Quakerism

Imagine this: a hunchbacked dwarf living in early Enlightenment-era England, variously a farmhand, shepherd and glovemaker, but also a devoted autodidact gifted with great intelligence who despite his station in life becomes not only literate but highly-educated. Passionate and outspoken, he often dominates local meetings of the Society of Friends, flirting with antinomianism and distinguising himself as a Quaker radical, often an outcast, publicly rebuking authority and earning the antipathy of the established order. He then becomes a sailor and, later settling as a merchant in Barbados, is so appalled by the human chattel slavery he encounters there that he adopts a fierce lifelong antislavery stance that admits no toleration for anything short of abolition. Next, he makes his way to Philadelphia, where his troublesome nature again emerges, underscored by his unrelenting brand of antislavery agitation that alienates fellow Quakers, many of whom are slaveowners, most famously when he punctuates an annual Friends meeting by delivering a bellicose jeremiad against slavery and then plunging a sword into a Bible packed with a bladder of red pokeberry juice—a simulation of blood—that splatters those in attendance nearby! He writes a number of pamphlets denouncing slavery, as well as a rambling but impassioned book that is published by no less a figure than Benjamin Franklin. Ever self-righteous, obnoxious, curmudgeonly, he is also a wealthy eccentric who eschews materialism, and is well-known to his community as a philanthropist, a strict vegetarian, and a man utterly intolerant of slavery. He marries, but after his wife's death becomes even more zealous in his adherence to his radical faith, in his pursuit of justice, and in his crusade for abolition, as well as in campaigns against animal cruelty, capital punishment, the prison system, and the hypocrisy of the affluent elite. He closes out his life devoted to absolute self-sustenance, keeping goats, nurturing fruit trees, and growing flax that he spins into his own clothing, making his home in solitude in a cave with his collection of over two hundred books.

This is the first-ever comprehensive survey of Friends' radical contributions to the merchant marine and the rise of the Port of New York. Quaker historians have yet to appreciate the crucial role these Friends played in the utter transformation of global shipping, not to mention of New York City, although it is a familiar story to New York historians. This essay attempts to establish awareness of forgotten Quaker roles in the merchant marine, the Erie Canal, finance, philanthropy, and the spectacular development of New York City. A version of this essay was published in Quaker History, Spring 2019.

Helen's presentation is prompted both by her experience in James Turrell's work and his teasing remark: "This idea of going inside to gain outlook is of course this idea that there is in meditation.  And certainly the Quakers were involved in that.  And for them it was going inside to greet the Light.  That's what my grandmother would always say to me, and I'm still sort of finding out what that really means."

She will explain what Quakers mean by 'Light' and explore the links between that Quaker meaning (of Light) and James Turrell's work (with light).  She will describe the basis of Quaker worship and the nature of Quaker experience and, with particular reference to Kjaer (2008) and Adcock (1990), highlight Quaker inferences in his sculptures.  Helen will also discuss the experience of being in Turrell's pieces, concluding how they both evoke Quaker practice and invoke Quaker experience.

This essay reappraises the origins of French Quakerism based on new archival research conducted on both sides of the Channel. It identifies 34 Quaker missionaries in 17th- and early 18C France, sheds new light on the French reception of Quakerism and suggests possible connections with non-violent, charismatic movements in Languedoc.

In 1560"s, in the hilly outskirts of Pordenone, in what is now Italy, lived a man named Menocchio. Born in 1534, he studied at a local public school where he learned scraps of Latin and later took over a little grain mill in addition to a carpentry enterprise. Except for a brief sojourn to Venice and a stay at a neighboring village, Menocchio never left his hometown. There he fathered eleven children, became the administrator of his parish and the mayor of the village, and then in 1599 at the age of 67 after a life passed in obscurity, he was burnt at the stake for spreading heretical thoughts. Local clergy had long been wary of Menocchio because he was known for being skeptical of virgin birth. They repeatedly questioned him in ecclesiastical tribunals where, despite imminent threat of being charged with heresy, Menocchio defiantly declared, "life was chaos where earth, air, water, and fire were mixed together; and out of that bulk a mass formedjust as cheese is made out of milk and worms appeared in it, and these were the angels." 1 His ideas infuriated the Church to the extent that Pope Clement himself urged his execution as an "example for future heretics." 2 Inquisitors were not only baffled by Menocchio"s nihilism but also by the creativity of his metaphorical cosmology. They rifled through his possessions to collect evidence against possible influencers, but all they found were eleven books and the evidence of a brief conversation with a "Turk" a decade ago. 3 While the majority of the eleven heretical works confiscated by the church authorities were harmless travel accounts or biblical stories, his collection also included controversial works such as Bible in the vernacular and , notably, a borrowed book purported to have been an Italian translation of the Koran. The story of 1

