Spiritual cosmopolitanism — how people can be persuaded to extend feelings of kinship beyond their own ethnic or national groups — and its principles of universal love and harmony is a key to borderless solidarity.
published in Journal of Bahá'í Studies, 30:1-2, pages 19-44 Ottawa: Association for Bahá'í Studies North America, 2020
About: Scholars have wrestled with the question of how people can be persuaded to extend feelings of kinship beyond their own ethnic or national groups. This article identifies spiritual cosmopolitanism, whose principles of universal love and harmony can be found in the teachings of the Bahá’í Faith, as key to such borderless solidarity. Drawing on data gathered from interviews with Iranian refugees who have settled in the United States, the article demonstrates how cosmopolitan principles shape the worldviews of Bahá’ís. Through this case study, spiritual cosmopolitanism’s potential to enrich public arguments for the inclusion of Others such as immigrants becomes apparent.
