Bahai Philosophy and the Question of the Environment

the world. The ascetic believer sees himself as the tool of the divine will. Because of the

transcendental character of the divine realm he cannot experience God. Consequently he

becomes an instrument in the hand of God in order to realize the will of God in a corrupt and evil

world. The consequence of this orientation is a personality which emphasizes rational discipline

and control of the self and tries to change, dominate, and transform the world. According to

Weber, asceticism is compatible with a rational organization of behavior in methodic and

disciplined terms, and tends towards economic development, capitalist expansion, and

industrialization.

Mysticism, on the other hand, is assumed by Weber to lead to the exact opposite

implications. In mysticism, God is immanent in the world so that nature and God become

identical realities. Because of the immanent character of the divine reality, God can be

experienced by the individual believer. The believer conceives of himself as the vessel of God

and becomes filled with ecstasy of divine love and overwhelmed by experiential and emotional

trances. The goal of life, therefore, is not to change the world but to attain unity and harmony

with it. The dominant orientation of the believer is one of harmony with nature and not one of

conquest and transformation. For Weber, this implied that mysticism is incompatible with

economic rationalization and development.

Together with his other distinctions--like those of this-worldly and other-worldly

orientations--Weber classifies world religions and examines their implications for economic

rationalization. It was in this context that he found one of the roots of the development of

capitalism in Protestantism. In this paper we are not concerned with the details of Weber’s

theory. However, Weber’s theory can be easily reoriented towards the question of preservation of

the environment as well. Following the same logic one can conclude that while asceticism is

incompatible with protection of the environment, mysticism corresponds with an attitude of

preservation of nature. In summary one can say that in Weber’s theory, asceticism leads to

economic development but destruction of the environment whereas mysticism ends in economic

stagnation but protection of the environment.

Despite the creative insights of Weber’s theory, his typology of religious meaning

systems is incomplete. In fact both asceticism and mysticism are capable of opposite

implications. This can be seen clearly in Bahá’í theology, which fits neither of the models

defined by Weber’s typology. Bahá’í theology can be termed the perspective of harmonious

transcendence. This position is radically different from both Weberian mysticism and the

perspective of the transcendence of opposition (Weber’s “asceticism”). However, this means that