of Century of Light has proved helpful to me in understanding the crystallization of secular society around a materialist worldview, subsequently dressing itself up as presuppositionless :
“Fathered by nineteenth century European thought, acquiring enormous influence through the achievements of American capitalist culture, and endowed by Marxism with the counterfeit credibility peculiar to that system, materialism emerged full-blown in the second half of the twentieth century as a kind of universal religion claiming absolute authority in both the personal and social life of humankind. Its creed was simplicity itself. Reality—including human reality and the process by which it evolves—is essentially material in nature. The goal of human life is, or ought to be, the satisfaction of material needs and wants. Society exists to facilitate this quest, and the collective concern of humankind should be an ongoing refinement of the system, aimed at rendering it ever more efficient in carrying out its assigned task. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, impulses to devise and promote any formal materialistic belief system disappeared. Nor would any useful purpose have been served by such efforts, as materialism was soon facing no significant challenge in most parts of the world.”
Materialism, through whatever associated doctrines we approach it, is one of the central issues that Bahá’ís and those everywhere seeking to root their patterns of thought and action in a spiritual view of reality must struggle against today. As Century of Light describes our situation:
“What they find themselves struggling against daily is the pressure of a dogmatic materialism, claiming to be the voice of ‘science’, that seeks systematically to exclude from intellectual life all impulses arising from the spiritual level of human consciousness. And for a Bahá’í the ultimate issues are spiritual. The Cause is not a political party nor an ideology, much less an engine for political agitation against this or that social wrong. The process of transformation it has set in motion advances by inducing a fundamental change of consciousness, and the challenge it poses to everyone who would serve it is to free oneself from attachment to inherited assumptions and preferences that are irreconcilable with the Will of God for humanity’s coming of age.”
What is the Plan?
When Bahá’ís refer to “the Plan,” they mean the Divine Plan set in motion through the spiritual forces released by Bahá’u’lláh’s coming. It is the Plan of God for the current stage in humanity’s evolution, the end result of which will be a peaceful, unified, and spiritualized world civilization. Bahá’u’lláh, believed by Bahá’ís to be the Manifestation of God for today, has given teachings we need to get there.
‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Bahá’u’lláh’s eldest son and the Leader of the Bahá’í Faith from 1892-1921, comprehended the essence of this movement set in motion by Bahá’u’lláh and presented a concrete vision of the specific steps humanity must take to get there in a series of tablets written between 1916 and 1917, today published in a book entitled, Tablets of the Divine Plan.
After ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s passing, His grandson and appointed successor, Shoghi Effendi, dedicated the next 36 years to carrying forward the Divine Plan as outlined in ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Tablets. As Bahá’í communities matured, Shoghi Effendi launched plans of set duration for their advancement, the first being the Seven Year Plan for North American in 1937. In 1953, Shoghi Effendi transformed this process by announcing the Ten Year Crusade, a Plan of ten years duration given to the entire Bahá’í world to accomplish.
With Shoghi Effendi’s passing in the midst of the Ten Year Crusade, and the establishment of the Universal House of Justice, the supreme governing institution of the Bahá’í world, at the Crusade’s conclusion in 1963, the House then took on the task of formulating plans for the Bahá’í world. This practice continues to this day. In fact, the Bahá’í world has recently begun a Five Year Plan, the fundamental purpose of which is to advance the capacity of the Bahá’í world to bring humanity ever closer to Bahá’u’lláh’s vision of human society. Every Bahá’í in the world, and an ever-growing number of their friends, thus live their lives in the midst of the Plan, striving to achieve its goals and advance its purpose.
Why philosophical reflections?
In elaborating the elements of the current Five Year Plan in a letter from December 28, 2010, the Universal House of Justice explained, ““Apart from the spiritual requisites of a sanctified Bahá’í life, there are habits of thought that affect the unfoldment of the global Plan, and their development has to be encouraged at the level of culture. There are tendencies, as well, that need to be gradually overcome. Many of these tendencies are reinforced by approaches prevalent in society at large, which, not altogether unreasonably, enter into Bahá’í activity. The magnitude of the challenge facing the friends in this respect is not lost on us.”
