# Baha'i Faith and Religious Diversity

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> Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: Phillip Smith, Baha'i Faith and Religious Diversity, bahai-library.com.
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> 
> Bahá'í Faith and Religious Diversity
> 
> Phillip Smith
> 
> published in Bahá'í Studies Review1:1
> 
> London: Association for Bahá'í Studies English-Speaking Europe, 1991
> 
> The great aim of the Bahá'í Faith is to bring unity
> to the world without uniformity. Bahá'u'lláh urges everyone to recognise
> that all people are equals, and should aim to live as one people, yet
> encourages them to value and celebrate ethnic and cultural diversity. He
> wants the world to become one country and yet no-one is asked to stop
> being proud of their country or taking part in their own traditions. He calls
> for religious unity but it is far less clear how this is to be achieved and
> what will happen to the great religious traditions if all the world became
> Bahá'í.
> 
> There is a fear amongst many non-Bahá'ís, and an expectation amongst
> many Bahá'ís, that religious unity will be achieved by everyone abandoning
> their own religion and becoming a Bahá'í. This is unity but it may lead to a
> lack of diversity. If everyone were to become a Bahá'í, would it mean there
> be no more church services, no more Buddhist chants, or puja offered to
> Shiva? Would there be no more Christmas, Divali or Passover? Is a world
> where there are only obligatory prayers, nineteen day feasts and annual
> fasts really what Bahá'u'lláh is offering mankind? Is this unity in
> diversity or merely uniformity?
> 
> This paper is an attempt to begin to answer these questions and to see if
> there is a way that the Bahá'í Faith could bring about religious unity
> whilst retaining a colourful and enriching variety of religious expression.
> The first part of this task is to analyse the problem. Before exploring the
> question of how to unite the religions, the existing relationship between
> them must be addressed.
> Religious Plurality
> 
> Traditionally each religion has been seen as a distinct system with its
> own unique central focus (see fig.1). Thus Christianity is seen as
> emanating from the central doctrine of the incarnation.of Christ as
> revealed in the gospels. Islam revolves around the Qur'an and the
> exemplary life of Muhammad. The varieties of Hinduism are united in
> devotion to one of the aspects of the Trimurti. Seen in this way the task
> of uniting the religions appears to be impossible because the central
> features of each appear to be irreconcilable with all the others.
> 
> Figure 1: Religions seen as separate belief systems.
> 
> Not only does it appear that these religions are rival systems but the
> addition of the Bahá'í Faith seems merely to make the problem worse.
> Another system, this time with Bahá'u'lláh as its central focus, simply
> adds to the problem of deciding which one is the true religion.
> 
> In addition we have the confusing assertion by Bahá'ís that all religions
> are equal. If all of them are equally right why should the Bahá'ís try to
> unite them as it will make no difference which religion people follow? If,
> however, the Bahá'í Faith is more right, because it is more recent, how can
> the faiths be united except by getting people to leave their old religions
> and be absorbed by the Bahá'í Faith? Can the creation of one "super-
> religion" made up of ex-Christians, ex-Buddhists and ex-Muslims
> really be called a unification of religions? Surely this is the way that
> Christians and Muslims already dream of uniting the religions, by
> converting everyone to theirs. The Bahá'ís would appear to simply be
> making a rival bid to be the world's "super-religion."
> 
> This problem of the plurality of religions, each making its own unique
> truth-claims, is one that Christian theologians have been struggling with
> for most of this century. It has long been recognised by them that the
> difficulty that has been encountered in providing a solution may well be
> due to a defective analysis of the original problem and so in recent years
> much attention has been given by theologians to the attempt to establish a
> "world theology" rather than a merely Christian one.
> 
> Religious Diversity.
> 
> John Hick, one of the leading thinkers in this field, has proposed a
> "Copernican revolution" in the way we regard religions. Instead
> of seeing each religion as a separate belief system, he proposes that each
> should be seen as a response to a transcendent reality. All people in all
> ages have had experience of this transcendent (which he terms the Real)
> but they have had to interpret the experience according to the culture to
> which they belonged. The function of religion is to give people a belief-
> structure to help them understand this experience and to provide a
> framework within which they can respond to it.
> Experience of the transcendent is structured either by the
> concept of deity, which presides over the theistic traditions, or by the
> concept of the absolute, which presides over the nontheistic traditions.
