The Spiritual Nature of Reality : Has the Future Already Been Written
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The Journal of Bahá'í Studies 10, 57-73Abstract: If the twentieth century was a "century of light" rather than of consummate horror, and if we are to contemplate the future as being written by anyone other than those with the most insatiable appetite for power, we depserately need to resolve four questions related to the eseential premise of the document Who Is Writing the Future? First, if the individual is an essentially spiritual being, why did a wise Creator have us begin our eternal lives in a reality ostensibly contrary to spiritual development? Second, why must individual spiritual development necessarily be a social process and not a purely personal and private matter? Third, if our purpose in this stage of our existence is knowledge of reality, what is the epistemological methodology by which advancement can be attained? Finally, in what way is this methodology distinct from "materialistic" methodologies, and how is it related to the Greater and Lesser Covenants?
If the twentieth century was a "century of light" rather than of consummate horror, and if we are to contemplate the future as being written by anyone other than those with the most insatiable appetite for power, we depserately need to resolve four questions related to the eseential premise of the document Who Is Writing the Future? First, if the individual is an essentially spiritual being, why did a wise Creator have us begin our eternal lives in a reality ostensibly contrary to spiritual development? Second, why must individual spiritual development necessarily be a social process and not a purely personal and private matter? Third, if our purpose in this stage of our existence is knowledge of reality, what is the epistemological methodology by which advancement can be attained? Finally, in what way is this methodology distinct from "materialistic" methodologies, and how is it related to the Greater and Lesser Covenants?