Essentials of a Divine Economy

Does not the very operation of the world-unifying forces that are at work in this age necessitate that He Who is the Bearer of the Message of God in this day should not only reaffirm that self-same exalted standard of individual conduct inculcated by the Prophets gone before Him, but embody in His appeal, to all governments and peoples, the essentials of that social code, that Divine Economy, which must guide humanity's concerted efforts in establishing that all-embracing federation which is to signalize the advent of the Kingdom of God on this earth?

(Shoghi Effendi, The World Order of Baha'u'llah, 60)

To move from the present international order into a new global one is not going to be easy.  To construct society upon the principle of the oneness of humanity implies, Shoghi Effendi said, "an organic change in the structure of present-day society, a change such as the world has not yet experienced." (The World Order of Baha'u'llah: 43)

One part of this organic change in the structure of society is the establishment of what Shoghi Effendi called the oneness and wholeness of human relationships. Such relationships embody a new ideal of civic society. They range from the principles and standards restoring the primary and universal social institutions of marriage and family, to the principles that strengthen the intermediate institutions that make up community life and reinforce the bonds of friendship, to the principles organizing international relations and the branches of world government.

The oneness and wholeness of human relations operate on several levels simultaneously because they are a fundamental spiritual reality whose time to emerge into social reality as an organizing principle has arrived.  How do we know this?   Because the nation-state system has reached exhaustion and is collapsing.  As far back as 1936 Shoghi Effendi wrote:  “World unity is the goal towards which a harassed humanity is striving. Nation-building has come to an end. The anarchy inherent in state sovereignty is moving towards a climax.  A world growing to maturity must abandon this fetish, recognize the oneness and wholeness of human relationships, and establish once and for all the machinery that can best incarnate this fundamental principle of life.”   (The World Order of Baha’u’llah:202) 

What does the oneness and wholeness of human relationships look like and how do they operate? Though no complete answer to this question can be given, certain aspects of these relations can be understood because they are already functioning within the social order established by Baha'u'llah.

Creating an oneness and wholeness of human relationships can not mean that some simple adjustments to current human relations will effect so radical a transformation.  It means rather, that nothing less than a new kind and totality of social relationships be created, a qualitative change that embodies a truly organic and universal restructuring of social life.  A real, eternal form of community must be built, at once both a renewal and a regeneration of civic society.  This process will not occur without a great deal of upheaval—for it means the abolition of all forms of prejudice, the equal opportunity for all regardless of race, class, ethnicity, gender or nationality—based upon a reconceptualizing of the nature of humanity.

These relationships cannot, then, be established  independently of the consciousness of the oneness of humanity, for they are the outer social embodiment of this inner unifying consciousness that sees that “in a world of interdependent nations and peoples the advantage of the part is best to be reached by the advantage of the whole....The welfare of the part means the welfare of the whole, and the distress of the part brings distress to the whole." (The Promised Day is Come:122)

Seen separately, the oneness of human relationships, arising out of the urge of human beings to form groups, unifies individuals into a purposeful on-going tradition of collective social experience. The wholeness of human relations, stemming from the need to diversify to bring about the expression of the full range of human potentialities, allows full play to humanity's creative drive, humankind's sole hope of meeting novel situations successfully.

The oneness and wholeness of human relations is also a unity of purpose within a diversity of actions.  In relationships of oneness and wholeness: "A unity in diversity of actions is called for, a condition in which different individuals will concentrate on different activities, appreciating the salutary effect of the aggregate on the growth and development of the Faith, because each person cannot do everything and all persons cannot do the same thing.” (Promoting Entry by Troops:46)

The oneness and wholeness of human relationships genuinely enlarges the individual's social freedom and autonomy, while promoting, or rather because it promotes, community and fraternity.  They regulate and liberate the individual actions.  They are consistent with the moral imperatives of the oneness of humanity, and with general social and economic, as well as political and civic objectives, because they are the social foundation of these. It is an enabling social structure that distributes power and knowledge in ways designed to strengthen and extend individual and group autonomy. It is a structure of community that nourishes rather than represses individuality, for it is consistent with the dynamics of our essential species-being.

Diversifying by experimenting within a social structure is one aspect of oneness and wholeness anywhere, on any level, at any time. The Baha'i community is but one example of this process. But there is another equally important aspect that is conspicuous by its absence.

Lack of oneness and wholeness in human relations is not just lack of unity within families and groups or between races, tribes, genders, and cultures locally or world-wide. Disunity exists, because social relations do not include spiritual reality in the organization of society through spiritual institutions. Relations without spiritual reality can not nurture the whole human being.  Society is really rooted in the transcendent dimension and receives its energy and form from that dimension in the laws and principles of its founding Revelation. With Baha'u'llah's Revelation the spiritual and material laws have been combined and welded as never before in a single divine Message.

The wholeness of human relations means that these relationships nurture the whole human being, but that they do it for a two-fold purpose.  ‘Abdu’l-Baha wrote that “the primary purpose in revealing the Divine Law…is to bring about happiness in the after life and civilization and the refinement of character in this.” (The Secret of Divine Civilization: 46)

The wholeness of human relations must mean that the three worlds that people live within—the inner spiritual world of individual potentials and capacities; the collective human world of social interaction; and the natural world of the earth and body—are represented in the relations themselves.

Any individual entering into relations that embrace and influence the spiritual, social and material worlds of human existence promises an enlargement of social responsibilities. That is, each individual must be concerned with his whole being and the whole being of others, since the relations he has with others embody the whole of human life. This ethical progress upsets the equilibrium of every existing society, for no society today gives the individual so much responsibility.

More in the next post.

A direct link to my book, Renewing the Sacred ishttp://tinyurl.com/cndew5a It is now also in Kindle