The Baha'i Studies Listserv Hi, Ian: I went back and reread portions of Whitehead, de Chardin, and the Baha'i Writings: An Initial Exploration:
http://www.bahaiphilosophystudies.com/articles/?p=17 We all view the Baha'i texts through the lenses of our own backgrounds and experiences. I am including myself. When I deepened in the Baha'i Faith with my dear spiritual mother, the late Elizabeth Thomas, I read them through the eyes of Marian Lippitt, Henry Weil, and, of course, Elizabeth. Although my approach to these materials has changed over the years, especially since I have been studying Arabic, I continue to use their approach in this book on the Five Kingdoms Model: http://fivekingdoms.bahaifaith.info/ I recognize and accept that I am doing so. To me, that approach makes sense (as I have reformulated it). However, I do not assume that I have discovered some kind of clear framework which is embedded in the Baha'i texts. Even *if* there is a ontological system in the Baha'i texts, human fallibility and agency would almost inevitably distort it. As human beings, our selective exposure, selective perception, and selective retention are based upon our expectations. That is, IMO, especially the case with religious scriptures. Not only were Baha'u'llah, the Bab, and `Abdu'l-Baha distinct individuals. They also varieded their presentations in relation to particular readers or listeners. Here is what you wrote on the main page of your site: "First, this site aims at explicating the coherent philosophical world-view embedded in the Baha'i Writings." I question whether we can, in fact, actually do such a thing. When I, as someone who is not a process philosopher, read your paper on Whitehead and de Chardin, what I see is an attempt to put the Baha'i texts into the categories established by process philosophers. You wrote the following in your Whitehead paper: "Although process thought in the West has a long and distinguished history, beginning with Heraclitus and extending through Schelling, Hegel, Marx and Schopenhauer among others, it is Whitehead's and de Chardin's versions that have particularly inspired modern and contemporary philosophers and theologians." I can tell you that, as a former neo-Marxist, I never thought of Marx as a process philosopher. However, when one accepts a particular model, it becomes easy to view everything through those eyes. Now, I am not saying that I do not do something similar with Lippitt, Weil, and Thomas. I think I do. However, here is what I say at the beginning of the Five Kingdoms Model book: "Please remember that I am an unusually fallible and imperfect being. My mind often changes like the weather. Although you might not entirely agree with The Five Kingdoms Model^(TM), if past experience is any indication, neither will I, a day or a year from now..... Humbly, therefore, I ask that you ponder over each of the items in the model, not read through them too quickly." __________________________________________________ You are subscribed to Baha'i Studies as: mailto:[email protected] Unsubscribe: send a blank email to mailto:leave-621730-27401.54f46e81b66496c9909bcdc2f7987...@list.jccc.edu Subscribe: send subscribe bahai-st in the message body to [email protected] Or subscribe: http://list.jccc.edu:8080/read/all_forums/subscribe?name=bahai-st Baha'i Studies is available through the following: Mail - mailto:[email protected] Web - http://list.jccc.edu:8080/read/?forum=bahai-st News (on-campus only) - news://list.jccc.edu/bahai-st Old Public - http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] New Public - http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]
