Böcker utgivna av George Ronald Publisher

A series of fascinating essays looking at the importance of agriculture from a Bahá'í perspective.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Agriculture and Religion: A Necessary Unity Paul HanleyAgriculture in the World's Religions: An Overview P.J. StewartThis Vital and Important Matter: A Survey of the Bahá'í Writings on Agriculture Paul HanleyThe Involvement of the Central Figures of the Bahá'í Faith in Agriculture Iraj PoostchiA Perspective on Food in the Bahá'í Faith Paul FieldhouseRethinking the Management of Small Rural Businesses Michel P. ZahraiReinventing the Village Gary ReuscheThe Genetic Modification of Crops: A Bahá'í's Perspective Paul OlsonIgi Oko: The Tree Farms at Sapoba, Nigeria circa 1927 Richard St Barbe BakerStrengthening Local Economies and Community Identity: FUNDAEC's Experience Pascal MolineauxBalancing Science with Inspiration: A Bahá'í Scientist's Struggle to Discover the Hidden Secrets of Restoring Corals and Fish to Degraded Coral Reefs Austin Bowden-KerbyGardens for Mongolia: Growing the Capacity of Mongolia's Families The Mongolian Development CentreFive Project Summaries An Investment for Well-being: Restoring the Agricultural Environment on Bolivia's Altiplano A Tanzanian School Promotes Self-reliance Rural Education in Northern Honduras Ineke Gijsbers Felin Gelli Rural Training Farm Ineke GijsbersEcoAg Service: Farm Apprenticeships For Youth Nancy E. McIntyreThe Garden Terraces of the Shrine of the Báb An Interview with the Architect, Fariborz Sahba

A comprehensive guide to the constitution of the supreme administrative body of the Bahá'í Faith.Bahá'u'lláh established the Universal House of Justice in the Kitáb-i-Aqdas as the supreme administrative body of the Bahá'í Faith. Its Constitution was hailed by Shoghi Effendi as the 'Most Great Law of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh'.Guy Sinclair's Study Guide to the Constitution of the Universal House of Justice provides* insights into how this remarkable document was developed* annotations giving the source of each line of the Declaration of Trust and By-Laws* a short compilation on the station of the Universal House of Justice* questions and exercises about the Constitutionas well as* the full texts of the Constitution of the Universal House of Justice, the By-Laws of a Local Spiritual Assembly and the Model Declaration of Trust and By-Laws for a National Spiritual Assembly.

Reflections on applying natural healing arts to the Bahá'í FastHow to purify and energize soul, mind and body during the Fast and live a healthy lifestyle all year round.The practice of fasting has been used for both spiritual development and physical healing for many centuries. In the Bahá'í Faith, as in many religions, a period of fasting once a year is seen as a symbol of purification and a means of moving closer towards our Creator, putting us in touch with our duty and destiny here on Earth. Deborah Walters is a Doctor of Naturopathy and runs a private practice specializing in spiritual, mental and physical healing and welcoming clients from all over the world. She is also much in demand for seminars and public speaking in the United States. In this profound yet highly practical book she draws on both the Bahá'í teachings and her professional experience to examine the human condition of soul, mind and body, how they are interrelated, and how they can be integrated, transformed and energized through the spiritual discipline of the Bahá'í Fast.

Growing up can be a painful process. Life seems full of unanswered questions and unexplained mysteries: What is love? What is it like to be married? What happens when we die? Is there really a God? There are physical changes and new feelings to cope with. Is there anyone who really understands what a thirteen-year-old is going through?This is the story of Hasan, who comes to live in the Holy Land in 1914 as the orphaned son of martyred Bahá'ís. He is embittered, lonely and angry. He understands neither the changes taking place in his life and in his body nor the reason for his parents' murder. Everything is bottled up inside him.Slowly, cautiously, Hasan begins to trust his new-found friends. Questions he hardly dared to ask are taken seriously and carefully answered. Gradually, through conversations with the Bahá'ís he has come to live among, Hasan grows to understand both himself and the Bahá'í Faith, and he discovers the warmth, love and friendship that life has to offer.

