Wilmette Institute

In the twentieth century, the field of religious studies underwent a profound and striking transformation. Such terms as “comparative approach,” “ecumenical studies,” and “interreligious dialogue” have become commonplace in scholarly research, discussion, and literature on the subject. The twenty-first century has added another innovating concept to these rapidly changing viewpoints – trans-religious experience and theology.

Ecumenism aims at reconciling differences among various branches or denominations of the Christian religion, and interreligious dialogue extends this confessional attitude to other religious traditions. Trans-religious theology, more specifically, directs its focus to the analysis and comparison of the ideas about Ultimate Reality in various religious systems of the world. The founder of the trans-religious theological project is a former professor and chairman of the philosophy department at the University of Colorado at Boulder, Jerry L. Martin. As Dr. Martin notes, trans-religious theology “grows out of philosophizing about the aim of theology.” He explains further:

Often theology is defined as the articulation of the beliefs about the divine reality within one’s tradition. In light of the widespread experience of finding spiritual insight in other traditions as well, that definition seems inappropriately limited. Surely, the aim of theology should be to learn all we can about ultimate reality, regardless of the source of the insights. Even comparative theology, when it is regarded as finally confessional, limited to asking what light other traditions throw on my own, stops short. What is needed is a Theology Without Walls, without confessional boundaries, without blinders, as it were. That does not mean that we do not stand somewhere, but that our sense of our goal is not limited to where we stand at the outset.

Contributors

Jerry L. Martin

Mikhail Yu. Sergeev, PhD

Mikhail Sergeev was born and raised in Moscow, Russia, where he received his bachelor’s degree in international journalism from Moscow State Institute of International Relations (University) in 1982. In 1990 he moved to the United States to pursue his doctoral studies. In 1993 he received his master’s degree in religious studies and in 1997 his doctorate in philosophy of religion from Temple University, Philadelphia. Sergeev works as an adjunct professor of religion and philosophy at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, where he received The President’s Distinguished Teaching Award (2010). He also co-chairs and serves on the faculty of the Department of Religion, Philosophy, and Theology at the Wilmette Institute as well as on the faculty of Temple University in Philadelphia.

The Great Law of Peace and the Most Holy Book - Dr. Lee Brown

Summary: This talk is a comparative study of the Great Law of Peace articulated by the Peacemaker and founder of the Iroquois Confederacy and Kitab-i- Aqdas promulgated by Baha'u'llah.

Interfaith Devotional And Climate Conversation Workshop 11.29.2021

More information:

The Bahá’í-inspired Interfaith Climate Group hosts a series of writing and conversation workshops to facilitate participation in the discourses of society on the social and environmental challenges of our time. Participants:

*Reflect on spiritual teachings from the world’s religions

*Consider unity of thought and possible actions for the United Nations’ Global Goals

*Learn about a faith-based community-wide climate conversation to action program.

The Interfaith Devotional supports a pilot Florida Climate “Conversation to Action” program with the University of Florida Extension and We, the World.

Jan Jasion, 'Abdu'l-Bahá and the Other

This presentation is based on reflections on Bahá’u’lláh’s Tablet of the Land of Bá and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s statement published in Paris Talks and His activities in America. ʻAbdu’l-Bahá met with people of all ethnic and cultural backgrounds and He delighted in doing so. The Bahá’ís are very proud of this, and justly so. Many scholars have investigated the travels of ʻAbdu’l-Bahá in America: Alan Ward, Hassan Balyuzi, Robert Stockman, Earl Redman, Steven Kolins, Amín Egea. The latter two concentrated their efforts on newspaper coverage. Yet despite their efforts and the efforts of more localized research there appears a void which in a real sense undermines the intentions of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s efforts toward establishing the unity and dignity of all peoples. This void concerns the hundreds of non-English newspapers which existed at that time.

More resources: https://wilmetteinstitute.org/abdul-baha-and-the-other/

This presentation will attempt to explore the causes of this situation and its consequences and possible restoration and utilization of these articles.

