UK Bahá’í Curriculum

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SECTION NINE   ATTAINMENT TARGET TWO

KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING OF THE BAHÁ’Í FAITH AND OTHER RELIGIONS

f) OTHER DIVINELY REVEALED RELIGIONS

The tendency of humanity to see things separately, to be swayed by surface differences, to seize upon apparent inconsistencies, leads to division. This seemingly inherent tribalism lies behind parochialism, prejudice and, eventually, persecution.

Adherence to a religious belief system is not normally a matter of rationality. Commitment to a faith is meta-rational - beyond logic or scientific analysis. It is something profoundly felt, often against the evidence of reason and experience.

Religious belief allied to tribalism is a systemic poison in the matrix of human society. The doctrine of exclusivity exists in all theologies, in one form or another, and vitiates the unity that humanity might otherwise achieve.

Generally, those who are committed to their own religious beliefs and practices do not tend to acknowledge the worth of other religions, much less admit that they might all represent equally valid paths to God. They will admit that some religions grow out of earlier ones, but there their sense of an underlying pattern ends. For every member of a religious community who supports inter-faith dialogue and co-operation, there are many who raise the dangers of compromise and assimilation.

It is only in the teachings of the Bahá’í Faith, where belief and reason go hand in hand, that we come to appreciate most fully a universal pattern, an ever progressing elaboration of God’s purpose unfolding through the various religions of the world. Such a view allows one to see the underlying spiritual truths which unite all religions, and to see the differences as surface considerations of practical and societal prescriptions for religious observance and human interaction, diet, dress, marriage and laying the deceased to rest; all of which stem partly from the historical and geographical context of the religions’ origins.

As Bahá’í parents and teachers, we must teach our children and youth about the other great religions and belief systems of the world, for two reasons. One is to prevent any trace of prejudice entering our dealings with those of other religious traditions. The other is to allow us to understand our own faith and its place in the grand scheme of things - existing in a context of rich cultural diversity and long tradition of adherence to ideas other than our own. The Bahá’í writings are full of references to God’s previous messengers and their sacred scriptures. You cannot fully appreciate a chapter in a novel unless you have read and understood the previous chapters. Nor must we forget that there will be chapters after this one.

ASPECTS OF RELIGION

1. Progressive revelation and the unity of religions
2. The religious nature of humanity
3. A survey of religious expression in prehistoric and ancient times
4. The Bahá’í attitude to other religions and their followers

5. Abraham and monotheism
6. Hinduism, Rama and Krishna
7. Judaism and Moses
8. Zoroaster and Zoroastrians
9. Buddha and Buddhism
10. Christ and Christianity
11. Muhammad and Islam
12. Other religious ideologies
13. Non-religious ideologies

14. The sacred scriptures of the world’s religions
15. References to the Bahá’í Faith in the world’s sacred scriptures

16. The cyclical rise and fall of religious dispensations
17. Problems facing the world’s religious communities
18. The Inter-Faith Movement
19. The Bahá’í Faith on SACREs and in schools, and taught by non-Bahá’ís etc.

KS 0, KS 1: Here the other divinely revealed religions might chiefly be approached through simple story and drama, pictures and symbol recognition, etc.

KS 2: Introduce more detail in the lives of the founders and key figures of the other religions, along with some key sayings and religious festivals, etc.

KS 3: Greater sophistication of approach, dealing in both broader sweeps and more detail of the founders, key figures, history, scriptures, teachings and practices of the world’s principal religious and other belief systems, including the Bahá’í view of them as expressed in Bahá’í writings and authoritative pronouncements.

KS 4: Enable students to discuss all aspects of other divinely revealed religions, to be confident in using their knowledge and understanding of other divinely revealed religions, and to know how to enhance these in themselves and others.

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