REVIEW

"Helping Joe Strong" by Morris Taylor Baha'i Publishing Trust, USA ... and ... The Family Virtues Guide by Linda Kavelin Popov Plume / Penguin

Available from the Baha'i Publishing Trust

"Train: to instruct and discipline; to cause to grow in the desired manner; to prepare for performance by instruction, practice, diet, etc.; to bring up". (Chambers Concise Dictionary)

Training has featured in many recent communications from the Universal House of Justice and the encouragement and guidance towards the setting up of Training Institutes are a measure of its importance. The plain fact is that while we Baha'is are amateurs in the strict sense of the word - we follow Baha'u'llah out of love - we cannot be amateurish in our service. The Faith, and the needs of humanity, call out for a practical approach in which we understand what we have to do, discover how to do it, and carry out the tasks.

One of the great challenges that faces us in this area is harmonisation. Recognising what the world needs, we strive to find how to share it. On the one hand we have the spiritual and social teachings of our Faith. On the other there is a wealth of "practical" guidance, skills and techniques available to us, developed over many years by people who have made a lifetime study of administration, education, parenting, management, marketing, and many other fields. We need not be forever reinventing the wheel in our efforts to build the community and spread the teachings.

Harmonisation involves three steps:

The first is recognising that we can learn from those who have these skills and put them to use. We do not shrink from using architects and engineers to build our temples, or accountants to deal with our funds, why should we deem it unspiritual to learn from those whose knowledge in other areas could also serve the Faith?

The second is learning that we should not, cannot, simply accept everything uncritically and try to apply it to Baha'i needs. While we should not throw out the baby with the bath water, we cannot drink the water itself.

The third is bringing together spiritual understanding based on deepening in the Writings with what we can learn and use from the secular skills. While the first two steps involve making a mental adjustment, this one calls for real effort.

These two books make a success of the harmonisation process in very different areas. Linking them in this review is one way of showing how it can be done right across the spectrum of Baha'i activity.

"Helping Joe Strong" deals with the many practical skills that go to make up a successful and effective spiritual assembly. The hero of the title is concerned that while his assembly meets, does the work , and appears efficient, it does not seem to be getting anywhere. Worse, neither is the Faith in its area. So Joe goes, with its permission, to a neighbouring community with a vigorous community life and a pattern of growth to find out how they do it.

In the course of the book he discusses things with different members of that assembly, who bring different skills and strengths to its work. Through them he learns about how their administrative body carries out its responsibilities in a practical and organised manner which makes it not just efficient but effective. He learns that the spiritual aspects are not neglected but rather that they are served by this approach. He recognises that there is no magic wand, that he cannot simply learn a technique or two and transfer it to his assembly in the hope of its having the same effect; but he and his assembly are gradually transformed. By the end of the book they are being approached by another community whose assembly has heard of their successes and wants to learn how to ...

"The Family Virtues Guide" sets out what it offers in its subtitle - Simple Ways to Bring Out the Best in Our Children and Ourselves . It selects 52 virtues, one for each week of the year, and each section explains what a virtue is, what it means, and how to practice it. The term virtue is deliberately preferred to value - as the book points out, values are culture-specific, virtues are universal. This means the book can be used by people of all faiths, and their scriptures and teachings are brought in, while its inspiration is clearly Baha'i and some of the content is explicitly so.

The book can be used by parents with their children, in local children's classes, or in community schools. The opening chapters contain a good discussion of the subject and the approach which will be of great help to those using the book and of interest to everyone.

While both books are highly recommended to Baha'is for the areas they deal with, "The Family Virtues Guide" is also the sort of resource which can be shared with parents of all faiths and with schools. The Universal House of Justice has identified moral education as something which the Baha'i community should be addressing for the wider community, and this is an excellent contribution to that outreach.

Dr. Iain Palin