Making the Crooked Straight
Subtitle: A Contribution to Baha'i Apologetics
Publisher: George Ronald
Published: January 2002
Place of publication: Oxford, United Kingdom
Language: eng
Translated from: ger
Translation of: Desinformation als Methode
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 862
ISBN-13: 9780853984436
Subjects: Baha'i; Baha' i; Religion - World Religions
Description: CONTENTS
 <br>
 <br>FOREWORD, by J.A. McLean	xiii
 <br>PREFACE TO THE GERMAN EDITION (1995) 	xxi
 <br>PREFACE TO THE ENGLISH EDITION (2000)	xxiii
 <br>INTRODUCTION	1
 <br>
 <br>PART I: METHODOLOGY
 <br>
 <br>CHAPTER 1 	OVERVIEW	15
 <br>I.	The limits of religious knowledge	15
 <br>II.	‘Critical literature’	18
 <br>III.	The renegade as researcher	27
 <br>IV.	The origins of the conflict	30
 <br>
 <br>CHAPTER 2 	ON FICICCHIA’S METHODOLOGY	36
 <br>I.	Opportunism—the supreme principle of the Bahá’í Faith?	37
 <br>II.	Ficicchia’s standpoint	40
 <br>III.	Ficicchia’s portraits of the founding figures	56
 <br>1.	The Báb	56
 <br>2.	Bahá’u’lláh	58
 <br>IV.	Ficicchia’s portrait of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá	73
 <br>V.	The portrait of Shoghi Effendi	90
 <br>VI.	Ficicchia’s distorted image of the Bahá’í community	 102
 <br>VII.	Ficicchia’s semantics	 119
 <br>VIII.	The Bahá’ís—sectarian escapists and dangerous extremists?126
 <br>1.	On the charge of ‘unworldly isolation’	126
 <br>2.	On the charge of subversion	135
 <br>
 <br>PART II: COMMUNITY AND DOCTRINE
 <br>
 <br>CHAPTER 3	FICICCHIA’S PORTRAIT OF THE COMMUNITY
 <br>AND ITS ORDER	141
 <br>I.	The background: the Protestant concept of law	142
 <br>II.	Ficicchia’s critique of the order of the Bahá’í community and its foundations	149
 <br>1.	The Universal House of Justice — not foreseen by Bahá’u’lláh?	149
 <br>2.	‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s testament—disputed?	152
 <br>3.	The Guardianship—a dictatorship?	154
 <br>4.	On the alleged ‘doctrinal legislation’ by the Universal House of Justice	158
 <br>5.	The community: a ‘steward of the grace’?	160
 <br>6.	Shoghi Effendi charged with having prevented the establishment of the Universal House of Justice	164
 <br>7.	On the subject of infallibility	166
 <br>8.	Freedom to teach—teaching authority	194
 <br>9.	Prepublication review—a censorship?	209
 <br>10.	Forbidden books?	213
 <br>11.	Freedom of expression prohibited?	214
 <br>12.	Criticism prohibited?	219
 <br>13.	Covenant-breaking and excommunication	224
 <br>14.	‘Tricks’ and ‘the pressure of the plan’
 <br>in missionary activities?	238
 <br>15.	‘Complete renunciation of Christian beliefs’?	243
 <br>16.	The community—anti-democratic, centralist, secular?	245
 <br>17.	Ficicchia’s (mis)judgement of the Bahá’í community	254
 <br>
 <br>CHAPTER 4	FICICCHIA’S PRESENTATION OF BAHÁ’Í DOCTRINE	260
 <br>I.	On the concept of revelation	260
 <br>II.	On the station of Bahá’u’lláh	262
 <br>III.	On the Bahá’í doctrine of grace	267
 <br>IV.	On the Bahá’í concept of human nature	273
 <br>V.	On claims to absoluteness and exclusiveness	276
 <br>VI.	Emphatically rationalist, hostile to science, and esoteric, all at once?	289
 <br>VII.	On the concept of liberty	301
 <br>
 <br>CHAPTER 5	FICICCHIA’S PORTRAYAL OF BAHÁ’Í LAW	317
 <br>I.	The Law: A provocation	317
 <br>II.	Suppression and dissimulation of the Kitáb-i-Aqdas?	322
 <br>III.	Difficulties of publication	329
 <br>1.	Previous publications and translations	331
 <br>2.	On the Royal Asiatic Society’s English-language edition of 1961	334
 <br>3.	Problems of producing an authentic translation	337
 <br>4.	On the nature of divine legislation	338
 <br>IV.	Specific issues	352
 <br>1.	Taqíyya—a law of Bahá’u’lláh?	352
 <br>2.	The Kitáb-i-Aqdas—a sketchy ‘framework’?	362
 <br>3.	The sacred texts—falsified, interpolated?	369
 <br>V.	Some corrections regarding the content of particular laws	385
 <br>1.	On ritual daily prayer	385
 <br>2.	On the cut of the hair	390
