To Be Coming From Editorial

Martha Root: Traveling Star M. R. Garis

The Baha'i Faith and Mormonism Further Reflections William P. Collins

Return of Enoch Anna Stevenson

Literature's Cracked Mirror Frederick Glaysher 1· er VOLUME 17, NUMBER 3 • PUBLISHED Q UARTERLY

Editorial Board: IN THIS ISS UE FIRUZ KAZEMZADEH BETTY J. FISHER 2 To Be Comin g from: Editorial HOWARD GAREY -t Interchange: Letters from and to the Editor Consultant in Poetry: WILLIAM STAFFORD 9 Martha Root: Traveling Star by M. R. Gms

23 On Time poem by Brei Breneman

WORLD ORDER is published qu.mcrly bl' 25 The Baha'i Faith and Mormonism: further the Nation.ii Spiritual Assembly ol the B.1h.1'ls RcAections of the U nited States, 415 Linden Avenue, W il ­ mette, IL 6009 1. Appli cation to Mail at Sccond­ by Wil!tam P. Collins class post.ige rates is pend in !> at W ilmette, IL. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to 35 Return of Enoch WORLD ORDER, 415 Linden A\'Clrne, Wil­ mette, IL 60091. by A 11na Ste·ue11so11 -+3 The views expressed herein .ire those of the .tu­ Never Learned the Name of rlowers thors and do not necessarily ,-cf1ect the opinions poem by Thomas Washingwn of the publisher, the National Spi1-itual Assem­ bly of the Baha'is of the United St.nes, or of the -+5 Literature's Cracked Mirror Editorial Board. Manuscripts should be type­ written and double spaced throughout, with the book review by Frederick Clayshcr footnotes at the end. The contributor should keep a carbon copy. Return post.tge should be -+8 Authors & Artists in This [ssue included. Sen d manuscript~ .1nd other ed it ori::tl co rrespondence to WORLD ORDER, 415 Lin­ den Avenue, Wilmette, IL 60091. Subscription r.lle>: U.S.A .. I yc.u-, SI0.00: 2 ye.trs, SIX.00: single- copin. S3.0J. All other countries. I year, 512.00; 2 yc.1r~ 1 $22 . 00~ ... inhlt.: copies 53.00. Copyright c) 198), Nation.ii Spirit u.il Assem­ bly of the B.ih3'is of the Unttcd St.Hes, All Riglm Reserved. Printed in the U.S.A . ISSN 0043-8804

2 WORLD ORDER: SPRING 1983 To Be Coming From

ABOUT ten years ago we began to hear a new idiom in English, "to be com- 1""\. ing from"-as in "I (don't) see where you're coming from." It has near­ ly the same meaning as " ... what (you're) driving at," but its perspective is different. Whereas "What are you driving at?" demands to know what con­ clusion you are leading up to, and to know immediately, "Where are you coming from?" is a more thoughtful question, more interested in causes than effects, more concerned with motives than with aims, more curious about the unique subjective experience than about the objective end-point. 9 A religion, an ideflogy, any system of shared goals may be viewed from these two perspectives. It is, indeed, important to know the creed, doctrine, tenets, goals of a community that defines itself by them-that is, by what it is "driving at." But a different perception of reality comes from the knowledge of the varied paths that the members of such a community have traveled to join it. There is a basic difference between an "interest group," which, how­ ever diverse in origin it might be, is bound together by one narrow purpose (for or against capital punishment, abortion, or prayer in school; price sup­ ports for milk or tobacco; particular kinds and methods of taxation) and a spiritual community whose members have a common faith and a common vision. As for the "interest group," its members are concerned about particu­ lar results; though they may be aware that their fe ll ows "come from" posi­ tions that may be in other respects different from their own- or even incom­ patible-they tolerate or overlook these differences in their single-minded pursuit of a particular piece of legislation. The spiritual community is another matter. Unity is its watchword, a uni­ ty of spiritual and ethical values, which in some instances are rooted in a common cultural and ethnic inheritance. Such a community, while tending to be cohesive and steadfast, would also tend to be conservative to the point of rigidity, self-limited in numbers and influence. However, if to unity the spiritual community joins a potential universality, that community cannot be founded upon a uniformity of cultural inheritance, or personality types, or any such exclusivist self-categorization. Its members must "come from" a variety of origins- religious, ideological, racial, cultural, social, education­ al-while "driving at" unifying goals, so that by whatever roads they have ar­ rived at their common highway, their fellowship will be driven as with a sin­ gle will to a world of peace, love, progress, and justice. It is not in the name of such abstractions alone that the people of Baha, re­ cruited from the ranks of the most devout of all religions, whether Southern Baptist or Shiite fundamentalist, or of the most liberal Christian or Jewish intellectual groups, or the hardheaded agnostics of the scientific community, or the traditionalists of the villages of India or of Native America, have joined forces to create such a world or that they have found the confidence that such a world is within human reach. The former adherents of exclusivist religions have widened their view of salvation and the means of attaining it; the former atheists have convinced themselves by their study of the Baha'i Writings in confrontation with the disciplined, critical thinking and results 3

of their own scientific work, that the world is, indeed, in need of salvation, and that salvation will not result from a totall y nonspiritual approac h to hu­ man problems, and, further, that Baha'u'llah has revealed the way to di scov­ er the ultimate unity of the spiritual and material dimensions, neither of which can be effective without the other. These discoveries can not be made without love-love for man, for the creation and its Creator, a love which makes it credible that, as these words were being written, the news came in that sixteen Baha'ls, of whom ten were women, had just been executed in Iran. Incredible as that criminal act may appear, it is even harder to imagine how, in the absence of such love, these martyrs could have freely chosen this martyrdom, for a word of recantation would have spared their li ves . They cannot be written off as fanatics, if only because of the universality and selfl.e ss ness of their motives: they are doing it for us, for the future of the world, a world that will be free of the fanaticism that withers the so ul and imposes the harshest of rules on the nonconformist, in short, of the fa nat i­ cism that has decreed their death. They di ed believing that their sacrifice will contribute to the end of all the tyrannies that poison today's world, and that, in the absence of the will to put their lives w here their belief is, the world would truly be doomed. This is where they are coming from and what they are driving at. Let our ardent prayer be that, in our turn, our belief w ill have the same strength to transcend rhetoric. 4 WORLD ORDER: SPRI NG 1983

Interchange LETTERS FROM AND To THE EDITOR

WE ARE well aware that our readers have a one of the greatest contemporary poets of strong interest in religions and the relation­ the United States." The reviews of A Glass ships among them. Over the years WORLD Face in the Rain bear out the enthusiastic as­ ORDER has run articles that explored var­ sessment. Suzanne Juhasz, from the English ious aspects of Hinduism, Buddhism, Zor­ Department of the University of Colorado, oastrianism, Christianity, and Islam, and Boulder, wrote in Library Journal, that "It is some that attempted to present Baha'i views a pleasure and privilege to read Stafford's of these faiths. In the Fall 1980/Winter 1981 newest collection: to take part in his admira­ issue we published William P. Collins' "The ble way of being in the world; to have the Baha'i Faith and Mormonism: A Prelimi­ excitement and satisfaction of experiencing nary Survey," an article that raised a number his language. Stafford's poems, like the of questions that needed further examina­ world he writes about, have a simplicity tion. In the current issue Mr. Collins contin­ that resonates, 'where talk finds truth, slides ues the endeavor, probing some Mormon near I and away.'" beliefs in the light ofBaha'I teachings. Booklist provides even more insight into Through fortunate coincidence we have the special treat one finds in Mr. Stafford's scheduled for this issue another article in­ poems: "With typical modesty and accura­ spired by an interest in Mormonism, the re­ cy, Stafford has described his poetry as flective and impressionistic piece by Anna 'much like talk, with some enhancement.' Stevenson. Together the two articles dem­ Enchantment might have been an even more onstrate not merely the tolerance but the af­ apt term, as his large new collection consis­ fection we feel for religious traditions that tently shows. Directly and without preten­ hold beliefs at variance with our own but in sion, these short lyrics charm with images, whose teachings we gladly discern truths insights, and, yes, inspirations, as he looks common to all religions. on the world, relationships, the comforts of familiar things, and sends back the message that everything counts. Speaking of his poems as bridges, he hopes that through Our congratulations go to William Stafford, them we 'hear another world for a minute I professor emeritus in English at Lewis & that is almost there.' He returns here often Clark College, poet laureate of the state of to examine the nature of fantasy, dreams, Oregon, and WORLD ORDER'S consultant hopes, and why we need them, but his basic in poetry. In 1982 Harper & Row published strength is his moral vision (though he Mr. Stafford's new volume of poetry A Glass might not call it that) and his ambition 'to Face in the Rain. One of Mr. Stafford's listen with sympathy I to speak like a friends refers to him affectionately as "truly child.' As with few other recent books of 5 ------·--····------l

poetry, one feels better for having read Staf­ were not exempt from grief, fear, anxiety. Yet ford's words and entered briefly into his qui­ through these accounts we can witness that mys­ etly magical world." terious transforming power born of the love of Somehow, though, we are not surprised God ... it is that power-that assistance prom­ by the reception of A Glass Face in the Rain, ised to us all-that enables them to endure the un­ nor by the reviewer's observation that Mr. edurable ...... as the Baha'ls know, this transcendent Stafford's poems are momentary bridges to power is a Divine bestowal: "How can I succeed another world. Mr. Stafford's new book is unless Thou assist me with the breath of the his eighth volume of poems, and the sixth Holy Spirit, help me to triumph by the hosts of published by Harper & Row. He has been Thy glorious Kingdom, and shower upon me honored with a National Book Award and a Thy confirmations which alone can change a Guggenheim Fellowship and has served as gnat into an eagle, a drop of water into rivers and consultant in poetry at the Library of Con­ seas, and an atom into lights and suns?" gress. In the short time he has been WORLD Thank you for presenting us with these illu­ ORDER'S consultant in poetry we have had minating and most noble testimonies of the pow­ er of faith. ample opportunity to observe how he im­ KATHLEEN L. BABB bues the tedious job of reading and selecting Hiroshima, Japan poems for publication with wit, insight, and genuine interest in the neophyte as well as in THE HUMAN SOUL the accomplished poet. A Glass Face in the I deeply appreciated the article by Raymond Jef­ Rain is one more testimony by Mr. Stafford fords in the Fall, 1982, issue, dealing with the hu­ showing how work can truly be elevated to man soul. The writer has assembled an amazing the service of mankind. amount of pertinent material from a variety of Baha'i sources, and this, combined with his felici­ tous style, resulted in a piece of work which is To the Editor not merely educational but inspirational. At the same time, it appeared to me that there were two THE HEROISM OF MARTYRS areas which needed some clarification, and my I'd like to express my appreciation of the "Three comments following are offered in this sense, be­ Accounts of Love Sacrificed" (Fall 1982). Pre­ ing intended as a helpful contribution to his re­ viously we have only had Nabfl's Narrative [The search. The two areas may be designated as (a) Dawn-Breakers] as a portrait of the heroism of the confusion of the terms "soul" and "rational martyrs of our Faith which was apt to leave one soul," and (b) overlooking the special and unique feeling that these brave souls were super-human role of the heart in the acquisition of faith. in their steadfastness and fortitude. The current (a) Soul and Rational Soul: These are two dis­ accounts ... , however, have greatly served to il­ tinct terms, which can never be considered as lustrate the more human side of martyrs, who synonymous even though closely related. (1) The 6 WORLD ORDER: SPR ING 1983

soul is an entity, or object possessing a real exis­ faith. That w hich is the seat of faith is designated tence. "The soul is not a combinatio n of ele­ over and over again as the heart. To mention ments, it is not composed of many atoms, it is of merely a few of many familiar references: one indivisible substance and therefore eter­ "Thy heart is My home; sa nctify it for My de­ nal. ... The soul ... can suffer neither disinte­ scent" (AHW 59). gration nor destruction" (PT 91). "The soul or "All that is in heaven and earth I have or­ spirit of the individual comes into being w ith the dained for thee, except the human heart, w hich I conception of his physical body" (Shoghi Effen­ have made the habitatio n of My beauty and glo­ di, Messages to Alaska, 71} . (2) The rational soul is ry" (PHW 27). not an entity, but a function or faculty of t he "Sow the seeds of My di vine w isdom in the soul. As 'Abdu'l-Baha says, "the soul has two pure soil of thy heart, and water them w ith the main faculties" (PT 86}. The rational soul is water of certitude, t hat the hyacinths of M y called by several different names in the Writings: knowledge and w isdom may spring up fresh and "The human spirit which distinguishes man green in the sacred city of thy heart" (PHW 33}. from the animal is the ratio nal soul; and these Elsewhere, Baha'u'llah tells us "the spirit that an­ two names-the human spirit and the rational imateth. the human heart is the knowledge of soul-designate one thing" (BWF 317). God" (Gleanings 291). "The mind is the power of t he human spirit" C learly, the heart-qualities are se parate and (BWF 317}. distinct from the mind-qualities, and it is not too "Unlike the animal, man has a rational soul, much to say that salvatio n ultimately depends on the human intelligence" (PT 96). the heart, not the mind. In the words of 'Abdu'l­ From these references, it seems clear t hat such Baha, "the human spirit [i.e., mind-faculty], un­ terms as rational soul, human spirit, mind and in­ less assisted by the spirit of faith [i .e., heart-facul­ telligence all refer to the same concept. 'Abdu 'l­ ty] , does not beco me acquainted w ith the divine Baha summarizes this subject as follows: secrets and the heavenly realities" (old SAQ 244, "Now regarding the questio n w hether the fac­ new SAQ 208). ulties of the mind and the human soul are one In conclusion, those w ho may be interested in and the same. These faculties are but the inherent delving more deeply into this subject are advised properties of the soul, such as the power of imagi­ to study ... Taherzadeh's disc ussion (The Revela­ nat io n, of thought, of understanding; powers tion of Bahd'u'/ldh, vol. 2, pp. 216-17), w here he that are the essential requisites of the reality of clearly delineates the se par ate roles but esse ntial man, even as the solar ray is the inherent proper­ interrelationship of mind and heart. ty of the sun. The temple of man is like unto a D AVID M. EARL mirror, his soul is as the sun, and his mental facul­ Dededo, Guam ties even as the rays that emanate from that source of light" (BWF 346-47}. (b) Indispensable Role of the Heart: In His discussions of the fi ve levels of spirit (BWF 316- AUTHOR'S RESPONSE: I am most grateful to 17, 370-71, old SAQ 163-66, new SAQ 143-45}, Mr. David M . Earl for his comments and, indeed, 'Abdu'l-Baha indicates a vast difference of degree regard his letter as a helpful contribution to re­ separating the third level (human spirit, rational search on this subject. I am in fundamental agree­ soul) from the fourth level, w hich H e designates ment w ith both of the issues he raises and hope as the "spirit of faith" (BWF 370- 71) and the that his insight and perspective on the nature and "heavenly spirit": "The fourth degree of spirit is development of the human soul w ill help others the heavenly spirit; it is the spirit of faith and the w ho may have found similar shortcomings in the bounty of God; it comes from the breath of the article. Holy Spirit, and by the divine power it becomes Writing on the subject of the human soul the cause of eternal life" (old SAQ 165, new SAQ with clarity and precision is a difficult challenge. 144}. I have found nothing in the Writings to in­ For example, I agree with Mr. Earl that the terms dicate that the rational soul (mind) could be iden­ "soul" and "rational soul" are distinct though tified as the agent, or recipient, of the spirit of closely related. My intent in the article was to be- 7

gin with a detailed consi deration of the rational first step on the path to salvation is knowledge: soul and proceed to show that this could not be "that which is the cause of everlasting life, eternal regarded as the complete reality (or soul) but honor, universal enlightenment, real salvation only as a specifi c and limited level of functioning; and prosperity is, first of all, the knowledge of that the term "soul" was, in fact, an entity capa­ God" (SAQ 300). Knowledge must first be ad­ ble of functioning at a vastly higher level-the mitted to the mind before it can gain access to the spirit of fa ith. Perhaps my developmental ap­ heart. When the mind deeply ponders the Word proach in distinguishing between these two of God and embraces the Truth, the mind be­ terms was too lengthy and indirect. I appreciate comes an unobstructed channel to the heart. In the clarification which Mr. Earl has provided. this se nse only does salvatio n depend upon the Regarding the second point, the real issue mind. A closed mind never allows the light of seems to be the term "heart"- exactly what does Truth to penetrate the heart. this term represent? In the references cited by Bahfu'llah states: "The Word of God is the Mr. Earl, I believe the term refers to one's inner­ king of words and its pervasive influence is incal­ most essence, the core of o ne's being-i.e., the culable . . .. The Word is t he master key for the soul. Since I have already acknowledged that the whole world, inasmuch as through its potency "rational soul" refers to a limited functioning of the doors of t he hearts of men, which in reality the total reality of t he soul, then, of course, the are the doors of heaven, are unlocked . . . . H ow rational soul is not the recipient of the spirit of regrettable indeed that man should debar himse lf faith-the recipient is the heart or soul. from the fruits of the tree of w isdom w hile his I w ish to reiterate, however, a major point of days and hours pass swiftly away" (Tablets of Ba­ the article. Although I agree with Mr. Earl that hd'u'lldh, pp. 173-74). "salvation ultimately depends on the heart, not RAYMOND J EFFORDS the mind," the article stressed the fact that the Redondo Beach, California