> Each of these is schematised in actual human experience to produce the
> experienced divine personas (such as Jahweh, the heavenly Father, Allah,
> Vishnu, Shiva) and metaphysical impersonae (such as Brahman, the Tao,
> the Dharmakaya, Sunyata) to which human beings orient themselves in
> worship or meditation. (Hick, Interpretation 14)
> 
> Seen in this way, religions cease to be separate and rival systems, and
> become merely diverse ways of responding to the same Reality (see fig.2).
> Apparently contradictory truth-claims become different ways of
> interpreting and responding to the Real. In one sense the religions become
> united, all sharing the same central focus.
> 
> Figure 2:
> Religions seen as responses to transcendent Reality.
> 
> Of course, to Bahá'ís such a way of looking at religions requires no radical
> change in thinking as this is precisely the view of religions that
> Bahá'u'lláh taught over one hundred years ago.
> There can be no doubt whatever that the peoples of the world, of
> whatever race or religion, derive their inspiration from one heavenly
> Source, and are the subjects of one God. The difference between the
> ordinances under which they abide should be attributed to the varying
> requirements and exigencies of the age in which they were revealed.
> (Bahá'u'lláh, Gleanings 217)
> 
> In the Bahá'í teachings all religions are seen as God-centred and the
> founders of all of them as being equal Manifestations of God. Thus the
> Bahá'í way of resolving the problem of the plurality of religions is very
> similar to that of Hick. Indeed, it could be argued that this is the
> fundamental insight that Bahá'u'lláh brought to mankind in order to unite
> the religions. Once this is recognised the religions cease to be separate
> and rival systems but simply become different denominations of the same
> faith. The barriers between religions can come down and the various
> communities join together in shared worship of the one God.
> 
> All must abandon prejudices and must even go into each
> others churches and mosques, for in all worshipping places, the Name of
> God is mentioned. Since all gather to worship God, what difference is
> there? ('Abdu'l-Bahá, Star of the West vol ix, no.3, p.37)
> 
> As Moojan Momen has made clear, Bahá'u'lláh even solved the apparent
> contradiction between the different ways that the religions describe what
> Hick refers to as the Real. In Western religions it is referred to in the
> personal concept of "God" while eastern religions conceive of it
> as an impersonal "Brahman" or "Nirvana". In His
> writings Bahá'u'lláh refers to God in both personal and impersonal terms
> seeing no contradiction between them. Rather each is seen as an equally
> inaccurate human way of trying to describe that which is beyond
> understanding.
> Therefore, no absolute
> knowledge of the cosmos being available to man, all descriptions, all
> schemata, all attempts to portray the metaphysical basis of the universe,
> are necessarily limited by the viewpoint of the particular person making
> them. They are limited, relative truths only. (Momen, Studies
> 200)
> 
> Thus the contradictions between Eastern and Western metaphysics are not
> seen as rival truth-claims, where to affirm one would be to negate the
> other, but merely as different ways of viewing the one Reality. It can be
> seen that Hick's "Copernican revolution" in the way of looking
> at religions is not revolutionary to Bahá'ís alone. However, the question
> still remains as to how the Bahá'ís believe these differing religions will
> be united and how the Bahá'í Faith relates to them. Even with our new
> analysis of the problem, the question of how unity can be achieved without
> eradicating the diversity is still not answered.
> 
> Uniting the
> Religions.
> 
> On Hick's model unity could be achieved in two main ways. Firstly, all the
> existing religions could accept that they are all God-centred and carry out
> ‘Abdu'l-Bahá's instruction to go into each other churches. This
> would take the form of an ecumenical movement between religions.
> Individual differences due to taste and cultural tradition would be
> preserved but there would be a recognition of their fundamental unity and
> equality as well as an increase in shared acts of worship. However, this
> could be achieved without the existence of the Bahá'í Faith.
> 
> Admittedly Bahá'ís could argue that Bahá'u'lláh's teachings are needed to
> provide the inspiration and insight to arouse the inter-faith movement but
> it is not necessary for Him to found a religion. His teachings may not even
> be necessary. Hick seems to have constructed a valid philosophical model
> for religious unity without reference to Bahá'u'lláh and, perhaps, with no
> knowledge of Him. There seem to be many others working within the inter-
> faith community who believe that religious tolerance and unity can be
> achieved without the help of a 'nineteenth-century Persian mystic'.
