Educing and Training the Faculty of Justice

The world's equilibrium hath been upset through the vibrating influence of this most great, this new World Order. Mankind's ordered life hath been revolutionized through the agency of this unique, this wondrous System—the like of which mortal eyes have never witnessed.

(Baha'u'llah, The Kitab-i-Aqdas: 85)

The realization of justice, especially today, is central to the Divine purpose.  Yet all around there is a lack of justice and equity.  This lack of justice, that discerning faculty whose core value and principle is equity, stems from the degeneration of the faculty of recognizing God and the failure to acknowledge the principle of the oneness of humankind: i.e. that all are children of the one God.  So befogged and dissipated has the discernment of the faculty of justice become that Baha’u’llah could write: “For the people are wandering in the paths of delusion, bereft of discernment to see God with their own eyes, or hear His Melody with their own ears.  Thus have We found them, as thou also dost witness.”

To remedy this situation Baha’u’llah designed the institutions of His Order around the principle of justice.  These administrative institutions of the Bahá’i Order are, according to Shoghi Effendi, to be both the nucleus and pattern for the social institutions of a new world order. Too, given the prominence of justice in the Bahá’i Writings, it probably should come as no surprise that the governing bodies of the Bahá’i community are called Houses of Justice, for their members are to discern the truth in all things that come before them.  Their collective means of educing the faculty of justice, of finding the truth in any matter, to look into all things with a shared, searching eye, are the principles and practice of consultation.

The document, The Prosperity of Humankind, states: “[C]onsultation is the operating expression of justice in human affairs. So vital is it to the success of collective endeavor that it must constitute a basic feature of a viable strategy of social and economic development. Indeed, the participation of those on whose commitment the success of such a strategy depends becomes effective only as consultation is made the organizing principle of every project. ‘No man can attain his true station,’ is Bahá’u’lláh's counsel, ‘except through his justice. No power can exist except through unity. No welfare and no well-being can be attained except through consultation.’" (The Prosperity of Humankind: Section III para: 6)

            But outside of the Bahá’i Order much can be changed.  In our discussion of the religious faculty we noted that it can be smothered, crushed, or distorted by the wrong sort of education, or by no spiritual education at all, whenever human thought usurps divine thought, narrowing it, clogging its fresh streams of insight, turning it into prejudice and oppression.  Similarly with justice. 

Baha’u’llah observed that those who oppose the Manifestations mostly do so because, lacking discernment and: “…having weighed the testimony of God by the standard of their own knowledge, gleaned from the teachings of the leaders of their faith, and found it at variance with their limited understanding, they arose to perpetrate such unseemly acts.” (The Kitab-i-Iqan: 14)

Recall Baha’u’llah’s counsel that: “Schools must first train the children in the principles of religion, so that the Promise and the Threat recorded in the Books of God may prevent them from the things forbidden and adorn them with the mantle of the commandments; but this in such a measure that it may not injure the children by resulting in ignorant fanaticism and bigotry.” (Baha'u'llah,Tablets of Baha'u'llah: 68)

The first part of this statement is the key to educating, or bringing forth this faculty, as we will explain.  But how to do this in such a way that it does not result in fanaticism and bigotry? 

First, is recognition of the principle of the oneness of humanity and, second, is the goal of world unity.  The first is the foundation, the second the mature expression of justice. Shoghi Effendi writes: “Of the principles enshrined in these Tablets the most vital of them all is the principle of the oneness and wholeness of the human race, which may well be regarded as the hall-mark of Bahá'u'lláh's Revelation and the pivot of His teachings. Of such cardinal importance is this principle of unity that it is expressly referred to in the Book of His Covenant, and He unreservedly proclaims it as the central purpose of His Faith. "We, verily," He declares, "have come to unite and weld together all that dwell on earth." "So potent is the light of unity," He further states, "that it can illuminate the whole earth." "At one time," He has written with reference to this central theme of His Revelation, "We spoke in the language of the lawgiver; at another in that of the truth seeker and the mystic, and yet Our supreme purpose and highest wish hath always been to disclose the glory and sublimity of this station." Unity, He states, is the goal that "excelleth every goal" and an aspiration which is "the monarch of all aspirations." (Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By: 216)

Now, regarding the proper training and expression of this faculty of justice, whose purpose is the appearance of unity, and also to prevent tyranny and oppression, the Master tells us that it is done, in part, through a combination of hope and fear.  “There is no greater prevention of oppression,” He asserts, “than these two sentiments, hope and fear. They have both political and spiritual consequences.

“If administrators of the law would take into consideration the spiritual consequences of their decisions, and follow the guidance of religion, ‘They would be Divine agents in the world of action, the representatives of God for those who are on earth, and they would defend, for the love of God, the interests of His servants as they would defend their own.’ If a governor realizes his responsibility, and fears to defy the Divine Law, his judgments will be just. Above all, if he believes that the consequences of his actions will follow him beyond his earthly life, and that "as he sows so must he reap", such a man will surely avoid injustice and tyranny.

“Should an official, on the contrary, think that all responsibility for his actions must end with his earthly life, knowing and believing nothing of Divine favours and a spiritual kingdom of joy, he will lack the incentive to just dealing, and the inspiration to destroy oppression and unrighteousness.

When a ruler knows that his judgments will be weighed in a balance by the Divine Judge, and that if he be not found wanting he will come into the Celestial Kingdom and that the light of the Heavenly Bounty will shine upon him, then will he surely act with justice and equity. Behold how important it is that Ministers of State should be enlightened by religion!” (Abdu'l-Baha, Paris Talks: 157)

Baha’u’llah states that this method of moderating behavior has always been the method of training of God and His Manifestations.  Indeed, it goes back to the very foundations of human society.  His statement expands on the Master’s:  “Above all else, the greatest gift and the most wondrous blessing hath ever been and will continue to be Wisdom. It is man's unfailing Protector. It aideth him and strengtheneth him. Wisdom is God's Emissary and the Revealer of His Name the Omniscient. Through it the loftiness of man's station is made manifest and evident. It is all-knowing and the foremost Teacher in the school of existence. It is the Guide and is invested with high distinction. Thanks to its educating influence earthly beings have become imbued with a gem-like spirit which outshineth the heavens. In the city of justice it is the unrivalled Speaker Who, in the year nine, illumined the world with the joyful tidings of this Revelation. And it was this peerless Source of wisdom that at the beginning of the foundation of the world ascended the stair of inner meaning and when enthroned upon the pulpit of utterance, through the operation of the divine Will, proclaimed two words. The first heralded the promise of reward, while the second voiced the ominous warning of punishment. The promise gave rise to hope and the warning begat fear. Thus the basis of world order hath been firmly established upon these twin principles. Exalted is the Lord of Wisdom, the Possessor of Great Bounty.” (Tablets of Baha'u'llah,: 66)

From this quote we glean that any statement of spiritual principle from “the peerless source of Wisdom” is a cognitive combination of promises of rewards and warnings of punishments.  These “two words” when understood bring forth an emotional response built upon the pillars of hope and fear.  Then authorities of society are charged with instituting the rewards and punishments.  That is, rewards and punishments should be part and parcel of the laws and institutions themselves.

