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Abstract: A philosophical theology based on the Bahá'í writings.
Notes: Also available as a nicely-formatted PDF (2MB). |
Eternal Quest for God:
An Introduction to the Divine Philosophy of Abdu'l-Baha
by Julio Savi
Oxford: George Ronald, 1989British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Savi, Julio
The eternal quest for God: an introduction to the divine philosophy of `Abdu'l-Bahá.
I. Bahá'ísm. Abd al Bahá ibn Bahá All ah, 1844-1921.
I. Title II. Nell'universo sulle tracce di Dio. English 297'.8963
ISBN 0-85398-295-3
Billing and Sons Ltd, Worcester
By the same author
Nell'universo sulle tracce di Dio
(EDITRICE NÚR, ROME, 1988)
Bahíyyih Khánum, Ancella di Bahá
(CASA EDITRICE BAHÁ'Í, ROME, 1983)
To my father
Umberto Savi
with love and gratitude
I am especially grateful to Continental Counselor
Dr. Leo Niederreiter
without whose loving encouragement
this book would have not been written
Contents
Introduction
1. THE WAYS OF THE SEARCH: TOWARDS A PHILOSOPHY OF REALITY
The criteria of knowledge
Sense perception
Intellect
Insight
The Holy Writings
The research method
Which truth?
Thought and action
Natural philosophy and divine philosophy
The unity of religion and science
Towards a philosophy of reality
A conclusion and a preamble
2. THE BEGINNING OF ALL THINGS
God is unknowable
Differentiation of stages
God's all-inclusiveness
Human limitations
Human incapacity to know the essence of things
Limitations of human understanding
Rational proofs of Divinity
Cosmological proofs
On the grounds of movement and principle of efficient cause
On the grounds of the different degrees of perfection
Teleological proofs
The perception of the indwelling Spirit
3. THROUGHOUT THE UNIVERSE IN SEARCH OF GOD
Creation
The world of God
The world of the Kingdom
God's transcendence and pre-existence
God and His creatures
Different degrees in the world of existence
The world of the Kingdom
Pre-existence of the world of the Kingdom
The world of the Kingdom and spirit
Degrees of the spirit
The world of creation
Relation between the world of the Kingdom and the world of creation
Nature and the Will of God
Distinctive features of the world of creation
The atom
Evolution
The creative plan of God
General features of the creative plan of God
Evolution in the world of creation
Evolution in the four kingdoms of the world of creation
Evolution according to Plotinus, in the Bahá'í texts
Evolution as an educative process
Evolution in the different planes of the world of existence
Limitations of some modern concepts of evolution
4. THE WONDERS OF EVOLUTION
The origin of the universe
Evolution in the mineral kingdom
Living systems
Animals
Qualities of the animals
Sense perception
Memory
Learning
Voluntary movements
Natural emotions
Animal's limitations
5. MAN: THE FRUIT OF PHYSICAL EVOLUTION
His animal nature
His human nature
His divine nature
Human greatness and limitations
His evolution and his divine nature
6. THE PERFECT MAN: THE MANIFESTATION OF GOD
The Manifestations of God in the history of mankind
Their threefold reality
Material
Human
Divine
The Essence of God and the Manifestations of God
Their names
Relations between the Manifestations of God
The station of unity
The station of distinction
Their purposes
Their proofs
Denial
7. STRIVING TOWARDS PERFECTION: DYNAMICS OF HUMAN TRANSFORMATION
The method
Prerequisites of human transformation
Voluntary submission to the will of God
Purity
Endeavour
Directions of human endeavour
The special meaning of the Revealed Word
Serving mankind
Means of entrance into the Kingdom
Qualifications of the enlightened souls
Obstacles to human transformation
Self or self-centredness
Estrangement
Malice
Envy
Backbiting
Exceeding in words
Meanings of sorrow and sacrifice
Meanings of sorrow
An instrument of human perfection
An instrument of self-knowledge
An instrument of detachment from the world of creation
Meanings of sacrifice
Conquering the natal self
Self-sacrifice for a universal cause
Attaining the qualities of the world of the Kingdom
Human transformation as spiritual progress
Spirituality as love in action
The second birth
8. THE SOUL: THE REALITY OF MAN
Rational proofs of its existence and immortality
Proofs of its existence
Human rational faculty
Inner perception
Human inner reality
Metaphysical proofs of its immortality
On the grounds of movement
On the grounds of the soul defined as substance
On the grounds of the soul being simple as substance
On the grounds of the presence of truth within the soul
On the grounds of its natural aspiration for immortality
On the grounds of the idea of mortality
Moral proofs of its immortality
As a requirement of human moral life
On the grounds of consensus gentium
What is the soul?
Its individuality
Its dual nature
The oneness of the spirit
Soul and body
Its bounties or powers
The soul as coordinator and motor of the body
Knowledge
Sense perception
`Reasonable perception' or `intellection '
`Inner perception or insight' or `intuitive knowledge
Self-consciousness
Love
The capacity of feeling joy and pain
The power of love
Love and knowledge
Love and courage
The growth of love
Will
Action
The dynamics of the choice
The soul as the mirror of human choices
Spiritual knowledge
Spiritual feelings
Spiritual deeds
Spiritual words
The journey of the soul
9. HUMAN EVOLUTION
Individual evolution
Material evolution
Intellectual evolution
Spiritual evolution
Human education
Material education
Intellectual education
Spiritual education
Evolution of mankind
Material evolution
Intellectual evolution
Spiritual evolution
Contemporaneousness of material, intellectual and spiritual evolutionary processes
Discontinuity of evolutionary processes
Social evolution
10. THE WORLD OF THE KINGDOM
The world of the Kingdom within the creatures
The world of the Kingdom within man
The world of the Kingdom within society
The world of the Kingdom as the world beyond
It transcends time and space
Metaphors of the world of the Kingdom in the Bahá'í texts
Qualities of the world of the Kingdom
Human souls in the world of the Kingdom
Relations between this world and the other
Relations between human souls in the world of the Kingdom
Relationship between human souls in this world and in the other
11. GOD: THE BEGINNING AND THE END OF ALL THINGS
The knowledge of God
God within human hearts
God within the universe
God in His Manifestations
A CONCLUSION
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX
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