If we have the flexibility of mind to separate philosophy from its current academic cloister and consider its potency as an irreplaceable emanation of the human spirit, the situation described here by the House is clearly a philosophical challenge. We must become aware of our patterns of thought as never before, struggling to create our minds anew in an ever more adequate reflection of Bahá’u'lláh’s vision. I feel both called and obliged to bring my training as a philosopher to bear on this great intellectual challenge of our times, contributing what I can to those who would engage with me.
What will I post?
My posts will consist of essays, book presentations, and reflections upon articles found elsewhere.
I have recently been asked to serve as a Bahá’í Contributing Scholar to the web-forum State of Formation. State of Formation is “a forum for emerging religious and ethical leaders. Founded by the Journal of Inter-Religious Dialogue, it is run in partnership with Hebrew College and Andover Newton and in collaboration with the Parliament of the World’s Religions.” A number of my essays will be re-publications from State of Formation.
Whitehead, Alfred North. Science and the Modern World. New York: Free, [1925] 2008.
Science and the Modern World on Amazon
Alfred North Whitehead (1861-1947) was a British mathematician and philosophy. Most famous for co-authoring Principia Matematica with Bertrand Russell while a professor at Cambridge, Whitehead began his philosophical corpus after leaving Cambridge for a position at Harvard in 1924. Whitehead’s process metaphysics would grow to encompass his deeply original views on science, religion, history, and education.
Science and the Modern World is a philosophical reflection on the rise and decline of what Whitehead calls “scientific materialism.” Scientific materialism is the “cosmology which presupposes the ultimate fact of an irreducible brute matter, or material, spread throughout space in a flux of configurations. In itself such a material is senseless, valueless, purposeless” (17). Along the way, Whitehead unfolds his philosophy of organism, what later comes to be called process philosophy, which he describes as an “alternative philosophy of science in which organism takes the place of matter” (193-194). As a part of his philosophy of organism, Whitehead rehabilitates the concept of God, and dwells at length on the relation between science and religion. I find one of Whitehead’s remarks concerning the relationship between science and religion deeply resonant with what Shoghi Effendi, the leader of the Bahá’í Faith from 1921-1957, has said:
Whitehead: “When we consider what religion is for mankind, and what science is, it is no exaggeration to say that the future course of history depends upon the decision of this generation as to the relations between them. We have here the two strongest general forces…which influence men, and they seem to be set one against he other –the force of our religious intuitions, and the force of our impulse to accurate observation and logical deduction” (181-192, my italics)
Shoghi Effendi: “In such a world society, science and religion, the two most potent forces in human life, will be reconciled, will cöoperate, and will harmoniously develop” (World Order of Bahá’u’lláh, 203-204).
Table of Contents
Preface – vii
- The Origins of Modern Science – 1
- Mathematics as an Element in the History of Thought – 19
- The Century of Genius – 39
- The Eighteenth Century – 57
- The Romantic Reaction – 75
- The Ninteenth Century – 95
- Relativity – 113
- The Quantum Theory – 129
- Science and Philosophy – 139
- Abstraction – 157
- God – 173
- Religion and Science – 181
- Requisites for Social Progress – 193
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Here is a brilliant video and graphic reflection on the transformative affects of Facebook on the contemporary world, courtesy of Soshable. The picture alone demonstrates the unifying forces unleashed by the internet.
This brings to mind the following passage from Century of Light:
“The information revolution set off in the closing decade of the century by the invention of the World Wide Web transformed irreversibly much of human activity…Internet communication, which has the ability to transmit in seconds the entire contents of libraries that took centuries of study to amass, vastly enriches the intellectual life of anyone able to use it, as well as providing sophisticated training in a broad range of professional fields. The system, so prophetically foreseen sixty years ago by Shoghi Effendi, builds a sense of shared community among its users that is impatient of either geographic or cultural distances.”