 <br>3.	Bahá’í holy days and the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár	393
 <br>VI.	Corrections of other distortions	396
 <br>1.	On the dogmatic foundation of the law	396
 <br>2.	On the balance between justice and love	398
 <br>3.	A casuist system of ethics?	403
 <br>4.	A rigorous religious law?	409
 <br>VII.	On the nature of the law of God	411
 <br>
 <br>CHAPTER 6	BAHÁ’Í POLITICAL THOUGHT	418
 <br>I.	The Bahá’í community: authoritarian and antidemocratic?	420
 <br>1.	The Bahá’í Faith—‘political Mahdism’?	421
 <br>2.	A ‘claim to total power’ or fulfilment of
 <br>eschatological prophecy?	424
 <br>3.	The need for peace	427
 <br>4.	A centralist global state?	432
 <br>5.	The eschatological realm of peace	435
 <br>6.	Claim to power or service to humanity?	440
 <br>7.	‘Total possession taken of the individual’?	444
 <br>II.	Bahá’u’lláh—royalist and hostile to liberty?	446
 <br>1.	Bahá’u’lláh’s statements concerning kingship	448
 <br>2.	A power political alliance between church and state?	451
 <br>3.	Non-violent neutrality or partisanship?	453
 <br>4.	Universalism versus nationalism	454
 <br>5.	Justified ‘opposition’ or persecution of a non-violent religious minority?	457
 <br>III.	On the way to a new type of politics	464
 <br>1.	The concept of politics in Bahá’í scripture	465
 <br>2.	Loyalty to state authority	468
 <br>3.	Bahá’í elections: a non-partisan form of democratic appointment of government	470
 <br>4.	A new model for political decision-making	473
 <br>5.	Responsibility for the world we live in	476
 <br>
 <br>PART III: HISTORICAL ISSUES
 <br>
 <br>CHAPTER 7	PROBLEMS OF RESEARCH IN THE FIELD OF RELIGIOUS HISTORY	481
 <br>
 <br>CHAPTER 8	FICICCHIA’S SOURCES	492
 <br>I.	Kitáb-i-Nuqt.atu’l-Káf and Táríkh-i-Jadíd	496
 <br>1.	Kitáb-i-Nuqt.atu’l-Káf	500
 <br>2.	Táríkh-i-Jadíd	513
 <br>II.	Hasht Bihisht	522
 <br>
 <br>CHAPTER 9	FICICCHIA’S EUROPEAN SOURCES	529
 <br>I.	The orientalist Edward Granville Browne	529
 <br>II.	The Protestant minister Hermann Römer	546
 <br>1.	Römer’s presentation: its structure and influence on later works	551
 <br>2.	Römer’s portrayal of Bábí and Bahá’í history	554
 <br>3.	Römer’s interpretation of Bábí/Bahá’í doctrine	559
 <br>
 <br>CHAPTER 10	SOME ASPECTS OF BÁBÍ AND BAHÁ’Í HISTORY	571
 <br>I.	Mahdi claim and messianic secret	571
 <br>1.	Ficicchia’s sources	572
 <br>2.	The messianic secret	579
 <br>3.	The religious and political background	579
 <br>4.	The eschatological expectations of heterodox Shí‘a Islam	583
 <br>5.	The Báb’s claim	586
 <br>II.	Bahá’u’lláh’s claims	598
 <br>1.	The prophecy concerning the advent of Man yuz.hiruhu’lláh	601
 <br>2.	Two alleged proofs of the supremacy of Mírzá Yahyá in Baghdád	605
 <br>3.	On the dating of Bahá’u’lláh’s declaration	610
 <br>III.	Mírzá Yahyá Azal	618
 <br>IV.	Mírzá Yahyá as head of the Bábís and opponent of Bahá’u’lláh	631
 <br>V.	The cases of murder and attempted murder	650
 <br>1.	The murder of Dayyán	652
 <br>2.	The murder of three Azalís in ‘Akká	657
 <br>3.	The attempted murders committed  by Mírzá Yahyá in Edirne	667
 <br>VI.	On the question of schism	671
 <br>
 <br>CHAPTER 11	THE WILL AND TESTAMENT OF ‘ABDU’L-BAHÁ	674
 <br>I.	The forgery theory	678
 <br>II.	The religious and historical background	680
 <br>III.	On the content of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Will and Testament	687
 <br>IV.	The appointment of Shoghi Effendi as ‘Guardian of the Faith’—a historical overview	705
 <br>V.	The inventor of the forgery theory and her epigones	724
 <br>VI.	The arguments concerning style and content	735
 <br>VII.	The graphological assessment	744
 <br>VIII.	The ideological reasons for rejecting the Will and Testament	753
 <br>IX.	On the logical structure and stringency of the arguments	763
 <br>X.	Conclusion	774
 <br>
 <br>CONCLUSION		777
 <br>
 <br>APPENDIX	785
 <br>
 <br>BIBLIOGRAPHY	794
 <br>
 <br>INDEX OF NAMES	827
 <br>
 <br>GENERAL INDEX	836
 <br>