Alain Locke and Cultural Pluralism

African American philosopher Alain Locke is arguably the most profound and important Western Bahá'í philosopher to date. Except for one 1979 article in a Bahá'í periodical, scholarship on Locke has neiher seriously taken into account his Bahá'í identity nor the Faith's influence on his work. The present study contributes to research on this missing dimension of Locke's complex life and thought. It examines Locke's worldview as a Bahá'í, his secular perspective as a philosopher, and the synergy between his confessional and professional essays. This study also argues that Locke had a fluid hierarchy of values - loyalty, tolerance, reciprocity, cultural relativism, and pluralism (the philosophical equivalent of "unity in diversity") - which represents a progression and application of quintessentially Bahá'í ideals. Locke's distinction as a "Bahá'í philosopher" may therefore be justified on ideological as well as historical grounds. Locke translated Bahá'í ideals into more secular terms to open a greater practical range for the application and final vindication of Bahá'í principles.