Un Défi lancé à la communauté bahá’íe

Abstract

In “The Intellectual Life of the Bahá’í Community,” Farzam Arbab challenges the Bahá’í community to effect a radical change in its intellectual life, consonant with Bahá’u’lláh’s description of the present order as “lamentably defective.” Arbab’s conviction in the absolute necessity of science and religion, grounded in his work with FUNDAEC, is absolute; while he naturally points to the deficiency in the materialist foundations of much of modern thought, he does not dwell on it. The present article therefore outlines a few aspects of that materialistic thinking. Mindful of Arbab’s warning against two pitfalls that originate in materialistic thinking—that of intellectual complacency, which consists of not really questioning existing intellectual patterns, and that of not adequately taking into account the absolute necessity of humanity’s spiritual transformation—this article also elaborates on the three qualities by which the Bahá’í community can avoid them: courage, avoidance of elitism, and internalization of the concept of harmony between science and religion. Some initiatives of the Bahá’í community such as the ABS/AÉB and ISGP testify to efforts deployed to respond to Farzam Arbab’s urgings.