The basic problem with this work is stated in the author's preface: "Most of this book was originally written as articles for an encyclopædia on the Bahá'í Faith, which has not yet appeared" (xii). One can certainly sympathise with the author that after putting so much work into these articles it seemed a waste for them not to be read, and, let me be clear, there is not one article in this book that does not heartily deserve to be read. Nevertheless, the result is a miscellany rather than a book.

The lack of a central thrust can be seen from the preface itself. First, it is stated that the book "is an exploration of several areas of the sacred in the Bahá'í Faith" (xii). Part One is to discuss religious law; Part Two to deal with sacred space and pilgrimage; and Part Three to discuss sacred time in respect of the Bahá'í calendar and holy days. Walbridge explains that he wishes to go beyond simply detailing the requirements established in the text by taking into consideration what Bahá'ís actually do. He then suggests another major rationale for the work saying it "attempts to put the laws of the Aqdas in a larger context, not only correlating the relevant Bahá'í texts but discussing their roots in Bábí and Islamic law and comparing aspects of Bahá'í religious law to the role of law in other religions" (xiii).

A discussion of law (even religious law) and a discussion of the sacred in religious praxis are not the same thing. Every article in this book does one or the other, and sometimes both, but each is largely self-contained and there is little linking or development of ideas from one topic to the next. Even the arrangement of the chapters and sections seems increasingly arbitrary as the book proceeds, until it winds down with five appendices that give the appearance of left-over ingredients (and again let me emphasise their tastiness) that could not be fitted somewhere into the main courses.

Accepting this book as a collection, then, how successful is it as an "enquire within" resource? I must admit to having picked it up with some trepidation as I did not expect encyclopædia articles to be an entertaining read. However, Walbridge has generally managed to be both informative and interesting. It is a precipitous balancing act to simplify without over-simplifying and this collection maintains an amazingly even keel. Certainly, there are a few places where one might wish to add buts, ifs, and maybes, but these are relatively few and far between.

The most useful sections of the book are those that begin with a capsule presentation of the Bahá'í position on a topic followed by a general discussion of that issue in religion and then a presentation of the Islamic, Bábí, and Bahá'í views in basic detail. One of the most important contributions of these discussions is the way in which they present the basics of the Islamic context with which so many Bahá'ís are unfamiliar and do so with a minimum of technical vocabulary. This type of presentation is used for each topic through chapter four, to some extent in chapter five, and then again for the calendar in chapter eight. The rest of Part Two is simply straightforward brief accounts of holy places and specific texts. The section on Bahá'í cemeteries would seem to have been at least as relevant after the discussion of funerals in the first part of the book as where it is placed.

The third part of the book amounts to a handbook on the Bahá'í calendar, includes a glossary (of somewhat inconsistent format) on the Arabic names of the days, months, etc., and gives an account of the Nineteen Day Feast and the holy days. Most of the details presented here are not well known among (or widely used by) average Bahá'ís. In the introduction to this part of the book, Walbridge states "the Bahá'í Faith has a keen sense of the sacredness of historical time" (173). However, there is no mention in his discussion of Bahá'í "sacred time" of the historical periodicity most widely known among Bahá'ís: Shoghi Effendi's use of the concept of "age" or "epoch" as in "the Heroic Age" or "the Formative Age."

The first appendix is somewhat misleadingly titled as "Two Bahá'í Legal Texts" which could easily lead a reader to suppose that the actual texts of the Kitáb-i-Aqdas and Lawh-i-Tarazat are to be found there rather than just a brief discussion of them. There is also an editorial oversight in that chunks of this appendix are repeated almost verbatim in the notes to it.

Walbridge notes in the preface that the lack of scholarship on which to draw limits his ability to treat Bahá'í practice empirically as well as normatively. He says that he has had to rely mostly on his own observations "which are largely limited to American, Arab and Iranian Bahá'ís" (xiii). However, the combination of his observations and his textual research have provided him with a firmer grasp of the history and practice of the Eastern community. This leads to a certain bias and privileging of Eastern experience and practice in some instances.

