Toward a Framework for Action

About: For nearly four decades, the Association for Bahá’í Studies in North America has labored to promote Bahá’í scholarly activity through a range of efforts that include encouraging young believers in their study of the Revelation and their academic pursuits, fostering approaches to assist the friends in correlating the teachings with issues arising in contemporary thought, and providing a forum for Bahá’í academics to present their work and collaborate with one another. A letter dated 24 July 2013, written on behalf of the Universal House of Justice to the National Spiritual Assembly of Canada, set forth fresh insights to assist the Association in reflecting on its progress to date and its prospects for the future, centered around developing the “notion of an evolving conceptual framework.” The following are some personal thoughts about the nature of such a framework and what some of its elements might be.