Of the several works on the rise and development of the Babi movement, especially those dealing with the life and work of its founder, Sayyid Ali Muhammad Shirazi, few deal directly with the compelling and complex web of mysticism, theology and philosophy found in his earliest compositions. This book examines the Islamic roots of the Babi religion, (and by extension the later Baha'i faith which developed out of it), through the Qur'anic commentaries of the Bab and sheds light on its relationship to the wider religious milieu and its profound debt to esoteric Islam, especially Shi'ism. Todd Lawson places the two earliest writings of the Bab within the diverse contexts necessary to understand them, in order to explain why these writings made sense to and inspired his followers. He delves into the history of the tafsir (Qur'an commentary) genre of Islamic scholarship, situates these early writings in the Akhbari, Sufi and most importantly Shaykhi traditions of Islam. In the process, he identifies both the continuities and discontinuities between these works and earlier works of Shi'i tafsir, helping us appreciate significant elements of the Bab's thought and claims. Filling an important gap in the existing literature on the Babi movement, this book will be of greatest interest to students and scholars of Qur'an commentary, Mysticism, Shi'ism, the modern history of Iran and messianism.

Baron Rosen's Babi/Baha'i archives presents private letters and diplomatic correspondence from the nineteenth century, preserved among the prominent Russian scholar Baron Victor Rosen's materials in the Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg branch. The materials cast light on the first studies of the Babi and Baha'i Faiths, new religious phenomena which, in Baron Rosen's time, were emerging in Persia. Iran has always been a strategic concern of Russia's geopolitical interests and the traditional importance which has been given to Persia has manifested itself in hundreds of documents and writings collected by the pre-revolutionary Russian diplomats and scholars. These documents, large parts of which have never been published before, reveal new information on the attitude of the Russian government towards religious and ethnic minorities as well as towards related issues within the Russian Empire and abroad. Bringing together materials in Russian, English, Persian, Arabic and French related to the Babi and Baha'i Faiths from Rosen's archive in the original languages with an English translation, this book will be of great interest to students and researchers in the fields of Iranian Studies, Religion and Middle East Studies amongst others.

Explores contemporary controversies in bioethics from a Hindu perspective. S. Cromwell Crawford breaks new ground in this provocative study of Hindu bioethics in a Western setting. He provides a new moral and philosophical perspective on fascinating and controversial bioethical issues that are routinely in the news: cloning, genetic engineering, the human genome project, reproductive technologies, the end of life, and many more. This Hindu perspective is particularly noteworthy because of India's own indigenous medical system, which is stronger than ever and drawing continued interest from the West. The Hindu bioethics presented in this book are philosophically pluralistic and ethically contextual, giving them that conceptual flexibility which is often missing in Western religions, but which is demanded by the twenty-first century's complex moral problems. Comprehensive in scope and passionate in nature, Crawford's study is an important resource for analyses of practical ethics, bioethics, and health care.

Probably no doctrine has excited as much horror and abuse as atheism. This first history of British atheism, first published in 1987, tries to explain this reaction while exhibiting the development of atheism from Hobbes to Russell. Although avowed atheism appeared surprisingly late - 1782 in Britain - there were covert atheists in the middle seventeenth century. By tracing its development from so early a date, Dr Berman gives an account of an important and fascinating strand of intellectual history.

This book examines the extensive writings and documents about the history of the Baha'i Faith by Western authors not themselves Baha'is.

The Baha'i Faith and African American Studies: Perspectives on Racial Justice provides readers who may already have basic or even advanced familiarity with the struggle for racial justice in the United States with new material from a less well-known angle: that of members of the Baha'i Faith, for whom the pursuit of racial justice, healing, and harmony are central to their religious expression. Inside these pages, readers will find history, social scientific analysis, and personal memoir showcasing Black Baha'is as well as Baha'is from diverse backgrounds who are working to address America's "most challenging issue."

The World of the Baha'i Faith is an outstanding guide to the Baha'i Faith and its culture in all its geographical and historical diversity. Written by a distinguished team of international contributors, this volume explores the origin of this religion and contains substantial thematic articles on the living experience of the global Baha'i community. The volume is organised into six distinct sections: Leadership and Authoritative Texts Theology Humanity Society The Contemporary Baha'i Community History and Spread of the Baha'i Community These sections cover such themes as the afterlife, artistic expression, Baha'i institutions, devotional life, diversity, economics, education, the environment and sustainability, family life, gender, human nature, interfaith relations, international governance, law, marriage, peace, persecution, philosophy, race, science and religion, scripture, spirituality, and work. The development of the Baha'i Faith is outlined in ten regional articles. This volume provides an authoritative and accessible source of information on all topics important to the Baha'i Faith. The World of the Baha'i Faith will be essential reading to students and scholars studying world religions and comparative religion. It will also be of interest to those in related fields such as sociology, political science, anthropology, and ethics.