Quakers are enjoined to listen to the promptings of the "Inner Light" and to answer "that of God in every one". This article looks at two interlinked aspects of Liberal Quaker practice: the Quaker attitude to death and dying, and the Peace Testimony. Because many British Quakers – perhaps the majority – are unsure or doubtful about the possibility of any kind of personal survival after death, they concentrate on ministry to those who mourn rather than speculating as to the fate of those who have died. Similarly, the injunction to answer "that of God in every one" has led inexorably to the Quaker tradition of pacifism. But neither of these is simple or unproblematical.

First published in 1982 by Barclay Press, the Meet the Friends Series has been a leading introduction to the Quaker movement. The third edition (2011, Newberg, OR: Barclay Press) makes a correction or two and illumines the complexion of Friends around the world, in addition to clarifying the difference between Christian Testimonies Friends have upheld and their distinctive expressions.

In this paper I will compare and contrast two significant Friends ministries that attempted to “tell the secret of Quakerism” to people of African descent in the United States. The Southland Institute in Helena, Arkansas, considered “the largest development of Negro Quakerism” in the first part of the 20th century, began as an orphanage for African-Americans near the end of the Civil War, and developed into a school and monthly meeting that lasted into the 1920s. The Chicago Fellowship of Friends was a Friends church with a majority African-American membership that ministered in one of Chicago's most notorious public housing projects for close to twenty-five years, until it was laid down in 2005.

From autumn 2015, Drs Rebecca Wynter and Sian Roberts, on behalf of Central England Quakers and the University of Birmingham’s School of Education, ran a collaborative project to research Quaker experiences of the First World War and its legacy. 'Quakers & the First World War: Lives & Legacies' worked with a group of volunteers to co-produce four booklets; 'The Friends' War Victims' Relief Committee' is one of the four. Funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council’s Voices of War and Peace First World War Engagement Centre, the project built on the research undertaken for the exhibition Faith & Action: Quakers & the First World War held at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery (January-June 2015).

This essay played a significant role in my directing of two Lilly grants on discernment-oriented leadership across 9 different Christian traditions. A Quaker approach to discerning how God speaks includes Scripture, history and tradition, critical analysis and scientific inquiry, personal openings, and corporate discernment. Reference: Quaker Religious Thought #106 (2006): 26-47.

From his introduction by Quaker theologian Robert Barclay in the 1670s, until Rufus Jones’ last sermon in 1948, Socrates remained a key exemplar for Friends’ insistence on universal salvation. Following the earliest Christian theologians, Friends argued that all Greeks who preached the One True God to a pagan society were prophets. As early Friends began to focus on legends of the philosopher’s daimonion, however, Socrates gradually stepped out of their general lineup of en-Light-ened Greeks to emerge as the preferred pre-Christian ambassador for the doctrine of divine illumination. But curiously, the Quaker tradition never developed an accurate portrayal of the daemonic phenomenon, and in the case of Rufus Jones, this was especially curious because his personal philosophy was recognized as Socratic. On the other hand, antebellum New Bedford’s ex-Quaker, Mary Rotch, exhibited not only a more faithful, but more pragmatic, understanding of Socrates’ daimonion. As originally shown by Fredrick B. Tolles, her embrace of a similar spirit, or sign, played a pivotal role in the development of Emerson’s Self-Reliance — the key doctrine of Transcendentalism. This paper reviews the historic usage of Socrates as an implicit exemplar of Friendly action: as gadfly, as martyr, and above all, as mystic — specifically, as channel for the central mystery in Quaker theology: “the Ray of that true Light which lighteth every Man who cometh into the world.”

