Wilmette Institute

Three Bahá’ís who do research on psychology will explore the nature of human identity and the development of the individual, especially early in life.

MICHAEL PENN

RHETT DIESSNER

JENNI MENON MARIANO

Can we talk about an incipient field of Bahá’í education?

The first part will highlight different current expectations about what should fall under the topic of “Bahá’í education”.

The second part will explore the three types of curricula mentioned in the article (FUNDAEC, Anisa Model, BIHE) and their theoretical sources.

The third part will propose that elements of a Bahá’í field of education can be discerned, however inchoately, but that serious effort must be undertaken for these to be drawn together and configured into a field of study. A general tendency for amnesia about previous contributions must make way for a wider and more inclusive process of gathering and ordering such contributions in a way that is mindful of their historical context and their significant achievements.

Finally, if time allows, the importance of universities as key elements of a global architecture of knowledge, and the essential role of such global architectures of knowledge in the 21st century, might also receive some treatment.

Webinar Resource

Contributors

This webinar will help advance our understanding of the harmony between science and religion. Four panel members from the Wilmette Institute course on Science, Religion, and the Bahá’í Faith will speak on how insights from the Bahá’í Writings together with insights from the sciences–physics, cosmology, evolutionary theory and the social sciences–relate to the need for spiritual development and help contribute to discourses on various topics or issues facing humanity. The panelists will address the importance of diversity, learning about learning, social values, the scientific method, and consultation within the realm of science. They will conclude that studying topics from both scientific and religious perspectives contributes to more effective discourse, better decision-making, and social justice.

The discussion facilitators will be Charlotte Wenninger and Andres Elvira, both currently serving as teaching assistants for the Science, Religion, and the Bahá’í Faith course.

Robert Sarracino’s Slide Show: Physics, Cosmology, and the World of the Spirit: The Unity of Reality

Stephen Friberg’s Slide Show: Scientific Method, Diversity, and Baha’i Consultation

“Be anxiously concerned with the needs of the age ye live in, and center your deliberations on its exigencies and requirements.”

-Bahá’u’lláh

Check out Marilyn Waite’s article on sustainable banking on BahaiTeachings. https://bahaiteachings.org/how-community-banking-brings-prosperity-to-everyone/

Contributors:

The oneness of humanity is a biological fact, affirmed by more than a century of study in the natural sciences; it is an existential truth upon which all claims to human rights ultimately rest, and it is a feature of social reality that the integrative forces of history will no longer permit us to avoid. As an ontological truth, the oneness of humanity is embodied in those universal moral and intellectual capacities that define the nature and needs of the human spirit. In these remarks, which provide an overview of the themes that animate his most recent book, Our Common Humanity: Reflections on the Reclamation of the Human Spirit (2021), Professor Penn provides a rational Bahá’í-inspired account of what might be meant by the human spirit and links the development and refinement of the human spirit to the realization of that which is most noble in each of us.

Contributor

This webinar, based largely on the recently published book Struggling to Learn: An Intimate History of School Desegregation in South Carolina (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2022) and on related research, will explore the classic civil rights era and its legacy. That era was a heroic period of social resistance that accomplished much but nonetheless left much work still not done. This presentation will summarize several key reforms brought about by the civil rights era as described in the book and then compare these steps forward with the more complete Bahá’í vision of true social reform, as described during that era and as conceptualized at the present.

You can order a copy of this book online at the University of South Carolina Press. It is also available on Kindle from Amazon. For more books by this author, visit June Thomas’s website. https://junemanningthomas.com/

Symposium on Local Bahá’í History

The Nashville Bahá’í Community: A Legacy of Unity

Slide Show: The Nashville Bahá’í Community: A Legacy of Unity (PDF)

We’ll take a brief look at the Bahá’í community of Nashville Tennessee, focusing on its formative years and its legacy of race unity.

Moments in Bahá’í History of Lansing, MI

Slide Show: Moments in History of Bahá’í Faith in Lansing, Michigan (PDF)

This presentation will cover the moments of Bahá’í History found through Archival documents, letters, and photos in Archives and Newspapers. Some personal accounts are included.

The Oklahoma Bahá’í Oral History Project

Slide Show: The Oklahoma Bahá’í Oral History Project (PDF)

The Oklahoma Bahá’í Oral History Project began in 2004 as a collaborative initiative of Mark Vaccaro and Alex Resnick. Its purpose is to record on video the stories of service of Bahá’ís who currently live in Oklahoma or who previously lived in Oklahoma. This presentation explores the origins of the project and the techniques that were developed to interview the Bahá’ís, record the videos, edit them and present them in an acceptable format to the National Bahá’í Archives for the benefit of future Bahá’í historians. The focus of the presentation is not on the actual history of the Bahá’í Faith in Oklahoma. Rather it is on how we do what we do so that others will see how relatively easy it is to do the same thing to document the growth and development of the Faith in their own communities.

The Sacred Feminine at the Heart of the Bahá’í Faith: An Indigenous Feminine Perspective

This multimedia presentation augmented with visual art images will be an introduction to the Feminine Divine of Native America including Earth Mother as Corn Mother Selu, Tonantzin as Eagle Woman, the Aztec Virgin Mother named Guadalupe and others within the context of an Indigenous world view where Mother Nature and Creator are the same.

Contributors

Ptehíŋčala Ska Wiŋ (White Buffalo Calf Woman) Divine Messenger to the Očhéthi Šakówiŋ (People of the Seven Council Fires)

Kevin Locke, MEd

I have had a lifelong drive to explore and create. In 1972 Richard Fool Bull the foremost exemplar and practitioner of the Indigenous North American flute urged me to take up and perpetuate this unique and precious heritage that has evolved and developed here in this continent from time immemorial. It was through him and many other elders that I caught a glimpse of the dreams, hopes and visions that have propelled our ancestors. Those elders have departed but their spirit lives through the traditions they have passed on to us and comes alive when we actively engage younger generations in their perpetuation. We can realize the fulfillment of those dreams on their behalf. When I first started with the flute I wanted to develop a repertoire. Fortunately when I started in the mid 1970’s many of the older generation had a great knowledge of the unique vocal genre from which the flute melodies are derived and I was able to obtain a vast reservoir of this special genre. The current popularized “Native American flute” was invented in 1980 for commercial purposes in that it uses the well-known “melodic” or minor pentatonic scale and lends itself to improvisation. I differentiate that from the original Indigenous North American flute, which is much more versatile and has a wider range of notes and is perfectly adapted to play not only chromatic, diatonic and pentatonic scales but its note progression is able to capture the authentic Indigenous North American musical esthetic.

Navigating the Urgent Transition Toward Sustainability