Unity of religion is a core teaching of the

Baháʼí Faith The Baháʼí Faith is a religion founded in the 19th century that teaches the essential worth of all religions and the unity of all people. Established by Baháʼu'lláh in the 19th century, it initially developed in Iran and parts of the ...

which states that there is a fundamental unity in many of the world's religions. The principle states that the teachings of the major religions are part of a single plan directed from the same

God In monotheistic thought, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. Swinburne, R.G. "God" in Honderich, Ted. (ed)''The Oxford Companion to Philosophy'', Oxford University Press, 1995. God is typically ...

. It is one of the core teachings of the Baháʼí Faith, alongside the unity of God, and the unity of humanity. The

Baháʼí teachings The Baháʼí teachings represent a considerable number of theological, ethical, social, and spiritual ideas that were established in the Baháʼí Faith by Baháʼu'lláh, the founder of the religion, and clarified by its successive leaders: ʻA ...

state that there is but one religion which is progressively revealed by God, through prophets/messengers, as humanity matures and its capacity to understand also grows. The outward differences in the religions, the Baháʼí writings state, are due to the exigencies of the time and place the religion was revealed. 101-Lotus-Temple-Information-Centre

The Baháʼí writings state that the essential nature of the messengers is twofold: they are at once human and divine. They are divine in that they all come from the same God and expound his teachings. In this light they are seen as one and the same. At the same time they are separate individuals (their human reality) and known by different names. Each fulfills a definite mission, and is entrusted with a particular revelation.

Baháʼu'lláh Baháʼu'lláh (born Ḥusayn-ʻAlí; 12 November 1817 – 29 May 1892) was the founder of the Baháʼí Faith. He was born to an aristocratic family in Persia, and was exiled due to his adherence to the messianic Bábí Faith. In 1863, in I ...

, the founder of the Baháʼí Faith, claimed to be the most recent, but not the last, in a series of divine educators which includes the Jewish prophets,

Zoroaster Zoroaster,; fa, زرتشت, Zartosht, label=Modern Persian; ku, زەردەشت, Zerdeşt also known as Zarathustra,, . Also known as Zarathushtra Spitama, or Ashu Zarathushtra is regarded as the spiritual founder of Zoroastrianism. He is s ...

, Krishna,

Gautama Buddha Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha, was a wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist tradition, he was born in L ...

, Jesus, Muhammad, and the

Báb The Báb (b. ʿAlí Muḥammad; 20 October 1819 – 9 July 1850), was the messianic founder of Bábism, and one of the central figures of the Baháʼí Faith. He was a merchant from Shiraz in Qajar Iran who, in 1844 at the age of 25, claimed ...

Unity of religion

The Baháʼí teachings state that religion has been revealed progressively from the same God through different prophets/messengers, who at different times through history and in different locations come to provide the teachings of God. In this way the Baháʼí teachings see that religion has the same foundation, and that the various religions are "different stages in the eternal history and constant evolution of one religion". Wilmette how side

The Baháʼí concept of progressive revelation states that God is regular and periodic in revealing his will to mankind through messengers/prophets, which are named Manifestations of God. Each messenger in turn establishes a

covenant Covenant may refer to: Religion * Covenant (religion), a formal alliance or agreement made by God with a religious community or with humanity in general ** Covenant (biblical), in the Hebrew Bible ** Covenant in Mormonism, a sacred agreement ...