This pamphlet seeks to deepen our conception of Elias Hicks (1748 — 1830) beyond the mere “farmer” imagined by historians. It seeks to illuminate how Hicksite theology expressed the commercial values of the New York seaport during the Age of Sail, a world now gone with the wind — a forgotten way of life, so different from our own. In doing so, we shall touch the essence of our beliefs about human sexuality, and deepen our appreciation of Quakerism’s unique contribution to modern society: an historic advocacy of the sanctity of individual conscience.

During the American Revolution, Quakers were divided over the idea of going to war with Britain. Despite their adherence to a singular doctrine, many Quakers opposed fighting, while others were eager to join the war effort. In this paper, I will examine the contrasting sides of Quaker beliefs regarding their attitudes toward the American Revolution: both their willingness to fight as well as their view of the American cause. I will first analyze those Quakers who were unwilling to fight in the war and consider their reasons for not fighting.

This essay outlines the history of Quakers' receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in 1947. It will be published in Quakers and the Future of Peacemaking, edited by Alonzo Valentine, Quakers and the Disciplines 8 (Friends Association for Higher Education, Full Media Services) 2022.

Annales Universitatis Paedagogicae Cracoviensis  2017/2
The aim of the article “The Relations Between Puritans and Quakers in 17th Century New England” is to analyze very complicated relations between two specific religious groups after their migration to the “New World”. The author presents history of both religious movements and circumstances of their settlement in America. She also explains how political structures created there by the Puritans influenced the situation of the Quaker missionaries. The main part of the article is an analysis of the reasons behind a profound Puritan hostility towards Quakers. The author divides these reasons into three categories: theological, theological-political, and socio-political, stressing the importance of the last category. Finally, she tries to explain how Quaker presence and attitude influenced future development of American political system.

Streszczenie: Celem artykułu jest ukazanie skomplikowanych relacji między purytanami a kwakrami w kolonialnej Nowej Anglii, zwłaszcza w drugiej połowie XVII wieku. Autorka przedstawia genezę obydwu ruchów religijnych i okoliczności przybycia członków tych wspólnot do kolonii w Ameryce Północnej, omawia struktury polityczne stworzone tam przez purytanów oraz wyjaśnia, jakie miejsce zostało w nich przypisane kwakrom. Analizuje też przyczyny szczególnej niechęci purytanów do kwakrów, wyodrębniając wśród nich trzy kategorie (teologiczne, teologiczno-polityczne oraz społeczno-polityczne) i podkreślając znaczenie tych ostatnich. Ponadto, wskazuje na wpływ, jaki pojawienie się kwakrów wywarło na kolonie purytańskie, a także na przyszłe amerykańskie rozwiązania prawne dotyczące relacji państwo–Kościół. Słowa kluczowe: purytanie, kwakrzy, kolonialna Nowa Anglia, prześladowania religijne, radykalizm społeczny

This thesis discusses how British Quaker women negotiated relinquishing their religiously prescribed Plain dress from 1860 to 1914 in the context of developments in Quaker feminine identity. This thesis approaches its subjects by examining the primary source of surviving Quaker garments in British dress collections. These items provide the basis from which research methodologies and the personal narratives of Quaker women and their case studies are developed. Surviving garments, alongside historical letters, diaries, religious texts, department store catalogues, photographs and period dress illustrations are analysed in order to understand how women Quakers practised their religion and organised their public appearance through dress during this period.
The original quality of this research is the outcome of an interdisciplinary approach. No other research project in the international dress history or religious history fields has discussed and critically considered the identity of British Quaker women through an analysis of their surviving clothing between 1860 and 1914. This aspect of British social history and therefore British identity has until now remained unexplored and unacknowledged.
By 1860 Quakerism had undergone extreme doctrinal upheaval, which had led to the abandonment of those rules which enforced Plainness of speech and apparel that same year. Even prior to 1860, this thesis reveals that some women were incorporating fashion into their religious Plain dress, by using fashionable silhouettes and high-quality fabrics albeit eschewing bright colours and ornamentation. After 1860 however, male and female Quakers had complete individual freedom of choice in their clothing.
During this period of religious turmoil, female Victorian Quakers vocalised a range of opinions on women's emancipation, education and welfare, on their role within the religious society and their opinions concerning dress through published correspondence in Quaker journals. This thesis identifies a variety of views concerning dress between 1860 and 1914, as Quaker women negotiated their individual freedom of choice in attire in a ternary manner. Moreover, this thesis proves that this ternary interpretation was acknowledged by Quakers themselves and discussed within Quaker journals in the 1860-1914 period.
Quakers of the period identified these ternary interpretations as ascetic, moderate and fashionable. This thesis proposes a new set of classifying terms, Non-Adaptive, Semi- Adaptive and Fully-Adaptive, in reflection of the extent to which Quaker women adapted their religious clothing to incorporate fashion alongside their differing interpretations of Quaker belief. Four case studies illustrate further these three adaptive interpretations, and show how individual Quaker women chose to present themselves to their religious community and wider society.

