The Bahá'í
The Religious Construction of a Global Identity
The Bahá’í Faith is one of the fastest growing, but least studied, of the world’s religions. Adherents view themselves as united by a universal belief that transcends national boundaries. Michael McMullen examines how the Bahá’í develop and maintain this global identity. Taking the Bahá’í community in Atlanta, Georgia, as a case in point, his book is the first to comprehensively examine the tenets of this little-understood faith.
McMullen notes that, to the Bahá’í, Buddha, Moses, Jesus, and Mohammed are all divinely sent teachers of ‘the Truth’, whose messages conform to the needs of their individual cultures and historical periods. But religion—which draws from the teaching of Bahá’u’lláh, a nineteenth-century Persian—encourages its members to think of themselves as global citizens. It also seeks to establish unity among its members through adherence to a Bahá’í worldview.
By examining the Atlanta Bahá’í community, McMullen shows how this global identity is interpreted locally. He discusses such topics as: the organizational structure and authority relations in the Bahá’í “Administrative Order”; Bahá’í evangelicalism; and the social boundaries between Bahá’ís and the wider culture.
McMullen demonstrates that the social factors that typically influence religious belief (gender, race, education, etc.) are unrelated to how Baha'i engage in personal and community spiritual obligations or adhere to Baha'i principles, a finding that appears unique among religious groups. . . . This work offers fresh insights and useful findings about a new religious approach to globalization.
This work presents in a careful scholarly manner the Baha'i identity. The fieldwork was centered on the Baha'i community in Atlanta. . . . An appendix includes the Atlanta questionnaire survey materials, along with 47 pages of notes, bibliography, and index. Highly recommended.
McMullen focuses on the Baha'i of Atlanta in order to demonstrate how the faith confers upon its members' global religious identity in response to rapid social change. . . . A competent guide to the mental universe of these well-intentioned, colorful universalists.
The Baha'i seeks to demonstrate the ideological and organizational mechanisms that shape Baha'i identity, and the faith, more generally. . . . This is a work that should prove of interest to those interested in globalization and religion. . . . The book provides a solid overview of the Baha'i faith, its ecclesiastical structure, and the basis of the Baha'i religious identity.
MICHAEL MCMULLEN is an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Houston, Clear Lake.
