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Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: Abdu'l-Bahá, Germany, France, Italy, and Switzerland, bahai-library.com.
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Germany, France, Italy, and Switzerland
Abdu'l-Bahá
Shoghi Effendi
Universal House of Justice, Research Department
, compiler
published in
Bahá'í Studies Review
4:1
London: Association for Bahá'í Studies of English-Speaking Europe, 1994
Contents:
Introduction,
by Julio Savi
1.
Germany
From the Writings of 'Abdu'l-Bahá
From Letters Written by Shoghi Effendi
From Letters Written on Behalf of Shoghi Effendi
2.
France
From the Writings of 'Abdu'l-Bahá
From Letters written on Behalf of Shoghi Effendi to individual believers
3.
Italy and Switzerland
From Letters Written by Shoghi Effendi
From a Letter Written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi
End Notes
Introduction
This compilation from the writings of 'Abdu'l-Bahá and Shoghi Effendi
discloses new perspectives on the future of European civilization, "a
civilization to some of whose beneficent features the pen of Bahá'u'lláh has
paid significant tribute."
(1)
No wonder that Europeans are so proud of their
past. And yet their heritage may be considered both a glory and a burden.
The glory comes from the remnants of its resplendent past, manifest in the
beauty of artistic masterpieces, and in the profundity of the thoughts of
great men, which are preserved in the pages of precious books as well as in
the minds of their modern heirs, and realized in the best qualities of the
European peoples. The burden comes from a culture, grown up within this
heritage, which had made of Europe--as Shoghi Effendi wrote in
1947--the "darkest, most severely tested, spiritually depleted continent of
the globe."
(2)
This culture, characterised as it was in its worst aspects in the
1940s by a "crass materialism...an aggressive racialism...a haughty
intellectualism...a blind and militant nationalism...a narrow and intolerant
ecclesiasticism,"
(3)
had transformed European peoples into "a materially
highly advanced yet spiritually famished, much tormented, fear-ridden,
hopelessly-sundered, heterogeneous conglomeration of races, nations, sects
and classes."
(4)
It was in those years that the first Bahá'í pioneers, the "vanguard of the
torch-bearers of a world-redeeming civilization"
(5)
arrived in Europe. Their
arrival was "as unnoticed as the landing, two millenniums ago, of the
apostles of Christ on the southern shores of the European continent,"
(6)
and
yet it opened a new age in the history of all European nations. In this
compilation, four nations are specifically mentioned: Germany, France,
Switzerland and Italy.
Great importance is given to Germany. The "vast measure of celestial
grace"
(7)
bestowed upon that community through the visits of 'Abdu'l-Bahá
to a number of its cities and His correspondence with some of its most
outstanding representatives may be viewed as both the cause of, and the
divine response to, the spiritual receptivity of those "individuals...endued
with perceptive eyes and attentive ears" who were "attracted to the
principles of the oneness of mankind" and treated "all the peoples and
kindreds of the earth in a spirit of concord and fellowship."
(8)
But in the
dialectic of crisis and victory those blessings were followed by a long
period of trials. The "narrow and brutal nationalism"
(9)
of the Nazi government disbanded the Bahá'í administrative institutions and reduced the
Bahá'ís to silence for many years. And yet throughout these ordeals, the
members of the "great-hearted, indefatigable, much admired German Bahá'í
community"
(10)
displayed "virility" and "tenacity." And when "the shackles
imposed" upon them were removed, they immediately put at the service of
the Faith the best qualities "distinguishing the race to which they belong":
"painstaking thoroughness, scientific exactitude and dispassionate
criticism." 'Abdu'l-Bahá and Shoghi Effendi foresaw for them a "glorious
future under the banner of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh": "to champion the
Cause of God in Europe," to "spread out into Eastern and Southern Europe,
and...into the heart of Northern Asia, as far as the China Sea," to give their
contribution "in research and scholarship," to "lead all the nations and
peoples of Europe spiritually."
