Origin 1863 to 1892
Baha'i theology holds that religious history unfolds across immense recurring prophetic cycles, each opened by a Manifestation of God and encompassing a long series of subordinate dispensations. The Adamic Cycle comprises every revealed religion from Adam through Judaism, Christianity and Islam up to the Bab, and is held to have closed with the coming of Baha'u'llah, whose own revelation opens the Baha'i Cycle, also called the Cycle of Fulfillment. The Baha'i Faith understands itself as still very early within this new cycle, which its own scripture describes as lasting at minimum five hundred thousand years before a Manifestation of comparable stature appears again.
Facts
Origins
Origin Period Historical OriginArticulated across Baha'u'llah's own writings between his 1863 declaration in Baghdad and his death in 1892, and later systematized in the interpretive writings of Shoghi Effendi. 1 Status
Status Within the TraditionStandard teaching, not formally defined 1 Controversy
Point in DisputeThe doctrine's placement of Baha'u'llah as the most recent Manifestation of God, closing the Adamic Cycle and opening a new one, is a claim internal to Baha'i theology; it is not accepted by the earlier religions the scheme incorporates, including the Islam from which the Bab and Baha'u'llah's own religious context emerged. 2 Structure
StructureProgressive revelation across successive cycles and dispensations, each Manifestation's teaching understood as renewing and building upon, rather than nullifying, the revelations that preceded it. 2 Tradition
Scriptural BasisSourced to the subject's own accountBaha'u'llah's own writings, collected in Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah, state that Divine Revelation of this magnitude recurs not less than every five hundred thousand years, situating the Baha'i Cycle's own duration far beyond ordinary human historical time. 3 Sources
Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.
Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.
View At A Past Year
Choose a year to see this entry's facts and connections as the atlas records them at that moment: what it held then, what it held instead, and what it had not yet adopted. Choose Present for the current record.