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It appears that the Universal House of justice may be recognizing the separation of church and state as part of Baha’u’llah’s world order. I’m reading the signs on this from two sections in a video by Glenford Mitchell on the Youtube channel Bahai Perspective. See Glenford Mitchell’s talk at the...

This video starts with the question, whether Abdu'l-Baha's letter on the "seven candles of unity" describes successive stages (the answer is no). It points to a relationship between the "seven candles" and a section of Abdu'l-Baha's book, "The Secret of Divine Civilization," and to four more...

I made a short video about a letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi which has been misunderstood, because an editor quoted part of it out of context, in "Directives from the Guardian," and because readers and authors quoted the cut version. It's the letter that says, "... the Bahai...

This video shows that Shoghi Effendi read H.G. Well's utopian work "The Shape of Things to Come" (1933, filmed 1936), and quotes from it in his 1936 letter "The Unfoldment of World Civilization," which is one of the "World Order" letters. Could it be that the futurist letter "The Unfoldment of...

Shoghi Effendi tended to see twin things everywhere: twin cities, twin pillars, twin Manifestations, two simultaneous process, and so on. Abdu'l-Baha wrote a book that is all about the two great forces in society, government and religion. This video explores twoness, in the religion of the three...

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...