Bahá’í World/Volume 8/The Institution of the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár

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Volume 8

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[Page 503]

3.

THE INSTITUTION OF THE MASHRIQU’L-ADHKÁR

Visible Embodiment of the Universality of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh

FOREWORD

MANY discerning minds have testified to the profoundly significant change which has taken place during recent years in the character of popular religious thinking. Religion has developed an entirely new emphasis, more especially for the layman, quite independent of the older sectarian divisions.

Instead of considering that religion is a matter of turning toward an abstract creed, the average religionist today is concerned with the practical applications of religion to the problems of human life. Religion, in brief, after having apparently lost its influence in terms of theology, has been restored more powerfully than ever as a spirit of brotherhood, an impulse toward unity, and an ideal making for a more enlightened civilization throughout the world.

Against this background, the institution of the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár stands revealed as the supreme expression of all those modern religious tendencies animated by social ideals which do not repudiate the reality of spiritual experience but seek to transform it into a dynamic striving for unity. The Mashriqu’l-Adhkár, when clearly understood, gives the world its most potent agency for applying mystical vision or idealistic aspiration to the service of humanity. It makes visible and concrete those deeper meanings and wider possibilities of religion which could not be realized until the dawn of this universal age.

The term “Mashriqu’l-Adhkár” means literally, "Dawning-place of the praise of God.”

To appreciate the significance of this Bahá’í institution, we must lay aside all customary ideas of the churches and cathedrals of the past. The Mashriqu’l-Adhkár fulfills the original intention of religion in each dispensation, before that intention had become altered and veiled by human invention and belief.

The Mashriqu’l-Adhkár is a channel releasing spiritual powers for social regeneration because it fills a different function than that assumed by the sectarian church. Its essential purpose is to provide a community meeting-place for all who are seeking to worship God, and achieves this purpose by interposing no man-made veils between the worshiper and the Supreme. Thus, the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár is freely open to people of all Faiths on equal terms, who now realize the universality of Bahá’u’lláh in revealing the oneness of all the Prophets. Moreover, since the Bahá’í Faith has no professional clergy, the worshiper entering the Temple hears no sermon and takes part in no ritual the emotional effect of which is to establish a separate group consciousness.

Integral with the Temple are its accessory buildings, without which the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár would not be a complete social institution. These buildings are to be devoted to such activities as a school for science, a hospice, a hospital, an asylum for orphans. Here the circle of spiritual experience at last joins, as prayer and worship are allied directly to creative service, eliminating the static subjective elements from religion and laying a foundation for a new and higher type of human association.

HORACE HOLLEY.

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The Mashriqu’l-Adhkár, or Bahá’í Temple, showing ornamentation of second story in process, 1938.

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THE SPIRITUAL SIGNIFICANCE OF THE MASHRIQU’L-ADHKÁR

A LETTER FROM SHOGHI EFFENDI

The Beloved of the Lord and the Handmaids of the Merciful throughout the United States and Canada.

My well-beloved friends:

Ever since that remarkable manifestation of Bahá’í solidarity and self-sacrifice which has signalized the proceedings of last year’s memorable Convention, I have been expectantly awaiting the news of a steady and continuous support of the Plan which can alone ensure, ere the present year draws to its close, the resumption of building operations on our beloved Temple.

Moved by an impulse that I could not resist, I have felt impelled to forego what may be regarded as the most valuable and sacred possession in the Holy Land for the furthering of that noble enterprise which you have set your hearts to achieve. With the hearty concurrence of our dear Bahá’í brother, Ziaoulláh Asgarzadeh, who years ago donated it to the Most Holy Shrine, this precious ornament of the Tomb of Bahá’u’lláh has been already shipped to your shores, with our fondest hope that the proceeds from its sale may at once ennoble and reinforce the unnumbered offerings of the American believers already accumulated on the altar of Bahá’í sacrifice. I have longed ever since to witness such evidences of spontaneous and generous response on your part as would tend to fortify within me a confidence that has never wavered in the inexhaustible vitality of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh in that land.