Contributors

Jan Teofil Jasion is a retired librarian. He was born in Canada of Polish parents. His varied career included working as a roofer in housing construction and as a labourer at an iron-ore smelter, as a librarian in a remote Labrador town, a library technician at the National Library of Canada, at the Library of the University of New Brunswick and later at a college in Cardiff, Wales; as an economic journalist and translator in Warsaw, Poland, as an acquisitions and periodicals librarian at the Bahá’í World Centre Library, as an editor at the Department of Philosophy, Warsaw University; and as a cataloguer for a library vendor in England. He was educated at universities in Ontario, Newfoundland, England and Poland. His Bahá’í activities include pioneering to Labrador (1967-70) and Poland (1970-72; 1992-1999), and service on numerous national committees and local assemblies and lately as an editor at Librarie bahá’íe, Paris, France. He currently lives with his wife Annie-Joëlle in a southern suburb of Paris. Jan has published over 35 articles in journals in Canada, USA, UK, France, Poland and Pakistan in the field of library studies, economics, human rights, biography, corporate structures and bio-bibliography. He has authored and edited a dozen monographs including An International Guide to Legal Deposit (2nd ed. 2019); Never Be Afraid to Dare (George Ronald, 2001), ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in France (English 2016 and French 2017); ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in the West (English 2012 and French 2015); Táhirih In History (2004). His latest article was a bio-bibliography of John E. Esslemont for The Book Collector (2020).

Climate Change is about survival, one world...and our future. with Gary Reusche

Climate change is already adversely affecting people in many parts of the world and seriously threatens the survival of human civilization. The present-day world order is disintegrating before our eyes, and increasing climate change impacts are compounding social problems. At the same time, we can see the integrative forces in youth climate action, interfaith collaboration, and constructive high-level discourse at the United Nations. Discourse starting at the family level, to neighborhoods, to groups, to friends, even at work will catalyze the groundswell needed to initiate change, and mitigate the catastrophic events that we see on the horizon. We’ll consult together about how we can change the trend, from disintegrative to integrative!

This webinar is part of the Wilmette Institute’s activities for Global Climate Change Week 2020.

The following video, created by Gary, was included in the Association for Bahá’í Studies 2020 Poster Presentation: Global Governance, Climate Crisis, and Youth. https://vimeo.com/429353350

Gary Reusche, PhD

Mikhail Sergeev, "The Issue of Self-Identity in Transhumanism and Bahá’í Writings"

Transhumanism or H+ is an intellectual and cultural movement whose ultimate goal is to achieve “singularity” – the merging of human biology and computer technology in order to enhance human capabilities and, in the long run, to make humanity immortal. The concept of singularity applies first and foremost to the brain, which is the conduit for human mind, consciousness and self-identity. As a result, transhumanists find themselves at the center of millennia-old polemics about the origin of life and the nature of human soul. What happens if a person’s brain is irreversibly damaged and replaced by its artificial duplicate? Will it be the same human being or a different one? Where exactly can the seed of human identity be found? In this web presentation we will examine, from a Bahá’í perspective, these and similar questions arising in contemporary technological discourse that involve various competing theories of the human self.

Presenter:

Mikhail Sergeev was born and raised in Moscow, Russia, where he received his bachelor’s degree in international journalism from Moscow State Institute of International Relations (University) in 1982. In 1990 he moved to the United States to pursue his doctoral studies. In 1993 he received his master’s degree in religious studies and in 1997 his doctorate in philosophy of religion from Temple University, Philadelphia. Sergeev works as an adjunct professor of religion and philosophy at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, where he received The President’s Distinguished Teaching Award (2010). He also co-chairs and serves on the faculty of the Department of Religion, Philosophy, and Theology at the Wilmette Institute as well as on the faculty of Temple University in Philadelphia. The author of more than two hundred scholarly, journalistic, and creative works, Sergeev published and presented them in Canada, Europe—the Czech Republic, Greece, the Netherlands, and Poland—Russia, and the United States. Some of his articles were translated into Polish, and his books were reviewed in Germany, Japan, Poland, Russia, Slovakia, and the United States. He has authored and edited twelve books, including the monograph, Theory of Religious Cycles: Tradition, Modernity, and the Bahá’í Faith, (Brill, 2015) and his latest, Russia Abroad: The Anthology of Contemporary Philosophical Thought (M-Graphics, 2019). In 2017 at the International Festival “Visit to Muses,” in Greece, he was awarded the Nodar Dzhin Literary Prize for the best work in philosophy: Grand Prix in the category “journalism/scholarship.”