To give examples: The discussion of the implementation of Huqúqu'lláh (81; 96-98) focuses on the Eastern community. There is no doubt that the institution has been more developed there, but it is not accurate to see it as not involving the West until recent years. There is a tablet to Roy Wilhelm in 1919 instructing him to send "Hukook" to the usual bank. ⁽¹⁾ So that however many (or few) were contributing, and for however long they did, huquq was being offered from the West during the time of 'Abdu'l-Bahá. We might note that this tablet was translated by Shoghi Effendi so he knew this to be the case. One of the first things Shoghi Effendi did as Guardian was to establish national funds, and when the subject of huquq was brought up by Americans subsequently he told them to contribute to the Temple Fund as this was a more urgent matter at that time. ⁽²⁾

While Persian Bahá'ís may use the term mashriqu'l-adhkár to refer to dawn prayers and Walbridge echoes that usage (30, 52), it is not the case that this is what the term "means" nor that the principle focus of the institution is on that practice. One might note that of the tablets addressed to America that refer to specific meetings as constituting in one way or another mashriqu'l-adhkár, none refer to dawn prayers, all refer to meetings that were being held later in the day. ⁽³⁾

In his discussion of translations of the Aqdas (250-1, 295), Walbridge mentions the Haddad translation into English. There was also at least a partial further translation into English (by Fareed?) as early Chicago believers quote Aqdas passages that are not the Haddad text. There is also the Mazandarani/Gail English translation which although not widely known is still of significance. And there was a French translation by Dreyfus which was available in the US as well as Europe. Both these latter unpublished translations included Questions and Answers.

As this book has been issued as the first in a new series "Bahá'í Studies," something needs to be said about the course it seems to set. Unlike the established Kalimát Press series colloquially known as "Bahá'í Studies" (properly "Studies in the Bábí and Bahá'í Religions"), this book does not lead one to suppose that the George Ronald series will address a scholarly audience. The level of this book seems to be aimed at the reasonably educated general reader or the undergraduate student. The publishers back cover blurb seems to suggest that this is indeed the audience targeted by the series. It is to be hoped, though, that subsequent books will be able to maintain the quality of content of this one but add a coherent structure. It would also be pleasant if they did not evince the annoyingly inconsistent use of different type styles for heads and subheads seen here.

All in all, then, Sacred Acts, Sacred Space, Sacred Time is a series of fragments fractured from a larger reference work; each worth rescuing and reading, but pick and choose as needed rather than expecting a cover to cover read.

Richard Thomas traces the quality of black-white relations from the ancient Mediterranean world to contemporary America. He shows how perspectives on race have shaped societies. Thomas paints a complex picture of the evolving application of the Bahá'í teachings on racial unity in the American Bahá'í community. He closes his book by opening vistas of interracial harmony with the help of a transformational model that needs to affect as many people as possible.

In the first part of his book, Thomas describes the rather harmonious interaction between Egyptians and African Kushites and among the Greeks, Romans, and African peoples such as the Ethiopians. The Africans were appreciated as traders and warriors. Classical writers portray, for example, the Ethiopians as pious and just people. In early Christian communities, the inclusion of black believers served as proof for the all-embracing mission of the new religion, and only later was Christ's image transformed into that of an increasingly white-skinned Messiah. The depiction of colonialism is convincing in that Thomas shows that conquests and colonisation efforts went hand in hand with enslaving the African peoples in order to strengthen the economies of European empires. When slavery proved to be profitable in the New World, racist ideologies emerged which attempted to conceal the conflicts with Christian and Enlightenment ideas. The discussion of Thomas Jefferson--who described black people as mentally inferior to whites while he granted Native Americans a slightly higher status--sheds light on the complexity of the issue.

In "Barriers to Racial Unity and Multiracial Progress," Thomas continues to use his effective approach of dealing with history on a global scale when he discusses both American history and European colonialism in Africa. The idea of manifest destiny ascribed the right of discovery to European-Americans, thus sanctioning the taking of land from native peoples whose concept of land ownership did not include private claims. Additionally, slavery fostered the view that slaves were better suited for hard labour than their masters. Between 1815 and 1855, ideas about liberty and the progress of human beings (derived from the Enlightenment and the American Revolution) were replaced by the concept of white supremacy which resulted in the removal of Indians from their native lands and in the perpetuation of slavery. Black men were seen either as sex-hungry savages or as affectionate imbeciles who were grateful for being held as slaves. This image of subhuman slaves served the purpose of avoiding moral issues in favour of preserving the economic status quo. Both religion and science cooperated in this ideological effort. People closed their eyes to the paradox of scientific "proof" for the existence of distinct races and of the Christian belief that humankind derived from Adam and Eve.