I need not stress at this moment the high hopes which so startling a display of unsparing devotion to our sacred Temple has already aroused in the breasts of the multitude of our brethren throughout the East. Nor is it I feel necessary to impress upon those who are primarily concerned with its erection the gradual change of outlook which the early prospect of the construction of the far-famed Mashriqu’l-Adhkár in America has unmistakably occasioned in high places among the hitherto sceptical and indifferent towards the merits and the practicability of the Faith proclaimed by Bahá’u’lláh. Neither do I need to expatiate upon the hopes and fears of the Greatest Holy Leaf, now in the evening of her life, with deepening shadows caused by failing eyesight and declining strength swiftly gathering about her, yearning to hear as the one remaining solace in her swiftly ebbing life the news of the resumption of work on an Edifice, the glories of which she has, from the lips of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá Himself, learned to admire. I cannot surely overrate at the present juncture in the progress of our task the challenging character of these remaining months of the year as a swiftly passing opportunity which it is in our power to seize and utilize, ere it is too late, for the edification of our expectant brethren throughout the East, for the vindication in the eyes of the world at large of the realities of our Faith, and last but not least for the realization of what is the Greatest Holy Leaf’s fondest desire.

As I have already intimated in the course of my conversations with visiting pilgrims, so vast and significant an enterprise as the construction of the first Mashriqu’l-Adhkár of the West should be supported, not by the munificence of a few but by the joint contributions of the entire mass of the convinced followers of the Faith. It cannot be denied that the emanations of spiritual power and inspiration destined to radiate from the central Edifice of the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár will to a very large extent depend upon the range and variety of the contributing believers, as well as upon the nature and degree of self-abnegation which their unsolicited offerings will entail. Moreover, we should, I feel, regard it as an axiom and guiding principle of Bahá’í administration that in the conduct of every specific Bahá’í activity, as different from undertakings of a humanitarian, philanthropic, or charitable character, which may in future be conducted

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Sculptor carving central panel over doorway.

Model for detail of First Story of Temple, in Process at Earley Studios.

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An early picture of Louis Bourgeois, the French Canadian architect whose design for a Bahá’í Temple is now being constructed at Wilmette, Illinois.

under Bahá’í auspices, only those who have already identified themselves with the Faith and are regarded as its avowed and unreserved supporters should be invited to join and collaborate. For apart from the consideration of embarrassing complications which the association of non-believers in the financing of institutions of a strictly Bahá’í character may conceivably engender in the administration of the Bahá’í community of the future, it should be remembered that these specific Bahá’í institutions, which should be viewed in the light of Bahá’u’lláh’s gifts bestowed upon the world, can best function and most powerfully exert their influence in the world only if reared and maintained solely by the support of those who are fully conscious of, and are unreservedly submissive to, the claims inherent in the Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh. In cases, however, when a friend or sympathizer of the Faith eagerly insists on a monetary contribution for the promotion of the Faith, such gifts should be accepted and duly acknowledged by the elected representatives of the believers with the express understanding that they would be utilized by them only to reinforce that section of the Bahá’í Fund exclusively devoted to philanthropic or charitable purposes. For, as the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh extends in scope and in influence, and the resources of Bahá’í communities correspondingly multiply, it will become increasingly desirable to differentiate between

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Carving an original Model

Completing the clay model of a unit to go on the first story.

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Design for the Bahá’í Temple by Mr. L. S. Buffington, architect of Minneapolis, Minnesota.

such departments of the Bahá’í treasury as minister to the needs of the world at large, and those that are specifically designed to promote the direct interests of the Faith itself. From this apparent divorce between Bahá’í and humanitarian activities it must not, however, be inferred that the animating purpose of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh stands at variance with the aims and objects of the humanitarian and philanthropic institutions of the day. Nay, it should be realized by every judicious promoter of the Faith that at such an early stage in the evolution and crystallization of the Cause such discriminating and precautionary measures are inevitable and even necessary if the nascent institutions of the Faith are to emerge triumphant and unimpaired from the present welter of confused and often conflicting interests with which they are surrounded. This note of warning may not be thought inappropriate at a time when, inflamed by a consuming passion to witness the early completion of the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár, we may not only be apt to acquiesce in the desire of those who, as yet uninitiated into the Cause, are willing to lend financial assistance to its institutions, but may even feel inclined to solicit from them such aid as it is in their power to render. Ours surely is the paramount duty so to acquit ourselves in the discharge of our most sacred task that in the days to come neither the tongue of the slanderer nor the pen of the malevolent may dare to insinuate that so beauteous, so significant an Edifice has been reared by anything short of the unanimous, the exclusive, and the self-sacrificing strivings of the small yet determined body of the convinced supporters of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh. How delicate our task, how pressing the responsibility that weighs upon us, who are called upon on one hand to preserve inviolate the integrity and the identity of the regenerating Faith of Bahá’u’lláh, and to vindicate on the other its broad, its humanitarian, its all-embracing principles!

