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African American philosopher Alain Locke is arguably the most profound and important western Bahá’í philosopher to date. Except for Ernest Mason’s 1979 World Order article, scholarship on Locke has neither seriously taken into account his Bahá’í identity nor its influence on his work. The present study, based largely on archival sources, will contribute to research on this “missing” dimension of Locke’s complex life and thought. This study examines Locke’s worldview as a Bahá’í, his secular perspective as a philosopher, and the synergy between his confessional and professional essays. This study also argues that Locke had a fluid hierarchy of values—of loyalty, tolerance, reciprocity, cultural relativism and pluralism (the philosophical equivalent of “unity in diversity”)—and that this hierarchy represents a progression and application of quintessentially Bahá’í ideals. Locke’s distinction as a “Bahá’í philosopher” may therefore be justified on ideological as well as historical grounds. Locke “translated” Bahá’í ideals “into more secular terms” so that “a greater practical range will be opened up for the application and final vindication of the Bahá’í principles” in order to achieve “a positive multiplication of spiritual power.”

This paper first suggests that many statements in the Bahá’í writings are couched in the terms of a particular discourse, or intellectual tradition, of the text’s immediate audience. As such, these statements may assume some of the premises of the addressee, passing over them without necessarily seeking to challenge or affirm those premises in an absolute sense, in order to make an argument which the addressee can accept. Such premises may sometimes be factually true, in an empirical sense, while sometimes they may not be propositionally true, but may rather be true in a metaphoric and symbolic sense. This being the case, recovering the nature of the discourse being employed, or the intellectual context of the statement, can help to evaluate whether a given statement is meant to convey a propositional fact or a rhetorical truth. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá often adopted the particular parameters of western modernist discourse about knowledge, specifically in terms of the debate of science versus religion, and his statements are germane to contemporary questions about academic, or materialist, methodologies and the Bahá’í view toward these modes of knowledge. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá often appears to give precedence to logical proofs and scientific method over traditional religious modes or explanations of reality, particularly in questions of fact and information, though not necessarily where ethics and morality are concerned. He would therefore seem to assert the validity of western academic, or materialist, methodologies.

In surveying the academic world, we find that for historic reasons, atheistic, materialistic methodologies are prominent making it a place largely unfavourable to any faith-based approach to scholarship. In this paper I identify the two ways that Bahá’í scholarship can develop, interior (i.e. scholarship that develops within the Bahá’í community and is based on faith) and exterior (i.e. academic scholarship based on the rationalistic, materialistic methodology of academia). I suggest that although the first is not without benefit, we need also, for a number of reasons, to develop the second. I identify several approaches that might be taken by Bahá’í scholars in interacting with the academic world. That of full engagement with the materialistic methodology of the academic world; that of finding academic methodologies that are more favourable to a faith perspective; that of trying to influence the academic world from outside. Lastly I attempt to identify some feature of the Bahá’í teachings that could form the basis in the long run of a Bahá’í methodology: these include such qualities as detachment, justice, being positive and constructive, achieving the balance between reason and faith, consultative processes, the correct attitude towards the institutions of the Faith, and towards the Covenant.

Apologetics is a branch of systematic theology, rather than religious studies. It has an important place in the Bahá’í Faith: in numerous Bahá’í writings, it is stated that “the Cause of God must be protected” and the arguments of its assailants refuted. However, apologetics has a wider purpose than mere defence. It can help explore the teachings of the Faith in the context of prevailing philosophies and standards in a secular society, and to answer critical inquiries in a rational manner. Although critical self-reflection on the fundamentals of the Faith is a prerequisite of this task, apologetics is not possible without commitment to revelation. Given the role of apologetics in Bahá’í history and in the development of its texts and ideas, it is surprising that the Bahá’í community has generally undervalued its importance.

In the Kitáb-i-Íqán, Bahá’u’lláh describes the resistance on the part of “divines” to accept the new Revelation. History also demonstrates the same resistance to revolutionary advances in the concept of reality that are introduced by enlightened individuals (e.g., Copernicus or Newton).

It is in this context that the contemporary academy is often constrained by archaic notions of scholarship and even more particularly by the rejection of the notion of the interpenetration of the dual aspects of reality: the composite outer expression that is physical reality and the non-composite and unseen expression that is spiritual reality.

However, this resistance is rapidly being overcome by the realization on the part of scholars in a variety of academic fields that the laws and relationships operant in the physical aspect of reality are the exact counterpart of the laws and relationships operant in spiritual aspect of reality.

This paper posits the thesis that it is increasingly the role of the Bahá’í academic to bring to light images of this interpenetration of the dual aspects of reality by showing how the dual methodologies described in the Bahá’í writings demonstrate the integration between these two expressions of reality.