Attainment of the mission of Baha'u'llah for this age - the coming together of all races, tribes, nations, classes and religions in one world culture and civilization - requires that the world-redeeming principles of the Baha'i Faith be made known to vast numbers of the inhabitants of this planet. Its precepts have the power to spark collective transformation in the character of the human race, tantamount to a spiritual renaissance. Such magnitude in societal change is the precondition for the establishment of a vital and sustainable global civilization. It is for this reason that the advancement of the Baha'i community is fundamental to the actualization of the vision of Bahá'u'lláh for humanity.Growth is a dynamic process; unforeseen and unanticipated factors can suddenly propel a significant acceleration. This work explores principles and insights using a number of scientific theories from the author's fields of study and interest, such as the generation of the laser beam, or the science of chaos and its butterfly effect. The approach offered here can bring into synergy perspectives in affirmation of a fundamental assertion of the Baha'i Faith: the principle of harmony between science and religion.The flow of the course of history, its direction, progression and culmination in a unified history of humankind, holds rich insights on those essential factors which are bound to influence the advancement of the Baha'i Faith. The stages entailed in the progressive advancement of scientific truth have fascinating counterparts in the stages entailed in the Baha'i premise of the oneness of religion and 'progressive revelation'.Although there is a rich repository of authoritative writings on this subject, the application of scientific principles to the advancement of the Baha'i Faith is a novel approach meriting attention and reflection.

Here is a clear, straightforward and easily readable account of the life of the Báb. A companion to Day of Glory, about the life of Bahá'u'lláh, and Servant of the Glory, about the life of 'Abdu'l-Bahá. It begins with the story of the Báb's childhood in Shíráz, His youth and marriage, and His Declaration on that fateful night to Mullá Husayn, the first to believe in Him. 'This night,' said the Báb, 'this very hour will, in the days to come, be celebrated as one of the greatest and most significant of all festivals.' Once the Báb's disciples set out to spread the news, many people in high places in Persia, and particularly the mullás, arose in opposition to Him. The Báb was banished from Shíráz. The Grand Vizier, jealous of the Báb's spiritual powers, imprisoned Him in a castle to the far north. But he was unable to stop the people flocking to Him. Here are the stories of the Letters of the Living; the Conference of Badasht; the siege of Shaykh Tabarsí, Nayríz and Zanján; the trial of the Báb; and finally that day in Tabríz when the sun was blotted out by the dust as 750 rifles fired their volleys. This book is an excellent preparation for reading the Báb's own Writings, The Dawn-Breakers and the works of Shoghi Effendi on the subject. It also describes the geographical and historical setting of the 'Episode of the Báb'.

The Horse of the Moonlight takes Tim to a stable where he meets three old horses who each tell him their tales: the Red Roan who carried Bahá'u'lláh from Baghdad to the shores of the Black Sea, the Wild Stallion ridden by the Báb and the steed of Mulla Husayn.Good to read aloud to children aged six upwards and for older children to read themselves.

4 What's Fair . . .; 5 When Nothing Goes Right; 6 When I PrayThe second set in our popular series of books for very young children in one book. Designed to help parents teach their children some of the abstract ideas enshrined in the Bahá'í teachings, each booklet provides the basic vocabulary and concepts needed. Each page is illustrated with a simple line drawing suitable for the child to colour. Guidelines on how to use the booklets are included at the back.

1 God is . . .2 Why in the World . . .3 GrowingThe first set in our popular series of books for very young children in one book. Designed to help parents teach their children some of the abstract ideas enshrined in the Bahá'í teachings, each booklet provides the basic vocabulary and concepts needed.Each page is illustrated with a simple line drawing suitable for the child to colour. Guidelines on how to use the booklets are included at the back.

