Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Review Of Brian Drayton's Messages To Meetings (San Francisco: Inner Light Books, 2021), Howard R. Macy

Quaker Religious Thought

Messages to Meetings is a collection of letters written to various groups, mostly in the context of New England Yearly Meeting, where Brian Drayton is an active recorded minister. Some of the letters follow visits he has made as a traveling minister. Others are to groups he wishes he could gather with but can only “pay a visit by letter.” Still others are instructional pieces to assist groups he actively participates in, most notably New England Yearly Meeting.

Contributors - Quaker Religious Thought, No. 138, Jon R. Kershner

Quaker Religious Thought

No abstract provided.

Climate Change And The Personal Presence Of God, Grace Ji-Sun Kim

Quaker Religious Thought

Climate change is one of the most important social justice issues of our time that affects the survival of humanity and planet earth. Climate change alters our planet and creates havoc in many parts of the world as weather patterns change, causing changes in our environment and countless other ripple effects. Storms are getting more devastating, as structures are destroyed and more lives are being lost. The increase in carbon emissions is destroying our atmosphere, and the consequences are enormous for the future of our planet. During this climate crisis, how are we to divert the disruption and stop climate …

Review Of Drew Lawson, Movings Of Divine Love: The Love Of God In The Letters Of John Woolman (San Francisco: Inner Light Books, 2020), Jon R. Kershner

Quaker Religious Thought

John Woolman (1720–1772) is well-known to many Quakers. The tailor, schoolteacher, farmer, and Quaker minister worked to free humans from enslavement at the hands of his fellow Quakers. He criticized and rejected the machinations of the British imperial economy and he refused to pay war taxes. He also wrote a journal that has been received as a classic of spiritual autobiography. While less read than his journal, Woolman also wrote essays, many of which were published during his lifetime. Woolman also wrote many letters. Unfortunately, these letters are not readily available for general consumption. They are mostly in manuscript form …

Frontmatter, Quaker Religious Thought, No. 139, Jon R. Kershner

Quaker Religious Thought

ABOUT THIS ISSUE

Welcome to the fall issue of Quaker Religious Thought! The papers from this issue were presented at the January 2022 Quaker Theological Discussion Group sessions. The theme of the sessions was, “Decolonizing the Quaker Peace Testimony.” The articles printed here challenge all Friends to reflect on the use of the Quaker peace testimony, and especially the ways it has been used to enable oppression. This is a difficult and important conversation to have, because for many Friends the Quaker peace testimony has only ever been conceived of as an act of obedience to God and an unqualified …

Unsettling: On Palestinian Quaker Theology, Sa’Ed Atshan

Quaker Religious Thought

In this essay, I will reflect on the remarks I shared in January 2022 on the “Decolonizing the Quaker Peace Testimony” panel of the Quaker Theological Discussion Group and in July 2022 on the “Invoking Unsettling” plenary of the Friends General Conference.

Unsettling has many different meanings and layers, whether it is thinking about unsettling settler colonialism or in unsettling some of our assumptions that we may not be comfortable grappling with. Settler colonialism has unfolded all over the world and unfortunately it continues in the present, not just in the United States.

For me, the context of Palestine/Israel hits …

Decolonizing The Quaker Peace Testimony In The Global South, Cristina J. Montiel

Quaker Religious Thought

I was born in the Philippines, and except for several international academic and research fellowships, I have been living in MetroManila for my whole life. I am a peace and political psychologist in the Psychology Department of Ateneo de Manila University, a Jesuit-owned academic institution. I identify my religious orientation more as a Jesuit Quaker rather than a Catholic Quaker. In the first half of my adult life, I was in a political movement against the Marcos dictatorship. I founded and led Lingap Bilanggo (Care for Prisoners), a national movement for the freedom of all political detainees. Many of my …

Radical Hospitality And Peace, Trayce Peterson

Quaker Religious Thought

The roots of the Quaker peace testimony lie in a genuine and liberatory understanding that all people have that of God within them. However, for the testimony to live up to the promise of liberation for all, we must question who has space to speak, under which terms, and more importantly, who will listen. After all, there is no peace without justice, and justice cannot be achieved without acknowledgment, accountability, and reconciliation.