> 
> However, Bahá'ís know that Bahá'u'lláh did found a new religion, with a
> new calendar, its own holy days, its own scriptures and its own devotional
> practices. This leads to the second way that unity could be achieved on
> Hick's model. If the Bahá'í Faith becomes yet another religion, existing
> alongside the others as just another response to the Real, then the only
> way it can unify the religions is by conversion; by growing and absorbing
> the other religions. If this is really what Bahá'u'lláh meant to happen then
> the Bahá'í Faith becomes a form of religious imperialism.
> 
> As this is so much in contrast to Bahá'u'lláh's teachings about about racial
> and world unity, I cannot believe it is what He intended. The solution, I
> believe, lies in seeing that the Bahá'í Faith is fundamentally different to
> the other world religions and is not just a new religion existing alongside
> the older ones, or even a new one come to replace the old ones. The way
> that unity will be achieved, I believe, could be by all the religions
> accepting Bahá'u'lláh and the Bahá'í laws but retaining much of their own
> unique religious traditions and expressions.
> Bahá'í Religious
> Unity.
> 
> When somebody becomes a Bahá'í it is a very different process to when a
> person converts to any other religion. William Garlington, when studying
> mass conversions from Hinduism to the Bahá'í Faith in Malwa, India (see
> Garlington, in Studies) compared them to earlier mass conversions
> to Christianity, Buddhism and Islam. He found that converts were forced in
> these earlier conversions to renounce or even disparage their earlier
> beliefs. However, those who declared a belief in Bahá'u'lláh were not
> required to negate or devalue Hinduism, merely to recognise that it was a
> divinely inspired religion in need of regeneration.
> By not forcing an individual to denounce his Hindu heritage, the
> Bahá'ís allow him to remain, psychologically speaking, a Hindu; he is a
> Hindu who believes in the Yugavatar, Bahá'u'lláh. . . . If the above is true,
> one might question whether the term convert can be appropriately used to
> refer to those villagers who declared their belief in Bahá'u'lláh.
> (Garlington, Studies 174)
> 
> The word "convert" is usually used to refer to those people who
> move completely out of one religious tradition and into another. This is
> not necessary for those that become Bahá'ís because of the belief that
> Bahá'u'lláh is the promise of all ages and fulfils the adventist prophecies
> of all the major religions.
> Thus Shoghi Effendi
> referred to Bahá'u'lláh as being the messianic figure expected by not only
> Judaism, Christianity, Islam and Zoroastrianism, but also Hinduism and
> Buddhism. More recently, Bahá'í writers have extended their polemic to
> attempt to prove, for example, that the Bahá'í Faith fulfilled the
> millenarian expectations of Buddhists, Mormons and North American
> Indians. (Smith, Religions 144)
> 
> Thus, anyone who becomes a Bahá'í accepts Bahá'u'lláh as the fulfilment of
> their previous religion, not as someone who established a rival to it. What
> is more, although Bahá'u'lláh established new liturgical practices and
> revealed his own scriptures, he did not abrogate all previous religious
> practices and confirmed the divine authority of all previous scriptures. A
> person who becomes a Bahá'í, as long as they keep the Bahá'í laws, can,
> therefore, not only retain a psychological link with their past beliefs but
> are free to continue to read their previous holy books and, as far as I am
> aware, to use earlier prayers and forms of religious expression.
> 
> What they are not permitted to do is to remain as members of their
> previous religion. Shoghi Effendi instructed Bahá'ís in 1935 that they
> could not be members of other religious bodies, except for general bodies
> such as the World Congress of Faiths. This referred to membership of the
> administrative part of any other religion. It would make little sense for a
> Bahá'í to be a member of a body that sought to maintain or spread the
> teachings of the Christian Church, or any religion other than the Bahá'í
> Faith. Bahá'ís must be exclusively committed to the Bahá'í administrative
> system but there appear to be no instructions from Shoghi Effendi to
> exclude Bahá'ís from taking part in, or using, earlier religious forms of
> expression.
