…that which was the cause of their life, through their
ignorance and pride, became the cause of their death. So the kingdom, wealth
and power of Pharaoh and his people, which were the causes of the life of the nation,
became, through their opposition, denial and pride, the cause of death,
destruction, dispersion, degradation and poverty.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Some Answered Questions: 50)
I want to use this post to sum up
the discussion on The Revolt Against Materialism that I have been presenting
over the past few months. Most of these
posts have been parts of my new book, Terra
in Cognita, which has just come out.
Plus, the other essays of that book, which explore faith, spiritual knowledge, and the bringing forth of the divine within us, have also appeared as blog posts of the past year. I hope they have
been of interest. But I hope, also, that
some will buy the book, for there is a lot more in the book that I have posted
on the blog.
The Revolt Against Materialism presents some basic principles of what I
have called a sociology of the spirit. Spiritual
sociology argues that the root problem of today’s world is not the spread of
the “western” life-style, the vagaries of unbridled capitalism, the advance of
a godless communism or socialism, the degeneracies of racism, or any other
ism. Neither is it the endless invention
of frivolous and inane entertainment. It
is not, in essence, a result of failed economic policies, or political
arrangements. It is not solely a
deterioration of the organizations of civil society, such as education, nor
just a general decline of moral standards or a debasement of culture. Neither is it but a displacement of religious
authority by secular institutions, or the eclipse of religious scripture by
science as the foundation of human knowledge.
Nor is it even any combination of these tightly interwoven challenges
and problems. Rather these are all
effects and secondary causes derived from a root cause.
The fundamental problem today is a materialist
belief and way of life that gained ascendancy everywhere over the past few
centuries. Humanity’s fundamental
challenge is to replace this order with a Divine One. Until this spiritual cancer is cured, the
soul saved from drowning in the sea of materialism, humanity’s spiritual,
social, intellectual, and even physical health will continue to
deteriorate. But the cancer cannot be
cured by human beings alone, even by those with the most penetrating vision,
the best of intentions and most determined will. That is because while the root problem today
is materialism, the cause, even of materialism, is a spiritual failure. That is, the failure to recognize God’s
Messenger and to live our lives and structure our societies according to the
Divine Plan. The failure to recognize
God’s Manifestation resides in the imitations that entrenched themselves deeply
into religion, blinding our spiritual vision, degenerating our faculty of
recognizing Him to the point of denying the spirit of religion itself. Materialism enervates the human spirit,
making it lethargic and passive, yet subject to violent outbursts and deranged
behaviors.
‘Abdu’l-Bahá stated it clearly: “Blind
imitations and dogmatic observances are conducive to alienation and
disagreement; they lead to bloodshed and destruction of the foundations of
humanity. Therefore, the religionists of the world must lay aside these
imitations and investigate the essential foundation or reality itself, which is
not subject to change or transformation. This is the divine means of agreement
and unification.” (The Promulgation of
Universal Peace: 338)
The spiritual
forces of Revelation instantly permeate the entire globe and energize all things.
But those parts of the existing order that cannot hold this outpouring of
divine energy or which can’t recognize the light of guidance of the divine
Plan, fly apart, in the process bringing into the open all the hidden tyrannies,
silent complicities, velvet corruptions, the murder, death and disease of a
moribund society. This is the visible
dissension, tumult and commotion of a society disintegrating from within and
falling rapidly into universal carnage, chaos and confusion.
Thus, while the
infusion of the energies of a new Revelation releases all these pent-up forces
of dissension, it is the divine Plan for humanity’s spiritual, intellectual
and, especially, social development, unfolding within that same religion that
resolves the problems and cools these hot fevers.
Materialism
is an idol, a false “world faith”, a parody of true religion whose believers
worship mammon. As a parody it looks
like the real thing, but moves in the opposite direction, not toward life but
toward death, not toward truth but falsity.
It is not truth, but the semblance of it, a kind of spiritual sophistry,
and the needy, egoistic, “insistent” selfhood that belief in materialism and
its sciences creates is an illusion of the real spiritual self of the human
being.
Further, spiritual
sociology says that though transformations must occur in religion, in human
consciousness and in society, there is a necessary priority to them. The
transformation in religion is first in importance, if not always in time. The transformation of religion through the
infusion of a new Revelation transforms human consciousness, upon which follows
the transformation of society. God alone
effects the first transformation, while humanity’s response to this spiritual
transformation of religion effects the transformations of consciousness and
society.
Every
transformation is built upon the previous one.
But later transformations occur not because or when a previous one is
exhausted, but, rather, when it had developed to the point that a new context
or arena of development opens to perception; as it unfolds, this new context
incorporates and further transforms those previous advances. The global Bahá’í
community itself has passed through stages primarily to do with personal
transformation and the building of the foundational structures of its
Administrative Order, and has now embarked upon a world-wide effort to
spiritualize the masses through what it calls the institute process. Yet, the power released
by individual spiritual transformation remains the mightiest engine driving
social change, for it is the spiritual catalyst that sets off a whole chain of
widening effects; and it is the building of a spiritual civilization, the
Kingdom of God on earth, that is the great task that all humanity is called to
accomplish. Yet, only an organic social structure, formed upon and operating
through spiritual principles, provides the needed organization and power to
drive social advance and save humanity from its own destructive impulses. That organic structure is the Divine Economy,
the Administrative Order, of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh.
The divine Order of Bahá’u’lláh, while essentially
something new, is also a renewing of the essentials of all previous
societies. It is the collective
embodiment and global shape of our higher, divine nature, founded upon
worship. It is the social form that
humanity will put on like a tailor-made suit, one where the “justice of God”
shall rule. But our higher nature must
be aroused to perception and action if we are to play the part required of each
of us. Simple adjustments to our current situation will never bring us into the
new order. It is not any higher degree
of existing consciousness that will work; rather a new consciousness expressed
through new faculties of mind and heart is needed. It is not more of the same only better. It is a whole new order of life, thought, and
action. Bringing the soul to that
awareness is the work and purpose of the Plans of God.
Revelation upsets and resets the world’s
equilibrium. The Plans of God organize
the disintegration of the existing world order and reorganize it on a new
organic foundation. Centuries of transformational work remain,
but the eternal Vision and Plan of God extends at least that far.
The divinely-inspired pen of Shoghi Effendi wrote in this
regard: “Surely the world, contracted and transformed into a single highly
complex organism by the marvellous progress achieved in the realm of physical
science, by the world-wide expansion of commerce and industry, and struggling,
under the pressure of world economic forces, amidst the pitfalls of a
materialistic civilization, stands in dire need of a restatement of the Truth
underlying all the Revelations of the past in a language suited to its essential
requirements. And what voice other than that of Bahá’u’lláh—the Mouthpiece of
God for this age—is capable of effecting a transformation of society as radical
as that which He has already accomplished in the hearts of those men and women,
so diversified and seemingly irreconcilable, who constitute the body of His
declared followers throughout the world?” (The
World Order of Bahá’u’lláh: 47)
I hope that you enjoy the book and that some will be
moved to send me, through the blog, your reactions, positive or negative, to it. I would truly welcome insightful criticism. I would hope that, too, some generous readers would review the book on the Amazon website.
The next topic to be explored here is a topic that I am calling Spiritual Cause: The BE Cause.