This essay argues, in dialogue with recent interpretations of the character and vision of the early Quaker movement, that the best lens for understanding the beginnings and development of Quakerism is William Penn's description of the movement as "Primitive Christianity Revived." Presented at the November 17, 2017 Quaker Theological Discussion Group meetings, Boston.

The only son of Holocaust refugees, Paul Rubner grew up in suburban Sydney. From the late 1960s until the end of his life he was a well-known figure in various dissident intellectual, political and spiritual circles. He enrolled in many university courses but rarely if ever graduated. He worked as a librarian and pursued an intense program of autodidact study and wrote philosophical and political articles, some of which were published in obscure and ephemeral media.

The research which made this thesis possible was undertaken with the financial support of postgraduate scholarships awarded by the University of Manchester and the ESRC.  The thesis uses the case study of the experience of middle-class northern white women in America during the period 1800-1860 to explore several issues of wider significance. Firstly, the research focuses upon the dynamic relationships between the culturally-constructed categories of public/formal and private/informal power and participation at both the practical and symbolic levels, suggesting ways in which they intersected on the lives of women. Secondly, consideration is given to the validity of the stereotyped view that 'domestic' women were necessarily disadvantaged and dominated relative to those who aspired to public political and economic roles. Thirdly, the relationship of religious belief to these two areas is discussed, in order to discover its relevance to the way in which women both perceived themselves and were perceived by others. In seeking to explore these issues, the research has analysed the patterns of social and cultural change in the era under question, indicating how those changes influenced the perceptions and experiences of both women and men. Their reactions in terms of discourse and activity are located as strategies of negotiation in redefining both social role and participation for the sexes. The rhetoric of 'separate spheres', which was used by men and women to order their mental and physical surroundings, is reduced to its symbolic constituents in order to illustrate that the distinction between male and female arenas was more perceptual than actual. The motivating forces behind the activities and ideas of women themselves are investigated to determine the role of religion in the construction of both female self-images and wider negotiational strategies. The context of nineteenth-century social dynamics has been revealed by detailed analysis of extensive primary sources originated by both women and men for private as well as public consumption. Feminist tools of analysis which enable the conceptualisation of 'meaningful discourse' as including female contributions have further enhanced the specific focus on how women constructed their own world-views and approaches to reality. 'Traditional' approaches and tools are shown to have seriously skewed and misrepresented the reality and variety of both discourse and female experience in the era. Great efforts have been made to allow women to speak in their own words. This has produced an insight into a richness of female social participation and discourse which would otherwise be obscured. The research indicates that women were indeed actors and negotiators during the period. Those women who advocated as primary the duties of women in the domestic and social arenas were by no means setting narrow limitations on female participation in both society and discourse. The religious impulses and eschatological frameworks derived by women (varied as they were) served to order and renegotiate reality and meaning, whilst they produced female roles and influence of great significance. Women were not passive victims of male oppression. Religion can thus be perceived as a positive force which women were able to approach both for its own sake, and for their own particular ends.

This paper contributes to science-and-religion studies in that shows the relation of Quaker faith and practice to technology, science, and industry in the United Kingdom It is published in a double-issue of Quaker Religious thought #99-100 (2003): 67-74.

From Radicalism to Dissent: Quaker Dress as an Identity Marker
Since the end of the sixteenth century, and for almost two centuries, the Society of Friends has imposed on its members a more and more precise dress code. However, initially, Quakers had refused only the show of wealth and luxury in their clothes, and it was only at a later time that a system of rules to follow was introduced, enforced by the rigorous control of the elders of the congregation. These dressing rules imposed on Quakers a sort of ‘uniform’, which, though changing over the decades, was characterized by simplicity and an old-fashioned outlook. This essay investigates this change and this transformation by focusing attention on the layers of meaning that can be discovered by investigating the symbolic materiality of Quaker dress codes.

