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I've started a youtube channel for Bahai studies presentations. The first is about the harmony of science and religion, but not as you know it. It gets a new twist because of a newly-published Persian text of a talk Abdu'l-Baha gave in New York in 1912, on the subject of "the new teachings of...

Violetta Zein has an announcement, and a good contribution in research, writing and site design: Dear friends, One hundred years ago this month, Shoghi Effendi was beginning the third full year of his ministry as Guardian of the Bahá’í Faith. The life of Shoghi Effendi is so rich, so...

Peggy Caton has posted a research paper and audio compilation on dhikr, the repetitive chanting of the names of God, and the word at the root of mashriq'ul-adhkar. It is on Jonah Winter's Most Great Bahai Site: https://bahai-library.com/caton_sacred_refrains

OK - but in message #3 you seemed to say that it was not in the Abrahamic religions themselves, but only in modern misinterpretations of their texts. I think neither view can be sustained: the religions are too varied. Even in Evangelical Christianity, you have postmillennial and pre-millennial...

and (in a comment): "The idea of humanity's spiritual progress marches on, is modern, founded on misinterpreted religious texts. There's nothing in the Abrahamics, as far as I know, that hints of this spiritual 'progress'." Which is your predominant idea: that the Abrahamic religions do or do...

Yes, I translate from Persian. I follow Shoghi Effendi's vocabulary choices quite closely -- as he followed Browne quite closely -- because consistency across translators is a good thing. I see no reason to continue the old fashioned English style today, especially not for a talk by Abdu'l-Baha...

Many readers will have seen a recent article by Chris Buck on the Bahai Teachings site, on November 16. Chris noticed that the Persian record of a talk that Abdu’l-Baha gave in New York had been published for the first time on the Bahai World Centre’s web site. Thanks to him, I downloaded it and...

In 1944, in a list of challenges for the future, Shoghi Effendi wrote in God Passes By (411): Similarly, in his Tawqiaat to the Bahais of the East, page 360, dated Ridvan 105/1948 he says that “the court of Bahai religious law with full powers will be established on unassailable foundations” (...

A letter on behalf of Shoghi Effendi says (in part): We have a lot of prayers for healing. Which one is the Healing Prayer that is referenced here? The quote above is part of a long letter on behalf of Shoghi Effendi dated January 10, 1936, addressed to the National Spiritual Assembly of the...

In verse 147 of the Ketab-e Aqdas, Baha’u’llah says (in Arabic) that begging is forbidden and giving to one who begs is haram. He says “All have been enjoined to earn a living, and as for those who are incapable of doing so, it is incumbent on the Deputies of God and on the wealthy ( وکلآء و...

A quote attributed to Abdu’l-Baha has been used often on blogs and micro-blogs. Perhaps it is popular today because the opening — “The darkness of this gloomy night shall pass away” — chimes with a need today. Consisting largely of bromides reminiscent of American self-help literature, the quote...

For my line of research, the interesting part relates to church and state. He writes: 1) that shows that the way he described the relationship between the Guardian and the House of Justice, in his commentaries on the Will and Testament, was already in his mind before he had read the Will and...

I have uploaded my 2005 Master’s dissertation, "Church and State" here: https://senmcglinn.files.wordpress.com/2022/03/church-and-state-2005b.pdf Since 2005, Bahai Studies has moved on. What was once somewhat controversial is now accepted as common sense: the separation of Church and State is...

In February 1921, soon after he became a student in Balliol College, Oxford, Shoghi Effendi, who was soon to be appointed Head of the Bahai Community, gave a presentation on “The Bahai Movement’ to the Oxford University Asiatic Society. I have prepared a text version from Volume 1 of The Dawn, a...

That's already done Badger: "The Faith which this order serves, safeguards and promotes, is, it should be noted in this connection, essentially supernatural, supranational, entirely non-political, non-partisan, and diametrically opposed to any policy or school of thought that seeks to exalt any...

Relax, that can never ever happen. “Theirs is not the purpose,… to violate, under any circumstances, the provisions of their country’s constitution, much less to allow the machinery of their administration to supersede the government of their respective countries.” (Shoghi Effendi, in The World...

In 2009, Roshan Danesh wrote, in the Journal of Law and Religion, that "there are no explicit statements [in Bahai Scriptures] about the Universal House of Justice and civil institutions which necessitate a fully integrationist conclusion." It would appear that he hoped to find some basis there...

Yes, if the system of government is a democracy, then everyone votes for the government, Bahai and non-Bahai. There's a UHJ policy to that effect: ==== "In another national community where the number of believers had increased to the point where the population of some villages had become 100% or...

B Badger, your quote with "The Bahai theocracy, on the contrary, ..." is incomplete, making it misleading. The letter reads, "The Baha’i theocracy, on the contrary, is both divinely ordained as a system and, of course, based on the teachings of the Prophet Himself. This seems to reconcile the...

From the Bahai World Centre, July 6, 2015. This November will witness the first universal observance of the Twin Holy Birthdays of the Bab and Baha’u’llah according to the Badi` calendar. In anticipation of this special occasion, the Universal House of Justice is pleased to present you with...