A deft blending of fact and fiction, A Sudden Music tells the story of Althea Edison Benedict, a young American student in the Paris of 1910, who awakens to the first stirrings of Divine and of human love.This novella, a poetic recreation of the first Bahá'í centre in Europe, unfolds against the background of the visit to Paris in 1909 of May Ellis Maxwell, the heart and inspirer of the community she founded there in 1901, depicts the activities of some of the outstanding Bahá'ís who served there, describes the visit in 1911 of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, and evokes the atmosphere of spiritual receptivity - then obtaining and since unequalled - that must foreshadow the eventual capitulation of Europe, wrapped in the darkness of materialism, to the brightening rays of the Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh.

Here is a book which young people will find a valuable addition to their Bahá'í libraries. From Mountain to Mountain: Stories about Bahá'u'lláh relates the history of the Bahá'í Faith from the childhood of the Báb to the Ascension of Bahá'u'lláh.Written in a simple style and suitable for use in children's classes, the book covers all the significant events in the life of Bahá'u'lláh. Each of the forty-one chapters recalls one episode in the evolution of the Bahá'í Faith, and well-known figures such as Mullá Husayn, Vahíd and Badí' are introduced.The book brings together those strands from Bahá'í history which reveal how Bahá'u'lláh's exile from Persia to the Holy Land was part of the Plan of God, foretold by the Prophet Micah: 'in that day, in which they shall come to you . . . from sea to sea and from mountain to mountain.'

"Fasting . . . is essentially a period of meditation and prayer, of spiritual recuperation, during which the believer must strive to make the necessary readjustments in his inner life, and to refresh and reinvigorate the spiritual forces latent in his soul." Shoghi Effendi"We have enjoined upon you fasting during a brief period", Baha'u'llah writes in His Book of Laws. The Baha'i Fast is a time of spiritual regeneration, when Baha'is all over the world rise before dawn to pray and meditate before beginning their daily fast from sunrise to sunset.This handbook brings together passages from the Baha'i Writings about the Fast, with reflections by Baha'is on the practice of fasting, and prayers appropriate to the fasting period. It has been compiled primarily for personal use by Baha'is during their Fast, but it is also of interest to anyone who wants to know about the age-old practice of fasting for spiritual reasons - what it is, how to do it and what it means to those who experience it.Includes all the Baha'i prayers for the Fast available in English.

A study of the translation of the Arabic verses of the Hidden Words by Shoghi Effendi who was uniquely placed to render the words of his great-grandfather into English of outstanding beauty and charm.

Many young people are beset by a host of fears, worries, anxieties and insecurities that make for superficial and discouraging relationships, lack of motivation, and confused, escapist or hedonistic lifestyle choices that can determine a future riddled with problems almost impossible to extricate oneself from; emotional responses appear uncontrollable, with frequent rage outbursts or overwhelming melancholy. Our affluent societies have seen a sharp increase in antisocial behaviour: alcohol and drug abuse, carrying a weapon in case of a fight, vandalism, general rowdiness in gangs, cruelty to animals, stealing, threatening behaviour and so on. Bullying or mobbing, teenage pregnancies, suicidal tendencies, rejection of education, family upheavals, eating disorders, depression and the like are all rising. There is increasing statistical evidence that society has a problem with its young that defies rectifying by established interventions.For Viv Bartlett, the opportunity came in 2000 to join with a group of Bahá'ís in the United Kingdom to devise and pilot programmes for disaffected youngsters, and so the Swindon Young People's Empowerment Programme (SYEP) came into being. The group eventually came to realize that these young people were 'dispirited' and that if at least the glimmerings of a healthy human spirit could be detected by them as possible within themselves, then they would be inspired to view the world and their lives in a more rewarding way. Huge successes were experienced over the years with over 1,000 dispirited, vulnerable youngsters who were referred to the Empowerment Programme by a growing number of primary and secondary schools in Swindon. These successes demanded that a book be written about the Programme.The Programme focused on two ideas from key Bahá'í scriptures, as encapsulating all others - that the individual is full of potential, a 'mine rich in gems of inestimable value'; and that individuals need to be focused on service to others. These are two sides of the same coin: we need to recognize that we have something to offer, and then understand that we can make a huge difference to the community. The journey towards this is however not simple. Parents, carers, educators, and anyone interested in the well-being of young people will find in this book not only principles of nurturing a healthy human spirit in the young but also an array of successful, down-to-earth, practical ways of doing so.