A tribute to John Punshon (draft, Quaker Studies 22.2, 2017, 219-25). John Punshon has been one of the premier Quaker historians and spokes-persons over the last four decades. Serving as Quaker Tutor at Woodbrooke, Visiting Professor of Quaker Studies at George Fox University and the first Geraldine Leatherock Chair of Quaker Studies at the Earlham School of Religion, John Punshon has contributed greatly to present historical and theological understandings of the Quaker movement, and he will be greatly missed. From his childhood experiences in a local church whilst living with his grandparents during the War to his education at Oxford, his public and political service and his development into a leading interpreter of Quaker history, faith and practice, his own reflections, shared at Milton Keynes Friends Meeting in 2003, provide a basis for understanding the origins of his thought and convictions as represented more extensively in his writings and spoken ministries. He will be greatly missed, but his contributions extend beyond the boundaries of space and time.

Passing Through Divinity is a research project looking at the discrimination religious trans women face and how religiosity can be a factor for resiliency. The process included interviews with six religious transsexual and transgender women (five participants and the researcher) living in Southern Ontario. The focus was to discuss the transmisogyny, the hatred and widespread discrimination against trans women, and religious discrimination they experience as well
as how religiosity helped trans women challenge oppression. The participants came from Santeria, Reform Jewish, Christian (Anglican, Deaf Church, Quaker) and Heathen communities. The aim of my research is to build knowledge for understanding the various ways that religion can allow trans women to resist oppression and exploring how that knowledge can be used by social service professionals to better provide support for other trans women.

John Sturge Stephens (1891–1954), Lecturer für Geschichte an der Universität Birmingham, untersuchte um die Mitte der 1920er-Jahre im Auftrag des Völkerbunds in Genf die prekäre Situation von sprachlichen Minderheiten in den nach den Pariser Vorortverträgen neu entstandenen Nationalstaaten des europäischen Kontinents. Besonderes Augenmerk widmete er der Südtiroler Frage. In seiner 1929 bei Virginia und Leonard Woolf in London erschienenen Studie „Danger Zones of Europe“ stellte er die Südtirolfrage als entscheidenden Krisenherd des künftigen Europas heraus und erblickte angesichts des unnachgiebigen Vorgehens der faschistischen Diktatur vorausschauend den Keim für einen weitreichenden Konflikt.

David Ricardo has been acclaimed-or vilified-for merits he would never have dreamt of, or sins for which he was entirely innocent. Entrenched mythology labels him as a utilitarian economist, an enemy of the working class, an impractical theorist, a scientist with 'no philosophy at all' and the author of a formalist methodological revolution. Exploring a middle ground between theory and biography, this book explores the formative intellectual encounters of a man who came to economic studies via other experiences, thus bridging the gap between the historical Ricardo and the economist's Ricardo. The chapters undertake a thorough analysis of Ricardo's writings in their context, asking who was speaking, what audience was being addressed, with what communicative intentions, using what kind of lexicon and communicative conventions, and starting with what shared knowledge. The work opens in presenting the different religious communities with which Ricardo was in touch. It goes on to describe his education in the leading science of the timegeology-before he turned to the study of political economy. Another chapter discusses five 'philosophers'-students of logic, ethics and politics-with whom he was in touch. From correspondence, manuscripts and publications, the closing chapters reconstruct, firstly, Ricardo's ideas on scientific method, the limits of the 'abstract science' and its application, secondly, his ideas on ethics and politics and their impact on strategies for improving the condition of the working class. This book sheds new light on Ricardian economics, providing an invaluable service to readers of economic methodology, philosophy of economics, the history of economic thought, political thought and philosophy.

This essay explores the question as to whether a doctrine of continuing revelation has been a good thing or a bad thing within the Quaker movement. Indeed, being open to God's truth as disclosed authentically through scripture, church history, reason, personally, and corporately is central to the Gospel of Christ, who continues to teach his followers through the Holy Spirit. And yet, appeals to personal authority have been central to the seven leading Quaker divisions in ways that are instructive. Published in Quaker Perspectives: Good and Evil, eds. Jackie Scully and (Ben) Pink Dandelion (Farnham: Ashgate/Gower, 2007), 15-29.