True, we cannot fail to realize at the present stage of our work the extremely limited number of contributors qualified to lend financial support to such a vast, such an elaborate and costly enterprise. We are fully aware of the many issues and varied Bahá’í activities that are unavoidably held in abeyance pending the successful conclusion of

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Design for the Bahá’í Temple by Mr. F. J. Woodward, architect, of Washington, D. C.

the Plan of Unified Action. We are only too conscious of the pressing need of some sort of befitting and concrete embodiment of the spirit animating the Cause that would stand in the heart of the American Continent both as a witness and as a rallying center to the manifold activities of a fast growing Faith. But spurred by those reflections may we not bestir ourselves and resolve as we have never resolved before to hasten by every means in our power the consummation of this all-absorbing yet so meritorius task? I beseech you, dear friends, not to allow considerations of number, or the consciousness of the limitation of our resources, or even the experience of inevitable setbacks which every mighty undertaking is bound to encounter, to blur your vision, to dim your hopes, or to paralyze your efforts in the prosecution of your divinely appointed task. Neither, do I entreat you, suffer the least deviation into the paths of expediency and compromise to obstruct those channels of vivifying grace that can alone provide the inspiration and strength vital not only to the successful conduct of its material construction, but to the fulfillment of its high destiny.

And while we bend our efforts and strain our nerves in a feverish pursuit to provide the necessary means for the speedy construction of the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár, may we not pause for a moment to examine those statements which set forth the purpose as well as the functions of this symbolical yet so spiritually potent Edifice? It will be readily admitted that at a time when the tenets of a Faith, not yet fully emerged from the fires of repression, are as yet improperly defined and imperfectly understood, the utmost caution should be exercised in revealing the true nature of those institutions which are indissolubly associated with its name.

Without attempting an exhaustive survey of the distinguishing features and purpose of the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár, I should feel content at the present time to draw your attention to what I regard as certain misleading statements that have found currency in various

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One of the designs submitted by Mr. Charles Mason Remey, architect, of Washington, D. C., for the Bahá’í Temple competition held in New York, 1919.

quarters, and which may lead gradually to a grave misapprehension of the true purpose and essential character of the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár.

It should be borne in mind that the central Edifice of the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár, round which in the fullness of time shall cluster such institutions of social service as shall afford relief to the suffering, sustenance to the poor, shelter to the wayfarer, solace to the bereaved, and education to the ignorant, should be regarded apart from these Dependencies, as a House solely designed and entirely dedicated to the worship of God in accordance with the few yet definitely prescribed principles established by Bahá’u’lláh in the Kitáb-i-Aqdas. It should not be inferred, however, from this general statement that the interior of the central Edifice itself will be converted into a conglomeration of religious services conducted along lines associated with the traditional procedure obtaining in churches, mosques, synagogues, and other temples of worship. Its various avenues of approach, all converging towards the central Hall beneath its dome, will not serve as admittance to those sectarian adherents of rigid formulae and manmade creeds, each bent, according to his way, to observe his rites, recite his prayers,

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Design submitted by Mr. W. S. Maxwell, architect, of Montreal, Canada, for the competition for the Bahá’í Temple, held in New York, 1919.

perform his ablutions, and display the particular symbols of his faith within separately defined sections of Bahá’u’lláh’s Universal House of Worship. Far from the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár offering such a spectacle of incoherent and confused sectarian observances and rites, a condition wholly incompatible with the provisions of the Aqdas and irreconcilable with the spirit it inculcates, the central House of Bahá’í worship, enshrined within the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár, will gather within its chastened walls, in a serenely spiritual atmosphere, only those who, discarding forever the trappings of elaborate and ostentatious ceremony, are willing worshipers of the one true God, as manifested in this age in the Person of Bahá’u’lláh. To them will the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár symbolize the fundamental verity underlying the Bahá’í Faith, that religious truth is not absolute but relative, that Divine Revelation is not final but progressive. Theirs will be the conviction that an all-loving and ever-watchful Father Who, in the past, and at various stages in the evolution of mankind, has sent forth His Prophets as the Bearers of His Message and the Manifestations of His Light to mankind, cannot at this critical period of their civilization withhold from His children the Guidance which they sorely need amid the darkness which has beset them, and which

