The Elements of the Baha'I Faith

by Joseph Sheppherd

Sheppherd introduces us to the origins and history of the Baha'i religion since its foundation by Baha'u'llah in Persia at the beginning of the 19th-century. Elements of the Baha'i Faith presents a clear and succinct introduction to the origins, teachings and practices of the Baha'i faith as well as explains its relationship with other faiths. Line illustrations.

Genres: Baha I

128 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1994

Reviews

[Christopher Selmek]

I found "Elements of Baha'i Faith" at the downtown public library while looking for more information about the dinner party I attended. The first thing you need to know about Baha'is is that they don't do much evangelism, but they will host small, private gatherings where newcomers may be invited to learn about the religion. They have headquarters on every continent, but many people who belong to the Baha'i Faith don't feel the need to formally register or publicly display their faith. The book goes on about how peaceful they are, and how loving, with the goal of world community for everyone. Baha'is also believe in progressive revelation, which basically says that Buddha and Krishna, Abraham, Moses, Jesus and Muhammad were all messengers sent from the same God to reveal a little bit more of God's word that would be acceptable to their place and time. On the other hand, Baha'is also believe that Bahá'u'lláh, who lived in the mid-1800s in Iran, is the most recent prophet and they revere him as the father of their religion. Baha'is wax poetic about how beautiful he is and how they don't have the words to describe his serene expression (to see an image of Baha'u'llah, just visit the Wikipedia page). Except that Baha'u'llah died in a prison in Iran, while Jesus Christ died on a cross and then came back to life. Baha'is are dead wrong when they said that Jesus never claimed to be the fulfillment of God's prophecy; in fact, Jesus warned of false prophets who would come after him. This Baha'i Faith, with it's 19 months of 19 days and goal of international community, sounds exactly like the kind of thing that's going to scare orthodox Christians into visions of the end times. I'm going to another dinner party tonight, but I could never be a Baha'i.

[David Schwan]

This book is disappointing because of the lack of depth. Subject is interesting, just rather shallow amount of information in it.