My new book, Second Century Believers (George Ronald 2025) uses qualitative research procedures to analyze interviews with dozens of Bahá’ís who were among the first born in the 2nd century BE. They came from Christian and agnostic families. I asked about their feelings & experiences when opting to joined the Faith during the 1st House of Justice's the 1st 9-yr plan. We have no record of how 2nd c. Christians felt.Though there are Baha'i narratives, there are few if any accounts of their thought processes & feelings. I analyzed interview data mining for shared meanings. Systematic research of internal processes among people who join a religion is an under represented issue in Bahá’í academic scholarship.
Study of recent messages of the Universal House of Justice hints at increasing intensity and expanded and broadened scope of tests and difficulties coming to Bahá’í Communities worldwide with encouragement to study the evolution of the Iranian Bahá’í Community as a source of insight and inspiration. Analysis of previously untranslated letters and unpublished communication from 1979-82 from key individuals who were at the heart of the Iranian community can shed insight on how this community rose to meet challenges never seen before by any Bahá’í Community in its history and perhaps serve as examples for communities in North America.