In twentieth-century America, racial segregation in the South went even so far as to force people of different races to use particular telephone booths. When World War I created a need for labourers in the northern states, the migration of vast numbers of black people led to race riots and to the ghettoisation of black workers. Between the late 1940s and mid-1960s, several Supreme Court and other court rulings gradually led to crucial changes. For instance, the 1954 Supreme Court Decision Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka signalled the end of segregated public schools. Nonetheless, the bussing of children in order to enforce that ruling still caused much conflict in the 1970s. In the 1960s, Martin Luther King Jr, was a champion of the civil rights movement that promoted non-violent change; other groups demanded more radical measures. Thomas concludes that the last ten years have been characterised by a diversification of race issues, as Middle Eastern and Asian immigrant groups have been added to the factions that compete for equality. It has become clear that this problem affects the whole of society.

Readers dissatisfied with books that focus on the horrible reality of racism rather than on movements against racist attitudes will appreciate Part III of this book. Here, Thomas describes non-racist trends in America and introduces Bahá'í teachings on the issue. Already in the seventeenth century, the majority of the Quakers openly opposed slavery and racism, and several Quakers were involved in the Underground Railroad two centuries later. During the Civil War, black and white soldiers fought together for the North, and the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 emphasised the determination of the North to end slavery. In the early twentieth century, biracial organisations such as the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP) and the National Urban League (NUC) worked for the abolition of racism. The First Universal Races Congress of 1911 (held in London) was attended by NAACP leader W. E. B. DuBois who already then connected the struggle against racism with efforts towards achieving world peace. 'Abdu'l-Bahá sent a message to that conference and encouraged the participants to let their efforts be shown in deeds rather than only through words.

'Abdu'l-Bahá also spoke at the African-American Howard University during his visit to the United States in 1912 and encouraged the interaction between black and white people outside and inside the Bahá'í community. He encouraged interracial marriage, and as a result of his vision, the American Bahá'í community hosted its first racial amity conference in Washington DC in 1921. 'Abdu'l-Bahá demanded that segregation and any form of prejudice be abolished in the community, and an increasing number of believers took the risks involved in living their beliefs without heeding their society's mores. Shoghi Effendi continued to encourage the American community in its efforts. In 1939, the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Canada and the United States appointed a Race Unity Committee; among its five members were Louis Gregory, a leading African-American Bahá'í, and Dorothy Beecher Baker, the great-granddaughter of Harriet Beecher Stowe, the author of Uncle Tom's Cabin. The committee stressed the role of education and culture, thereby giving parents recommendations for educating their children in the spirit of racial equality and encouraging all to acquaint themselves with African-American culture. At a racial amity meeting in New York in 1924, James Weldon Johnson, a writer, addressed the Bahá'ís and their guests and also appealed to cross-cultural understanding. In 1940, the National Spiritual Assembly held a meeting in Atlanta, Georgia, in order to admonish the community with regard to following the Bahá'í teaching concerning racial unity. Thomas refers to this event as "a watershed in American Bahá'í history" (143). He describes numerous instances of the community's increasing activities promoting racial unity which included working with a growing number of immigrant groups as well as involvement in assisting Native American peoples. Since 1957, the American Bahá'í community has celebrated Race Amity Day on the second Sunday of June. During the turbulent 1960s, the Bahá'ís publicly supported the non-violent civil rights movement by, for example, sending telegrams to President Lyndon B. Johnson and to the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and by participating in the 1965 march on Montgomery, Alabama. Similar activities have continued to this day, and Thomas concludes his book by offering the American Bahá'í community as a model of study in the same way that the Universal House of Justice encouraged the world to scrutinise the Bahá'í teachings, its community and administration as offering solutions to a struggling humanity.

Thomas unabashedly portrays racist problems in American Bahá'í history. This approach makes the book all the more suitable for readers who expect a balanced discussion of religious beliefs and community practice. Repeated references to teaching plans and efforts may, however, strike non-Bahá'í readers as bothersome, because those details veer attention away from racism as a global phenomenon towards the expansion of the Bahá'í community. Similarly, the discussion of the relationship between the Bahá'í community and Native Americans could be misunderstood. References to the growing number of Native American believers might give the impression that conversion in the Bahá'í community takes precedence over other concerns.

