| Shakespeare: An Overview and More A CONTEXT FOR INSISTENT THEMES
The most insistent theme in the corpus of Shakespeare's work is the truth about relations among human beings: that community takes precedence over the individual, that power without love is disaster, that the human being is subject to suffering and that however different we all are, we are all alike and there is an ideal social order. -Ron Price with thanks to Charles Harrison, Shakespeare's Insistent Theme, The University of the South Sewanee, Tennessee, 1985, pp.3-11.
Baha'u'llah's writings contain a wondrous sense of victory in that they contextualize all that we can experience on earth and all that we can know. They offer in the world of religion a theoretical starting point for the search for a context in which certain fundamental questions may be discussed1. There is in this Prophet's work a total sense that this is a "Revelation direct from God", a "mighty torrent that precipitateth itself upon the earth..." The breezes of the All-Glorious taught Him "the knowledge of all that hath been." We have, then, extensive writings laid out on all the facets of that 'insistent theme' that was Shakespeare's, now, in modern dress for all of humankind to follow.2 -Ron Price with thanks to 1 Karl Popper,"A Tribute to Karl Popper", The Science Show, 4 July 1998, ABC Radio; and John S. Hatcher, The Ocean of His Words: A Reader's Guide to the Art of Baha'u'llah, Baha'i Publishing Trust, 1997, pp.14-18.
We must, therefore, be open to criticism,
as we pause to reflect on the whole picture
of this new race of men and its transformative
implications, the blending and harmonizing
of salutary truths unvitiated here in an integrity,
an ultimate foundation, an organic change
in the structure of society, slowly unfolding,
a fresh manifestation of God in history,
an outpouring of heavenly grace, nobler,
ampler signs of human achievement,
a profound change in the standard of public
discussion where dissidence is a moral,
an intellectual contradiction in a community
whose goal is unity and where etiquette
of expression must always be reborn.
Ron Price
4 July 1998
__________________ Ron Price is a retired teacher, aged 60. He taught for 30 years in primary, secondary and post-secondary schools. He has been married for 37 years and now lives with his wife Chris in Tasmania. He has 3 eBooks on the internet, freely available. He has been associated with the Baha'i Faith for over 50 years. |