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Making the Crooked Straight

Name: Making the Crooked Straight
ISBN: 9780853984436

by Udo Schaefer, Nicola Towfigh, Ulrich Gollmer

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862 pages 2002

About This Book

CONTENTS
 
 FOREWORD, by J.A. McLean xiii
 PREFACE TO THE GERMAN EDITION (1995) xxi
 PREFACE TO THE ENGLISH EDITION (2000) xxiii
 INTRODUCTION 1
 
 PART I: METHODOLOGY
 
 CHAPTER 1 OVERVIEW 15
 I. The limits of religious knowledge 15
 II. ‘Critical literature’ 18
 III. The renegade as researcher 27
 IV. The origins of the conflict 30
 
 CHAPTER 2 ON FICICCHIA’S METHODOLOGY 36
 I. Opportunism—the supreme principle of the Bahá’í Faith? 37
 II. Ficicchia’s standpoint 40
 III. Ficicchia’s portraits of the founding figures 56
 1. The Báb 56
 2. Bahá’u’lláh 58
 IV. Ficicchia’s portrait of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá 73
 V. The portrait of Shoghi Effendi 90
 VI. Ficicchia’s distorted image of the Bahá’í community 102
 VII. Ficicchia’s semantics 119
 VIII. The Bahá’ís—sectarian escapists and dangerous extremists?126
 1. On the charge of ‘unworldly isolation’ 126
 2. On the charge of subversion 135
 
 PART II: COMMUNITY AND DOCTRINE
 
 CHAPTER 3 FICICCHIA’S PORTRAIT OF THE COMMUNITY
 AND ITS ORDER 141
 I. The background: the Protestant concept of law 142
 II. Ficicchia’s critique of the order of the Bahá’í community and its foundations 149
 1. The Universal House of Justice — not foreseen by Bahá’u’lláh? 149
 2. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s testament—disputed? 152
 3. The Guardianship—a dictatorship? 154
 4. On the alleged ‘doctrinal legislation’ by the Universal House of Justice 158
 5. The community: a ‘steward of the grace’? 160
 6. Shoghi Effendi charged with having prevented the establishment of the Universal House of Justice 164
 7. On the subject of infallibility 166
 8. Freedom to teach—teaching authority 194
 9. Prepublication review—a censorship? 209
 10. Forbidden books? 213
 11. Freedom of expression prohibited? 214
 12. Criticism prohibited? 219
 13. Covenant-breaking and excommunication 224
 14. ‘Tricks’ and ‘the pressure of the plan’
 in missionary activities? 238
 15. ‘Complete renunciation of Christian beliefs’? 243
 16. The community—anti-democratic, centralist, secular? 245
 17. Ficicchia’s (mis)judgement of the Bahá’í community 254
 
 CHAPTER 4 FICICCHIA’S PRESENTATION OF BAHÁ’Í DOCTRINE 260
 I. On the concept of revelation 260
 II. On the station of Bahá’u’lláh 262
 III. On the Bahá’í doctrine of grace 267
 IV. On the Bahá’í concept of human nature 273
 V. On claims to absoluteness and exclusiveness 276
 VI. Emphatically rationalist, hostile to science, and esoteric, all at once? 289
 VII. On the concept of liberty 301
 
 CHAPTER 5 FICICCHIA’S PORTRAYAL OF BAHÁ’Í LAW 317
 I. The Law: A provocation 317
 II. Suppression and dissimulation of the Kitáb-i-Aqdas? 322
 III. Difficulties of publication 329
 1. Previous publications and translations 331
 2. On the Royal Asiatic Society’s English-language edition of 1961 334
 3. Problems of producing an authentic translation 337
 4. On the nature of divine legislation 338
 IV. Specific issues 352
 1. Taqíyya—a law of Bahá’u’lláh? 352
 2. The Kitáb-i-Aqdas—a sketchy ‘framework’? 362
 3. The sacred texts—falsified, interpolated? 369
 V. Some corrections regarding the content of particular laws 385
 1. On ritual daily prayer 385
 2. On the cut of the hair 390
 3. Bahá’í holy days and the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár 393
 VI. Corrections of other distortions 396
 1. On the dogmatic foundation of the law 396
 2. On the balance between justice and love 398
 3. A casuist system of ethics? 403
 4. A rigorous religious law? 409
 VII. On the nature of the law of God 411
 