This paper explores the suitability of inductive analysis as a method in Bahá’í scholarship. It also looks at a number of stumbling blocks that inhibit the development of a Bahá’í methodology, whether inductive or otherwise. By examining Bahá’í studies from an inductive perspective, we note a reluctance to forge the gap between Bahá’í and non-Bahá’í studies on the Bahá’í community, aspects of Bahá’í studies that limit the participation of women, the tendency among Bahá’í publishing scholarly outlets to reproduce “comfort” methodologies, and the workings of at least seven Bahá’í scholarly clusters that organize and structure discourse on Bahá’í methodologies which inhibit the rise of new perspectives. The paper proposes some six ways to unfreeze the methodological frame that seems to guide current Bahá’í methodological practice and discourse.

The pursuit of knowledge, in addition to ascertaining facts, requires categorization, correlation and deduction and is a process that is influenced culturally by the researcher’s understanding of the world. The Bahá’í Revelation presents a new and challenging situation by its principles of the unfettered search for truth, and the harmony of religion and science, by the authenticity of the Writings of its Founder, and by the authority of the Covenant that has been established. This challenge is faced particularly by those Bahá’ís who follow an academic career in religious studies, but also by the generality of the believers, and should lead to enrichment of their understanding.

Infallibility is a complex term in Bahá'í scripture that has not been much discussed in Bahá'í secondary literature. The concept, which has analogies in Catholicism and Islam, is historically burdened and has become obsolete in secular thought. This paper analyses two categories of "infallibility": essential infallibility which is inherent in the messengers of God, and conferred infallibility which is a characteristic of the institutions of the Guardianship and the Universal House of Justice. This paper focuses on the Universal House of Justice. Does its infallibility operate to an unlimited extent? Are every one of its decisions infallible, and if not, what are its boundaries? The immanent limits of this charisma are analysed and a detailed argument provided that supports a defensible restrictive interpretation

In a period of twenty years, Jamál Effendi travelled throughout India and succeeded in converting many people to the Bahá’í Faith, including some notable figures. Even more than in India, Jamál Effendi can be said to have established the Bahá’í Faith in Burma, where the present Bahá’í community can trace itself back to the sojourn there of Jamál Effendi and his companion Sayyid Mustafá Rúmí. Jamál Effendi also visited other countries in South-East Asia and Central Asia. This paper is an attempt to establish the routes and dates of his journeys, although there continue to remain some details of which it is not yet possible to be certain. There is also some discussion of his techniques for spreading the Bahá’í Faith.

A wide range of sometimes disturbing Abrahamic and related religious texts and traditions have warned humankind of an impending eschatological calamity or catastrophe. Additionally the sacred books of the world not only predict global catastrophe but also an ensuing millennial world peace. This paper is a preliminary consideration of select Babi-Baha’i doctrines expository of apocalyptic symbolism associated with major Abrahamic religious prophecies. I will endeavour to show that many of the Baha’i interpretations of end-time catastrophe are best viewed in their evolving historical contexts.

A brief consideration will be made of the war of the last days referred to in the canonical Apocalypse, the Book of Revelation, as the battle of Armageddon (Rev. 16:14). A cursory examination of dimensions of the catastrophe and ensuing millennial peace by the central figures of the Baha’i religion will be set down. For several decades, some Baha’is have been troubled by expectations of concrete global catastrophe. Awareness of the fact that Babi-Baha’i sources anticipate numerous "catastrophes" with aspects that have already been outwardly realized or spiritually interpreted is not widespread in the contemporary Baha’i community. On occasion, both the Bab and Baha’u’llah undertook a courageous demythologization of apocalyptic scenarious anticipated in Biblical and Islamic scripture and tradition. It is the Baha’i belief that the "catastrophe" or the apocalyptic upheaval of the last days has very largely if not completely been realised in the troubled yet brilliant 20th century.

Bahá’u’lláh composed several formal poems in rhyme and meter. One of these poems, the Mathnavíy-i Mubárak, concerns Bahá’u’lláh’s disclosure of his station to the Babis and to humanity. Bahá’u’lláh’s Mathnaví alludes to the world-famous Mathnaví of Jalal al-Din Rumi, whose followers founded the spiritual confraternity known as the "Whirling Dervishes" (Mevleviye or Mawlaviyyah Order), which was quite active in Istanbul and Edirne during the time of Bahá’u’lláh’s exile. This paper suggests the theological and rhetorical significance of Bahá’u’lláh’s use of the discourse of Sufism, specifically Sunni Persian poetry; discusses the importance of Rumi among 19th century Iranians, in particular the Bábís and the Baha’is; outlines the date and circumstances of composition of Bahá’u’lláh’s Mathnaví; proposes some of the factors to consider in establishing critical editions of the poems of Bahá’u’lláh; and finally theorizes about some of the aesthetic factors to consider in translating the poetry of Bahá’u’lláh. The article accompanies the first provisional translation of the poem to English, an experimental translation in blank verse.