Chapter 2
II. Literature review
This chapter addresses in brief the third area discussed above — the
scholarly context. Yet, a literature review of apocalyptic studies in other
fields will not be included here, but it may suffice to say that the field of
apocalypticism has recently been revisited. The International Colloquium on
Apocalypticism,[33] held in Uppsala 1979,
testifies to this, as do the reprinting of old titles and the publishing of new
themes of revelation.[34] It is perhaps
no surprise that scholars of the Bahá'í-religion was absent at
the International Colloquium on Apocalypticism. There are least three reasons
for this. First, the Bahá'í-religion, despite its geographical
spread,[35] is still relatively unknown,
both among the general population and in the academic world. Secondly, although
there have been quite a few scholarly studies in various areas of the
Bahá'í-religion, there have been very few scholarly studies
pertaining to the study of Bahá'í-apocalypticism. Third, since
the Bahá'í-religion is fairly unrecognized in the academic
sphere, most scholarly research is being conducted and published by the
Bahá'ís themselves, even though there are, and has been, a few
notable exceptions.[36]
The following studies, however, have all been conducted by
Bahá'ís, and in general, they represent some disparate dimensions
of Bahá'í-apocalypticism. One such study is the monumental study
of Adib Taherzadeh's (1974-87) The Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh
(vol.'s 1-4) which primarily focuses on the textual level, or the content of
revelation and its historical development, i.e., what did
Bahá'u'lláh write where and when? This type of research could be
classified as an historical content-analysis, although it is more descriptive
than analytical. Taherzadeh also includes some interesting passages of an
eye-witness who has recorded the process of the actual writing down of
revelation, and references to how the writings of Bahá'u'lláh
have been classified into specific genres.[37] Taherzadeh has furthermore
translated
some original writings from Persian and Arabic to English.
The only academic pursuits to the study of Bahá'í-apocalypticism
are Hugh Adamson's (1974) The Concept of Revelation in Islam and
Bahá'í, and Nicola Towfigh's (1989) Schöpfung und
Offenbarung aus der Sicht der Bahá'í-Religion. The former is a M.
A. thesis which is a general survey of the Muslim- and
Bahá'í-concepts of revelation. However, the concept of
progressive revelation is only dealt with in a cursory fashion. This approach
to the study of Bahá'í-apocalypticism could be described as
comparative. The latter study is a Ph.D. dissertation and is to date the most
scholarly and comprehensive research in the field of
Bahá'í-apocalypticism. It not only gives a preliminary
introduction to the relationship between God, creation (schöpfung) and
revelation (offenbarung), but it further discusses these
Bahá'í-concepts from the background of Islámic theology
and philosophy. Moreover, Towfigh's dissertation also contains some relevant
original (Arabic/Persian) texts by the Báb, Bahá'u'lláh,
and 'Abdu'l-Bahá, which have been translated into German by the author.
This type of study could be classified as mainly a philological and conceptual
approach to Bahá'í-apocalypticism. However, the concept of
progressive revelation has in this study been treated tentatively and is
therefore far from exhausted.
Finally, one important study, and which is significant for this thesis, is S.
Fazel and K. Fananapazir's (1993) A Bahá'í Approach to the Claim
of Finality in Islam. This paper centers on the issues of finality and the
"Seal of Prophets" that will be discussed at the end of this thesis. However,
Fazel and Fananapazir's paper may be classified primarily as an apologetic
approach to Bahá'í-apocalypticism.
Consequently, the above approaches to Bahá'í-apocalypticism
classify as either textual, historical, comparative, philological, conceptual,
or apologetic, and none of them have systematically studied the various
structural levels of Bahá'í-apocalypticism or focused
specifically on the concept of progressive revelation. Thus, the present study
is the first attempt to address and fulfill this need.
