Baha'i and Globalisation

by Annika Hvithamar (Editor), Annika Hvithamar (Editor)

Globalisation has become a buzzword that typically refers to the intensifying integration of the world economy, especially as midwifed by technological advances. It also implies a growing political and cultural sense that all humanity is globally interdependent. There have always been individuals of course who have advocated such awareness, one of them being the founder of the Baha'i faith, who formulated a spiritual equivalent as the religion's central doctrine in the late 19th Ye are the fruits of one tree, and the leaves of one branch. Its emphasis on global unification made Baha'i an obvious candidate for a case study on new religions and globalisation. The chapters in this volume fall into two sections, diachronic and synchronic. The first part is organised chronologically, beginning with the emergence of the globalist tendency in the messianic vision of Babism, the precursor to Baha'i, and concluding with an analytic history of its leaders' changing attitudes to international politics. The second part considers a variety of global themes in contemporary Baha'i practice, including global thought in Baha'i writings, the impact of the internet, and the triumphalist and secular strains in Baha'i identity. Though five million members make it one of the world's most successful new religions, Baha'i has attracted little scholarly attention. Most of the academics concentrating on Baha'i have contributed to this volume, which will appeal not only to students of modern religious movements, but to anyone interested in the ways religions can adapt to - and embrace - the modern world.

309 pages, Paperback

First published December 30, 2005

Reviews

[Rickey McKown · Rating 5 out of 5]

The editors of this volume, Margit Warburg, Annika Hvithamar, and Morten Warmind, have provided an interesting set of 15 articles (including one by each editor) and a short introduction (by Warburg) offering a variety of academic perspectives on the Baha'i Faith and its relationship with the processes of globalisation. I particularly enjoyed Stephen Lambden's look at the "messianic roots" of global thinking in the Babi and Baha'i religions, Juan Cole's look at globalisation in the thinking of 'Abdu'l Baha, and the thoughtful, but more sceptical, assessments of Sen McGlinn and, particularly, Denis MacEoin that close the volume. I will leave to MacEoin the literal "last word", with the book's very last paragraph, which aptly sums up my own misgivings about the ability of the Faith to satisfactorily adapt to a changing world:

"My conclusion is that, if the Baha’is are going to get anywhere in their contribution to globalization, they will have to reinvent themselves, and I’m not sure they will be willing or able to do that. A less Islamicist religion, one that was better able to adapt itself to circumstances, rather than believing circumstances should adapt themselves to its universal prescriptions, might accomplish much. Obsolete laws would be placed where they belong, silly historicist theories would be cast aside, absolute scriptural rulings would be interpreted in a more liberal fashion, and ethics would bend to accept things that human beings, in their foolishness and dignity, have found to be of benefi t. But Baha’ism has inherited from Islam a rigid core and a thoroughgoing authoritarianism that sit uneasily beside its seeming openness, and it is this that may, as the very nature of the global enterprise develops, make it a dinosaur."