I’d like to offer a few thoughts on each and on the ways that we as Friends might move forward to create radical hospitality in our meetings and …

Decolonizing Quaker Moves To Innocence: What Would It Take To Decolonize The “Quaker Peace Testimony”?, Tom Kunesh

Quaker Religious Thought

To start talking about “decolonizing the quaker peace testimony,” we must first presume a previously colonized or colonial something, and then to presume quakerism acknowledges it participates in colonization and that that participation is problematic. But quakerism in general—apart from one article, one ad hoc working group, and several yearly meetings’ “repudiation” of roman catholic doctrines of discovery—has not directly addressed its robust participation in the anglo-american colonial past in the United States and elsewhere (genocide, land theft, racial cleansing, broken treaties, concentration of indigenous people into reservations, and re-education through “indian” boarding schools, a.k.a. assimilation camps), the present reality …

Review Of Stuart Masters, The Rule Of Christ: Themes In The Theology Of James Nayler (Brill, 2021)., Mark Bredin

Quaker Religious Thought

Who did James Nayler think Jesus was? What did Jesus achieve in his life? How did Jesus inspire Nayler? How did Nayler understand himself? If you are interested in Jesus, and curious about James Nayler, a shadowy Quaker great from the past, then this book is for you. Stuart Masters skilfully harnesses Nayler’s religious, political and economic contexts to allow for greater comprehension of Nayler’s writings. This book invigorates under- standing of an early expression of Quakerism. More importantly, Masters’ Nayler defies the elite depiction of Jesus “sweet” and “meek.” Masters allows for Nayler’s radical and uncompromising Jesus to emerge …

Contributors - Quaker Religious Thought, No. 139, Jon R. Kershner

Quaker Religious Thought

No abstract provided.

Frontmatter, Quaker Religious Thought, No. 136, Jon R. Kershner

Quaker Religious Thought

ABOUT THIS ISSUE

In the last issue of Quaker Religious Thought (QRT) I reflected that the type of Quaker theological reflection and praxis explored in QRT was important if Friends are to confront the strife, inequity, and injustice we can witness all around us. Now, six months later, we are experiencing the deadliest days of the pandemic, political tensions have boiled over to the point of an attempted coup by Christian Identity groups and an attempt to thwart such hallmarks of democracy as the peaceful transfer of power. What do Quakers have to offer in a world like this? One …

Caring For Each Other, Ashley M. Wilcox

Quaker Religious Thought

Pastors wear a lot of hats. Pastors’ roles include preacher, worship leader, provider of pastoral care, counselor, teacher, and administrator. And those are just the official expectations. As Barbara Brown Taylor says, a pastor also ends up being a “social worker, chauffeur, cook, financial advisor, community organizer, babysitter, philanthropist, marriage counselor, cheerleader, [and] friend.”1 In a church with a large staff, these roles may be divided among several people, but then the lead pastor also has to manage several employees. In a church with a solo pastor, the pastor either has to do all of these tasks or rely on …

Revolutionary Faithfulness: Quaker Pastoral Practice And Theology In An Age Of Empire, C. Wess Daniels

Quaker Religious Thought

I am glad there is space for what I expect will be a rigorous and critical examination of Quaker pastoral theology within the pages of Quaker Religious Thought. This is needed as much now as ever. For a practice that goes back to at least the late 1860s (Barbour and Frost, 1994: 211), it is unclear why so little has been written about it in 160 years.1 This is not just a lost opportunity; it is a grave deficit for programmed Friends. It could be argued that many of the challenges Gurneyite Quakerism faces today—in terms of tradition drift, division, …

Review Of David Lewis, A World From The Lost: Remarks On James Nayler's Love To The Lost And A Hand Held Forth To The Helpless To Lead Out Of The Dark (Inner Light Books, 2019), Carole Dale Spencer

Quaker Religious Thought

James Nayler has been an enduring enigma to historians. He’s been considered a madman and a saint. A variety of perspectives and interpretations, often conflicting, from political, sociological, psychological, theological, and literary standpoints have been offered; but one undeniable fact about Nayler that historians can agree on is that he was a charismatic figure. His charisma rivaled George Fox in the earliest period of the Quaker movement. But he was largely lost in the dustbins of Quaker history until the twentieth century, when four modern biographies were written as well as numerous scholarly articles in Quaker journals. And he continues …

