# The Baha'i Faith and Syncretism

*Exported from [Holy-Writings.com](https://www.holy-writings.com/) on 2026-06-18 — 1 clipping.*

---

> Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: Robert Stockman, The Baha'i Faith and Syncretism, bahai-library.com.
> ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
> 
> The Baha'i Faith and Syncretism
> 
> Robert Stockman
> published in Resource Guide for the Scholarly Study of the Bahá'í Faith
> 
> Wilmette, IL: Research Office of the USBNC, 1997
> 
> One of the most common assumptions about the Bahá'í Faith stated in Religious
> Studies textbooks is that it is a syncretism. One introductory textbook even says the
> Bahá'í Faith is "syncretistic by intention." It
> is important to note, however, that the claim that the Bahá'í Faith is a syncretism is
> strongly rejected by the Bahá'ís themselves and by their scriptures. Where does the idea
> that the Bahá'í Faith is syncretic come from? What does the idea entail?
> 
> While the term syncretism has many meanings, a basic definition is
> provided by the Oxford English Dictionary: it is an "attempted union or
> reconciliation of diverse or opposite tenets or practices, especially in
> philosophy or religion." Historically, the word has been used to denote a
> religion that consists primarily, or wholly, of disparate ideas that are
> borrowed from other religious traditions. Such a religion is an "artificial" or
> "synthetic" religion, one which is not sui generis but is derivative.
> 
> Many scholars think that the Bahá'í Faith itself claims to be syncretic (hence
> the above reference to "intention"). But this is not true. The Bahá'í religion
> claims to consist of the teachings that God revealed to Bahá'u'lláh,
> prophet-founder of the Bahá'í Faith. Bahá'ís take such a claim very seriously;
> in fact, Bahá'u'lláh claimed to be the return of Christ, the Promised One of
> all religions, and, in one sense, claimed to be God Godself.
> 
> The claim that the Bahá'í Faith is founded on revelation does not wholly
> obviate the issue of syncretism, because the Bahá'í concept of revelation does
> not necessarily imply that Bahá'u'lláh's writings were totally uninfluenced by
> the world. Particularly noteworthy is the fact that virtually all of
> Bahá'u'lláh's literary corpus consists of letters — some of book length — written
> in reply to questions by followers, critics, or interested bystanders. Since
> the revelation was in response to questions by human beings, the content of the
> revelation was at least partly shaped by the cultural conditions of the
> nineteenth-century Middle East. Furthermore, Bahá'u'lláh wrote in a distinct
> style, a style different from those of the Bab and Muhammad, two
> other individuals who, Bahá'ís believe, received revelation from God.
> 
> The fact that Bahá'u'lláh's revelation is in a distinctly personal style, and
> was in response to culturally conditioned questions, can be understood in
> different ways by Bahá'ís. Some Bahá'ís would be inclined to see the personal
> style as a part of the process of divine revelation, and the questions as
> God-intended stimuli to bring out the revelation. Other Bahá'ís might
> understand revelation to consist of a divine assurance that Bahá'u'lláh's
> answers to questions, inspired in some sense by God but phrased in his own
> words and at least partly based on his education and experience, were
> guaranteed by God to be valid. In the latter perspective, revelation includes a
> creative process of sifting through existing ideas in Middle Eastern society,
> accepting some and rejecting others, and innovating frequently when the
> available ideas proved to be inadequate.
> 
> The influence of culture and language on revelation, however indirect, leaves
> the door open to the argument that the Bahá'í writings represent a syncretism.
> But study of cultural and linguistic influences on the Christian revelation, or
> on the revelation claimed by any other religion, would lead one to draw the
> same conclusion about other religions as well. Christian scholars have written
> hundreds of books exploring the effect of Hellenistic religion and culture,
> first-century Judaism, "heretical" Jewish sects, and even Zoroastrian ideas on
> New Testament Christianity. From the point of view of these works, New
> Testament Christianity was syncretic; and by implication, modern Christianity
> is a syncretism as well. Even conservative Christians cannot deny that Christ
> did not invent baptism, but "borrowed" it from John the Baptist. Thus it would
> seem that for all religions, revelation must at least partly involve the
> creative process of endorsing or rejecting ideas and practices that already
> exist. In this sense, all religions are syncretisms.
> 
> Consequently it is not academically very useful to categorize the Bahá'í Faith
> as a syncretism. If Bahá'ís claimed their religion is syncretic the description
> would be useful; if syncretism were absent in the histories of other religions
> the description would be useful; but to state the Bahá'í Faith is a syncretism
> and imply that the others are not is a hasty generalization.
> 
> Of course, it is possible that a comparative study of Bahá'u'lláh's writings
> would reveal them to be more syncretic than the Qur'an or the New Testament.
> But those who argue that the Bahá'í Faith is a syncretism never offer such
> comparative evidence. Usually they are unable to make such an argument because
> they are unfamiliar with Bahá'u'lláh's life and writings in detail. This
> constitutes another warning sign that the argument is hasty; any experienced
> scholar knows it is a difficult and painstaking task to muster a strong
> historical argument that X was influenced by Y, unless X, or someone who knew X
> well, testifies to the influence of Y.
> 
> Many Christian theologians, recognizing the importance of bringing together