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The site of the first Bahá’í Temple of the western world as it appeared on Sept. 24th, 1920 when excavation for the foundation was begun, in Wilmette, Illinois.

neither the light of science nor that of human intellect and wisdom can succeed in dissipating. And thus having recognized in Bahá’u’lláh the source whence this celestial light proceeds, they will irresistibly feel attracted to seek the shelter of His House, and congregate therein, unhampered by ceremonials and unfettered by creed, to render homage to the one true God, the Essence and Orb of eternal Truth, and to exalt and magnify the name of His Messengers and Prophets Who, from time immemorial even unto our day, have, under divers circumstances and in varying measure, mirrored forth to a dark and wayward world the light of heavenly Guidance.

But however inspiring the conception of Bahá’í worship, as witnessed in the central Edifice of this exalted Temple, it cannot be regarded as the sole, nor even the essential, factor in the part which the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár, as designed by Bahá’u’lláh, is destined to play in the organic life of the Bahá’í community. Divorced from the social, humanitarian, educational and scientific pursuits centering around the Dependencies of the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár, Bahá’í worship, however exalted in its conception, however passionate in fervor, can never hope to achieve beyond the meager and often transitory results produced by the contemplations of the ascetic or the communion of the passive worshiper. It cannot afford lasting satisfaction and benefit to the worshiper himself, much less to humanity in general, unless and until translated and transfused into that dynamic and disinterested service to the cause of humanity which it is the supreme privilege of the Dependencies of the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár to facilitate and promote. Nor will the exertions, no matter how disinterested and strenuous, of those who within the precincts of the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár will be engaged in administering the affairs of the future Bahá’í Commonwealth, fructify and prosper unless they are brought into close and daily communion with those spiritual agencies centering in and radiating

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Bahá’ís and workmen gathered on Sept. 24th, 1920, when the first drilling for bed-rock was begun at the site of the Bahá’í Temple, Wilmette, Illinois. The man holding a photograph of the design for the Temple is Louis Bourgeois, the architect of the building.

from the central Shrine of the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár. Nothing short of direct and constant interaction between the spiritual forces emanating from this House of Worship centering in the heart of the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár, and the energies consciously displayed by those who administer its affairs in their service to humanity can possibly provide the necessary agency capable of removing the ills that have so long and so grievously afflicted humanity. For it is assuredly upon the consciousness of the efficacy of the Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh, reinforced on one hand by spiritual communion with His Spirit, and on the other by the intelligent application and the faithful execution of the principles and laws He revealed, that the salvation of a world in travail must ultimately depend. And of all the institutions that stand associated with His Holy Name, surely none save the institution of the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár can most adequately provide the essentials of Bahá’í worship and service, both so vital to the regeneration of the world. Therein lies the secret of the loftiness, of the potency, of the unique position of the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár as one of the outstanding institutions conceived by Bahá’u’lláh.

Dearly-beloved friends! May we not as the trustees of so priceless a heritage, arise to fulfill our high destiny?

Haifa, Palestine,

October 25, 1929.

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The “Mother Temple of the West” reflected in the still waters of Lake Michigan.

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BAHÁ’Í TEXTS FOR THE NINE OUTER DOORS OF THE MASHRIQU’L-ADHKÁR

1. The earth is but one country; and mankind its citizens.

2. The best beloved of all things in My sight is Justice; turn not away therefrom if thou desirest Me.

3. My love is My stronghold; he that entereth therein is safe and secure.

4. Breathe not the sins of others so long as thou art thyself a sinner.

5. Thy heart is My home; sanctify it for My descent.

6. I have made death a messenger of joy to thee; wherefore dost thou grieve?

7. Make mention of Me on My earth that in My heaven I may remember thee.

8. O rich ones on earth! The poor in your midst are My trust; guard ye My trust.

9. The source of all learning is the knowledge of God, exalted be His glory.

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[Page 518]

