Baha'i Sacred Texts and Writings

A conversation with Dr. Richard Thomas on his recently published book chapter “How the Bahá’í Teachings on Racial Unity Influenced My Academic Focus on Race Relations in the United States.”

The Bahá’í Faith and African American Studies: Perspectives on Racial Justice, edited by Loni Bramson and Layli Maparyan – Contributions by Layli Maparyan; Richard Hollinger; June Thomas; Richard W. Thomas; Loni Bramson; Michael McMullen and Gwen Etter-Lewis

Dr. Richard Thomas  (Speaker)
Chitra Golestani (Moderator)

https://wilmetteinstitute.org/how-bahai-teachings-on-racial-unity-influenced-my-academic-focus/


How Bahá’í Teachings on Racial Unity Influenced My Academic Focus

Baha’is in South Carolina, like Baha’is around the world, are working to make the world a better and more peaceful place in which to live. Through the publication of “Trudy and the Baha’is’ Spiritual Path in South Carolina,” Annette Reynolds hopes readers will realize that everyone can work together to build peaceful spiritual communities no matter what belief and background one comes from.  This recording covers most of the Question and Answer session from Annette's Wilmette Institute Web Talk of Sunday, 22 January, 2017.

Trudy and The Baha'is: Q and A with Annette Reynolds

Recorded on 10/5/2017. Chris Buck talks about some of the resources available to assist those interested in studying Baha'u'llah's proclamatory tablets published in The Summons of The Lord of Hosts. In this brief interview he defines teleology; introduces us to the teleology of the Baha'i Faith; describes Progressive Revelation and the 'paradigm shift' of the current age; touches on the 'Rapture', little-known letters Baha'u'llah wrote to statesmen (politicians)and the immense scope of Baha'u'llah's vision being rapidly unveiled in this bicentenary year; and talks about the Kitab-i-Aqdas, Baha'u'llah's 'Most Holy Book' of Laws, reminding us that the Aqdas is like 'choice wine' and also contains many principles of the Faith, and is not just a book of rules.

Chris Buck is Lead Faculty of the Wilmette Institute course "The Summons of The Lord of Hosts" -  http://www.cvent.com/d/mfqthk

Links to the articles mentioned in the interview:
1. “The Eschatology of Globalization: Baha’u’llah’s Multiple-Messiahship Revisited” (2004) https://www.academia.edu/30670228/_The_Eschatology_of_Globalization_Baha_u_llah_s_Multiple-Messiahship_Revisited_2004_

2. “Baha’u’llah’s Bishārāt (Glad-Tidings): A Proclamation to Scholars and Statesmen” (2010) by Christopher Buck and Youli Ioannesyan
https://www.academia.edu/4332824/_Baha_u_llah_s_Bisharat_Glad-Tidings_A_Proclamation_to_Scholars_and_Statesmen_2010_

Article about the First Christian Baha'is on BahaiTeachings.org:
http://bahaiteachings.org/bahaullahs-welcome-first-christian-bahai

Chris Buck on Baha'u'llah's Vision for Humanity, Progressive Revelation, and more

Part 1 of "Todd Lawson Web Talk Series on the Báb, His Artistry, His Audience, and His Commentary on the Súrih of Joseph"

The new dispensation announced by the Báb challenged existing notions of religion and revelation. The Báb’s commentary on the Súrih of Joseph is a highly intricate and complex composition which betrays the authorial presence of the young messiah at every word. Yet, almost every word is Qur’anic, however rearranged and ordered to conform to the new message. Thus revelation is seen in a different light. While it is certainly divine in origin, the creativity and the boldness it represents should be seen as coming directly from the Báb Himself. Thus revelation emerges as a cooperative activity, one shared by God and the manifestation. Details and examples of such artistry and creativity will be illustrated through provisional translation.

