[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
For the sake of dispassionate argument, I disagree with this quote by Shoghi Effendi. What could he possibly have meant by saying this? I know I base my own faith on what I perceive as a fact: that there is only one truth, although approaches to it and understandings of it may differ. It seems dangerous to say that the truth is relative, because then many people will go further and say "what's true for you,
ain't true for me". And they'll end up disputing that there can be any such thing as the truth at all. I've always thought that there are certain things in life that are always true for everyone, and one such thing is true religion. Any comments?
***
Alex, About Shoghi Effendi’s quote “religious truth is not absolute but relative”, see this is a part of the book Making the Crooked Straight:
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Taken out of context, used as an easy formula, this statement can be easily misunderstood in the sense of post-modern relativism. In relation to previous and to future revelations of God, to the changing conditions on earth and to the growing spiritual capacity of mankind,(*) religious truth is relative.(**) In relation to the unconditional claim to truth, which has been raised by all the world religions, it is absolute. The truth that emanates from God is absolute. We can accept or reject it, but once accepted it is authoritative, categorical, above criticism and not in need of rational justification. All human thought, all philosophy is relative. In philosophy one can be selective and eclectic. The same cannot be done with divine revelation. In the Kitáb-i-Íqán Bahá’u’lláh disparages those who accept!
from the
revelation only these elements which correspond to their ‘inclinations and interests’ and ‘reject those which are contrary to their selfish desires’.
Then continues explaining many things......
(*) ‘All that I have revealed unto thee with the tongue of power, and have written for thee with the pen of might, hath been in accordance with thy capacity and understanding, not with My state and the melody of My voice’ (Hidden Words, Arabic 67; see also Gleanings 38).
(**) As man has no access to absolute truth and as each revelation has been brought to mankind in accordance with its spiritual capacity, its stage of development and its level of understanding, relativism is, as Momen formulated, a basis for Bahá’í metaphysics (‘Relativism: A Basis for Bahá’í Metaphysics’, in Momen (ed.), SBB, vol. V, p. 185ff). On the whole subject see also Schaefer, Beyond the Clash, pp. 60ff., 135ff.
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