Planet Bahá'í

Recently former Planet Bahá'í forum host Romane Takkenberg sent me an article that appeared on the Web site of the Kansas City Star. In the article, the Star invited responses from "nationally prominent Jewish, Christian and Muslim scholars" to answer the question of whether these three religions all worshipped the same God. (The article is no longer available online.)

Rather than analyzing the responses in detail, I'd like to offer a response from a Bahá'í perspective, adding the Bahá'í Faith to the list of religions considered. Naturally, the following remarks only represent my own understanding of Bahá'í teachings and should not be taken as authoritative statements of Bahá'í belief.

There are several approaches one could take to answering such a question. The first is very simple. Christians accept the Jewish prophets as having received revelations from God, so obviously Christians believe in the Jewish God. Muslims accept the Jewish prophets and Jesus as having received revelations from God, so obviously Muslims believe in the Judeo-Christian God. Bahá'ís accept the reality of the Jewish prophets, of Jesus, and of Muhammad, so obviously they believe in the Judeo-Christian-Islamic God.

The differences between these four religions are not so much about God as about who spoke for Him. A Jew might or might not regard Jesus as having been a true prophet. A Christian might well reject the idea that Muhammad was God's prophet. A Muslim might discount the idea that Bahá'u'lláh was God's messenger. Followers of any of these religions might claim that the other religions present inadequate or distorted beliefs about God. But at the core, all of them are talking about one and the same God, because each successive religion claims to add to, not take away from, the previous ones.

It's certainly true that the orthodox theologies of each of these religions and their various sects present different views of God. Some emphasize God's transcendence, while others emphasize His closeness to us. Some emphasize obedience to the law of God, others repentance and forgiveness, others submission to the will of God. But we should not be too hasty in equating these differences in perspective with belief in different gods, or even fundamentally different ideas about one God.

Let's be honest with ourselves here. Does any of us really think we have a completely adequate understanding of the reality of God? I'm not just talking about an intimation of God's existence, or a solid understanding of Scripture, or even a strong sense of being in the presence of God. Rather, I mean a clear and full comprehension of what God is and of what God is like. Can the human mind encompass God? If so, then the human mind must be greater than, or at least equal to, God. None of these religions teaches this; indeed, they all teach the exact opposite. If God holds the entire creation in the palm of His hand (metaphorically speaking), then what part of His creation is capable of truly grasping His nature, or even the full measure of any one of His qualities?

No, all of our conceptions of God are, by nature, limited and imperfect. Bahá'u'lláh expressed it this way:

O children of the divine and invisible Essence! Ye shall be hindered from loving Me and souls shall be perturbed as they make mention of Me. For minds cannot grasp Me nor hearts contain Me.

(The Hidden Words, Arabic 66)

Because this is the case--and all four of these religions say it is--it is hardly surprising that different individuals should have different conceptions of God, or even that different religions should offer different perspectives on God. We should expect that different religions, talking about the same God, would offer different views of Him. Indeed, we should expect that any one religion might offer different views of God. And that is indeed exactly what we find. For example, notwithstanding all of His statements regarding God's transcendence and our inability to know God, Bahá'u'lláh also made many statements such as this:

Turn thy sight unto thyself, that thou mayest find Me standing within thee, mighty, powerful and self-subsisting.

(The Hidden Words, Arabic 13)

Such differences are not inconsistent, but are merely reflections of our limitations when it comes to comprehending God. The old saw about the four blind men trying to describe an elephant comes to mind. Each man explores a different part of the elephant--the trunk, the tail, the legs, the ears--and reports back with a very different account of what this creature is like. None of them seem to agree. If only they could see the elephant as a whole, they would understand why they were having such differences of opinion, but alas they cannot.

Different conceptions of one God do not equate to different gods, any more than different conceptions of one person equate to different people. Consider all those who know me. How my wife sees me is one thing; how my children see me is quite another. My parents' mental image of me must likewise be very different. My coworkers have still others. You, as a reader, probably have another conception altogether. And yet, all of these people who know me know one single person. I am not a small army, I'm just one man who presents different facets to the world. Which one you see depends on how you relate to and interact with me.

Likewise, different conceptions of one God can, and indeed must, coexist peacefully and without any real contradiction. A transcendent God can also be a personal God. A just God can also be a merciful God. A God who we cannot truly know can be a God we can know intimately. Such outward contradictions arise only because of perspective, just as visual perspective can make large objects seem small and vice versa.

But we can also adopt a new perspective, one that transcends the doctrines of the past and enables us to see the fundamental unity of all faiths. If we are all the children of one God, surely He would wish us to be a family united in love rather than a family bitterly divided by our opinions of Him.