Sunday, January 19, 2 p.m. Eastern time
Watch the Video on YouTube
Listen to the audio (podcast) on SoundCloud
View the slides (pdf)
Read the Transcript
During a time of rapid, almost disorienting change, when fundamental assumptions about the world – and human beings’ place in it – were being challenged, one woman stood steady on the shore and heard a greater call. In a moment of almost violent modernity, she was able to a better world to come, and to fully understand, and fully commit to, the work to be done now.
She had been an educator, a well-known artist, and an early woman physician. She had moved in the circles of famous men of her time, including the American artist William Merritt Chase and the African American writer and orator Frederick Douglass. She had lived in major, bustling cities like New York, Chicago, and Philadelphia, and she even studied art extensively in Paris. But ultimately, she gave up the sure hold of a promising career and departed, literally, for distant shores.
The story of Susan Moody is ultimately the story of how the guiding principles, philosophies, and insights of the Bahá’í Faith rose above every other noise, giving one woman the purpose she had long sought. Having seen the Bahá’í Faith as a means to pilot through treacherous times, Moody shows how the principles of the Faith, when applied vigorously, will always produce great results.
Her life challenges us to be more sincere in our applications, strong in our convictions, and thorough in our undertakings. She also reminds all of us – both Bahá’ís and non-Bahá’ís alike –that the fundamental principles of faith hold steady through time. Courage. Conviction. The dedication to an inner world. Putting others before yourself. And finally, and importantly for us,
that an overconcern with the world can hamstring even our greatest spiritual efforts. Her laser-like focus stands out in our distracted age, and her rejection of all the best the world could offer reminds us that the truths of devoted faith will always outshine lesser undertakings. Her life serves as a kind of blueprint of faith-in-action and shows us all of the work that still remains.
Since July 2012, Professor Hoda Mahmoudi has held The Bahá’í Chair for World Peace at the University of Maryland, College Park. As director of this endowed academic program, Professor Mahmoudi collaborates with a wide range of scholars, researchers, and practitioners to advance interdisciplinary analysis and open discourse on global peace. She contributes to and promotes sound scientific research on peace that expands knowledge and strategies, and explores the role of individuals and institutions in removing obstacles to peace.
Before joining the University of Maryland faculty, Professor Mahmoudi served as the coordinator of the Research Department at the Bahá’í World Centre in Haifa, Israel from 2001 to 2012. Prior to that, Dr. Mahmoudi was Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Northeastern Illinois University, where she was also a faculty member in the Department of Sociology. Professor Mahmoudi also served as Vice President and Dean of Olivet College, where she was instrumental in a nationally recognized, institutional transformation.
She holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Utah.