Review Of Margery Post Abbott, Walk Humbly, Serve Boldly: Modern Quakers As Everyday Prophets. San Francisco, Ca: Inner Light Books, 2018., Howard Macy

Quaker Religious Thought

Margery Post Abbott’s book Walk Humbly, Serve Boldly is a substantial book, in both size and content, that explores the experience of prophetic witness, particularly among Friends. Key to understanding this exploration is Abbott’s use of the term “everyday prophets.” She uses the term “to describe all those individuals (and this goes well beyond the Quaker community) who listen for the Holy Spirit to shape them and guide them on a daily basis. … [They are] people who are faithful to the path of truth and love and whose lives project hope and a passion for justice. This path is …

Contributors-Quaker Religious Thought, No. 134, Jon R. Kershner

Quaker Religious Thought

No abstract provided.

"Hearing To Speech": A Participatory Theology Of World-Dwelling As Congregational Formation In God's Mission, David Hahn

Quaker Religious Thought

Allow me initial place to recognize my own social location as a the US, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.1 From a personal and professional perspective, my thoughts below have in mind the continuing impact of whiteness as a pervasive preoccupation with mastery over others that subsumes both difference and distinctions.2 As a leader of congregations, I have witnessed this implicit bias present among them, and I see how it continues to inform both the theory and practice of much of our faith communities. Congregational reticence to engage spiritual practices of listening may, in fact, be tied into these larger …

Frontmatter, Quaker Religious Thought, No. 134, Jon R. Kershner

Quaker Religious Thought

Welcome to the Spring issue of Quaker Religious Thought! In November, the Quaker Theological Discussion Group (QTDG) convened in San Diego, CA, along with the American Academy of Religion. Papers from one of the two QTDG sessions, “Quakers Reading Scripture,” are printed in this issue. As the name suggests, the panel reflected on the ways Quakers have read the Bible. Michael Birkel’s article on Margaret Fell shows how early Friends practiced an associative form of reading the Bible that informed the symbols and images so important to their spiritual experiences. Paul Anderson continued the investigation of early Quaker practices by …

Inspiring Readings Of The Inspired Text-- Taking The Bible Personally, After The Manner Of Friends, Paul Anderson

Quaker Religious Thought

In the experience and conviction of Friends, the sway and power of Scripture lies not in an appeal to top-down authority, but in its transformative character, attested by its inspiring thrust. This view is also biblical, as the Apostle Paul exhorts Timothy to resist false teachers by clinging to what he has been taught since childhood. Indeed, the sacred writings are able to instruct one unto “salvation through faith in Jesus Christ” because of their God-breathed origin and character (2 Timothy 3:15-17). Early Friends also asserted the biblically-correct claim that the Word of God is centrally Jesus Christ, the Word …

Friends And Watershed Discipleship: Reconciling With People And The Land In Light Of The Doctrine Of Discovery, Cherice Bock

Quaker Religious Thought

Members of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) express frequent adulation for the denomination’s heritage of standing up for social justice. As a member of the denomination, I share this pride in our heritage, and yet, I feel increasingly convicted in relation to Quaker scholarship and praxis that we need to reevaluate our history and current practices with recognition of the “wicked” web of interconnected social, economic, and environmental injustices we currently face as a global community. This necessitates awareness of our part in creating the current situation, and a willingness to actively work to change the problematic areas of …

Review Of Cherice Bock & Stephen Potthoff (Editors), Quakers, Creation Care, And Sustainability (Longmeadow, Ma: Friends Association For Higher Education, 2019), Kevin J. O'Brien

Quaker Religious Thought

On the day I finished reading Quakers, Creation Care, and Sustainability, Steve Mnuchin, the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, publicly dismissed the authority of climate activist Greta Thunberg. Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Thunberg made a speech calling for global disinvestment from fossil fuels. In response, Mnuchin joked, “Is she the chief economist? Who is she? I’m confused.” He went on, “After she goes to college and studies economics in college, she can come back and explain that to us.

