On the End of the 20th Century: Who Is Writing the Future?

Hope's new blog The Formative Age brought to my attention that the upcoming 30th Annual Conference of the Association for Bahá’í Studies–North America will focus on "the examination of four documents that address the evolution of spiritual civilization and the true nature of human reality: The Secret of Divine Civilization, Who Is Writing the Future?, Century of Light, and One Common Faith." Sanisha of Log @ this...look at this plans to read Who Is Writing the Future? during her current trip to China. Here is an excerpt from that document, prepared by the Office of Public Information of the International Baha'i Community and released in 1999.

There is nothing in Bahá'u'lláh's writings to encourage the illusion that the changes envisioned will come about easily. Far otherwise. As the events of the twentieth century have already demonstrated, patterns of habit and attitude which have taken root over thousands of years are not abandoned either spontaneously or in response simply to education or legislative action. Whether in the life of the individual or that of society, profound change occurs more often than not in response to intense suffering and to unendurable difficulties that can be overcome in no other way. Just so great a testing experience, Bahá'u'lláh warned, is needed to weld the earth's diverse peoples into a single people.

Spiritual and materialistic conceptions of the nature of reality are irreconcilable with one another and lead in opposite directions. As a new century opens, the course set by the second of these two opposing views has already carried a hapless humanity far beyond the outermost point where an illusion of rationality, let alone of human well-being, could once be sustained. With every passing day, the signs multiply that great numbers of people everywhere are awakening to this realization.

Bahá'í International Community's Office of Public Information, "Who Is Writing the Future?"

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Who Is Writing the Future? is also the title to a music CD by Jack Lenz, the cover to which is pictured above. You can hear a portion of the title song by clicking here.