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INTRODUCTION
The reader of this volume will find that an Australian author has produced a vivid exposition of a faith which arose in Persia about the middle of the nineteenth century. What connection can there be between Persia and so faroE a continent as Australia—between a religion which was bitterly persecuted by Islam, and the most youthful Christian civilization?
The answer to these natural questions lies in the increasing universality of our age, an age which has not only destroyed the boundaries dividing nations and continents but has also challenged the more serious barriers Which for centuries have kept asunder the religions and the cultures of mankind. For historic time as well as global space has dissolved before the eyes of our generation. The condition of fatal world crisis looming over us compels us to return to the primal problems of human existence: the reason why man was created, the nature of man’s being, his relationship to God, and his true relationship to his fellow man so long obscured by prejudice of race, creed, nation and class.
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[Page xii]
INTRODUCTION
Eric Bowes explains the character of this challenge. Through his exposition we perceive a divinely inspired process rapidly transforming our world of men and their competitive societies.
His explanation is given on the four levels which he aptly terms the “Great Themes of Life,” based upon some of the most familiar and beloved Bible texts. The origin of this transformation in the power of the new Prophet; the spiritual continuity of religion in the renewal of the Covenant; the revelation of the essential unity of mankind; and the inescapable need for the unity of nations in a new world order, are the subjects explored.
“Great Themes of Life” is commended as a very helpful introduction to the Message of Bahá’u’lláh, Whose followers are found today in more than two hundred and fifty countries and territorial divisions of the world. In Australia itself the Bahá’í community has an elective National Spiritual Assembly, one of the twenty-six National Assemblies already established, and has begun the construction of a national Bahá’í House of Worship.
HORACE HOLLEY Wilmette, Illinois January 31, 1958
