The Bahá'í: The Religious Construction of a Global Identity

by Michael McMullen

Overview

The Bahá’í Faith is one of the fastest growing, but least studied, of the world’s religions. Adherents view themselves as united by a universal belief that transcends national boundaries. Michael McMullen examines how the Bahá’í develop and maintain this global identity. Taking the Bahá’í community in Atlanta, Georgia, as a case in point, his book is the first to comprehensively examine the tenets of this little-understood faith.

McMullen notes that, to the Bahá’í, Buddha, Moses, Jesus, and Mohammed are all divinely sent teachers of ‘the Truth’, whose messages conform to the needs of their individual cultures and historical periods. But religion—which draws from the teaching of Bahá’u’lláh, a nineteenth-century Persian—encourages its members to think of themselves as global citizens. It also seeks to establish unity among its members through adherence to a Bahá’í worldview.

By examining the Atlanta Bahá’í community, McMullen shows how this global identity is interpreted locally. He discusses such topics as: the organizational structure and authority relations in the Bahá’í “Administrative Order”; Bahá’í evangelicalism; and the social boundaries between Bahá’ís and the wider culture.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780813528366
Publisher:	Rutgers University Press
Publication date:	08/01/2000
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

MICHAEL MCMULLEN is an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Houston, Clear Lake.

Table of Contents

	List of Tables	ix
	Preface	xi
	Acknowledgments	xv
Chapter 1	Introduction	1
Chapter 2	Carriers and Converts	15
Chapter 3	The Baha'i Administrative Order	34
Chapter 4	Authority in the Administrative Order	56
Chapter 5	Personal Devotion and Organizational Participation	76
Chapter 6	Boundaries and Identity	109
Chapter 7	Teaching the Baha'i Faith	126
Chapter 8	"Thinking Globally, Acting Locally"	152
Chapter 9	Conclusion	175
Appendix A	Atlanta Baha'i Questionnaire	185
Appendix B	Historical Overview	193
Appendix C	The Baha'i Calendar	197
	Notes	199
	Bibliography	229
	Index	243

Editorial Reviews

The Baha'i seeks to demonstrate the ideological and organizational mechanisms that shape Baha'i identity, and the faith, more generally. . . . This is a work that should prove of interest to those interested in globalization and religion. . . . The book provides a solid overview of the Baha'i faith, its ecclesiastical structure, and the basis of the Baha'i religious identity.

Contemporary Sociology

McMullen focuses on the Baha'i of Atlanta in order to demonstrate how the faith confers upon its members' global religious identity in response to rapid social change. . . . A competent guide to the mental universe of these well-intentioned, colorful universalists.

Jerusalem Post

McMullen (sociology, Univ. of Houston) deals frankly with the Bah ' religion as lived in Atlanta, GA. The Bah ' Faith was founded in Iran by Bah 'ull h (1817-92), who taught that one God has revealed His will through a series of divine messengers (among them Moses, the Buddha, Jesus, Muhammad, and Bah 'ull h) and that this is the age of the realization of the oneness of humanity. McMullen calls Bah ' s "situated universalists" whose international structure fosters global thinking with local action. He demonstrates that the social factors that typically influence religious belief (gender, race, education, etc.) are unrelated to how Bah ' s engage in personal and community spiritual obligations or adhere to Bah ' principles, a finding that appears unique among religious groups. Instead, the grounding of elected Bah ' institutions (e.g., the Universal House of Justice, national and local spiritual assemblies) in the religion's scriptures makes loyalty to them a spiritual necessity, which is consistently practiced. Unfortunately, the book has some weaknesses in methodological points, the treatment of controversies, and occasional historical inaccuracies. Nonetheless, this work offers fresh insights and useful findings about a new religious approach to globalization. It will complement the few existing published sociological treatments of the Bah ' faith, especially Peter Smith's The B h and Bah ' Religions (1987. o.p.), and Will van den Hoonaard's The Origins of the Bah ' Community in Canada (Wilfrid Laurier Univ.,1996) and is recommended for academic collections on the sociology of religion.--William P. Collins, Library of Congress Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.\

Library Journal

This work presents in a careful scholarly manner the Baha'i identity. The fieldwork was centered on the Baha'i community in Atlanta. . . . An appendix includes the Atlanta questionnaire survey materials, along with 47 pages of notes, bibliography, and index. Highly recommended.

Choice