Universal House of Justice Ridvan Message 2010: A Context

Part 1:

The following post is an edited version of the post which I originally placed in cyberspace some 8 years ago. I posted an introduction to the paradigmatic shift in the Baha’i community, the new culture of learning and growth that is at the heart of this paradigm which was initiated in 1996. I did this posting at several internet sites and have revised that post in these last 8 years, many times, as developments in the paradigm have come about, as new messages from Bahá'í institutions have been published and as many individuals have commented in cyberspace on this new Baha'i culture.

It seemed like a good idea to give readers some specific steps on how to access this now revised article, what is now a book of more than 280,000 words and more than 790 pages(font 16) and is found at Baha’i Library Online(BLO)--especially with the publication at Ridvan of 2015 of ithe annual message from the Universal House of Justice--one of the many medium-sized messages of the Formative Age since that charismatic Force of the 19th century was institutionalized in the Guardianship and, in 1963, effloresced at the apex of Baha'i administration.

In the time this book has been on the internet there have been some 40 thousand++ views of this analysis, this statement on the new paradigm at the few sites where it has been posted. In addition to Googling “Baha’i Culture of Learning and Growth” and accessing this article in the process at several internet sites, readers can find this piece of writing at BLO by clicking on the following:

http://bahai-library.com/price_culture_learning_paradigm

Part 2:

The article can be downloaded free and you will then have access to this book, this context for all this new paradigmatic terminology that has come into the Baha’i community in the last 20 years with at least a preliminary integration of relevant passages from the latest House message.

My statement, my book, is a personal one, does not assume an adversarial attitude, attempts to give birth of as fine an etiquette of expression as I can muster and, I like to think, possesses both candour and critical thought on the one hand and praise and delight at the many interrelated processes involved in the execution of this paradigm on the other. I invite readers to what I also like to think is “a context on which relevant fundamental questions” regarding this new paradigm may be discussed within the Baha’i community. But, in the end, my writing, my words and all of the quotations I place in contexts to illustrate what I want to illustrate--amount to my initial take on this new Baha'i paradigm. My book possesses no authority. Indeed, such a remark hardly needs saying.

This book contains, as I emphasize, an update, an inclusion of commentary on the most recent messages from the institutions of the Cause. One of the advantages of the BLO site is the freedom it gives to a writer to update the article right on the site in an ongoing process as new insights from major thinkers in the Baha’i community and information from the elected and appointed institutions of the Cause comes to hand. If time and the inclination permit, check it out. No worries, no obligation, just if it interests you. You may find the piece of writing too long as I’m sure many readers do. It is certainly a view from the inside, but it is just one person’s view building as it does on the ideas and writings of others: Bahá'í institutions and individuals. We each have a different experience on the inside of this paradigm, on the inside of this Faith or, indeed, living on the inside of our global society. You may find this book too personal due to the fact that I attempt to answer the question: “where do I fit into this new paradigm?” After a few paragraphs of reading, you will get the flavour of the exercise. Just keep reading if your mind and spirit are enjoying the process.

I have appreciated the comments received in the last 8 years since the original posting the above item here at this Absolute Write Water Cooler site as well as several other internet locations. The House of Justice's Ridvan messages, the long, the short, and the medium length ones are all integrated into this book. There has been much in all the Ridvan messages to integrate into my book on the new Baha'i paradigm. The Ridvan, April 2010, message was an interesting contrast to the 2009 Ridvan message which was that institution's shortest Ridvan message. I have integrated the 2015 Ridvan message into this book.

The House of Justice's messages in the last 51 years continue the pattern of long and short messages and everything in between that the leader of the Baha'i Faith, Shoghi Effendi, wrote during his thirty-six years in office from 1921 to 1957. Shoghi Effendi was known as 'the Guardian' to the international Baha'i community. -Ron Price, George Town, Tasmania----Australia's oldest town!

THE WALL AND THE WINDOW

Go to this link at Scribd to access some of my other posts: http://www.scribd.com/pro_stats ...if you are interested. You can also Google "Baha'i Culture of Learning" and, in the process, find many sites in cyberspace where this book is now found.

Scribd Site: 3rd Draft of Article

Scribd is a social publishing site where tens of millions of people share original writings and documents. Scribd's vision, they emphasize, is to liberate the written word. To access the above book as simply as possible just Google the words: RonPrice at Scribd.

You can go to this link to get a 700+ page book with 250 thousand words for an analysis of the new Baha'i paradigm, an analysis that includes the latest messages from the Supreme Body up to and including August 2014: http://bahai-library.com/price_culture_learning_paradigm

Book Updated To 1 May 2013

Part 1:

The building of the structure of this new world Faith, a structure with many functions, was at the core of Bahai programs and policies, goals and game-plans, so to speak, from 1921 to 1996, a period of 75 years, as well as back into the 19th century. Beginning in the mid-1990s a paradigmatic shift took place in Baha'i culture. The following book of 790 pages(font 16) and 280 thousand words contains reflections and understandings regarding this new Baha'i culture of learning and growth, what amounts to a paradigmatic shift, in the Baha’i community. This international community found in over 200 countries and territories, as well as some 120 thousand localities has been going through this shift in its culture since the mid-1990s.

This religion which claims to be the newest, this latest, of the Abrahamic religions, had its origins in mid-19th century Iran. This new culture, or paradigm, will be developing in the decades ahead at least until 2044, the end of the second century of the Baha'i Era(1844 to 2044), and perhaps beyond into that third century of the Baha'i era, 2044 to 2144. Time will tell when the next paradigmatic shift will take place in the international Baha'i community. Comparisons and contrasts are made to several previous paradigm shifts in the Baha'i community. Thoughts on future developments within this paradigm and future paradigms are suggested. In the first 8 years, 2007 to 2015, of the presence on the internet of this commentary, it has contributed to an extensive dialogue on the issues regarding the many related and inter-related processes involved in the many ongoing changes in the international Bahai community.

Part 2:

This work is dedicated to the Universal House of Justice, trustee of the global undertaking which the events of more than a century ago set in motion. The fully institutionalized charismatic Force, a Force that historically found its expression in the Person of Baha'u'llah, had effloresced by a process of succession, of appointment and election, at the apex of Bahai administration for half a century by 1 May 2013. I have written this book as a form of dedication to, by some accounts, an estimated 15 to 25 thousand Baha'is and Babis who have given their lives for this Cause from the 1840s to the second decade of this third millennium. I have also dedicated this book to the many best teachers and exemplary believers--those ordinary Bahais--who have consecrated themselves, indeed their lives, to the work of this Faith. Finally, I have written this work in memory of my maternal grandfather, Alfred Cornfield, whose life from 1872 to 1958 has always been for me a model of an engagement in a quite personal culture of learning and personal growth.

Part 3:

This book is, arguably, the longest analysis and commentary on this new Baha'i paradigm that is currently available in the Bahai community, although several other books have appeared since this piece of writing first appeared in cyberspace in 2007. The overarching perspective in this book is a personal one that attempts to answer the question: "where do I fit into this new paradigm?" Readers are left to work out their own response to this question as readers inevitably must, now and in the decades ahead, as this new paradigm develops a life of its own within the framework already established in the first two decades of its operation: 1996 to 2016.

The question now is not "if" but "how" each Baha'i will engage themselves, will participate, in this new paradigm as the first century of the Formative Age comes to an end in 2021 and in the years beyond as this third millennium continues to challenge all of humanity. Go to this link to skim, scan or read every page: http://bahai-library.com/price_culture_learning_paradigm