Divine Wisdom Revealed: Beyond Bahá’u’lláh’s Reprimand of the Two Powerful Ottoman Officials

This is the first of four webinars hosted by Shahrokh Monjazeb for the course “Bahá’u’lláh’s Summons to Two Ottoman Prime Ministers” which begins on October 22, 2020.

The course will closely examine the three Tablets, Súriy-i-Ra’ís, Law h-i-Ra’ís, and Lawh-i-Fu’ád, addressed by Bahá’u’lláh to the two powerful and highly influential 19th century Turkish Prime Ministers ‘Álí Páshá (1815-1871) and Fu’ád Páshá (1814-1869).

Súriy-i-Ra’ís

Sultán ‘Abdu’l-‘Azíz lost both his throne and his life in 1876. During the subsequent war with Russia (1877–1878), Adrianople was occupied by the enemy and the Turks experienced a violent bloodbath.

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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”.

Interfaith Devotional and Climate Conversation Workshop

Host: Sue Blythe

Sponsors: Bahá’ís of Alachua County, FL, Bahá’í-inspired Interfaith Climate Group, Wilmette Institute

In this workshop, participants were invited to:

Readers for the devotional program were (in reading order):

In The Advent of Divine Justice, Shoghi Effendi calls upon white people to contribute to the solution of racial prejudice by abandoning “their usually inherent and at times subconscious sense of superiority.” The challenge is clear. Even with the best of intentions, how can one excise or even identify one’s own inherent and subconscious tendencies?

In this presentation, JoAnn Borovicka will share a selection of things that white people can do to increase their awareness and to contribute to the solution of racial prejudice in a conscious and proactive manner. These suggestions are gleaned from the work of social scientists, educators, and others who have studied systemic racism and the culture of white supremacy, as well as from her own learnings from co-authoring the book Crossing the Line—A Memoir of Race, Religion, and Change.

Contributors

JoAnn Borovicka recently retired from a career in the Arts and Education where she worked primarily in the South Carolina Coastal Region with some activity overseas. Her work was rich and varied and included curriculum design, professional storytelling, creative writing, dance performance and instruction, costume design, art instruction, studio art, and work in object conservation. Post-retirement she has maintained her studio art activities and also turned her energies to research and writing. She is the author of Light of the Kingdom—Biblical Topics in the Baha’i Writings (2016) and other works (see bahai-library.com) and co-author of Crossing the Line—A Memoir of Race, Religion, and Change (2019). She and her husband, Mike, live in Greenville, South Carolina.

For a half-century now, the US has undertaken an historically unprecedented experiment with human incarceration. Our society has organized itself around a system of punishment that now locks away millions of people. As most know, the members of the human family that we imprison usually come from the least resourced communities, and from Black and Hispanic communities. This panel discussion will consider contemporary incarceration practices in the US, and how these practices might be supplanted by those who believe in the oneness of humanity, and the need to establish just relationships between all people.

See also Dr. Smith’s May 2018 talk Racial Justice: Mass Incarceration in America (BahaiTeachings.org) and his June 2020 WI webinar “Centering the Pupil of the Eye.”

RECOMMENDED BOOKS AND RESOURCES FROM PANELISTS

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RECOMMENDED BOOKS AND RESOURCES FROM ATTENDEES

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