October 29, 2004
Four Courses to Watch

The Wilmette Institute has an exciting fall line-up to consider in the next few months.

First, there's Islam for Deepening and Dialogue, which has already started but can still accept new students. Unit One, embracing the last two weeks of October, is a time of copying materials from the website and introducing oneself to the class, so anyone interested in registering hasn't missed anything yet. Shoghi Effendi stressed the importance of Baha'is learning about Islam in order to understand the basics of their own Faith, and the need to dialogue with Muslims--who are now a substantial minority group in the United States--is growing. The course thus providies Baha'is with an important service.

Second, there's Rediscovering the Dawnbreakers, a course reviewing the life of the Bab, His declaration and mission, His revelation, the growth of the Babi movement, and that movement's eventual near-destruction as a result of violent repression. The course traces events through 1863 and will discuss briefly the splinter groups that arose from the Babi movement. Readings come from Nabil's Narrative, God Passes By, and other recent works by Baha'i historians. The course will provide an excellent resource for those who have completed Ruhi Book 4 and wishes to study the Bab in greater detail. A course on Baha'u'llah will be available soon as well. Rediscovering the Dawnbreakers starts November 15 and runs for three months. It has no residency requirement; the entire course will be available via the worldwide web.

Third, there's Baha'i Theology: Concepts of God, Revelation, Manifestation, Creation, Humanity, Afterlife, and Covenant. The last time the course was offered four years ago, this exploration of Baha'i "metaphysics" proved quite popular. For many years, Baha'i firesides and classes have concentrated on the social aspect of the Faith rather than its distinctive teachings about God, humanity, and their relationship to each other. The course seeks to explore the physical reality God created (including us), how God relates to that realm (through revelation in general and the Manifestation in particular), and how that realm relates to God in return (especially as expressed in the concept of Covenant). The course will explore the topic through a compilation of Baha'i writings on the subject and books by various Baha'i authors. The three-month distance learning course (which is available just over the web) begins December 1.

Fourth, the Institute is offering for the fourth time a course titled The Role of Baha'is in This Age of Transition: The World Order of Baha'u'llah, Selected Letters. The course fulfils the request of the Universal House of Justice that the Baha'is, in addition to pursuing the other curricular priorities of the institute process, also study three letters authored by Shoghi Effendi in the 1930s: "The Goal of a New World Order," "America and the Most Great Peace," and "The Unfoldment of World Civilization." An opening unit also studies the Universal House of Justice's Ridvan 2003 letter where the Supreme Institution called for the letters to be studied. As the world lurches into darker and darker stages in the age of transition, Shoghi Effendi's vision of where we have come from and where we are going, and our role in moving humanity to a glorious future, are more relevant than ever. The three-month course begins December 15.

The last three courses will most likely use the Wilmette Institute's new website and Forums, scheduled to be launched some time in November. With the launching of a new registration system, the next months should see a great increase in the Wilmette Institute's ability to offer useful and well-organized distance-learning courses to Baha'is all over the globe.