The Artist and the Grammarian

Abstract

The 27th Hasan M. Balyuzi Memorial Lecture

I would like to express my appreciation for the opportunity given to me by the Association for Bahá’í Studies to present the Balyuzi Lecture. After giving a lot of thought to what I might say in this lecture, I decided to make a commentary—rather than offer what you might call a thesis—about two things that have concerned me, that is, the “mystic wayfarer” and the “grammarian.” We all have aspects of both of those conditions in each of us: on the one hand, we want to enthusiastically and with great zeal embrace the unknown, wandering a kind of invisible path in the hope of being confirmed in the living of our life; and on the other hand, we place limits on what life can manifest, afraid of going over the edge.