Making the Crooked Straight

Making the Crooked Straight  (2000)  Udo Schaefer, Nicola Towfigh and Ulrich Gollmer A contribution to Bahá’í Apologetics

FOREWORD, by J.A. McLean
PREFACE TO THE GERMAN EDITION (1995)
PREFACE TO THE ENGLISH EDITION (2000)
INTRODUCTION

PART I: METHODOLOGY

CHAPTER 1 OVERVIEW

I. The limits of religious knowledge

II. ‘Critical literature’

III. The renegade as researcher

IV. The origins of the conflict

CHAPTER 2 ON FICICCHIA’S METHODOLOGY

I. Opportunism—the supreme principle of the Bahá’í Faith?

II. Ficicchia’s standpoint

III. Ficicchia’s portraits of the founding figures

1. The Báb

2. Bahá’u’lláh

IV. Ficicchia’s portrait of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá

V. The portrait of Shoghi Effendi

VI. Ficicchia’s distorted image of the Bahá’í community

VII. Ficicchia’s semantics.

VIII. The Bahá’ís—sectarian escapists and dangerous extremists?

1. On the charge of ‘unworldly isolation’

2. On the charge of subversion

PART II: COMMUNITY AND DOCTRINE

CHAPTER 3 FICICCHIA’S PORTRAIT OF THE COMMUNITY AND ITS ORDER

I. The background: the Protestant concept of law

II. Ficicchia’s critique of the order of the Bahá’í community and its foundations

1. The Universal House of Justice—not foreseen by Baha’u’llah?
2. ‘Abdu’l-Baha’s testament—disputed?
3. The Guardianship—a dictatorship?
4. On the alleged ‘doctrinal legislation’ by the Universal House of Justice
5. The community: a ‘steward of the grace’?
6. Shoghi Effendi charged with having prevented the establishment of the Universal House of Justice
7. On the subject of infallibility
8. Freedom to teach—teaching authority
9. Prepublication review—a censorship?
10. Forbidden books?
11. Freedom of expression prohibited?
12. Criticism prohibited?
13. Covenant-breaking and excommunication
14. ‘Tricks’ and ‘the pressure of the plan’ in missionary activities?
15. ‘Complete renunciation of Christian beliefs’?
16. The community—anti-democratic, centralist, secular?
17. Ficicchia’s (mis)judgement of the Bahá’í community

CHAPTER 4 FICICCHIA’S PRESENTATION OF BAHÁ’Í DOCTRINE

I. On the concept of revelation

II. On the station of Bahá’u’lláh

III. On the Bahá’í doctrine of grace

IV. On the Bahá’í concept of human nature

V. On claims to absoluteness and exclusiveness

VI. Emphatically rationalist, hostile to science, and esoteric, all at once?

VII. On the concept of liberty

CHAPTER 5 FICICCHIA’S PORTRAYAL OF BAHÁ’Í LAW

I. The Law: A provocation.

II. Suppression and dissimulation of the Kitab-i-Aqdas?

III. Difficulties of publication.

1. Previous publications and translations
2. On the Royal Asiatic Society’s English-language edition of 1961
3. Problems of producing an authentic translation.
4. On the nature of divine legislation

IV. Specific issues.

1. Tagiyya—a law of Baha’u’llah?
2. The Kitab-i-Aqdas—a sketchy ‘framework’?
3. The sacred texts—falsified, interpolated?

V. Some corrections regarding the content of particular laws

1. Onritual daily prayer
2. On the cut of the hair.
3. Baha’i holy days and the Mashriqu’l-Adhkar

VI. Corrections of other distortions

1. On the dogmatic foundation of the law
2. On the balance between justice and love.
3. A casuist system of ethics?
4. A rigorous religious law?

VII. On the nature of the law of God

CHAPTER 6 BAHÁ’Í POLITICAL THOUGHT

I. The Bahá’í community: authoritarian and antidemocratic?.

1. The Bahá’í Faith—‘political Mahdism’?
2. A ‘claim to total power’ or fulfilment of eschatological prophecy?
3. The need for peace
4. A centralist global state?
5. The eschatological realm of peace
6. Claim to power or service to humanity?
7. ‘Total possession taken of the individual’?

II. Bahá’u’lláh—royalist and hostile to liberty?

1. Bahá’u’lláh’s statements concerning kingship
2. A power political alliance between church and state?
3. Non-violent neutrality or partisanship?
4. Universalism versus nationalism
5. Justified ‘opposition’ or persecution of a non-violent religious minority?

III. On the way to anew type of politics

1. The concept of politics in Bahá’í scripture
2. Loyalty to state authority
3. Baha’i elections: a non-partisan form of democratic appointment of government
4. A new model for political decision-making
5. Responsibility for the world we live in

PART III: HISTORICAL ISSUES

CHAPTER 7 PROBLEMS OF RESEARCH IN THE FIELD OF RELIGIOUS HISTORY

CHAPTER 8 FICICCHIA’S SOURCES

I. Kitáb-i-Nuqṭatu’l-Káf and Táríkh-i-Jadíd

1. Kitáb-i-Nuqṭatu’l-Káf
2. Táríkh-i-Jadíd

II. Hasht Bihisht

CHAPTER 9 FICICCHIA’S EUROPEAN SOURCES

I. The orientalist Edward Granville Browne

II. The Protestant minister Hermann Römer

1. Römer’s presentation: its structure and influence on later works
2. Römer’s portrayal of Bábí and Bahá’í history
3. Römer’s interpretation of Bábí/Bahá’í doctrine

CHAPTER 10 SOME ASPECTS OF BÁBÍ AND BAHÁ’Í HISTORY

I. Mahdi claim and messianic secret

1. Ficicchia’s sources
2. The messianic secret
3. The religious and political background
4. The eschatological expectations of heterodox Shí‘a Islam
5. The Báb’s claim

II. Bahá’u’lláh’s claims

1. The prophecy concerning the advent of Man yuẓhiruhu’lláh
2. Two alleged proofs of the supremacy of Mírzá Yaḥyá in Baghdád
3. On the dating of Bahá’u’lláh’s declaration

III. Mírzá Yaḥyá Azal

IV. Mírzá Yaḥyá as head of the Bábís and opponent of Bahá’u’lláh

V. The cases of murder and attempted murder

1. The murder of Dayyan
2. The murder of three Azalís in ‘Akká
3. The attempted murders committed by Mírzá Yaḥyá in Edirne

VI. On the question of schism

CHAPTER 11 THE WILL AND TESTAMENT OF ‘ABDU’L-BAHA

I. The forgery theory

II. The religious and historical background

III. On the content of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Will and Testament

IV. The appointment of Shoghi Effendi as ‘Guardian of the Faith’—a historical overview

V. The inventor of the forgery theory and her epigones

VI. The arguments concerning style and content

VII. The graphological assessment

VIII. The ideological reasons for rejecting the Will and Testament

IX. On the logical structure and stringency of the arguments

X. Conclusion

CONCLUSION
APPENDIX
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX OF NAMES
GENERAL INDEX