9

Martha Root: Traveling Star

BY M. R. GARIS

MARTHA ROOT, one of the outstanding heroines of the first century of the Ba­ ha'i Faith, was a small, frail American woman. But with reckless courage, and motivated solely by her determination to serve the cause she had embraced, she traveled over most of the world at a time when it was not thought seemly for a woman to go about alone, visiting country after country, talking to people whose customs might seem strange and unfamiliar to an ordinary traveler. Born in Ohio in 1872 and spending her early life and youth in Cambridge Springs, Pennsylvania, Martha turned first to teaching and then to journalism, which provided ampler room for her creative talents. When she became a Baha'i in 1909, she had already established herself as a successful Pittsburgh journalist who reported the comings and goings of the wealthy but who, when she saw the first automobile appear in town, persuaded her boss to let her start a regular feature on the new phenomenon. During the next thirty years Martha's canvas would expand a thousandfold as she set out to let the world know of the new religion. By the time she died in 1939 she had circled the globe five times; had spoken to hundreds of audiences and reached millions through her newspaper articles and pioneering radio broadcasts; had befriended simple villagers and commoners, kings and maharajas, scholars and world leaders; and had mastered Esperanto and participated in countless Esperanto and peace congresses. Most important, she left behind permanent traces, for many of the countries where the Baha'i Faith is now established first heard of it from Martha Root. In this issue we are bringing our readers excerpts from a new biography of this indomitable woman-M. R. Garis' Martha Root: Lioness at the Threshold, pub­ lished by the Baha'i Publishing Trust, Wilmette, Illinois, in May 1983. The book does not pretend to be definitive; almost every stop Martha Root ever made dur­ ing the last thirty years of her life would make a book. Nor is it a scholarly work. Rather, Martha Root is intended for the general reader. The vast scope of Martha's endeavors is, at first, intimidating. But her utter humility, her lack of pretension, her sometimes comic escapes from disasters, her fear of taking a trolley across town balanced with her fearlessness in crossing the world in pursuit of her goal win one over. In the end this indefatigable champion of peace awes one, but in a friendly, accessible way that causes one to reassess the goals of his or her own life.-EDITOR 10 WORLD ORDER: SPRING 1983

~ERE was about Martha Root a literalness ready strong desires to travel and teach, the .1 that translated the writings of Baha'u'llah Master provided it with His colorful directives. and the messages to the Baha'is from l\bdu'l­ It was like a clarion call, a trumpet blast, for He Baha into directives for action. This is exactly added: "As ears are awaiting the summons for what they were meant to do. Most people Universal Peace, it is therefore advisable for agreed with the ideas and hoped that someone thee to travel ... to the different parts of the would follow them. Martha took them person­ globe, and roar like unto a lion the Kingdom of ally. She tried to fit into her life as much of the God.1 Wide-reaching consequences thou shalt proposed programs as her circumstances witness and extraordinary confirmations shall would allow. But she was restless and felt that be exhibited unto thee." 2 General statements she could not wait until the perfect arrange­ had been turned into a personal summons with ments could be made to begin the work of promises of divine help and success. Martha spreading the Baha'i Faith. was on fire. Martha committed her thoughts to paper as The war in Europe was ending. The ele­ easily as most humans breathe and frequently venth day of November 1918, the eve of Ba­ sent them off to l\bdu'l-Baha in Haifa. On 7 ha'u'llah's birthday, saw the cessation of hostil­ November 1918 she wrote to Him of her desire ities. The armistice was signed on the day of the to travel the world on behalf of the Faith. This Unity Feast at Evergreen Cabin, West Engle­ was a source of joy to l\bdu'l-Baha. In His re­ wood, New Jersey, 28 June 1919, the event that sponse He replied, "My hope from the bless­ still annually commemorates l\bdu'l-Baha's ings of His Holiness Baha'o'llah is that thou memorable visit there in 1912. Martha wrote mayest forget rest and composure and like unto of the spirit of unity and rejoicing that perme­ a swift-fl.ying bird, thou mayest reproduce the ated the gathering in 1919. 3 melody of the Kingdom and engage in songs The annual Baha'i convention in 1919 had and music in the best of tunes." If Martha need­ been held at the Hotel McAlpin in New York, ed incitement or additional stimulus for her al- where the Tablets of the Divine Plan, written by l\bdu'l-Baha, were presented. These Tablets were the charter for all future national and in­ ternational teaching plans and delineated in These two chapters, "South America" and "The specific terms the work the Baha'!s were to Other Side of the Mountain" are reprinted from achieve for centuries to come. For many Ba­ M. R. Garis' Martha Root: Lioness at the Threshold, Copyright © 1983 by the National Spiritual Assem­ ha' is the 1919 convention was their first oppor­ bly of the Baha'is of the United States. tunity to hear l\bdu'l-Baha's directives for 1. The words "like unto a lion" are not found America's spiritual mission. The Tablets were in 'Abdu'l-Baha's original letter but are implied by potent, and Martha, especially, felt their force. the word for "roar." The authorized translation for this quotation is: "All ears are alert for the summons The story persists that when the session was to the Most Great Peace. It is therefore better for over Martha Root was nowhere to be found. thee to travel now around the world, if this is conve­ She was upstairs packing her bag to leave, los­ niently possible, and roar om the call of the Divine ing not an hour before acting on the instruc­ Kingdom. Thou shalt witness great results and ex­ tions of l\bdu'l-Baha to teach the Baha'i Faith. traordinary confirmations." 2. 'Abdu'l-Baha to Root, 10 January 1919, per­ When a few of the Tablets were first read in sonal papers of Emanuel Reimer. (At the time of Boston two years earlier, Martha's mother had Martha Root's decision to travel to South America, died only a few months before. Martha was an approved translation of this tablet did not yet ex­ comforting a grieving father at the time and ist; consequently, this translation cannot be consid­ was not in a position to act. Now she felt that ered authentic.- ED.) 3. Martha L. Root, "Eighth Annual Feast of she must respond to this overwhelming desire Commemoration," Star of the West, 10 (13 July to spread the word of Baha'u'llah. Apart from 1919), 134- 35. the United States and Canada, l\bdu'l-Baha M ARTHA ROOT 11 also urged that South America receive the Ba­ the blueprint, which would develop over the ha'i message. next twenty years, was being drawn. Which area should she choose? How could Martha arrived in New York several days she leave her father? Martha was in Pittsburgh before her ship was to sail and spoke on the Ba­ when she was seized with the idea of making ha'i Faith every day or evening. On the second travel arrangements at once: Go to South night she met the head of a newspaper syndi­ America. Uncertain, unhappy, trembling, she cate who was interested in her South American nevertheless committed herself to sail on the venture, and he arranged to buy her articles, Albah, Lamport & Holt Lines, from New York which he would send to more than one hun­ to South America on 21June1919. dred newspapers. He also offered to publish a Martha was torn between duties, each as de­ short article on the Faith, which would be syn­ manding of her love and time as the other. She dicated. The doors were opening. suffered violent pangs of conscience on both But tests were on the threshold, too. A sea­ levels. She could not go and leave her elderly, men's strike delayed the 21 June sailing. The ailing father. She must go. She must follow 'Ab­ problem had its advantages, for it enabled Mar­ du'l-Baha's instructions. tha to go to West Englewood, New Jersey, and Although Cambridge Springs was populat­ attend the Unity Feast commemorating 'Ab­ ed with Root relatives, brothers and sisters of du'l-Baha's visit in 1912. While there, she vis­ T. T. Root, his two sons and their families, plus ited the home of architect Louis Bourgeois, scores of cousins, the responsibility and care of near Evergreen Cabin, and viewed his model of her father was squarely on Martha's shoulders. the Baha'i House of Worship to be constructed Nevertheless, prodded by the certainty that in Wilmette, Illinois. she was doing the right thing, and with her fa­ On the Albah the tensions mounted as the ther urging her to do what she must, with tears ship lay in port, passengers aboard. Week fol­ streaming down her face, Martha started to lowed week, and the situation was stagnant. pack. The doorbell rang, and there at the door Then Chinese sailors were brought out to re­ was a neighbor wanting to rent the flat for rela­ place the strikers, and a threatening climate re­ tives from Philadelphia during the months sulted as antagonisms mounted. On board when Martha would be gone. They would be Martha described the scene: happy to take care of Mr. Root. He would re­ The ship stood out at the Statue of Liber­ tain his own room and bath, and in all other ty.... The seamen who refused to sail were ways they would live as a family. Martha's given the Message. Abdul Baha's views of prayers had been answered. the economic situation were explained to In 1915 Martha had circled the globe to dis­ them, so there was a little feeling of love and cover how Baha'is lived in other countries and sympathy and blue booklets taken back to to ply her trade as a reporter. Now, four years the union men through the sailors who did later, Martha Root was about to begin the first not go. 4 of her historic journeys for the Baha'i Faith. Strikebreakers took over, for which Martha Here she set the style for her future trips, and was grateful. A longer delay would have made the trip impossible because of her commit­ ments in Cambridge Springs, but "in her heart she KNEW they would sail, for the guidance 4. Martha L. Root, "A Bahai Pilgrimage to had been so clear at every step." 5 After a South America," TS, personal papers of Emanuel month's delay, the Albah sailed out of New Reimer. Portions of this account were published in York on 22July. Martha L. Root, "A Bahai Pilgrimage to South But the strike had taken its toll. Martha was America," Star of the West, 11 (13 July 1920), 107-11, 113-18. ill and overcome with an intense fatigue, partly 5. Ibid. induced by apprehensions of her own limita- 12 WORLD ORDER: SPRJNG 1983

tions for the task she had undertaken and by lies. The first to enter the room where the talk the vast differences in life-style between her was being held were the men of the sports com­ and the other passengers, who smoked, drank, mittee; they had done much to make the event and gam bled; she did none of these, nor did she popular by talking about it and by bringing harbor any enthusiasm for sports. For two their friends. The captain, purser, and several days pain took over, but she read and was re­ officers were there. vived by words of '.Abdu'l-Baha: The sea was not calm; and as Martha spoke, Let not conventionality cause you to seem the ship pitched and rolled so that she had to cold and unsympathetic when you meet hold on to a pillar to keep herself upright. She strange people from other countries .... Be spoke for over an hour. Then a bishop, who kind to the strangers . . .. Help to make had never heard of the Baha'i Faith, got up and them feel at home; ... ask if you may ren­ spoke against it. "He said," Martha wrote, "one der them any service; try to make their lives could never be a Christian and believe in these a little happier. Let those who meet you other religions too. M8 replied to him point by know, without your proclaiming the fact, point and from that evening they have been that you are indeed a Baha'l.6 friendly-his very arguments against the move­ As it was written, so Martha responded. All the ment later made friends for it."9 The lecture, so bon voyage gifts that she had received were dis­ early in the voyage, created questions, which tributed for the comfort of others. She prayed were answered, and generated an atmosphere for greater capacity to serve more intelligently of trust. There were many quiet talks on deck and lovingly. Again the doors opened. as a result. The men had given money to buy prizes for Martha used other latent skills. She had the sports events aboard the ship. Martha took once studied palmistry, and "just in fun" she "the best small article of her apparel," perhaps read a passenger's hand. 10 Once again the right a scarf, wrapped it in the artistic Japanese style, note was struck. It was an instant success. So and took it to the sports committee to be used many rushed over to have their palms read that as a prize. It was the only woman's gift. She the captain lined them all up to take turns, he told them she did not know much about first, with both palms up. She made many sports, but in order to join in the "'family par­ friends. Three days later the captain questioned ty'" she was going in for all "except the heavy her skills before the crowd. He was sure that weight contests." 7 Martha could not read his hand exactly the same a second time. "'If you prove you can,'" Two DAYS after the ship left New York, Mar­ he challenged her, "'I'll put it on the records of tha asked the captain's permission to speak in the [Albah J... among the distinguished pas­ the evening, since it was a Sunday, on the Ba­ sengers that you are the first Bahai ever to ride ha'i Faith. A large notice was put on the bulle­ over these lines and that they can find out all tin board. Although no one had ever heard of about what a Bahai is by reading the book you the Baha'i Faith, all came except a few Catho- put in the ship's library."'11 The second read­ ing was identical to the first. It was a triumph for Martha and for her mission. 6. 'Abdu'l-Baha, Paris Talks: Addresses Given by The drinking on the ship was great and con­ 'Abdu'l·Bahd in Paris in 1911, 11th ed. (London: Ba­ stant. The bar, which was next to Martha's ha'i Publishing Trust, 1969), p. 15. room, was open from 6:00 A.M. until 2:00 A.M. 7. Root, "Bahai Pilgrimage." in order to be as accommodating to drinkers as 8. This diary is written in the third person, possible. Martha's roommate was the champi­ with Martha referring to herself as "M." 9. Ibid. on poker player and stayed up half the night 10. Ibid. proving it. She also owned two monkeys, 11. Ibid. which shared the cabin. Now Martha under- MARTHA ROOT 13 stood what 'Abdu'l-Baha meant in a letter to for the passengers, who left the ship for two­ her when He wrote, "Thou mayest forget rest hour jaunts or sometimes full-day excursions. and composure . . .. "12 Martha's plan was to leave the ship at Bahia, on When Martha went to the smoking room the eastern shore of Brazil, which had been es­ one night, as usual, to say good night to her pecially mentioned by 'Abdu'l-Baha as a place card-playing roommate, one of the business­ where "its efficacy will be most potent." 14 Her men wanted her to drink a champagne toast for other main goal was Panama, also singled out his birthday. She wished him many happy re­ by the Master, which lay on the other side of turns but declined the drink. He offered a toast South America. Access to both places was to to the Baha'i Faith, asked for a blue booklet, present great difficulties, but Martha loved a and later had several conversations with Mar­ challenge. tha about the Faith. In Para Martha left her companions and Martha Root never sidestepped her own made her way to a newspaper office. This was principles or her way of life. Yet in the midst of not easy since she did not speak the language, sophistication and questionable behavior she but by using sign language and props she was the most popular, and surely the most reached her destination. After conversing unique, woman on board. And she shared in "badly" in French, she tried to explain the Ba­ the gala festivities. At a fancy dress ball she ba' i Faith to the editor and staff. 15 They asked went as a Persian woman and was chosen by her to write about it in one thousand words, in the captain to present the prizes. English, and they would have it translated. The chief steward suggested that Martha tell Then the newspaper people "jumped up in the help about her religion, which she did. The excitement" as a man entered whom they in­ Chinese seamen had the message, including troduced as the best lawyer in Para, who spoke 'Abdu'l-Baha's letter "China, China, China, English. 16 She discovered that he had enter­ China-ward," sent down to them since the cap­ tained a relative, Elihu Root, a few years earli­ tain did not permit Martha to go where they er. He translated her article into Portuguese, worked. 13 With the time growing closer for her the language of Brazil, and the paper agreed to to give the message to the South Americans as run it and to print any future articles of hers. well, she found time during the voyage to Blue booklets were given out to the newspaper­ study the Catholic religion, which was pre­ men, and Martha Root became the first Baba' i dominant in South America, so that she could to visit Para. As the attorney brought her back present the Baha'i teachings from the Catholic to the ship in his motor car, she discovered that point of view. he was the lawyer for the line on which she was After two weeks at sea the first South traveling. Martha and the Baha'i Faith had a American city on the northern tip of Brazil new friend. Thus had Martha spent her first came into view: Para (now Belem), with day on South American soil. 175,000 residents. Martha's unusual and fortu­ Some of the stopovers were brief and diffi­ itous experiences began to occur. Most of the cult to negotiate. In Ceara (now Fortaleza), cities along the coast were stopping-off points those passengers who wanted to go ashore had to jump into small sailboats, pitching wildly in the rough ocean, presenting the large possibil­ 12. 'Abdu'l-Baha to Root, 10 January 1919, per­ sonal papers of Emanuel Reimer. ity of involuntary immersion. Martha risked 13. The text of the letter appears on p. 167 in it. Wearing the long dresses of the period, car­ Martha Root. rying her blue booklets, the light fading, she 14. 'Abdu'l-Baha, "Unveiling of the Divine Plan jumped from the Albah into the bobbing sail­ forthe Western World," Star ofthe West, 10 (12 Dec. boat, lamenting that she had only two hours in 1919), 282. 15. Root, "Bahai Pilgrimage." the gathering dusk to present her booklets and 16. Ibid. the message. 14 WORLD ORDER: SPRING 1983

