Antipodean Bahá’í Studies

The Irfan Colloquia continues its program of conferences in Europe and North America. In May the 88th Colloquium will be held at Bosch Baha’i school, Santa Cruz, California, May 28-31, 2009. The program includes the following presentations: Muin Afnani, A Review of the History and Content of Anti-Bahá’i Publications; Ghasem Bayat, Resurection - Hell & Heaven: Fire and Heaven (Nar va Jannat) in the Babi and Bahá’í Scriptures; Arsalan Geula. The Evolution of Man: Unity of Mankind; Keyvan Geula, Psychological and Spiritual Impact of Story Telling; Farshid Kazemi Celestial Fire: Bahá’u'llah as a Messianic Appearance of the Divine Fire in Zoroastrian Scripture, Mysteries of Alast: The Realm of Subtle Entities (’Alam-i dharr) and the Primordial Covenant in the Babi-Bahá’i Writings; Wolfgang Klebel, The Path of God: Declaration towards a Global Ethic and the Bahá’í Faith; Ian Kluge, Neo-Platonism and the Bahá’i Writings; Stephen Lambden, Gateways to the Qayyum al-asma’ of the Bab: Some introductory notes based on an examination of its Surah Titles. Soul, Spirit and Mind from Antiquity to Bahá’í Perspective: A intertextual trajectory from Biblical times and Hellenistic antiquity to the Islamic and Babi-Bahá’i psychology. Ramin Neshati, Metaphysics Reconsidered: A Dialog between `Abdu’l-Bahá and August Forel; Sholeh Quinn, The Historical Context of Bahá’u'llah’s Lawh-i Qina (Part I) Mahyad Rahnamaie, Mathematical Model to Investigate Non-Material Realities; Farhad Sabetan, Distributive Justice: A Bahá’í Perspective; Ben Schewel, Beginning a Conversation: Scriptural Reasoning and the Bahá’í Faith; Laleh Shahriaree, Tahirih’s Insight into the Inner Nature of the Cause of Bahá’i Faith; James Thomas, Elements of Immortality: A Nexus of Proofs by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in Some Answered Question; Mina Yazdani, An Overview of the Bahá’i Writings on Iran;

Meanwhile at the Center for Baha’i Studies in Acuto, Italy June 28 through July 1, the following presentations are scheduled: Amin Egea, A review of some aspects of the Tablet of Wisdom (Lawh-i-Hikmat); Armin Eschraghi, Some thoughts on Bahá’u’llah’s last Major work: Epistle to Aqa Najafi; Farshid Kazemi, Land of Zaphron: A descriptive Study and Early Ismailite Philosophy and the Bábi/Bahá’í Religions; Nadia Khazraee, Reality Concealed Behind the Veil; Stephen Lambden; Second “Manuchehr Salmanpour Memorial Lecture”: Names and Attributes of God, Soul, Spirit and Mind from Antiquity to Bahá’í Perspective; Moojan Momen, The Báb’s Commentary on the Hadith of Kumail: What is Reality?; Steven Phelps, Beyond Athens and Jerusalem: Re-visioning the science-religion conflict; Sholeh Quinn, An introductory review of Bahá’u’llah’s Lawh-i-Qina’; Mahyad Rahnamaie, A Mathematical Model to Investigate Non-Material Realities; Moshe Sharon. What is behind the words? The earliest writings of Bahá’u'llah; Vargha Taefi, Consensus Decision-Making: Bahá’i Perspective; Iskander Tinto, Gems of Divine Mysteries and its relationship with the Seven Valleys and the Kitáb-i-Iqán.; Ramin Vasli, Faith and Reason in “Some Answered Questions” and The new concept of God in “Some Answered Questions”; Farhan Yazdani, Beyond the Concept of Evil: A Methodology for Multidisciplinary and Multicultural Ethical Decision-Making. Details concernong the Persian language conference being held 3-9 July are available

Further conferences are planned in Tambach, Germany and Davis, Michigan later in 2009. The proceedings of these conferences are published in the series: Lights of Irfan (English) and Safiniy-i-Irfan (Persian).