> existing ideas in new, creative ways, have started to use the word
> syncretism in a positive fashion. This is in contrast to the word's
> usual connotation, which the Oxford English Dictionary notes is "almost
> always. . . derogatory." Some theologians have called on Christians
> to construct their theology in a deliberately "syncretistic" fashion; to
> reappropriate old symbols in wholly new ways, ways suited to the values and
> needs of postmodern culture. Such a process is not seen as a rejection of
> Christianity, but a development of it, a moving of Christianity forward into
> the twenty-first century.
> 
> It is, therefore, especially ironic to hear some liberal Protestant professors
> of religion call the Bahá'í Faith syncretistic. For they do not use the term in
> the positive, creative sense, but pejoratively. They would not refer to
> liberation theology, which is clearly a syncretism of Marxist ideas and the
> Bible, in that fashion; nor would they call feminist theology syncretic.
> 
> Where does the idea that the Bahá'í Faith is a syncretism come from? One source
> is a misunderstanding of the Bahá'í concept of progressive revelation, the
> teaching that states that all previous religions were divinely inspired and
> ordained. When Christianity was founded, it developed out of Judaism and
> recognized Judaism as a divinely founded religion. When Muhammad began his
> teaching he recognized Judaism and Christianity — the religions already common
> in Arabia — as divinely inspired and founded. The Bahá'í Faith is no different
> in that it recognizes the religions that came before it as divinely inspired:
> but in the modern world, this entails not just Judaism, Christianity, and
> Islam, but Zoroastrianism, Hinduism, and Buddhism as well. By recognizing the
> divine origin of these and other religions, the Bahá'í Faith takes a position
> that is not very different from liberal Protestantism or the Catholicism of the
> Second Vatican conference, which recognize the existence of truth in the other
> religious traditions of the world.
> 
> In addition to giving praise where praise is due, the Bahá'í scriptures offer a
> critique of various aspects of the religions that preceded it. For example, the
> Bahá'í scriptures reject such beliefs as the Christian trinity, the Hindu
> belief in transmigration of the soul, and the Muslim belief that the term "seal
> of the prophets" meant that Muhammad was not to be succeeded by another
> messenger. In this respect the Bahá'í Faith resembles New Testament
> Christianity, which criticized the Judaism of its day, and the Qur'an, which
> criticized Christians and Jews. But because of a lack of detailed understanding
> of the Bahá'í perspective on other religions, individual Bahá'ís do not always
> convey the balance of compliments and criticisms found in the Bahá'í
> scriptures. Desiring to be positive about other religions, and not wishing to
> offend other people, sometimes Bahá'ís will simply state that all the previous
> religions are "true." They will often downplay the numerous Bahá'í criticisms
> of central beliefs in other religions. As a result, a Bahá'í's understanding of
> progressive revelation can sound like an uncritical belief that the Bahá'í
> religion accepts everything that the previous religions teach. From this
> misperception, and a misunderstanding of the principle of progressive
> revelation, comes the belief that the Bahá'í Faith is a syncretism.
> 
> In conclusion, the question whether the Bahá'í Faith is syncretic needs to be
> discussed at a more sophisticated level than it has been previously. If by
> "syncretism" a scholar means the Bahá'ís themselves believe their religion is a
> blending of the best from other religious traditions, this understanding of
> Bahá'í self-identity is incorrect. If by "syncretism" a scholar means the
> Bahá'í Faith is a simplistic mixture of ideas from other religions, with no
> core of truths that are its own, this is a hasty generalization, and often is
> partly based on inadequate explanations of the Bahá'í religion by its members.
> If by "syncretism" a scholar means the Bahá'í Faith is a complex product of
> original thought and original recombination of ideas already present in the
> world, then all religions are syncretisms and nothing new is being said about
> the Bahá'í Faith. If by "syncretism" a scholar — consciously or
> unconsciously — means the Bahá'í Faith is an epiphenomenon unworthy of study,
> then such a label impedes scholarship and interreligious dialogue. Hence use of
> the term "syncretism" highlights the need for deeper thought about the Bahá'í
> Faith in particular and the nature of religion in general.
> 
> METADATA
> 
> Views30898 views since posted 1997; last edit 2012;
> 
> previous at archive.org.../stockman_bahai_syncretism;
> URLs changed in 2010, see archive.org.../bahai-library.org
> Language
> English
> Permission
> author
> Share
> 
> Shortlink: bahai-library.com/112
> Citation: ris/112
> 
> select Collection:
> Archives
> Articles
> Articles-unpublished
> Audio
> Bibliographies
> BIC
> Biographies
> Books
> Chronologies
> Compilations
> Compilations-NSA
> Compilations-personal
> Documents
> East-asia
> Encyclopedia
> Essays
> Etc
> Excerpts
> Fiction
> Glossaries
> Guardian
> Histories
> Introductory
> Letters
> Maps
> Music
> Newspapers
> NSA-documents
> NSA-letters
> Personal
> Pilgrims
> Poetry
> Presentations
> Resources
> Reviews
> Scripts
> Software
> Statistics
> Study
> Talks
> Theses
> Transcripts
> Translations
> UHJ-documents
> UHJ-letters
> Video
> Visual
> Writings
> 
> home
> 
> sitemap
> 
> series
> 
> chronology
> 
> search:
> author
> 
> title
> 
> date
> 
> tags
> 
> adv. search
> languages
> 
> inventory
> 
> bibliography
> 
> abbreviations
> 
> links
> 
> about
> 
> contact
> 
> RSS
> 
> new
>
> — *The Baha'i Faith and Syncretism (Used by permission of the curator)*