Readers in Bahá’í Philosophy and Theology

As the founder and former Director of the Wilmette Institute, also a long-time faculty colleague and friend, I am happy to present this volume of philosophical and theological works that celebrates the life and scholarly accomplishments of Ian Kluge (1948–2023), an early and active faculty member who established the Institute’s first courses on philosophy and Bahá’í theology.

Ian was born in Germany on 17 May 1948, to a Prussian atheist father and a German-­Jewish mother (and Nazi concentration camp survivor) who were refugees from what is now Poland and Russia. In 1954, the family moved to Canada, where Ian grew up. He received his BA (Honors) at Notre Dame University of Nelson, British Columbia. He went on to graduate studies at the University of Alberta, where he received an MA, and completed his doctoral studies but not his dissertation.

Ian notes that “what attracted me to the Bahá´í Faith was its evolutionary and dialectical outlook, which, in my opinion, Bahá´ís and non-­Bahá´ís alike are only beginning to understand, especially when it relates to practical issues like human nature, politics, economics, psychology and psychopathology, gender and gender relations.” Later in life, Ian’s atheist father became a Bahá’í as well.

Ian’s talents were many and diverse. He was a poet who published at least three volumes of poetry; and a playwright, five of whose plays were produced in British Columbia, where he resided. He published a literary study of the American poet Conrad Aiken and regular columns in various local newspapers.

Among Bahá’ís, he was best known as a philosopher and a writer on comparative religion, meta-ethics, and science and religion. Thirty-five essays of his are available at the online Bahá’í Library web site (https://bahai-­library.com/author/Ian_Kluge). One friend of his noted that Ian “single-­handedly raised the depth and sophistication and breadth of our discourse in the correlation of the Bahá’í Faith to the Western Philosophical tradition” and “his work will remain foundational for anyone exploring similar terrain for a good time to come.” He has been described as “a powerful personality, with a strong presence and strong points of view, a big heart, a profound dedication to truth and to service, in evident and frank sincerity.”

… In one of his essays, he noted that “In the Bahá’í vision of life and the afterlife, the endless quest for ever more adequate self-actualization is a positive vision reflecting the infinite glory God has bestowed on humankind. We are all engaged on an endless voyage of discovery in which every moment is both a sheltering harbor and a point of departure.”

He has now left on a new voyage of discovery through the infinite worlds of God.

—Dr. Robert Stockman, The Corinne True Center for Bahá’í History