The Bahà'i Faith and Islam: Proceedings of a Symposium, McGill University, March 23-25, 1984 Heshmat Moayyad, editor Ottawa, ON: Bahá'í Studies Publications. viii + 146 p

This article offers a systematic and comprehensive overview of Baha'i theology and philosophy. Since Bahá'í thought is still in very nascent stages of development, without any established philosophical or theological schools, it is discussed within the comparative framework of what has already been long established in both of these scholarly fields. Bahá'í religious texts contain a great deal of philosophical passages and speculation, sometimes of a highly technical nature. Bahá'í scriptures make use of such Aristotelian terms as essence, substance, essential and accidental attributes, four-fold causality, potentiality, and its actualization, and so on. In addition to Aristotelian philosophical ideas, the Bahá'í Writings make use of a Neoplatonist concept of emanation. Overall, the article explores Bahá'í views in the areas of epistemology, ontology, philosophical anthropology, philosophy of religion and history, social and political philosophy, ethics, and aesthetics.

Paradise & Paradigm: Key Symbols in Persian Christianity and the Baha’i Faith, 1999

Christopher Buck, Paradise and Paradigm: Key Symbols in Persian Christianity and the Baha’i Faith. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1999. ISBN-10: 0791440613. ISBN-13: 978-0791440612. (Release date: May 13, 1999.) NOTE This is the first formal (academic) comparison of the Baha’i Faith and Christianity, notwithstanding a wealth of apologetic literature on this topic. OPENING PARAGRAPH Religions enshrine symbols, the stained-glass windows of faith. Sacred symbols present an explorable treasury of religious thought—an information-rich, condensed language of spirituality. Symbols are the prisms of ideals and of other religious concerns. Symbols are susceptible of analysis and are proper objects of study. As symbols encode ideas, they require interpretation to be both understood and meaningfully compared. “We can see that an essential ingredient of the modern study of religion,” writes Ninian Smart, “is symbolic analysis, which tries to throw light on the various themes which can be discovered cross-culturally through the exploration of various worldviews” (1985, 33). Symbolic analysis involves not only the exploration of religious worldviews intrinsically, but comparatively as well. – Paradise & Paradigm, p. 1. CONCLUSION Symbols ensoul ideas. In the Abrahamic faiths generally, the most important symbol complex is eschatological imagery, the positive focus of which is Paradise. Visions of the empyreal realm have, historically, had an extraordinary power to inspire. Paradise is iconoplastic. The beatific panorama, the symbolic landscape, the ideals and imagery that inform Paradise in the religious imagination are grounded in root metaphors and are animated by key scenarios reflecting a theology of activity, in a dynamic interplay of belief and behavior, myth and ritual, within the religious grasp of totality. Paradise allegorizes ideals. These ideals are projected onto heaven. There, in the wish-images of the communal dream, ideals are reified and beatified. In a Bergeresque process of paradisical world building, Heaven functions as the impressionistic blueprint of the ideal faith-community. Paradise imagery is then dislocated from the speculative and refocused on Earth. When once the heart is transformed and society reformed, Paradise is realized. In the intersection of eschatology and ethics, in the interplay of ideas and imagery, and as a function of an organizing principle, an overarching paradigm, Paradise becomes utopia. – Paradise & Paradigm, p. 329. REVIEWS • Kathleen McVey. International Journal of Middle East Studies 35.3 (Aug. 2003): 494–496. Will C. van den Hoonaard. Studies in Religion. Sciences Religieuses 31.3–4 (2002): 501–502. • Brannon Wheeler. Religious Studies Review 28.3 (July 2002): 293: “Buck’s theoretically innovative analysis of ‘paradigmatic differences’ in East Syrian (or Nestorian) Christianity and the early Baha’i faith is a fascinating and intellectually challenging book. … In all, a forceful and clearly argued book which should be read by scholars interested in questions of religious symbolism and the comparative method.” • Andrew Rippin. University of Toronto Quarterly 71.1 (Winter 2001/2002): 170–172. • William Collins. Baha’i Studies Review 10 (2001/2002): 157–160. • Edward G. Farrugia, S.J. Orientalia Christiana Periodica 66.2 (2000): 480–483. • John Renard. Middle East Studies Association Bulletin 34.2 (2000): 212–213. • Daniel Grolin. H-Net Reviews in the Humanities and Social Sciences (July 2000). Harold Coward. (Unpublished) (2000). POST-PUBLICATION SCHOLARSHIP Paola Orsatti, “Syro-Persian Formulas In Poetic Form In Baptism Liturgy,” Persian Origins – Early Judaeo-Persian and the Emergence of New Persian. Collected Papers of the Symposium, Göttingen 1999. Edited by Ludwig Paul (Iranica Vol. 6, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2003), pp. 147–176. LIBRARIES WORLDWIDE Total (print & ebook editions): 1,886. [WorldCat, July 11, 2019.] Also available as a Nook Book.

Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān: Supplement, 2016

Christopher Buck, “Bahāʾīs.” Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān: Supplement. Edited by Jane McAuliffe. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill. (Published online on December 1, 2016.) See: https://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopaedia-of-the-quran/bahais-supplement-2016-EQCOM_050505. Original, longer article that was invited, accepted, and edited (6,160 words) and briefly published online (as I recall). Then a new word-limit was imposed, such that I had to cut 2,255 words. The published article is accessible here: https://www.academia.edu/30244819/Bah%C4%81%CA%BE%C4%ABs_Supplement_2016_Encyclopaedia_of_the_Qur%CA%BE%C4%81n Excerpt: Adherents of Bahāʾism (ahl al-Bahāʾ), widely known as the “Bahāʾī Faith,” an independent world religion with Islamic origins. The Bahāʾī religion, a universalization of Bābism, was founded by Mīrzā Ḥusayn-ʿAlī Nūrī (1817–92), known as Bahāʾ Allāh/Bahāʾullāh (Splendor of God; standardized Bahāʾī spelling, Bahā’u’llāh), in Baghdad in the year 1863. In 1866, it emerged as a distinct faith-community in Adrianople (Edirne). Bahāʾī identity is fully independent. While Bahāʾīs do not identify as Muslims, Bahāʾīs regard the Qurʾān with profound respect as divine revelation, as do Muslims, except that Bahāʾīs have their own corpus of sacred scriptures, quite apart from the Qurʾān. Bahāʾīs also believe in Muḥammad as the “Seal of the Prophets and of the Messengers” (going beyond the Qurʾān’s honorific of Muḥammad as the “Seal of the Prophets” (khātam l-nabiyīn) in q 33:40) and hold him to be the final Messenger for the “Cycle of Prophecy.” Prophecy foretells, as well as tells forth. In Bahāʾī doctrine, the “Cycle of Prophecy (kawr-i nubuvvat) or “Adamic Cycle” (kawr-i ādam) prepared the world for the “Cycle of Fulfillment” (kawr-i taḥaqquq va ikmāl) or “Bahāʾī Cycle” (kawr-i Bahāʾī), symbolically foreshadowed in the Qurʾān as the “Great Announcement” (al-nabāʾ al-ʿaẓīm, q 78:2; Bahāʾullāh, Kitāb l-aqdas, par. 167). This Cycle of Fulfillment was inaugurated by the Bāb, who prophesied the imminent advent of “Him who God shall manifest” (man yuẓhiruhu llāh), whom the majority of Bābīs (followers of the Bāb) came to recognize as Bahāʾullāh. A Bahāʾī theology of pluralism, with special reference to Islam, may be based on a statement by Shoghi Effendi, “Guardian” of the Bahāʾī Faith (1921–57): “Unequivocally and without the least reservation it proclaims all established religions to be divine in origin, identical in their aims, complementary in their functions, continuous in their purpose, indispensable in their value to mankind.” (S. Effendi, World Order, p. 58). This, of course, applies as much to Islam as to other religions. Having arisen out of Islamic historical context and milieu, the Bahāʾī religion has certain Islamicate elements, yet Bahāʾism exhibits certain other features that are supra-Islamicate and distinct in character. For instance, Islamic doctrine adheres to a belief in successive revelations, beginning with Adam, and culminating with the Prophet Muḥammad as the “Seal of the Prophets.” In Bahāʾī teachings, the idea of successive revelations is invested with a teleology that transforms it into “progressive revelation” (tajdīd va takāmul-i adyān) where the succession of Messengers throughout the history of religions is not only sequential but cumulative, coefficient with the social evolution of humanity (Y. Ioannesyan, The concept of the “manifestations of God’s will”). As humankind advances socially, so does the corresponding need for guidance and laws suited to the exigencies of the day and age. Here, “progressive” conveys the notion of “superior” in respect of “fuller” and “more advanced,” without making a claim of intrinsic superiority. Before focusing on Bābī and Bahāʾī approaches to the interpretation of the Qurʾān, some distinctive features of Bahāʾism may be highlighted here. Bahāʾullāh, on 22 April 1863 privately declared himself “Him whom God shall manifest” (man yuẓhiruhu llāh), the messianic theophany foretold by the Bāb. In open epistles to Queen Victoria, Napoleon III, Pope Pius IX and other world leaders during the Adrianople and ʿAkkā (Haifa) periods (1864–92), Bahāʾullāh publicly proclaimed himself the advent of the millenarian “Promised One” of all religions — a “multiple-messiahship” (C. Buck, Unique, 158), i.e. the