Fifty Baha'i Principles of Unity: a Paradigm of Social Salvation 1 Christopher Buck
! Fifty Baha’i Principles of Unity: A Paradigm of Social Salvation1 Christopher Buck ! No two men can be found who may be said to be outwardly and inwardly united. The evidences of discord and malice are apparent everywhere, though all were made for harmony and union. — Bahá’u’lláh, ‘Tablet of Maqṣúd’, Tablets of Bahá’u’lláh Revealed After the Kitáb-i-Aqdas, Wilmette, IL: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1988, 163–64. The well-being of mankind, its peace and security are unattainable unless and until its unity is firmly established. This unity can never be achieved so long as the counsels which the Pen of the Most High hath revealed are suffered to pass unheeded. — Bahá’u’lláh, Gleanings From the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh, Wilmette, IL: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1990, 186. Abstract The Baha’i Faith, a young world religion, offers principles of unity – from family relations to international relations – as a paradigm for social salvation. These principles may be studied within the analytic prism of an ‘illness/cure’ approach to religious soteriologies – a conceptual model in the phenomenology of religions popularized by Stephen Prothero. World religions are systems of salvation, liberation or harmony. Their respective offers of salvation, liberation or harmony respond directly to the human predicament, as defined by each religion. If humanity is plagued by sin, then Christianity’s redemptive offer of salvation from sin makes perfect sense. Early Buddhism’s offer of liberation – from the fundamental problem of suffering – also fits perfectly in this model. In the Baha’i religion, the plight facing the world is profound estrangement at all levels of society.
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