Not less thrilling, although on a smaller scale, are the expectations from
the other nations. France, which the Master visited thrice, was the seat of
the earliest European Bahá'í community, founded at the end of last century
through the efforts of May Maxwell. Many of the spiritual giants of the
Bahá'í world--Laura Barney, Hippolite Dreyfus, Thomas Breakwell,
Herbert Hopper, Agnes Alexander, and others--were transformed by the
love of the Faith at that centre. France is described by the Master as a
country endowed with "capacity," but in its cities "the power of nature is
still triumphant over the power of religion." And yet He anticipates that as
soon as its present love for material pleasure is turned into "a mighty
passion in heavenly pleasure," and "souls profound in science and learning,
of lofty aspirations, not bound by that which perisheth nor seeking the
body's ease" will become attracted towards the love of Bahá'u'lláh, its
cities will become "celebrated in every corner of the world and that clime
[will] become a garden of delight."
The Italo-Swiss National Spiritual Assembly, elected in Florence in
1953, is described by Shoghi Effendi as "the fairest fruit of the great
European enterprise launched in pursuance of the second Seven Year Plan
formulated by the American Bahá'í community." Switzerland is presented
as a "peace-loving, high-minded, firmly-knit...nation." The Italian people
are described "by virtue of their qualities of mind and heart, ...as one of the
most distinguished on the European continent." Shoghi Effendi admonishes
that, since the peoples of these two countries are "intensely conservative by
nature, steeped in tradition, bound, for the most part, by the ties of religious
orthodoxy, sunk in materialism, and fully content with the standard they
have achieved," the development of the Cause there will be "painfully slow,
extremely arduous, and often highly discouraging." And yet he foresees for
the Bahá'ís in those countries "a very great future" when, "at no distant
date," they will be carried "upward from the shadowed valleys of obscurity
to the sunny uplands of fame, prosperity and triumph."
Shoghi Effendi wrote in 1947 that "The hatreds that inflame, the
rivalries that agitate, the controversies that confuse, the miseries that afflict,
[European] races, nations and classes are bitter and of long standing."
(11)
It
seems that differences among races, cultures, and nations in Europe have
been a cause of great problems. However, this compilation provides a key
for the members of the now consolidated European Bahá'í communities to
understand how these differences can be made a cause of progress, how
each European can be enabled to hand down to posterity a contribution
from his own national genius. This key can be summarized in four points
recommended by 'Abdu'l-Bahá: "to firmly adhere to the Covenant of God
and His Testament"; "to manifest the utmost affection and kindness toward
one another, to love each other with heart and soul, to make the utmost
endeavour to come to the assistance of each other"; "to manifest exceeding
love and fellowship toward all the people of the earth"; to "never rest, but
strive day and night to guide the people." This seems to be the way that
Bahá'ís can help to change "the confusion, the anxieties, the rivalries, and
the current crisis" which still afflict "the spiritually impoverished...morally
disoriented masses" of the European continent into the future that Shoghi
Effendi described as "bidding fair to eclipse the radiance of those past ages
which have successfully witnessed the introduction of the Christian Faith
into the continent's northern climes, the efflorescence of Islamic culture
that shed such radiance along its southern shores, and the rise of the
Reformation in its very heart."
(12)
Julio Savi
End Notes
1
. Shoghi Effendi,
Citadel of Faith. Messages to America 1947-1957 (
Wilmette: Bahá'í
Publishing Trust, 1970)
26
.
2
.Shoghi Effendi,
Citadel
1
.
3
.
Shoghi Effendi,
Messages to the Bahá'í World: 1950-1957
(Wilmette: Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 1971)
37
.
4
.
Shoghi Effendi,
Messages
33
.
5
.
Shoghi Effendi,
Citadel
26
.
6
.
Shoghi Effendi,
Citadel
26
.
7
.
'Abdu'l-Bahá,
Compilation
[Ed. - sel
15
].
8
.
'Abdu'l-Bahá,
Compilation
[Ed. - sel
8
].
9
.
Shoghi Effendi,
The World Order of Bahá'u'lláh
(Wilmette: Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 1955)
35
.
10
.
All the following quotations are from the
Compilation
unless otherwise stated.
11
.
Shoghi Effendi,
Citadel
21
.
12
.