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This is an 1920 picture of the Garden of Ridván in Akka, Israel, the namesake for the Garden of Ridván in Baghdad
A Time of Emergence: Riḍván 1863 & 2011
The Bahá’í world has just finished celebrating the twelve-day festival of Riḍván (April 21st-May 2nd) in commemoration of the period in 1863 during which Bahá’u’lláh, the Prophet-Founder of the Bahá’í Faith, declared Himself to be the Manifestation of God for today, the One promised by the Messengers of the past. I would like in my first post to narrate a small portion of Bahá’u’lláh’s story as it led up to His declaration, concluding with a reflection on the historical significance of this year’s Riḍván period for Bahá’ís everywhere.
From Tehran to Baghdad: 1844-1963
Nineteen years earlier in 1844, Bahá’u’lláh had accepted the claim of a young merchant from Shiraz to be the promised Qá’im or Mahdi of Islam and the forerunner to a Manifestation of God greater than Himself. The Báb, which translates as “the Gate,” was only twenty-four when He made such a claim, and He would be publically executed by firing squad only six short years later at the age of thirty. Thousands of His followers likewise suffered martyrdom for their beliefs. Bahá’u’lláh, though born to a noble family, did not escape his co-religionists’ persecutions, and was imprisoned for four months in the notorious Siyah-Chal, or Black Pit, an underground dungeon in Tehran. During those long months Bahá’u’lláh carried perpetually around his neck a great chain weighing over one hundred pounds, a burden that left His body scarred for the remainder of His life.
It was in the Siyah-Chal that Bahá’u’lláh awoke to the realization that He was the One promised by the Báb, the Manifestation of God sent to world with a message for our times. As Bahá’u’lláh Himself describes the event:
While engulfed in tribulations I heard a most wondrous, a most sweet voice, calling above My head. Turning My face, I beheld a Maiden — the embodiment of the remembrance of the name of My Lord — suspended in the air before Me…Pointing with her finger unto My head, she addressed all who are in heaven and all who are on earth, saying: By God! This is the Best-Beloved of the worlds, and yet ye comprehend not. This is the Beauty of God amongst you, and the power of His sovereignty within you, could ye but understand. This is the Mystery of God and His Treasure, the Cause of God and His glory unto all who are in the kingdoms of Revelation and of creation, if ye be of them that perceive. (Bahá’u’lláh, Summons of the Lord of Hosts, p. 4-5)
Though Bahá’u’lláh Himself said nothing, it was clear to all upon His release that something magnificent had taken place within Him while imprisoned. As His own daughter recounts, Bahá’u’lláh “had a marvelous divine experience whilst in that prison. We saw a new radiance seeming to enfold him like a shining vesture, its significance we were to learn years later. At that time we were only aware of the wonder of it, without understanding, or even being told the details of the sacred event” (quoted in Adib Taherzadeh, The Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh vol. 1, p. 8-9). Fearful of His influence, the government and clergy of Iran exiled Bahá’u’lláh from His homeland, and sent Him to Iraq. This city was to serve as His home for most of the next ten years. Though the enemies of the Báb and His followers thought Bahá’u’lláh’s banishment would sap the Bábís’ spirits entirely, the event caused the fame of the youthful Faith to spread widely.
While Bahá’u’lláh did not publically proclaim His mission until the end of His stay in Baghdad, He began immediately to reveal a great body of Writings, many of which are today the most beloved for Bahá’ís around the world, such as the Book of Certitude and the Hidden Words. Through His Writings and the force of His personality, Bahá’u’lláh was able to revive a disheartened and brutalized Bábí community. He drew ever-increasing numbers into its fold and was able to generate enthusiastic admiration from thoughtful individuals in every stratum of Iraqi society. When word of His growing influence reached Iran, those who sought to destroy the Cause of the Báb became infuriated, and through their constant interventions the Ottoman government decided to again exile Bahá’u’lláh, this time from Baghdad to Constantinople. It was on the event of His forced departure from Baghdad that Bahá’u’lláh entered the Garden of Riḍván, “riḍván” meaning paradise, remaining therein for twelve days. He there revealed His station to the Bábí’s, giving birth to what is now known as the Bahá’í Faith.