In the epilogue, Thomas describes "a transformational agenda for racial unity and social progress" which is based on changing each individual's "perceptions and values about people and communities." Although the path towards racial harmony is a stormy one, Thomas describes the tools of healing that are available today: the concept of the unity of humankind, a history of cooperation among diverse people, and interracial friendship. Thomas's book does not only show how racist concepts have been twisted and manipulated by economic and other forces, but he also makes clear that trends towards unity and harmony have long existed. He argues that the Bahá'í community needs unflinchingly to pursue the goal of living up to its teachings so that--with the cooperation of like-minded people--Bahá'u'lláh's vision may be realised before long.

Paradigm analysis is an integrative approach to the study of religions as systems. ⁽⁴⁾ It has heuristic value (explanatory power) in disclosing the concatenating or interconnected "logics" of belief (i.e., faith, doctrine, ethos) and praxis (i.e., ritual, piety, and ethics). Precisely because it takes this approach, Udo Schaefer's Beyond the Clash of Religions: The Emergence of a New Paradigm is an important contribution to Bahá'í studies. In focusing on Dr. Schaefer's paradigm analysis of the Bahá'í Faith, this review will complement an earlier review that recently appeared in The Journal of Bahá'í Studies. ⁽⁵⁾

Two independent essays make up this slender, but rich, volume. The first essay, "Time of the End or a New Era?" (15-49) addresses various types of "apocalyptic" social anxieties, in which the planet is seen as engulfed in crisis, tottering on the verge of extinction. Beyond its paralysing effects, the significance of this pandemic dread (what one might regard as a "no future syndrome") is that it constitutes "a crisis of Western thought" (24). The cynicism of imminent catastrophe, seen as an irreversible prospect of world-historical proportions, is held in equipoise by the countervailing optimism of the so-called "New Age" movement, which may be analysed as a collective set of responses to modernity and postmodernity. Thus, Schaefer brings together the prophets of doom and gloom with the utopian wish-images of various New Age movements.

Schaefer is rather nonspecific in speaking of these movements. They are described under the rubrics of "Western esotericism, Eastern mysticism, and modern psychotherapy" as well as "astrology, hypnosis, Zen-Buddhism, reincarnation therapy, magic and occult practices, native American mythology and shamanism" (36). The reader is simply provided with footnote references to monographs, in German, on these topics. While not anchored in hard data, Schaefer's generalisations will probably withstand those exceptions that "prove the rule," so to speak--namely, that New Age movements represent a virtual "escape from a purely secular image of the world" (37).

The author's analysis of the development of Western thought is instructive, providing the necessary context within which the New Age movements can be seen. According to Schaefer, the current "global crisis" is a consequence of a process of secularisation that began in the Enlightenment, which resulted in a "Copernican transformation" of Western thought in 17th-century Europe (26). A mechanistic world view remained "the dominant paradigm" in the natural sciences well into the 20th-century. In a word, what most characterised the Enlightenment was "the belief in the rational transparency of the world" resulting in its "demystification" (27). A totalising faith in reason and progress functioned as "a new, secular form of religiosity" in which "ideology and utopian ideals" have disenchanted traditional religious truth-claims based on notions of "revelation" (30) or disclosures of metaphysical reality through the agency of God-inspired prophets. Faith in enlightened reason has altogether eroded any sense of social "orientation" (31, citing Michel Foucault) and has brought about "the exhaustion of utopian energies" (31, citing Jurgen Habermas). Thus, Western society has "entirely banished the metaphysical" (33) and is now paying the price for it. The utter relativisation of values has accommodated pluralism, but in such as way as to deprive traditional morality of its normative, shaping force in society.

Against this backdrop, Schaefer categorically states: "The New Age paradigm is founded on a holistic view of the world. Man is seen in a pantheistic, monistic way as part of the Divine" (37). It is as if the New Age movement has answered the secularisation of society with a kind of divinisation of the human. In this essentially anthropocentric world view, the configuration of the Divine is ultimately solipsistic. The consequence of such "subjectivisation of truth" is that social standards are no longer viable or possible. Indeed, while Schaefer asserts that the stability of society is bound up with "a generally accepted value system," he is quick to point out that universal standards of morals and human values are largely lacking in modern and postmodern society. In this spiritual vacuum, New Age movements fail to provide any consensus on whatever direction society ought to take. New Age spirituality is so polymoral that it is functionally amoral.

