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The Baha'i Faith in America: Origins, 1892-1900. Volume One. By Robert H. Stockman. Baha'i Publishing Trust, 277 pp., $24.95.
The claim that the Baha'i religion made astounding gains in America because it won 1,500 converts will not impress anyone who knows this religious landscape, in which so many believe so many things so readily. What is more impressive is that from this small seed has sprung an American branch of a growing world religion. Stockman is a Harvard Divinity School graduate student, a convert to Baha'i, who is well equipped to trace its turn-of-the-century origins. There is some drama here: there were early controversies over the orthodoxy of pioneer Ibrahim Kheiralla, and struggles for power ensued. Stockman shows how in city after city a few dedicated people began to hold and spread this faith, and how some of them succeeded. He presents a gallery of their pictures in this first volume of what should be a notable historical work.
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