050 Part 1: The Báb’s Artistry in His Commentary on the Súrih of Joseph | Todd Lawson

Part 2 of "Todd Lawson Web Talk Series on the Báb, His Artistry, His Audience, and His Commentary on the Súrih of Joseph"

In this session:  The Islamic philosophic or mystical tradition, frequently indistinguishable from the Islamic tradition in general, has long been distinguished by the intensity with which it venerates and celebrates certain specific divine teachings from the Qur’án or the Hadith on the spiritual value of beauty. “God is beautiful and loves beauty” is just one such teaching. There are countless others. The purpose of this web talk is to link the Islamic veneration of beauty with the coming of the new revelation of the Báb and, later, Bahá’u’lláh, who is widely known and referred to by Bahá’ís as the Blessed Beauty. 

The study of “beauty” as such is, of course, impossibly broad. In the course of the web talk we will focus on two aspects, revelation and manifestation as “messengers” of divine beauty. First, there will be a summary and elucidation of the aesthetic dimension of the Qur’anic revelation. Secondly, we will present the Islamic belief that Joseph, the subject of the Báb’s proclamatory Commentary introduced in web talk #1, was a unique embodiment of both spiritual and physical divine or blessed beauty. Muhammad, prophet and divine manifestation (and founder of Islam) is seen by the Islamic tradition as a reappearance of such spiritual and moral beauty. 

As we know, the Bahá’í Faith emphasizes the quality of beauty as elements of both the revelation and person of the divine manifestations, the Báb and Bahá’u’lláh. The role of beauty as religious or spiritual value, then, may be seen to be inherited, enriched and universalized by the Bahá’í revelation.

See Also:
Part 1: https://youtu.be/JAUzFdDHAfs
The Báb’s Artistry in His Commentary on the Súrih of Joseph   Todd Lawson

051 Part 2: Understanding the Báb’s Audience- Blessed Beauty in Islam | Todd Lawson

Part 3 of "Todd Lawson Web Talk Series on the Báb, His Artistry, His Audience, and His Commentary on the Súrih of Joseph"

In the Kitáb-i-Íqán Mulla Husayn is referred to by Bahá’u’lláh thus: But for him, God would not have been established upon the seat of His mercy, nor ascended the throne of eternal glory. This suggests, among other things, that had Mulla Husayn not recognized the Báb’s station and accepted His claims the new era would not have begun. We know from Bahá’í history that what enabled Mulla Husayn to acknowledge the truth of the Báb’s claims was in fact the first chapter of the Qayyúmu’l-Asmá’, also known as the Commentary on the Súrih of Joseph. In this web-talk we will enumerate in detail the various features of this brief composition, features that we may assume were of such striking originality and obvious divine authority (another way to translate the Arabic word mulk) that Mulla Husayn had no choice but to become the Báb’s first follower or, as he is sometimes referred to, the gate of the Gate.

052 Part 3: The Báb’s Great Announcement to Mulla Husayn- Cpt 1 of the Qayyúmu’l-Asmá’- Todd Lawson

In this online presentation we will take a lightning tour of the Writings of the Bab. We will briefly survey the state of knowledge of the manuscript sources, summarize the existing available translations, and introduce some of the secondary literature. We will look at the fascinating interplay between form and content in His Writings, address some recurring themes, and examine one possible periodization of His short ministry. The goal will be to provide serious students with an orientating framework and to point the way to resources that invite deeper independent study.

Steven Phelps received dual bachelors degrees in physics and philosophy from Stanford University and a Ph.D. in physics from Princeton University, specializing in cosmology. He served at the Bahá’í World Center in Haifa, Israel for 13 years in its Research Department, where he coordinated the indexing and collation of the Bahá’í Sacred Writings and their translation from Persian and Arabic into English. During that period he concurrently held a research position in the Physics Department at the Technion University in Haifa and published original research on the masses of nearby galaxies. He currently resides in the Portland area with his wife and three daughters.

