A Nationalist Amnesia

Baha reaffirms the essence of his previous lectures in the West. Peace requires social justice, overcoming of patriarchy, rejection of traditionalism and embracing independent investigation f truth, elimination of all prejudices, a spiritual definition of human reality, the harmony between material civilization and moral/spiritual civilization, and a commitment to the principles of the oneness of humanity, collective security, and global peace. In addition we need a reconstruction of religion so that religion becomes a cause of love and unity among all human beings, which reconciles religion and reason, and defines religion as a dynamic and historically-specific reality. These are essential conditions and definitions of peace. While in this paper we cannot address the details of ‘Abdu’l-Baha’s complex approach to his positive definition of peace we can conclude that behind all these ideas and principles there lies a common vision of human beings as an intersubjective, communicative, and interdependent community of spirit. Love is the supreme principle of life, and it is love that is the ultimate animating principle of human reality. Attainment of collective self consciousness by human species is the attainment of peace and the end of hitherto self-estrangement of humanity. This is the true meaning of the enlightenment.

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