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Archival Collection of Talks on Various Bahá'í Subjects

Evolving Understanding of the Baha’i Teachings

1985

Robert Stockman’s talk is “The Bahá’í Faith: Evolving Understandings of its Basic Teachings.” Compared to Christianity and Islam, which are each based on a single book, the Bahá’í Faith has over 60,000 documents of sacred scripture. Stockman details four phases Bahá’ís have gone through in understanding their religion. Stockman’s emphasis is primarily upon the understanding of the North American Bahá’ís. Dr. Stockman talks about Ibrahim Kheiralla, America’s first Bahá’í teacher, and gives a summary of Kheiralla’s fifteen basic teachings, many of which were contrived by him and were contrary to Bahá’í doctrine as it was later clarified by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. In closing he emphasizes the importance of the unfoldment of the World Order of Bahá’u’lláh to our understanding of Bahá’í Revelation.