Oneness and Justice
According to the Bahá’í teachings, the hallmark of the age of maturity will be the unification of the human race, when the oneness of humankind—the ultimate goal and operating principle of the Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh—is fully recognized and integrated into the patterns of life at all levels of society. A recognition of humanity’s oneness does not, however, imply uniformity, but contains within it the essential concept of diversity, preserving various aspects of culture around the world while embodying a set of common values and principles.
The principle of unity in diversity is increasingly finding widespread recognition in contemporary development thought. Yet, as significant as this growing consciousness may be, acknowledgement of humanity’s oneness is only one step in its movement toward its collective maturity. The growing disparity between rich and poor cannot be permitted to persist. All of the earth’s inhabitants should be able to enjoy the fruits of a materially and spiritually prosperous global society. Intimately tied to oneness, then, is the principle of justice, which calls for a reconceptualization of the relationships that sustain society. Thus, at the heart of the learning process about development is inquiry into the nature of the relationships that bind the individual, the community, and the institutions of society— actors on the stage of history who have been locked in a struggle for power throughout time. In this context, the assumption that relations among them will inevitably conform to the dictates of competition, a notion that ignores the extraordinary potential of the human spirit, has been set aside in favor of the more likely premise that their harmonious interactions can foster a civilization befitting a mature humanity.
