| Title | Title translation | Author 1 | Author 2 | Language | Session | Published | Abstract | online |
| Aristotelian Substratum of the Bahá'í Writings, The e |
|
Ian Kluge |
|
English |
42 |
Lights4 |
|
read online |
| Baha'i and Buddhism: Steps Towards an Ontological Rapprochement e |
|
Ian Kluge |
|
English |
65 |
|
|
|
| Baha'i Faith and Buddhism: Steps Towards an Ontological Rapprochement. e |
|
Ian Kluge |
|
English |
67 |
|
|
|
| Baha'i Writings and Buddhism: An Ontological Rapprochement e |
|
Ian Kluge |
|
English |
72 |
Lights8 |
Baha'u'llah teaches the essential oneness of all religions revealed by divinely sent Manifestations, one of Whom is the Buddha. This paper seeks to provide detailed illustrations of these teachings by showing that two different and apparently incompatible religions - the Baha'i Faith and Buddhism - share fundamental ontological principles. In other... |
read online |
| Baha'i Writings and the Buddhist Doctrine of Emptiness, The: An Initial Survey e |
|
Ian Kluge |
|
English |
- |
Lights20 |
Agreements and convergence of the Buddhist concept of sunyata with the Baha'i Writings. |
read online |
| Baha'i Writings and the Process of Philosophy e |
|
Ian Kluge |
|
English |
46 |
Lights5 |
According to the Baha'i Writings, all parts of creation are in
a perpetual state of flux, actualizing their potentials, growing or decaying,
advancing or retreating. History, both biological and human-cultural, is an evolutionary
process that culminates in super-natural or spiritual developments in humankind.
Given such foundations, this pa... |
read online |
| Buddhist Doctrine of Nothingness e |
|
Ian Kluge |
|
English |
102 |
|
`Emptiness' is one of the key concepts of Buddhism and especially of Mahayana Buddhism where we find numerous sutras and schools of interpretation dedicated to this subject. The differences among these schools notwithstanding, they all agree that `emptiness' refers to the fact that nothing has intrinsic or inherent existence, that nothing exists in... |
|
| Call into Being: A Prolegomena to a Baha'i Existentialism e |
|
Ian Kluge |
|
English |
44 |
Lights4 |
|
read online |
| Ethics and the Bahá'í Writings: A Philosophical Survey e |
|
Ian Kluge |
|
English |
116 |
Lights15 |
The Baha'i Writings promise an ethical renewal for all the peoples and cultures in the world and ethical guidance for the future personal, social and spiritual evolution of humankind. This paper pursues a philosophical examination of the Writings' ethical teachings, how they relate to the major ethical systems proposed in the past, and how they dea... |
read online |
| Ethics Based on Science Alone? e |
|
Ian Kluge |
|
English |
109 |
|
In 2010, Sam Harris published The Moral Landscape: How Science Can Determine Human Values in order to demonstrate that values, ethics, morality do not require more than an empirical basis. There is no need for any appeal to a transcendental God, prophets or holy books in order to establish a viable system of personal and social ethics. Moreover, b... |
read online |
| Freedom and the Baha'i Writings e |
|
Ian Kluge |
|
English |
- |
Lights19 |
|
read online |
| Further Explorations in Baha'i Ontology: Ontologies of self and change e |
|
Ian Kluge |
|
English |
60 |
Lights7 |
In this paper/presentation, we shall continue our exploration of Baha'i ontology that we began in "Baha'i Ontology: An Initial Reconnaissance." We shall examine, among other things, issues related to becoming and change; substance, soul, self and identity; the nature of being and nothingness; time; the one and the many; the nature of 'things'; what... |
read online |
| Kant's Universal Peace and the Bahá'í Vision of a Future World Order e |
|
Ian Kluge |
|
English |
102 |
Lights13 |
In 1795, Immanuel Kant published Perpetual Peace: A Philosophical Sketch in which he outlined the practical steps necessary to end war among nation-states. Though focused on Europe, its intent was global and included, among other things, the establishment of a "league of peace" and a federal union of all nations. Because Baha'u'llah's proposals for... |
read online |
| Meta-History and the Bahá'í Writings e |
|
Ian Kluge |
|
English |
137 |
Lights18 |
The doctrine of progressive revelation is a "grand narrative" or meta-historical account of humanity's spiritual and psycho-social progress over the length of human existence. In other words, this teaching presents the story of the unfolding or actualizing of uniquely human potentials in our struggle with the material world and our own animal natur... |