In the final pages of this essay, Schaefer introduces the Bahá'í Faith as offering a "new paradigm" (42) anchored in revelation, in which the will of God for the world today is apprehended and affirmed by faith, and a universal value system is offered. In contrast to "the old ecclesiastical paradigm" of Christian salvation, "the new paradigm depicts a divine economy of salvation" (46), according to Schaefer. The nature of this "economy" is paradigmatically different from traditional Christianity.

The nature of this new paradigm is developed in the second essay, "On the Diversity and Unity of Religions" (51-150). This essay begins with a "Prefatory Note on the Concept of Paradigm," in which the author assimilates Thomas Kuhn's definition of "paradigm" as "the entire constellation of beliefs, values, techniques, and so on shared by a member [sic; read "the members"] of a given community" (Kuhn, apud Schaefer, 55; cf. 26, n. 41). Schaefer then speaks of the "unity paradigm" central to Bahá'í belief and praxis. The rest of the essay unpacks this core concept.

On the basis of Bahá'í texts, the author ventures to say that religious ideologies and practices are constellated around their respective core concerns. These function as organising principles, to which all other ideas and actions are subordinated. Thus, Christianity may broadly be characterised as the "religion of love," Judaism as "religion of justice," Islam as the "religion of absolute submission," Buddhism as the "religion of detachment" and Zoroastrianism as the "religion of purity." The Bahá'í Faith is roundly described as the "religion of unity" (56). Then, at some length, Schaefer expatiates on the Bahá'í notion of "Progressive Revelation" and highlights its universalising and integrative features, in which all past historic religions are seen as epochal incursions of the divine, prophetic "voice" in human history.

Certain resonances with Bahá'í universalism are noted, such as the pronouncements of Vatican II (86) and the theology of Hans Küng (90-91) as well as other advocates of interfaith dialogue, notably Willard G. Oxtoby (see esp. 97), John Hick, and others. The contributions of scholars in the academic study of religion are also acknowledged (94-106). Although respectful and admiring of the contributions of scholarship, Schaefer underscores the epistemological limits of disciplined empirical inquiry, in which judgements on the nature of truth are necessarily bracketed. While the study of religion can and does promote "respect and understanding" among religions and better prepares them for dialogue (103) and for common cause, scholarship is not privy to the noetic sphere of the numinous (99), nor can it "deliver incontrovertible proof of the unity of religions" (104). In a word: "Academics are not in a position to fathom the plans and intentions of God" (106).

The concluding part of the book begins at section IX, "The New Paradigm: Progressive Revelation" (106-150). Interestingly, Schaefer speaks of the vertical and horizontal dimensions of religion. The former is "constant," while the latter is "variable" (138). That is to say, the heart of religion--in its "vertical" relationship to the Holy--is essentially mystical and unchanging, while the "horizontal" dimension is socially referenced and thus in a state of flux, conditioned by historical exigencies. The Bahá'í Faith is referenced to modernity. It represents a veritable "paradigm-shift" in religious history, in which all religions are viewed federally as integral to history. The Bahá'í Faith thus offers a unique, teleological theory of civilization that "makes sense" of history by defining the past in terms of the present. There is a certain acquisitive nature to revelation in that it is a "progressive" unfoldment of spiritual verities in direct proportion to humanity's capacity for cognisance of spiritual reality.

Does Schaefer's paradigm analysis succeed? In the second essay, tensions between Bahá'í universalism (egalitarian teachings) and particularism (specific truth-claims) are not acknowledged and thus remain unresolved. More significantly, the nature of the paradigm-shift from Islam to the Bahá'í Faith is not explored in either of the two essays. To do so would require a clear definition of "Islamicity." While fundamental and pervasive, the ideal of "submission" or surrender of self-will to the will of God may be too facile or truncated to be a fair characterisation of the Islamic paradigm. However, Schaefer does attempt to articulate systematically the Bahá'í paradigm by means of thirteen short discourses on the Bahá'í doctrine of Progressive Revelation (118-150). A systematic theology of the Bahá'í Faith remains to be written.

