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Articles 1 - 30 of 34
Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities
Interview With Ron Stansell, Cherice Bock, Ralph Beebe
Interview With Ron Stansell, Cherice Bock, Ralph Beebe
War & Conscientious Objection in Northwest Yearly Meeting of Friends, 1940-1975
Ron Stansell discusses how he registered as a conscientious objector for the draft. He talks about how his childhood and his faith influenced his decision. Furthermore, he talks about his life as a missionary in Bolivia and how he met his wife, Carolyn, through this whole process.
Interview With Elmer Baron, Cherice Bock, Ralph Beebe
Interview With Elmer Baron, Cherice Bock, Ralph Beebe
War & Conscientious Objection in Northwest Yearly Meeting of Friends, 1940-1975
Elmer Baron discusses how he registered for the draft as a normal combatant, and he talks about what it was like serving at Iwo Jima as a radio and radar technician.
Insider Research Into 'Experiment With Light': Uncomfortable Reflexivity In A Different Field, Helen Meads
Insider Research Into 'Experiment With Light': Uncomfortable Reflexivity In A Different Field, Helen Meads
Quaker Studies
In this article based on ongoing research, I discuss the difficulty of separating my personal experience from my research into 'Experiment with Light'. I argue by reference to the work of Labaree, Pillow and Boff that the inherent complexities of researching a process which itself seeks 'Truth' requires the researcher to be reflexive to the point of discomfort. I show how the dilemmas Labaree identifies in insider research signal Pillow's uncomfortable reflexivity and move her analysis beyond the context of race and gender to the religious context, where it serves a different purpose. I conclude by reference to Boff's theory …
Quaker Events For Young People: Informal Education And Faith Transmission, Simon Best
Quaker Events For Young People: Informal Education And Faith Transmission, Simon Best
Quaker Studies
This article examines Quaker events for young people and explores the nature of these events through examination of official policies, questionnaires and observation at events. It examines the purposes of Quaker events for young people as described by official policies and by youth work practitioners and examines the significance of these events in the lives of adolescent Quakers. Quaker events for young people are analysed in comparison with the values and principles of 'informal education'. Contrasts are drawn between Quaker events for young people and Christian youth work. This article also explores the nature of faith transmission at Quaker events …
The Magic Lantern And The Cinema: Adult Schools, Educational Settlements And Secularisation In Britain, C. 1900-1950, Mark Freeman
The Magic Lantern And The Cinema: Adult Schools, Educational Settlements And Secularisation In Britain, C. 1900-1950, Mark Freeman
Quaker Studies
This article examines the impact of an increasingly secularised demand for adult education in the first half of the twentieth century on two movements with which Quakers were closely associated: the adult schools and the educational settlements. It argues that the educational settlements, originally established to extend and enhance the work of the adult schools, were better able to accommodate to a secularised climate, and this ensured their survival. Neither movement flourished in the same way as the secular Workers' Educational Association and adult education provided by local education authorities, and this reflected the weakness of religious adult education in …
'A Civil And Useful Life': Quaker Women, Education And The Development Of Professional Identities 1800-1835, Camilla Leach
'A Civil And Useful Life': Quaker Women, Education And The Development Of Professional Identities 1800-1835, Camilla Leach
Quaker Studies
Exhorted by George Fox to live a 'Civil and useful life', educated middle-class Quaker women who did not feel called to undertake a recognised ministerial role within the Religious Society of Friends still used their education and skills to the benefit of the wider community. This article examines the engagement of Quaker women with education by focussing on the work of Mariabella and Rachel Howard (mother and daughter), who were involved in several educational charities between 1800 and 1835. The article seeks to address the irony of two educational campaigners who as non-professional women sought to professionalise the work of …
Mary Birkett Card (1774-1817): Struggling To Become The Ideal Quaker Woman, Josephine Teakle
Mary Birkett Card (1774-1817): Struggling To Become The Ideal Quaker Woman, Josephine Teakle
Quaker Studies