These dualities of promise/threat, hope/fear, reward/punishment provide the structure of equity, the arena for moderating extremes, the scales for balancing the powers of the human soul.

More next post.

Images of Justice

This is the infallible Balance which the Hand of God is holding, in which all who are in the heavens and all who are on the earth are weighed, and their fate determined, if ye be of them that believe and recognize this truth.

(Baha'u'llah, The Kitab-i-Aqdas: 86)

  

To see justice as a faculty of the human reality is not unique to the Bahá’i Revelation.  Justice was one of the four cardinal virtues recognized in the writings of western antiquity, the other three being, prudence, temperance and courage.  Justice was generally considered the most important of the four.  It meant fairness, the Greek word also having the meaning of righteousness.  Fairness implied a moderation of one’s passions and appetites, and the restraining of improper impulses, both needed for building that internal unity which is the balance of qualities and attributes.  Socially, justice also implied the fair distribution of wealth among people and all sorts of other things to keep the classes in balance.

Hence, the principle of equity, or fairness, is, and has always been, the core or axial value of justice.  “Tell, O Ali, the loved ones of God that equity is the most fundamental among human virtues.  The evaluation of all things must needs depend upon it.” (Baha'u'llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah: 202)

Now we should not confuse equity with equality, which is the same measure, or proportion, for all:  a conception closer to the anatomy of law and which, by itself, can advance, even create or bring about, injustice.  Law may be the framework and backbone of justice, but the realization of law in justice is through the instrument of equity or fairness.  Full or complete equality is a chimera.  Equity as the operating principle of the foundational principle of the oneness of humankind creates what is called "a level playing field".  Equity would create social harmony by overcoming or reducing immoderate differences in fortune, imbalances of opportunity, and advantages of position.  Equity would reset economic imbalance through, for example, a fair graduated income tax, or reverse discrimination in educational opportunity through a well-conceived affirmative action program. It invites divine assistance and confirmation.  Recall Baha’u’llah’s statement earlier that were mankind to be adorned with justice, “they would behold the day-star of the utterance, ‘On that day God will satisfy everyone out of His abundance,’” (Tablets of Baha’u’llah: 66-67)

A traditional personification of justice is a woman, Lady Justice, holding scales to weigh the truth of all things in the balance, and a sword to symbolize authority whose judgments are swift and final. But the sword is also discernment, the separation of truth from falsehood. Such images go back as far as the Egyptians.  Later, Justice was often depicted as blind to show impartiality—i.e. that the rule of law was greater than any person, even kings and nobles.  Yet equity is a kind of open-eyed partiality in favor of the poor, the oppressed, those discriminated against, all victims of prejudice.  It is perceiving what is called structural inequity and having the leadership of society reduce that through law, policy, and institutional transformation.

This is no easy task.  Privilege is difficult to surrender.  Baha’u’llah writes in this context: “In this Day the Straight Path is made manifest, the Balance of divine justice is set and the light of the sun of His bounty is resplendent, yet the oppressive darkness of the people of tyranny hath, even as clouds, intervened and caused a grievous obstruction between the Day-Star of heavenly grace and the people of the world.” (Tablets of Baha'u'llah: 255)

So important is this quality of social balance in this day of the unification of humankind that it can no longer be left to human authorities to exercise through their faulty standards.  Only the universal, divine standard and framework, which alone can claim to be truly impartial, will work.  Baha'u'llah writes of His Revelation: “This is the infallible Balance which the Hand of God is holding, in which all who are in the heavens and all who are on the earth are weighed, and their fate determined, if ye be of them that believe and recognize this truth. Say: Through it the poor have been enriched, the learned enlightened, and the seekers enabled to ascend unto the presence of God.” (Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah: 136-137)

Thus it is the revealed Word which sets the difference between truth and falsehood of both sayings and souls, which measures and weighs the truth of all things.  This is the divine balance and He, the divine Assayer.  In another place He wrote that the Qur'án was for Its time “the unerring Balance that distinguisheth truth from falsehood.” (Baha'u'llah, The Summons of the Lord of Hosts: 115)

A related motif of equity and balance is the principle of moderation, which we discussed both as a quality of the new discourse in posts on the kerygmatic and as one of the older meanings of justice.  As a discerning of proper thought and balanced behavior it harkens back to the Middle Way of Buddhism.

Moderation is much more than the passive sentiment of nothing too much. While it includes, of course, the avoidance of extremes, it is not an aversion to exuberance and life. It is the result of a dynamic interplay of forces operating in harmony and unity.  Its achievement, whether individually or collectively, is usually accomplished through a considerable effort in self-restraint.  So essential is moderation to a discerning justice, that Bahá’u’lláh exclaimed: “Whoso cleaveth to justice, can, under no circumstances, transgress the limits of moderation. He discerneth the truth in all things, through the guidance of Him Who is the All-Seeing. The civilization, so often vaunted by the learned exponents of arts and sciences, will, if allowed to overleap the bounds of moderation, bring great evil upon men. Thus warneth you He Who is the All-Knowing. If carried to excess, civilization will prove as prolific a source of evil as it had been of goodness when kept within the restraints of moderation…. All other things are subject to this same principle of moderation.” (Baha’u’llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha’u’llah: 342-343)

He admonishes the leaders of society: “It is incumbent upon them who are in authority to exercise moderation in all things. Whatsoever passeth beyond the limits of moderation will cease to exert a beneficial influence. Consider for instance such things as liberty, civilization and the like. However much men of understanding may favourably regard them, they will, if carried to excess, exercise a pernicious influence upon men.” (Tablets of Baha’u’llah: 169)

Again, it is not left to human authority to decide if and when things are being taken to excess, nor are the poor and weak left to fend for themselves against tyranny.  In one of the most sternly worded and commanding statements of the Hidden Words the Manifestation of God, the divine Judge, warns “the oppressors of the earth” to: “Withdraw your hands from tyranny, for I have pledged Myself not to forgive any man's injustice. This is My covenant which I have irrevocably decreed in the preserved tablet and sealed with My seal.” (Baha'u'llah, The Persian Hidden Words 64)