Zoroastrian Shāh Bahrām Varjāvand, the Jewish Everlasting Father (Isa 9:6)/Lord of Hosts, the Christian Spirit of Truth, the Shīʿī al-Ḥusayn redivivus, the Sunnī return of Christ, and “Him who God shall manifest,” as announced by the Bāb (see apocalypse). As “World Reformer” (muṣliḥ al-‘ālam), Bahāʾullāh advocated world peace, parliamentary democracy, disarmament, an international language, the harmony of science and religion, interfaith concord as well as gender and racial equality. . . . In precocious religious preparation for a global society, Bahāʾullāh’s signal contribution was to sacralize certain secular modernist reforms within an irreducibly original paradigm of world unity in which peace is made sacred. By designating his son ʿAbdu l-Bahāʾ (Servant of Bahāʾ, d. 1921) as interpreter, exemplar and successor and by establishing elected councils, Bahāʾullāh instituted his Covenant, symbolized as “the Crimson Ark” (C. Buck, Paradise, ch. 5). This is the organizing principle of the Bahāʾī community and the means to safeguard its integrity against major schism. Succeeding ʿAbdu l-Bahāʾ in 1921 as “Guardian” of the Bahāʾī Faith, Shoghi Effendi (d. 1957) globalized and evolved the Bahāʾī administration as a system of local and national Spiritual Assemblies. This led in 1963 to the establishment of the Universal House of Justice, the international Bahāʾī governing body, on Mount Carmel in Haifa, Israel. The purpose of the Bahāʾī Faith, as the religion is now known, is to unify the world through its principles of unity, which range from family relations to international relations. According to a recent survey, some 50 Bahāʾī principles of unity have been identified in the primary sources (Persian, Arabic and English) as follows: 50 Bahāʾī Principles of Unity I. Individual Relationship with God: (1) “Mystic feeling which unites nan with God”; II. Family Relations: (2) Unity of Husband and Wife (vaḥdat); (3) Unity of the family (ittiḥād va ittifāq dar miyān-i khāndān); III. Interpersonal Relations: (4) Oneness of Emotions (iḥsāsāt-i vāḥida); (5) Spiritual Oneness (vaḥdat-i rawḥānī); IV. Gender Relations: (6) Unity of the Rights of Men and Women (vaḥdat-i huqūq-i rijāl va nisāʾ); (7) Unity in Education (vaḥdat-i uṣūl va qavānīn-i tarbiyat); V. Economic Relations: (8) Economic Unity (ittiḥād-i iqtiṣādī); (9) Unity of People and Wealth (ittiḥād-i nufūs va amvāl) [i.e. beneficence/philanthropy]; VI. Race Relations: (10) Unity in Diversity; (11) Unity of Races (vaḥdat-i jins); VII. Environmental Relations: (12) Unity of Existence (Oneness of Being and Manifestation (Arabic: waḥdat al-wujūd wa shuhūd/Persian: vaḥdat-i vujūd va shuhūd); (13) Unity of Species (vaḥdat-i jins); (14) Unity with the Environment; VIII. Interfaith Relations: (15) Unity of God (tawḥīd-i ilāhī); (16) Mystic Unity of God and His Manifestations; (17) Unity of the Manifestations of God (maqām-i tawḥīd); (18) Unity of Truth (vaḥdat-i ḥaqīqat); (19) Unity Among Religions (ittiḥād dar dīn); (20) Peace Among Religions (sabab-i ulfat bayn-i adyān/ṣuḥul bayn-i adyān); IX. Scientific Relations: (21) Unity of Science and Religion (vaḥdat-i ‘ilm va dīn); (22) Methodological Coherence; (23) Unity of Thought (vaḥdat-i ārā) in World Undertakings; X. Linguistic Relations: (24) Unity of Language (vaḥdat-i lisān); XI. International Relations: (25) Unity of Conscience (vaḥdat-i vujdān); (26) Unity in Freedom (vaḥdat-i āzādī); (27) Evolving Social Unities; (28) Unity in the Political Realm (vaḥdat-i siyāsat); (29) Unity of Nations (vaḥdat-i vaṭan); (30) Unity of All Mankind/World Unity (ittifāq-i kull va ittiḥād-i ‘umūm/vaḥdat-i ‘ālam-i insānī); (31) Unity of the World Commonwealth; (32) Unity of the Free; XII. Bahāʾī Relations: (33) Unity of the Bahāʾī Revelation; (34) All-Unifying Power (jaat-i jāmiʻa); (35) Unity of Doctrine; (36) Unity of Meaning; (37) Bahāʾī Unity (vaḥdat-i Bahā’ī); (38) Unity among Bahāʾī Women (al-ittiḥād wa’l-ittifāq); (39) Unity in Religion (vaḥdat-i dīnī); (40) Unity of Station (ittiḥād-i maqām); (41) Unity of Souls (ittiḥād-i nufūs); (42) Unity in Speech (ittiḥād dar qawl); (43) Unity in [Ritual] Acts (ittiḥād-i ā’māl); (44) Unity of Bahāʾī Administration; (45) Unity of Purpose; (46) Unity of Means; (47) Unity of Vision; (48) Unity of Action; (49) Unity of the Spiritual Assembly (yigānigī); (50) Unity of Houses of Justice and Governments (Buck, God & Apple Pie, p. 329; id., Fifty Bahāʾī principles of unity).

