The Summons of the Lord of Hosts

Bahá'u'lláhProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.8

Word count: 356K words
Chapters: 36

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.The Summons of the Lord of Hosts by Bahá'u'lláhAuthor: Bahá'u'lláh, 1817-1892,Language: English, Class: BP: Philosophy, Psychology, Religion: Islam, Bahaism, Theosophy, Other and new beliefs, Release Date: Oct 28, 2005

Editor's review

The Summons of the Lord of Hosts gathers letters from Bahá'u'lláh addressed to several monarchs and rulers of his time, a body of documents of great historical weight in the Bahá'í faith. Written after Bahá'u'lláh's public declaration of his mission, these letters speak directly to secular power, urging rulers to uphold justice, ease oppression, limit armaments, and move toward peace. Unlike ordinary religious exhortation, these texts place religious mission and political responsibility in a single frame, asserting religious authority while discussing the ethics of governance. Readers can see the reflection of nineteenth-century Middle Eastern and European politics, and also a vision of peace grounded in the oneness of humanity. As a Project Gutenberg public-domain ebook, this edition is the English original and is suitable as primary material for studying Bahá'í political and social thought. It should be read in light of the international situation and the Ottoman context of the time, to understand why the letters addressed monarchs and why they so often met with a cold reception. It is not suited to be read as purely devotional material, but is better studied closely under the question of the relation between religion and politics.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Scholars and students studying the relation between religion and politics and thought on peace
Readers interested in the political history of the nineteenth-century Middle East and Europe
Research readers who need the original Bahá'í scriptures
Those interested in the ethics of governance in religious texts

Not a good fit for

Readers seeking short personal devotional pieces or prayer collections
Casual readers hoping for fictional narrative or light history
Beginners unable to read English and without a parallel translation

Reading tips

First learn about Bahá'u'lláh's life and the nineteenth-century Middle Eastern political background, then read the letters to monarchs one by one.
Read in groups by addressee and compare the different emphases in the exhortations to different rulers.
Mark specific claims about justice, armaments, and peace as you read, for later discussion.
Read alongside texts from other religious traditions that exhort rulers, observing similarities and differences in expression and argument.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

To whom are these letters addressed?

According to the title and general knowledge of Bahá'í literature, this book gathers letters from Bahá'u'lláh to several monarchs and rulers of his time. The specific addressees and contents should be checked against the book's original table of contents. Readers should note the background of each letter and the situation of its recipient in order to understand the specific thrust of its exhortation, and should not read different letters as a single encyclical.

Is this book suitable as an introduction to the Bahá'í faith?

Not very. The book focuses on political exhortation and historical circumstance, involves a great deal of nineteenth-century political background, and lacks a step-by-step introduction to basic Bahá'í teachings. Introductory readers should first read general introductions or basic doctrinal works before taking up this book; otherwise they may see only historical documents and fail to grasp the thread of thought.

Why are the letters addressed to monarchs?

When the letters were written, monarchs and rulers held actual power, and wars and oppression were largely launched or tolerated by them. Bahá'u'lláh spoke to power in the name of religious mission, urging justice, limits on armaments, and peace. Understanding this requires attention to the international order and the Ottoman situation of the time, and abstract interpretation detached from historical context should be avoided.

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About the author

Bahá'u'lláh Author · Persian · 1817–1892

Bahá'u'lláh (1817–1892), originally named Mírzá Ḥusayn-ʻAlí, was born in Tehran, Persia, and is the founder of the Bahá'í Faith. His life was marked by imprisonment and exile spanning roughly forty years; in his later years he was confined in Acre, where he produced a large body of religious scripture under difficult circumstances. Twelve of his works are held in this collection, including The Kitáb-i-Íqán, The Kitáb-i-Aqdas, The Seven Valleys and the Four Valleys, Prayers and Meditations, Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá'u'lláh, The Proclamation of Bahá'u'lláh, Epistle to the Son of the Wolf, and Tablets of Bahá'u'lláh Revealed after the Kitáb-i-Aqdas. Written mainly in Persian and Arabic, these works range across doctrinal exposition, spiritual reflection, prayers, letters, and admonitions, with the oneness of humanity and the common origin of religions at their core. They form the scriptural foundation of the Bahá'í Faith, have been translated into many languages, and continue to influence modern religious thought and intercultural dialogue.