The Baha'i Faith: An Introduction

(Full disclosure, I am not a Bahá'í believer, but will attempt to write a fair review of the book - not the religion.)

The Bahá'í Faith: an Introduction, does exactly what its title promises. It gives a concise introduction to what the faith is about, what Bahá'ís believe, and how the

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organization of the faith works. The book alternates between sections written by the author, and quotations from various holy books of the Bahá'ís, written by the founder of the faith, Bahá'u'lála (whose name is quite difficult to type!) The quotations from the holy texts have a great deal of universal wisdom. Some that all people would believe, most of it things that most religious people would believe, even if they are not Bahá'í. Personally, I find the translation of Bahá'u'lála's writings to be awkward and pretentious. The translation style is rather King James-ish, but that type of language was long since gone by the time these books were written. So I ended up feeling that the translator was more interested in making the text sound "holy" than in communicating the ideas in the books. Just the opinion of one man who is not a fan of archaic language. I am told by a Bahá'í friend that there is only one English translation. The sections written by Gloria Faizi, which probably account for ⅔ of the book, are straightforward and well written.

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