To commemorate the centenary of the passing of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, the Cambridge University Bahá'í Society has arranged online talks by eight international speakers. Each speaker will focus on one theme based on the teachings and life of this unique individual and its relevance to our world today. This is the second talk in the series.

Human Nature

During His travels to the West, 'Abdu'l-Bahá encountered many organizations and individuals whose aims and vision of the future of mankind were similar to those of the Bahá'í Faith. Their proposals for solving the challenges that mankind was facing were, however, very different from those presented by 'Abdu'l-Bahá, as each advocated distinct conceptions of human nature and therefore their diagnoses of the causes of underlying world problems differed greatly. Amín Egea will introduce this question and offer examples that will help understand the context in which 'Abdu'l-Bahá presented the teachings of Bahá'u'lláh.

Amín Egea lives in Barcelona, Spain, and holds a PhD in Modern and Contemporary History from the Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona. He is the author of various works on the life and teachings of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. In the two volumes of The Apostle of Peace (George Ronald, 2017 and 2019) he presents over two thousand articles about the son of Bahá’u’lláh published in the Western press between 1871 and 1921. More recently, he has published Un clamor por la paz (“A Clamor for Peace”, Editorial Bahá’í de España, 2021) an adaptation of his doctoral dissertation, in which he analyzes the discourse of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá on issues such as human equality, social justice, peace and the nature and purpose of religion, comparing it with that of His contemporaries during His travels to the West.

For the full list of talks in this series visit: https://bahai.soc.srcf.net/talks/