The Bahá'í Faith, Violence, and Non-Violence

Abstract

IT HAS BECOME a commonplace observation that if the human race is to survive, it must form a global society based on universal co-operation. It is equally obvious that such a society, either in its development or in its age of fulfillment, cannot tolerate, much less be built up by, violence. Yet at the very time when mankind is taking its first tentative steps toward world unity, physical and mental violence has become the hallmark of modern society. Infringements on the rights of others, distortions of the truth and of human relationships, the profanation of human nature and outright destructive actions on the Bahá'í Faith are ceaselessly reported -sometimes even celebrated -in the media, and constitute the major themes of modem literature. Violence casts its shadow everywhere, and few children born today can look forward to a life free of violent acts.Scholars and moralists have often attempted to analyze and suggest ways to eliminate violence in the present cultural context, but they have failed for two reasons: first, the underlying causes of violence have not been fully understood, and second, the changes in society necessary to prevent the occurrence of violence are far more basic than is commonly supposed.Dr. Hossain B. Danesh deals extensively with these two themes; he offers a convincing explanation of the develop men of violence on the individual level, and cites anthropological and social studies that indicate how violence can be part of the social structure. He applies the teachings of the Bahá'í Faith and his own insights to the analysis of violence, and sketches the structure of a society functioning as an organic whole, responsive to man's inner nature, and in which individual understanding and social justice will eventually free mankind from the curse of violence.