Religious Authority in Kinship Groups

"Bahá'u'lláh has declared that religion must be in accord with science and reason. If it does not correspond with scientific principles and the processes of reason, it is superstition." 'Abdu'l-Bahá, The Promulgation of Universal Peace (Wilmette: Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 1922. 2nd edition 1982, p. 298-99)

Disclaimer: This is an academic site with active investigation notes, pages may be updated, removed, posted as implications of research changes as more data becomes available. contact editor mmccarr1@mail.ccsf.edu

Preliminary Report Outline:

Change and Authority in Small Textual Communities: Case Study on Baha'is

by Michael McCarron

This study is a synthesis of much research that has been done on a small group of religious adherents that has branched from the Baha'i Religion as represented by the organization called the "Baha'i Faith" centered in Haifa, Israel. This study looks at the structure of Authority claims within the Baha'i Faith and the small group that branched from it called the "Baha'is Under the Provisions of the Covenant".

Section 1: Intro & Researchers Reflexive Ethnography Methodology

Section 2: Authority Claims as Understood by the Parent Group and the Child Group

Multicultural Backgrounds

- Jewish Precedents

- Prophetic and Kingly Authority in Judaism

- Christian Precedents

- Jesus as the High Priest in the order of Melchizedek

- Islamic Precedents (Shi'ism)

- Prophetic Authority and Guardianship (Ar. Wiliyat) of the Imams

- Mormon Precedents

- Prophetic Authority and the High Priests in the order of Melchizedek

Baha'i Implementation

- Parent Structure and Understanding

- `Abdu'l-Baha, the Master

- Guardianship, Shoghi Effendi

- Universal House of Justice

- Child Structure and Understanding

- The Melchizedek High Priest, Dr. Leland Jensen

- The Second International Baha'i Council

- Guardianship

Section 3: Kinship Groups and Chains of Authority

- Physical Kinship and Fictive Kinship

- General discussion of Kinship in Anthropological Research discussing different cultural understanding of Kinship including differnent types of fictive kinship.

- Abdu'l-Baha's Prophecy of Challenges to Guardianship (Paternal Guidance)

- Discussion of a Prophecy of `Abdu'l-Baha' (1919) regarding challenges to the Guardianship in the form of a Catastrophe that was taught to his collective kinship group, the Children of the Kingdom

- Abdu'l-Baha's Children of the Kingdom

- Early in the ministry of `Abdu'l-Baha' a group of students lived and studied actively with `Abdu'l-Baha (1910) such as Fugita, Emogene Hoagg, Charles Mason Remey, Fred Mortenson, Zia Baghdadi, Esselmont, Bahadur, George Lattimer, Frau Schwarz, the Maxwells, Agnes Alexander, Corinne True, Juliet Thompson and others that were collectively referred to as "children of the Kingdom", and Abdu'l-Baha' used familial terms to address them as his real sons and daughters in addition to his biological daughters that adhered to the Covenant of Baha'u'llah.

- Fictive Kinship and the Guardianship

Examines the question of whether it is possible that a fictive son could be appointed to the Guardianship in light of research and information gleaned from letters of early believers.