Religious reformers in Britain at the turn of the twentieth century: the visits of Abdul Baha

The central theme of this work is an examination of the contribution made by home-grown reformers to the construction of new religious frameworks in Britain at the turn of the twentieth century. I focus on the evolution of a worldview oriented towards Asia and key individuals that sought interaction with religious ideas from the ‘East’. I will take as a case study the reception in Britain of the head of the Bahai religion, Abdul Baha, who visited in 1911 and again in late 1912. Through an analysis of the discourses he was invited to engage with, and the reasons his British hosts pursued these encounters, I recover lost aspects of what was a vibrant and multidimensional religious ‘field’. This will necessitate a review of why and how scholars of the new ‘science of religion’, ‘Celticists’, leading Protestant reformers and others expended much energy in supporting the Bahai leader’s public programme as he progressed through Britain. These interactions and their prominent promoters, significant in the context of the history of religions in Europe, are now mostly ‘forgotten’ or are ‘remembered’ in a particular fashion. Endeavouring to answer why these events are consigned as a footnote in history exposes a complex nexus of factors bearing on agency, myopic interpretation and the manner in which this history has been captured and interpreted. A key factor is the effect of the catastrophic conflagration which beset the world in 1914 on universalist worldviews. The figures analysed in this thesis were exponents of ideas and philosophies that are familiar in the present. Consideration of their experience illuminates similar contemporary discursive trends and leads me to posit the aetiology of such religious journeying as occurring long before it is generally thought such ideas were prevalent. Notwithstanding their eclectic interests, an important component in the construction of this discursive environment was the operation of a particular ‘filter’, one which still favoured Christianity as a pleroma

Alma Link Resolver Subject Report 2015-2016

Statistics for 2015-2016 on the number of OpenURL requests by Library of Congress classification code made to the Ex Libris Alma link resolver for items held by the University of Rhode Island Libraries. Information provided includes Classification Code, Classifications, Number of Requests, Number of Clicked Requests, and % Clicks from Requests

Alma Link Resolver Subject Report 2018-2019

Statistics for 2018-2019 on the number of OpenURL requests by Library of Congress classification code made to the Ex Libris Alma link resolver for items held by the University of Rhode Island Libraries. Information provided includes Classification Code, Classifications, Number of Requests, Number of Clicked Requests, and % Clicks from Requests

Alma Link Resolver Subject Report 2016-2017

Statistics for 2016-2017 on the number of OpenURL requests by Library of Congress classification code made to the Ex Libris Alma link resolver for items held by the University of Rhode Island Libraries. Information provided includes Classification Code, Classifications, Number of Requests, Number of Clicked Requests, and % Clicks from Requests

The rise of Twelver Shi'ite externalism in Safavid Iran and its consolidation under 'Allama Muhammad Baqir Majlisi (1037/1627-1110/1699).

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre- DSC:D182658 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

Religion as Liberal Politics

US and UK courts define religion as a belief system dealing with existential concerns, which is separable from politics, and need not be theistic. Where does this concept of religion come from? Some scholars trace it to the advent of the Protestant Reformation when religion became a matter of competing theological propositions. My analysis of both John Calvin and Roger Williams shows that those Protestant thinkers emphasized the view that religion is essentially a belief system. However, Protestantism cannot explain all of the features of the US and UK concept of religion. It is because of the liberal belief in individual rights and in popular sovereignty that early liberals like Roger Williams and contemporary courts embrace the separability of religion from politics. These courts also reject the view that religion is necessarily theistic given their liberal commitment to treating citizens that subscribe to certain non-theistic ideologies as equal citizens to citizens with theistic ideologies

Searching for May Maxwell : Bahá’í millennial feminism, transformative identity & globalism

This dissertation demonstrates that a group of western women connected to May Maxwell through ties of faith and friendship exemplified a distinct form of early twentieth-century feminism in their adoption and promotion of the transplanted Bahá’í Faith. In actualizing their doctrinal principles, they worked to inaugurate a millennial new World Order predicated on the spiritual and social equality of women. This group championed a unique organizational structure and transnational perspective that propelled them to female leadership, both as inspirational models and agents of practical change. By examining how Bahá’í doctrines shaped the beliefs, mythologies, relationships and reform goals of women, this dissertation broadens understandings of the ways in which religion can act as a vehicle for female empowerment and transformative identity. Together, western early Bahá’í women built individual and collective capacity, challenging gender prescriptions and social norms. Their millennial worldview advocated a key role for women in shaping nascent Bahá’í culture, and initiating personal, institutional, and societal change. Their inclusive collaborative organizational style, non-western origins and leadership, diverse membership, and global locus of activity, made them one of the first groups to establish and sustain a transnational feminist reform network. Although in some respects this group resembled other religious, feminist, and reform-oriented women, identifiably “Bahá’í” features of their ideology, methodologies, and reform activities made them distinctive. This research contributes to a more nuanced understanding of the role of women in the creation of modern religious and social mythologies and paradigms. A study of Bahá’í millennial religious feminism also expands current conceptions of the boundaries, diversities, and intersections of early twentieth-century western millennial, feminist, religious, and transnational reform movements

Religion and relevance: The Baha'is in Britain 1899-1930.

The subject of this thesis is an investigation of the Baha'i Movement in the British Isles during the first three decades of the last century, which is an hitherto un-researched subject. The first discovery is that the Baha'i movement was an inclusive supplementary religious movement, not requiring the renunciation of existing beliefs and connections, and in this it is to be sharply distinguished from the exclusive Baha'i Faith which was to follow. Through the use of archival material, journals, newspapers, books and pamphlets it has been possible to identify practically all of the eighty or so people who identified as Baha'is during the period. They were found to be, in most cases, many-sided colourful characters, who were linked by networks, which are identified and the particular nature of each discussed. The visits to Britain of the charismatic leader 'Abdu'l Baha to Britain are analysed, in particular for what he said and did, but also to establish the interplay of the networks during the visits. The First World War brought the break up of several networks and the death of 'Abdu'l Baha in 1921 brought the end of charismatic leadership. This marked the beginning of an administration which alienated those whom old age and infirmity had not already removed from the Movement. The demise of the Baha'i Movement meant there was almost no continuity between the Movement and the establishment of the Baha'i Faith in Britain around 1936. Theoretically, the exposition is made within a modified form of Sperber and Wilson's Theory of Relevance. Although networks are now a commonplace in sociological theory concerning religion, and the establishment of the administration a fine example of the routinisation of charisma, a supplementary religious movement of this kind which required no 'conversion' needed a new approach. The notion of degrees of relevance supplied this need. Accordingly a modified theory of relevance is developed in the Introduction and serves well to account for how the inchoate Baha'i message was disambiguated and enriched variously by the different networks. As the 'message' became clarified, for some relevance diminished. Not all religious relevance is cognitive and epistemological so the concept of ontological relevance is developed to account for the effect of the presence of a highly spiritual person. Finally 'Abdu'l Baha is found to be a master of relevance and his explanation of relevance is examined together with criticism of Baha'i missionary techniques on the grounds of excessive relevance

The travel diary of a philosopher

http://tartu.ester.ee/record=b2416030~S1*es