Letter of the Postmaster of Wilmette, Illinois, to The National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States and Canada

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THE TEMPLES OF THE AGES

BY ALLEN MCDANIEL

SAVAGE man in time of storm and trouble sought comfort and refuge in appealing to an unseen power, which as time went on grew into the proportions of a deity. To propitiate this great power, he set up altars on the high places and offered up sacrifices of animals and even of human flesh. In the plains countries, ancient so-called civilizations built great pyramid-shaped structures, on the tops of which the priests performed the rites of sacrifice. Thus the earliest temples resembled the Tower of Babel, and their remains have been found in the jungles of Yucatan and Peru and in the valleys of Egypt and Mesopotamia.

The children of Israel, on their wanderings from bondage into the Promised Land, carried their place of worship—a portable tent-like structure—with them. Hundreds of years later their temple was set up in permanent form by Solomon in Jerusalem. This temple was similar in form, style and construction to the temples erected as early as 2000 B. C. by the Pharaohs on the banks of the Nile in Egypt. Rectangular in form and consisting of several rooms or courts, the roofs of which were supported by rows of columns, these buildings were of great size. Blocks of stone weighing many tons each were used for the columns and lintels, and many centuries were required for the building of these structures. The temples were not houses of worship for the people, but the habitation of the deity, whose statue was placed generally in an inner court, where the priests performed the sacred rites.

This form of Temple reached its highest development in Greece about 500 years before the time of the Christ. The Parthenon, erected to Athena Parthenos, is still considered one of the finest examples of the temple structures of the ancient civilizations.

During this early period, the Romans were developing a wide range of buildings adapted to their complex civilization and available materials. They made the arch and vault the basic elements of their construction, and used a native material from the slopes of Vesuvius to form a plastic material which hardened on setting—the precursor of our modern concrete. The rectangular form of temple structure was followed early by the circular building, the noblest example of which was the Pantheon built in the early part of the second century after Christ. This building was unique in its massive dome rising to a height of 140 feet and furnishing light and air through a circular opening 28 feet in diameter at its top.

The official recognition of Christianity in the year 328 A. D. by Constantine legalized an institution which for three centuries had been growing in power and influence toward its conquest of the ancient world. With this civilization of the West came an artistic awakening in the arts, which was exemplified by the building of the basilica type of church, a rectangular shaped structure comprising a lofty nave separated by rows of columns from the single or double side-aisles. At the far end of the nave was the sanctuary with seats for the clergy, who performed the rites on the altar in front of the raised platform of the apse. Projections of the main building to the right and left—known as transepts—sometimes were extended before the altar and covered the shrine of the saint or martyr. Many basilicas were built in Italy and in the Holy Land during the early days of the Christian era, but the largest and finest were built by Constantine.

With the fall of Rome in the West, there arose in the East, especially in the capital founded by Constantine in ancient Byzantium, located at the natural highway of commerce between East and West, a new form of church architecture. The first emperor of Christianity had a predilection for circular buildings and built a number of tombs and baptisteries in this form—notable of which was the baptistery for his sister Constantia in Rome. Byzantine architecture evolved from the Roman, using the arch

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Front Elevation of the Church of St. John Lateran, Rome.

Church of Notre Dame in Paris.

Amiens Cathedral, France. Interior.

The Mosque of Omar, Jerusalem.

[Page 521] and dome as the principal structural elements. The dome was applied early to square forms, resulting in the use of triangular spherical surfaces to carry the load from the dome to points of support at the corners of the square. Side domes extended the space around the central dome. Thus was developed the principle of carrying the roof loads down through vaults to the supporting piers and columns, a principle which reached its highest development in the Gothic architecture of the Middle Ages.

Hagia Sophia (Divine Wisdom) built about 500 A. D. at Constantinople is the outstanding example of the Byzantine church, with its imposing masses of brick and stone masonry and its elaborate interior ornamentation of marble paneling, mosaic, wall decorations and hangings. The influence of this art was widespread, extending through Europe and Asia and manifesting itself in such later structures as St. Mark’s at Venice, a monumental building with five domes and richly ornamented both externally and internally with colored marble and mosaics.

