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Contributors - Quaker Religious Thought, No. 137, Jon R. Kershner

Quaker Religious Thought

No abstract provided.

Frontmatter, Quaker Religious Thought, No. 137, Jon R. Kershner

Quaker Religious Thought

ABOUT THIS ISSUE

Welcome to Quaker Religious Thought! This issue contains papers that were delivered at the November 2020 Quaker Theological Discussion Group meeting. The general topic of the sessions was ministry and the second panel, featured in this issue, addressed the question: “What is a Quaker theology of vocational ministry, and how is it enfleshed/embodied in community?” The resulting conversation addressed the wide array of contexts in which ministry takes place, challenges of ministry in a Quaker context, and testimonies to the role of discernment in guiding and supporting ministry. A hearty thanks to our authors, Ben Brazil, Robin …

The Conflict Is Inherent: A Quaker Theology Of Vocational Ministry, Robin Mohr

Quaker Religious Thought

“I’m wrestling with the nagging feeling that God is calling me to this ministry of hospitality and encouragement: this work of bringing Friends together, convening learning communities, facilitating conversations and supporting Friends on their spiritual journeys, which brings me such joy and fulfillment and peace. Aren’t I really supposed to be doing this all the time? Am I disobeying God’s leading by spending so much of my time earning a secular living? Or is the desire to devote myself to a full-time, ‘hireling’ ministry a distraction? A temptation?”¹

This tension is familiar to many Quakers who are seeking to …

A Dangerous Theology, Emily Provance

Quaker Religious Thought

Ministry is inherently risky. The existence of a call to ministry implies potential failure: failure to respond, failure to discern, failure to fulfill. Ministry also carries with it potential societal and personal consequences, ranging from outright persecution to subtler judgment for counter-cultural words and actions to loss or rearrangement of personal relationships. Perhaps for this reason, within the Quaker context, we can’t address a theology of ministry while only addressing the minister. Quakerism is not a faith of the individual but of the community. In theological and theoretical circles, Friends say that the community, not the individual, has the responsibility …

One Quaker's Life In The Ministry, Lloyd L. Wilson

Quaker Religious Thought

I am an apprentice to the Quaker faith tradition. I am a recorded minister, speaking under the authority of a minute issued by Friendship Friends Monthly Meeting, and with the specific release of my anchor committee in that meeting. Wil Cooper said that we Quakers tell so many stories about ourselves because, without creeds or dogma, stories are how we remember who we are as a people of faith. I am not able to articulate an adequate Quaker theology of vocational ministry; I can tell you some stories from a lifetime of wrestling over an adequate response to God’s call …

Remembering T. Vail Palmer, Jr., Paul N. Anderson

Quaker Religious Thought

One of the premier Quaker theologians of the last half century or more, Thompson Vail Palmer, Jr. passed away on February 6th. Vail was one of the founding members of the Quaker Theological Discussion Group, contributing to its original vision and momentous significance. He edited issues 39–47 of Quaker Religious Thought (1974–78), and he co-edited issues 47–54 with Dean Freiday (1979–82), who then succeeded him as editor. In addition to over a dozen essays, comments, and reviews contributed to QRT over more than four decades, Vail also published several important essays and books.¹

Review Of Michael Birkil, Quakers Reading Mystics (Brill, 2018), Mark Bredin

Quaker Religious Thought

Birkel’s book, at one level, is a searching historical enquiry establishing the possible direct influence of John Cassian on Robert Barclay, Jeanne Guyon on Sarah Lynes Grubb, Johannes Tauler on Caroline Stephen, Jacob Boehme on Rufus Jones, and Buddhist mysticism on Teresina Rowell Havens. He emphasizes his study to be “strongly shaped by…the principles of historical study” (8). His conclusion is, indeed, rooted in the language of historical probabilities, such as “based on incontestably solid ground” (100) or “are more tentative” (100).