This paper is based on The Works of Mary Birkett Card 1774 -1817, an edition of the manuscript collection made by her son Nathaniel Card in 1834. The collection contains different genres and spans Card's life from childhood to near her death, forming a unique record of one woman's experience at the tum of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Themes of self and identity, women's participation in public and private spheres, and ideological differences are apparent in Mary Birkett Card's struggle, in life and text, to become 'the ideal Quaker woman'. One particular focus is on her negotiation of …
New Perspectives On Eighteenth-Century British Quaker Women, Edwina Newman, Judith Jennings
New Perspectives On Eighteenth-Century British Quaker Women, Edwina Newman, Judith Jennings
Quaker Studies
In the last three decades, research on eighteenth-century British Quaker women reflects a range of different methodological perspectives. Recent studies focus on female spiritual development and sense of identity in the formative seventeenth century. New influences and changing contexts in the eighteenth century, especially Quietism, engendered new themes: a continuing concern with self and collective identity; theology and practices; and participation in the public and private spheres. The experiences and perceptions ofBritish Quaker women in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries reflect the influence of Deism and Evangelicalism. Despite these valuable studies, further research and systematic analysis is needed, …
Comparing Two Surveys Of Britain Yearly Meeting: 1990 And 2003, Mark S. Cary, Pink Dandelion, Rosie Rutherford
Comparing Two Surveys Of Britain Yearly Meeting: 1990 And 2003, Mark S. Cary, Pink Dandelion, Rosie Rutherford
Quaker Studies
Comparison of postal surveys of Friends in Britain Yearly Meeting in 1990 and 2003 showed modest differences for reported self-descriptions and beliefs. Quakers in 2003 appear to be less pacifist, somewhat less likely to describe God as 'Spirit', 'Inward Light', or 'Love' in absolute percentages, and less likely to describe Jesus as 'containing that of God within as we all do'. Meeting for Worship was described less as 'Seeking God's will', and more as 'Listening'. The largest changes were an increase in reported levels of education and a 13-year increase in median age across the 13-year period. The change in …
Fellowship, Service, And The 'Spirit Of Adventure': The Religious Society Of Friends And The Outdoors Movement In Britain, C. 1900-1950, Mark Freeman
Quaker Studies
This article considers the involvement of members of the Religious Society of Friends in various manifestations of the outdoors movement in early twentieth-century Britain. It examines the Edwardian 'Quaker tramps' and their role in the 'Quaker renaissance', and goes on to consider the influence of Friends in organisations such as the Holiday Fellowship and the Youth Hostels Association, as well as interwar Quaker mountaineers. It argues that, while the outdoor activities of the Quaker renaissance were essentially internal to the Religious Society of Friends, a wider conception of social service took Quakers beyond the boundaries of the Society in the …
Universalising And Spiritualising Christ's Gospel: How Early Quakers Interpreted The Epistle To The Colossians, Stephen W. Angell
Universalising And Spiritualising Christ's Gospel: How Early Quakers Interpreted The Epistle To The Colossians, Stephen W. Angell
Quaker Studies
This article examines seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Quaker methods of biblical interpretation, comparing them to Puritan and Spiritualist methods. The focus is on verses from the Pauline epistle to the Colossians frequently cited by early Quakers. In contrast to John Calvin and four seventeenth-century Puritan Biblical commentators, but similar to seventeenth-century Spiritualists such as William Erbery, Quakers argued strongly for a form of mystical universalism closely akin to Arminianism in their interpretation of this epistle. Quakers (especially John Woolman) resembled medieval Catholics in their willingness to interpret Col. 1.24 to assert that Christ's 'mystical' body, which could include contempora1y Christians, was …
Slavery, The Slave Trade And The Churches, James Walvin
Slavery, The Slave Trade And The Churches, James Walvin
Quaker Studies
The British did not initiate, but they came to dominate the Atlantic slave trade. Few expressed moral or ethical doubts about slavery. The Anglican church, was directly involved in slavery. When a Christian voice was raised against the slave trade, it was led by Quakers who also played a critical role in the campaign to end the slave trade.