 CHAPTER 6 BAHÁ’Í POLITICAL THOUGHT 418
 I. The Bahá’í community: authoritarian and antidemocratic? 420
 1. The Bahá’í Faith—‘political Mahdism’? 421
 2. A ‘claim to total power’ or fulfilment of
 eschatological prophecy? 424
 3. The need for peace 427
 4. A centralist global state? 432
 5. The eschatological realm of peace 435
 6. Claim to power or service to humanity? 440
 7. ‘Total possession taken of the individual’? 444
 II. Bahá’u’lláh—royalist and hostile to liberty? 446
 1. Bahá’u’lláh’s statements concerning kingship 448
 2. A power political alliance between church and state? 451
 3. Non-violent neutrality or partisanship? 453
 4. Universalism versus nationalism 454
 5. Justified ‘opposition’ or persecution of a non-violent religious minority? 457
 III. On the way to a new type of politics 464
 1. The concept of politics in Bahá’í scripture 465
 2. Loyalty to state authority 468
 3. Bahá’í elections: a non-partisan form of democratic appointment of government 470
 4. A new model for political decision-making 473
 5. Responsibility for the world we live in 476
 
 PART III: HISTORICAL ISSUES
 
 CHAPTER 7 PROBLEMS OF RESEARCH IN THE FIELD OF RELIGIOUS HISTORY 481
 
 CHAPTER 8 FICICCHIA’S SOURCES 492
 I. Kitáb-i-Nuqt.atu’l-Káf and Táríkh-i-Jadíd 496
 1. Kitáb-i-Nuqt.atu’l-Káf 500
 2. Táríkh-i-Jadíd 513
 II. Hasht Bihisht 522
 
 CHAPTER 9 FICICCHIA’S EUROPEAN SOURCES 529
 I. The orientalist Edward Granville Browne 529
 II. The Protestant minister Hermann Römer 546
 1. Römer’s presentation: its structure and influence on later works 551
 2. Römer’s portrayal of Bábí and Bahá’í history 554
 3. Römer’s interpretation of Bábí/Bahá’í doctrine 559
 
 CHAPTER 10 SOME ASPECTS OF BÁBÍ AND BAHÁ’Í HISTORY 571
 I. Mahdi claim and messianic secret 571
 1. Ficicchia’s sources 572
 2. The messianic secret 579
 3. The religious and political background 579
 4. The eschatological expectations of heterodox Shí‘a Islam 583
 5. The Báb’s claim 586
 II. Bahá’u’lláh’s claims 598
 1. The prophecy concerning the advent of Man yuz.hiruhu’lláh 601
 2. Two alleged proofs of the supremacy of Mírzá Yahyá in Baghdád 605
 3. On the dating of Bahá’u’lláh’s declaration 610
 III. Mírzá Yahyá Azal 618
 IV. Mírzá Yahyá as head of the Bábís and opponent of Bahá’u’lláh 631
 V. The cases of murder and attempted murder 650
 1. The murder of Dayyán 652
 2. The murder of three Azalís in ‘Akká 657
 3. The attempted murders committed by Mírzá Yahyá in Edirne 667
 VI. On the question of schism 671
 
 CHAPTER 11 THE WILL AND TESTAMENT OF ‘ABDU’L-BAHÁ 674
 I. The forgery theory 678
 II. The religious and historical background 680
 III. On the content of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Will and Testament 687
 IV. The appointment of Shoghi Effendi as ‘Guardian of the Faith’—a historical overview 705
 V. The inventor of the forgery theory and her epigones 724
 VI. The arguments concerning style and content 735
 VII. The graphological assessment 744
 VIII. The ideological reasons for rejecting the Will and Testament 753
 IX. On the logical structure and stringency of the arguments 763
 X. Conclusion 774
 
 CONCLUSION 777
 
 APPENDIX 785
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY 794
 
 INDEX OF NAMES 827
 
 GENERAL INDEX 836