Martha was going about the cities as a wom­ Although only Portuguese was spoken, an alone, which was frowned upon by South Martha learned that an American businesswo­ Americans, although they did make some ex­ man was staying at the Hotel Parque. Martha ceptions for women from the United States. sent in her card, "with the right hand corner She compared these social restrictions and nice­ turned down which means less formality in ties with the behavior of the South American South America," and prayed that if it were women on shipboard, which she found shock­ right for her to go to Bahia she would meet this ing. Yet, although a solitary female traveler American woman who might help her. They might have provoked a social taboo, Martha met, and almost the first words to come from pursued her mission. Martha were, "'I am a Bahai.'" The American The Albah stopped at Pernambuco (now Re­ woman asked, "'Did you ever know my cous­ cife), the fourth largest commercially impor­ in, Lua Getsinger?'" 19 A new friendship was tant city in South America, from where the begun. ship would sail down the coast to Bahia. But in Martha's new friend, Lillyan Vegas, to Pernambuco it was learned that Bahia was whom she refers as "Mrs. Z.," had a cot closed because of yellow fever. If Martha left brought in so that Martha could share her quar­ the ship and made her own way to Bahia, her ters, for there were no rooms available at the goal city, despite the yellow fever, it meant the Hotel Parque. When Martha went back to say loss of the ticket from Pernambuco to Rio de good-bye to her shipboard family, she discov­ Janeiro, several hundred miles away. And there ered that Mrs. Z. was well known among the were other problems. "Added to all this," she passengers as an astute and successful business said, "there were four cases of yellow fever de­ person. The businessmen were impressed by veloped that day in Pernambuco and a revolu­ Martha's good fortune. Some of the passengers tion started in which several were killed, street gave her gifts and escorted her back to the ho­ cars burned, bridges bombed ... . "17 tel, along empty streets guarded by soldiers. Be­ Four American businessmen who had fore she left, the captain asked for more blue planned to stay in Pernambuco changed their booklets. minds. Martha was advised to stay with her The friendship of Mrs. Z. was a boon to ship. But 1\bdu'l-Baha's mention of Bahia Martha for several reasons, but especially be­ stayed with her. Her diary reported: cause she spoke Portuguese fluently. After con­ Throwing herself down on the bunk in versing haltingly in French with the press, the stateroom after this perplexing day, M Martha was writing an article about the Baha'i could look through the port hole into the Faith for the largest newspaper in Pernambuco; darkness where Jupiter alone shone bright­ but when Mrs. Z. came on the scene, she took ly, steadily, unmoved in his course. She rose Martha to the editors of five leading newspa­ up, ordered her bags ashore, where she had pers and conversed with them in their native made reservations with two steamship com­ language, giving the message as Martha direct­ panies, in hope of getting a passage to Bahia ed. The light of understanding in their faces on a Brazilian ship. She took the chance, in­ and attitudes forcibly brought home to Martha sane as it looked to other passengers. ts the need for an international language. They all took articles that Martha had prepared, and they promised cooperation with her work. 17. Ibid. On 16 August Martha and Mrs. Z. sailed 18. Ibid. from Pernambuco bound for Bahia on the Ita­ 19. Ibid. Lua Getsinger was one of the early puhy. Martha's first goal was within sight. The American Baha'!s, who on occasion was a special emissary for 'Abdu'l-Baha. She taught the Bah:l'! passengers represented many nations, and in Faith in India and Egypt and died in Alexandria in this two-day voyage they heard about Baha'u'­ 1916. llah, the latest messenger from God, and about MARTHA ROOT 15 the road to universal peace. Those bound for state of the same name, later sending a report of America were given letters of introduction to several hundred pages, not brief, to 'Abdu'l­ Roy Wilhelm. Bahi She learned of their commerce (one of One morning the cadences of an Oriental the richest states in Brazil), their religious chant reached Martha's ears. She followed the views and tendencies, their intellectual pur­ sound, and when the Arab had finished chant­ suits. This information would be used not only ing his prayers, she introduced herself. for Martha's benefit during her visit but to aid Through an interpreter she learned that he Baha'!s in other places to know the needs of the lived in Akko and had often shared meals in area and the opportunities available in this 'Abdu'l-Baha's home. His father had actually young giant of a country. Among her observa­ known Baha'u'llah. She gave him a blue book­ tions were that let, and he promised to carry a gift from Mar­ The Portuguese and Brazilians are born aris­ tha to 'Abdu'l-Baha. tocrats. If Bahais come to Brazil they must A six-hour stop in Macei6, a city of seventy learn the Portuguese language (not hard to thousand, was blessed by meeting a merchant learn) and learn the customs of these Latin friend of Mrs. Z.'s, who transported them in a peoples. South Americans meet strangers sailboat to a car and then showed them the city. socially before they do any business. "Pa­ Like others he responded to Martha's mission ciencia amanha!" (Patience, tomorrow! ...) and drove them to all the newspaper editors. is the first lesson to be learned, Brazilians do Those who were not in the office were called everything slowly and with ceremony. 21 on at home. Martha wrote an article on two in­ Like others, the missionaries were drawn to ternational thefts, as she felt, rightly, that this Martha, and they came to call on her at the Ho­ work would bring her in closer touch with the tel Sul Americano before they left for the vast commercial world. interior of Brazil. She learned from them about Because of yellow fever raging in Bahia, Lua the high rate of illiteracy (90 percent) among Getsinger's cousin decided against stopping the indigenous people and about their lack of there but would go on to Rio. Martha, un­ medical care. One missionary, she was told, daunted, left the ship, engulfed by a violent rode six days to reach a doctor. rainstorm. It had been a stormy trip through­ Martha was still concerned about disregard­ out, and Martha was one of the few to escape ing the social rules by going about alone. She seasickness. Once again she braved the enor­ continued to seek opinions in support of her mous waves, almost eclipsing the little boats, mode of travel and welcomed those that were bobbing like corks in the ocean, waiting to favorable. One American businessman, a Mr. take the passengers ashore. S., approved and assured her, regarding females Like waving a magic wand, two young Eng­ from the United States, that "she would be lish-speaking missionaries appeared, who took shown fine respect if she is a good wom­ Martha to a hotel in Bahia "as easily as violets an .... "22 spring up in spring."20 They also took her to There was in Martha Root an indefinable call on friends from the Albah, who lived only quality that made others eager to lend assis­ four doors from where Martha was staying. tance. One of her shipmates who lived in Bahia Having arrived in Bahia, which in 1919 had took part of each day to introduce Martha to a population of some 280,000, Martha set distinguished and influential friends, and Mr. S. about studying facets of both the city and the made appointments with newspaper editors, escorted her, and interpreted for her. She placed books, given to her by American Baha'ls, in the local library, where the books 20. Root, "Bahai Pilgrimage." 21. Ibid. were immediately sought after. Articles began 22. Ibid. to appear in the newspapers, together with pie- 16 WORLD ORDER: SPRING 1983

tures of '.Abdu'l-Baha and of Martha; a friend donating books, always making friends, and had taken her picture, which was made avail­ enjoying their offers of translation, transporta­ able to the papers. She carried twelve pictures tion, and introductions. The articles flowed; of the Master but once remarked, "One ought their publication in newspapers and magazines to carry two hundred." 23 opened the way for future conversations and People came to Martha, asked for literature, discussions because the word Bahcf:{ had al­ offered to help teach the Faith, gave her din­ ready been seen in print. The relatives of her ners, flowers, gifts, and when she was leaving, American business friend in Pernambuco were escorted her to the ship. "Abdul Baha did it a valuable link to the Rio de Janeiro communi­ all," she would say. 24 Mr. S. also wrote letters of ty, and they entertained and assisted Martha introduction for Martha to his wife and sister throughout her stay. in Rio de Janeiro. Before her departure he had The Esperantists were especially active in requested a variety of Baha'i literature and had Rio, both as individuals and groups and as pub­ become another staunch friend for Martha and lishers of Esperanto periodicals. Like most the Faith. South Americans, they enjoyed entertaining The charmed atmosphere stayed with Mar­ and hosted a gathering for Martha as well as a tha, and to everyone's surprise she was able to lecture by her. She discovered that the language leave Bahia after six days, upsetting predictions was greatly respected in Rio and that a street of her being marooned there for months. She was named "Dr. Zamenhof."26 While in Rio sailed on the ltassuce, a highly disinfected ship, Martha also spoke at the Brazilian School of after being examined and allowed to leave. Pas­ Naval Aviation and the Brazilian Army School sengers' baggage was also disinfected. Martha of Aviation. quipped, "It was heroic-quite brimstone The worldliness of the city was an ever-pre­ enough for this world and the next!" 25 sent factor, but Martha looked askance at it. The small Brazilian ship rolled incessantly Nevertheless, she saw in this worldliness the during the four-day voyage from Bahia to Rio means of employment for pioneers. She com­ de Janeiro, and almost everyone was seasick. piled a list of possibilities; in the midst of more Martha was the only woman in the dining esoteric recommendations she wrote, "A cat­ room. These were the winter months in Brazil, sup maker could do well, good canning estab­ and the rough seas reflected the less benign cli­ lishments are needed ... ." 11 mate, which was wet and cold. Martha used her She also recommended printing the blue now well-practiced French and was able to talk booklets in Portuguese, not Spanish. She about the Faith. One friend she made was a would use Spanish booklets in Argentina, Curitiba resident, who was given six books to where Harry Randall was sending five thou­ place in his city library. sand, which she hoped would be waiting when Finally, they arrived in Rio, which proved she arrived. to be a gem. Martha, responding like a runner On 5 September Martha left Rio for Sao whose course is laid out, moved from consulate Paulo, which she called the Chicago of South to newspapers, to acquaintances, to libraries, America. The journey by train was "like riding 12 hours in a Paradise whose wealth is not yet discovered . . .. "28 Despite its commercial ori­ 23. Ibid. entation the beauty of Sao Paulo touched Mar­ 24. Ibid. tha's soul. The business block was nestled in 25. Ibid. gardens. The exotic plants, the concerts, the 26. Another street was named "President Wil­ violinist playing in a grocery store-all these son," and there was a town in Brazil named "Elihu Root." plucked at Martha's aesthetic sensibilities. 27. Root, "Bahai Pilgrimage." But Sao Paulo was expensive. Martha 28. Ibid. shopped for a hotel where she would be among MARTHA ROOT 17

people other than Americans. She found one and travel around the world to spread the with a room on the fifth floor, no elevator, and teachings. had to pay New York prices. Still having no The three-day visit to Santos, and Martha's knowledge of Portuguese, she was able to get publicity on the Baha'i Faith, had uncovered by once again with her French. The libraries this gem in a mine of stones. All those she met were always a focal point for Martha, where were extremely interested in the teachings, she presented gifts of Baha'i literature. She had which emphasized the oneness of humanity, been especially impressed by the one in Rio. and they completed plans to publish five thou­ The vitality of Sao Paulo was left behind as sand blue booklets, translated into Portuguese, Martha took the train, heading for Santos. She with several Theosophists participating to en­ was struck by the enormous feat of engineering sure a perfect translation. that created a railroad through almost impene­ Following this fruitful meeting Martha's trable forest. The skill and the beauty equally new friends put her aboard the ship sailing for commanded her praise: "The train hovers like Argentina. She seems never to have synchro­ a bird around the mountain sides, and one is nized her love of warm weather with her voy­ thrilled, awed by the grandeur of millions ages. The Brazilian winter was not kind, and upon millions of forest trees, above and be­ ocean travel was extremely unpleasant. The low."29 cold, the sleet, the mountainous, raging seas In Santos Martha again chose a small hotel made seasickness a normal state of health, and where only Portuguese was spoken. She relied Martha found herself "a little laggard in giving not on language but on her ability to read char­ the Message." 30 But the memory of ~bdu'l - Ba­ acter to accomplish her tasks. She loved the ha's unfulfilled desire to travel the world and Brazilians, loved their courtesy, their manners, endure hardships to spread the word spurred their thoughtfulness of her needs as a woman Martha on. A shipboard conference grew out traveling alone. of the interest of a few. Almost everyone on The Theosophists of Santos, having seen an board attended, and the interest was high. article by Martha Root in a local paper, a The Baha'i literature that Martha carried speedy accomplishment, were excited by the with her was almost gone, but the "gift of love implications of the Baha'i message and wanted to South America," in the form of several thou­ her to address their society. A talk was impossi­ sand booklets that Harry Randall had printed ble because her ship was sailing on the day they and was sending to Argentina, would fill the re­ contacted her, but they sent a committee to call sponse to Martha's presentation. Names and on her. One of the members had heard briefly addresses were taken, and literature would be about the Faith in 1914 and had been seeking sent. One Frenchman said, "'I have not always further information ever since. He had written understood well ze words you speak me but I an article and had made a presentation on the understand ze life you have and it is for that I Baha'i revelation for his society, using his limit­ am interested.' " 31 ed history. Martha's article opened up new vis­ The ship made a twelve-hour stop in Monte­ tas for him. He was a waiting soul and wanted video, Uruguay, where Martha's card-playing to write about the Faith, translate its literature, roommate of the Albah lived. Martha stopped at the family business address, and a touring car was sent to bring her to the family home. They, too, after entertaining Martha, helped to put 29. Ibid. It was of this, perhaps the richest short Baha'i books in English clubs and libraries and railroad in the world, that an American railroad took her to a newspaper editor, who used an ar­ president said he knew of nothing to improve it un­ ticle on the Faith. Then she was off again. less its rails be set with diamonds. 30. Root, "Bahai Pilgrimage." The ship arrived in Buenos Aires, Argenti­ 31. Ibid. na's capital, on 20 September. Martha settled 18 WORLD ORDER: SPRING 1983

into this Spanish city, where she stayed until 4 accept, as many persons were calling at the ad­ October. She used every contact that came her dress first given in the newspaper. He also of­ way-chambermaids, doctors, teachers, trans­ fered to pay for a hall for three years, as a meet­ lators, newspaper editors- all embracing a van­ ing place, if a Spiritual Assembly could be ety of religions from Christian Science to Ca­ formed. Such was the ardent response of those tholicism. who heard about the Baha'i Faith through That mysterious element in Martha's per­ Martha Root. sonality that made others want to serve her greatly aided her work in n_ew pl~ces . One of The Other Side of the Mountain the most prominent magazine editors offered IN THE WEEKS since Martha had left New York to go to all of the Italian newspapers with Mar­ Harbor, she had accomplished much of what tha's articles, during two days of torrential she had set out to do. She had spoken about the rains, while she visited all the English papers. Baha'i Faith to hundreds of persons, made There were four hundred newspapers and mag­ friends, given public talks, supplied i~dividual_s azines in Buenos Aires. How many of these with literature about the Faith, wntten arti­ were actually visited is not known, but, in Mar­ cles, put books in libraries, and gone to Bahia. tha's words, all those contacted responded fa­ Her second goal, traveling to Panama, still lay vorably to the Faith and used her articles. She ahead and it threatened to be a more difficult had a good press, and her stories were every­ than that of reachin? Bahia. where. acco~plishment But Martha was never one to sacnfice a des­ The Theosophists in Buenos Aires as well tination because of troublesome obstacles, in­ were enamoured with the Baha'i Faith and its convenient weather, or mode of traveling. She disciple. She was elaborately entertained with would leave Buenos Aires and cross the Andes dinners and receptions, and letters of introduc­ to reach the west coast of South America, tion to influential persons were given to Mar­ where she would make her way north to Pana­ tha. They sent to her pension "beautiful books, ma. The journey was always hazardous, but in Bowers, candy, [and] clippings of articles." 32 the winter the risk and dangers mounted She, in turn, wrote letters of introduction to alarmingly. Martha's friends tried unsu~cessfu l­ those soon to visit the United States. ly to dissuade her. A newspaper article de­ As she had done in other parts of South scribed the journey she was about to take: "'If America, Martha gave many talks. Before leav­ you would consider riding around the edge of ing home she had prepared well for pr.esenta­ the Woolworth building [then one of the tions on some of the principles of the Faith and world's tallest buildings] (when it is covered had researched her topics and canvassed with ice and snow) on a gentle mule a safe pas­ friends, especially for material on the econom­ time, then have no fears regarding the incon­ ic solution. This and the equality of men and veniences in crossing the Andes in winter.' "13 women, a universal language, and universal Stories of frozen faces, fingers, and toes reached education, were all magnetic ideas for the men­ Martha, but she was adamant, determined to tally alert and seeking friends of South Amer­ fulfill 'Abdu'l-Baha's hope of taking the mes­ ica. sage up the west coast of South America and So impressed was one person with these into Panama. teachings that he had an office outfitted with The friends Martha had made showered her furniture and a telephone for Martha to use with gifts during her stay. She was touched by such a dis­ of books, fruit, Bowers, lunches, din­ play of faith and generosity; but she could not ners, and candy. Some brought heavy under­ wear, woolen garments, even a fur coat that could be passed on to a New York relative, and 32. Ibid. additional food from friends of all nationali­ 33. Ibid. ties. MARTHA ROOT 19

