Gordon said: "As a sociologist he presumably had in mind the totality of the "Baha'i experience", so to speak: Baha'i community life and social norms, Baha'i intellectual life and philosophy, Baha'i art, and so on - IOW, the human aspect of the religion as opposed to the divine."
Richard responded: Without regard to what Mark "presumably" had in mind; it seems quite a stretch to seek to define and distinguish an aspect of the Faith, separate it from another aspect and then define the separated part as an "organisation" and as "eclectic", when Shoghi Effendi made no such distinctions. You are correct, Shoghi Effendi's statement is categorical. The Faith is not eclectic. The believers through adherence to its principles will "identify themselves more fully with His laws and precepts." Redefining "unity in diversity" as "eclectic" is equally unwarranted in view of Shoghi Effendi's rather lengthy and detailed explanation of that phrase, which itself is based upon a detailed explanation by Abdu'l-Baha. One might, as well, consider the many letters and messages from the Universal House of Justice and BIC which use "unity in diversity" instead of "eclectic". Beyond that, Mark did not make it clear what he meant by "unity of religions". On Ocean it appears in two BIC documents and two unauthenticated texts. ---------- 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)