Probably no doctrine has excited as much horror and abuse as atheism. This first history of British atheism, first published in 1987, tries to explain this reaction while exhibiting the development of atheism from Hobbes to Russell. Although avowed atheism appeared surprisingly late - 1782 in Britain - there were covert atheists in the middle seventeenth century. By tracing its development from so early a date, Dr Berman gives an account of an important and fascinating strand of intellectual history.

The Baha'i faith has some five million adherents around the world. It preaches the oneness of God, the unity of all faiths, universal education and the harmony of all people, but has no priesthood and few formal rituals. In this book Peter Smith traces the development of the Baha'i faith from its roots in the Babi movement of mid-nineteenth century Iran to its contemporary emergence as an expanding worldwide religion. * Explores the textual sources for Baha'i belief and practice, theology and anthropology and understanding of other religions. * Covers the concept of the spiritual path, Baha'i law and administration and aspects of community life. * Examines the Baha'i's social teachings and activities in the wider world. This introduction will be of particular interest to students of new religious movements, Middle East religions, and comparative religion and for those studying short courses on the Baha'i faith.

Of the several works on the rise and development of the Babi movement, especially those dealing with the life and work of its founder, Sayyid Ali Muhammad Shirazi, few deal directly with the compelling and complex web of mysticism, theology and philosophy found in his earliest compositions.

This book examines the Islamic roots of the Babi religion, (and by extension the later Baha i faith which developed out of it), through the Qur anic commentaries of the Bab and sheds light on its relationship to the wider religious milieu and its profound debt to esoteric Islam, especially Shi'ism. Todd Lawson places the two earliest writings of the Bab within the diverse contexts necessary to understand them, in order to explain why these writings made sense to and inspired his followers. He delves into the history of the tafsir (Qur an commentary) genre of Islamic scholarship, situates these early writings in the Akhbari, Sufi and most importantly Shaykhi traditions of Islam. In the process, he identifies both the continuities and discontinuities between these works and earlier works of Shi i tafsir, helping us appreciate significant elements of the Bab 's thought and claims.

Filling an important gap in the existing literature on the Babi movement, this book will be of greatest interest to students and scholars of Qur'an commentary, Mysticism, Shi'ism, the modern history of Iran and messianism.

Muhammad Abduh (1849-1905) was one of the key thinkers and reformers of modern Islam who has influenced both liberal and fundamentalist Muslims today. Abdul-Baha (1844-1921) was the son of Baha ullah (1817-1892), the founder of the Baha i Faith; a new religion which began as a messianic movement in Shii Islam, before it departed from Islam.

Oliver Scharbrodt offers an innovative and radically new perspective on the lives of these two major religious reformers in 19th century Middle East by placing both figures into unfamiliar terrain. While one would classify Abdul-Baha, leader of a messianic movement which claims to depart from Islam, as an exponent of heresy in Islam, Abduh is perceived as an orthodox Sunni reformer. This book, however, argues against the assumption that both represent two extremely opposite expressions of Islamic religiosity. It shows that both were influenced by similar intellectual and religious traditions of Islam and that both participated in the same discussions on the reform of Islam in the 19th century.

Islam and the Baha'i Faith provides new insights into the Islamic background of the Baha i Faith and into Abduh s own association with so-called heretical movements in Islam.

Muhammad 'Abduh (1849-1905) was one of the key thinkers and reformers of modern Islam who has influenced both liberal and fundamentalist Muslims today. 'Abdul-Baha (1844-1921) was the son of Baha'ullah (1817-1892), the founder of the Baha'i Faith; a new religion which began as a messianic movement in Shii Islam, before it departed from Islam. Oliver Scharbrodt offers an innovative and radically new perspective on the lives of these two major religious reformers in 19th century Middle East by placing both figures into unfamiliar terrain. While one would classify 'Abdul-Baha, leader of a messianic movement which claims to depart from Islam, as an exponent of heresy in Islam, 'Abduh is perceived as an orthodox Sunni reformer. This book, however, argues against the assumption that both represent two extremely opposite expressions of Islamic religiosity. It shows that both were influenced by similar intellectual and religious traditions of Islam and that both participated in the same discussions on the reform of Islam in the 19th century. Islam and the Baha'i Faith provides new insights into the Islamic background of the Baha'i Faith and into 'Abduh's own association with so-called heretical movements in Islam.

