between Thought and Emotion

Guiding this project has been two central convictions, or hypotheses if you will. One is that Baha'i theology and spirituality are totally inseparable from each other, a claim that should in no way be limited to the Baha'i faith. In fact it is a bizarre modern prejudice that these two things CAN be separated. Secondly, I am of the conviction that this prayer is inseparable from Baha'u'llah's social agenda. Namely, that manifestation of God's dominion on Earth takes place through the practice of his social and spiritual teachings. The Long Obligatory Prayer plays an important part in this by being the spiritual incubator if you will of these agents of social action. I am yet to write this second part. It will be long and will probably address Baha'u'llah's fundamental understanding of what it means to be a Baha'i. Anyhoo, this next paragraph is part of the rough draft.


For one, I have been guided by a conviction that the spirituality of Baha'u'llah's prayers is inseparable from His teachings on the structure of the cosmos. Many might skim through His denunciations of pantheism, or His intricate explanations of the Manifestation of God and doubt the usefulness of such abstract intellectual endeavours. But rather than provoking dry academic discourse such ideas provide key structural components to His rich spirituality. For example, large portions of the Long Obligatory Prayer come most alive for the performer when considering God's transcendence beyond human conceptions about Him. So for Baha'u'llah, the prayer life of individuals, social order, and the structure of the cosmos are all interconnected in one unified account of the relationship between Creator and creation. This is in contrast to the modernist tendency to compartmentalize knowledge into distinct "fields" isolated from each other by methodology, world-view, and vocabulary. In this way, Baha'u'llah's spirituality is a movement of thought. Feeling and emotion are central components as well, but their integration into the prayer as a whole depends in many ways on how well they are informed by the theological issues to be addressed in this essay. Hence, my methodology for this project is to examine the ways in which thought and emotion express rather than exclude each other in the performance of the Long Obligatory prayer. This work is personal inasmuch as it is based on my experience performing the prayer. But it is also professional, inasmuch as it draws on long traditions of scholarly writing. As a writer this presents a challenge. Modern school systems train students to express themselves either personally or professionally, but rarely both at the same time, or both as inseparable from the other. In a way, this essay represents an attempt to produce writing that is both "devotional" and "scholarly," while at the same time eschewing both genres. The hope is that this methodology is best attuned to draw forth the power with which this prayer is invested.