The Journal of Baha’i Studies

Orientalia Christiana Periodica, 2000

Review of Christopher Buck, Paradise and Paradigm: Key Symbols in Persian Christianity and the Baha’i Faith. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1999. (Release date: May 13, 1999.) By Edward G. Farrugia, S.J. Orientalia Christiana Periodica 66.2 (2000): 480–483. ABSTRACT The work, originally a doctoral dissertation successfully defended at the Centre for the Study of Religion, University of Toronto, in 1996 (p. xiii), is meant to be an experiment in comparison (p. 313). Given his background, the author sought to compare Christianity with the Baha’i religion established in Baghdad by Mirza Ḥusayn-‘Ali Baha’ Allah, (1817–1892), a name officially spelt Baha’u’llah, meaning “Glory of God” (p. 2). In order to compare like with like, Buck concentrated on East Syrian Christianity, since this form of Christianity and the Baha’i Faith are two culturally related Abrahamic traditions in the Iranian context (p. 1). In Late Antiquity, the world had two superpowers, Rome and Persia, with the Sasanian Empire, which held sway from 224 to 651 practically always at war with the Roman Empire, save for short periods (p. 4). From an ecclesial viewpoint, while in present-day Iran Armenian Christians outnumber Assyrian Christians two to one, originally — until the devastations caused by the Mongols — it was Syrian Christianity which prevailed in Sasanian Iran, then much larger than now (p. 313). A way of stating the question of the book is to ask how “Persian” was Persian Christianity (p. 313). As is generally known, “paradise” is a Persian loan word (p. 1), and so is the word for sacraments, “raze”. The author restricts himself to the formative period of East Syrian writings, before a Church of Persia was officially constituted — and that means primarily Aphrahat the Persian Sage and Ephrem the Syrian (p. 9), from both of whom derives the grammar of images prevalent in Syriac spirituality in its formative period (p. 39). Buck explains the title of his book as follows: “Paradise may function as a master-symbol of a core religious paradigm, a controlling, conceptual model that governs ideal beliefs and behaviors” (p. 10). In its methodological intent, the work is more structural than historical (p. 11). The methodological justification that follows is particularly worth reading, for it gives us the author’s bearings, especially where he stands in comparison with other authors. Corresponding to the place occupied by symbols for East Syrian Christianity, one is pleased to see that symbol is the central category, as the sub-title would lead one to believe anyhow. Religions are described as a system of symbols, a symbol being, in turn, defined as an object or an act or an event which, metaphorically and narratively, enshrines a conception (p. 12). As Paul Ricoeur aptly puts it: “Le symbole donne a penser ... ” (p. 13). But besides providing food for thought, symbols possess a kind of collective “dream logic”, which penetrates beyond the limits of discursive thinking (p. 14). … In a nutshell, the symbolic approach may be said to reveal “creeds beyond words” (p. 315). To the author’s mind, in both early Christian and modern Baha’i texts one may observe a logic of higher agreement aiming at a synthetic unity of opposites. Soteriology is for the author the single most important heuristic key for comparing both religions (p. 315). But, while the Baha’i faith does not have a sacramental worldview, the paradigm of purity in Syriac Christianity presupposes a state of sanctification achieved through sacramental divinization (p. 317f). In the past, comparative religion fell into disrepute because of its poaching on alien territory and drawing conclusions unwarranted by the facts. On his own avowed methodological stance of not forcing identities but of explaining similarities by way of difference, Buck seems to have avoided the strictures against the old methods of comparison (see p. 320). Since the reviewer’s competence does not include the Baha’i religion, this review has purposely restricted itself to the presentation of East Syrian Christianity, which, besides providing much useful information, takes pains to avoid caricature. E. G. Farrugia, S.J.

