ABSTRACT:
If we examine the characteristic features of new religious movements, we find that several of the major religions of the world also showed these features in their early stages. We may conclude that some new religious movements grow to become major religions. In the course of this growth they evolve from an expectation of an immediate dramatic Divine intervention in the world causing both apocalyptic nightmare and millennialist dream to the vision of the betterment of the world through human effort in a gradual process.
In this paper, we will examine the Baha'i Faith in order to uncover in this religion the history of the evolution from the expectation of immediate Divine intervention to the more gradual betterment of the world through human effort. In the early stages of the religion, the religion of the Báb and the early years of Bahá'u'lláh's ministry, it presented the picture of a typical millennialist movement and provoked the same sort of opposition that such movements often arouse. Under `Abdu'l-Bahá and Shoghi Effendi, it gradually moved away from the immediacy and drama of a millennialist movement to a more long-term vision of a gradual evolution towards a more perfect world. Although a certain amount of tension has existed among the Bahá'ís themselves, with a minority dwelling on apocalyptic themes, and convinced of imminent catastrophe, this has been a reducing element in the Bahá'í population as a whole. We can thus see the gradual evolution of the Bahá'í Faith from a millennialist new religious movement to a world religion.
