Yet another aspect of the Faith that can be grasped more
fully as the close of the first century of the Formative Age approaches is the
nature and pattern of the organic growth and development of the Bahá’í
community. Shoghi Effendi refers to the community’s organic development and to
its organic life, which reflects the characteristics it shares with the
unfoldment of a living organism and with the coherent, integrated, and
harmonious nature of its component parts. He speaks of the “the internal functions
of the organic Bahá’í community” (Shoghi Effendi, ‘God Passes By'), explaining that
its “embryonic state, shall evolve within the shell of His law, and shall forge
ahead, undivided and unimpaired, till it embraces the whole of mankind” (Shoghi
Effendi, “The World Order of Baha’u’llah’). The progress of national
communities is propelled by “prosecuting specific Plans designed to foster
their organic development” (Shoghi Effendi, ‘Messages to Canada’). “Such close
interaction, such complete cohesion, such continual harmony and fellowship
between the various agencies that contribute to the organic life, and
constitute the basic framework, of every properly functioning Bahá’í
community,” he states, “is a phenomenon which offers a striking contrast to the
disruptive tendencies which the discordant elements of present-day society so
tragically manifest” (Shoghi Effendi, ‘The Advent of Divine Justice’). And in
one of its earliest messages, the Universal House of Justice writes,
"In the human body, every cell, every organ, every nerve has
its part to play. When all do so the body is healthy, vigorous, radiant, ready for
every call made upon it. No cell, however humble, lives apart from the body,
whether in serving it or receiving from it. This is true of the body of mankind
in which God “hast endowed each and all with talents and faculties,” and is
supremely true of the body of the Bahá’í World Community, for this body is
already an organism, united in its aspirations, unified in its methods, seeking
assistance and confirmation from the same Source, and illumined with the
conscious knowledge of its unity. . . . The Bahá’í World Community, growing
like a healthy new body, develops new cells, new organs, new functions and powers
as it presses on to its maturity, when every soul, living for the Cause of God,
will receive from that Cause, health, assurance and the overflowing bounties of
Bahá’u’lláh which are diffused through His divinely ordained order." (The Universal
House of Justice, from a message dated September 1964)
Among the characteristics of organic development are growth, differentiation, integration, evolution, developmental stages, complexity, internal coherence, maturation, and the dynamic engagement of an organism with its environment. For example, a human being is a very complex organism with significant and far-reaching capacities to understand and act in the world. But a person begins very simply, with a single cell and a single focus—cell division. A single cell obviously cannot act to be at the same time a brain, a kidney, a liver, skin, hair, and everything else. It cannot go off to university, get a degree in economics, and solve the economic problems of the world. Only over time does the organic process unfold and the human organism begins to take on a more complex form and capacity. Cells multiply, then gradually there is differentiation and specialization, different organs appear and then different systems, until finally a baby emerges from the protective womb. Even this significant transition is but a beginning for new stages in the organic process that result in continuing physical, mental, and social development. The individual passes through infancy to childhood to adolescence and beyond until the mature human being emerges who, indeed, can go to college, get that degree, and tackle the economic problems of the world.
The characteristics of organic development are similarly
found in the unfoldment of the Faith, in the progressive stages of the
establishment of the administration and implementation of the Divine Plan. One
need only trace the path from the birth of the Bahá’í Era, at the time of the
fateful evening encounter between the Báb and the first believer, to the
initial capacities for administration and teaching in the first years after the
passing of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, to the far flung and complex global community and its
capabilities evident in the harvest of the fruits of the Ten Year Crusade, and
to its current size, scope, capabilities, and influence as the first century of
the Formative Age draws to a close. The past century has witnessed a series of
developmental stages beginning in 1921, from the initial efforts to establish
the system of Local and National Assemblies, to the adoption of the first plans
to spread the Faith throughout the world from 1937 on, to the start of the
focused development of the international sphere in 1950, to the establishment
of the House of Justice and implementation of initial plans beginning in 1963,
and to the current systematic approach to learning about growth and development
initiated in 1996.
However, one should not think that organic development is
impervious to intervention—that change is completely fixed and moves at its own
pace. A knowledgeable farmer or agriculturalist, while serving the inherent organic
characteristics of a plant and subject to the limitations of nature, can have a
direct effect on the outcome of the harvest and even on plant genetics. The
capacity of the parent and teacher leaves an indelible mark on the rate and
extent of the progress of a child, who thrives from the optimum union of
nurture and nature.
Of course, one critical difference between biological
organic development and social organic development is that, in the former, the
process is intrinsic and, within a range of material conditions, involuntary;
in the latter, there is choice. The individual, possessing free will, must decide
to act. The twin duties of recognition of the Manifestation of God and
adherence to all that He revealed create the deontological commitment to the
organic processes of the Faith. Individuals, communities, and institutions, as
the House of Justice has repeatedly explained in recent years, are to become increasingly
conscious of, and capable of acting within, the parameters of the Faith’s
organic process of growth and development in order to contribute to its
efficient and effective progress.
- Paul Lample (Excerpt from a paper presented
at the Association for Baha’i Studies, 2013: ‘Some Insights from the First Century
of the Formative Age’)