Collinss exciting examination of the role millennialism has played in Baháí history makes this work of interest not only to those interested in the Baháí Faith but to students of comparative religion generally. The authors command of the millennialism literature, which is now large and complex, is impressive. The work is characterized by wide-ranging and scrupulous scholarship that explores rarely examined links between spirituality in Persia and the United States.
- Michael Barkun, Syracuse University, USA
Collinss work is essential reading for anyone interested in the intersection of millennial thought and Baháí teachings. His meticulous research and thoughtful analysis provide readers with a comprehensive understanding of how millennial expectations have shaped religious history and how these ideas have been reinterpreted within the Baháí Faith. By examining the parallels between the Millerite movement and the early Baháí community, Collins reveals the profound connections between these two seemingly disparate groups, both of which sought to understand the unfolding of divine prophecy in their time.
- Omid Ghaemmaghami, Binghamton University State University of New York (SUNY), USA
Collins book is a comprehensive treatment of the complexities and variations of millennialism in the Bábí movement and the Baháí Faith. It also demonstrates how early Baháís in America related predictions in the Millerite movement about the Second Coming of Christ in 1844 to the declaration in that year of the Báb in Persia. This book will be of interest to scholars of the Baháí Faith in its international scope, but also to scholars of millennialism and religions in America.
- Catherine Wessinger, Loyola University New Orleans, USA
This is a brilliant, creative, highly suggestive study of the history, growth, and doctrinal development of the Baháí religion especially in North America. Its method and conclusions will interest scholars of religion in general.
- Todd Lawson, University of Toronto, Canada
Collins provides a comprehensive discussion of an overlooked and widespread part of 19th and 20th century religious history - millennialism. This impressive volume recounts the history of Millerism as well as how the American Baháí community used and interpreted it. Collins painstakingly outlines the many approaches to Biblical prophecy that resulted in the prediction that Christ would return in 1843 or 1844, the year that the Baháí Faith began. Although focusing on American Protestant predictions, Collins also explains how Shia Islam expected prophetic fulfillment in 1260 AH (1844) and the early Bábí movements connection and history in the social context of 19th-century Persia. The book demonstrates how the Baháí Faith fits into and expands our understanding of millennialism such that we can grasp how apocalyptic and progressive expectations are not mutually exclusive as the global Baháí Faith matures, premised on the oneness of the foundation of religion and humanity. We highly recommend this book to anyone with interest in the development of prophecy interpretation and millennialism.
- Deborah K. van den Hoonaard, St. Thomas University, Canada, and Will C. van den Hoonaard, University of New Brunswick, Canada
Collins has written a remarkable book with a broad, almost cosmic, vision of the term millennialism as it relates to the Baháí Faith. The breadth of the research is very impressive, dealing with Persian sources as well as century-old American archival material and contemporary discussion in the Baháí community. The positive impact of millennialism as an inspiration supporting Baháí growth is considered as well as the hope it gave persecuted Baháí communities. The Baháí Faiths consistent emphasis on progressive millennialismlonger termis balanced by discussion of the shorter term catastrophic events that are predicted. The book makes an important contribution to millennial studies as well as to Baháí studies.
- Robert Stockman, Director of Corinne True Center for Baháí History and adjunct professor at Indiana University South Bend, USA
Many years in the making, this is a major study of millennial ideas in the developing Baháí community, and an important addition to the growing literature of serious study of the Baháí Faith. Apart from examining the various academic approaches to the study of millenarianism and providing an overview of the ideas of the influential nineteenth-century American Protestant millenarian thinker William Miller, Collins includes the first detailed account of the English-language writings of Baháís on millennial themes and provides his own analysis of millenarian ideas in a Baháí context. Of value to historians of religion and those involved in Baháí studies.
- Peter Smith, Mahidol University International College, Thailand (retired)
The theme of Millennialism is one that had a great importance in the early history of the Bábí and Baháí Faiths as well as again rising to importance at the start of the North American Baháí community. Many of the early adherents of the religion were attracted by a presentation of the religion that sought to demonstrate that the founders of the new religion fulfilled the prophecies of their own religious tradition. It is surprising therefore that, up to now, there has not been a thorough study of this aspect of the Baháí Faith. This book thus fills an important gap in the literature and does so in a careful analysis of a wide variety of sources.
- Moojan Momen, independent Baháí scholar
Prophets and prophecies are perhaps humanity's most powerful generators of social reality, shaping human conduct for millennia. In this ground-breaking and exhaustively researched work, Collins shows that millennial expectation is not a mere historical curiosity but a vital and living force in the present day.
- Steven Phelps, cosmologist and translator of Baháí texts
Collins shows how and why the Baháí Faith judiciously adopted and adapted the essence of adventist William Millers millennialist ideas as an eschatological bridge over which prospective Christians might cross in seriously considering the prophetic credentials of the twin Founders of the Baháí Faith, the Báb (18191850) and Baháulláh (18171892). Well researched and well-written, Millennialism, Millerites, and Prophecy in Baháí Discourse is a worthy contribution to the phenomenology and history of religions.
- Christopher Buck, author of Baháí Faith: The Basics
