Bahai Philosophy and the Question of the Environment

the world. The ascetic believer sees himself as the tool of the divine will. Because of the transcendental character of the divine realm he cannot experience God. Consequently he becomes an instrument in the hand of God in order to realize the will of God in a corrupt and evil world. The consequence of this orientation is a personality which emphasizes rational discipline and control of the self and tries to change, dominate, and transform the world. According to Weber, asceticism is compatible with a rational organization of behavior in methodic and disciplined terms, and tends towards economic development, capitalist expansion, and industrialization. Mysticism, on the other hand, is assumed by Weber to lead to the exact opposite implications. In mysticism, God is immanent in the world so that nature and God become identical realities. Because of the immanent character of the divine reality, God can be experienced by the individual believer. The believer conceives of himself as the vessel of God and becomes filled with ecstasy of divine love and overwhelmed by experiential and emotional trances. The goal of life, therefore, is not to change the world but to attain unity and harmony with it. The dominant orientation of the believer is one of harmony with nature and not one of conquest and transformation. For Weber, this implied that mysticism is incompatible with economic rationalization and development. viii Together with his other distinctions--like those of this-worldly and other-worldly orientations--Weber classifies world religions and examines their implications for economic rationalization. It was in this context that he found one of the roots of the development of capitalism in Protestantism. In this paper we are not concerned with the details of Weber’s theory. However, Weber’s theory can be easily reoriented towards the question of preservation of the environment as well. Following the same logic one can conclude that while asceticism is incompatible with protection of the environment, mysticism corresponds with an attitude of preservation of nature. In summary one can say that in Weber’s theory, asceticism leads to economic development but destruction of the environment whereas mysticism ends in economic stagnation but protection of the environment. Despite the creative insights of Weber’s theory, his typology of religious meaning systems is incomplete. In fact both asceticism and mysticism are capable of opposite implications. This can be seen clearly in Bahá’í theology, which fits neither of the models defined by Weber’s typology. Bahá’í theology can be termed the perspective of harmonious transcendence. This position is radically different from both Weberian mysticism and the perspective of the transcendence of opposition (Weber’s “asceticism”). However, this means that

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