Baha'i Studies Review, 2015

Religious dialects like Judeo-Arabic and Christianese have become popular topics of study in recent years. First proposed in the world of academia, the mass media-including public radio stations like PRI (Public Radio International)-have now begun to cover these 'religiolects' in their programmes. The purpose of this paper is to offer an introductory look at the religiolect of the Baháʼí Faith, a relatively recent religion founded in 19th century Persia (present-day Iran). To that end, we will explore the origins of the Baháʼí religiolect; examine the most essential loanwords of the religiolect; discuss some of the phraseology, both contemporary and historical, which composes the religiolect; and review especially extensive efforts to codify the religiolect. In striving to achieve the aforementioned goals, it is hoped that this paper will serve as a stepping-stone that others may use in their endeavours to further a greater understanding of the Baháʼí religiolect.

Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 2010

Bahá’í Faith: The Basics, 2021

Released by publisher online: eBook Preview PDF (front matter, Chapter 1, and References), https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9780429023088 Baha’i Faith: The Basics By: Christopher Buck Edition: 1st Edition First Published: 2021 eBook Published: 27 November 2020 Pub. location: London Imprint: Routledge DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429023088 Pages: 262 pages eBook: ISBN9780429023088 Subjects: Humanities Bahá’í Faith: The Basics provides a thorough and accessible introduction to a fascinating, independent world religion. Examining its historical development, current “community-building” efforts and the social contributions of the Bahá’í Faith in the world today, this introduction covers: • Beliefs: Bahá’í spiritual teachings. • Principles: Bahá’í social teachings. • History: Bahá’u’lláh and his covenant. • Scripture: Bahá’í sacred texts and inspired guidance. • Institutions: The Bahá’í Administrative Order. • Building community: What Bahá’ís do. • Social action: Bahá’í social and economic development projects. • Public discourse: The Bahá’í International Community. • Vision: Foundations for a future golden age. With features including a glossary of terms, and references to the Bahá’í writings throughout, this is the ideal text for students and interested readers wanting to familiarize themselves with the Bahá’í Faith. Reviews "This excellent, beautifully organized introduction provides an accurate and unusually rich entré into a relatively new and still somehow frequently misunderstood religion. The author, Christopher Buck, is a leading scholar of the Baha'i religion. His book is richly enhanced with quotations from official translations of the Baha'i sacred writings, insights into the formation of distinctive Baha'i institutions and rare glimpses of key moments in Baha'i intellectual history from an introduction to the influential African-American Baha'i philosopher, Alain Locke (d. 1954) known as 'the father of the Harlem Renaissance', to a discussion of the more recent development of the Ruhi Institute process. This introduction goes beyond existing textbooks in both scope and detail. It will be warmly welcomed by researchers and students of the Baha'i Faith." Todd Lawson, University of Toronto, Canada Christopher Buck is an independent scholar and former professor at Michigan State University, USA; Quincy University, USA; Millikin University, USA; and Carleton University, Canada.