Lucretia Mott: Isaiah 58, Mark Bredin

Quaker Religious Thought

In a sermon at Cherry Street Meeting on 31 March in 1850, Lucretia Mott drew upon Isaiah 58:6–7, 13 and James 2:15 for inspiration against sentiments expressed by Isaac Watts (1674–1748), views that led, she believed, to complacency towards the poor and the slave. She perceived such to be an outrage to the God of the biblical prophets. More precisely, Lucretia’s evocation of Isaiah 58 in her address resulted in an intensification of her already developed sympathy for the poor, motivating her to social engagement for justice. In making this argument I consider: (1) what it means to read the …

Vocation As Story, Story As Vocation, Ben Brazil

Quaker Religious Thought

On a frigid December morning in Indiana, a man named Dave Jetmore discovered that his daughter’s pet goat had died. Not wanting to upset his little girl—much less broach the topic of death—Jetmore planned to tell his daughter that “Billy” had simply gone to live somewhere pleasant. Inventing that story was the easy part; the harder part was hiding the body. First, Jetmore tried to bury the goat, but the ground had frozen hard as rock. Next, he had his son fling the body from the pickup to a snowbank, which failed to conceal anything. Time was growing short. And …

A Methodological Proposal For Programmed Quaker Practical Theology, Derek Brown

Quaker Religious Thought

I propose that a practical theology research paradigm, utilizing both inductive empirical and deductive theological modalities, can facilitate confessional practical theological and ecclesiological research with the increased partnership and cooperation of congregations in programmed Friends meetings. And there is a need for such efforts. Jen Buck has provided case studies of unbalanced hybridity between Evangelical Friends theology/ ecclesiology and other theo-denominational paradigms.1 Her image of “colonization,” used to describe the subordination of one doctrinal/cultural position by another, accurately describes the outcome of the uneven and contentious dialectic that is observed between the “evangelical” and the “Friends” identities within local and …

What Is A Quaker Pastoral Theology, And How Is It Enfleshed/Embodied In Community?, Phil Baisley

Quaker Religious Thought

By definition, pastoral theology sets theology in context. It’s theology with hands and feet attached. In this article I will first address Friends’ theology and then the hands and feet part.

Frontmatter, Quaker Religious Thought, No. 135, Jon R. Kershner

Quaker Religious Thought

ABOUT THIS ISSUE

There are moments of change and turbulence and anxiety and outrage that punctuate our lives, whether anticipated or not. There are also times when we, as a human community, are confronted on a corporate level with shared experiences of anxiety and ambiguity, anger and angst. As I think back on what has transpired since I wrote the editorial for the Spring issue of QRT in February, I am struck by how quickly our lives can change and how suddenly we as a society may be called to adapt to new realities, like wearing a face mask, and …

Quaker Youth Ministry And Theopraxis In A Multicultural Context, Nim Njuguna

Quaker Religious Thought

"Theology is exciting. It is about God’s word, God’s world and God’s people. It is vitally important for the church to nurture young Christians into thinking, speaking and writing about God and the world, and it is even more important that the Church listen to their voices. Theology Slam encourages us to do just that: listen to God, listen to the world, and listen to the voices emerging within the Church, so we can join into God’s work in the world today.” —Archbishop Justin Welby – Archbishop of Canterbury 1 As Quakers, we believe there is that of God in …

Review Of Dandelion, P. The Cultivation Of Conformity: Towards A General Theory Of Internal Secularisation, (Routledge, 2019)., Jon R. Kershner

Quaker Religious Thought

"Ben" Pink Dandelion's book, The Cultivation of Conformity: Towards a General Theory of Internal Secularisation, is a serious examination of religious expression using British Quakerism as a test case. Even for one like me-who is not trained in the methods of the social–scientific study of religion, which the book employs–The Cultivation of Conformity is immensely useful to understand the changing dynamics of Quakerism, and Quakerism’s relationship to culture. Dandelion is a British Quaker and the foremost sociologist of Quakerism. His book builds on decades of research, presents a clear-eyed analysis of Quakerism and advances the study of religion in …

Eugenicists, Quakers, And Rufus Jones, 1893-1938, David Harrington Watt

Quaker Religious Thought

During his lifetime, Rufus Jones’s skills as a writer, speaker, and organizer won him a great many admirers. In the first half of the twentieth century, Jones was one of the most-admired Quakers in the world. Jones was also, as scholars such as Leigh Schmidt and Matthew Hedstrom have shown, one of the more influential liberal Protestants in the United States. In the early decades of the twentieth century, a great many American liberal Protestants avidly embraced what they thought of as the “science” of eugenics. Thus far, however, Jones’s attitudes toward eugenics have not attracted a great deal of …

