About Myself

I became a Bahai in Christchurch, New Zealand in 1974 and was part of the small Bahai community of Kaikoura, a coastal town on New Zealand’s South Island. Later I spent some time as a Bahai ‘pioneer’ on the Chatham Islands, and was part of the Bahai communities in various other towns in New Zealand, and later in the Netherlands.

I have served on Local Spiritual Assemblies, as an ‘assistant,’ and on local and regional Bahai committees. I am currently a moderator for the H-Bahai discussion list, and can usually be found for a chin-wag on the Talisman9 discussion list (talisman9-subscribe@yahoogroups.com). In late 2005 I was removed from the rolls of the Bahai community, following a decision of the Universal House of Justice. The reasons for this are not clear to me, and I would prefer not to say anything I am not sure of. I continue as a believing and practising unenrolled Bahai.

I am interested especially in Bahai theology (theology is what Bahais usually call ‘deepening,’ but conducted in a systematic and self-critical way) and, within that, in political theology (which Bahais call ‘the social teachings’). I wrote my MA dissertation on Church and State in Islam and the Bahai Faith, and am now working on a study of the institutions of the Bahai community, which is intended to become a PhD thesis.

The ‘published’ page is a list of things I’ve written, most of it published in journals and books, and not necessarily up to date or complete.

The ‘resources’ page has links to some compilations and resources for the academic study of the Bahai Faith. The ‘stuff I’ve written’ page has links to articles, conference presentations and research notes I’ve written, on Bahai and other religious topics.