> 
> I contend that this reveals that the Bahá'í Faith is indeed a very new form
> of religion and that in order to understand its relationship to other
> religions we need to amend our earlier diagrams drawn to illustrate Hick's
> views (see fig. 3). If the Bahá'í Faith becomes the only, or even the most
> dominant, religion in the world then it will not exist alongside earlier
> religions or absorb them. It will be an addition to earlier religions, and by
> the adoption of Bahá'í religious teaching and practice the believer will be
> moved closer to, or put more clearly in touch with, the Real. This process
> will inevitably lead to a revision of previously held beliefs, and the
> rejection or adaptation of some earlier practices, but will not necessarily
> lead the rejection of them all in favour of exclusively Bahá'í ones.
> 
> This would mean that as long as Bahá'ís keep the Bahá'í laws such as
> fasting, reciting the obligatory prayers revealed by Bahá'u'lláh and
> abstaining from alcohol, as well as attending Bahá'í Feasts and observing
> the holy days, they could also continue with any earlier religious
> practices that they found spiritually enriching.
> 
> Figure 3:
> The Bahá'í Faith uniting the religions.
> 
> The Christian could continue to read the gospels and be inspired by the
> words and example of Jesus. The Muslim could continue to learn and recite
> the Qur'an in Arabic. The Jews could continue to take part in those
> festivals that celebrate their history and tradition as long as they adapted
> those that referred to the promise of the Messiah to show that the
> promise is now fulfilled. The Buddhist could continue with the forms of
> meditation that their traditions have developed and which they find of
> benefit. The Hindu could continue to offer puja to the gods and receive
> prashad. Although the organisations of each religion would decline and
> disappear in a world full of Bahá'ís, many of the ideas and practices of
> those religions would be maintained.
> 
> Of course there will be many who will find the Bahá'í scriptures and
> devotional practices enough for their spiritual needs and who will not
> wish to retain or explore the varieties of religious expression from the
> past. But there will also be others who will wish to maintain religious
> traditions that are important to their cultures or will wish to draw
> spiritual nourishment from acts and expressions of religious devotion
> from the past. I am suggesting that in the future both of these groups
> could be considered to be Bahá'ís, and to be equally true, loyal and devoted
> Bahá'ís.
> Summary.
> 
> To summarise I would state that the great aim of the Bahá'í Faith is unify
> the world's religions without imposing religious uniformity. Although
> there would be doctrinal conformity and administrative cohesion there
> would always be freedom of religious expression according to the tastes
> and culture of the individual.
> 
> The first stage is the recognition that each religion is responding to and
> centred upon the one divine Reality. This is the stage that Hick and many
> modern theologians are now coming to. However, for Bahá'ís this is not
> enough, and true unity will only come about when each religion
> acknowledges that they are fulfilled and regenerated through the person
> and teachings of Bahá'u'lláh. As I have tried to establish in this paper, this
> will not mean that the previous religions are abandoned or denigrated in
> any way. The teachings and laws of Bahá'u'lláh are an affirmation of and an
> addition to those of the founders of previous religions, not a replacement
> of them. Although the previous teachings and practices will need to be
> reviewed and may need to be revised in the light of Bahá'u'lláh's message,
> they will not be abandoned. The best of them will be preserved in a world
> which will be united in worship of the one divine Reality but where there
> will still be diversity of response to it according to individual, cultural
> and traditional needs.
> 
> Works Cited
> 
> ‘Abdu'l-Bahá. Star of the West. Vol ix. Reprinted Oxford:
> George Ronald, 1978.
> 
> Bahá'u'lláh. Gleanings form the Writings of Bahá'u'lláh. Trans. Shoghi
> Effendi. 2d. ed. Wilmette: Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 1976.
> 
> Garlington, W. "Bahá'í Conversions in Malwa, Central India." in
> From Iran East and West: Studies in Babi and Bahá'í History, v. 2. ed.
> by J.R. Cole and M. Momen. Los Angeles: Kalimat Press, 1984.
> 
> Hick, J. An Interpretation of Religion. Basingstoke: Macmillan Press,
> 1989.
> 
> Momen, M. "Relativism: A Basis for Bahá'í Metaphysics" in
> Studies in Honor of the Late Hasan M. Balyuzi: Studies in the Babi &
> Bahá'í Religions, v. 5. ed. by M.Momen. Los Angeles: Kalimat Press,
> 1988.
> 
> Smith, Peter. The Babi and Bahá'í Religions. Cambridge: Cambridge
> University Press, 1987.
> 
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> previous at archive.org.../smith_religious_diversity;
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> — *Baha'i Faith and Religious Diversity (Used by permission of the curator)*