Unveiled and
unconcealed, this Wronged One hath, at all times, proclaimed before the
face of all the peoples of the world that which will serve as the key for
unlocking the doors of sciences, of arts, of knowledge, of well-being, of
prosperity and wealth.
(Tablets of Baha'u'llah: 96)
Last
post presented some general conditions for grasping what a spiritual science
is, as I see them. Such sciences will,
in some cases, be entirely new sciences, but in others they will be established
sciences put upon a new foundation of spiritual principle, or cast within an
entirely new light. It makes sense that
in these still early days of Baha’u’llah’s Revelation, emerging spiritual
sciences would, by and large, be established sciences put upon new spiritual foundations
or recast within the light of spiritual principle. New sciences will develop later.
It
is fair to ask: Are there any emerging spiritual sciences? I believe there are. Part of the growth and development of the
global Bahá’i community is the bringing forth of such sciences, however
embryonic they might be. Three spiritual
sciences which I see emerging are a spiritual science of education, especially
for children and youth that is the Ruhi Institute. Another is the emerging spiritual science of
sociology developing in the efforts of community building going on world-wide
by the global Bahá’i community. Thirdly, is a spiritual science of economics
and prosperity evolving in such organizations as The Institute for the Study of
Global Prosperity.
In
each case, building upon the adamantine spiritual foundation of Baha’u’llah’s
Revelation, and explicated, elaborated in broad outline by ‘Abdu’l-Baha and
Shoghi Effendi in such works as The
Secret of Divine Civilization, The
Promised Day is Come, The Advent of Divine Justice, and The World Order of Baha’u’llah—works
which discerned the initial stages of
the impact and interplay of divine powers and forces upsetting the inert equilibrium
of a moribund human order—the global Baha’i community, under the ongoing guidance
of the Universal House of Justice, is rapidly discovering, learning and
refining the practical and scientifically tested principles of spiritual knowledge and social growth through moral
action.
In
both the case of the Ruhi Institute materials and in the social action of grassroots
community-building, using guidance obtained from such documents as Social Action, A paper prepared by the
Office of Social and Economic Development at the Bahá’í World Centre 26
November 2012, curricula and social lines of activity and initiative are
conceived and field-tested. Changes and
refinements in materials and actions are made through earnest and deep
reflection upon initial results, both positive and negative. The launching of new initiatives based upon
the results of these consultations are then made, and the process is repeated. Through this process a systematic body of
knowledge of spiritual education based explicitly upon the Word of God, and the
dynamics of spiritually and morally driven social action, is built up that can
be shared and applied in communities around the globe, taking into full
consideration the unique features characterizing every situation. It is not rigid
formulae and cookie-cutter community action, but a truly creative process where
a solid unity of spiritual principles encountered in deep study of the Word of
God transforms souls who then transform the infinite diversity of cultural,
social, ethnic and religious qualities and attributes that is human communities
into unique spiritual communities. In
this way, the pivotal principle of the entire Bahá’i Revelation, namely, the
oneness of humanity, is brought out and develops intellectual and social complexity.
The
House of Justice described the process and proper sequence of spiritual and
social transformation as: “Souls must be transformed, communities thereby
consolidated, new models of life thus attained. Transformation is the essential
purpose of the Cause of Bahá'u'lláh, but it lies in the will and effort of the
individual to achieve it in obedience to the Covenant.” (Letter from the
Universal House of Justice, dated Ridvan, 1989, to the Bahá'ís of the
World) This is the proper sequence
because: “It is the soul of man that has first to be fed….Laws and
institutions, as viewed by Bahá'u'lláh, can become really effective only when
our inner spiritual life has been perfected and transformed.” (Letter on behalf
of Shoghi Effendi, 8 December 1935 to an individual believer, The Compilation
of Compilations vol. II: 238) This quote
lends further support to the statement made in the last post that spiritual
sciences will only come from spiritually transformed souls.
Sociologically,
the House of Justice asserts: “A Bahá'í community which is consistent in its
fundamental life-giving, life sustaining activities will at its heart be serene
and confident; it will resonate with spiritual dynamism, will exert
irresistible influence, will set a new
course in social evolution, enabling it to win the respect and eventually
the allegiance of admirers and critics alike.” (Letter from the Universal House
of Justice, dated Ridvan, 1984, to a National Spiritual Assembly)
Now,
besides the intrinsic interest of such studies and disciplines, and in addition
to their obvious relevance to the social conditions of today, there may be
another reason that these three spiritual sciences are among the first to
emerge.
The
visionary mind of Shoghi Effendi, Guardian of the Baha’i Faith, pointed out decades
ago a reciprocal relation between the knowledge in three disciplines and the
Bahá’í Teachings. He, for example,
“advised young people to study deeply such subjects as History, Economics and
Sociology as they are all related to the teachings and aid in understanding the
Faith.” (Lights of Guidance: 629) Another letter on his behalf advised a youth
to study: “History, Economics or Sociology, as these are not only fields in
which Bahá'ís take a great interest but also cover subjects which our teachings
cast an entirely new light upon.” (13 March 1944 to an individual believer)
(Compilations, Scholarship: 12) Finally: “Shoghi Effendi has for years urged
the Bahá'ís (who asked his advice, and in general also) to study history,
economics, sociology, etc., in order to be au courant with all the progressive
movements and thoughts being put forth today, and so that they could correlate
these to the Bahá'í teachings.” (Compilations, Scholarship: 18)
Scholarship
of all kinds has a high place in the Bahá’i Revelation, and Bahá’i scholars
have done amazing work in articulating new spiritual principle as applied to
their home disciplines, in making spiritually-driven inquiries, both theoretical
and practical, into the whole domain of human knowledge. As regards History,
the third field that the Guardian urged youth to study, studies ranging all the
way from the history of the development of specific Bahá’i communities up to the
broad outlines of the spiritual history of the whole of humanity have been
published. Notable in this regard is
Shoghi Effendi’s own magisterial survey of the first century of Bahá’i history,
God Passes By, and Century of Light—a document prepared under the supervision
of the Universal House of Justice and published in 2001. It reviews, in the context of the Bahá’í
Teachings, the profound changes that the world underwent during the 20th century and their relationship with
the emergence of the Bahá’í Cause during the same period. These, again with other works of
Shoghi Effendi mentioned above, lay the foundations of a whole new context of
historical inquiry and understanding.
If
I may, my first three books, Renewing the
Sacred: A New Vision of Education; Gettin’ Through Hard Times Together:
Creating Prosperity Through Sharing, Service and Sacrifice; and, Terra in
Cognita: Voyages and Discoveries on the Ocean of Knowledge, deal,
respectively, with education, economics, and sociology. Especially, the long final essay in Terra in Cognita, titled “The Revolt Against Materialism”, a companion
piece to another essay of the book, “The Disorder of Knowledge and the
Reconfiguration of the Human Intelligence”, is a first extended examination of
a topic that I call “sociology of the spirit”, the replacing of the human order
by a divine one, the Christ-promised Kingdom of God on earth.
As I discussed in a previous post, What Am I
Doing?, (December 24, 2016) my goal is to write five more volumes on cosmology,
spiritual causality, spiritual history and sociology, and education, Hopefully, these books can be a small
contribution to these much larger conversations.
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