Shoghi Effendi,
Citadel
26
.
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Germany, France, Italy, and Switzerland
Abdu'l-Bahá
Shoghi Effendi
Universal House of Justice, Research Department
, compiler
published in
Bahá'í Studies Review
4:1
London: Association for Bahá'í Studies of English-Speaking Europe, 1994
Contents:
Introduction,
by Julio Savi
1.
Germany
From the Writings of 'Abdu'l-Bahá
From Letters Written by Shoghi Effendi
From Letters Written on Behalf of Shoghi Effendi
2.
France
From the Writings of 'Abdu'l-Bahá
From Letters written on Behalf of Shoghi Effendi to individual believers
3.
Italy and Switzerland
From Letters Written by Shoghi Effendi
From a Letter Written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi
End Notes
Introduction
This compilation from the writings of 'Abdu'l-Bahá and Shoghi Effendi
discloses new perspectives on the future of European civilization, "a
civilization to some of whose beneficent features the pen of Bahá'u'lláh has
paid significant tribute."
(1)
No wonder that Europeans are so proud of their
past. And yet their heritage may be considered both a glory and a burden.
The glory comes from the remnants of its resplendent past, manifest in the
beauty of artistic masterpieces, and in the profundity of the thoughts of
great men, which are preserved in the pages of precious books as well as in
the minds of their modern heirs, and realized in the best qualities of the
European peoples. The burden comes from a culture, grown up within this
heritage, which had made of Europe--as Shoghi Effendi wrote in
1947--the "darkest, most severely tested, spiritually depleted continent of
the globe."
(2)
This culture, characterised as it was in its worst aspects in the
1940s by a "crass materialism...an aggressive racialism...a haughty
intellectualism...a blind and militant nationalism...a narrow and intolerant
ecclesiasticism,"
(3)
had transformed European peoples into "a materially
highly advanced yet spiritually famished, much tormented, fear-ridden,
hopelessly-sundered, heterogeneous conglomeration of races, nations, sects
and classes."
(4)
It was in those years that the first Bahá'í pioneers, the "vanguard of the
torch-bearers of a world-redeeming civilization"
(5)
arrived in Europe. Their
arrival was "as unnoticed as the landing, two millenniums ago, of the
apostles of Christ on the southern shores of the European continent,"
(6)
and
yet it opened a new age in the history of all European nations. In this
compilation, four nations are specifically mentioned: Germany, France,
Switzerland and Italy.
Great importance is given to Germany. The "vast measure of celestial
grace"
(7)
bestowed upon that community through the visits of 'Abdu'l-Bahá
to a number of its cities and His correspondence with some of its most
outstanding representatives may be viewed as both the cause of, and the
divine response to, the spiritual receptivity of those "individuals...endued
with perceptive eyes and attentive ears" who were "attracted to the
principles of the oneness of mankind" and treated "all the peoples and
kindreds of the earth in a spirit of concord and fellowship."
(8)
But in the
dialectic of crisis and victory those blessings were followed by a long
period of trials. The "narrow and brutal nationalism"
(9)
of the Nazi government disbanded the Bahá'í administrative institutions and reduced the
Bahá'ís to silence for many years. And yet throughout these ordeals, the
members of the "great-hearted, indefatigable, much admired German Bahá'í
community"
(10)
displayed "virility" and "tenacity." And when "the shackles
imposed" upon them were removed, they immediately put at the service of
the Faith the best qualities "distinguishing the race to which they belong":
"painstaking thoroughness, scientific exactitude and dispassionate
criticism." 'Abdu'l-Bahá and Shoghi Effendi foresaw for them a "glorious
future under the banner of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh": "to champion the
Cause of God in Europe," to "spread out into Eastern and Southern Europe,
and...into the heart of Northern Asia, as far as the China Sea," to give their
contribution "in research and scholarship," to "lead all the nations and
peoples of Europe spiritually."