Inevitably, a protector appeared, a New ly the sun shone brightly and the acute cold York "business diplomat" who was crossing in was not so terrible as all had expected . . .. the same group, who said "he would do any­ A detour through one dark tunnel took thing he could for M." 34 She seemed to touch a over an hour in stumbling, slipping black­ wellspring in people, and they wanted to shield ness in which the frightened mules shied and comfort her. and fell. M, as her mule plunged downward The trip would begin by train, then shift to into the mouth of the tunnel gripped the mule-back. Manha was fortunate in having as pommel, threw her body far back, closed her roommate in the camorata, or sleeping her eyes and prayed the "Ya Allah El-Mos­ compartment, a young, intelligent Italian taghos"35 for all. Over and over again in that woman who spoke French and Spanish fluent­ black uncertainty, the clear, vibrant voice of ly. Martha's Buenos Aires friends, still thinking the Italian girl would ring down the line of of her comfort, had wired ahead to friends that mules: "Mademoiselle, are you all right?" she would be coming through. Even brief stops Then and even now to write about it, tears had a contingent to meet Miss Root, who in of deepest tenderness spring to the eyes at turn gave them her finest gift, the Baha'i mes­ the thought of such a friend . ... sage m pnnt. Later, out from the tunnel, when the pro­ Although a landslide had washed out the cession came to precipitous downward route that Martha was to have driven, other slopes towards Chile, M could not even see means of transportation were found. Seven­ that "one inch" margin that had been prom­ teen years after Manha Root was setting a ised by the man in his newspaper account­ speed record through French villages in Mr. to her this was by far the most dangerous Berg's automobile, she climbed on a mule to part of the journey. So it was with tremen­ cross the snowcapped Andes. She recorded the dous joy she saw the men getting off their experience in her diary: mules and walking farther in down the The trip by mule back over the "top of mountain side. She did the same, for the the world", for the Andes are among the mules would sometimes slip a yard in this highest ranges, the Aconcagua rising to a perpendicular path and they were fright­ height of 23,300 feet, was thrilling enough ened also. Taking the guide's hand they for the most sensational. To pray the Great­ made the descent together and when they est Name among these minarets of God was could not walk they could run! The warm to glimpse the glory of the Eternal, Un­ sun had melted the crisp snow just enough knowable. The ancient trail led 10,400 ft. that they could get a foothold. They above sea level. The people on mule back stopped every few minutes to breathe as were infinitesimal specks clinging to mighty one's breath is very short in this altitude. terraces that bear no other appearance of hu­ Some fainted, some had "puna'', which is manity except the cavalcade. As "ants in an bleeding of the nose and ears. Everything endless and boundless forest" so they hud­ given M was passed along to those who dled on the edge of jagged peaks, frozen needed it. 36 chasms, and stiffened mountain torrents. The descent was finally complete, and the Everybody felt very small and a wonderful other side of the Andes was a victorious reality. feeling of camaraderie sprang up. Fortunate- Martha, her Italian friend, and her New York businessman counted it as one of the happiest 34. Ibid. events of their lives. Later, in describing this 35. 0 God, the Refuge. Andean crossing in winter, Martha said, "I 36. Ibid. wore three suits of woolen underwear, two 37. "Miss Martha Root Will Enunciate Bahai sweaters, two coats and a steamer rug, and then Cause this Morning," Austin (Texas) Statesman, 6 nearly froze to death."37 November 1921. 20 WORLD ORDER: SPRING 1983

Martha gave Baha'i booklets to the guides of the Faith might be waiting while she rested. and customs officials and then boarded a train. Everyone was a vessel waiting to be filled with From icy mountain peaks she now rode into the Water of Life, and Martha was the hand­ the tropical gardens and orchards of Valpar­ maiden ready to pour the Supreme Elixir. That aiso. Once again she was absorbed into others' mission was the source of the fire, the radiance, lives. The quality that had drawn the Buenos the love, that emanated from her being; it was Aires friends was felt in this new city: the magnet that drew her fellow travelers to The New Yorker's firm in Valparaiso her. "Every friend met on this trip," she felt, "is treated M as a sister. They put her bags just the beginning of a long friendship. Letters through the customs, had them taken by and literature can be exchanged and other Ba­ their own porters to the ship, called a mes­ hais traveling to South America or the friends senger boy to escort her to the Theoso­ coming to North America will be joyfully re­ phists, later took her to lunch with the New ceived."39 York guest of honor, and all three men took The trip, with its variety of temperatures her in a launch to her ship. She explained and experiences, had taken its toll, and Martha the Bahai Cause. 38 came down with a severe case of grippe while The scheduled four-day stopover in Valpar­ on shipboard. But she did not allow herself the aiso had been whittled down to four hours, be­ luxury of resting and healing. She was off tell­ cause of the violent storm that had resulted in ing about Baha'u'llah and His teachings. the tunnel detour in the Andes. After the stren­ Grippe had to be the shadow to make one uous physical and emotional stress of the An­ appreciate the sunshine, so the first few dean adventure and the flirtations with danger, places are but memories of trying to get it would have been natural to use the brief res­ ashore to the newspaper offices to explain pite relaxing and gathering strength for the the Bahai Message, then leaning against the next leg of the journey. But this was not Mar­ friendly lamp posts for strength to drag tha's way. These hours were used to call on the one's self back to the boat .... The paper in president of the Theosophical Society, whom Coquimbo is "El Longitudinal"; the news­ Martha presented with a letter of introduction. paper in Antafogasta is "El Mercurio."-0 Martha left articles with him to be given to the New friends from Chile went ashore with newspapers, both in Valparaiso and in San­ Martha to act as interpreters. And so it went in tiago, another schedule victim, with no time at city after city along the coastal route when the all for a visit. ship put in to port-Iquique, Arica, and other Martha described cities, apart from their places where articles would be used. Passengers physical and commercial attributes, by popula­ themselves acted as peace doves, carrying the tion and the number of newspapers published. message for newspapers back to their native Santiago was a city of three hundred thousand lands-New Zealand, Australia, Mexico, Ven­ and eleven daily papers. She translated these ezuela, Spain, Panama. figures into the number of publications that The passengers were making mostly short could carry the Baha'i message to them, and junkets via the ship, and there was not enough she felt she was the instrument to create the oc­ time for Martha to give a talk; but one told the currence. Therefore, she could not, must not, other, and another, and so the grapevine car­ rest those four hours in Valparaiso, nor any­ ried the message throughout the ship. As she where else. She might miss an opportunity. had given away all of her Baha'i books and Someone who could become a vibrant apostle pamphlets, she spent fifty dollars, a small for­ tune in 1919, on South American newspapers 38. Root, "Bahai Pilgrimage." and periodicals that carried her articles, and 39. Ibid. most of those were gone. 40. Ibid. It was on this ship, sailing up the west coast MARTHA ROOT 21 of South America, that Martha started to learn 1919. As Martha set foot on its soil, that link the basic principles and pronunciation of Span­ between the North and the South, between the ish, which she felt to be a better tool for com­ Orient and the Occident, her second goal was munication in South America than French or reached. Esperanto, still in its infancy. She urged Baha'!s There was a pattern in Martha's visits to a to learn as many languages as possible until a new spot: her credentials were presented, let­ universal auxiliary language took over. ters of introduction were shown, interpreters With a three-hour stop near Lima, Peru, appeared, resistance melted away, and the mes­ Martha wanted to use her introductory letters sage of the dawn of a new day was welcomed. to a newspaper owner, a senator, and two phy­ Speaking opportunities opened up, and mag­ sicians. It was a thirty-minute ride to Lima nanimous acts by eager hosts followed in the from the port of Callao, in addition to the time wake of Martha's message and her outpouring it would take to get to the train, make contacts, of love. and reverse the process. How was she to get Panama was no exception. In one week the there, find these men, and get back on time? measure of Panama was taken and Baha'u'llah's Full of faith, Martha got on the electric message given. She used her professional cre­ tram. Almost as if she had rubbed a magic dentials to visit sites and persons otherwise out­ lamp, two young English-Spanish-speaking of-reach, such as the heads of all the govern­ men appeared who took her to the leading ho­ ment works, and medical authorities. Her tel to find out how to reach these persons. The Esperanto and her sense of spiritual mission hotel manager led her to a chair and suggested worked to reach other groups. As a result, prac­ that she write out a message to each one. He tically every publication, group, or association took these, along with her letters of introduc­ became a channel for Martha's presentation of tion, Baha'i booklets, and the newspaper arti­ the Baha'i Faith. cles, saved for this use, and assured her that he The one place Martha could not land was would take them personally to the individuals the Leper Colony at Palasaco, near Panama. and that they would be used. The two young Because the high winds had sent some passen­ men became interested and mailed the Baha'i gers plunging into the sea when they were at­ message to their families in Australia and New tempting to land the little boats, all others were Zealand. It was neatness and heavenly dispatch ordered back. But Martha's spirit reached them all the way. through two books and four boxes of candy. The very last day on the ship Martha was She saw and appreciated the unique aspects asked to give a lecture. It was translated by a of Panama and predicted that "Some day, some Mexican passenger so that both English and one will build a mighty university on the Spanish heard the words of hope. "There was heights of the Panama Canal Zone, how glori­ such a warmth of love and interest, everybody ous if it could be a Bahai seat of learning!" 42 To­ seemed happy." It was a cosmopolitan gather­ day, on one of those heights, is the Baha'i ing, and they would take these seeds back to Ja­ House of Worship, dedicated on 29 April 1972, pan, Spain, France, Germany, Panama, Ven­ its architectural brilliance a beacon of spiritual­ ezuela, Iowa, California, Oklahoma, and New ity and hope overlooking the region. One day York. "Each one has a clipping or something there will be a seat of learning on the moun­ which explains a little of the Cause to carry tain, which will fulfill the wish of this first Ba­ with him." 41 ha'i to carry the hope of Baha'u'llah's revela­ The ship sailed into Panama on 25 October tion to Panama. Martha made the five-day voyage to Ha­ vana, received the captain's permission to lec­ ture on the Baha'i Faith, and presented the 41 . Ibid. 42. Ibid. only program on board during the entire trip. 22 WORLD ORDER: SPRI NG 1983

She did not wait for opportunity to knock but follow. One Baha'i later lamented that al­ rather took the first step: though she and her husband had gone for sev­ If any one feels timid about asking [for] op­ eral months to teach in South America, they portunities to speak let him remember that could point to little progress when compared no day comes twice to any servant in the to the achievements of Martha-a lament that Cause and Abdul Baha has said to "roar like would be repeated in later years from other a lion the Words of God" and "sing like a souls in all parts of the globe. bird the Melodies of the Kingdom". The Martha did not settle down and take time to great heart will not falter- and the world is internalize the spectrum of adventures that had ready! 43 occurred on her trip- the trains, the ships, the One day and two nights in Havana gave high seas, the mules, the mountains, the gar­ Martha time to sow seeds. Every minute was dens, the articles, the lectures, the new friends. used to make contacts and give lectures. Near The morning after her return to Cambridge the end of her stay she had just a few hours of Springs she went to the high school and started rest, which she took, fully clothed, before the classes· to master Spanish. She felt that she must ship would sail early in the morning. But the make the most of her new friends and contacts brief sleep was "very sweet for the singing of and reach them in their own language. her heart told her the Holy Spirit had wafted Within a short time she was reading their Fragrances over Havana." 44 letters in Spanish, although still writing to Martha was soon back in the United States. them in English. She had left their shores but From Key West, Florida, to Washington, D.C., did not leave them to fend for themselves in a where she spent three days, Martha visited ev­ spiritual desert. She considered their needs and ery major city and its newspaper editors along responded: the coast. Eventually, she headed toward One thousand Spanish Bahai booklets home, and on 15 November 1919, five months have been mailed to South America. M has after leaving Cambridge Springs, she returned. written four hundred letters. The Spanish T. T. Root, now eighty-two, had been sit­ speaking friends are getting out booklets in ting at the window watching for the first their own country now and the Portuguese glimpse of Martha. He shared the joy of re­ speaking friends have published five thou­ union with his daughter, whose absence had sand in their own language. Over $500 left its striations on the days and weeks as they worth of Bahai books have been sent by Ba­ moved on to this time of homecoming. hai friends who have read part of these Pil­ Martha Root, apostle of the Baha'i Faith, grimage letters. Two or more souls are going had completed her first major journey for the to teach. One thousand sets of addresses sole purpose of spreading the teachings; her re­ have been entrusted to steadfast Bahais who sponse to the Tablets of the Divine Plan of 'Ab­ will write to the new friends. 45 du'l-Baha was absolute. South America was a Like her forebears Martha had opened up a pod, and Martha had deposited the seed. Tens new territory, which she infused with the spirit of thousands of minds were now aware of the of Baha'u'llah. It was the first time that the Ba­ spirit that would permeate the planet when hu­ ha'i Faith had been carried to South America; man hearts would respond to the teachings. it was also the first time that a Baha'i, totally Her journey was singular. She had set a pat­ selfless, detached, and with only the promulga­ tern for herself, and for others, if they chose to tion of Baha'u'llah's message the motivating factor, had undertaken a voyage of such magni­ tude and with such a plethora of physical risks. 43. Ibid. See also footnote 1. During her tour Martha sent 'Abdu'l-Baha 44. Root, "Bahai Pilgrimage." detailed accounts of the states and cities visited; 45. Ibid. the geographical and cultural settings; the MARTHA ROOT 23

newspapers, libraries, and schools that received long the results of this mighty undertaking Baha'i literature; the individuals she met; and will be uncovered and laid bare before the the places where she spoke. 'Abdu'l-Baha was eyes of all men. deeply moved. In a letter to Martha He wrote: Therefore be thou assured that this call It is clear and evident that the power of to the Manifestation of Baha'u'llah, this the Kingdom is aiding thee, that the glances proclamation of the Word of God and the of the eye of His loving kindness are turned promulgation of His Covenant shall influ­ toward thee, the hosts of the Supreme Con­ ence stone and clay, how much more the course are helping thee, and the power of children of men . . .. the Holy Spirit is supporting thee. Before In brief, thou art really a herald of the Kingdom, a harbinger of the Covenant. Thou art self-sacrificing, and showing kind­ 46. 'Abdu'l-Baha to Root, 27 January 1920, Tab­ ness to all the peoples of the earth. Thou art lets of 'Abdu'l-Baha, International Baha'i Archives, now sowing a seed that in the long run will Haifa, Israel. (An approved translation of this tablet yield thousands of harvests. Thou art now does not yet exist; consequently, this translation can­ planting a tree that shall everlastingly put not be considered authentic.-ED.) Martha Root's letters to 'Abdu'l-Baha were dated forth leaves, blossoms and fruit and whose 14 July; 21August;11, 12, 14, 30 September; 20 Oc­ shadow shall grow in magnitude day by tober; and 3 November 1919. day. 46

On Time Riding my days like hump-backed whales or dolphins that dauntlessly dart, wondering when it will start: the Day of Light with its timeless sails.

Riding leviathan-style- above, beneath, and in-between­ can't view the sun-struck scene or see supernal smile.

Riding the creature He formed for me that dies when we once arrive, hoping to get there alive where the sun is the essence of sea.