He also warned the “Rich Ones on Earth: The poor in your midst are My trust; guard ye My trust, and be not intent only on your own ease.” (The Persian Hidden Words #54)

“Know ye that the poor are the trust of God in your midst”, He stated in one of His Tablets. “Watch that ye betray not His trust, that ye deal not unjustly with them and that ye walk not in the ways of the treacherous. Ye will most certainly be called upon to answer for His trust on the day when the Balance of Justice shall be set, the day when unto every one shall be rendered his due, when the doings of all men, be they rich or poor, shall be weighed.” (Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah: 251)

But He also promised: “O well-beloved ones! The tabernacle of unity hath been raised; regard ye not one another as strangers. Ye are the fruits of one tree, and the leaves of one branch. We cherish the hope that the light of justice may shine upon the world and sanctify it from tyranny. If the rulers and kings of the earth, the symbols of the power of God, exalted be His glory, arise and resolve to dedicate themselves to whatever will promote the highest interests of the whole of humanity, the reign of justice will assuredly be established amongst the children of men, and the effulgence of its light will envelop the whole earth. (Tablets of Baha'u'llah: 163-164)

A world civilization cannot be built until institutions of justice are erected.  Justice is the most important social principle.  The opening and training of the judgement centers in the mind of the individual occurs during maturity: the maturing of this faculty, in a sense, marking entry into that final state of human development. The same is true for the maturing of collective humanity.  In both cases, the transition is marked by great upheavals and universal readjustments.

The Faculty of Justice: Discernment

Justice, as a faculty of the soul, enables the individual to distinguish truth from falsehood and guides the investigation of reality, so essential if superstitious beliefs and outworn traditions that impede unity are to be eliminated

(Universal House of Justice: Letter to the Bahá'ís of Iran 2 March 2013)

Often, when thinking about justice, we think of social justice, a sociological and legal concept. It is a condition that we wish to bring about in the world through the creation and application of good civil law.  We think of barriers to unity as social, as laws and institutions that discriminate, enabling one race or class to have and keep advantages, as narrow-minded prejudices and divisive thought patterns, all of which must be overcome. All this is true, but it is only half the truth.  It is only half of the truth because it does not discern the spiritual aspect, does not recognize the inner faculty of justice needing proper training and expression: that all enduring and progressive social conditions are built upon a spiritual foundation.

As global peace stems from an inner state, so social justice is the outer manifestation of that inner reconciliation and balancing which characterizes the two natures of humanity when they are working in tandem in a spirit of harmony.   The inner reconciliation, which is justice for the two natures are in proper balance, then enables the appearance of unity.

Baha’u’llah, of course, recognized all this and a great deal more, and knew the reason why, imploring His followers: “Time and again have We admonished Our beloved ones to avoid, nay to flee from, anything whatsoever from which the odour of mischief can be detected. The world is in great turmoil, and the minds of its people are in a state of utter confusion. We entreat the Almighty that He may graciously illuminate them with the glory of His Justice, and enable them to discover that which will be profitable unto them at all times and under all conditions. He, verily is the All-Possessing, the Most High.” (Tablets of Baha'u'llah: 94)

Justice is the faculty of discernment.  Discernment is the ability to judge well.  It is the middle way between an undiscerning and unguarded tolerance of every kind of action, and a rigid legalistic mechanical system of laws and principles. Justice is the supreme operating quality for today, the harbinger of unity and the foundation of peace.  It separates the old order from the new, because its perceptions are based upon a new foundation of knowledge and truth.

What does Baha’u’llah say about the soul’s faculty of justice? “The best beloved of all things in My sight is Justice; turn not away therefrom if thou desirest Me, and neglect it not that I may confide in thee. By its aid thou shalt see with thine own eyes and not through the eyes of others, and shalt know of thine own knowledge and not through the knowledge of thy neighbor. Ponder this in thy heart; how it behooveth thee to be. Verily justice is My gift to thee and the sign of My loving-kindness. Set it then before thine eyes.” (The Arabic Hidden Words #2)

Yet, as I have said, justice and the other faculties come from the religious faculty and religion’s principles of moral and social life.  Recall Baha’u’llah’s statement: “Should the lamp of religion be obscured, chaos and confusion will ensue, and the lights of fairness and justice, of tranquillity and peace cease to shine.” (Tablets of Baha'u'llah:  125)

He says of His own Revelation and the powers it grants: “The essence of all that We have revealed for thee is Justice, is for man to free himself from idle fancy and imitation, discern with the eye of oneness His glorious handiwork, and look into all things with a searching eye.” (Tablets of Baha'u'llah: 156)

Freeing our minds from all rigid ideology and our hearts from fancy and imitation, perceiving the creation of God with the eye of oneness as totality, not multiplicity, and looking into all things with a searching eye, enables the intelligence to discern the truth in all things and separate out what is vain, fanciful, prejudicial, untrue and simply wrong, from what is true, enlightening and enduring. These are the attributes of discernment, and they will manifest when we learn to measure our limited knowledge against the standard of the ocean of His Revelation and true scientific knowledge, not the other way around. Baha’u’llah advised one soul: “Set now thy face towards the court of this Wronged One, that haply the breezes of Revelation and the breaths of inspiration may assist thee and enable thee to attain thy goal. Whoever gazeth this day on My signs will distinguish truth from falsehood as the sun from shadow, and will be made cognizant of the goal.” (Epistle to the Son of the Wolf: 87)  And of any searching soul: “He discerneth the truth in all things, through the guidance of Him Who is the All-Seeing.” (Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah: 342)

Through the exercise of the faculty of justice the mind will be able to discern knowledges as yet unknown, and unified social conditions as yet unrealized.   For He says: “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)

If justice is the faculty of discernment, how do we discern real justice from its imitators and false claimants?  We discern true justice by knowing its purpose, which Baha’u’llah tells us: “The purpose of justice is the appearance of unity among men. (Tablets of Baha'u'llah: 66-67)

We have seen that “The well-being of mankind, its peace and security, are unattainable unless and until its unity is firmly established.” (Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah: 286)  But unity will remain a floating balloon moving toward a receding horizon without a secure anchoring in justice.