Not less thrilling, although on a smaller scale, are the expectations from
the other nations. France, which the Master visited thrice, was the seat of
the earliest European Bahá'í community, founded at the end of last century
through the efforts of May Maxwell. Many of the spiritual giants of the
Bahá'í world--Laura Barney, Hippolite Dreyfus, Thomas Breakwell,
Herbert Hopper, Agnes Alexander, and others--were transformed by the
love of the Faith at that centre. France is described by the Master as a
country endowed with "capacity," but in its cities "the power of nature is
still triumphant over the power of religion." And yet He anticipates that as
soon as its present love for material pleasure is turned into "a mighty
passion in heavenly pleasure," and "souls profound in science and learning,
of lofty aspirations, not bound by that which perisheth nor seeking the
body's ease" will become attracted towards the love of Bahá'u'lláh, its
cities will become "celebrated in every corner of the world and that clime
[will] become a garden of delight."
The Italo-Swiss National Spiritual Assembly, elected in Florence in
1953, is described by Shoghi Effendi as "the fairest fruit of the great
European enterprise launched in pursuance of the second Seven Year Plan
formulated by the American Bahá'í community." Switzerland is presented
as a "peace-loving, high-minded, firmly-knit...nation." The Italian people
are described "by virtue of their qualities of mind and heart, ...as one of the
most distinguished on the European continent." Shoghi Effendi admonishes
that, since the peoples of these two countries are "intensely conservative by
nature, steeped in tradition, bound, for the most part, by the ties of religious
orthodoxy, sunk in materialism, and fully content with the standard they
have achieved," the development of the Cause there will be "painfully slow,
extremely arduous, and often highly discouraging." And yet he foresees for
the Bahá'ís in those countries "a very great future" when, "at no distant
date," they will be carried "upward from the shadowed valleys of obscurity
to the sunny uplands of fame, prosperity and triumph."
Shoghi Effendi wrote in 1947 that "The hatreds that inflame, the
rivalries that agitate, the controversies that confuse, the miseries that afflict,
[European] races, nations and classes are bitter and of long standing."
(11)
It
seems that differences among races, cultures, and nations in Europe have
been a cause of great problems. However, this compilation provides a key
for the members of the now consolidated European Bahá'í communities to
understand how these differences can be made a cause of progress, how
each European can be enabled to hand down to posterity a contribution
from his own national genius. This key can be summarized in four points
recommended by 'Abdu'l-Bahá: "to firmly adhere to the Covenant of God
and His Testament"; "to manifest the utmost affection and kindness toward
one another, to love each other with heart and soul, to make the utmost
endeavour to come to the assistance of each other"; "to manifest exceeding
love and fellowship toward all the people of the earth"; to "never rest, but
strive day and night to guide the people." This seems to be the way that
Bahá'ís can help to change "the confusion, the anxieties, the rivalries, and
the current crisis" which still afflict "the spiritually impoverished...morally
disoriented masses" of the European continent into the future that Shoghi
Effendi described as "bidding fair to eclipse the radiance of those past ages
which have successfully witnessed the introduction of the Christian Faith
into the continent's northern climes, the efflorescence of Islamic culture
that shed such radiance along its southern shores, and the rise of the
Reformation in its very heart."
(12)
Julio Savi
End Notes
1
. Shoghi Effendi,
Citadel of Faith. Messages to America 1947-1957 (
Wilmette: Bahá'í
Publishing Trust, 1970)
26
.
2
.Shoghi Effendi,
Citadel
1
.
3
.
Shoghi Effendi,
Messages to the Bahá'í World: 1950-1957
(Wilmette: Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 1971)
37
.
4
.
Shoghi Effendi,
Messages
33
.
5
.
Shoghi Effendi,
Citadel
26
.
6
.
Shoghi Effendi,
Citadel
26
.
7
.
'Abdu'l-Bahá,
Compilation
[Ed. - sel
15
].
8
.
'Abdu'l-Bahá,
Compilation
[Ed. - sel
8
].
9
.
Shoghi Effendi,
The World Order of Bahá'u'lláh
(Wilmette: Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 1955)
35
.
10
.
All the following quotations are from the
Compilation
unless otherwise stated.
11
.
Shoghi Effendi,
Citadel
21
.
12
.
Shoghi Effendi,
Citadel
26
.
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