053 Overview of the Writings of the Báb - Steven Phelps

The song, “Youthful Báb/One Human Race” is a collaboration from individuals spanning the globe and stands as an example of the effort of love, prayer, meditation, consultation and belief in the capacity of everyone involved. It is a showing of the beautiful work that can be created when people around the world work together as one human race.

Youthful Bab/One Human Race

Womanism is a worldview that emerged from African American women’s culture-based belief systems and historical experiences spanning Africa and the global African diaspora. Within the last 40 years, womanist scholars have documented the manifold dimensions of this worldview and also articulated its social / environmental / spiritual movement implications for all humanity. Understanding this worldview has the potential to illuminate dimensions of the Black experience – inside and outside the Bahá’í community – that shape the contours of community life, teaching, interpersonal relations, and even our ability to make progress on the Most Challenging Issue. In this web talk, major contours of womanism will be outlined and brought into dialogue with Bahá’í themes and issues.

Layli Maparyan

Layli Maparyan, PhD, is the Katherine Stone Kaufmann ’67 Executive Director of the Wellesley Centers for Women and Professor of Africana Studies at Wellesley College. She is best known for her scholarship in the area of womanism and is the author of two groundbreaking texts in the field of womanist studies, The Womanist Reader (Routledge, 2006) and The Womanist Idea (Routledge, 2012); a third book is forthcoming. Maparyan has also published significantly in the areas of adolescent development, social identities, (including biracial/biethnic identity and the intersections of racial/ethnic, sexual, spiritual/religious, and gender identities), Black LGBTQ studies, Hip Hop studies, and history of psychology.

Maparyan’s scholar-activist work interweaves threads from the social sciences and the critical disciplines, incorporating basic and applied platforms around a common theme of integrating identities and communities in peaceable, ecologically sound, and self-actualizing ways.

065 African American Womanism And The Bahá’í Faith: New Approaches | Layli Maparyan |

The Seven Valleys of Baha’u’llah |  Reformation of Mysticism and Outline of Baha’i Theology  with Sohrab Kourosh

http://www.wilmetteinstitute.org

The Seven Valleys characterized by Shoghi Effendi as Bahá’u’lláh’s greatest mystical composition is generally considered a complex mystical treatise guiding the wayfarers in treading the path of spirituality. However, in The Seven Valleys Bahá’u’lláh while employing mystical language reformed mysticism by redefining the goal and path of mystical wayfaring and describing many theological concepts and fundamental principles of the Bahá’í theology, some of which were unprecedented in the history of the religious discourse. 

In this presentation several principles outlined in mystical language in The Seven Valleys and subsequently developed in The Kitáb-i-Íqán and other writings of Bahá’u’lláh are discussed and a methodology for facilitating the study of The Seven Valleys is provided.

Dr. Kourosh’s Self Study Notes for the Seven Valleys of Bahá’u’lláh is available online from the Bahá’í Distribution Service, here: 

http://www.bahaibookstore.com/Self-Study-Notes-for-The-Seven-Valleys-of-Bahaullah-P8186.aspx.


The Seven Valleys of Baha’u’llah   Reformation of Mysticism and Outline of Baha’i Theology. Download PDF of Slide Show here: http://wilmetteinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/TheSevenValleysofBahaullah.pdf 

https://youtu.be/HRmbyLa-GCk

166 The Seven Valleys of Baha’u’llah - Sohrab Kourosh

Feeling anxious? Find out the real cause of anxiety and how to lessen its impact on the mind, body and soul.

Achieving Inner Peace

Dealing with Anxiety and Inner Turmoil (Part 1)

The Wilmette Institute was founded in 1995 to provide basic and advanced courses on the Bahá’í Faith. In 1998, the Wilmette Institute moved to a largely online study approach in order to provide educational classes to a broader student body. It now offers more than 50 unique courses on the web to an average of 30 students per course.

166 The Seven Valleys of Baha’u’llah - Sohrab Kourosh

Wilmette Institute

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