Schaefer's style is vigorous, and, at times, rushed. Beyond the Clash of Religions offers a rich admixture of Bahá'í teachings--in their "pure" (i.e., scriptural) form--and Schaefer's own penetrating analyses of postmodern predicaments. But the latter sometimes verges on judgmentalism, as in the pejorative classification of "modern psychotherapy" as part of the New Age "scene" (37). Readers with a knowledge of Buddhism will perhaps challenge the way in which Schaefer presses Buddhist teachings into a Bahá'í mould. Such uncritical harmonising might raise suspicions about doctrinal imperialism. Moreover, in so doing, Wilfred Cantwell Smith's canon of believer-intelligibility is ignored, to the detriment of true dialogue. But these kinds of problems typically plague any theology of pluralism. Notwithstanding, Schaefer is certainly one of the most "engaged" writers in the contemporary Bahá'í world. He commands respect, even when he invites objection. Schaefer is a mine of information and a quarry of insights. He makes judicious use of etymologies.

Editorially, the book suffers from a number of misspellings and faulty transliteration. For instance, the second paragraph of the Preface begins: "The fist [sic, for "first"] essay...". The opening quote of the second essay is identified as "Maleachi" (sic; read "Malachi"), and so forth. As to transliteration, the reader with a background in Bahá'í source languages will react to "maháhib" [sic, p. 78, n. 133; read "madháhib"], and "Ittaád" [sic, p. 132, n. 447; read "ittiád"], as well as a number of missing macrons. Positively, the use of macrons (flat accents) instead of acute accents is welcome, as it disencumbers the book from one of the idiosyncrasies of Bahá'í publishing.

Beyond the Clash of Religions: The Emergence of a New Paradigm contributes to an emergent, extracanonical Bahá'í ethos. It is an intellectually respectable articulation of a distinctively Bahá'í world view. This book is recommended as an introduction to the Bahá'í religion for educated or intellectually-inclined audiences. More significantly, Udo Schaefer has effectively adapted Kuhn's concept of "paradigm" and "paradigm-shift" from the history of science to the history of religion. There is every probability that Udo Schaefer's approach will gain wide currency throughout the Bahá'í world.

Robert Weinberg's biography of Ethel Rosenberg, one of the first Bahá'ís in the United Kingdom and a key figure in the spread of the Bahá'í Faith in the West, is a timely addition to the literature on Bahá'í history. Born into a family of artists from Bath, Rosenberg became a painter of miniatures and portraits. Her work and social connections situated her in a network of society women that included Mrs. Mary Virginia Thornburgh-Cropper, from whom she learned of the Bahá'í Faith. Accepting the Faith in 1899, she was actively engaged in its promotion until her death in 1930. During this time she wrote and edited various publications; organised Bahá'í meetings; visited 'Abdu'l-Bahá in 'Akká on three different occasions, and helped to coordinate his visits to London; acted as a secretary for Shoghi Effendi and assisted him with translations; and served on the earliest Bahá'í administrative institutions in the UK.

The biography is well-researched and is a significant contribution to the literature on the early history of the Bahá'í Faith in the West, in general, and on the development of the Bahá'í community in the UK in particular. Weinberg has used previously untapped archival sources, such as the diaries of Ethel Rosenberg herself and the minutes of meetings of the National Spiritual Assembly of the UK, not only to document the life of Rosenberg but to illuminate various events of early twentieth-century Bahá'í history with which she was associated. For example, the book includes a wealth of new information about the beginnings of the Bahá'í Faith in the UK and France, about events in Haifa following the death of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, about the early ministry of Shoghi Effendi, and about the development of Bahá'í administration in the UK in the 1920's.

Ethel Rosenberg provides the geographic and chronological focus for the book, but, in fact, from it we learn considerably more about her "times" than about her. Perhaps this is because of Weinberg's stated inability to penetrate Rosenberg's inner life. As he explains, he has "left the reader to draw his or her own conclusions about Ethel Rosenberg's private character and spiritual station..." (Preface). The obstacles to documenting the lives of women from this era are well-known to writers of women's history: whether there are voluminous records, or, as is more often the case, a dearth of primary sources, it can be difficult to extract a meaningful portrait of a private life deliberately veiled from public view. For example, in the course of my own research on Phoebe Hearst, a contemporary and acquaintance of Rosenberg, whose life is quite well-documented, I discovered how difficult it can be to reconstruct the thoughts, feelings, and beliefs of a woman who was determined to conceal these matters from a curious public. Still, one wishes that Weinberg had used what he did know to piece together a more complete picture of the public personality of Ethel Rosenberg. He might also have explained in greater detail how that personality shaped the history of the Bahá'í Faith in the UK.