What is it like to get old, then older, and move into a nursing home or care facility? What is happening to us as we face idle times and experience the need for special and determinate care? What happens next? Is life immortal?Although much has been written about the aging process, little has been written by one who is actually experiencing the process of dying. These questions are answered by the 92-year-old Harlan Carl Scheffler, who reflected on them in two essays written just before he passed away in April 2014.In his first essay Scheffler takes a humorous look at the interval between becoming aged and dying, a time, he says, that can be most rewarding. It is time when we can review our own lives and can learn what others have experienced through their span of years - and it can be most enjoyable and enlightening to family and friends.His second essay examines the evidence for life's immortality; it is treated as the natural adjunct, the extension and expansion of the initial phase of our lives, not the end. Surprisingly, he discovers that employing the light shed by today's technologies, we are assured that death truly is impossible.

Quotations from the Bahá'í writings and reflections to soothe the soul."Set all thy hope in God, and cleave tenaciously to His unfailing mercy." Bahá'u'lláhA collection of verses from the Bahá'í writings for those engaged in the challenging yet enormously satisfying 'real' work of this world: to grow spiritually.

There is a fundamental discrepancy between man as he is and man as he could be, if only he recognized his true being and purpose. Ethics is the discipline by which man can understand how he can pass from the first condition to the second.Udo Schaefer's Bahá'í Ethics in Light of Scripture is an attempt to analyse the underlying structures and detect the interior architecture of the Bahá'í moral system and is a step towards developing a Bahá'í moral theology. Doctrinal Fundamentals, the first of two volumes, provides a historical overview of the Bahá'í Faith, a systematic survey of it doctrines and an overview of the origin and derivation of moral values. It considers the metaphysical nature of human beings and human responsibilities, looks at reason and conscience, and explores liberty and its limits. Schaefer's second volume deals with concrete values - the virtues, divine commandments and principles of social ethics from a Bahá'í perspective.

A delightful ABC book for children about the Nineteen Day Feast by a well-known and popular writer for young people. Features children of many nationalities in its charming illustrations.J is for joy.The Feast is a time of joy for Josef because he feels so close to all the Bahá'ís.'This Feast is a bringer of joy. It is the groundwork of agreement and unity. It is the key to affection and fellowship.' 'Abdu'l-Bahá

Heather Cardin asked Bahá'í youth and young adults from around the world to share their thoughts about why they believed and why they were Bahá'ís.'The youthful and eager workers for the Cause . . . occupy a warm place in my heart.'Shoghi EffendiWhy have faith? Why practise faith in the world as it is today? What makes a young person in the early part of the 21st century willing to follow a Faith that requires exemplary moral conduct and which views spiritual growth as the purpose of an otherwise very material life?These are the questions Heather Cardin asked young people around the world. She invited Bahá'í youth and young adults to share their thoughts about why they believed and why they were Bahá'ís.The answers came from 45 young Bahá'ís between the ages of 13 and 30, from every continent and from many backgrounds. Some have had very positive experiences, others not so positive, but all draw on the power of the love of Bahá'u'lláh and His teachings to give them strength to continue their lives as Bahá'ís.These are the authentic, powerful voices of young people as they see themselves and the Bahá'í Faith in the 21st century.

All Bahá'í parents face special problems in bringing up their children in a world dominated by very different principles from those governing a Bahá'í society. This book meets those problems head on, as it explores human nature and the rich theme of 'the Covenant', with its implications for family and community.Quotations from the Bahá'í Writings tie the book closely to the source of its inspiration, and the author's own imagination and vitality build a bridge from ideals to everyday life.The author comes from a distinguished Bahá'í family and herself has a daughter.

