Faith, Reason, and Society in Baha'i Perspective

14. It is interesting that an emphasis on a pluralistic, historical, and relativistic approach to knowledge can be found in the recent theories of Jacques Derrida ( Writing and Difference ), Michel Foucault ( Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison ), Pierre Boudieu ( Outline of a Theory of Practice ), Juergen Habermas ( Knowledge and Human Interests ), Talcott Parsons ( The Structure of Social Action ), Martin Heidegger ( Being and Time ), and Gadamer ( Truth and Method ). 15. Abu Nasr Farabi, The Perfect State: Abu Nasr Al-Farabi's Mabadiora ahl al Madina al- Fadila , trans. Richard Walzer (Oxford, Clarendon, 1885). 16. See Avicenna, On Theology (London: John Murray, 1951) 42-49. 17. See G. W. F Hegel, Philosophy and Mind (Oxford: Clarendon, 1971). 18. This theory of institutionalization can be found in Max Weber, Economy and Society , 3 vols. (New York: Bedminster, 1968) 3: 1111-57. 19. Note that the Bahá’í sacred books consists of the revelational scriptures of the Báb and Bahá’u’lláh and the inspirational scriptures of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and Shoghi Effendi. 20. Bahá’u’lláh, The Hidden Words of Bahá’u’lláh , trans. Shoghi Effendi, rev. ed. (Wilmette, Ill.: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1978) 20. 21. For a discussion of the world-embracing nature of the Bahá’í Faith, see Shoghi Effendi, World Order of Bahá’u’lláh 196–201.