ABSTRACT
This chapter takes a rhetorical approach to the pivotal concept of covenant in the Bahá’í Faith. Several covenants are mentioned in the Bahá’í Writings. The Eternal Covenant is entered into by the soul at creation. The Greater Covenant, with its promise of return and renewal, links the revealed religions as sequential dispensations of one eternal faith. The Lesser Covenant, which Bahá’u’lláh made with His followers, establishes the succession and administrative institutions and fixes the sources of interpretive authority, preserving doctrinal integrity and preventing schism. This historically unprecedented covenant, embedded in the scripture, has implications that uniquely shape the Bahá’í Faith, its norms and practices in ways that defy comparisons and elude traditional categories. ‘Covenant-breaking’ is defined, analysed as a speech act and as a form of disruptive discourse, and the main historical attempts to nullify the Covenant and divide the religion are described. Although religions have historically resorted to coercion and violence to suppress heresy and resist schism, the Bahá’í response to the threat of divisive conflict is simple non-engagement with the disruptive discourse—a method that has effectively thwarted all attempts at schism since the inception of the religion.