Margaret Fell, Reading In The Heart, Michael Birkel

Quaker Religious Thought

In 1677 Margaret Fell composed a tract of nineteen pages, The Daughter of Sion Awakened, and Putting on Strength: She Is Arising, and Shaking Herself Out of the Dust, and Putting on Her Beautiful Garments. An attentive reading of the text shows her associative way of reading scripture, one that focuses on the imagery of the Bible as a guide to interior experience and a vocabulary for the life of the soul

Affirmation Mysticism: The Activist Theology Of Rufus Jones, Christy Randazzo

Quaker Religious Thought

In 1917, the American Friends Service Committee was formed as a unified effort across the Anglo-American Friends world to respond to the ravages of the First World War. Rufus Jones was only one, amongst many, who devoted significant time and attention to that effort. Jones was the person selected as the Committee’s first Chairman, however, and remained its Honorary Chairman until his death in 1948.1 Jones’s prominent status amongst Friends internationally both as a writer and a weighty Friend influenced this choice. While his academic work likely played a role in building his “weight” amongst Friends, much of it was …

Contributors -- Quaker Religious Thought No. 133

Quaker Religious Thought

No abstract provided.

Frontmatter, Quaker Religious Thought No.133, Jon R. Kershner

Quaker Religious Thought

In this issue we are fortunate to have another delightful lineup of authors. The papers authored by James Krippner and David H. Watt, Christy Randazzo, and Cherice Bock were presented at the November 2018 Quaker Theological Discussion Group session on the theme of “Early 20th Century Quaker Theologies of Service.”

Oregon Yearly Meeting And The Peace Testimony, Part I: Navigating Evangelicalism And Quakerism, 1938-1954, Cherice Bock

Quaker Religious Thought

After forming in 1893 and joining Five-Years Meeting at its inception in 1902, Oregon Yearly Meeting of Friends Church (OYM) left Five-Years Meeting in 1926 then joined with others to form the Association of Evangelical Friends in 1947. In the same decades, the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) formed in 1917 with the intention of helping those displaced, hungry, and injured in Europe during World War I. OYM partnered with the AFSC for a while, though the relationship was often strained. In 1938 it left the AFSC, continuing to partner with AFSC projects during World War II. In 1954, OYM …

The Concept Of Hierarchy And Doing Ministry In The Church: Evaluating The Roles Of Leaders And The Use Of Authority In Quakerism, Oscar Lugusa Malande

Quaker Religious Thought

The authority existing within the hierarchy of leadership in the church, if not well exercised, can create deficiency and imbalances in the running of church affairs. In Quakerism, the expectation is that everyone equally participates in doing ministry. As people gather in the presence of God for service in worship, all barriers of inequality have to be brought down. Conflicts and disagreements of who is supposed to be in authority among church leaders should be discouraged. Therefore, there is need to share about definitions of hierarchy, ministry, and authority, the historical background of church leadership, role of church leaders, evaluations …

Book Review: Ben Pink Dandelion, Douglas Gwyn, Timothy Peat. Heaven On Earth: Quakers And The Second Coming. Twentieth Anniversary Edition. Philadelphia: Plain Press, 2018., Jay Miller

Quaker Religious Thought

The provocative arguments in this unique book about the centrality of the second coming to Quakerism are challenging to summarize but easy to recommend: this is a work that many Friends could benefit from reading. That it has not been widely read is, I suspect, one of the reasons for its reprinting, two decades after its initial publication. While the insights offered by Ben Pink Dandelion, Douglas Gwyn, and Timothy Peat in Heaven on Earth have appeared elsewhere in separate and better known studies by the same authors, here they come together with a particular force and urgency. The book …

Book Review: Andrew R. Murphy, William Penn, A Life (New York: Oxford Universit Press, 2019), Jon R. Kershner

Quaker Religious Thought

William Penn (1644-1718) needs little introduction among Quakers. After his convincement in the mid-1660s Penn quickly rose through the Quaker ranks as a prolific author, capable debater, and a staunch advocate for religious freedom. Beginning in 1681, he became a colonizer and traveled widely to recruit emigrants to his colony. While Penn is often touted among Friends, and sometimes reviled for his slave-owning and colonialism, Andrew R. Murphy does a great service in producing a comprehensive biography of Penn that is free from both the ahistorical anxieties and accolades Quakers sometimes resort to when considering this controversial figure. Indeed, Murphy’s …