Social and Global Issues

Religion and Science in the Globalized World explores contemporary trends in religion, science, and globalization from a Bahá’í perspective. It is divided into two parts. The first part is devoted to Bahá’í approaches to various aspects of globalization. It includes the following chapters: “Global Constitutionalism” by Graham Hassall; “Globalization—The Tangible Expression of Humanity’s Journey Towards Unity” by Sovaida Ma’ani Ewing; “Building a Just and Sustainable Global Food System: Some Guiding Principles” by Paul Hanley; “How Can We All Get Along?—A Bahá’í Perspective on Globalization” by Harold Rosen; and “Globalization Requires a Bahá’í Foundation” by Hooshmand Badee.

The book’s second part focuses on different issues within the domains of natural and social sciences. The chapters included are as follows: “A Bahá’í View of Human Rights” by Peter Smith; “Prophetic Revelation and Sociocultural Evolution: Some Scientific Perspectives” by Harry P.Massoth and Marilu Jeno; “Plato, Modern Physics, and Bahá’u’lláh” by Vahid Ranjbar; “Iterative Theology: Progressive Revelation as the String Theory of Religious Studies” by Andres Elvira Espinoza; and “The Issue of Self-Identity in Transhumanism and the Bahá’í Writings” by Mikhail Sergeev. The volume ends with two chronologies of articles and books numerous Bahá’í authors wrote on globalization and science from the second half of the twentieth century up to the present day.

This book highlights one element in the trilogy of unity, justice and peace that arguably sits at the core of Bahá’í beliefs, through an analysis of the relevant texts of Bahá’u’lláh, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, and Shoghi Effendi. By bringing the texts into sharper focus, rather than privileging the sociological or even the historical, it is hoped that the various ideological components of the concept of peace in the Bahá’í religion will be brought to sharper relief under a different light. The study explores the logical, anthropological and ethical extensions of the key theme of peace as it moved from one stage to another in the development of a young religion heavily invested in the world.

Framed as a contribution to intellectual history, the question ultimately addressed is: what kind of peace, human nature and general morality did the key authors envisage when they made some of their weightiest proclamations on peace?

This book describes a journey of search that enabled author Viv Bartlett to navigate around the obstacles that he calls ‘materialistic minefields’. Written in a conversational style and often drawing on his personal experience, it nonetheless explores profound questions.

Among these are the views, opinions and attitudes of a society that has disconnected its thinking from higher realities, so that individuals everywhere are tending to sink into a materialistic way of life that is in the last resort deeply unsatisfying. The increase in materialistic assumptions about reality has also led to general skepticism about humanity’s capacity to rise to a higher level of civilization.

But the choice between a materialistic or a spiritual perspective is a daily personal one. Looking at history as an evolutionary process and drawing on the teachings of the Bahá’í Faith, Bartlett sees the ‘knowledge of the oneness of mankind and the fundamental oneness of religion’ as necessary and inevitable to the gradual emergence of the maturity of humankind.

Born of the need to address the plight of men of African descent in the United States, and the unique afflictions imposed upon them, the Black Men's Gathering was founded in 1987 as an individual initiative. From its humble origins in a Greensboro hotel room where the original twelve participants met, the Gathering would grow and evolve over the course of a quarter-century to embrace hundreds in an atmosphere of love, fellowship, and devotion to the Cause of God. Anchor of Faith gives us a glimpse of the vibrant spirit of the Gathering; details its history, evolution, and influence; and brings to light the countless avenues of service pursued by its participants both at home and across the globe.