Theologia: Quaker Youth Ministry And Theopraxis In A Multicultural Context, Joel Mayward, Roger Nam, Leah Payne, Steve Sherwood, Hannah Souter, Trisha Welstad

Quaker Religious Thought

"I am convinced by my own life and by wide observation of children that mystical experience is much more common than is usually supposed. Children are not so absorbed as we are with things and with problems. They are not so completely organized for dealing with the outside world as we older persons are. They do not live by cut-and-dried theories. They have more room for surprise and wonder. They are more sensitive to intimations, flashes, openings. The invisible impinges on their souls and they feel its reality as something quite natural.” —Rufus M. Jones,

“Finding the Trail of Life”1 …

Contributors-Quaker Religious Thought, No. 135, Jon R. Kershner

Quaker Religious Thought

No abstract provided.

Review Of Mock, M. S. Worthy: Finding Yourself In A World Expecting Someone Else, (Herald Press, 2018)., Jessica Kershner

Quaker Religious Thought

The Christian message should be a simple one. God loves us. We accept that love and then are able in return to love God and the world. God loves, we accept and then love in return. “What does the Lord require of us but to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with our God.” So why does it have to be so complex? In Melanie Springer Mock’s book, Worthy, she dives in to many different ways Christian culture, literature, family and church expectations, and even sometimes our own messages about God, get in the way of the …

Lucretia Mott: Active Imagination And James 1:21, Mark Bredin

Quaker Religious Thought

Wayne Rollins comments: “The technique of active imagination has a long-standing relevance for the scriptural interpreter.”1 Christopher Bryant observes that such an approach to the Bible “helps us to focus our attention on God’s presence within, in the soul’s centre… The way to read Scripture is not only to ponder the meaning of words and to recreate in imagination the scenes described but to listen to the Word, to God himself speaking in the heart.”2 Quaker abolitionist and suffragist Lucretia Mott’s (1793-1880) emphasis on self-reflection, meditation, her capacity to recall texts, and her ability to embrace empathy, combined to produce …

Quaker Pastoral Theology And Its Embodiment In The Community, Oscar Lugusa Malande

Quaker Religious Thought

The reflection brought forth in this writing is part of the Quaker Theological Discussion Group in answering the question, what is Quaker pastoral theology, and how is it embodied in the community? It is majorly divided in two parts. There is exploration of the meaning of Quaker pastoral theology and embodiment of Quaker pastoral ministry.

Oregon Yearly Meeting And The Peace Testimony, Part Ii: Relationship With The American Friends Service Committee, 1938-1954, Cherice Bock

Quaker Religious Thought

Reflecting its twin heritage in the nineteenth century holiness movement and Quakerism, Oregon Yearly Meeting (OYM) grappled with its identity as it weathered the tumultuous years surrounding World War II (WWII). In Part I of this article, I presented findings from interviews and archival research regarding OYM men’s draft choices in these decades, as well as the emphasis placed on the Quaker peace testimony by the yearly meeting. I concluded that OYM held a strong and relatively integrated understanding of themselves as both Quakers and evangelicals throughout this time period, consistently displaying evangelism, social action, and conscientious objection to war …

Review Of Quakers And Mysticism: Comparative And Syncretic Approaches To Spirituality, Edited By John R. Kershner (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019), Stuart Masters

Quaker Religious Thought

Despite the considerable diversity of belief and practice within global Quakerism, one characteristic that links all these diverse expressions is an emphasis on the experience of a direct inward relationship with God in spirit, albeit interpreted in very different ways. Such an experiential focus on divine intimacy inevitably raises a question about the relationship between Quaker spirituality and mysticism. This has been a controversial issue, in part because, in his influential work undertaken during the early twentieth century, Rufus Jones defined Quaker mysticism in a way that characterized both the Quietist and Evangelical forms of Quakerism as unfortunate deviations from …

Review Of Derek Brown, On Quakers And Pastors (Barclay Press, 2019), Ruthie Severance