Three Kinds Of British Friends: A Latent Class Analysis, Mark S. Cary, Pink 'Ben' Dandelion
Three Kinds Of British Friends: A Latent Class Analysis, Mark S. Cary, Pink 'Ben' Dandelion
Quaker Studies
A latent class analysis was applied to the religious beliefs of 485 respondents in Rosie Rutherford's authoritative 2003 survey of British Friends. The analysis produced three groups: (1) Christian Quakers (27%), who hold a traditional Christian theology; (2) secularized Quakers (37%), who do not consider themselves atheists, but whose conception of God is not personal; and (3) Inner Light Quakers (36%), who emphasize the inner light and 'that of God in everyone' .
Two Kinds Of Quakers: A Latent Class Analysis, Mark S. Cary, Anita L. Weber
Two Kinds Of Quakers: A Latent Class Analysis, Mark S. Cary, Anita L. Weber
Quaker Studies
A latent class analysis was applied to 531 respondents to the Making New Friends survey of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers). We found two distinct patterns of religious beliefs-those in Group G want a deeper and personal relationship with God, while those in Group S are more interested in social testimonies and generally do not believe in a personal God.
'Children Of Light And Sons Of Darkness': Quakers, Oaths And The Old Bailey Proceedings In The Eighteenth Century, Edwina Newman
'Children Of Light And Sons Of Darkness': Quakers, Oaths And The Old Bailey Proceedings In The Eighteenth Century, Edwina Newman
Quaker Studies
This paper makes use of the technology that allows for the searching of the online edition of the Old Bailey Proceedings. Although Quakers were once very familiar with courts of justice, by the eighteenth century they had become considerably less persecuted than formerly. Their way oflife meant that they did not figure highly among defendants in criminal courts. Their testimony against oaths excluded them too from the ranks of prosecutors and witnesses, the newly won right to affirm not extending to criminal trials. Quakers figure in fewer than 100 of the 45,000 Old Bailey trials in this period. Nevertheless, what …
Broadcasting Truth To Power:The American Friends Service Committee And The Early Southern Civil Rights Movement, Brian Ward
Quaker Studies
This article addresses two gaps in the historical literature on the modern civil rights movement. First, it highlights the contributions of the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) to the struggle for racial justice in the South. Second, it reveals the importance of radio broadcasting in helping to create a climate in which southern white racial attitudes and discriminatory practices were challenged. It demonstrates how AFSC-sponsored broadcasts reflected Quaker principles, but also how debates over appropriate programme content exposed the tensions between principled and pragmatic considerations, morality and expediency, that shaped the Movement and determined the AFSC's role in it.
Quaker Beliefs: Diverse Yet Distinctive, Rosamund Bourke
Quaker Beliefs: Diverse Yet Distinctive, Rosamund Bourke
Quaker Studies
The aim of the research was to obtain the views of Quakers about their beliefs. 166 members of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) responded to a questionnaire about Quaker faith and practice. The respondents largely agreed with traditional Quaker beliefs. As might be expected from previous studies, a diversity of views was found and it was not possible to calculate an 'index of Quakerism'. Eighty percent were over the age of 50. Their attitudes to religion were probably formed before the changes in cultural values of the latter half of the twentieth century.
America's Learning About Foreign Places Through The Eyes Of Missionaries: Writings In The Friends' Missionary Advocate, 1885-1933, Stanley D. Brunn, Elizabeth J. Leppman
America's Learning About Foreign Places Through The Eyes Of Missionaries: Writings In The Friends' Missionary Advocate, 1885-1933, Stanley D. Brunn, Elizabeth J. Leppman
Quaker Studies
Missionaries were among the travelers who supplied American adults and children with information about foreign places. Because they enjoyed a high status and respect with their home congregations and because they lived among peoples in foreign, often exotic, lands, missionaries and their writings enjoyed a wide and attentive audience. Materials in The Friends' Missionary Advocate between 1885 and 1933 report that information on foreign regions reached American audiences through presentations at monthly and quarterly meetings and at yearly conferences. Articles, letters, reports, maps, and pictures were also a medium for influencing Americans' impressions of the world.
