From the Editor's Desk: A Vision of the Future

Abstract

First, let me welcome those of you who have downloaded the Journal for free from the Association for Baha'i Studies website. This milestone decision by the Executive Committee required a great deal of reflection on what is the most essential purpose of ABS in service to the Baha'i community, to society at large, and to scholars from every field. Now there is no membership fee, no charge for reading and sharing the Journal, and, we feel, no limitations to the far-reaching influence of the discourses carried out in the articles published therein. So now that all have free access to the Journal's issues online, please share them with those whom you feel might be inspired and enlightened by the content.My exhortation is particularly appropriate to this present issue, which I believe contains some of the most forthright and informative discussions about where we are in the global progress of the Baha'i Faith, as well as how we can assist the world's citizens to respond to the rapidly escalating crises and tests we face as a planetary community.Shoghi Effendi observes in the very first sentence of The Promised Day is Come that a "tempest, unprecedented in its violence, unpredictable in its course, catastrophic in its immediate effects, unimaginably glorious in its ultimate consequences, is at present sweeping the face of the earth" (3; emphasis added). However, the principal theme and focus of the Baha'i Faith is a vision of the future that, in spite of the present turmoil and consternation we witness and experience, is completely positive and encouraging.Doubtless the "glorious consequences" of this promise might seem quite remote and hardly consoling in the midst of our present circumstances, as the initial stages of this tempest already feel all too overwhelming at times. Indeed, the rapid onset of the dismantling of whatever stability we might have thought we had achieved should make us strive to understand what this "glorious" outcome will be, and, of more immediate concern, what we might do to hasten and facilitate its arrival.For Baha'is who are presently involved in the activities prescribed in the plans created for this very purpose by the Universal House of Justice, the roiling tempest becomes incrementally less distracting the more we focus our attention and energies on the framework and strategies for constructing vibrant and spiritually oriented communities from the ground up. These communities-purposely spread throughout the world-will in time become the global civilization that will embrace, nurture, and guide by example the collection of nation states throughout the world. Currently, many countries are, instead, ostensibly intent on becoming increasingly more insular, less collaborative, and therefore less capable of responding effectively to the plethora of global challenges that presently confront humankind: global warming, racism, religious conflict, ideologically driven clashes of opinion and armed forces, the ever more overt and egregious demeaning of women, the exponentially widening gulf in the distribution of wealth and human resources between the few and the many, and so on.The articles in this issue are dedicated, whether directly or indirectly, to this theme-the Baha'i vision of a future that is by no means a vain or idealistic hope, but a concrete reality whose foundation is being constructed presently through innovative educational programs and a variety of social activities devised precisely to demonstrate in action the efficacy of the future society Baha'u'llah describes as a Golden Age in which humankind lives collaboratively in a single, unified commonwealth. Those who abide in this future polity-described in detail in the Baha'i texts-will, among other things, speak a common language, write in a common script, utilize a single currency and system of weights and measures, and, most importantly, share a common belief in the essentially spiritual nature and purpose of human existence. …