God Speaks Again: An Introduction to the Baha'i Faith
In the early 19th century, Persia was in a fit of millennial expectation, awaiting the "Promised One of Islam" who would establish God's reign in the world. According to Bowers, a member of the national governing body of Baha'is in the U.S., this prophecy was fulfilled in a new religious movement. In the 1850s a figure known as Baha'u'llah came to believe, while under religious persecution in the depths of a Persian dungeon, that he was the most recent in a succession of extraordinary "Manifestations of God"—including Moses, Jesus and Mohammed—each sent to guide humanity through its spiritual and political evolution to its ultimate aim: a harmonious, universal religion and an enlightened, united "world commonwealth." Bowers chronicles the struggles of Baha'u'llah and his followers, known as Baha'is, as they endured lethal persecutions, brutal imprisonments and the repeated exile of Baha'u'llah himself across the Middle East. Bowers next outlines many of Baha'u'llah's voluminous teachings, and then turns to Baha'u'llah's legacy: his successors and their many instructions for the Baha'i faith, ranging from principles for establishing world peace down to election protocols for local Baha'i communities. Bowers is clearly a believer; the book is more faith-narrative than history, and at times becomes proselytizing, even preachy—quotes from Baha'i writings are sometimes whole pages in length. Yet Bowers's comprehensive approach is balanced by an easy readability that makes the book both accessible and informative, a welcome introduction to the faith of some six million people worldwide.Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.