Letters from the American Desert

Twenty years in the making, in Letters from the American Desert, Glaysher reflects on the cultural, political, and religious history of Western and non-Western civilizations, pondering the dilemmas of postmodernity, in a compelling struggle for spiritual knowledge and truth. Fully cognizant of the relativism and nihilism of modern life, Glaysher finds a deeper meaning and purpose for the individual and the world community in the writings and global, universal vision of Baha'u'llah, as expressed in the Reform Bahai Faith. Confronting the antinomies of the soul, grounded in the dialectic, Glaysher charts a path beyond the postmodern desert. Alluding to Martin Luther and W. B. Yeats at All Souls Chapel, "metaphors for poetry," Glaysher invites Reform Bahais and others to consider the universal, moderate form of the Bahai Teachings as interpreted by Abdu'l-Baha, Baha'u'llah's son, who had spoken throughout the West in Europe, England, and the United States from 1911 to 1913. Abdu'l-Baha's message of the oneness of God, all religions, and humankind holds out a new hope and peaceful vision for a world in spiritual and global crisis. Far from a theocracy, the Reform Bahai Faith envisions a modest separation of church and state, as the will of God, in harmony and balance with universal peace, in a global age of pluralism, where religious belief is a distinctive mark of the individual, not collective, communal identity.