Abstract: This book offers an in-depth and scholarly examination of the development of music and devotional life within the American Bahá'í community from its beginnings in the 1890s to the present. Surveying this past, the author critically discusses the Bahá'í devotional practice that would draw on the rich heritage he has uncovered. Based on the author's doctoral dissertation, the book relates the history of the use of music and devotions among the early Bahá'ís of Chicago, the development of Bahá'í hymns, the opposition to their use, and their eventual abandonment. He then turns his attention to the Mashriqu'l-Adhkár, the Bahá'í Temple in Wilmette, Illinois, as the most potent symbol of Bahá'í devotion. He discusses the history of the design and construction of the Temple and the controversies which surrounded both. Finally, he examines the question of worship in the Temple since its dedication in 1953. This is the fourth in a series of volumes devoted to the academic study of the Bábí and Bahá'í religions. It is an absorbing study and a vital addition to the library of any student of Bahá'í history.
Technical notes: This document was scanned by a print shop (courtesy S. McGlinn) as high-res images. The resulting large document [75MB] was then OCRed to produce a text-based "searchable" PDF [14MB] which was then exported as a Word document [2.5MB], and also optimized to produce a smaller image-based PDF [9MB]. The latter three versions are below. The first document below, "PDF with OCR, images and text" [14MB], is the recommended version.
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