This paper investigates the conviction amongst zealous English Protestants, living between 1660 and 1701, that Quakerism constituted a form of blasphemy. Through an analysis of the accusation of blasphemy in anti-Quaker polemic it develops a cultural history of blasphemy as representation, illuminating a spiritual critique of Quakerism as enthusiastic antitrinitarianism and a sense of blasphemy commensurate with Thomistic theology. In so doing, this paper provides an insight into the contemporary theological anxiety that Quakerism was fundamentally wicked and anti-Christian.

[Quaker Women in the Seventeenth Century]. The article describes the central role of women in the origin and development of the Quaker movement from the 1640s to the 1660s, noting how their zealous missionary activity and insistence that women be permitted to preach the gospel met with violent reactions throughout Europe and the New World. Following their persecution and imprisonment in England during the 1650s, many Quakers traveled to New England, where they also faced persecution, arrest, violent penalties, and often expulsion from the colonies. Some Quaker women undertook missions in Ireland and throughout the Mediterranean, undaunted by the violent repression of the Counter-Reformation. A survey of public and theological reactions to the early Quaker movement suggests that the public activity of women was one of the primary reasons for open hostility toward the movement. Following the Restoration, male leaders began to consolidate the movement and restrict women’s activities to more peripheral duties. Despite this shift, the early Quaker emphasis on egalitarianism and the participation of women irrevocably shaped the fundamentals of Quakerism.

This book examines the nature and significance of religious enthusiasm in early Enlightenment England. In the early modern period, the term ‘enthusiasm’ was a smear word used to discredit the dissenters of the radical Reformation as dangerous religious fanatics. In England, the term gained prominence from the Civil War period and throughout the eighteenth century. Anglican ministers and the proponents of the Enlightenment used it more widely against Paracelsian chemists, experimental philosophers, religious dissenters and divines, astrologers or anyone claiming superior knowledge. As a result, our understanding of enthusiasm is largely influenced by the hostile discourse of Augustan moralist and early Enlighteners. But who exactly were these enthusiasts? What did they believe in, how did they operate as a community and what impact did they have on their contemporaries? This book aims to answer these questions by concentrating on the notorious case of the French Prophets. It demonstrates how the understanding of enthusiasm evolved around 1700, designating anything from a religious fanaticism to a social epidemic and even a bodily disease. It offers the first comprehensive approach to enthusiasm, looking at this multifarious issue from a successively social, religious, cultural, political and medical perspective. Based on extensive archival research, it sheds new light on the reality of enthusiasm away from the hostility of Enlightenment discourse.

"In the present paper my aim was to disclosure what makes Quakers such a unique and intriguing faith, and what is so distinctive about them that it seems impossible to understand their identity.
To do that, I have examined the historical and social context of early Quakerism, how it was initiated and by whom. Equally important, I have analysed what were their beliefs, where did they come from and how Friends have lived in accordance to them."

Quakers and Parrhesia: Frank Speech in Opposition to Spiritual Rhetoric

Abstract: The text examines parrhesia (the frankness and boldness of speech) employed by George Fox and his early Quaker followers. Parrhesia is a verbal activity that leads a speaker to express his or her personal relationship to truth and in doing so risks the speaker’s life because the speaker recognizes truth telling as a duty to improve or help other people.  Beginning with the concept of parrhesia in Greco-Roman times, the text goes on to explore how and where parrhesia appears and is understood in the Bible.  The evolution of parrhesia is traced from the times of the apostles to the generations following, examining how Christians witnessed to Christ with plain speaking through both martyrdom and the ascetic life of the desert monks.  The connection is then made with the earliest Quakers as they risked their lives to speak frankly and critically (parrhesiastically) to the religious establishment of their time.

The attached PDF contains the title page, copyright page, epigraphs, and table of contents for "The First American Founder: Roger Williams and Freedom of Conscience" by Alan E. Johnson (available in paperback and Kindle editions at Amazon websites throughout the world).  For additional information, see http://www.amazon.com/First-American-Founder-Williams-Conscience/dp/1511823712/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1436397728&sr=1-1.