If unity is the purpose of justice, then real justice cannot be realized through the violent redress of past inequality, the overthrow of oppressions and dismantling of discriminatory practices supported by prejudicial laws.  That is part of the work of justice, and its results will endure if the goal of this work is the further unity of the human race.  If this is not their purpose, then humanity will simply run another circle on the gerbil wheel of social upheaval and merely replace one oppressive ruling class with another.  The full statement of which I have just quoted contains both a warning and a promise: “The light of men is Justice. Quench it not with the contrary winds of oppression and tyranny. The purpose of justice is the appearance of unity among men. The ocean of divine wisdom surgeth within this exalted word, while the books of the world cannot contain its inner significance. Were mankind to be adorned with this raiment, they would behold the day-star of the utterance, 'On that day God will satisfy everyone out of His abundance,' shining resplendent above the horizon of the world. Appreciate ye the value of this utterance; it is a noble fruit that the Tree of the Pen of Glory hath yielded.” (Tablets of Baha'u'llah: 66-67)

The inner unity is the result of an educational effort that develops the faculty of justice, that enables minds to discern, i.e. know and judge, the truth in all things: to discern as quickly and accurately as we differentiate light from shadow.  In a time when, as I quoted Baha’u’llah above, “The world is in great turmoil, and the minds of its people are in a state of utter confusion.”  He entreats God to “graciously illuminate them with the glory of His Justice, and enable them to discover that which will be profitable unto them at all times and under all conditions. He, verily is the All-Possessing, the Most High.”

The outer unity here, as an expression of the pivotal principle of the oneness of humankind, is that all should have the same rights and privileges.  The Master asserts that: “Justice is not limited, it is a universal quality. Its operation must be carried out in all classes, from the highest to the lowest. Justice must be sacred, and the rights of all the people must be considered. Desire for others only that which you desire for yourselves. Then shall we rejoice in the Sun of Justice, which shines from the Horizon of God.” (Paris Talks: 161)

What is the core value and principle that teaches justice and draws forth and trains the faculty of justice?  Baha’u’llah combines the inner faculty of justice with its social determinations in this quote, which also states the axial value of justice:  “Say: ‘O God, my God! Attire mine head with the crown of justice, and my temple with the ornament of equity. Thou, verily, art the Possessor of all gifts and bounties.’

“Justice and equity are twin Guardians that watch over men. From them are revealed such blessed and perspicuous words as are the cause of the well-being of the world and the protection of the nations.” (Epistle to the Son of the Wolf: 12-13)

Socially, justice through equity, which is the middle way we mentioned earlier, is the discernment of attenuating circumstances that enable a fair retribution or distribution of goods and services or a fair legal decision to be carried out.  Law is a blanket statement, but equity is the just application of the law, the leveling of the playing field, how all are equal before the law, how social equality is truly realized.  So important are these qualities that He unequivocally states: “It beseemeth you to fix your gaze under all conditions upon justice and fairness.” (Tablets of Baha'u'llah: 36)

Educing the Religious Faculty: Bringing Forth the Spirit Within

They do not use that great gift of God, the power of the understanding, by which they might see with the eyes of the spirit, hear with spiritual ears and also comprehend with a Divinely enlightened heart.

(Abdu'l-Baha, Paris Talks: 89)

Having presented some thoughts on the spiritual dimension, let us now, in order to gain a better understanding of what I am calling the religious faculty, present some considerations on the state of mind or consciousness that connects with that dimension.  Rudolph Otto in his classic, The Idea of the Holy, calls the mental state of this faculty the “numinous state of mind’ and describes it thus: “This mental state is perfectly sui generis and irreducible to any other; and therefore, like every absolutely primary and elementary datum, while it admits of being discussed, it cannot be strictly defined.” (Rudolph Otto, The Idea of the Holy: 144)

  How is the potential of this faculty brought forth?  It is through the teaching of spiritual principle.  How does one get into this mental state?  In a sense, every soul is already within it, or, better, it is already within every soul, but it must be aroused and brought forth. 

First, we must make a distinction between the spirit and the form of religion.  Rudolph Otto wrote: “What is incapable of being handed down is this numinous basis and background to religion, which can only be induced, excited, and aroused.” (Rudolph Otto, The Idea of the Holy: 60)  The numinous background to religion, as Otto calls it, which is the same as what we can call the spirit as opposed to the form of religion, cannot be taught because: “The numinous is thus felt as objective and outside the self.” (Otto, The Idea of the Holy: 11)  Only what is felt to be inside or immanent to the self, i.e. a faculty that can be aroused and give response, can be taught and its potentials brought forth.  This objectivity of the numinous, i.e. the sacred, the divine, is why we must make a distinction between the numinous spirit of religion and the rational form of religion.  The first cannot be taught, the second can, because of the rational faculty.  But teaching the second can arouse the first, because proper form attracts spirit. 

Otto writes: “There is one way to help another to an understanding of it.  He must be guided and led on by consideration and discussion of that matter through the ways of his own mind, until he reach the point at which ‘the numinous’ in him perforce begins to stir, to start into life and into consciousness.  We can co-operate in this process by bringing before his notice all that can be found in other regions of the mind, already known and familiar, to resemble, or again to afford some special contrast to, the particular experience we wish to elucidate.  Then we must add: ‘This X of ours is not precisely this experience, but akin to this one and the opposite of that other.  Cannot you realize for yourself what it is?’  In other words our X cannot, strictly speaking, be taught, it can only be evoked, awakened in the mind; as everything that comes ‘of the spirit’ must be awakened.” (The Idea of the Holy: 7)   But lest we think this requires some mighty effort to arouse, Otto tells us: “But the mere word, even when it comes as a living voice, is powerless without the ‘spirit in the heart’ of the hearer to move him to apprehension.  And this spirit, this inborn capacity to receive and understand, is the essential thing.  If that is there, very often only a very small incitement, a very remote stimulus, is needed to arouse the numinous consciousness.” (Otto, The Idea of the Holy: 61

As Otto’s discussion points out, the numinous is “there” to be experienced in some sense, but there is also “the numinous in him.”  We don’t get into a numinous state in any absolute sense.  It is not something manufactured from nothing.  Rather, the aspects and attributes of an objective Divinity awaken the divine that is already within us, giving us the feeling of a numinous presence.  It is the awakening that occurs when the heart and mind achieve coherence.  The intellect’s relationship here is not with anything physically or intellectually external “out there” as in space or in some other part of the mind.  Rather, “out there” is really “up there” both as a dimension beyond the human and as a state of being latent within the human reality.  But “up there” is actually “in there” as the deepest part of humanity, i.e. the sacred heart.  In a telling insight, Otto observes that “the numinous informs the rational from above”: (The Idea of the Holy: 46) where “above” refers to that dimension of the divine that the Bahá’í statement called the spiritual dimension “the source of qualities that transcend narrow self-interest.”  In essence, then, the rational faculty perceives the sacred Spirit and humbly opens itself to be informed.  Perhaps it is from the same perspective that the philosopher, Heidegger, wrote:  “A person is neither a thing nor a process, but an opening or clearing through which the Absolute can manifest.” 