The previous decade in which Bahá’u’lláh had outwardly concealed His mission, He explained, was ordained by God as the “Days of Concealment”, and much had been accomplished during that time. It was a time of preparation, a time of maturation in which the Bábí community was internally consolidated, the worth of its mission demonstrated through the gruesome sacrifice of thousands of its followers, its fame spread throughout the world. Bahá’u’lláh had been blessed with a decade to prepare those around Him for the vastness of His Cause. The festival of Riḍván is thus a celebration of the emergence of the Bahá’í Faith from its previous state of preparatory inwardness, the blossoming of a seed long in gestation.
A New Stage in the Divine Plan: 2011
In the subsequent 168 years, the Bahá’ís of the world have watched their Faith spread around the entire globe. Today, Bahá’ís can be found among members of almost every nation as well as the overwhelming majority of ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic groups throughout the planet, establishing the Faith as the second most geographically widespread religion after Christianity. During the period of 1916-1996, the Bahá’í community was occupied to a great degree with this process of global expansion, striving to bring together a complete cross-section of humanity in a united effort to translate Bahá’u’lláh’s vision of a just and unified world civilization into reality. Yet, as the Universal House of Justice, the supreme governing body of the Bahá’í world, stated in its Riḍván letter of 1996, the Bahá’í world was then entering “an extraordinary period in the history of the Faith, a turning point of epochal magnitude,” in which its focus would change markedly.
The House of Justice called upon the Bahá’ís to develop a global network of training institutes “on a scale never before attempted.” The fundamental purpose of these institutes was to advance the Bahá’í community’s capacity to contribute to the building of civilization, and the most expedient way for them to do so was to transform the very culture of their growing community. The transformation of culture is by no means an easy task, and the House of Justice counseled, “enormous effort must be devoted to the task at hand.” After four years of intense effort, the House of Justice noted joyfully in 2000 that the “culture of the Bahá’í community experienced a change.” One year later they celebrated the blossoming of these cultural shifts into a “new state of mind…evident among us all.”
Having been established, the training institutes were contributing significantly to the creation of new patterns of thought and action, both within the Bahá’ís and their friends participating in the community’s activities. These institutes continued to develop over the next five years, to the point where the House of Justice announced confidently that “the elements required for a concerted effort to infuse the diverse regions of the world with the spirit of Bahá’u’lláh’s Revelation have crystallized into a framework for action that now needs only to be exploited.” As learning about this system grew from worldwide energetic experimentation over the next five years, the results became clearer still: “in the system thus created to develop its human resources, the community of the Greatest Name possesses an instrument of limitless potentialities. Under a wide diversity of conditions, in virtually any [geographical region], it is possible for an expanding nucleus of individuals to generate a movement towards the goal of a new World Order.” Nevertheless, as the House of Justice made absolutely clear, “what evokes such a deep sense of pride and gratitude in our hearts is not so much the numerical feat you have achieved, remarkable as it is, but a combination of developments at the more profound level of culture, to which this accomplishment attests.”
Riḍván is a time of emergence for Bahá’ís, a time of reinvigoration and renewal. It is the time when the global Bahá’í community measures its strides during the previous years, formulates a vision, and renews commitment to the tasks ahead. In this spirit, I have presented this vision and narrative as it is told from within the Bahá’í community. I do not doubt that others would offer other narratives, but my purpose here is to speak in the midst of my life as a Bahá’í. Much of what I hope to discuss as the months progress relates to the challenges and opportunities facing a Bahá’í community striving to create a vibrant and dynamically evolving culture ever more able to channel the world’s energies towards lasting peace. Thus, I hope the above post to serve as an introduction to the contemporary life of the Bahá’í community; an evolving, learning, and growing community; a world embracing community; a community with clear mission, goals, strategies, and instruments; a community striving to serve humanity, welcoming with open arms all willing to walk this path of service together; a community emerging from obscurity into the widespread recognition of its status as a world religion.
* This is a re-post of a contribution to the State of Formation web forum, where I serve as a Bahá’í contributing scholar.
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This is a 2000 picture Garden of Ridván in Akka, Israel, the namesake of the Garden of Ridván in Baghdad.
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