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Did William Penn Diverge Significantly From George Fox In His Understanding Of The Quaker Message?, T. Vail Palmer Jr.
Did William Penn Diverge Significantly From George Fox In His Understanding Of The Quaker Message?, T. Vail Palmer Jr.
Quaker Studies
Melvin Endy argues that George Fox and William Penn shared similar goals for Quakerism, and that in light of their close working relationship, scholars who argue for significant differences between Fox's and Penn's views of Quakerism must account for Fox's failure to criticise Penn's views. This paper proposes that the lynchpin of Fox's understanding of Quakerism was an empathetic reading of the Bible, so that the authority of Scripture was internalised. In Penn's writings, the Bible is appealed to as an external authority. Because Fox lacked sophistication in the relevant areas of thought, he was unable to identify the core …
Travelers Here In This Vale Of Tears: William Penn Preaches A Funeral Sermon, Michael Graves
Travelers Here In This Vale Of Tears: William Penn Preaches A Funeral Sermon, Michael Graves
Quaker Studies
William Penn, the significant seventeenth-century political figure and writer, was also an important preacher, but his role as a public speaker has received little attention, though at least two of his speeches and twelve of his impromptu sermons have survived. This essay argues that Penn's sermonic work is noteworthy through an examination of his 1688 public response to the death of Rebecca Travers, an important first-generation Quaker leader. Penn's response to Travers' death reveals his struggle to come to grips with the vicissitudes of his own life and, by implication, Travers' life. The sermon is interpreted as an instance of …