Critical Theory and the Baha'i Faith: A Personal Perspective

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THEORY AND PRACTICE

Part 1:

Critical theory, a type of framework for the analysis of society in the field of sociology, was first defined by Max Horkheimer of the Frankfurt School of sociology in his 1937 essay 'Traditional and Critical Theory'. Critical theory, Horkheimer wrote, is a social theory oriented toward critiquing and changing society as a whole, in contrast to traditional theory oriented only to just understanding or explaining society. Coincidentally, the implementation of the first systematic teaching Plan of the North American Baha’i community was put in place that same year. The Baha’i teachings were also oriented toward critiquing and changing society as a whole, but on an entirely different basis to Max Horkheimer and the Frankfurt School of sociology. I have been associated with the Baha'i Faith now for 60 years: 1953 to 2013, and so this coincidence is, for me, more than of little significance.

Horkheimer wanted to distinguish and establish critical theory as a radical, emancipatory form of Marxian theory. His theory contained a critique of the model of science as an absolutist system of truth and fact. It was also a critique of what he and his colleagues saw as the authoritarianism of orthodox Marxism and Communism. The core concepts of his critical theory were: (1) that it should be directed at the totality of society in its historical specificity, in how it came to be configured at a specific point in time, and (2) that it should improve the understanding of society by integrating all the major social sciences, including geography, economics, sociology, history, political science, anthropology, and psychology.1

Part 2:

The Baha’i teachings as they have been enunciated, written and interpreted within the Baha’i administrative order have evolved from the writings of the Founder of the Baha’i Faith, Baha’u’llah. They, too, are directed at the totality of society and aim at an integration of all the major social sciences. They provide a vital, dynamic theoretical structure with a deep historical consciousness. It is a consciousness that sees truth as relative. This relativistic historical outlook creates an open, tolerant and liberal system of thought. These teachings possess a dialectical worldview with a basis in humanistic and democratic premises, and a view of reality as in a perpetual state of flux and change.2-Ron Price with thanks to 1Wikipedia and 2Nader Saiedi, “Dialogue With Marxism,” Circle of Unity: Baha’i Approaches to Current Social Issues, Kalimat Press, Los Angeles, 1984, pp. 235-256.

I got into sociology and the Baha’i Faith
in a serious way back in ‘63-4 when my
teen-age years were closing…and as the
full institutionalization of a charismatic
Force was finally taking place. My own
world was disturbed by a disorder little(1)
understood by me or by anyone back at
the time. Sociology and this new Faith
are still part of my life 50 years later.

Both critical theory and Baha’i as the
emerging world religion have been
transformed in those years as a great
tempest has blown over the planet---
uprooting its institutions and peoples!!

(1) bipolar disorder

Ron Price
22 August 2010

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After nearly two years, I thought I'd add a few remarks in the form of a prose-poem about critical theory and, in the process, keep this thread alive and well.-Ron
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CRITICAL THEORY

A 'critical theory' of society emerged in June 1844 with the Economical and Philosophical Manuscripts of Karl Marx. Marx had been working on his Manuscripts while the Bab was spending His last months before His monumental but silent declaration(while the city slept) to Mulla Husayn on 23 May 1844. Critical theory lay dormant after 1848 until 1917. The term 'critical theory' was not coined, though, until 1930 by Max Horkheimer. The first systematic philosophy of history or social theory, the precursor to Marx's critical theory, was Hegel. Put another way, "the methodological basis of the critical theory of society" is to be found in "the dialectical logic of George F. Hegel."1 Hegel's first major works in philosophy were composed after Shaykh Ahmad had arrived in Iran to continue his work as a precursor of the Bab. Hegel died in 1831, five years after Shaykh Ahmad's passing.

The entire history of critical theory, one of modern sociology's major theoretical orientations, has, for me, an interesting comparison and contrast, an interesting juxtaposition, with the history of the Babi and Baha'i religions and their precursors. -Ron Price with thanks to 1R. George Kirkpatrick, George N. Katsiaficas, Mary Lou Emery, "Critical Theory and the Limits of Sociological Positivism," Transforming Sociology Series, Red Feather Institute, 1978, pp.1-21.

You got a new lease on life(1)
in the late teens of the 20th
century,say, 1917 to 1921,
when George Lukacs wrote his
History and Class Consciousness,
when the Frankfurt School
was born with its centre
at Columbia by 1934.

We, too, were articulating
our architectural ediface,
our institutional framework
in these years up to the mid-'30s,
not on a Marxian foundation
as it was with you, with your
critique, but on an ediface of
some 75 years of infallible,
authoritative, divine guidance.

1 Critical Theory

Ron Price
18/10/'01 to 14/8/'15.