Rethinking The British Anti-War Movement 1914-1918: Notes From A Local Study, Cyril Pearce
Rethinking The British Anti-War Movement 1914-1918: Notes From A Local Study, Cyril Pearce
Quaker Studies
Based on extensive research into the 1914-1918 anti-war movement in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, this study sets out to examine the proposition that Huddersfield was a 'special place' in the strength of its anti-war community and in the tolerance shown to it. In the process, it raises fundamental questions about historians' understanding of the way in which British society dealt with the war. It criticises what it sees to be an essentially metropolitan view of the war which it regards as inaccurate and misleading. It also raises questions about popular attitudes towards the war, the nature of anti-war groupings, accepted calculations …
The Quaker Peace Testimony And Its Contribution To The British Peace Movement: An Overview, Martin Ceadel
The Quaker Peace Testimony And Its Contribution To The British Peace Movement: An Overview, Martin Ceadel
Quaker Studies
This article attempts the first overview of the contribution of Quakerism to the British peace movement from its eighteenth-century origins to the present day. It emphasizes that the Society of Friends did much to make pacifism acceptable in Britain, and was the principal backer of the peace movement in the century following the end of the Napoleonic Wars. It shows how Quakers, although divided by the First World War and eclipsed by an upsurge in non-Quaker activism, reaffirmed their pacifism and did as much for the peace movement during the inter-war years as any small religious body could have done. …
Questions Of Identity Among 'Buddhist Quakers', Klaus Huber
Questions Of Identity Among 'Buddhist Quakers', Klaus Huber
Quaker Studies
This paper is focused on a survey of Quakers who regard Buddhism as the major source of their spirituality, with the aim of establishing how it is possible to be a 'Buddhist Quaker'. It will be argued that there are two distinct groups of survey respondents: 'Quaker Buddhists' and 'semi-Buddhist Quakers' who differ in their self-identification. Tendencies and influences within both groups will be discussed along with their respective choice of spiritual resources, their meditation practices and their belief patterns. It will be observed that Quaker Buddhists have established stronger roots in Buddhism, whereas semi-Buddhist Quakers remain closer to British …
James Nayler In The English Civil Wars, David Neelon
James Nayler In The English Civil Wars, David Neelon
Quaker Studies
James Nayler spent between eight and nine years in Parliament's army during the English Civil Wars, but this period of his life has not been adequately discussed in any of his biographies. This article documents causes for the Civil Wars in Nayler's home town and his enlistment, rank and service throughout the wars. His involvement in a list of major battles is shown. Nayler became a member of the Council of War under John Lambert, commander of the Northern Armies, and served as Lambert's Quartermaster in the settlement of the rebellious army troops. As a member of the Council, Nayler …
Friend In The Field: A Reflexive Approach To Being A Quaker Ethnographer, Eleanor Nesbitt
Friend In The Field: A Reflexive Approach To Being A Quaker Ethnographer, Eleanor Nesbitt
Quaker Studies
Acknowledgement of the significance of reflexivity in social research has generated numerous autobiographical references in introductions to reports of field studies of faith communities. In particular the relevance of the researcher's gender- or at least female gender - has been a subject for scholarly reflection. Moreover, the insider/outsider dichotomy has been invoked and contested, and the changing relationship between the ethnographer and the field during field work has been charted. In this article it is some ethnographers' religious context and orientation that is the focus. With particular reference to some contemporary British Quakers whose field work has had a religious …
Friends In Business: Researching The History Of Quaker Involvement In Industry And Commerce, Helen Roberts
Friends In Business: Researching The History Of Quaker Involvement In Industry And Commerce, Helen Roberts
Quaker Studies