* Why is the rainbow the symbol of the Covenant?* What is the purpose of the Covenant?* How can we be faithful to the Covenant?The Covenant for Young People answers these questions - and many others - in a short, simple and direct way.To make it even easier to understand the Covenant, you will find that the book:* contains 19 short chapters, each looking at a different theme* explains difficult or unusual words when they first appear* is set in a large typeface for easy reading

"Consort with the followers of all religions in a spirit of friendliness and fellowship." Baha'u'llah"Joseph Smith . . . was a religious teacher sensitive to the spiritual currents flowing in the early 19th century directly from the appearance of the Bab and Baha'u'llah and the Revelation of Their messages of hope and divine Guidance." The Universal House of JusticeHow can Baha'is engage in meaningful dialogue with Mormons? By highlighting the many principles Mormons and Baha'is have in common, and providing an in-depth look at core Mormon beliefs and scriptures, this book aims to increase understanding and enable Baha'is to look beyond outward differences and reach out to the members of this fast-growing community in a spirit of true friendship.

When artist Harlan Carl Scheffler's wife Barbara developed Alzheimer's disease, he determined to learn as much as possible about the condition and to understand what was happening to his life-long partner. A Bahá'í since childhood, he turned to religion as well as to science to provide insights into this physical disease of the brain. His conviction that there is a spiritual principle at work as well as a physical one is based on his study of the Bahá'í texts, and particularly the talks of `Abdu'l-Bahá in which He describes the spiritual reality of what appears to be a wholly physical world. Here Scheffler reflects on the implications of that spiritual reality and on the need for science to acknowledge that reality in order to meet the challenge of Alzheimer's.

The fascinating story of a pleasure-seeking Persian boy who became one of 'Abdu'l-Bahá's leading English translators and united East and West in the first Persian-American Bahá'í marriage.Here is the colourful story of Ali-Kuli Khan, the first to translate into English such important works as the 'Seven Valleys', the 'Kitáb-i-Íqán', and the Glad-Tidings. Told by his daughter, herself a well-known author and translator, Khan's story is based on his memoirs and personal papers. Through them we are given a unique and detailed picture of life in Persia at the end of the century, complete with an explanation of that oft-met protocol 'ta'áruf'. We follow the young Khan, dressed as a dervish, on his adventurous walk to 'Akká and note his transformation from a frivolous youth to a skilled translator for 'Abdu'l-Bahá.In his nearly two years as a member of 'Abdu'l-Bahá's household, Khan both translated for those first groups of American pilgrims to visit the Holy Land and rendered 'Abdu'l-Bahá's Tablets into English. In 1901 Khan was sent to America to assist Mírzá Abu'l-Fadl and to translate the great teacher's book, The Bahá'í Proofs, into English.It was in America that Khan met and fell in love with a Boston society girl, Florence Breed. Their Victorian romance unfolds in the delicate love-letters written by Florence to Khan. Their marriage, the first between a Persian and an American Bahá'í, not only symbolized but portrayed the unity between East and West taught by the Bahá'í Faith.'Summon Up Remembrance' is peopled with such familiar figures as Mírzá Abu'l-Fadl, Laura Barney, Edward and Lua Getsinger, Mary Hanford Ford and the Atábak. But this is a book dedicated to 'Abdu'l-Bahá, and it is His wisdom and teaching that characterizes it. A unique feature is the inclusion of the Tablet of Cremation revealed by 'Abdu'l-Bahá, here published for the first time in English in a new translation by the Research Department of the Universal House of Justice.The story continues in Arches of the Years.

'World-history at its core and in its essence,' wrote George Townshend, 'is the story of the spiritual evolution of mankind . . . The Bible makes the tracing of this evolution its own special subject.'The Heart of the Gospel unfolds this vast perspective. It is the fruit of the author's long study of comparative religion. Using only the text of the Bible, the author provides a new reading Scripture which is compelling and timely.The Heart of the Gospel is a guidebook for those who seek a universal view of religion and the contemporary world.