Weinberg's intended audience is clearly the Bahá'í community. Therefore, he adheres to certain conventions often followed in works by Bahá'í historians, practices which function primarily to inspire rather than to inform the reader. One convention used in the kind of "inspirational history" I am describing is the inclusion of those anecdotes and accounts that, by virtue of their continued repetition, have become a part of a sacred history within the Bahá'í community--a history that not only conveys information about past events but invests them with special meaning. Weinberg follows this custom by incorporating in this biography a brief history of the Bábí-Bahá'í Movement that includes E. G. Browne's descriptions of Bahá'u'lláh and 'Abdu'l- Bahá, and an account of the Bahá'í Faith's mention at the Columbian Exposition in 1893, neither of which has much bearing on the subject at hand. He also discusses the first Western Bahá'í pilgrimage, which took place before Rosenberg became a Bahá'í, and the conversion and death of Thomas Breakwell, whom Rosenberg never met. These narratives are not necessary to the biography, but they do frame the work, connecting it to sacred stories and thus representing it as a part of sacred history. The tendency to digress in this way, however, detracts from what is otherwise a very readable account.

Weinberg is to be commended for his attempts to avoid writing hagiography or history "as it should have been," a temptation to which other writers in this genre have often succumbed. He forthrightly discusses controversies and personality disputes within the British Bahá'í community, for example. However, he sometimes makes assertions that do not seem to be based on evidence, but rather on his own impressions of how the people involved must have or should have felt. For example, how could he know that Mrs. Thornburgh-Cropper was "elevated by her profound religious experience in Akka..." (39); that Rosenberg's and Thornburgh-Cropper's "hopes and spirits were high, with the love of the Master in their hearts..." (40); that "the Covenant-breakers were ecstatic with the response of the Ottoman Regime..." (102); or that Rosenberg returned from the Holy Land "refreshed and renewed" (107)? At any rate, no evidence is cited in support of these and similar assertions.

In addition, the credibility of Weinberg's account of the life and times of Ethel Rosenberg would be greatly enhanced by a more critical use of earlier works written by Bahá'í historians. Weinberg perpetuates a number of minor inaccuracies introduced in other Bahá'í publications, such as that Julia Pearson was a niece of Phoebe Hearst (36). ⁽⁶⁾ Moreover, he echoes statements, drawn from secondary sources, that have not been adequately documented: for example, that Ahmad Sohrab was lobbying for the election of the Universal House of Justice on the death of 'Abdu'l-Bahá and secretly wanted to be a member of that body (207). ⁽⁷⁾ He also quotes from two letters attributed to Phoebe Hearst that she said were not written by her (38). ⁽⁸⁾ These are minor points that are not central to the narrative, but they call into question the reliability of the author's treatment of more significant issues.

There is nothing wrong with using secondary sources, of course, and repeating assertions of questionable accuracy from them is inevitable in the course of writing history. However, earlier works could be used more judiciously, rather than with the assumption that they are accurate. And his sources should be cited more meticulously so that the reader can determine the basis for an account; there are many places where footnotes should have been added for this purpose. Finally, the distinction between primary and secondary sources, and the gradations of reliability within these categories, ought to be reflected in the text itself. It is axiomatic in modern historiography that there can be no way to be absolutely certain about what happened in the past: historical documentation can only provide evidence for varying degrees of probability that something occurred in a certain way. This being the case, contemporary historians are in the practice of using nuanced statements to alert the reader to the reliability of the sources being used and to the fact that another construction of the events could well be more accurate. Such a method would be salutary here.

In conclusion, it may well be that Bahá'í history would be better served by more rigorous standards of evidence and more carefully nuanced expositions than are represented by the conventions of "inspirational history." Weinberg's biography shares some of the limitations of this genre of writing, but is distinguished by its solid research and honest reporting. For this reason, it is one of the better works on Bahá'í history produced for the community in recent years, and is essential reading for anyone interested in the history of the Bahá'í Faith in the West.