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"lighten and uplift
them, so that they may soar on the wings of the Divine verses"
-Baha'u'llah
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Learning on
a higher plane
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SAN
FRANCISCO, United States, 16 September 2003
(BWNS) --
Scholars should move away from a combative style
and lift their discussion to a higher plane, a
senior professor told a major conference here.
"Contemporary
academic scholarship is often vindictively
vicious in attacking an idea or an author
regardless of the merit of the thesis
proposed," said Suheil Bushrui, who holds
the Baha'i Chair for World Peace at the
University of Maryland.
Professor
Bushrui was delivering the prestigious Hasan M.
Balyuzi Memorial Lecture at the 27th annual
conference of the Association for Baha'i
Studies-North America, held 29 August-1
September 2003. |
Some participants at the annual conference of
the Association for Baha'i Studies-North
America. (Photo: Courosh Mehanian)
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More than
1300 participants attended the conference.
"All
knowledge in the Baha'i point of view is measured by its
benevolent influence and contribution to the unity and
prosperity of the human race," said Professor
Bushrui, who also announced his retirement in 2004 from
the Baha'i Chair.
Addressing
the conference, noted sociologist Philip Selznick
discussed the importance of a stronger sense of civility
in the effort to build stronger and yet more inclusive
communities, in a world where many groups are seeking --
out of a sense of piety -- to distance themselves from
others.
"Civility
is naked without articles of faith, which tell us who we
are and what we live by," said Professor Selznick,
who is not a Baha'i.
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"Piety
without civility is debased and out of
control," he said.
Founded
in 1975, the Association for Baha'i Studies
promotes the development of scholarship on the
Baha'i Faith in North America.
The
San Francisco conference took the theme of
"Religion and Community in a Time of
Crisis" and featured a wide range of
lectures, panel discussions, workshops, and
artistic performances. |
Professor Suheil Bushrui. |
A keynote
speaker, Dr. Ann Boyles, addressed the topic
"Binding Together a Fragmented World: A Baha'i
Perspective on 'Community'."
"Baha'is
see religion as one powerful means to address the
problems besetting the world, and this is because
religion has traditionally been concerned with two broad
questions: the purpose of existence and the nature of
the community," said Dr. Boyles, a lecturer at the
University of Prince Edward Island in Canada.
"Baha'is
are deeply and centrally concerned with the process of
building an inclusive, rather than exclusive, community
based on the enactment of transcendent values rather
than mere material progress," said Dr. Boyles, a
senior editor of the "Baha'i World", an annual
volume recording Baha'i activities and perspectives.
"Theories
and practices that promote self-indulgence and disrupt
the connections among individuals have no place in the
Baha'i community."
Dr. Ann Boyles. |
Dr.
Boyles also commented on the inauguration of a new
special interest group -- on indigenous studies --
within the Association.
Named
in honor of the late Patricia Locke, a noted
Lakota/Chippewa Baha'i, the group opened with a
panel discussion that explored the diverse ways of
"knowing" and "seeing" among
indigenous peoples.
"This
development is important because it showed how the
Association is making efforts to nurture different
approaches to scholarship, or different ways of
'knowing'," said Dr. Boyles. |
She said
another aspect of the conference she found very moving
was the artistic presentations.
"They
ran the gamut from opera to a young group of kids doing
hip-hop music. There was also a duo that played
traditional Chinese instruments, including the yangqin
(hammered dulcimer), music from Ghana, and a group of
Armenian dancers."
Stephen
Birkland a member of the Continental Board of
Counsellors for North America, told the conference that
people find themselves in an age when the equilibrium of
the world has been upset.
Non-equilibrium
states, however, are "characterized by
extraordinary innovation" and are "where the
greatest learning takes place."
Asako Takami Dance Group, who performed at
the conference. |
He
identified three resources to help people thrive
in this frustrating yet promising age: keenness of
vision; communication with one other, or
"cultivating a culture of
encouragement"; and the Word of God, as
"the wellspring of all social and material
progress."
The
challenge of practicing Baha'i values within the
materialistic and secular settings of the academic
world was the topic of a searching and lively
panel discussion by five young Baha'i academics
and professionals.
Ruha
Benjamin, a sociology graduate student at the
University of California, Berkeley, spoke of the
"severe mental tests" that scholars must
confront in "the battle with our self, or
ego."
She
urged Baha'is to engage in reflective practice as
a learning community and to ask: "Am I
reinforcing hierarchies that Baha'u'llah came to
change?" |
Derik
Smith, a professor of African American literature at
Arcadia University, noted that "in order to be
employable you have to articulate views in the discourse
that holds sway."
But lest
"we forget where we're coming from...we must
constantly cultivate a transcendent vision, a
spiritualized approach to what we do."
The more
than 90 papers, panel discussions, and workshops at the
conference included a presentation on "Creative
Dimensions of Life Crisis and Suffering" by
Abdu'l-Missagh Ghadirian, a professor at the McGill
University Faculty of Medicine; a discussion on
"Faith, History and Community Building in the Babi
and Baha'i Faiths"; and a panel discussion on
"The Press as a Consultative Forum," featuring
Baha'i journalists.
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Other
presentation and workshop topics included human
rights and religious extremism; applying
principle-based indicators of development;
multi-racial community building; bioethics;
economics and social justice; and gender and
ethics.
Special
interest groups within the Association held
presentations on topics ranging from agriculture
and ecology to marriage and family life.
(Photos
by Courosh Mehanian.) |
Ruha Benjamin. |
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| Published in Bahá'í
World News Service |
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