and founds a religion. This process of revelation, according to the Baháʼí writings, is also never ceasing, The general theme of the successive and continuous religions founded by Manifestations of God is that there is an evolutionary tendency, and that each Manifestation of God brings a larger measure of revelation (or religion) to humankind than the previous one. The differences in the revelation brought by the Manifestations of God is stated to be not inherent in the characteristics of the Manifestation of God, but instead attributed to the various worldly, societal and human factors; these differences are in accordance with the "conditions" of the time the messenger came and the "spiritual capacity" of humanity. The Baháʼí teaching states that while certain aspects of religious teachings are absolute, others are relative; for example all religions would prescribe honesty and denounce theft, but each religion may have different laws related to social institutions such as divorce. These differences in the teachings of the various religions are seen in the Baháʼí teachings to be needed since human society has slowly and gradually evolved through higher stages of unification from the family to tribes and then nations. Thus religious truth is seen to be relative to its recipients and not absolute; while the messengers proclaimed eternal moral and spiritual truths that are renewed by each messenger, they also changed their message to reflect the particular spiritual and material evolution of humanity at the time of the appearance of the messenger. In the Baháʼí view, since humanity's spiritual capacity and receptivity has increased over time, the extent to which these spiritual truths are expounded changes.

Unity of the prophets

The ''Manifestation of God'' is a concept in the

that refers to what are commonly called prophets. The Manifestations of God are a series of personages who reflect the attributes of the divine into the human world for the progress and advancement of human morals and civilization. The Manifestations of God are the only channel for humanity to know about

, and they act as perfect mirrors reflecting the attributes of God into the physical world.

hold that the motive force in all human development is due to the coming of the Manifestations of God. In Baháʼí belief all of the Manifestations of God are from the same God and have the same spiritual and metaphysical nature, and that there is absolute equality between them. The differences between the various Manifestations of God and their teachings, Baháʼu'lláh explained, are due to the varying needs and capacities of the civilization in which they appeared, and not due to any differences in their level of importance or nature. The Manifestations of God are taught to be "one and the same", and in their relationship to one another have both the station of unity and the station of distinction. In this sense, the Manifestations of God all fulfill the same purpose and perform the same function by mediating between God and creation. In this way each Manifestation of God manifested the Word of God and taught the same religion, with modifications for the particular audience's needs and culture. Baháʼu'lláh wrote that since each Manifestation of God has the same divine attributes they can be seen as the spiritual "return" of all the previous Manifestations of God. The Baháʼí belief in the oneness of the Manifestations of God does not mean, however, that the same individual soul is born again at different times and in different physical bodies. In the Baháʼí view, the various Manifestations of God were all different personalities and had separate individual realities. Instead their equality is due to that Manifestation of God manifested and revealed the qualities of God to the same degree. There is no definitive list of Manifestations of God, but

and ʻAbdu'l-Bahá referred to several personages as Manifestations; they include

Adam Adam; el, Ἀδάμ, Adám; la, Adam is the name given in Genesis 1-5 to the first human. Beyond its use as the name of the first man, ''adam'' is also used in the Bible as a pronoun, individually as "a human" and in a collective sense as ...

, Noah, Krishna, Moses,

Abraham Abraham, ; ar, , , name=, group= (originally Abram) is the common Hebrew patriarch of the Abrahamic religions, including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In Judaism, he is the founding father of the special relationship between the Jews ...

Buddha Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha, was a wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist tradition, he was born in Lu ...

, Jesus and Muhammad. The

, as well as Baháʼu'lláh, were included in this definition. Thus religious history is interpreted as a series of periods or "dispensations", where each ''Manifestation'' brings a somewhat broader and more advanced revelation, suited for the time and place in which it was expressed. Baháʼís do not claim that the Baháʼí revelation is the final stage in God's direction in the course of human spiritual evolution. The Baháʼí writings contain assurances that after 1,000 years, another Manifestation of God could appear to advance human civilization.

Views on truth, dualism, and non-dualism

One of the fundamental principles of the Baháʼí Faith is that religious truth is not absolute but relative. The teachings of the different

world religions World religions is a category used in the study of religion to demarcate the five—and in some cases more—largest and most internationally widespread religious movements. Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are always includ ...

are seen as 'facets of one truth'. Baháʼí texts include statements of a dualist nature (e.g. in the '' Book of Certitude'') and statements of a

monist Monism attributes oneness or singleness (Greek: μόνος) to a concept e.g., existence. Various kinds of monism can be distinguished: * Priority monism states that all existing things go back to a source that is distinct from them; e.g., i ...

nature (e.g. in the '' Seven Valleys'' and the ''

Hidden Words ''The Hidden Words'' (, ar, کلمات مكنونة, Persian: کلمات مکنونه) is a book written in Baghdad around 1858 by Baháʼu'lláh, the founder of the Baháʼí Faith, while he walked along the banks of the Tigris river during hi ...

