The Journal of Bahá’í Studies

A Kind of Truth

Tami Haaland — Fri, 22 Mar 2024 00:00:00 -0700

Morning with Cows

Kat Dunlap — Fri, 22 Mar 2024 00:00:00 -0700

A Reason to Remain

Kat Dunlap — Fri, 22 Mar 2024 00:00:00 -0700

Legacy

Tami Haaland — Fri, 22 Mar 2024 00:00:00 -0700

Revelation as Scientific in its Method

Stephen R. Friberg — Fri, 22 Mar 2024 00:00:00 -0700

This paper is an exploration of Shoghi Effendi’s statement that Bahá’u’lláh’s Revelation is “scientifi c in its method,” starting from the various ways that scientific methods are implemented and including perspectives from the philosophy of science. We examine the role of diversity in achieving scientific objectivity and escape from bias, and consider how the Bahá’í process of action, reflection, consultation, and study is consistent with modern understandings of the scientific method. Because this form of learning in action can be used by everybody, and because ethical, moral, and spiritual practices are part of its way of doing things, it provides a powerful extension of science and its methods that is available to everyone and allows ready integration of spiritual values into the process.

Becoming Attuned to Reality

Todd Smith — Fri, 22 Mar 2024 00:00:00 -0700

What is entailed in accurately reading reality? The main thesis of this paper is that the learning mode of action, reflection, consultation, and study encourages investigators to attend to at least six “interplays” which, together, work to facilitate collaborative readings that are progressively attuned to reality. Owing to these interplays, this mode of learning in action helps to weed out disabling or harmful presuppositions and corresponding ideas, making it possible to discover and retain enabling or beneficial ones. By doing so, it resolves the longstanding problem of how to conceptualize objectivity and cultivate it in the search for truth.

Even as the Waves of One Sea

Whitney White Kazemipour — Fri, 22 Mar 2024 00:00:00 -0700

A 1922 letter from Shoghi Effendi implies cultural dynamics which support Bahá’í consultation’s desired but precarious “clash of differing opinions.” First, it implicitly establishes the expectation that a swell of apparent disagreement will likely precede an emergent collective understanding, and that it is not, instead, a sign of failure. Second, it sets an ethos which accommodates errors, fostering growth and broad participation. Third, the prayer to open Assembly meetings that is included in the letter may generate a moral mood and motivation, orienting participants to build a unity within diversity strong enough to contain the possible tumult of clashing opinions. As these features are internalized by and motivate consultors, they can support the group’s ability to achieve the volatile but effective and transformative clash of differing opinions while protecting the unity of the group.

A Collaborative Exploration of the Harmony of Science and Religion

Michael Sabet — Fri, 22 Mar 2024 00:00:00 -0700

The papers in these two issues are the fruit of a collaborative process dating back more than four years, in which a number of friends have studied, consulted, written, and reflected together on the theme of the harmony of science and religion.
This editorial provides an opportunity to share reflections on both this theme itself, and the process by which these papers came about. We turn first to the theme, a perennial topic of reflection and study for many Bahá’ís, and situate the three papers in this issue in the context of the broad discourse on the harmony of science and religion.