The Birth of Human Being

10

The Journal of Bahá’í Studies 21. 1/4. 2011

refusing to reduce humans to the level of nature or biology. Second, such a spiritual definition of the human must understand the human as a his- torical being, refusing to reduce it to a naturalistic logic of traditionalism. Finally, defining humans as reason and spirit requires a dialogical under- standing of human spirit, refusing to reduce humans to the natural level of the struggle for existence. These three principles of a humanizing worldview correspond to the three central principles of the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh. As I have discussed in much detail in Logos and Civilization , these three principles constitute the chronology of the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh. In His earlier Writings in Baghdad, Bahá’u’lláh employs the language and categories of mysticism to emphasize a spiritual approach to human reality. In the second stage of His Writings, which begins in the later Baghdad period and continues in Istanbul and Adrianople, Bahá’u’lláh emphasizes the principle of historical consciousness, defining humans as a dynamic and progressive reality that participates in the construction of an ever-advancing civilization. Bahá’u’lláh’s critique of traditionalism, including religious traditionalism, is the center of His historic Text, the Book of Certitude. Finally, in the last stage of His Writings, which begins in the late Adrianople period, Bahá’u’lláh emphasizes the principle of the unity of humankind. Here, humans are defined in a dialogical way, where consultation and unity in diversity become the ultimate realization of human reality. The first condition of the birth of the human being is therefore a spiri- tual definition of human reality. The birth of the human being requires a transformation in all aspects of culture and a revaluation of all values. Both the cultures of the East and the West need to be revolutionized and transformed in a way that makes them compatible with a human culture, a culture of humanization. That is why this concept of the birth of the human being is neither the same as the Western materialistic conception of modernity, nor it is compatible with a traditionalistic approach to reli- gion. These two opposites in fact are very similar to each other. Both are expressions of a dehumanization process. In our current political disputes, Western materialism and Eastern religious traditionalism define them- selves in terms of the negation of the other. Eastern religious traditionalism