Mr. Sears' book "Thief in the Night" excels at not only the drama of the Quest, but also at marshalling human enthusiasm and commitment. It is not a dry examination of the prophecies, but quite properly develops enthusiasm over finding their fulfillment. Thief in the Night has led a good many people to recognize Baha'u'llah, in many countries.
Mr. Sears said, on a tape I saw of him some years ago, that he was a Catholic when he wrote Thief in the Night, and if he had it to do over, he might have done it differently. I tend to give it to people who are not Bible scholars, who may get lost in arguing over one weakly supported point, and miss the twenty sound points that Mr. Sears makes. So I tend to instead give his "Wine of Astonishment" to seekers, as it was written when he was a Baha'i, and sticks closer to the Baha'i texts. Michael Sours' books on Baha'i-Christian dialogue are much more scholarly, and by this I mean that they are much more defensible to attacks based on the Bible text. A combination of the two would be nice. A story well told, and all accurate and defensible references to the Bible, rooted squarely in the Baha'i Writings. Mr. Sears was not merely a dramatist or actor. His enthusiasm was deeply rooted, sincere, and pure in motive. I think it is his purity that enables the Spirit to work through his writings so effectively. The first time I met Mr. Sears was at the L.A. Baha'i Center in 1971, and at lunch time at Love's Restaurant across the street on Pico I sat next to him. I asked him if, over his chili and saltines, he would speak about Shoghi Effendi. "No." He said. "That's too big a subject. Sometime when we have a whole evening, I can talk about Shoghi Effendi. Why, if I started talking about Shoghi Effendi, we would be up on the ceiling we would be so elevated." He then proceeded to talk about Shoghi Effendi for the duration of the lunch period. The last time I saw Mr. Sears, perhaps in the last year of his life, I visited the Sears home in Tucson with two of their old friends, Ted and Alicia Cardell. Ted had, along with the Sears, been among the first group of Baha'i pioneers in Africa in the 1950's, and I was their driver to the Sears home. Mrs. Sears put on lunch for us and called to Bill, but he was sick in bed. When he came out to greet the Cardells, Marguerite offered him some food. I think he took one bite of fruit, and waved off everything else. Later he came out in his bathrobe and sat at the lunch table with us, still looking weak. After a minute he began to speak of Shoghi Effendi. His entire bearing changed. His color improved, and he became more animated and vigorous. He began, between sentences, to ask Marguerite to put more food on his plate. An hour later he had a smile on his face and had eaten a full lunch. I have never heard such love in the human voice, as in those who have met Shoghi Effendi. Mr. Sears tried to reach the average person, and I think he succeeded. Brent ---------- You are subscribed to Baha'i Studies as: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Baha'i Studies is available through the following: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://list.jccc.net/cgi-bin/lyris.pl?enter=bahai-st news://list.jccc.net/bahai-st http://www.escribe.com/religion/bahaist (public) http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED] (public)