While the Byzantine Empire was at its zenith, the new faith of Islám was spreading rapidly through western Asia and the lands along the Mediterranean Sea. The followers of Muḥammad in the construction of their churches followed, in a general way, the plan and style of the contemporary Christian structures; in the smaller room or outer court the followers of the faith performed the requisite ablutions and ceremonies preparatory to entering the inner room of worship with its central dome. The mosques of the Moslem world, however, were distinctive in the use of a bulbous form of dome, in emphasis on exterior entrances and doorways, in minute surface ornamentation of a geometric pattern, and in the absence of pictures and sculpture which were predominant in later Byzantine churches. Climatic conditions of the East were favorable to the use of tile for exterior walls, and afforded an opportunity for the wide use of color. In southern Spain, the Moorish civilization was marked by the extraordinary development of a unique and beautiful architecture, which has had its influence to this day in the synagogues of the Jews throughout the world. The Great Mosque at Cordova, the Alcazars of Seville and Malaga, the Giralda at Seville, and the Alhambra at Granada are famous buildings of this great civilization, which may be destroyed during the tempestuous conflict, which is casting its devastating blight over this land.

The so-called Dark Ages, which followed the fall of the Western Empire in 476 A.D. marked the beginning of a new epoch in church architecture. The Roman monuments covering the soil of southern Europe were a constant object lesson to the builders of that time and served as the basis for the early evolution of the Romanesque styles which formed the transitional stage between the basilica of the early Christian era and the Gothic cathedral of the Middle Ages. Basilica in plan, the churches of the tenth to twelfth centuries, especially in southern France and northern Italy, were distinguished by the round arch, towers and occasional spires and exterior ornamentation of gabled porches, arcades and galleries, and sculptured doorways.

With the gradual development of the vaulting, which formed the ceilings of the naves and aisles of the churches, the craftsmen of these days carried their buildings to a greater height, concentrating the roof and wall loads on piers and columns made up of clustered ribs and posts within and transferring the loads to buttresses on the exterior. Thus the cathedrals became lovely, lace-like structures with great windows filled in with stained glass and stone tracery, surmounted with graceful pointed arches. Structurally these builders evolved the principle of balanced thrusts, which made possible the beautiful, towering churches, which were the fruits of the labor of generations of worshipers and are enduring monuments to the faith and skill of architects, builders and sculptors of this age.

With the passing of mediaeval monasticism and asceticism, and the spread of the intellectual awakening known as the Renaissance, came the revival of interest in classic styles. This revival manifested itself in the early part of the fifteenth century in the dome of the cathedral at Florence and culminated in the stupendous church of St.

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Hall of Ablutions, Mosque of Sulṭán Ḥasan, Cairo, Egypt. (Interior view.)

The Parthenon, Athens, Greece.

The Church of Santa Sofia, Istanbul.

[Page 523] Peter at Rome. These churches were distinctive for the wealth of external ornamentation and the richness of interior decoration. Barrel vaults and ribbed domes were outstanding structural features of the church buildings of this period.

After the Renaissance came the Reformation with its period of pillage and destruction of church edifices. Religion became the sport of political factions, and religious arts ceased for about a century.

England settled her feudal disputes early. The awakening of church architecture was manifested in outstanding examples of the Palladian style—the best known of which was St. Paul’s in London. In this and other similar structures of this period, the scientific method was emphasized to secure efficiency in design and economy in the use of materials. Somewhat later, on the Continent, came the revival of Graeco-Roman building methods as expressed in the Madeleine and Pantheon in Paris.

Following the classic revival came the Gothic revival which spread from France to England and a century later to the New World. In England, the Byzantine influence was introduced in the design of several religious buildings, the most notable of which was Westminster Cathedral.

In America, early church architecture was inspired by the contemporaneous work of the Mother Country, and produced the so-called Colonial style of New England and the Southeastern States. The first Gothic revival was of short duration and was followed by the vogue of Romanesque which had a strong influence on church building for a generation. Since the turn of the twentieth century, the larger churches of both the United States and of Canada have been in the Gothic; the Cathedral Church of Christ at Victoria, British Columbia, the Washington Cathedral and the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City are probably the best known of these modern structures.

