15 / 15
14. It is interesting that an emphasis on a pluralistic, historical, and relativistic approach to
knowledge can be found in the recent theories of Jacques Derrida (
Writing and Difference
),
Michel Foucault (
Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison
), Pierre Boudieu (
Outline of a
Theory of Practice
), Juergen Habermas (
Knowledge and Human Interests
), Talcott Parsons (
The
Structure of Social Action
), Martin Heidegger (
Being and Time
), and Gadamer (
Truth and
Method
).
15. Abu Nasr Farabi,
The Perfect State: Abu Nasr Al-Farabi's Mabadiora ahl al Madina al-
Fadila
, trans. Richard Walzer (Oxford, Clarendon, 1885).
16. See Avicenna,
On Theology
(London: John Murray, 1951) 42-49.
17. See G. W. F Hegel,
Philosophy and Mind
(Oxford: Clarendon, 1971).
18. This theory of institutionalization can be found in Max Weber,
Economy and Society
, 3 vols.
(New York: Bedminster, 1968) 3: 1111-57.
19. Note that the Bahá’í sacred books consists of the revelational scriptures of the Báb and
Bahá’u’lláh and the inspirational scriptures of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and Shoghi Effendi.
20. Bahá’u’lláh,
The Hidden Words of Bahá’u’lláh
, trans. Shoghi Effendi, rev. ed. (Wilmette, Ill.:
Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1978) 20.
21. For a discussion of the world-embracing nature of the Bahá’í Faith, see Shoghi Effendi,
World Order of Bahá’u’lláh
196–201.