Wilmette Institute

Responding to Injustice with Constructive Agency

Intro to book chapter: “The past century has given rise to a searching global conversation regarding nonviolent approaches to social change. Bahá’ís are increasingly contributing to this conversation in ways that draw on an accumulating body of experience. In this regard, the Bahá’í community comprises a growing movement of people across the planet, representing a microcosm of humanity, working to translate commonly held spiritual principles into a new social reality through an evolving framework of action. This chapter examines salient elements of this framework in relation to insights from the theory and practice of nonviolent social change. It begins by considering how Bahá’ís understand the root causes of oppression. The dual problems of complacency and contentiousness in the face of oppression are then discussed, followed by an examination of the constructive and resilient means by which Bahá’ís work for social transformation and justice. The chapter concludes by examining those means through the lens of movement building.”

From “Responding to Injustice with Constructive Agency” by Michael Karlberg and Derik Smith, published in The World of the Bahá’í Faith, Robert Stockman (ed.) London: Routledge, 2022.

Symposium: Studies in Bahá’í Epistemology

In Modern times and, more specifically, since the appearance in 1781 of Immanuel Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason, epistemological issues acquired a special significance in philosophical studies. With the rise of Biblical criticism, Christian scriptural philosophy had lost its momentum, and nineteenth and twentieth-century thinkers focused on sense perception and reason as the two primary sources of human cognition.

A recently conceived and developed religious movement, the Bahá’í faith reintroduces the scriptural mode of thinking into philosophical inquiries. Its scriptural texts are well preserved and authenticated. Many of the writings by the founding figures of the faith explicitly address critical philosophical problems. They also employ the Aristotelian technical vocabulary with occasional addition of neo-Platonic terms.

In the West, epistemological studies from a Bahá’í perspective started in 1978 with the publication of Jack McLean’s essay “The Knowledge of God: An Essay on Bahá’í Epistemology.” Since then, Bahá’í thinkers have addressed different aspects of epistemological research. More specifically, in this program the participants will discuss the independent search for truth, the standards of knowledge, the problems of certainty and relativity, infallibility, and interpretation, as well as mystical experience. All those topics were explored in-depth in the book Studies in Bahá’í Epistemology, which is forthcoming this year in the Boston publishing company M-Graphics.

God Tests the Sincerity of an Emperor: Bahá’u’lláh’s first Tablet to Napoleon III

This webinar will be the first of four webinars for the course: God Summons Europe (Part I).

The first full English translation of Bahá’u’lláh’s first Tablet to Napoleon III.

I am an independent scholar of the Bahá’í history and sacred scripture. I began my scholarly endeavours in Bahá’í history around 1989, after I completed my undergraduate degree in Applied Physics and Electro-Acoustics with a minor in Religious Studies and Middle Eastern History. Two years later in 1991, I was invited to present at the annual conference of the Association for Bahá’í Studies North America on one of Bahá’u’lláh major works. Since then I have been involved with Bahá’í academic research as well as the work of translating into English the writings of the Central Figures of the Bahá’í Faith. I am a published author and lecturer whose writings and presentations focus on Bahá’í Sacred Text and their literary and historical significance in the context of socio-spiritual condition of human society. I have authored more than couple of dozen articles on Bahá’í history and Sacred Text as well as a monograph on Bahá’u’lláh entitled “Bahá’u’lláh: A Brief Survey of His Life & Works”

Ideas, Approaches, and Social Change: Emerging insights from the Bahá’í Community's 75-year engagement with the United Nations

In her talk, Dr. Berger traces the experience of a community whose ideas about social order and the mechanisms of social change are refashioning familiar notions of politics as well as religion. Focusing on the Bahá’í International Community (BIC), an international non-governmental organization (NGO) which represents the worldwide Bahá’í community in global fora—most notably, at the United Nations.

Dr. Berger explores a unique and timely example of an approach to social change that goes beyond the divisive, antagonistic modes that tend to characterize political processes–one that lays the foundations for new patterns of relationships among individuals, communities, and governing institutions—patterns attuned to the needs of an evolving, interdependent global community. The lecture focuses on several elements of a framework that shapes the Bahá’í approach to politics, including a developmental view of history, and the principle of the oneness of humanity, and further, examines the role of the Administrative Order in shaping the BIC’s engagement with the international community.

The lecture outlines an effort, echoed in wider scholarship, to enlarge the moral imagination about the vision, values, structures, and protagonists needed to forge a social order to meet the needs of the age in which we live.

Part 2

This two-part webinar series will take the participant back to Haifa on two auspicious moments one hundred years ago: the night of the Ascension of ‘Abdu’l-Baha, and the day in which the Will and Testament of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was read publicly.

This webinar will take the participant back to Haifa on the night of the Ascension of ‘Abdu’l-Baha, one hundred years ago, through the eye-witness accounts of the six Western believers who were present at that time. The webinar will include the story of who these believers were, what brought them to Haifa at that time, and how were their lives were changed by the experience.

Shoghi Effendi is sometimes alluded to as the architect of the Bahá’í administrative order, and most certainly he is worthy of this appellation. Yet, from another perspective he was carrying out the necessary steps to implement the Bahá’í administration as it had been shaped and refined by his beloved grandfather, In this presentation I will briefly explain why, among his other roles and responsibilities, and accomplishments, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá is designated as the Center of the Covenant.

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The “ADJ process” is the vision of Vonita McGee, who understood Shoghi Effendi’s book, The Advent of Divine Justice, to be an instruction manual. This manual delineates a spiritual process and provides practical instructions to aid us in eradicating racial prejudice, “the most vital and challenging issue” with which humanity is still grappling.

“Working Towards Race Unity” website: https://www.adj-wtru.org/

Laura Clifford Dreyfus-Barney, at a very tender age of twenty-one, heard about ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, a spiritual leader from the East, visited Him in Palestine, accepted the faith that He was promoting, and followed its teachings for the rest of her life. Many know of her greatest achievement: compiling Some Answered Questions, which is based on the questions that she posed to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and His responses to her.

Laura Dreyfus-Barney visited ‘Abdu’l-Bahá at least seven times, each time staying from a few days up to several months. She had the honor of being in His presence in the West also. She was with Him in Thonon-les-Bains, London, Paris and Washington, D.C. She received many Tablets and letters from ‘Abdu’l-Bahá.

The talk focuses on developments hastening the implementation of the principle of equality of men and women about two decades after Bahá’u’lláh’s ascension. It also highlights the station of the Greatest Holy Leaf, the uniqueness of the role she played in religious history, and the significance of the Arc, the focal center of her resting place and those of her mother and martyred brother.