Religion cannot be taught, but the principles of religion can, and this awakens that faculty if done properly.  Baha’u’llah admonishes: “Schools must first train the children in the principles of religion, so that the Promise and the Threat recorded in the Books of God may prevent them from the things forbidden and adorn them with the mantle of the commandments; but this in such a measure that it may not injure the children by resulting in ignorant fanaticism and bigotry.” (Baha'u'llah, Tablets of Baha'u'llah: 68)

Religion as a system of knowledge that can be taught is the result of an enduring objective relationship with what is sacred, supernatural, divine, and mystical.  It is not an invention of the imagination or some wish-fulfillment for weak minds or socially marginalized groups.  Neither is it an opiate of the lazy and spiritually indolent.  While it is true that religion as a form of belief and an objective way of knowing is something that can be outgrown or discarded, that is true of any body of knowledge.  To discard the spirit of religion and with it the transcendent and sacred, however, is not something that can be done without losing something inherent within us, without denying some inner power and faculty necessary to fully engage the universe, without shattering the wholeness of the cosmos and of the human personality.  We are humans, finally, because we can recognize supernatural realities, not because we can invent them.  We have religion not because we are imaginative beings, but because we are spiritual ones.

This spiritual potential is present not only at the dawn of each consciousness, but also at the dawn of human consciousness. The religious faculty may be the first of the faculties of true consciousness within the rational faculty to awaken.  Ernst Cassirer wrote: “The earliest human consciousness to which we can go back must be conceived as a divine consciousness, a consciousness of God: in its true and specific meaning the human consciousness is a consciousness that does not have God outside it but which—though not with knowledge but with will, not by a free act of the fancy but rather by its very nature—contains within it a relation to God.” (Ernst Cassirer, The Philosophy of Symbolic Forms, v. 2: 7 Rudolph Otto concurs, writing: “religion, nothing else, is at work in those early stages of mythic and daemonic experience.” (Otto, The Idea of the Holy: 132) In this regard, Baha’u’llah states: “From the beginning of time the light of unity hath shed its divine radiance upon the world...” (Tablets of Baha'u'llah: 127)

But this faculty, so present in children (See Tobin Hart, The Secret Spiritual World of Children), gets drained of its power by an overly materialistic, rationalistic slant to education, leading to ‘Abdu’l-Baha’s lament that opened this discussion.  Lacking belief in the real existence of the faculty morphs into the belief that there is no such faculty.  The degeneration of the faculty of recognizing God can lead to the notion that there is no God, or to the failure to recognize God in His new Message and new Manifestation.

As the first consciousness, composing a knowledge that embraces all human consciousness, the message of religion has, perhaps, a special connection with the faculty of justice, which enables its possessor to discern truth from error—the basis of any moral code—and to recognize God.  We’ll turn to that faculty next.

The Spiritual Dimension

Although there are mystical aspects that are not easily explained, the spiritual dimension of human nature can be understood, in practical terms, as the source of qualities that transcend narrow self-interest.  Such qualities include love, compassion, forbearance, trustworthiness, courage, humility, co-operation and willingness to sacrifice for the common good—qualities of an enlightened citizenry, able to construct a unified world civilization.

(Baha'i International Community, 1993 Apr 01, Sustainable Development and the Human Spirit)

Every human faculty must have a domain, a dimension, with which it connects.  For example, the faculty of language connects with the verbal universe of its social environment, is awakened by it and adds to its development.  The religious faculty connects with the spiritual dimension.

While no doubt there are mystical aspects to the spiritual dimension of human nature and experience—Shoghi Effendi unequivocally stating that “the core of religious faith is that mystic feeling which unites Man with God,” (Directives from the Guardian: 86)—we should not forget that all Revelation proceeds from “that invisible yet rational God.” (Shoghi Effendi, The World Order of Baha'u'llah: 112) and that there is a social dimension to religion that cannot be divorced from the specifically spiritually.  To clearly perceive the relation between religion, the spiritual dimension, and social unity and thus to peace we need to understand the true unfolding purpose of religion.

Regarding religion’s social purpose Baha’u’llah states: “The purpose of religion as revealed from the heaven of God's holy Will is to establish unity and concord amongst the peoples of the world; make it not the cause of dissension and strife. The religion of God and His divine law are the most potent instruments and the surest of all means for the dawning of the light of unity amongst men. The progress of the world, the development of nations, the tranquillity of peoples, and the peace of all who dwell on earth are among the principles and ordinances of God.” (Tablets of Baha'u'llah: 129-130)

“The fundamental purpose animating the Faith of God and His Religion”, He also wrote, “is to safeguard the interests and promote the unity of the human race, and to foster the spirit of love and fellowship amongst men. Suffer it not to become a source of dissension and discord, of hate and enmity. This is the straight Path, the fixed and immovable foundation. Whatsoever is raised on this foundation, the changes and chances of the world can never impair its strength, nor will the revolution of countless centuries undermine its structure.” (Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah: 215)

‘Abdu’l-Baha naturally concurs: “The central purpose of the divine religions is the establishment of peace and unity among mankind. Their reality is one; therefore, their accomplishment is one and universal—whether it be through the essential or material ordinances of God. There is but one light of the material sun, one ocean, one rain, one atmosphere. Similarly, in the spiritual world there is one divine reality forming the center and altruistic basis for peace and reconciliation among various and conflicting nations and peoples.” (The Promulgation of Universal Peace: 98)

A society without any real religion, a situation characteristic of today’s world, is in jeopardy.  Baha’u’llah warned the world’s leaders: “They that are possessed of wealth and invested with authority and power must show the profoundest regard for religion. In truth, religion is a radiant light and an impregnable stronghold for the protection and welfare of the peoples of the world, for the fear of God impelleth man to hold fast to that which is good, and shun all evil. Should the lamp of religion be obscured, chaos and confusion will ensue, and the lights of fairness and justice, of tranquillity and peace cease to shine.”(Tablets of Baha'u'llah:  125)

Yet the wrong idea of religion is worse than no religion.  ‘Abdu’l-Baha makes clear that: “If religion becomes the source of antagonism and strife, the absence of religion is to be preferred. Religion is meant to be the quickening life of the body politic; if it be the cause of death to humanity, its nonexistence would be a blessing and benefit to man.” (Abdu'l-Baha, Foundations of World Unity: 22)

To see how religion's “fixed and unmovable foundation” will never be subject to “the changes and chances of the world”, and why these changes and chances can never “impair its strength, nor will the revolution of countless centuries undermine its structure” we must return to the spiritual dimension.

