7.30pm, Tues 10 Feb, 2009
Latimer Room, Old Court, Clare College
Is it beyond the realm of possibility and truth for any conscious, wakeful individual to believe that a fellow human could ever be a voice of the divine, or a Manifestation of God, in a transcendent degree? With the accumulated dissappointments that human folly and wisdom both have furnished us throughout our history, never more so than in the 20th century, with the betrayals of so many hopes by so many leaders, teachers, philosophers, and revolutionaries, both the nefarious and the well-meaning, to believe that from our familiar, imperfect human fabric could come a divinely perfect, absolutely flawless being, would seem to ask too much. And yet, as Baha’is, we recognise in a Persian nobleman of the 19th century, Mirza Husayn Ali, a perfection compelling enough to place capitals before His name, and see in His humanity, the Manifestation of God, Baha’u’llah, and in His teachings the remedy that a travailing world, mostly unawares, is seeking. What, subjectively, does such a leap against common sense, entail?
The talk will be given by Mr. Ismael Velasco followed by questions and discussion.
About the speaker:
As an independent scholar, Ismael Velasco has published in peer reviewed academic journals papers in the field of religion, literature, and history, while working as a professional consultant in the fields of urban regeneration, social cohesion and international development, with field experience in some 20 countries and publications in this area. As Secretary General of BASED-UK, an international development charity, he is currently working in collobartion on a European applied research project on spiritual indicators and socio-economic development. His first book, “The Logic of Reconciliation”, is due out in March 2009, and he is currently working in collaboration on a second book on the concept of Spiritual Capital.