Quaker Religious Thought

On Quakers and Pastors delves into the paradox of being a pastor of a Friends church. Quakers from all backgrounds may be interested, but this book is specifically aimed at Evangelical Friends pastors. Derek Brown highlights the balance needed in combining evangelicalism with Quaker beliefs such as equality, simplicity, and silence. Brown weaves history and theology throughout the book, providing context for the struggles many Friends churches have had in supporting pastors and defining pastoral expectations. He succinctly lays out Friends pastoral theology, making On Quakers and Pastors an easy-to-use resource for pastors and other church leaders, both to understand …

Review Of C. Wess Daniels, Resisting Empire: The Book Of Revelation (Barclay Press, 2019), Mark Condo

Quaker Religious Thought

If you’re a student, teacher, or leader in your faith community and take the discipline of biblical studies and hermeneutics seriously, Wess Daniels’ commentary, Resisting Empire: The Book of Revelation, is a must-read. Knowing how to responsibly answer earnest questions about apocalyptic New Testament literature can be a daunting task, particularly when it comes to the Revelation of John of Patmos. Questions such as, “What is the book of Revelation actually about?” or, “What relevance does Revelation have for today?” need to be handled in an informed manner and not merely dismissed. However, knowing where to begin can itself be …

Contributors-Quaker Religious Thought, No. 136, Jon R. Kershner

Quaker Religious Thought

No abstract provided.

Frontmatter, Quaker Religious Thought, No. 138, Jon R. Kershner

Quaker Religious Thought

ABOUT THIS ISSUE

Welcome to the Spring 2022 issue of Quaker Religious Thought! Included in this issue are original theological and historical reflections on Quaker practice. The first three articles were given at the January 2022 Quaker Theological Discussion Group panel, “Quaker Approaches to Understanding the Holy Spirit: Pneumatologies in Global Perspective.” Grace Ji-Sun Kim’s article presents an important study of the Korean term han as it applies to the contemporary climate discussion in her article, “Climate Change and the Personal Presence of God.” She contends that an adequate view of the Holy Spirit can help address damaging relationships toward …

The Global Quaker Witness On The Holy Spirit And Peacemaking, Stephen W. Angell

Quaker Religious Thought

“That Spirit of Christ, by which we are guided, is not changeable, so as once to command us from a thing as evil, and again to move unto it; and we do certainly know, and so testify to the world; that the spirit of Christ which leads us into all Truth, will never move us to fight and war against any man with outward Weapons neither for the Kingdom of Christ, nor for the kingdom of this world.”

This 1661 statement endorsed by Quaker founder George Fox, and eleven other leading Quakers, ultimately presents a challenge, not just to members …

Understanding The Holy Spirit As Ruah, God's Breath, Laurel D. Kearns

Quaker Religious Thought

As I begin this response, I want to quickly acknowledge that both Steve Angell and Grace Ji-Sun Kim have more expertise on the issue of pneumatology than I do, as I am primarily trained as a sociologist who focuses on religion and environmentalism. Their stimulating papers lured me to wade into more theological waters than I am used to, so in that spirit, I offer my thoughts on the topic, inspired by their work.

A Filmmaker's Review Of The Light In Their Eyes, Lauren Tanel

Quaker Religious Thought

An old raspy voice fills a quiet, muffled office at Haverford College. It is 1964 and the 80-year-old Professor Clarence Pickett hunches over a vinyl recorder and discusses the events of his lifetime. He discusses one of the most modern and meaningful moments of his life as he recalls his work in responding to the terrors of Nazi Germany.

This was, of course, a tragic experience for the Jew, but on the whole, I think, any of us that participated in that felt that it was a privilege to lay oneself alongside the Jew who suffered, recognizing that suffering, in …

Review Of Marty Grundy, A Call To Friends: Faithful Living In Desperate Times (San Francisco: Inner Light Books, 2020), Lorraine Watson

Quaker Religious Thought

This short but timely book was written at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, which began in 2020 and continues today in 2022. It, along with the myriad of other ills facing our world, constitutes the desperate times during which Marty Grundy calls us to faithful living. She hearkens back to the early Quakers of the 1600s and their apparent knowledge of the “Truth that we are loved unconditionally and are called to live lives of integrity and love,” the antidote to “the horrible things we humans inflict on ourselves, on each other, on pretty much all living things, and …