Studies in Bahá’í Philosophy

The Bahá’í Faith is a modern religion, which was founded by Mirza Hussein Ali, a Persian prophet who is known under his religious name of Bahá’u’lláh (the “Glory of God” in Arabic).

The principles of the Bahá’í religion reflect its main purpose, namely, the global unity of humankind. According to Bahá’u’lláh, such a unity cannot be secured without a spiritual revival and human unification under the guidance of one faith. This is a necessary but not sufficient condition for the success of globalization, however. In the sphere of politics, as Bahá’u’lláh argues, it is imperative to create a world federation and an international tribunal that would represent the interests of all nations and maintain universal peace. In the social domain there is a need for balanced economic development of different countries, protection of human rights regardless of religion, race, ethnicity, social status or gender. In the sphere of culture, one needs obligatory universal education, acceptance of a common script as well as harmonious development of science and religion. Finally, on the existential level, every individual must independently strive for truth and overcome prejudices, especially those that lead to conflict or any form of intolerance and fanaticism.

The administrative structure of the Bahá’í Faith is built on the democratic foundations. Members of the local community, 21 years and older, once a year elect a Local Spiritual Assembly that consists of nine members and governs the affairs of its locality. Delegates from Local Spiritual Assemblies every year elect nine members of the National Spiritual Assembly. Every five years the members of National Spiritual Assemblies of all countries elect the Universal House of Justice. The Universal House of Justice is located in Haifa, Israel, and is the supreme governing body of the faith. Its decisions, which have been invested with infallibility by Bahá’u’lláh, are made on the basis of consensus or, if such a consensus cannot be reached, by the simple majority vote.

According to statistical data, there are more than seven million Bahá’ís all over the world. Bahá’í local communities are established in 236 countries and dependent territories. Its members represent 2112 racial, ethnic and tribal groups.

In the history of philosophy there were five major waves of scriptural reasoning — Hindu, Buddhist, Jewish, Christian, and Muslim. In this context Bahá’í philosophy represents the sixth wave, and it finds itself in a fruitful dialogue not only with the traditional forms of religious philosophy but also with modern Western thought which is based solely on reason and empirical observation.

In this collection the reader will find articles on various aspects of Bahá’í philosophy — philosophical anthropology, philosophy of science, philosophy of culture, epistemology, ethics, philosophy of religion, comparative and political philosophy, and, finally, history of philosophy. The authors of those articles — Bahá’í and non-Bahá’í scholars — reflect global aspirations of this religion by representing diverse countries of the world — USA, Canada, France, Italy, and Sweden. This collection of articles also introduces a Global Faith Book Series which publishes works on various aspects of the Bahá’í Faith and globalization.

—Mikhail Sergeev, University of the Arts (Philadelphia)