William S. Hatcher
William S. Hatcher | |
|---|---|
 William S. Hatcher of Canada in 2005 | |
| Born | September 20, 1935 Charlotte, North Carolina, USA |
| Died | November 27, 2005 Stratford, Ontario, Canada |
| NSA member | Switzerland 1962 - 1965 Canada 1983 - 1991 Russia 1996 - 1997 |
William S. Hatcher (September 20, 1935 - November 27, 2005) was an American Bahá’í who served on the National Spiritual Assemblies of Switzerland, Canada, and Russia. He also assisted with the establishment of the Association for Bahá’í Studies and wrote several works on the Faith. In his professional career he was an academic particularly in the fields of mathematics and philosophy.
Biography[edit]
Hatcher was born in Charlotte, North Carolina, in 1935. He had a younger brother, John.[1] He was raised as a Protestant and after completing an undergraduate Bachelor of Arts degree he decided to become a minister and received a scholarship to attend Yale Divinity School. He had studied the Bahá’í Faith for several years and joined the religion in 1957, changing his career path and studying mathematics as a result. In his personal life he married Judith Bernstein in 1959 and they went on to have three children.[2]
In the early 1960's Hatcher moved to Switzerland to complete postgraduate studies and he completed a Doctorate in mathematics at the University of Neuchatel in 1963 then worked as an instructor at the University for a year. He returned to the United States in 1965 where he secured a position as a Professor of mathematics at the University of Toledo in Ohio working there for the next three years. [2]
Hatcher moved to Canada in 1968 where he worked as a Professor at Laval University from 1968 to 1995. He was invited to move to St. Petersburg, Russia, to conduct research at the Steklov Mathematical Institute and he did so from 1996 until 1997 when he returned to Switzerland to serve as the Chair of the Department of Ethics at the Bahá’í inspired Landegg International University. He worked at Landegg until 2003.[2]
In 2005 Hatcher passed in Stratford, Canada. The Universal House of Justice stated the following in a message conveyed after his passing:
The Bahá’í world has lost one of its brightest minds, one of its most prolific pens. He will long be remembered for his stalwart faith, forceful exposition, and penetrating insights.[2]
Publications[edit]
Books on Philosophy & Religion[edit]
- 1985 - The Bahá’í Faith: The Emerging Global Religion, with Douglas Martin.
- 1990 - Logic and Logos: Essays on Science, Religion and Philosophy
- 1996 - The Law of Love Enshrined: Selected Essays, with John Hatcher.
- 1997 - The Ethics of Authenticity, International Moral Education Project
- 1998 - Love, Power, and Justice: The Dynamics of Authentic Morality
- 2002 - Minimalism: A Bridge between Classical Philosophy and the Bahá’í Revelation
Books on Mathematics[edit]
- 1964 - Theory and Applications of a Syntactical Notion of the Equivalence of Formal Logical Systems
- 1978 - Absolute Algebra, with S. Whitney.
- 1982 - The Logical Foundations of Mathematics
- 1994 - Preservation Theory, with Michel Hebert.
Articles[edit]
- 1976 - Science and the Bahá'í Faith
- 1979 - Forum Concerning St. Paul, with Christopher Buck and Juan Cole.
- 1980 - The Science of Religion
- 1982 - The Concept of Spirituality
- 1985 - Western Islamic Scholarship and Bahá'í Origins, with Muhammad Afnan.
- 1986 - Notes on MacEoin's 'Bahá’í Fundamentalism'
- 1987 - Human Nature and Human Society: A Bahá'í Viewpoint, published in book The Bahá’í Faith and Marxism.
- 1988 - Scholarship: A Bahá'í Perspective
- 1992 - Review of The Eternal Quest for God by Julio Savi
- 1993 - A Scientific Proof of the Existence of God
- 1996 - The Philosophy of Spirituality: A Bahá'í Viewpoint
- 1999 - Love, Power, and Justice
- 2000 - Foundations of Mathematics: An Overview at the Close of the Second Millennium
- 2007 - Epistemological Implications of the Gradated Claims to Divine Authority in the Bahá'í Writings: Reflections on Infallibility
- 2008 - Achieving Planetary Consciousness: Reality, Reason, and Revelation
- 2008 - The Bahá'í Faith: A Non-ideological Approach to Religion
- 2008 - Cycle of Lectures on Universal and Contemporary Themes
- 2008 - Fear of Teaching: A Meditation on Authenticity in Human Relationships
- 2008 - Powerseeking and Ideology
- 2008 - Reflections of a Human Spirit in a Male Body
- 2008 - The Role and Function of Bahá'í Institutes in the Life of the Bahá'í Community
Talks[edit]
- 2003 - Backbiting
- 2003 - A Few Distinctive Aspects of the Bahá’í Faith
