A Resource Guide for Baha'i Studies--bibliography

Section Two:
Annotated Bibliography of Noteworthy
Scholarship on the Bahá'í Faith


TABLE OF CONTENTS

i. Some Prefatory Notes and Considerations
ii. Format of this section
1. 'Abdu'l-Bahá
    1.1. 'Abdu'l-Bahá's Journeys in America and Europe
2. Administrative Order: History and Institutions
    2.1. Establishment of the Administrative Order, 1921-37
    2.2. The Guardianship
    2.3. Rulers and Learned
    2.4. The Interregnum and Election of the House of Justice (1957-63)
    2.5. Houses of Justice
3. Afterlife
4. Agriculture
5. Art, Literature, Music, Architecture
6. The Báb and the Bábí Movement, 1844-62
    6.1. The Báb: Early Life and Prophetic Career
    6.2. The Báb's Teachings: Sources and Historical Context
    6.3. The Bábí Community
7. Background of the Bahá'í Faith: Islam, Shaykhism, and Iran
    7.1. Background: Islam and Shí'ism
    7.2. Background: Nineteenth-Century Iran and Shaykhism
8. Bahá'í Communities of the World
    8.1. The Bahá'í Faith in Africa, Latin America, and Oceania
    8.2. The Bahá'í Faith in Europe
    8.3. The Bahá'í Faith in Iran
    8.4. The Bahá'í Faith in North America
    8.5. The Bahá'í Faith in the Former Soviet Union
    8.6. The Bahá'í Faith in South and East Asia
9. Bahá'í Faith, Introduction to
10. Bahá'í History
    10.1. Bahá'í History, 1863-92
    10.2. Bahá'í History, 1921-1953
    10.3. Bahá'í History, 1953-63
    10.4. Bahá'í History, 1963-79
    10.5. Bahá'í History, 1979-Present
11. Bahá'u'lláh
    11.1. Bahá'u'lláh's Life and Mission
    11.2. Bahá'u'lláh's Writings
12. Community
13. Consultation
14. Conversion
15. Covenant
16. Creation: Its Origin and Purpose
17. Economics
18. Education
19. Environment
20. Epistemology: The Bahá'í Theory and Sources of Knowledge
21. Ethics
22. Family Life: Marriage, Divorce, and Sexuality
23. Fasting
24. Feasts, Holy Days, and the Calendar
25. Female Imagery / Maid of Heaven
26. Funds and the Huqúqu'lláh
27. Gender Issues and Equality
28. God, Concept of
29. Health, Healing, and Medicine
30. Hermeneutics and Interpretation
31. History and Historiography
32. Holy Places, Bahá'í (World Centre and the Arc)
33. Houses of Worship
34. Humanity: Its Nature and Purpose
35. Justice / Divine Justice
36. Law and Personal Conduct
37. Manifestations of God
38. Mysticism
39. New World Order
40. Peace and War
41. Persecution and Martyrdom
42. Philosophy
43. Pilgrimage
44. Pioneering
45. Politics
46. Prayer and Meditation
47. Principles, Bahá'í
48. Prophecy
    48.1. Biblical and Islamic Prophecies
    48.2. Prophecies in Hinduism and Buddhism
    48.3. Native American Prophecies
    48.4. Other Prophecies
49. Psychic Phenomena and the Occult
50. Psychology
51. Racial Diversity and Race Relations
52. Religion: Definition of
53. Religious Dialogue and Pluralism
    53.1. Ahmadíyya
    53.2. Buddhism
    53.3. Christianity
    53.4. Confucianism and Taoism
    53.5. Hinduism
    53.6. Islam and Sufism
    53.7. Jainism
    53.8. Judaism
    53.9. Manichaeism
    53.10. Mormonism
    53.11. Native and "Primal" Religions
    53.12. New Age Movements
    53.13. Sabaeanism
    53.14. Sikhism
    53.15. Zoroastrianism
54. Revelation
55. Ritual Practices and Ceremonies
56. Sacred History: Progressive Revelation
57. Sacred Story (Mythology)
58. Scholarship and the Academy
59. Science and Religion
60. Scripture
61. Shoghi Effendi
62. Sin, Evil, and Satan
63. Social Order
64. The Spiritual Life
65. Tests, and Growth
66. Theology
67. Unity / Unity in Diversity
68. Work


i. Some Prefatory Notes and Considerations:

This guide is the product of years of work by a variety of people, and may display consequent inconsistencies. We are gradually making it more uniform as we revise it, but the sheer volume of articles and our attempt to link all parts of the guide into one uniform presentation make it unavoidable that there will be gaps. Below are the gaps we are aware of.