This paper is intended as an aid to those researching the history of Quaker involvement in industry and commerce, with a regional focus on Yorkshire. A selection of archives of businesses founded and run by Quakers, as well as of family and personal papers of Friends in business are surveyed here. Both the historical context and a summary of the surviving sources are given for each collection surveyed, with details of where the material is held. Examples have been chosen to represent the Quaker contribution to particular trades and industries, and in some cases, to promote collections which have recently …
Quaker Families And Business Networks In Nineteenth-Century Darlington, Gillian Cookson
Quaker Families And Business Networks In Nineteenth-Century Darlington, Gillian Cookson
Quaker Studies
This article investigates the central role played by Quakers in the industrial and urban growth of Darlington, focusing in particular upon family and business connections with Friends in the City of London. From the launch of the town's famous first railway, to the ensuing arrival of heavy industry in the 1850s and 1860s, Quakers were at the forefront of industrial and urban developments. While Quaker entrepreneurs possessed advantages in business deriving from their access to finance and advice, and from their reputation for probity, the idea that they also had special talents for foresight, innovation and management, is not borne …
Anne Camm And The Vanishing Quaker Prophets, Christine Trevett
Anne Camm And The Vanishing Quaker Prophets, Christine Trevett
Quaker Studies
No abstract provided.
Contemporary Quaker Attitudes To Science And Technology, Jackie Leach Scully
Contemporary Quaker Attitudes To Science And Technology, Jackie Leach Scully
Quaker Studies
I discuss some data on contemporary Quaker attitudes to science, particularly gene technology, gathered from member of Britain Yearly Meeting. Quakers are often perceived as having a relatively positive attitude towards innovation, including technology, and some confirmation of this can be found in Quaker history, until 30 years ago. The observations described in this paper suggest that, in line with the general trend in the west towards a greater skepticism about the benefits of science, the current attitude of British Friends towards the practice of science is a more ambivalent or even negative one, although attitudes towards the scientific/experimental method …
Money Matters - The Experience Of English Friends In Stavanger, 1885-1900, David Adshead
Money Matters - The Experience Of English Friends In Stavanger, 1885-1900, David Adshead
Quaker Studies
The economic depression in Norway in the mid- 1880s led to the virtual bankruptcy of two of the key members of the Stavanger Meeting at a time when there was also a crisis of leadership following the death of Endre Dahl for so long the leader of the Quaker group there. A small group of English Friends led by Walter Morris (later, Morice) made an appeal for funds so as to be able to make commercial loans and thus ease the situation for Carl Nyman and Peter Fugilie who had by now made arrangements with their creditors. But just as …
British Quakers And A New Kind Of End-Time Prophecy, Charles Stroud, Pink Dandelion
British Quakers And A New Kind Of End-Time Prophecy, Charles Stroud, Pink Dandelion
Quaker Studies
This research note challenges the accuracy of Dandelion's claim that British Quakerism will survive until 2108 and presents two mathematical calculations of the point when there would be no Quakers left in Britain. It concludes that the 2108 figure may not be so far from the truth although this depends on the date from which decline is charted. The article also raises questions about the date at which a critical minimum might be reached.
'Will The Last (Woman) Friend To Leave Please Ensure That The Light Remains Shining?', Bill Chadkirk
'Will The Last (Woman) Friend To Leave Please Ensure That The Light Remains Shining?', Bill Chadkirk
Quaker Studies
This paper analyses trends in membership of the Religious Society of Friends in Britain, the number of members per Meeting and the changes in the gender balance of membership. It identifies polynomial equations to curves that match the data very closely. An accelerating decline in membership commencing in 1990 is identified. Trends are extrapolated to determine an end-point in 2032. The paper makes clear that as this date approaches the relationship between the data and trend is liable to breakdown.