Baha\'i Theology

By: Bob Pardon

Baha\'i theology, like Baha\'i history, is very difficult to state concisely. This is due to various reasons: the Faith is new and there are hundreds of volumes of written material; symbolic meaning has been assigned to most historical facts and theological concepts; interpretation is in flux save where one of the authorities has spoken authoritatively.⁽¹⁾ However, in the broad sweep of doctrine many things can be said.

The Nature of God

The nature of God is completely unknowable. He is transcendent to the point of total inaccessibility. Abdu\'l Baha states, \"...the Reality of Divinity is hidden from all comprehension, and concealed from the minds of all men.\"⁽²⁾ Baha\'u\'llah spoke of God as, \"...the unknowable Essence,...immensely exalted beyond every human attribute...He is, and hath ever been, veiled in the ancient mystery of His Essence, and will remain in His Reality everlastingly hidden from the sight of men.\"⁽³⁾

So transcendent is God that while He is the creator of all things He is not their cause. He is the cause of only the Primal Will. However, the Primal Will has always existed as an eternal emanation from the Divine Essence (God). It is its own cause and is dependent upon God for its existence. It is from this Primal Will that the phenomenal world is an eternal effect, and it is the Primal Will that serves as the life force and speaks through the Divine Manifestations of history. The Bab points out that, \"...this is so because there can be no connection between God and His creation, in the sense of the Divine Essence becoming a place of change.\"⁽⁴⁾ God by definition is the static, changeless One, forever separated from relationship with His created order. The following chart is a graphic representation of this concept.

Critique of the Concept of God\'s Nature

First, philosophically this conception of God is fraught with all manner of problems, the greatest being incoherence.

Second, because the essence of God eternally emanates all that exists, the material universe is co-eternal with Him. If this is so it can be argued that He is not really separate from his creation. Baha\'i scholars have admitted this tends towards Monism (All is One). However, their solution is, simply, to quote sections of Baha\'i scripture that affirm that God is separate from the created order. In another approach a Baha\'i scholar, paraphrasing Baha\'u\'llah, states, \"...when set in the context of higher levels of truth, monism is shown to be inadequate and will be abandoned by the more advanced treader of the mystic path.\"⁽⁵⁾ This is essentially an appeal to mysticism. However, in the Book of Genesis God is clearly separate from His creation. Being the Changeless One, eternally existent, He can create space and time without effecting His essence (Genesis 1:1; 5:2; Isaiah 40:28; 42:5; Ephesians 3:9).

Third, if the material universe is co-eternal with God this is philosophically and scientifically indefensible. Briefly stated, if there is no beginning to the universe then there has been an actual infinite number of past events in the history of the universe. It is logically impossible to have an actual infinite number of past events in time. ⁽⁶⁾

Fourth, if God is utterly unknowable and incomprehensible, how can anything truly be known about Him? How can the Baha\'i Faith tell humanity anything about God? Baha\'u\'llah paradoxically relates to a God who is not personal in any sense of the Word. Because He is totally inconceivable to finite human beings this precludes even His prophets and divine Manifestations from any knowledge of Him.⁽⁷⁾ The Baha\'i is left to say that the most we can know about His essence is that we are unable to have any knowledge of it.⁽⁸⁾ By contrast the Christian knows much about God\'s essence (I John 4:8,16; Exodus 34:6-7; Romans 16:27).

Endnotes:

1. Symbolic terms and myths would include: life, death, resurrection of the dead, judgment day, heaven, hell, Satan, evil spirits, angels, creation of the world, Adam and Eve, the Exodus, Noah\'s Ark, Jonah and the Whale, trinity, second coming of Christ, etc. Dann J. May, \"A Preliminary Survey of Hermeneutical Principles Found within the Baha\'i Writings,\" Journal of Baha\'i Studies, vol. 1, no. 3, 1989, p. 44.

2. Abdu\'l Baha, Some Answered Questions (Wilmette, Ill.: Baha\'i Publishing Trust, 1994), p. 147.

3. Baha\'u\'llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha\'u\'llah (Wilmette, Ill.: Baha\'i Publishing Trust, 1983), p. 46-47.

4. As quoted in Keven Brown, \"A Baha\'i Perspective on the Origin of Matter,\" Journal of Baha\'i Studies, vol. 2, no. 3, 1990, p. 24.

5. Juan Ricardo Cole, The Concept of Manifestation in the Baha\'i Writings (Toronto: The Association for Baha\'i Studies, 1982), p. 8.

6. Craig and Moreland forcefully demonstrate that God\'s co-eternity with the universe is philosophically incoherent. See William Lane Craig, \"Creatio ex nihilo,\" Process Theology, Ronald Nash, Ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1987), and J. P. Moreland, Scaling the Secular City: A Defense of Christianity (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1987).

7. Baha\'u\'llah, Kitab-i-Iqan: The Book of Certitude, Shoghi Effendi, Trans. (Wilmette, Ill.: Baha\'i Publishing Trust, 1983), p. 99.

8. Cole, p. 3.

Source: www.bahai1.htm