Dolphins, whales, must you dive, must you plunge so endlessly? - Bret Breneman

Copyri ght © 1983 by Bret Breneman

25 The Baha'i Faith and Mormonism: Further Reflections

BY WILLIAM P. COLLINS

N THE BAHA'I INTERPRETATION of history the advent of a new messenger of God I is assumed to have both a direct and an indirect influence on civilization. Ba­ ha'ls have long held that the coming the Bab and Baha'u'llah exercised such influ­ ence on a number of nineteenth-century religious groups that were predicting that imminent return of Jesus Christ-the Millerites, followers of William Miller and predecessors of today's Seventh Day Adventists; and the Templars who gathered in the Holy Land to await Christ's second coming. George Townshend thus describes the subtle spiritual influence of the new messengers: there swept quietly into the minds of European men the impulsion of a new spiritual force, an impuslion the beginnings of which can hardly be traced but which gradually brought into men's minds a new spirit of hope and enterprise and happiness and creative vigour and which by steady gradations ... during the early years of the nineteenth century took the definite shape of the dawning on earth of a New Age, of the divinely-aided appearance of a new and better world, and in Christian circles of the return of Christ and the descent of the Kingdom of God from heaven ...... the generality of the people in town and in country, high and low, learned and unlearned, felt this new transcendent power stirring creation. The time was one of religious revival, of church building, of missionary expansion, the central motive being always the belief in the imminent coming of Christ .... Adventist sects were started, a few of which remain to the present day, such as the Latter Day Saints .. . . 1 The Latter-day Saints, or Mormons, are of particular interest not only because they have become a church numbering nearly five million persons but also because Shoghi Effendi and the Universal House of Justice have made a number of signifi­ cant references to the Mormons as a group, to Joseph Smith, and to the Book of Mormon. In an unequivocal statement about the indirect influence of the Baha'i spirit on the development of Mormonism, the Universal House of Justice writes: As for the status of Joseph Smith, founder of the Mormon Faith, he is not con­ sidered by Baha'ls to be a prophet, minor or otherwise. But of course he was a religious teacher sensitive to the spiritual currents fl.owing in the early 19th cen­ tury directly from the appearance of the Bab and Baha'u'llah and the Revelation of Their Messages of hope and divine Guidance.2 It is noteworthy that the Universal House of Justice does not detail the ways in

Copyright © 1983 by William P. Collins. l. George Townshend, Christ and Bahd'u'lldh (Oxford: George Ronald, 1966), pp. 59, 62. 2. From a letter dated 7 February 1977 written on behalf of the Universal House of Jus­ tice to an individual in Helen Hornby, comp., Reference File (Quito: Helen Hornby, 1981), p. 320. 26 WORLD ORDER: SPRI G 1983 whi ch Joseph Smith could be said to have been influenced or inspired by the im­ pulse released by the two new messengers of God. Hence one can speculate about how Joseph Smith was sensitive to the advent of the Baha.'I era. Was it in the find­ ing of metal plates on which was written an ancient record of a lost American civil­ ization? Was it in some miraculous means of "translation" of this record? Was it in the founding of a new church? Or was it in certain of his teachings that show an as­ tonishing similarity to Baha'i tenets? It is these questions and their implications that I wish to explore in this further consideration of the Baha'i Faith and Mor­ monism .3 The Origin of the Book ofMormon and Its Claims to Historicity ALTHOUGH Shoghi Effendi has very clearly stated that Joseph Smith is neither a messenger of God (a major Prophet) nor a lesser prophet, Baha'ls are left to them­ selves to deal with orthodox Mormon claims of the miraculous translation of the Book of Mormon from golden plates and with corollary claims of that book's his­ torical acc uracy as a narrative of an ancient American civilization founded by Jews who fl ed the Holy Land about 600 B.C. 4 However, Shoghi Effendi, in two letters written on his behalf, has provided a key to a Baha'i approach to these questions of historicity: We cannot possibly add the names of people we (or anyone else) think might be Lesser Prophets to those found in the Qur'an, the Bible and our own Scriptures. For only these can we consider authentic Books. Therefore, Joseph Smith is not in our eyes a Prohpet.5 (emphasis added) As there is nothing specific about Joseph Smith in the teachings, the Guard­ ian has no statement to make on his position or about the accuracy of any state­ ment in the Book of Mormon regarding American history or its peoples. This is a matter for historians to pass upon.6 It is quite unmistakable that Shoghi Effendi regarded the Bible, the Qur'an, an d the Baha'i Scriptures as the only Holy Books that can be accepted as authentic; and si nce Baha'ls do not look upon Joseph Smith as a prophet, the Book of Mormon cannot also be regarded as a divinely revealed scripture in the same category as those he lists. 7 There is not, however, a simple choice of becoming a total believer in, or a total skeptic about, the Book of Mormon and the gifts of Joseph Smith. This is particu-

3. For background to some of the discussion in thi s essay see my essay "The Baha'i Faith and Mormonism: A Preliminary Survey," World Order, 15, Nos. 1 & 2 (Fall 1980/ Winter 1981), 33-45. 4. Ibid., pp. 43-44. 5. From a letter dated 13 March 1950 written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to an individ­ ual, quoted in Bahd'{ News, No. 416(Nov.1965), p. 15. 6. Shoghi Effendi, High Endeavours: Messages to Alaska, comp. National Spiritual As­ sembly of the Baha'ls of Alaska (n.p.: National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of Alaska, 1976), p. 71. 7. While Baha'fs accept Zoroaster, Buddha, and Krishna as true Manifestations of God, the sacred texts associated with the Zoroastrian, Buddhist, and H indu religions are not re­ garded as authentic. "The Buddha was a Manifestation of God, like Christ, but his followers do not possess his authentic writings." [Shoghi Effendi], Letters from the Guardian to Austra­ lia and New Zealand: 1923-1957 ([Sydney]: National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'fs of Australia, 1970), p. 41 . "We cannot be sure of the authenticity of the scriptures of Buddha and Krishna." Letter dated 25 November 1950, written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to an in­ dividual, quoted in Hornby, Reference File, p. 32 1. THE BAHA'I FAITH AND MORMONISM 27

larly the case if one turns to the Book of Mormon as an historical document. A number of scholars well-known in Mormon circles, including members of the Re­ organized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints who believe in the divine in­ spiration of the Book of Mormon, have questioned whether the Book of Mormon can be viewed as a reporting of historical fact. 8 They approach the problem from a number of directions: comparison of questions addressed by the Book of Mormon with questions of great interest in early nineteenth century New York where Jo­ seph Smith lived;9 investigations of anachronisms in the Book of Mormon, such as the report of horses in the New World in 590 B.C., or the application of the term Jews at a time when it was not applied to the Hebrews; 10 and the comparison of biblical texts quoted in the Book of Mormon, many of which were not written down in a Jewish canon until centuries after the Book of Mormon emigrants, Lehi and his family, were told by God to leave Judah and flee to the New World to es­ cape the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem. 11 All of the conclusions point to the Book of Mormon's being not the annals of a lost pre-Columbian civilization but rather the product of the mind of a nineteenth-century New Yorker with a fervent religious imagination. Moreover, there is lack of independent evidence from the ar­ cheological record to confirm the events or places described in the Book of Mor­ mon.12 One would be unwarranted, however, in dismissing Joseph Smith as pure fraud and the Book of Mormon as falsehood simply on the basis of these findings. When one speaks of truth, he is liable to equate it with historical fact. One is dealing, however, with two different levels or strata of truth. The recounting of what has actually happened in a given circumstance may leave one unaffected, whereas a fic­ titious construction may cause him to be deeply moved. Today's newspaper might contain the account of a man robbed while on the way from Jerusalem to Jericho. Such a story, while a statement of historical truth, would probably contain little or no truth that is relevant to one's life and how he lives it. The parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:30- 37), on the other hand, while perhaps not a recounting of historical fact (though it contains the same story outline as the newspaper ac­ count), is a greater statement of relevant ("existential") and spiritual truth. The question of historicity or pure historical fact is out of place in dealing with many apsects of writings claimed as sacred scripture, because the question of what is historically true or false is inadequate in the face of the power and influence exer-

8. Wayne Ham, "Problems in Interpreting the Book of Mormon As History," Courage: A Journal ofHistory, Thought and Action, 1, No. 1 (Sept. 1970), 15-22; Leland W. Negaard, "The Problem of Second Isaiah in the Book of Mormon," (unpublished B.D. thesis, Union Theological Seminary, 1961); Susan Curtis Mernitz, "Palmyra Revisited: A Look at Early Nineteenth Century American Thought and the Book of Mormon," The john Whitmer His· torical Association Journal, 2 (1982), 30- 37; William D. Russell, "The Historicity of the Book of Mormon: The Thought of Pre-exilic Israel and First and Second Nephi Com­ pared," unpublished paper, 1982; Robert N. Hullinger, Mormon Answer to Skepticism: Why Joseph Smith Wrote the Book ofMormon (St. Louis: Clayton Publishing House, 1980). 9. Mernitz, "Palmyra Revisited"; Hullinger, Mormon Answers to Skepticism. 10. Russell, "Historicity of the Book of Mormon." 11. Ibid.; Negaard, "Problem of Second Isaiah." 12. Michael Coe, "Mormonism and Archeology: An Outside View," Dialogue: A four· nal ofMormon Thought, 8, No. 2 (Summer 1973), 40- 48; Klaus J. Hansen, Mormonism and the American Experience (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1981), p. 12 . 28 WORLD ORDER: SPRI NG 1983 cised by the spiritual and relevant truths embodied in those scriptures. The Catho­ lic theologian Hans Kung writes: The poem, the parable or legend has its own rationality. It underlines, stresses, brings out, gives concrete shape; the truth announced can be more relevant than that which is contained in a historical account .... [T]he main interest is not in what really happened ... but in the practical question of what it means for us . ... 13 (emphasis in original) If one recognizes the distinction between historical truth and relevant or "exis­ tential" truth, he can look at the Book of Mormon in two ways. As an historical document, the Book of Mormon is unconfirmed by the evidence, whether internal or external. William Russell compares current study by Mormon scholars with earlier bibilical scholarship: The Christian Churches faced a quite similar problem one century ago­ when Biblical scholars concluded that Biblical writings [which] claimed to be historical were actually fiction or myth. Some claimed that Biblical scholarship would demolish the foundations of Christian faith. Apparently it did not, and it can be concluded that a much more vital and intelligible Christian faith emerged from the reinterpretation that scholarship required. If we apply historical scholarship to the Book of Mormon, a similar reinter­ pretation for Latter-day Saints seems required. It is the judgment of this writer that Latter-day Saints must move forward with this reinterpretation, particular­ ly if we want to both preserve our intellectual honesty as well as find value in an interesting book that a farm boy from New York published in 1830. 14 When one turns to an examination of relevant truth in the Book of Mormon, his reading reveals that, even if the stories are not historical fact, they embody powerful, eternal, spiritual meaning that is capable of changing and guiding the lives of men. The Book of Mormon is a parable of the struggle between good and evil, between those who heed the commands of their Creator and those who turn from His precepts and sink to the level of the animal. 15 It is not an abstract state­ ment, for it breathes with the excitement of the cosmic confrontation of light and darkness, mirrored in the archetypal personalities and characters who people the book. Thus it is at this level of relevant truth that a Baha'i may find a method of approach to the Book of Mormon that is at once sympathetic and yet in conformi­ ty with the statements of Shoghi Effendi on the subject.

The Nature ofJoseph Smith's "'Revelatory"' Experience To UNDERSTAND what constitutes the inspiration that Joseph Smith received through the advent of the Bab and Bahfu'llah it is necessary to grasp what Ba­ ha'u'llah and Joseph Smith describe as revelation and how the two may differ from each other. This discussion is necessarily tentative, as no full-scale studies have been made of the Baha'i Writings to discover what Baha'u'llah may have experienced as the process of revelation.

13. Hans Kung, On Being a Christian (London: Collins, 1974), p. 416. 14. Russell, "Historicity of the Book of Mormon," pp. 14-15. 15. The basic themes of the Book of Mormon are treated in what remains one of the most sympathetic works on the Mormons, Thomas F. O'Dea, The Mormons (Chicago: Uni­ versity of Chicago Press, 1957), pp. 26- 37. THE BAHA'f FAITH AND MORMONISM 29

Baha'u'llah describes His experience of revelation in a number of ways: (1) God's voice speaks directly to Baha'u'llah, as in The Fire Tablet in answer to His an­ guished cry; 16 (2) God speaks to Baha'u'llah through an intermediary, such as the Maid of Heaven; 17 (3) God imbues Baha'u'llah with His own Spirit in such a way that Baha'u'llah's person and deeds become the revelation; 18 (4) knowledge is re­ vealed to Baha'u'llah in the form of a Tablet which appears before His face .19 All of these modes of revelation, while appearing to the rest of mankind to be internal to Baha'u'llah, are described by Him as objective phenomena arising outside Himself. Joseph Smith's experiences, as he describes them, are a distinctive form of "rev­ elation." In speaking of the experience of "translating" the Book of Mormon, he writes: "But behold, I say unto you, that you must study it out in your mind; then you must ask me if it is right, and if it is right I will cause that your bosom shall burn within you .. . . "(Doctrine and Covenants of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints 9:8, hereafter abbreviated as D & C) (emphasis added). And in a telling description of the process of "revelation" Smith says: "A person may profit by noticing the first intimation of the spirit of revelation; for instance, when you feel pure intelligence flowing into you, it may give you sudden strokes of ideas . ... [T]hus by learning the Spirit of God and understanding it, you may grow into the principle of revelation .... "20 (emphasis added) In contrast to the experience of revelation spoken of by Baha'u'llah, Joseph Smith described his as a subjective phenomenon-one that arose within Smith's own mind and that required the recipient's own initiative and discovery. This is not to say that Baha'u'llah's own human personality did not participate in the re­ velatory process. Baha'u'llah was often asked questions to which He responded, either in writing or verbally, and these can certainly be seen as revelation also. While many aspects of revelation, as spoken of by Baha'u'llah, can be seen as exter­ nal phenomena where God takes the initiative, our understanding of this aspect of the Manifestation's reality is too limited to make categorical statements as to its na­ ture. Baha'fs may, therefore, see in these different descriptions of revelation the possi­ bility that the Book of Mormon arose through a process in which Joseph Smith had "sudden strokes of ideas" in which he followed the injunction to "study it out in your mind." Even if one does not accept the Book of Mormon as a translation

16 . Baha'u'llah, "Fire Tablet," in Baha'u'llah, the Bab, and 'Abdu'l-Baha, Baha'i Prayers: A Selection of Prayers Revealed by Baha'u'llah, the Bab, and 'Abdu'l-Baha, new ed. (Wilmette, Ill.: Baha'i Publishing Trust, 1982), pp. 214-20. 17. See Baha'u'llah, quoted in Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By, rev. ed. (Wilmette, Ill.: Ba­ ha'i Publishing Trust, 1974), pp. 101-02. "While engulfed in tribulations I heard a most won­ drous, a most sweet voice, calling above My head. Turning My face, I beheld a Maiden-the em­ bodiment ofthe remembrance ofthe name ofMy lord-suspended in the air before Me." 18. Ibid., p. 102. "This is the Best-Beloved ofthe worlds, and yet ye comprehend not. This is the Beauty of God amongst you, and the power of His sovereignty within you, could ye but un­ derstand." 19. Baha'u'llah, Tablets of Baha'u'llah revealed after the Kitab-i-Aqdas (Haifa: Baha'i World Centre, 1978), p. 149. "Whenever We desire to quote the sayings of the learned and of the wise, presently there will appear before the face of thy Lord in the form of a tablet all that which hath appeared in the world and is revealed in the Holy Books and Scriptures." 20. Joseph Smith, Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1976), p. 151. 30 WORLD ORDER: SPRING 1983

from literal golden plates, the book can, nevertheless, be viewed as the product of Joseph Smith's genuine religious experience.21 Thomas F. O'Dea, a well-known Catholic sociologist, states it most succinctly: There is a simple common-sense explanation which states that Joseph Smith was a normal person living in an atmosphere of religious excitement that influ­ enced his behavior as it had so many thousands of others and, through a unique concomitance of circumstances, influences, and pressures, led him from necro­ mancy to revelation, from revelation to prophecy, and from prophecy to lead­ ership of an important religious movement and to involvement in the bitter and fatal intergroup conflicts that his innovations and success had called forth. To the non-Mormon who does not accept the work [The Book of Mormon] as a di­ vinely revealed scripture, such an explanation on the basis of the evidence at hand see ms by far the most likely and safest. 22

Joseph Smith's Inspiration IN WHICH of his teachings did Joseph Smith show himself to be in touch with the inspiration of the Baha'i age? Comparisons already made between Baha'i and Mor­ mon teachings show a few similarities and some wide divergences on important doctrines. 23 Nevertheless, a few salient points are striking in similarity of ap­ proach. Progressive Revelation. It is a basic tenet of Islam that God left no nation without guidance: "Indeed, We sent forth among every nation a Messenger, saying: 'Serve you God, and eschew idols."' (Qur'fo 16:38). The teachings of Baha'u'llah carry this notion further in the concept of progressive revelation, which holds that God has revealed Himself successively in a series of Manifestations of His Self Who lift mankind to ever wider spiritual and social horizons, and that God will continue to send these Manifestations in the future:

21. Mormons often quote the testimony of the "witnesses" to the Book of Mormon as proof of the existence of literal golden plates from which Joseph Smith translated the work. In the case of the "Three Witnesses," they asked that they be permitted the privilege of see­ ing the plates and received in answer section 17 of The Doctrine and Covenants, which promised that they would see the plates by faith. T he historical record is quite clear that the witnesses prayed in the woods with Joseph Smith and were permitted a vision of the plates that were shown by an angel. In the case of the "Eight Witnesses," there is controversy over whether thei r experie nce constituted a vision or the examinat ion of physical artifacts. B. H. Roberts holds that these eight had a purely matter-of-fact examination of the plates (A Com­ prehensive History of the Church [S alt Lake City: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1930], I: 147-49). Other accounts hold that they were permitted to heft a box in which the plates were said to rest and that they were allowed to reach under a cloth to touch something that was said to be the plates. Still others recount that Joseph Smith exhorted the witnesses to pray and that they beheld a vision of the plates in the empty box. These witnesses all held to their testimony of the truth of the Book of Mormon, though some of them left the Mor­ mon Church. As can be seen, there is some evidence that no one saw actual physical plates with the naked eye. Upon completion of "translation" of the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith explained the absence of the plates by saying that they were given into the hands of the angel Moroni who carried them to heaven. See Fawn M. Brodie, No Man Knows My H is­ tory, 2d ed. (New York: Knopf, 1971), pp. 75- 80. 22. O'Dea,Mormons, p. 24 . 23 . Collins, "Baha'i Faith and Mormonism," pp. 35-42. THE BAHA'i FAITH AND MORMONISM 31

in every age and dispensation the Prophets of God and His chosen Ones have appeared amongst men .... Can one of sane mind ever seriously imagine that .. . the portal of God's infi­ nite guidance can ever be closed in the face of men? Can he ever conceive for these Divine Luminaries, these resplendent Lights either a beginning or an end? ... There can be no doubt whatever that if for one moment the tide of His mercy and grace were to be withheld from the world, it would completely per­ ish. For this reason, from the beginning that hath no beginning the portals of Divine mercy have been flung open to the face of all created things .... 24 I testify before God that each of these Manifestations hath been sent down through the operation of the Divine Will and Purpose, that each hath been the bearer of a specific Message, that each hath been entrusted with a divinely­ revealed Book . . . . 2s It is a fundamental tenet of the C hurch of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that revelation has not ended and that the Word of God has been given to other nations and peoples. 26 In verses reminiscent of the words of Baha'u'llah and strikingly akin to the Qur'an, the Book of Mormon testifies that the portals of God's grace have been open to all nations in many revealed books: Woe unto him that shall say: We have received the word of God, and we need no more of the word of God, for we have enough! For behold, thus saith the Lord God: I will give unto the children of men line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little .... (2 Nephi 28:29-30). Know ye not that there are more nations than one? Know ye not that I, the Lord your God, have created all men, and that I remember those who are upon the isles of the sea; and that I rule in the heavens above and in the earth beneath; and I bring forth my word unto the children of men, yea upon all the nations of the earth? . . . Wherefore I speak the same words unto one nation like unto another. ... And because that I have spoken one word ye need not suppose that I cannot speak another; for my work is not yet finished .... For I command all men, both in the east and in the west, and in the north, and in the south, and in the islands of the sea, that they shall write the words which I speak unto them; for out of the books which shall be written I will judge the world, every man according to their works, accord- ing to that which is written .. . . And I shall also speak unto all nations of the earth and they shall w rite it. ... And it shall come to pass that my people, which are of the house of Israel, shall be gatherred unto the lands of their posses­ sions, and my word also shall be gathered in one. (2 Nephi 29:7-14). Return of Christ. It is a cornerstone of Baha'i belief that Baha'u'llah fulfills the prophecies of all the revealed religions concerning a Messenger who would return in the Last Days to establish justice and the reign of righteousness. Among these prophecies Baha'u'llah places particular emphasis upon His station as Christ re­ turned in the glory of the Father. "Followers of the Gospel," Baha'u'llah addressing the whole of Christendom exclaims, "behold the gates of heaven are flung open. He

24. Baha'u'llah, Gleanings from the Writings ofB ahd'u'lldh, trans. Shoghi Effendi, 2d ed. (Wilmette: Baha'i Publishing Trust, 1976), p. 68. 25. Ibid., p. 74. 26. Mormons hold, however, that the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter­ day Saints is the only source of today's revelation. 32 WORLD ORDER: SPRING 1983

that had ascended unto it is now come. Give ear to His voice calling aloud over land and sea, announcing to all mankind the advent of this Revelation-a Revelation through the agency of which the Tongue of Grandeur is now proclaiming: 'Lo, the sa­ cred Pledge hath been fulfilled, for He, the Promised One, is come.' "27 At the period when the Bab (ministry, 1844-50) and Baha'u'llah (ministry, 1853-92) were preparing for the revelation of Their missions, Joseph Smith was or­ ganizing the Church of Jesus C hrist of Latter-day Saints (1830-44), in preparation for that second advent of Jesus Christ which was "near, even at the door" (D & C 110:16), a time when "he shall manifest himself unto the nations" (1 Nephi 13:42), when "I will reveal myself from heaven with power and great glory ... and dwell in righteousness with men on earth a thousand years" (D & C 29:11) for "I am in your midst and ye cannot see me" (D & C 38:7). Investigation of Truth; Individual Responsibility. The Revelation of Baha'u'llah has given a tremendous amount of independence and spiritual responsibility to men and women. Baha'u'llah prohibited priestcraft and enjoined upon everyone the duty to investigate reality. He considers that "first and foremost" among the "favors, w hich the Almighty hath conferred upon man, is the gift of understand­ ing," the purpose of which is to enable man to "know and recognize the one true God."28 'Abdul'l-Baha w idens this "greatest gift" to include "intellect," "the pow­ er by which man acquires his knowledge of the several kingdoms of creation, and of various stages of existence, as well as much w hich is invisible."29 This power is "the eye of investigation" by w hich man "may see and recognize truth," for "each human creature has individual endowment, power and responsibility in the cre­ ative plan of God," so that he may become "completely purified from the dross of ignorance."30 This independent investigation of truth and its concomitant respon­ sibilities is based in part upon the Baha'i belief that men are responsible for their own sins, since the concept of original sin is "unreasonable and evidently wrong, for it means that all men . .. without committing any sin or fa ult, but simply be­ cause they are the posterity of Adam, have become without reason guilty sinners," which is "far from the justice of God."31 Joseph Smith, in keeping with the spirit of a new age, records the command "that there be no priestcrafts" (2 Nephi 26:29) and writes of "intelligence, or the light of truth" that "is independent in that sphere in which God has placed it, to act for itself, as all intellige nce also" and that is the basis for "the agency of man" (D & C 93:29-31). This power of intelligence, this light of truth, is to be used to know God's commands, to "seek .. . out of the best books, words of w isdom; seek learn­ ing, even by study and also by faith" (D & C 88: 118) for "if there is anything vir­ tuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things" (Arti-

27. Baha'u'llah, quoted in Shoghi Effendi, The World Order of Bahci'u'llcih: Selected Let­ ters, 2d rev. ed. (Wilmette: Baha'i Publishing Trust, 1974), p. 104. 28. Baha'u'llah, Gleanings, p. 194. 29. 'Abdu'l-Baha, Paris Talks: Addresses Given by 'Abdu'l-Bahci in Paris in 1911, 11th ed. (London: Baha'i Publishing Trust, 1969), p. 41. 30. 'Abdu'l-Baha, The Promulgation of Universal Peace: Talks Delivered by 'Abdu'l-Bahci during His Visit to the United States and Canada in 1912, 2d ed. (Wilmette: Baha'i Publishing Trust, 1982), p. 293 . 31. 'Abdu'l-Bah a, Some Answered Questions, comp. and trans. Laura Clifford Barney, 5th ed. (Wilmette: Baha'i Publishing Trust, 1981), p. 120. THE BAHA'I FAITH AND MORMONISM 33 des of Faith 13). Man must be a free agent, able to investigate truth, for "men will be punished for their own sins, and not for Adam's transgression" (Articles of Faith 2). The Baha'i, it seems safe to say, may posit that Joseph Smith, along with Wil­ liam Miller and many other religious prodigies, enunciated a number of ideas that had formed in the collective unconscious of mankind over a long period of incuba­ tion, finally to emerge in the early nineteenth century. That the expression of these ideas should occur at the appearance of the Bab and Baha'u'llah is a monumental coincidence. Joseph Smith, in founding a highly successful missionary movement and in tapping and channeling the spiritual current of a new age, showed himself to be a religious genius of a most profound kind. Baha'!s may regard Joseph Smith not as a prophet, but as a seer- one endowed with extraordinary powers of insight. This understanding is a result of viewing Jo­ seph Smith's "revelatory" experience as being different in kind from that of mes­ sengers of God. The Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price can be seen by Baha'!s as repositories of a certain amount of relevant truth, though not necessarily as documents recording historical fact or produced by supernatural means. The distinction between relevant, or existential, truth and historical truth makes this understanding possible. In the final analysis, however, there is no purely scientific proof of connection between the advent of the Bab and Baha'u'llah and the rise of Joseph Smith and Mormonism. Proofs resulting from the accumulation of circumstantial evidence rest in the realm of conviction born of faith: The humanitarian and spiritual principles enunciated decades ago in the darkest East by Baha'u'llah and moulded by Him into a coherent scheme are one after the other being taken by a world unconscious of their source as the marks of progressive civilization. And the sense that mankind has broken with the past and that the old guidance will not carry it through the emergencies of the pre­ sent has filled with uncertainty and dismay all thoughtful men save those who have learned to find in the story of Baha'u'llah the meaning of all the prodigies and portents of our time.32

32. [George Townshend], "Introduction," in Nabll-i-A'?-am [ Mu~ammad -i-Z arandf ], The Dawn-Breakers: Nabil's Narrative of the Early Days of the Bahd'{ Revelation (Wilmette, Ill.: Baha'i Publishing Trust, 1932), p. xxxvi .

35

Return of Enoch

BY ANNA STEVENSON

,\DAM died, and his son Seth after him, and an angel summoned him forth to teach the peo­ .r-\. his son Enos. Cainan, Mahal al eel, and J a­ ple.1 Through 243 years he taught with great red, in orderly sequence and full of years, died. power and persuasion until peace and prosper­ But Enoch ben Jared "walked with God: and ity reigned on earth, and the kings themselves he was not; for God took him." So fall the ca­ proclaimed him their ruler. When his mission dences of the King James Bible, Genesis 5:24. was accomplished, he was carried to heaven in In later generations Abraham would give up a flaming chariot drawn by fiery steeds. But the the ghost and die at a good old age; Jacob angels protested the presence of a mortal would gather up his feet into the bed and yield among them. To this God replied: up the ghost; Joseph would die and be em­ "Be not offended, for all mankind denied balmed and put into a coffin in Egypt. But their Me and My dominion and paid homage to ancestor Enoch was not, or disappeared, as the idols. I therefore transferred the Shekin­ other versions have it. ah [Divine Presence] from earth to heaven, A well-known history seems implied in the and this man Enoch is the elect of men." cryptic statement. Something has been lost, God arrayed him in a magnificent garment and explanations of many sorts have bur­ and a luminous crown, opened to him all geoned in Jewish sources to fill the gap: Enoch the gates of wisdom, gave him the name was a righteous person who died suddenly and "Metatron," prince and chief of all heavenly at an early age; he was among the nine righ­ hosts, transformed his body into a Bame, teous men who entered paradise without going and "engirdled him by storm, whirlwind, to the netherworld; he was transported to and thundering.... "2 heaven on God's command and given the name Scholars have associated Enoch with the Metatron the Great Scribe; he became a sign of Babylonian king, Enmeduranna. Seventh of knowledge to all generations and during his the kings before the Flood, this legendary ruler lifetime was the guardian of the secret of inter­ was close to the Sun-God, to whom his capital calation and of the staff with which Moses city was dedicated. Enoch, seventh of the Ada­ would perform miracles in Egypt. Or maybe mic patriarchs, became known as the propo­ he was really a sinful man whose life was cut nent of the solar calendar; his life span of 365 short by divine decree, a vacillator between years corresponds to the solar year. He has righteousness and sin until God mercifully been identified, too, with the Quranic prophet "took" him on the upswing and so forestalled Idris the Learned, expounder of books (men­ another relapse. tioned in Suras 9:56, 57, and 21:85), with al­ Of all the legends about Enoch the follow­ Khi4r, and with Elijah.3 ing one seems to be the favorite: Enoch lived in Another tradition presents Enoch as the a secret place as a hidden righteous man until guardian of esoteric knowledge: The Patriarch Enoch- whose name Copyright © 1983 by Anna Stevenson. means the Initiator-is evidently a personifi­ 1. "Enoch," Encyclopedia ]udaica, 1971 ed. cation of the sun, since he lived 365 years. 2. Ibid.; see also Joseph Gaer, The Lore of the Old Testament (Boston: Little, 1952), pp. 64, 65. He also constructed an underground temple 3. "Enoch," Encyclopedia ]udaica. consisting of nine vaults, one beneath the 36 WORLD ORDER: SPRING 1983