First, what Baha’u’llah is naming the “the Faith of God and His Religion” is not some structure of human belief.  The Master provided a clue when He stated: “in the spiritual world there is one divine reality forming the center and altruistic basis for peace and reconciliation among various and conflicting nations and peoples.”

The “immovable foundation” and incorruptible “center” is the truth that: “This is the changeless Faith of God, eternal in the past, eternal in the future.” (Baha'u'llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah: 136)  The eternal form, the "one divine reality", of religion is what is meant by the phrase “the Faith of God”.  This eternal foundation is beyond time and space, far removed from the rise and fall, the building and decaying, of things in this world, though any organic form of It is, naturally, not immune from disintegration.

Now Baha’u’llah stated that one of the gifts of religion is eternal life. He gives a new slant on this when He states: “Just as the conception of faith hath existed from the beginning that hath no beginning, and will endure till the end that hath no end, in like manner will the true believer eternally live and endure.” (Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah: 140)

Religion as an unchanging eternal structure is the foundation, and this same structure progressively unfolds in the human world.  Hence, there is a continuing relation between this eternal form of religion and its many appearances in history.  For, in its succession of appearances, a second principle, characteristic of all organic life, emerges: that of progress in form toward maturity.  ‘Abdu’l-Baha explains: “Wherefore the dispensations of past ages are intimately connected with those that follow them: indeed, they are one and the same, but as the world groweth, so doth the light, so doth the downpour of heavenly grace, and then the Day-Star shineth out in noonday splendour.” (Selections from the Writings of Abdu'l-Baha: 58)  In another place He wrote: “Our meaning is this: the religion of God is one, and it is the educator of humankind, but still, it needs must be made new.” (Selections from the Writings of Abdu'l-Baha:51)  “The religion of God is one religion,” He asserted, “but it must ever be renewed. Moses, for example, was sent forth to man and He established a Law, and the Children of Israel, through that Mosaic Law, were delivered out of their ignorance and came into the light; they were lifted up from their abjectness and attained to a glory that fadeth not. Still, as the long years wore on, that radiance passed by, that splendour set, that bright day turned to night; and once that night grew triply dark, the star of the Messiah dawned, so that again a glory lit the world.” (Selections from the Writings of Abdu'l-Baha: 51)

It is in this changing and evolving historical context that has now reached maturity that we may fully grasp the House of Justice statement that: “Indeed, the coming of Bahá'u'lláh ushered the world into a new age, making possible the beginning of a wholly new relationship between humanity and its Supreme Creator.” (The Universal House of Justice, 1992 Nov 26, Second Message to World Congress)  In a world that has forgotten true religion, whose peoples’ faculty of recognizing Him has withered and degenerated, religion is easily dismissed as an opiate or relegated to a purely subjective personal experience.  ‘Abdu’l-Baha will have none of it.  Instead He calls us back to the true perception: “Religion, moreover, is not a series of beliefs, a set of customs; religion is the teachings of the Lord God, teachings which constitute the very life of humankind, which urge high thoughts upon the mind, refine the character, and lay the groundwork for man's everlasting honour.” (Selections from the Writings of Abdu'l-Baha: 51-52)

With the coming of Baha’u’llah, unity, the essential, pivotal, condition of the soul, now emerges as a compelling social force animating the entire globe and all its peoples, so that "the cycle of Thy divine unity" (Compilations, Baha'i Prayers: 29) may be established and manifested in the human world.  It is not absolutely new, of course, but its relations with humanity have changed, growing in complexity and authority.

Baha’u’llah exclaims: “The religion of God and His divine law are the most potent instruments and the surest of all means for the dawning of the light of unity amongst men.” (Tablets of Baha'u'llah: 129)  “So powerful is the light of unity that it can illuminate the whole earth.” (Baha'u'llah, Epistle to the Son of the Wolf: 14)  In His Tablet, known sometimes as The Seven Candles of Unity, ‘Abdu’l-Baha remarks: “The fourth candle is unity in religion which is the corner-stone of the foundation itself, and which, by the power of God, will be revealed in all its splendour.” (Selections from the Writings of Abdu'l-Baha: 32)

 “All the divine Manifestations,” explains ‘Abdu’l-Baha, “have proclaimed the oneness of God and the unity of mankind. They have taught that men should love and mutually help each other in order that they might progress. Now if this conception of religion be true, its essential principle is the oneness of humanity. The fundamental truth of the Manifestations is peace. This underlies all religion, all justice. The divine purpose is that men should live in unity, concord and agreement and should love one another. Consider the virtues of the human world and realize that the oneness of humanity is the primary foundation of them all. Read the Gospel and the other Holy Books. You will find their fundamentals are one and the same. Therefore, unity is the essential truth of religion and, when so understood, embraces all the virtues of the human world. Praise be to God! This knowledge has been spread, eyes have been opened, and ears have become attentive. Therefore, we must endeavor to promulgate and practice the religion of God which has been founded by all the Prophets. And the religion of God is absolute love and unity.” (The Promulgation of Universal Peace: 32)

The Religious Faculty: To Know and Recognize God

People think religion is confined in an edifice, to be worshipped at an altar. In reality it is an attitude toward divinity which is reflected through life.

(Abdu'l-Baha, Divine Philosophy: 14)

The Religion of God as the Word of God is first, in time, in creation, in divine knowledge, and in human understanding.  It is the essential reality.  In regards to time and creation, that is, the cosmological re-ligia of binding the primordial chaos into ordinal cosmos, the Book of Genesis informs us: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.’ (King James Bible, Genesis 1:1)  The New Testament Book of John tells us how the cosmological creation of Genesis was effected: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  The same was in the beginning with God.”  (King James Bible, John 1: 1-2)  The Word is the creative power of God.  The unity which is the oneness of humankind in this context is the understanding that all people are children of the same God.

In regards to the interplay of divine knowledge and human understanding, recall that Baha’u’llah tells us that the “first bestowal of God is the Word, and its discoverer and recipient is the power of understanding.”  The first bestowal of God is the Religion of God, when this is discovered by the power of understanding religion among human beings begins.  Speaking of the Religion of God, Baha’u’llah says in another place: “Religion bestoweth upon man the most precious of all gifts, offereth the cup of prosperity, imparteth eternal life, and showereth imperishable benefits upon mankind.” (Tablets of Baha'u'llah: 129)  That “most precious of all gifts” is the gift of understanding.  The bestowal is received when It is discovered, and upon its reception the gifts pour forth from the human reality.  That drive in the soul of human beings that inclines them toward transcendence is what receives and discovers the Word, the Religion of God. 

