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Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities
Virtuous Friends: Morality And Quaker Identity, Jackie Leach Scully
Virtuous Friends: Morality And Quaker Identity, Jackie Leach Scully
Quaker Studies
Recent work in moral philosophy and psychology has made deep connections between questions of morality and identity, suggesting that orientation to a moral framework, through community practices and discourses, contributes to the individual sense of self. I argue that contemporary Liberal Quakers in Britain thus use their moral judgments among other things to reinforce their social identity as Quakers, emphasising a shared approach to ethical framework and sources of authority over the substantive content of the judgments. The favoured ethical framework of Liberal British Quakers appears to be a form of virtue ethics, and I explore the possibility that links …
Modern Testimonies: The Approach Of Quakers To Substance Use And Gambling, Helena Chambers
Modern Testimonies: The Approach Of Quakers To Substance Use And Gambling, Helena Chambers
Quaker Studies
This article outlines a study into Quaker attitudes and behaviours in relation to the testimony of abstinence and moderation and that regarding gambling and speculation. The background to the Quaker testimonies is summarised, and relevant research in the substances/ gambling fields about denominational influences on personal behaviours is briefly outlined. The questions raised by recent Quaker scholarship represented are considered, and the study results are outlined in relation to the theory of Quaker double-culture (Dandelion 1996; Dandelion and Collins 2008) and the suggestions of Scully regarding virtue ethics among Quakers (2002, 2008). It is suggested that whereas the liberal belief …
The Aesthetics Of Friends' Meeting Houses, Roger Homan
The Aesthetics Of Friends' Meeting Houses, Roger Homan
Quaker Studies
In an attempt to identify a Quaker aesthetic as it applies to English meeting houses, this article draws upon the physical evidence of English Meetings past and present, upon the records of discussions preceding the design and construction of meeting houses, upon interviews with Friends at some thirty meeting houses and upon the observational and interpretative literature. The main part of the discussion is structured around the moral principles of plainness, worthiness and simplicity. A distinction is made between the effect of plainness, which has in the past been regulated, and simplicity, which is here explored as a moral attribute …
Adolescent Quakers: A Hidden Sect?, Simon Best
Adolescent Quakers: A Hidden Sect?, Simon Best
Quaker Studies
This paper uses British Quakers as a case study to illustrate how very different perspectives on group identity pertain between the adult group and Quaker youth. While the older Quakers see the young Quakers as a part of 'their' group, the adolescents do not feel the same level of affinity with older Quakers. This paper examines the sectarian nature of both groups and argues that while both groups have sect-like characteristics the sectarian nature of the two groups is differently configured. It argues that the adult group fa ils to acknowledge the adolescent group as a separate sect within the …
Redefining Quaker Simplicity: The Friends Committee On National Legislation Building, 2005, Margery Post Abbott, Carl Abbott
Redefining Quaker Simplicity: The Friends Committee On National Legislation Building, 2005, Margery Post Abbott, Carl Abbott
Quaker Studies
In 2005, the Friends Committee on National Legislation, the major Quaker peace and justice lobbying organization in the United States, completed a substantial remodeling and expansion of its office building on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. The building exemplifies a self-conscious effort to express Quaker values of simplicity and stewardship in architectural choices. Examining the changing meanings of simplicity as expressed in Quaker meeting houses, this article argues that contemporary Friends in the United States have given nontraditional meanings to the concept and now associate simplicity with environmental stewardship in personal and community life. For example, the use of natural …