* Where the writings of the primary figures are included in multiple books, as they usually are, we have included some of the more common sources but have made no attempt to be exhaustive. The exception is the volume Writings of Bahá'u'lláh, which, containing all of Bahá'u'lláh's translated writings--save parts of the Kitáb-i-Aqdas, The Proclamation of Bahá'u'lláh, and Bahá'í Prayers--is the most complete single collection of Bahá'u'lláh's texts in English. Since some instructors might wish to assign this one book and others use individual texts instead (and since Writings of Bahá'u'lláh neither contains an index nor is in REFER), we have cross-referenced all of these citations.

* We have given some of the main scriptural citations for every topic, but these are not and could not be complete: not only are the writings too vast to cite every relevant quote, and not only are new translations, both authoritative (done under the auspices of the Universal House of Justice) and provisional (done by individuals) continually being produced, but not all of the extant writings have even been archived yet.

* There are many academic and semi-academic journals which are both of quite limited circulation and are somewhat obscure. We have not included articles found in some of these partly because we sometimes could not find them and partly because only the professional researcher will have access to them. Indeed, even the most thorough of all bibliographies on the Bahá'í Faith, William Collins' Bibliography of English-Language Works on the Bábí and Bahá'í Faiths 1844-1985, does not cite every article ever published.

* Many unpublished translations, articles, historical documents, bibliographies, pilgrims' notes, and book reviews are available on the internet. These have not been cited here. Please see "Description of Bahá'í Internet Resources," below.

* Since this Guide has an index we have not extensively cross-referenced topics. The index should be consulted because sometimes more than one subject heading will include relevant information for any particular topic. For ideas on what related topics to look up, one can consult the sections given in the curriculum guides, above, or the cross-referencing provided in the index.

* The guide is thorough, but not exhaustive. There are doubtless numerous books which deserve to be listed that we either do not know of or have overlooked. Recommendations for additions are encouraged.


ii. Format of this section

The format of entries in this section will, for the most part, follow the following pattern. The presentation of certain subjects may depart slightly from the following, for some entries will not feature all four of these elements.

X. Subject Heading

    X.1. Subject sub-heading (if applicable)

1- Brief definition of subject (if applicable).

2- Primary source writings: i.e., works of the Báb, Bahá'u'lláh, 'Abdu'l-Bahá, Shoghi Effendi, or the Universal House of Justice pertaining to the subject.*

3- References to the subject in the basic Bahá'í textbooks. Books cited here are J. E. Esslemont's Bahá'u'lláh and the New Era (5th ed.), Gloria Faizi's The Bahá'í Faith, John Ferraby's All Things Made New, William S. Hatcher and J. Douglas Martin's The Bahá'í Faith, John Huddleston's The Earth is But One Country, Moojan Momen's A Short Introduction to the Bahá'í Faith, and Peter Smith's A Short History of the Bahá'í Faith, (cited as Smith 1996) and The Bábí and Bahá'í Religions (cited as Smith 1987). Pages cited here supplement but are not identical with the page numbers offered in the indices of these books. Wendi Momen's A Basic Bahá'í Dictionary and Glenn Cameron and Wendi Momen's A Basic Bahá'í Chronology would also be useful to an instructor or researcher.

4- Bibliographic notes of modern scholarship on the subject. This latter section will, of course, be more temporally limited than the above. That is, while the references in the above textbooks will remain useful (indeed, Esslemont's book is now over s even decades old), the journal and book entries of contemporary scholarship will only be as current as the latest edition of this guide.


* It should be noted that the edition of Lights of Guidance cited here, 2d revised and enlarged edition 1988, differs in page and citation numbering from the 1st, 3d, and 4th editions. This edition was chosen to cite because it seems to be the most commonly-owned one.


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