''). Moojan Momen, in his translation of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá's commentary on the tradition ''"

I was a Hidden Treasure Hadith of the Hidden Treasure ( ar, کنزاً مخفیاً) is a Hadith Qudsi that has a very prominent role in Islamic mysticism and Islamic philosophy. Different translations The most cited version of this Hadith in Arabic is: کنت کنز ...

"'', states that the differences between dualist and monist views are reconciled by the teaching that these opposing viewpoints are caused by differences in the observers themselves, not in that what is observed. This is not a 'higher truth/lower truth' position.

is unknowable. For man it is impossible to get any knowledge of God or the Absolute, because any knowledge that one has, is relative. Theological differences about God are caused by imagination, as God's essence can not be described. Less stress is given to metaphysical subjects, while ethics and social action are emphasized. Ian Kluge holds a different view than Momen, which he calls 'relationalism' (associated with the

process philosophy Process philosophy, also ontology of becoming, or processism, is an approach to philosophy that identifies processes, changes, or shifting relationships as the only true elements of the ordinary, everyday real world. In opposition to the classi ...

as described by A.N. Whitehead and his successors). Kluge states that the Baháʼí teachings do not accept an ontological monism and that not all views can be correct. Peter Terry also disagrees with Momen, noting that the quotation about relativism refers to progressive revelation: "... that religious truth is not absolute but relative, that Divine Revelation is a continuous and progressive process...". He also states that monism and dualism are both not compatible with the three main divisions in Bahá'í cosmology: the world of God, the world of the Manifestations of God and the World of Creation. Keven Brown concludes that the "realities of things are manifestations of the first thing to emanate from God, the Primal Will", but they are "not manifestations of the unknowable and inaccessible Godhead", and that according to the Baháʼí teachings the "true meaning of union (or knowing) in the mystic quest is not union with (or knowing) the Essence of God (which is impossible to attain), but recognition of the Manifestation of God for the day in which one lives". Nader Saiedi describes the

's explanations about the dual stations of the "Point", another term for the Primal Will of God.

Roland Faber Roland Faber (born 1960) is an author and Kilsby Family/ John B. Cobb, Jr., Professor of Process Studies at Claremont School of Theology and Professor of Religion and Philosophy at Claremont Graduate University. He is Executive Co-Director of the ...

has discussed the subject from a non-dualist

Buddhist Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and gra ...

perspective.

Syncretism

Baháʼís follow Baháʼu'lláh, a prophet whom they consider a successor to Zoroaster, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, Muhammad, Krishna and Buddha. This acceptance of other religious founders has encouraged some to regard the Baháʼí religion as a syncretic faith. However, Baháʼís and the Baháʼí writings explicitly reject this view. Baháʼís consider Baháʼu'lláh's revelation an independent, though related, revelation from God. Its relationship to previous dispensations is seen as analogous to the relationship of Christianity to Judaism. They regard beliefs held in common as evidence of truth, progressively revealed by God throughout human history, and culminating in (at present) the Baháʼí revelation. Baháʼís have their own sacred scripture, interpretations, laws and practices that, for Baháʼís, supersede those of other faiths.

Call to the world's religious leaders

In 2002 the Universal House of Justice wrote a letter to the world's religious leaders, addressing the topic of inter-religious animosity, calling on all religious movements to "rise above fixed conceptions inherited from a distant past." In 2005 the documen
''One Common Faith''
was published, primarily intended for a Baháʼí audience, in which it identifies as a major challenge for the Baháʼí community the inculcation of the principle of the oneness of religion and the overcoming of religious prejudices.

Notes

References

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