Final Thoughts on The Revolt Against Materialism

…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.