The Garden of Reality contemplates the relativity of religious truth, religious pluralism, transreligious discourse, postmodern cosmology, and multireligious mysticism. Its transreligious approach aims at a future multireligious, peaceful society in an ecological and cosmic context. It proposes that the future of humanity is bound to conviviality with itself and the Earth, that the deepest religious motivations of existing together are relative to one another, and that transreligious relativity is essential to the conviction of religions that their motivations, experiences, and conceptualities are meaningful, real, and true. By engaging diverse voices from poststructuralism to Sufism, Dzogchen, and philosophical Daoism, from conceptual frameworks of Christianity and Hinduism to mystical and postmodern cosmology, current cosmopolitanism, and interreligious and interspiritual discourses, but especially understudied contributions of process thought and the Baha'i religion, this book suggests that multireligious conviviality must listen to the universal relevance of a multiplicity of minority voices. Its polyphilic pluralism affirms the mutual immanence and co-creative nature of religions and spiritualities with the universal in-sistence of divine or ultimate reality in the cosmos. Embracing a relativistic and evolutionary paradigm in an infinite cosmos of creative becoming, religions must cope with events of novelty that disturb and connect, transcend and contrast, the continuum of their truth claims, but must avoid conflict, as religious diversity is enveloped by an ever-folding landscape of ultimate reality.

This book examines the intersection of African American history with that of the Baha'i Faith in the United States. Since the turn of the twentieth century, Baha'is in America have actively worked to establish interracial harmony within its own ranks and to contribute to social justice in the wider community, becoming in the process one of the country's most diverse religious bodies. Spanning from the start of the twentieth century to the early twenty-first, the essays in this volume examine aspects of the phenomenon of this religion confronting America's original sin of racism and the significant roles African Americans came to play in the development of the Baha'i Faith's culture, identity, administrative structures, and aspirations.

In No Jim Crow Church, Louis Venters recounts the unlikely emergence of a cohesive, interracial fellowship in South Carolina, tracing the history of the community from the end of the nineteenth century through the Civil Rights era. By joiing the Baha'i faith, blacks and whites not only defied Jim Crow but also rejected their society's religious and social restrictions. The religion which emphasizes the spiritual unity of all humankind, arrived in the United States from the Middle East via northern urban areas. As early as 1910, Baha'i teachers began settling in South Carolina. Venters presents an organizational, social, and intellectual history of South Carolina's early Baha'i movement and relates developments within the community to changes in society at large, with particular attention to race relations and the civil rights struggle.

This interdisciplinary volume brings together 37 contributions, most of them on the history of Ancient Nordic religion. In addition, there are papers on later European and Mediterranean religious history and investigations into Bahai'ism, Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Zoroastrism, and the history of research in the history of religion.

What binds together Louis Riel's former secretary, a railroad inventor, a Montreal comedienne, an early proponent of Canada's juvenile system and a prominent Canadian architect? Socialists, suffragists, musicians, artists--from 1898 to 1948, these and some 550 other individual Canadian Baha'is helped create a movement described as the second most widespread religion in the world.

Using diaries, memoirs, official reports, private correspondence, newspapers, archives and interviews, Will C. van den Hoonaard has created the first historical account of Baha'is in Canada. In addition, "The Origins of the Baha'i Community of Canada, 1898-1948" clearly depicts the dynamics and the struggles of a new religion in a new country.

This is a story of modern spiritual heroes--people who changed the lives of others through their devotion to the Baha'i ideals, in particular to the belief that the earth is one country and "all" of humankind are its citizens.

Thirty-nine original photographs effectively depict persons and events influencing the growth of the Baha'i movement in Canada.

"The Origins of the Baha'i Community of Canada, 1898-1948" makes an original contribution to religious history in Canada and provides a major sociological reference tool, as well as a narrative history that can be used by scholars and Baha'is alike for many years to come.

This book examines the intersection of African American history with that of the Baha'i Faith in the United States. Since the turn of the twentieth century, Baha'is in America have actively worked to establish interracial harmony within its own ranks and to contribute to social justice in the wider community, becoming in the process one of the country's most diverse religious bodies. Spanning from the start of the twentieth century to the early twenty-first, the essays in this volume examine aspects of the phenomenon of this religion confronting America's original sin of racism and the significant roles African Americans came to play in the development of the Baha'i Faith's culture, identity, administrative structures, and aspirations.

The youngest of the world religions and the second most widespread after Christianity, the Baha'i Faith is well known for its belief in the oneness of all religions. In this clear, readable, and informative guide, Momen provides a vibrant introduction to all aspects of this fast-expanding faith, which now has over 5.5 million adherents. From its teachings on the spiritual development of the individual to the belief in the need for world peace, Momen's comprehensive study gives anyone interested in the contemporary religious landscape an authoritative insight into this 150-year old tradition, whose spiritual and social teachings are so much in tune with the concerns of today.