by Franklin Lewis This paper fu-st suggests that ma11y statements in the Baha'i writings are couched i11 ti1e ter1ns ofa particular tli..vco111ás e, or i11tellect11a/ traditio11, oftl1e text S i111111eá diate audience. As such. these statements may assume some ofthe premises ofthe addressee, passing over them witlro11t 11ecessarlly seeld11g to challenge or affim1 those premises in an absolute sense, ill order to make a11 argument whic/1 the addressee can accept. Such premises may sometimes be factually tn1e, in an empirical sense, while sometimes they may 11ot be propositionally true, but may rather be true in a melaphoric and ~ymbolic sense. This being the case. recover- ing the nature of the disco11rse being employed, or the intellectual context of the statement, can help 011e evaluate whether a given statement is metmt to convey a propositiona/jact or a rhetorical 11uth. 'Abd11'/-Bahci ojie11 adopted the particu- lar parameters of H'estern modernist discourse about knowledge, specifically in terms of the debate of science versus religio11. His statements aro, therefore. ger- mane to contemporary questions aboui t1cademic. or materit1list, methodologies and the Bahiz 'I view toward these modes of knowledge. 'Abdu '1-Bahll often appears to give precedence to logical proofs and scientific method aver traditional religious modes or explant1tians of reality, particularly in questions offacJ and informatio11, though not nece.isarily where ethics and maraliJy are concen1ed. fie wauld 1herefore seem to assert the validity of TYester11 academic, or materialist, methodolagies. ' ABDU 'L-BAHA First we 1nus1 speak of logical proofs. - ' Abdu'l-Baha (c. 1905) Modes of discourse By My spirit and by My favor! By My mercy and by My beauty! All that I have revealed unto thee with the tongue of power, and have writ- In this paper, "discourse" refers to a conversation which unfolds ten for thee with the pen of might, bath been in accordance with thy over time, one that is governed by a particular set of premises and capacity and understanding, not with My state and the melody of My concepts in the context of which given arguments and inquiries are voice.3 pursued. I A discourse often implies or delimits the type(s) of methodology that will be considered valid in investigating or "prov- Baha' u' llilh spoke to the capacity and understanding of various ing" questions or problems. ln its broadest senses, \Ve might think of correspondents, and thus addressed himself to more than one dis- the entire intellectual tradition of the Enlightewnent as scientific or course tradition, as defined above. For example in communicating academic discourse. to a scientific discourse community, when with Shiites or Babis, who expected an Eschaton in which the return questions are posed or particular data considered, most parties to the of the twelfth Imam figured prominently, Baha'u'llah frequently discussion will proceed with certain assumptions about the primacy mentions the Qa 'im (mahdr), Husayn and ' Ali, etc. He did not begin of empirical evidence, the positing of falsifiable hypotheses, and the from the same assumptions, however, in communicating with need to verify data by experimentation. This does not mean that all Zoroastrians, who did not by and large revere Islamic figures and participants in the discourse will come to the same conclusions indeed would more likely have been offended by references to them. about matters under discussion, or that they will necessarily inter- 'Abdu'l-Bahft makes this rhetorical principle explicit in a work writ- pret particular sets of data in the same way, or that these methods ten as a young man, in 1875: will be the only factors informing their decisions.2 Jt does meao that participants in the discussion will implicitly acknowledge certain lf for example a spirirually learned Muslim is conducting a debate with premises and certain rules of evidence and argument. a Christian and he knows nothing of the glorious melodies of the A discourse need not be of a purely scie ntific nature, hov;ever. Gospel, he will, no matter how much he imparts of the Qur'an and its We might conceive of the Abrahamic re ligious traditions as belong- truths, be unable to convince the Christian, and his word5 will fall on deaf ears. Shou.ld, however, the Christian observe that the Muslim is ing to a particular discourse. Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and the better versed in the fundamentals of Christianity than the Christian Baha'i Faith all agree on the divine missions of Abraham and priests themselves, and understands the purport of the Scriptures even Moses, and acknowledge the general principle of a personal God better than they, he v.