Since the nineteenth century the bahá'í faith has become a worldwide prophetic religion that claims to have an universal approach to addressing all people regardless their social status, gender, mindset and even religious allegiance. In both cases, the discoveries are in line with the reading of essential Bahai teachings in this article. This paper was written before the discovery of Shoghi Effendi's translation of the 8th Ishraqat, and his presentation of the Bahai Movement at Oxford. The argument in this section is presented in a neoplatonic language common to theologies of the Western monotheistic faiths, in the hope that this approach may be of use for theologians of other Faiths. The second part suggests a metaphysical model that justifies the organic model of society, in which the religious and political order are properly distinct organs with differing logics, and no one organ can control the whole or claim a unique relationship to the divine. It concludes with some elements of a Bahá'í political theology. The first part explains the Bahá'í teachings regarding civil government and its relationship to institutional religion, on the basis of selections from the Bahá'í scriptures. Its thesis is that church and state are distinct in the Kingdom of God, and the Kingdom of God is growing on earth where church and state are distinct, but closely related. In particular it provides a theological underpinning for the separation of church and state. This article seeks to provide a religious rationale for embracing the multi-centred post-modern society, and for rejecting monist social models.
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