Rel igion and Exclusivism: a Bahá’í

The term ‘exclusivism ’ has been adopted in interfaith dialogue to denote the attitude of those who maintain that only their religion is true and that the others are false. In the past almost all organized religions were mostly exclusivist, and even today several people maintain that exclusivism is an intrinsic feature of religion. However, a number of factors have created serious doubts about the rational and moral legitimacy of exclusivism. In a Bahá’í perspective, exclusivist ideas “today raise walls of separation and conflict in an age when the earth has literally become one homeland and human beings must learn to see themselves as its citizens. ” (OCF 29) We offer a preliminary examination of the Bahá’í teachings bearing on exclusivism, according to our understanding of the open letter addressed by the Universal House of Justice “To the World’s Religious Leaders, ” and of the commentary of this letter commissioned by the Universal House of Justice itself published as