The human soul is the heart of creation, because the human spirit is the collective reality out from which flow all other realities in creation.  It is their pivot, their center, motive force and essential reality: “The world, indeed each existing being, proclaims to us one of the names of God, but the reality of man is the collective reality, the general reality, and is the center where the glory of all the perfections of God shine forth—that is to say, for each name, each attribute, each perfection which we affirm of God there exists a sign in man.” (Abdu'l-Baha, Some Answered Questions: 195)

But, the soul is also, through the power of the rational faculty, which is the collective reality of all other human faculties, the first in creation to recognize God: “Know, verily, that the soul is a sign of God, a heavenly gem whose reality the most learned of men hath failed to grasp, and whose mystery no mind, however acute, can ever hope to unravel. It is the first among all created things to declare the excellence of its Creator, the first to recognize His glory, to cleave to His truth, and to bow down in adoration before Him.” (Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah: 158)

The human spirit knows and recognizes God through a religious faculty located in the heart.  “Therefore, hath it been said: ‘Knowledge is a light which God casteth into the heart of whomsoever He willeth." (Baha'u'llah, The Kitab-i-Iqan: 46) —an experience that often stirs up among the unwary an inchoate confusion of awe, dread, rapturous love, ecstatic emotion, mystical intuition and sometimes pathology.  But as we said, in spiritual terms the pivot is, at one and the same time, the focal center, the heart, the source and motive power, the essence, of something. The heart is both a focal center of spiritual energies and a radiant center of human energies.

In regards to religion and the foundations of social knowledge, ‘Abdu’l-Baha explains that the role of the great Spiritual Luminaries is this: “Briefly, the supreme Manifestations of God are aware of the reality of the mysteries of beings. Therefore, They establish laws which are suitable and adapted to the state of the world of man, for religion is the essential connection which proceeds from the realities of things.” (Some Answered Questions: 157)  “Religion,” He goes on, “is the necessary connection which emanates from the reality of things; and as the supreme Manifestations of God are aware of the mysteries of beings, therefore, They understand this essential connection, and by this knowledge establish the Law of God.” (Some Answered Questions:158)  Thus the power of understanding discovers the expanding principles of God’s unfolding Knowledge, the great re-ligia binding all things together in ever greater complexity, and an expanding human knowledge is built upon these discoveries.  Hence, when a new unfoldment of divine knowledge occurs, a new religion (i.e. re-ligia) appears, the gift of understanding is bestowed, so human knowledge also becomes new.

It is, perhaps, for this reason that the House of Justice writes in the following terms of the cardinal importance in human life of this essential reality called religion and its relation to peace: “No serious attempt to set human affairs aright, to achieve world peace, can ignore religion. Man's perception and practice of it are largely the stuff of history. An eminent historian described religion as a "faculty of human nature". That the perversion of this faculty has contributed to much of the confusion in society and the conflicts in and between individuals can hardly be denied. But neither can any fair-minded observer discount the preponderating influence exerted by religion on the vital expressions of civilization. Furthermore, its indispensability to social order has repeatedly been demonstrated by its direct effect on laws and morality.” (The Universal House of Justice, The Promise of World Peace: 1)

That eminent historian is, I believe, Arnold Toynbee, who wrote: “The quest for ultimate spiritual reality is inborn in human nature.”  (Arnold Toynbee, Habit and Change: 8)

This idea of an innate religious faculty, or what some call an instinct, is, in one or more of its aspects, acknowledged by numerous thinkers from many fields.  Carl Jung said about religion: “Religion, as the careful observation and taking account of certain invisible and uncontrollable factors, is an instinctive attitude peculiar to man, and its manifestations can be followed all through human history.” (Carl Jung, The Undiscovered Self: 26) Biologist Dean Hamer echoes Jung: “Spirituality is one of our basic human inheritances.  It is, in fact, an instinct.” (Dean Hamer, The God Gene: How Faith is Hardwired into our Genes: 6)

Regarding religion’s connection with human intelligence, sociologist Daniel Bell wrote: “Religion…is a constitutive part of man’s consciousness: the cognitive search for the pattern of the ‘general order’ of existence; the affective need to establish rituals and to make such conceptions sacred; the primordial need for relatedness to some others, or to a set of meanings which will establish a transcendent response to the self; and the existential need to confront the finalities of suffering and death.” (Bell, The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism: 169)   Anthropologist Gregory Bateson says “religion is a rich, internally structured model that stands in metaphorical relationship to the whole of life, and therefore can be used to think with.” (Gregory Bateson and Catherine Bateson, Angels Fear: 195)   Psychologist Dr. Alfred Meier writes: “...the religious belongs to the wholeness of the human personality….The subjective experience connected with a religious phenomenon and with healing is actually one of transcendence and this transcendence is a new element which was not in the system from the beginning.” (Alfred Maier, Jung’s Analytic Psychology and Religion: 73)  The Bahá’í Writings also speak of “…religion as the principal force impelling the development of human consciousness.” (The Universal House of Justice, One Common Faith: 23)  Religion, these writings assert, is “a source of knowledge that totally embraces consciousness.” (One Common Faith: 13-14)  These last thoughts echo this statement from the Master: “(T)he religion of God is the promoter of truth, the founder of science and knowledge, it is full of goodwill for learned men; it is the civilizer of mankind, the discoverer of the secrets of nature, and the enlightener of the horizons of the world.” (Some Answered Questions: 136)

More to come on the religious faculty.

The Rational Faculty

The human spirit consists of the rational, or logical, reasoning faculty, which apprehends general ideas and things intelligible and perceptible.

(Abdu'l-Baha, Baha'i World Faith: 370)

The rational faculty is one of the manifestations of the soul.  We know this from a letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi which states: “Regarding your questions: the rational faculty is a manifestation of the power of the soul.” (Compilations, Lights of Guidance: 509)  The soul is the essence of the human reality and Baha’u’llah says the rational faculty is a gift “with which God hath endowed the essence of man,” (Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah: 163), a power “which should be regarded as a sign of the revelation of Him Who is the sovereign Lord of all.” (Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah: 163)  So overarching is this faculty that Baha’u’llah states: “Examine thine own self, and behold how thy motion and stillness, thy will and purpose, thy sight and hearing, thy sense of smell and power of speech, and whatever else is related to, or transcendeth, thy physical senses or spiritual perceptions, all proceed from, and owe their existence to, this same faculty.” (Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah:163)  Here we want to especially focus upon it’s the phrase “spiritual perceptions.” Even these “proceed from and owe their existence to this same faculty.

