December 2022
A monthly electronic Newsletter
News, Web Talks, live events,
upcoming courses
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Great Webinars and Podcasts
The talks are live web video programs and are free. Just click to register, or go to our Facebook or YouTube page to watch live. The video will be available later on our YouTube account; the audio may be available as a podcast on our SoundCloud channel. Our podcasts can also be found in the Apple Store and many other places where one can download podcasts.
There are no live webinars scheduled in December.
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On January 1, 2023, Robert Stockman will transition from Director of the Wilmette Institute to Dean of its academic and extension programs in Baha'i history, texts, and tenets.
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The Wilmette Institute is pleased to add Hasti Khoshnammanesh to its staff as its new digital support specialist.
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Coming in 2023: An Orientation Course
Starting in January, the Wilmette Institute's "extension" (non-credit) courses will begin with a one-week course orienting students to Moodle, the Baha'i framework for action, and the importance of public discourse. The orientation course should help focus the extension courses and the students as they study.
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Application Now Open for Two Certificate Programs
Starting in 2023, the Wilmette Institute is launching two certificate programs as part of our effort to become accredited. We need students to take them, so we are offering them free for the first ten students to be accepted. They will be a lot of work, but they'll be great on your resume!
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Fruits of "deliberate, persistent, and prayerful effort": Report on Project Center Gathering #3
The course Anti-Black Racism in the US and Building a Unified Society has had over 1,000 people participate in the twelve evolving iterations of the course. The Project Center, a new and developing collaborative resource for reflection and building relationships, has grown out of the participants’ desire to apply and share what they are continually learning about the oneness of humankind through meaningful individual, community, and institutional action focused on freedom from racial prejudice, America’s most vital and challenging issue.
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Arts Course "opens the floodgates" for one Baha'i learner
The course The Baha'i Faith and the Arts has impacted every area of Enid Probst's life. She is now part of an arts family night in her neighborhood, an arts camp at the local YMCA, and has given a fireside about the Faith and the arts. She is also incorporating Baha'i quotes into her own work.
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How to Accommodate Eleven Billion Persons on a Finite Planet
For the Wilmette Institute course Sustainable Development and Human Prosperity, Gerald Bernstein wrote a thoughtful and concise commentary comparing two books, Suberabundance by Gale Pooley and Marian Tupy, and Eleven by Paul Hanley. The first book maintains the Earth can accommodate humanity; the latter argues that we are at or past the planet's carrying capacity.
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Catching Up on YouTube Videos
The Wilmette Institute now has 179 webinars on its YouTube Channel! They are also available as podcasts in many venues. Here are tips how to speed up or slow down a YouTube video.
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Tips for Sustainable Living | |
Sustainable Online Shopping
There are several tips that reduce the carbon footprint of shopping; do not ship something overnight and try to avoid ordering things you would return later. Try on new shoes in a shoe store!
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December and January Courses | |
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Exploring Baha'u'llah's Last Major Work: Epistle to the Son of the Wolf
Dec. 8, 2022 - Jan. 25, 2023
Epistle to the Son of the Wolf may be regarded as Baha’u’llah’s crowning achievement, which He revealed near the end of His forty-year ministry. In this major work Baha’u’llah selects some of the choicest gems from His earlier works, including a number of previously revealed tablets; public proclamation of His eschatological advent; declaration of His mission and purpose; autobiographical narration of key personal experiences; major ethical and moral precepts; explanations of prophecies and their symbolic and spiritual significances; tributes to Baha'i martyrs; and highlights of other key aspects of Baha'i history and teachings. In this course, we will give special attention to how Baha’u’llah engaged in the public discourses of the society in His day and age and how this may serve as a model for engaging the public discourses of society today.
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Philosophy and the Baha'i Faith
Dec. 15, 2022 - Feb. 1, 2023
In Philosophy and the Bahá'í Faith, we will explore the relationship between the Baha'i teachings and many eternal human questions, such as metaphysics (the system of principles underlying a particular study or subject), religion and spirituality, epistemology (how we know something), ethics, social philosophy, aesthetics and self-expression, and the philosophy of law, education, politics, love, and humanity.
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God Summons Europe (Part II)
Jan. 18 - Feb. 28, 2023
The course will closely examine Bahá’u’lláh’s proclamatory addresses to Pope Pius IX (r. 1846-1878) of the Roman Catholic Church, Emperor Franz Joseph Hapsburg (r. 1848-1916) of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and Kaiser Wilhelm I (r. 1871-1888) of the German Empire. There will be 3 webinars for this Course, the first of which will be a public Webinar.
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Gifts of the Spirit: The Spiritual Practice of Creative Writing
Jan. 18 - Mar. 14, 2023
In this course, students will work one on one with a mentor who is a published author and experienced editor to design and complete a creative project in the form of poetry, fiction, a personal essay, or a memoir. In preparation for embarking on this project, students will explore various practical and aesthetic questions relating to writing, such as 1) how should one approach creative work as a writer? 2) what is the relationship between writing and spiritual practice? 3) what kinds of subjects should one choose to write about? 4) how should one use language? 5) what is the role of the writer in the community? and 6) how does one live a productive writing life? The goal of this course will be to complete a literary project and also to understand what kind of work must be done in order to achieve publication.
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The Wilmette Institute eNewsletter
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The Wilmette Institute eNewsletter is published monthly by the Wilmette Institute, which offers quality online courses on the Baha'i Faith. The Wilmette Institute is committed to engaging a broad and diverse international community of learners in deep study of the Faith and to fostering love for study of the Faith. The Wilmette Institute was established in January 1995 by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of the United States.
Information from the eNewsletter may be copied or reproduced, provided that the following credit is given: "Reprinted from the eNewsletter of the Wilmette Institute," followed by the issue's date. Recipients are encouraged to forward the eNewsletter to friends. If you have questions, please email us at learn@wilmetteinstitute.org.
Editor
Robert H. Stockman
Production
Robert H. Stockman
Niki Daniels
Debra Lilly
Contributors
Gerald Bernstein
Melanie Craig
Eleanor Mitten
Christine Muller
Enid Probst
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