other, placing in the deepest vault a triangu­ from the German Hasidim of the thirteenth lar tablet of gold bearing upon it the abso­ century: lute and ineffable Name of Deity. Accord­ The patriarch Enoch, who according to ing to some accounts, Enoch made two gold an old tradition was taken from the earth by deltas. The larger he placed upon the cubical God .. . , is said to have been a cobbler. At altar in the lowest vault and the smaller he every stitch of his awl he not only joined the gave into the keeping of his son, Methusa­ upper leather with the sole, but all upper leh, who did the actual construction work things with all lower things. In other words, of the brick chambers according to the pat­ he accompanied his work at every step with tern revealed to his father by the Most High. meditation which drew the stream of ema­ In the form and arrangement of these vaults nation down from the upper to the lower Enoch epitomized the nine spheres of the (so transforming profane into ritual action), ancient Mysteries and the nine sacred strata until he himself was transformed from the of the earth through which the initiate must earthly Enoch into the transcendent Meta­ pass to reach the Barning Spirit dwelling in tron, who had been the object of his medita­ its central core. tion. 5 According to Freemasonic symbolism, A remarkably similar legend comes from a Enoch, fearing that all knowledge of the sa­ Tibetan tantric text: cred Mysteries would be lost at the time of The guru Camara (which means shoe­ the Deluge, erected the two columns .... maker) receives instructions from a yogi Upon the metal column in appropriate alle­ concerning the leather, the awl, the thread, gorical symbols he engraved the secret and the shoe considered as the "self-created teaching and upon the marble column fruit." For twelve years he meditates day placed an inscription stating that a short dis­ and night over his shoemaking, until he at­ tance away a priceless treasure would be dis­ tains perfect enlightenment and is borne covered in a subterranean vault. After hav­ aloft. 6 ing thus faithfully completed his labors, A Book of Enoch might have been part of Enoch was translated from the brow of the Christian Bible, as, indeed, it has always Mount Moriah. In time the location of the been for the Coptic Christians. A compilation secret vaults was lost, but after the lapse of known as Ethiopic Enoch dates from the stir­ ages there came another builder-an initiate ring period between about 200 B.C. and 200 after the order of Enoch- and he, while lay­ A.D., when the empires of Persia, Egypt, and ing the foundation for another temple to the Rome battled for dominion over the Mediter­ Great Architect of the Universe, discovered ranean world, the Maccabees lived out their he­ the long-lost vaults and the secret contained roic saga, and Christianity was born. therein. 4 Even though Ethiopic Enoch did not become A gentle tale of special luminosity comes part of the Biblical canon, it has had, according to one Jewish source, "tremendous infl.uence. From it, or at any rate through it, the Manual 4. Manly P. Hall, The Secret Teachings of All of Discipline [Dead Sea Scrolls] received the so­ Ages: An Encyclopedic Outline of Masonic, Hermetic, Kabbalistic and Rosicrucian Symbolic Philos· lar calendar and it also served as an exemplar ophy . ... , 18th ed. (Los Angeles: The Philosophical for the burgeoning apocalyptic genre." 7 R.H. Research Society, Inc., 1972), p. clxxiii. Charles, a renowned scholar of Biblical materi­ 5. Gershom Scholem, On the Kabba/ah and Its als, has stated that "The infl.uence of 1 Enoch Symbolism, trans. Ralph Manheim (New York: [Ethiopic Enoch] on the New Testament has Shocken Books, 1977), p. 132. 6. Ibid., p. 132. been greater than that of all the other apocry­ 7. "Enoch, Book of 1 Enoch," Encyclopedia Ju­ phal and pseudepigraphical books put to- daica. RETURN OF ENOCH 37 gether." He has compiled "a formidable list of teous, the rebuilding of the Temple, and the passages in the New Testament which either in Day of Judgment. A Book of Noah follows, phraseology or idea directly depend on, or are similar in content to the Genesis Apocryphon illustrative of, passages in 1 Enoch." 8 and the Book of Noah found at Qumran. Fi­ In its present form the Book of Enoch con­ nally, come Enoch's counsels to mankind. sists of five distinct works: Christian congregations used the work freely (1) In the Introduction Enoch relates the and regarded it as a genuine revelation, but "the good in store for the "elect" after the "Day of book was discountenanced by many of the Judgment" and describes the rebel angels, sons church fathers-Hilary of Poitiers, John Chry­ of God who lust after the daughters of men, sostom, Jerome and Augustine-and by the and sire children who consume the labor of second century A.D. it seems to have lost accep­ others and teach mankind the arts of magic and tance. " 9 weapon making. Uriel, Gabriel, and Michael It has been suggested that the Book ofEnoch, are sent to deal with them by binding them in with its blending of Iranian, Greek, Chaldean, Sheol. Enoch carries a petition from them to and Egyptian elements survived (and was, God and journeys through the universe, seeing therefore, "discountenanced" by the orthodox) all the elements of creation. because of its fascination for Gnostics, Mani­ (2) In The Last Day the Messiah, here called chaeans, and other so-called marginal groups. the "Elect One," is envisioned as having been Elaine Pagels considers that a firm demarcation "under the wings of the Lord of the Spirits" between orthodoxy and heresy was vital to the since time immemorial. He is destined to be survival of the infant Church: "Had Christian­ the final Judge of all mortals. The ministering ity remained multiform, it might well have dis­ angels, lifting their voice in song, greet first the appeared from history, along with dozens of "Lord of the Spirits" (or Ancient of Days) and other cults of antiquity. I believe that we owe then the "Elect One." the survival of Christian tradition to the orga­ (3) The Book of the Heavenly Luminaries de­ nizational and theological structure that the scribes the courses of sun, moon, and stars, the emerging church developed." 10 falling of dew and rain, the recurrence of the In short, Jerome and Augustine, Hilary and seasons, the nature of the "true" (solar) calen­ John did well to rule against Enoch. By the end dar. of the fourth century the Book ofEnoch was of­ (4) Dream-visions and Symbols relates the ficially all but forgotten. It did not become story of the Deluge and the history of Israel even one of the Apocrypha, those hidden away down to the beginning of the Hasmonean books that were withheld from public reading (Maccabean) era. because of questionable origin, or contents, yet (5) The Apocalypse of Weeks divides history were always part of the Christian Bible until into ten "weeks" of which seven have already Luther's time. They have remained in the King occurred (creation, flood, Abraham, revelation James .version, but the Puritans are said to have on Sinai, Temple, destruction of Temple, elec­ "demanded a Bible without Apocrypha," and tion of a "righteous shoot"). Three others be­ this thinner volume they implanted firmly in long to the future: the triumph of the righ- their New England. So again Enoch was not, disappeared except 8. R. H. Charles, quoted in W. 0. E. Oesterley, for a few direct Biblical references, except for Imrod., Book ofEnoch (1 Enoch), trans R. H. Charles very considerable influence on New Testament (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowl­ thought and style and for continuing enrich­ edge, 1929), p. xxvii. ment to artists of many sorts, particularly 9. "Enoch, Books of," Encyclopedia Americana, those whose approach to the infinite is through 1974 ed. 10. Elaine Pagels, The Gnostic Gospels (New imagery and symbol. York: Random, 1979), p. 142. Another age of apocalyptic terrors and won- 38 WORLD ORDER: SPRING 1983

ders is upon us, a new age taking shape even as had had minimal schooling, was obviously the old destroys itself. Among the spiritual ad­ drawn to the resounding rhythms of the King ventures and discoveries rocketing about us in James Bible, but must have stumbled in his first the upheaval I call attention, through two nine­ attempts to share in that special language. teenth-century examples, to a return of Enoch, "Open thy mouth and it shall be filled," Enoch arch-pilgrim and explorer of celestial spaces. is promised by the Lord. "My Spirit is upon The first example is a "restored" history of you, wherefore all thy words will I justify." 13 Enoch found in The Pearl of Great Price, one of By the time Joseph Smith was dictating these the official Scriptures of the Latter-day Saints, lines to a scribe, he had published The Book of the Mormon Church.II Here the history of the Mormon, delivered many sermons, caused writer/visionary himself, Joseph Smith, and many revelations to be written down, all in the circumstances surrounding the coming language that has been experienced as memora­ forth of his account are well documented.12 Jo­ ble and moving. He was now twenty-five years seph Smith claimed that the ancient writings old. came to him through inspiration. In June 1830 Enoch in The Pearl of Great Price is con­ he dictated chapter 1 of Writings of Moses; and cerned about doctrinal matters of great impor­ in December, the remaining seven chapters. tance in the nineteenth century. He stresses The story follows the basic tradition of baptism by immersion and in the name of the Enoch, but differs in important respects. Enoch Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; he ex­ here is called to preach at the age of sixty-five. plains that in the language of Adam Man of He protests that he is "but a lad, and all the peo­ Holiness is the name of God, and the name of ple hate me; for I am slow of speech." Sixty-five His Only Begotten is "the Son of Man, even J e­ could be thought callow among patriarchs who s us Christ, a righteous Judge who shall come in died young at six hundred, but may not the de­ the meridian of time."I 4 He establishes Zion, scription point more directly at Joseph Smith the City of peace and harmony, where all are of himself? At the age of fourteen and a half he had one heart and one mind and none is poor. had a vision of God that set the course of his When he is taken to heaven, his entire City life thenceforth. He had gone with it to some­ goes with him, to return again with him in the one important to him, a Methodist minister, Last Days. and had met with immediate and harsh rejec­ Safe there in the bosom of God, he looks tion. Ridicule, abuse, and hatred had followed down upon earth and sees the Flood over­ from many sides. whelm the rest of mankind; he witnesses the Joseph Smith was also painfully "slow of weeping of God over His handiwork, hears the speech" there at the beginning. Moreover, he earth lament: "Wo, wo is me, the mother of men . . .. When shall I rest?" He sees Satan holding a great chain that shadows the earth, 11. The Pearl of Great Price, Moses 6-7, in Joseph sees him look up and laugh. "Will the earth rest Smith, The Book of Mormon, The Doctrine and Cov· when the Son of Man comes?" asks Enoch. enants of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day "Look," says the Lord. Enoch sees the Son of Saints, The Pearl of Great Price (Salt Lake City, Utah: Man "lifted up on a cross after the manner of Church ofJesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1981). 15 12. Ibid., pp. 47-58. The same historical data, men." plus background and other amplification, are also The generations flow on beneath his gaze found in Joseph Smith, History of the Church ofJesus until, after a final conflict, the heavenly Zion Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Period I (Salt Lake City, comes down and unites with Zion on earth, Utah: Deseret News Press, 1902), I, Chapters 1, 10, and the earth herself attains rest for a thousand and 12. 13. Pearl ofGreat Price, Moses 6:34. years. 14. Ibid., Moses 6:57. Back in pre-Millennial, nineteenth-century 15. Ibid., Moses 7:48, 54, 55 . Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois, Joseph Smith RETURN OF ENOCH 39 went on to experience a crescendo of revela­ tury even the memory of its existence seems to tions and visions. Confrontations and mortal have disappeared. In the late 1800s two ver­ dangers increased, too. At the age of thirty­ sions of it, one incomplete, came to light in eight his youth and his life were silenced by Russia and Serbia, translated into a Slavic bullets from a mob. The burial had to be secret tongue. It was seen to be distinct from Ethiopic because for a while his enemies prowled about, Enoch and was called Slavonic Enoch. An Eng­ ghoulishly demanding the body. So a legend lish translation appeared in 1896. grew of a hidden grave from which the saints The book draws on the earlier materials but would see their beloved leader rise again . In the seems to be the work of a single gifted writer, a early years of this century a poignant little treasure house for Fra Angelico and Dante, Mi­ song, The Unknown Grave, was still sung occa­ chelangelo and Blake. No wonder there was sionally in church. I like the song, however difficulty in containing it between the covers apocryphal, but I look for Joseph Smith, the of a book. It has overflowed frescoed walls and Prophet-Hero of my own youth, in his vision ceilings and swelled out in countless angelic of Enoch. There high in the heavens, and bare­ choruses. Painters and singers of this age may ly discernible in the dazzling light-is it Enoch soon turn to it as a resource of compelling lu­ he had shown us? or Joseph Smith? minosity. It leads us into the story with this A curious association of the two names ap­ preamble: pears twice in a chapter of Mormon Scripture, There was a wise man, a great artificer, Doctrine and Covenants 78:1 and 4. "The Lord and the Lord conceived love for him and re­ spake unto Enoch Uoseph Smith, Jr.]," begins ceived him, verse l. Essentially this is the explanation given that he should behold the uppermost dwell­ in the preamble to the revelation: by this time mgs (1832) it had become unwise to have the actual and be an eye-witness of the wise and great names of prominent church brethren appear and inconceivable and immutable realm plainly in the revelations, so other names were of God Almighty, given, and, later, when circumstances had of the very wonderful and glorious and changed, the real names were added in brack­ bright and many-eyed station of the ets. Did Joseph Smith sense a mystical identifi­ Lord's servants, cation with the ancient and enigmatical seer? and of the inaccessible throne of the Lord, and of the degrees and manifestations of the The Book of the Secrets of Enoch is a different incorporeal hosts, sort of restoration. Later than Ethiopic Enoch and of the ineffable ministration of the mul­ cited above, it may still date from shortly be­ titude of the elements, fore the Christian Era. "R. Ishmael, a martyr of and of the various apparition and inexpress­ the Hadrianic persecutions, is claimed to be the ible singing of the host of cherubim, author, but the composition belongs most and of the boundless light. 17 probably to a later date." 16 Perhaps it was an Enoch has accomplished his 365 years, is Alexandrian Jew who gave it form. In any alone in his home this first day of the month. event, the original manuscript, probably in He wakes from sleep in a fit of despair and Greek, has been lost, and by the seventh cen- weeping that he cannot understand. Two huge men appear, clothed in purple, with wings brighter than gold, hands whiter than snow, 16. R.H. Charles, et al., ed., Apocrypha and Pseu­ faces shining like the sun, fire fl.ashing from depigrapha of Old Testament: With Introductions and eyes and lips. They carry him on their wings to Critical Explanatory Notes to Several Books (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1913), II, 425. the First Heaven whence he looks down on a 17. Book of the Secrets ofEnoch, in Charles, et al., sea greater than the earthly sea. He beholds ed., Apocrypha, II, 431. more angels, "the elders and rulers of the stellar 40 WORLD ORDER: SPRING 1983 orders, the 200 angels who come around all In the Fourth Heaven Enoch beholds the those who sail." He sees, too, the terrible trea­ sun: sure houses of the snow stewarded by angels Its passage and return are accompanied who go in and out of the surrounding clouds. by fo ur great stars, and each star has under it And, "they showed me the treasure-houses of a thousand stars to the right of the sun's the dew, like oil of the olive, and the appear­ wheel, and four to the left each having un­ ance of its form as of all the flowers on earth." 18 der it a thousand stars, issuing with the sun In the Second Heaven he sees darkness greater continually. than earthly darkness, and in it prisoners hang­ And by day fifteen myriads of angels at­ ing, awaiting judgment, dark angels who weep tend it, and by night a thousand. And six­ incessantly. The guides explain: winged ones issue with the angels before the "They are God's apostates ... who turned sun's wheel into fiery flames, and a hundred away with their prince, who is also fastened angels kindle the sun and set it alight. . .. [At on the Fifth Heaven." And I felt great pity daybreak] the elements of the sun, called for them, and they saluted me, and said to Phoenixes and Chalkydri, break into song, me: "Man of God, pray for us to the Lord;" therefore every bird flutters with its wings and I answered to them: "Who am I, a mor­ rejoicing at the giver of light. ... The sun is a tal man, that I should pray for angels? Who great creation. 22 knoweth not whither I go, or what will be­ He tells of the moon and her times, her gates, fall me, or who will pray for me?" 19 and also of the continual and indescribable From the Third Heaven he looks down on singing of the angels throughout this level. "all the sweet-flowering trees . .. all the foods Now in the Fifth Heaven there is silence. borne by them bubbling with fragrant exhala­ He sees tion." In their midst is the Tree of Life, many and countless soldiers called Grigori, gold-looking and vermillion and firelike, of human appearance, and their size was and covers all, and it has produce from all greater than that of great giants, and their fruits. Its root is in the garden at the earth's faces withered, and the silence of their end .... And there are 300 angels very mouths perpetual. ... And I said: "Where­ bright who keep the garden, and with inces­ fore are these very withered and their faces sant sweet-singing ... serve the Lord melancholy, and their mouths silent?" through all days and hours. And I said: And they said to me: "These are the Gri­ "How very sweet is this place." 20 gori who with their prince Satanail rejected On the Northern side he is shown the terri­ the Lord of light, and after them are those ble place where there is no light, only murky who are held in great distress on the second fire, heaven, and three of them went down on to and there is a fiery river coming forth, and the earth from the Lord's throne . . . and the whole place is everywhere fire, and ev­ broke through their vows on the shoulder erywhere there is frost and ice, thirst and of the hill Ermon, and saw the daughters of shivering, while the bonds are very cruel, men how good they are, and took to them­ and the angels fearful and merciless, bearing selves wives, and befouled the earth with angry weapons. 21 their deeds ... . " And I said to the Grigori: "I saw your brethren and their works, and their great torments, and I prayed for them, but the 18. Ibid., p. 433 (chap. 6). Lord has condemned them to be under 19. Ibid., p. 433 (chap. 7). 20. Ibid., p. 434 (chap. 8:4, 8). earth till heaven and earth shall end for­ 21. Ibid., p. 435 (chap. 10:2, 3). ever." 22. Ibid., pp. 436-38 (chap. 11:3, 4; 15:1, 4). And I said: "Wherefore do you wait, RETURN OF ENOCH 41

brethren, and do not serve before the Lord's now, Enoch falls on his face and says, "Woe is face ... lest you anger your Lord utterly?" me, what has befallen me?" 25 Gabriel is sent And they listened to my admonition, and down to him, catches him up like a leaf in the spoke to the four ranks in heaven, and lo! as wind, sets him before the Lord. On the way he I stood with those two men four trumpets passes through the Eighth and Ninth Heavens, trumpeted together with great voice, and home of the Twelve signs of the Zodiac. the Grigori broke into song . . . and their In this Tenth and final Heaven, Aravoth, he voice went up before the Lord pitifully and sees the face of the Lord, affectingly. 23 like iron made to glow in fire, and brought Affectingly, indeed! The sudden blast of out, emitting sparks, and it burns ... but long-silent trumpets, withered mouths surging the Lord's face is ineffable, marvelous and again into song! Will the awesome Throne, the very awful, and very very terrible. And who ineffable Face be more moving than this? am I to tell of the Lord's unspeakable be- Up to the Sixth Heaven now where seven mg. .. . .)26 bands of shining angels, all alike in form and Quite overwhelmed Enoch is assisted by the dress, Archistratege Michael, who anoints and make the orders, and learn the goings of the clothes him befittingly. The learned Archangel stars, and the alteration of the moon, or Pravuil brings out the books of God, and a reed revolution of the sun, and the good govern­ of quick writing, and instructs him in every ment of the world. And when they see evil­ branch of knowledge. Then it is Enoch's turn. doing they make commandments and in­ He is to write all the souls of mankind, "for all struction, and sweet and loud singing, and souls are prepared to eternity before the for­ all songs of praise. mation of the world."27 He works for double These are the archangels who are above thirty days and nights, writes three hundred the angels, measure all life in heaven and on and sixty-six books. This chore accomplished, earth, and the angels who are over every the Lord summons him to sit down at His left grass, giving food to all, to every living with Gabriel, and says to him: thing, and the angels who write all the souls Enoch, beloved ... take in these words, of men, and all their deeds, and their lives for not to my angels have I told my secret, before the Lord's face; and in their midst are and I have not told them their rise, nor my Phoenixes and six-winged ones continually endless realm, nor have they understood my with one voice singing ... and it is not pos­ creating, which I tell thee today. sible to describe their singing, and they re­ For before all things were visible, I alone joice before the Lord at his footstool. 24 used to go about in the invisible things, like In the Seventh Heaven he sees fiery troops the sun from east to west, and from west to of great archangels, incorporeal forces, domin­ east. But even the sun has peace in itself, ions, orders and governments, cherubim and while I found no peace, because I was creat­ seraphim, thrones and many-eyed ones. He is ing all things, and I conceived the thought of shown the Lord from afar in His very high planting foundations . . .. throne (it extends up into the Tenth Heaven). "Have courage," say the two guides, and, their On the sixth day I commanded my wis­ mission accomplished, they slip away. Alone dom to create man from seven consistencies: one, his flesh from the earth; two, his blood from the dew; three, his eyes from the sun; 23. Ibid., pp. 439-40 (chap. 18:1-9). four, his bones from stone; five, his intelli­ 24. Ibid., pp. 440-41(chap.19:1-6). 25. Ibid., p. 442 (chap. 21:2). gence from the swiftness of the angels and 26. Ibid., p. 442 (chap. 22:1, 2). from cloud; six, his veins and his hair from 27 . Ibid., p. 444 (chap. 23:5). the grass of the earth; seven, his soul from 42 WORLD ORDER: SPRING 1983