Considerable comment has appeared in the public press, in technical journals and in popular magazines since the selection of a design for a Universal House of Worship which is being erected in the heart of the American continent on the western shore of Lake Michigan near Chicago. As he gazed upon a plaster model of “The Temple of Light”—the design of Louis Bourgeois—on exhibition in the Engineering Societies Building in New York City, in June, 1920, a distinguished architect remarked, “This is the first new idea in religious architecture since the Middle Ages.”

The spirit of the design, which apparently sums up and integrates into one harmonious whole the architectural motifs and structural elements of the temples and churches of the past, is given in the words of the architect, Louis Bourgeois: "The history of this Temple, as step by step it unfolds, is so unique that already the story will fill a book. Its inception was not from man for, as musicians, artists, poets receive their inspiration from another realm, feel themselves to be a receiver by whose means a heavenly melody, a new idea, is given to the world, so the Temple’s architect through all his years of labor was ever conscious that Bahá’u’lláh was the creator of this building to be erected to His glory. . . . When the manmade creeds are stripped away from all the religions we find nothing left but harmony. Today, however, religion is so entangled in the superstitions and hypotheses of men that it must needs be stated in a new form to be once again pure and undefiled. Likewise in architecture those fundamental structural lines which originated in the faith of all religions are the same, but so covered over are they with the decorations picturing creed upon creed and superstition upon superstition that we must needs lay them aside and create a new form of ornamentation. Into this new design, then, of the Temple, is woven, in symbolic form, the great Bahá’í teaching of unity—the unity of all religions and of all mankind. There are combinations of mathematical lines, symbolizing those of the universe, and in their intricate merging of circle into circle, of circle within circle, we visualize the merging of all the religions into one.”

"Structurally,” stated Allen B. McDaniel, supervising engineer, in an article in The Technology Review, "the temple is remarkable in that it will comprise a steel, reinforced concrete and glass framework, on which will be placed the highly ornamental [Page 524] surface material. It is a nonagon, or nine-sided structure; each side having the form of a circular arc, with a large doorway in the center; and the whole edifice giving the appearance of extending welcoming arms to the people approaching from every direction. Pylons forty-five feet in height stand like sentinels at the corners of the first story. Above the gallery, the clerestory and the dome are also nine-sided but with the ribs rising from midway of the first story sides.

“To get a mental picture of the Temple, imagine a lofty cylindrical room topped with a hemispherical dome of 75 feet interior diameter and extending to a height of 135 feet in the center, formed of glass supported in a metal framework. The glass roof and sides protect the interior of the building from the weather. When completed, the glass will be concealed within the exterior and interior surface ornamental material, which will act as perforated screens through which the light will pass.

“The weight of the structure and the dome is carried principally at nine points equally distant from the center, and the super-structure is supported on a circular platform or foundation, 202 feet in diameter at the ground surface, and rising by 18 concentric steps to the main floor of the Temple, which is 153 feet in diameter.

"Entering any one of the nine doors, one will pass through a hallway into the central circular room or auditorium. Out of this main hall open radially (and separated by the hallways) nine smaller rooms, comparable to chapels in a cathedral. Looking upward toward the dome, will be seen a gallery 36 feet above the main floor, and above this a second (or singers’) gallery 61 feet above the floor level. Above the second gallery is a 19 foot clerestory from which springs the dome. The galleries project 10 feet into the central hall, giving the latter a clear interior diameter of 75 feet. The dome will be in three parts; the outer dome of perforated concrete or metal, the concealed wire glass weather-proof dome, and the inner dome of perforated material, decorative in character. The central domed hall will have an area of about 4,000 square feet and seat about 700 people. The nine small rooms opening out of the main hall are about 20 feet wide, 24 feet deep and with ceilings 33 feet high. These auxiliary rooms will seat about 100 persons each.

“The construction of the ornamental surface structure involves new materials and a new technique of construction. The completed external ornamentation of the dome unit, carried out by the John J. Earley Studios, reveals an entirely new quality of textural surface, made possible by the plastic medium employed. Hand-carved models were made of all the different sections, and from the resulting molds each completed section has been individually cast and then gone over by expert craftsmen. The material selected was quartz, with a medium of white cement. The result is a surface harder and more enduring than rock, and at the same time carrying an intricate design as delicate as lace. The color scheme shades from pure white on the dome to light buff at the base. An unusual plan of illumination will later be installed.”

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