In another place, Baha’u’llah describes the relation of the rational faculty to other powers and faculties as follows : “Say: Spirit, mind, soul, and the powers of sight and hearing are but one single reality which hath manifold expressions owing to the diversity of its instruments. As thou dost observe, man's power to comprehend, move, speak, hear, and see all derive from this sign of his Lord within him. It is single in its essence, yet manifold through the diversity of its instruments. This, verily, is a certain truth. For example, if it directeth its attention to the means of hearing, then hearing and its attributes become manifest. Likewise, if it directeth itself to the means of vision, a different effect and attribute appear. Reflect upon this subject that thou mayest comprehend the true meaning of what hath been intended, find thyself independent of the sayings of the people, and be of them that are well assured. In like manner, when this sign of God turneth towards the brain, the head, and such means, the powers of the mind and the soul are manifested. Thy Lord, verily, is potent to do whatsoever He pleaseth.” (Baha'u'llah, The Summons of the Lord of Hosts: 153)

‘Abdu’l-Baha echoes His Father: “Know that the human spirit is one, but it manifests itself in various members of the body in a certain (measure or) form. The human spirit is existent in the sight; it is also existent in the brain, which is the location of great functions and powers; it is also existent in the heart, which organ is largely connected with the brain or the center of the mind; and the heart, or that center which is connected with the brain, has a distinct and separate function, effect and appearance.” (Compilations, Baha'i Scriptures: 476)

 The rational faculty, also known as the power of understanding, is, among all created things, specifically created to discover and recognize the Word of God. “It is clear and evident, therefore, that the first bestowal of God is the Word, and its discoverer and recipient is the power of understanding.” (Baha'u'llah, Tabernacle of Unity: 3)

 Now we know something of the manifold powers, whether physical, mental, or spiritual, that proceed from the rational faculty.  But there are a few we want to focus upon to answer the question: what is the purpose and the powers of the gift of understanding and their relation to the building of peace?

Baha’u’llah explicitly states the main purposes of the rational faculty, and the spiritual and intellectual powers this faculty gives the intelligence: “Know thou that, according to what thy Lord, the Lord of all men, hath decreed in His Book, the favors vouchsafed by Him unto mankind have been, and will ever remain, limitless in their range. First and foremost among these favors, which the Almighty hath conferred upon man, is the gift of understanding. His purpose in conferring such a gift is none other except to enable His creature to know and recognize the one true God—exalted be His glory. This gift giveth man the power to discern the truth in all things, leadeth him to that which is right, and helpeth him to discover the secrets of creation.’ (Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah: 193)

God’s main purpose in endowing the soul with the power of understanding is to know and recognize Him in both His Manifestation, the “word made flesh”, and to recognize His Words as distinct from all other messages and words, as the Voice of God.  Yet Baha’u’llah laments: “Gracious God! It was intended that at the time of the manifestation of the One true God the faculty of recognizing Him would have been developed and matured and would have reached its culmination. However, it is now clearly demonstrated that in the disbelievers this faculty hath remained undeveloped and hath, indeed, degenerated.” (Tablets of Baha'u'llah: 52-53)

Now recognition of God is not the same thing as belief in God. One can believe in God, but fail to recognize Him.  Indeed, this theme characterizes much of the strife of religious history.  To recognize God is to know that God has manifested Himself in a particular human Being and to recognize God in that Being, and not hold to belief, however sincere, in a prior Manifestation.  Belief is often either a product of an inherited form of religion, or a creation of our own imagination, but recognition is to see God in His current Manifestation, something  far removed from His old form as found in a traditional religion, and quite different from the human-made creations of the imagination.

‘Abdu’l-Baha explained to an inquiring Japanese: “All the people have formed a god in the world of thought, and that form of their own imagination they worship; when the fact is that the imagined form is finite and the human mind is infinite. Surely the infinite is greater than the finite, for imagination is accidental (or non-essential) while the mind is essential; surely the essential is greater than the accidental.” (Japan Will Turn Ablaze: 22)

Regarding the degeneration of this faculty, ‘Abdu’l-Baha, speaking in one of the centers of materialism  admonished: “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!” (Paris Talks: 145) In another place He asked somewhat rhetorically “When religion is upheld by science and reason we can believe with assurance and act with conviction, for this rational faculty is the greatest power in the world. Through it industries are established, the past and present are laid bare and the underlying realities are brought to light. Let us make nature our captive, break through all laws of limitation and with deep penetration bring to light that which is hidden. The power to do this is the greatest of divine benefits. Why treat with indifference such a divine spark? Why ignore a faculty so beneficial, a sun so powerful?” (Abdu'l-Baha, Divine Philosophy: 102)

The degeneration of the faculty of recognizing Him, which is the central purpose of God in bestowing the gift of understanding upon humanity, would then cause a similar degeneration in the other discriminating powers of the individual: dampening the power to discern the truth in all things ends with people not knowing how to find the truth; failing to accurately discriminate between right and wrong leads to a general lack of will and aspiration to do the right thing; and being unwilling to have religion help discover the higher secrets of creation results in narrowing of the field of intelligent inquiry to material phenomena.  What specific faculties, then, compose the general rational faculty or power of understanding, which, as the senses translate one sense into another to form perception, so the mental powers work together to create consciousness?  Consciousness in any real inclusive sense is not one power or a separate thing, but the result of the interaction of mental powers through the rational faculty.

I am going to concentrate on five specific powers of the rational faculty: the spiritual instinct, or religious faculty, which we use to recognize and know God; the faculty of justice that enables us to discern the truth in all things: the moral sense, which leads us to that which is right; the faculty or power of intellect, used for scientific investigation into the mysteries of creation and for grasping and articulating spiritual principles; and will, or volition, which enables us to act. Though these are separate faculties, dimensions of experience and states of mind, we know from the above statements that they are inseparable from each other, functioning together in their highest aspect in mutual support and harmony as an inner equilibrium of forces.  But also as a progression the last four all come forth from the first, the spiritual instinct or religious faculty. 

Too often we fail to trace humanity’s lack of social peace back to its real cause, the lack of this inner condition of unity stemming from the degeneration of an inner faculty that enables the soul to recognize the Word of God.  The awakening, training and developing of this spiritual faculty would then cure this spiritual disease. What is that faculty, that inherent mental power?

Let us turn to a rational inquiry into religion, starting with a good definition of it.