my breath and from the wind ... and I are called together. He tells them everything, in placed him on earth, a second angel, hon­ the course of many chapters, and tearfully ex­ ourable, great and glorious, and I appointed horts them to virtue. When the thirty days are him as ruler to rule on earth and to have my over, darkness covers the earth, and no one sees wisdom, and there was none like him on how Enoch is taken up again to the highest earth of all my existing creatures.28 heaven. When the darkness lifts, a scroll is God calls the man Adam, a name whose found lying there, on it inscribed The Invisible four letters in Greek stand for the initials of the God. four directions. He shows him the two ways, the light and the darkness. He puts sleep into WHO then was Enoch? Excluded by the Hil­ him, takes a rib and makes woman, "that death arys and Jeromes of the day, he shines forth should come to him through his wife." The from a wide coverless book of the human spir­ two live on in Paradise amid singing angels and it. If the Puritans had been more hospitable gloomless light. Satanail, as we might guess, se­ with the bright angels of Persia and Chaldea, duces Eve, but does not touch Adam. They are they might have escaped the trap of their mea­ driven out onto the earth whence they were ger and literal Bible, might have been spared taken. "I cursed ignorance," God tells Enoch, the murdering of witches. Somber tight-faced "but what I had blessed previously I did not Grigori could have taught them. curse. I cursed not man, nor the earth, nor Throughout millenia conjectures and other creatures, but man's evil fruit and his mythic creations have clustered about the works." 29 slight thread of Enoch's recorded story. He is The seven-day week has been finished, seven Metatron, nearest the Throne, a flame engir­ thousand years. The beginning of the eighth dled by storm, whirlwind, and thundering; he thousand is to be a time of not-counting, end­ is a simple cobbler who spends his days bring­ less, with neither years nor months nor weeks ing uppers and lowers together; he is guardian nor days nor hours. Enoch is now to return to of arcane wisdom and writer of many books; earth for thirty days with all the books and wis­ he is a lad slow of speech who, transformed, dom he has acquired. His former guides, Sam­ takes his people with him to heaven; he re­ uil and Raguil, will again conduct him. But first ceives from God five hundred thousand three one of the older angels, "terrible and menac­ hundred and sixty eyes with which to see all ing ... white as snow and his hands like ice" is things in the entire universe. called up to freeze the face of Enoch; other­ The constant in all the traditions is that he wise, no man will be able to look on him. 30 walked with God, minuscule human stum­ So Enoch comes back to his own couch blings accommodating somehow to the Mea­ where his son Methusal is keeping vigil. sureless, and that thereafter he was not known Enoch's household and the elders of the people to his fellows in any ordinary way. Does he stir in us today, an archetypal force that impels us to explore the universe without, and the cos­ 28. Ibid., p. 444, 448 (chap. 24:2-5; 30:8-12). mos within? Is his an ancient name for our 29 . Ibid., p. 451 (chap. 31:7, 8). present need to see with our own eyes and know 30. Ibid., p. 453 (chap. 37:1, 2). ofour own knowledge? 43

I Never Learned the Names of Flowers a name? what fragile root seeks for a transitory rain of words that neither nourish nor define:

just the fragrances here of blossoms which vie with colors in the intimate unfolding of intense self-defi nition.

no less than moss I too have known the shaded candor of the vine and recognize familiar blooms in unfamiliar

faces although I must confess I often do not know the names of flowers. - Thomas Washington

Copyrigh t © )982 by Thomas Was hington

45

Literature's Cracked Mirror

A REVIEW OF GERALD GRAFF'S Literature Against Itself" Literary Ideas in Modern Society (CHICAGO: UNIV. OF CHICAGO PRESS, 1979), 239 PAGES, NOTES, INDEX BY FREDERICK GLAYSHER

OSTMODERN literature and critical theory order in an increasingly materialistic civiliza­ Phave shattered and discarded the ancient tion, it led to only a more rampant subjectiv­ metaphor that literature is a mirror held up to ism. the world. Among some thinkers the figure it­ Graff maintains that the next logical step self is considered passe. They loathe not only was into the extreme autonomy of our century. the metaphor but the very belief that reality ex­ Rilke and Yeats come readily to mind. They ists. Such fundamentally nihilistic thinking both developed esoteric "systems" to compen­ permeates many disciplines today. In literature sate for their inability to discern any coherent this interpretation reveals itself mainly by exterior reality, Yeats achieving by far the more evincing derision for the belief that literature is arcane and idiosyncratic one. The presupposi­ able to refer to external reality. Professor Ger­ tion of such a system is that there is no inherent ald Graff's Literature Against Itself analyzes this design; the artist must contrive one. Rilke and loss of referentiality and traces its development Yeats differ from a few of the romantics in that from romanticism through modernism and their thinking is thoroughly secular, despite New Criticism and on to the current postmo­ half-hearted assertions of some type of tenuous dernism. Although his book may be more per­ mysticism. Yet what differentiates the modern­ ceptive about the problems than about the pos­ ists (such as Rilke and Yeats) from postmodern sibilities of restoration, it boldly rejects the writers is that the modernists remained, for the solipsism of contemporary literature and calls most part, humanists. They continued to be­ for a return to an aesthetics centered in reality. lieve, as the romantics did, that poetry gives or­ Graff accurately perceives that the major af­ der and meaning, somehow or another, to re­ fl.iction of literature is its loss of referentiality. ality. Wallace Stevens' idea that poetry is the He locates the beginning of this loss in roman­ "supreme fiction" exemplifies this position. ticism. Blake, Shelley, Wordsworth, Emerson, He, along with Yeats, Rilke, and others, per­ as well as many others, tended to exaggerate sisted in believing that a humanistic world the "legislative" power of poetry while negat­ view was essential to poetry. In criticism, the ing the utter dependence of poetry upon an ex­ New Critics were central to the loss of referen­ ternal standard for justification and validation. tiality, for it was they who worked the auton­ As they moved away from an objective stan­ omy of romanticism into a critical doctrine. dard, they progressively substituted for it a lit­ T. S. Eliot and I. A. Richards were particularly erary creation-one for which no verifiable or responsible for the development of the seminal believable authority existed. This weakened ideas of close textual reading and of disregard­ the claim of literature to truth and simulta­ ing the content of a literary work. The autote­ neously began its social and intellectual alien­ lic, self-sufficient text and the further trivializa­ ation. Despite the extravagant claims of roman­ tion of literature were the offspring of the ticism, it went awry. Far from creating more romantic inheritance of the period. Postmodern literature indisputably "ex­ tends rather than overturns the premises of ro­ Copyright© 1983 by Frederick Glaysher manticism and modernism." Most of Graff's 46 WORLD ORDER: SPRI NG 1983 book is dedicated to proving the truth of this tention by the author. Literature is not a Ror­ statement. He painstakingly documents that schach test, a contention that much of modern postmodern literature concludes "with better literary culture is dangerously close to holding. logic, that, if humanism is indeed a fiction, we Graff brilliantly exposes why "avant garde" ought to quit this pretense that it can be taken ideologies fail to challenge contemporaneity: seriously." Hence we have Barthes, Derrida, de "They are the entrenched ideologies, or at least Man, semiotics, reader-response criticism, and play into them." The alienated psychology of all of the writers who celebrate some vague the postmodern artist has been so thoroughly form of energy- for example, Jerzy Kosinski absorbed into the general society-or the post­ and John Hawkes along with the "Beat" poets. modern artist has so thoroughly absorbed the However, to repudiate humanism is, as alienation of modern, fragmented society­ Graff recognizes, a slightly honorable position that there is no longer any fundamental differ­ for these critics and writers. They at least are ence between their thinking. The various co­ honest enough to accept the inevitable conclu­ teries basically embrace the same values of irra­ sion that must follow from their ungrounded tionality and antiintellectualism, skepticism, thinking, something that most of the roman­ and nihilism that pervade contemporary world tics and modernists could not face: civilization. They mistakenly redefine their Knowing and naming itself as fiction, litera­ failure as a "breakthrough." Much of the writ­ ture becomes a vehicle for a nihilistic meta­ ing of contemporaneity, as Graff observes, is a physics, an anti-didactic form of preaching. symptom of the malady instead of an explora­ In a world in which nobody can look out­ tion of it. In a strange way, referentiality has al­ side the walls of the prison house of lan­ most been restored; the mirror is cracked, but guage, literature, with its built-in confession it reflects the condition of our age . of its self-imprisonment, becomes once Graff demonstrates that literature has con­ again the great oracle of truth, but now the spired against itself to bring about its own loss truth is that there is no truth. of referentiality: This is the postmodern "breakthrough": the From the perception that "poetry makes grim truth at last confronted. Drawing upon nothing happen," as Auden in our century Vico, Saussure, Russian formalism, and mod­ has said, we move to the imperative that po­ ern linguistics in general, some postmodern etry ought to make nothing happen, and fi ­ thinkers and writers hold that linguistic ele­ nally to the axiom that it is not real poetry if ments cannot signify anything in the objective it aims at practical effect. By this logical world and that, as a result, no intelligible reali­ route, the alienated position of literature ty exists. All is reduced to arbitrary codes of ceases to be an aspect of a particular histori­ signifiers. cal condition and becomes part of litera­ Although Graff does allow that linguistic ture's very definition. signs are indeed arbitrary and that it is a valu­ Although he states that the reason for this de­ able lesson for literature and criticism to learn flating redefinition is due to literary thinkers this, he points out that it does not follow that having accepted a certain conceptual bill of the concepts referred to are arbitrary. External goods, he still tends to locate the causes of it in conventions, as well as internal, determine the political arena, in the appearance of mod­ meaning. An example he gives is the ambigu­ ern mass society, and in the pressure upon lit­ ous statement "Keep off the grass." Without erature of scientific advancement. Nowhere in external indication of the intention of the writ­ his book does Graff approach the understand­ er or speaker, one does not know how to un­ ing that for man to lose touch with true exter­ derstand this simple statement. Does it mean to nal authority means he has lost touch with ob­ stay off someone's lawn or off marijuana? Only jective reality. Anomie, in the old sense of the an intentional, external sign can clarify the word, is all that can possibly follow. And re­ meaning. In the same way, writing demands in- gardless of his beliefs that literature is depen- LITERATURE"S CRACKED MIRROR 47 dent upon a convincing conceptual and theo­ poses that a new "fusion" be based on a view of retical understanding of the world and that history as degenerating into the mass society of literature has denied itself such an understand­ today. That this has occurred during the last ing, he himself fails to elucidate what one century is undeniable. Such a phenomenon has might be. Suffice it to say that the result of such certainly, as he contends, vitiated the rational, a redefinition is not only the loss of referentia­ critical capacity of society and replaced it with lity but signficance as well. The writer turns to mass forms of thinking that are lacking in con­ mythology, linguistic games. This redefinition tent. Yet such a fact is itself merely the symp­ is not, however, a recent phenomenon. Litera­ tom of a much larger problem. And his "fu­ ture has been, as Graff states at one point, "in sion" would actually result only in another the process of telling us how little it means for a personal, willed mythology, which is precisely long time, as far back as the beginnings of ro­ what he argues against throughout his book. manticism." That this redefinition of literature Nevertheless, Graff is definitely seeking to has found doctrinal expression in Auden and restore coherence to life. He cites Saul Bellow's other writers and critics should come as no sur­ Mr. Sammler's Planet as an attempt to reaffirm prise. But poetry does and must make some­ the meaning of such words as truth, honor, thing happen; it repairs and polishes the mir­ compassion, virtue. But ultimately such an at­ ror; it perceives the order that exists in reality; tempt remains for Bellow and Graff as de­ it leads to practical effect; it opens our eyes to prived of any respectable authority as the at­ new possibilities of life and thought. As Robert tempt by the romantics and modernists to Hayden wrote, "Poetry does make something affirm humanistic values. The religious ground happen, for it changes sensibility.'":- Such for such verities has not been restored; rather, change, incontrovertibly spiritual in nature, is they are asserted solely out of a nostalgia that the prerequisite for any transformation in the can command no more respect than earlier at­ objective, quotidian world. tempts by scholars and writers to impose, by As a remedy for the problems of referentia- themselves, order on existence. Similarly, in his lity and redefinition, Graff offers mimesis: chapter "English in America," he claims that The writer's problem is to find a standpoint the collective efforts of scholars are required from which to represent the diffuse, intran­ "to reconstruct our history.'' This is presented sigent material of contemporary experience after acknowledging the manner in which liter­ without surrendering critical perspective to ary scholars and teachers have collaborated it. Since critical perspective depends on his­ during the last century to drain literature of its torical sense, on seeing the present some­ referential ability. How this tendency may be how as part of a coherent historical process, reversed is not explained any more than the as­ this task demands a difficult fusion of the sertion that respectability must be returned to sense of contemporaneity with the sense of the "old words.'' the past that gives contemporaneity distinct Although Graff demystifies in a masterly definition. way the thinking of many scholars and writers, Graff's mimetic "fusion" is indeed difficult giv­ he meets some of them in the end in a vague en contemporary assumptions about history and ungrounded program of revision. At the and society, assumptions that, in the end, Graff same time, it seems that perhaps Graff under­ shares. Without an understanding of the major stands the predicament in which he, modern motivating events of history, any effort at "fu­ literature, and contemporaneity find them­ sion" is doomed to failure. He primarily pro- selves. Between the lines of his book one senses perhaps an awareness of the futility of political and academic solutions to the spiritual perplex­ "How It Strikes a Contemporary, a forthcoming In to volume of Robert Hayden's prose being edited by ities of today. an age as disjointed as ours, the author for the University of Michigan Press.­ understand such a large part of the problem is a ED. formidable and admirable accomplishment. 48 WORLD ORDER: SPRING 1983

Authors & Artists

BRET BRENEMAN is an English instruc­ gan, the University Press of which has ac­ tor at the University of Hawaii College cepted for publication his edition of The of Continuing Education. Collected Prose ofRobert Hayden.

WILLIAM P. COLLINS, the librarian of the ANNA M. STEVENSON is a graphic artist Baha'i World Centre in Haifa, Israel, who has taught art both on the high holds a B.A. in Persian and French from school and college level. She has spent Middlebury College and a M.S. in library half her life as a Mormon (of the fourth science from Syracuse University. His generation) and half as a Baha'i. "The Baha'i Faith and Mormonism: A Preliminary Survey," appeared in our THOMAS WASHINGTON, who holds a Fall 1980/Winter 1981 issue. Ph.D. in Latin American literature, is writing a book on self-defense for wom­ M. R. GARIS, a long-time resident of Am­ en. herst, Massachusetts, is the current writ­ er of the Uncle Wiggily stories. • ART CREDITS. Cover, design by John So­ FREDERICK GLAYSHER, a first-time con­ larz, photograph by J.M. Conrader; p. 1, tributor to World Order, has until recent­ photograph by Raymond I. Moore; p. 8, pho­ ly been a lecturer in English at Gunma tograph by courtesy of National Baha'i Ar­ chives, Wilmette, Illinois; p. 24, photograph University in Maebashi, Japan. He holds by Lori Block; p. 34, photograph by Camille a Master's degree in English language and O'Reilly; p. 44, photograph by David L. literature from the University of Michi- Trautmann.