|
| Neo-Platonism and the Bahá'í Faith e |
|
Ian Kluge |
|
English |
93 |
Lights11 |
This paper will analyze The Enneads of Plotinus and, to a lesser extent, Proclus' The Elements of Theology in order to identify how their teachings agree with and differ from the Baha'i Writings. Our analysis will begin but not end with an examination of the doctrine of emanationism and its philosophical and theological implications. It will deal w... |
read online |
| Neo-Platonism and the Baha'i Faith: Part 2 e |
|
Ian Kluge |
|
English |
- |
Lights12 |
See abstract in Part One. |
read online |
| New Atheism and the Bahá'í Writings, The e |
|
Ian Kluge |
|
English |
102 |
Lights13 |
In this paper we shall examine four of the foundational works of the new atheism movement which has become a strong presence in current debates about the role of God and religion in human existence both past and present, and the role of religion in regards to society, education, science and in public discourse in general. After an examination of th... |
read online |
| Nietzsche and the Baha'i Writings: An Introductory Exploration e |
|
Ian Kluge |
|
English |
130 |
Lights17 |
First appearances to the contrary, the Baha'i Writings and Nietzsche's philosophy share a surprising number of features in common that allow Baha'is to re-vision Nietzsche from a new perspective. The basis of this re-visioning are the Aristotelian elements in the Writings which I have documented in a previous paper and similar elements underlying t... |
read online |
| Ontology: A Basic Survey, Explications and Commentary e |
|
Ian Kluge |
|
English |
53 |
Lights6 |
Like the sacred scripture of all religions, the Baha'i Writings embody an ontology, that is, they contain teachings about the nature of what exists and the structure of reality. This paper is an initial survey and explication of the ontology implicit in the Writings. It pays special attention to the nature of human existence, that is, to nature of ... |
read online |
| Panel Discussion on Minimalism and the Bahá'í Faith e |
|
Ian Kluge |
Wolfgang Klebel |
English |
74 |
|
|
|
| Panel Presentation on Post-Modernism and the Bahá'í Faith e |
|
Ian Kluge |
Mahyad Rahnamaie |
English |
74 |
|
|
|
| Plotinus and the Bahá'í Writings: Parts 1 and 2 e |
|
Ian Kluge |
|
English |
95 |
|
This paper summarizes, builds on and expands the ideas presented in "Neoplatonism and the Baha'i Writings" in order to demonstrate how the work of Plotinus and his successors complements and offers new insights into the philosophy embedded in the Baha'i Revelation. Because the convergences and congruencies are numerous and far-reaching, it is my co... |
|
| Postmodernism and the Bahá'í Faith e |
|
Ian Kluge |
|
English |
79 |
Lights9 |
|
read online |
| Procrustes' Bed: The Insufficiency of Secular Humanism e |
|
Ian Kluge |
|
English |
- |
Lights16 |
The argument of this paper is that secular humanism's inability to accommodate the empirically established universal presence of religion in human nature undermines secular humanism's claim to be a viable world-view for mankind. This failure to live up to its self-proclaimed empiricism unleashes a cascade of consequences that undermines its interna... |
read online |
| Reason and the Bahá'í Writings e |
|
Ian Kluge |
|
English |
109 |
Lights14 |
Unlike the scriptures of other religions, the Baha'i Writings have a great deal to say about the importance of reason. Indeed, they tell us that "in this age the peoples of the world need the arguments of reason" (`Abdu'l-Baha, Some Answered Questions, p. 7) and that "If religion were contrary to logical reason then it would cease to be a religion... |
read online |
| Relativism and the Baha'i Writings e |
|
Ian Kluge |
|
English |
79 |
Lights9 |
|
read online |
| Some Answered Questions: A Philosophical Perspective e |
|
Ian Kluge |
|
English |
86 |
Lights10 |
By identifying and examining the philosophical positions explicitly and implicitly embedded in Some Answered Questions, this paper calls attention to the philosophical foundations of the Baha'i teachings. The goal is to understand these teachings philosophically, as distinct from understanding them historically or theologically for example. The are... |
read online |
