Arts and Humanities Commons^™

The Great Awakening And The Coming Of The American Revolution, Kerry E. Irish

Faculty Publications - Department of History and Politics

The “Great Awakening” was a Christian revival of the mid-Eighteenth century. Dozens of travelling preachers, famous and obscure, along with local ministers, called colonial Americans to a stronger and deeper Christian faith. The Great Awakening was also a trans-Atlantic event. Charles and John Wesley were leaders of the awakening in England. But it was in America where the movement would have its most profound expression and impact. For the Great Awakening, along with the philosophic and scientific developments of the Enlightenment, transformed American culture socially and politically, setting the stage for the American Revolution.

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 …

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 …

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 …

Why On Earth Does “Tongue(S)” Become Ecstatic Speech?, Ekaputra Tupamahu

Faculty Publications - Portland Seminary

This chapter deals with the history of interpretation. Why is the phenomenon of “tongue(s)” in the New Testament understood today as ecstatic speech? In the history of interpretation, there are two major modes of reading the phenomenon of speaking in tongue(s) in the New Testament: the “missionary-expansionist” and the “romantic-nationalist” modes of reading. The earliest readers of the New Testament up until those of the mid-nineteenth century commonly understood the phenomenon of tongue(s) as a miraculous ability to speak in foreign languages—often called xenolalia—for the purpose of expanding Christianity and preaching the gospel. The shift in understanding began to …

Between Text And Sermon: Ephesians 6:10-20, Ekaputra Tupamahu

Faculty Publications - Portland Seminary

Gun violence is a serious problem in the United States. Mass shootings are now almost daily occurrences, and no one, not even Christians, seems to know how to stop them. Last year, the Pew Research Center found that although almost half (48%) of Americans consider gun violence as “a very big problem in the country today,” and about “40% of Americans live in a household with a gun.”1 People are divided on this issue along geographical and rural/urban lines, political ideologies, religious convictions, gender, and so on.

The Essential Points Of Critical Race Theory, And Why Patriotic Americans Should Oppose It., Kerry Irish

Faculty Publications - Department of History and Politics

This study is based on a careful reading of Critical Race Theory: An Introduction (Third Edition, 978-1479802760) by Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic. This book is considered “the best introduction available to Critical Race Theory.” Both Delgado and Stefancic are guiding lights of the CRT movement. Nevertheless, the reader should be aware that any ideological movement has disagreements among its adherents. My comments regarding CRT are responses to Delgado and Stefancic. The reader should also be aware that I am highly critical of CRT. My purpose here is to explain what CRT is, and point out its mistakes, exaggerations, and …

Review Of Art, Craft, And Theology In Fourth-Century Christian Authors, Dana Robinson

Faculty Publications - Department of History and Politics

The current revival of interest in craft traditions, by makers and scholars alike, brings our attention to particular intersections of material techniques, social relationships, pedagogical habits, and attitudes toward beauty, utility, and creativity. The approaches to artistic production found in craft communities point us away from sharp distinctions between “high” and “low” art, between solitary geniuses and nameless workers, between influence, imitation, and innovation. In this carefully argued book, Morwenna Ludlow asks what we would gain if we regarded late antique Christian literary production in a similar light. Ludlow recasts a collection of debates over imitation, rhetoric, early Christian pedagogy, …

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 …

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 …

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 …

Addressing Nurse Burnout, Matthew Panattoni

Doctor of Ministry

The following is an abstract identifying the need, problem, and opportunity for the specific ministry context presented. Key insights emerged and guided the research leading up to the final developments of the project. The project description gives a snapshot of the research and conclusions. The project was developed in response to the NPO: Addressing the need for spiritual resilience to create a positive impact on nurse burnout for rural healthcare nurses providing home health and hospice services.

Key insights were to, first, gain nuanced understanding of rural nurse context; second, define a rural nurse’s values; and, third, seed further visionary …

Surzhyk, Andás Máté-Tóth

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

No abstract provided.

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 …

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 …

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

Quaker Religious Thought

No abstract provided.

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 …

Confessional Style Of The Ukrainian Language, Kostiantyn Kampen, Svitlana Romanchuk, Daniil Palij

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The scientific work presents the practical possibilities of stylistics in the development of the confessional variety of the Ukrainian language, covering its diachronic and synchronic planes of study. The authors raise the question of the classification of the confessional style, outline its problems, and to demonstrate the patterns of speech that highlight the characteristic features of this stylistic variety. The areas of use, the dynamics of development, the limits of influence, and the popularity of the style are considered; lexico-stylistic units are listed as an illustrative example. The temporal dimension encompassed by the style begins during paganism in the Ukrainian …

Chronology Of Church-Related Public Statements On The Russian War Against-Ukraine War, (February 25-March 16, 2022), Mark R. Elliott

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

No abstract provided.

Historical Burdens And The “German Sonderweg”: Why It Is So Difficult For The Protestant Church In Germany To Stand On The Side Of The Victims In The Ukraine War, Katharina Kunter

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

Excerpt: "An Open Letter initiated by the German theologian Ellen Ueberschär and me to the Synod, the Council of the Protestant Church of Germany (EKD) and the General Secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC) was published the week before Pentecost.1 A broad spectrum of members of the Protestant Church in Germany signed the letter; so far around 90. These include many GDR Protestants who were formerly in the Christian opposition in the GDR and belonged to the civil rights movement of the Peaceful Revolution in 1989. From this circle, Marianne Birthler and Markus Meckel are perhaps the best-known …

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 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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

Activities Of The Jehovah's Witnesses Organization As A "Litmus Test" For Religious Freedom In Ukraine, Roman Bogachev, Yana Tsymbalenko, Olena Leovkina, Igor Bogdanovskiy

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The article deals with the history and present stage of activities of the Jehovah's Witnesses organization in Ukraine. The attitude and actions of a state and the majority of its population towards the activities of the Jehovists and other non-traditional religious communities is viewed as a “litmus test,” which reveals how successfully the principle of religious freedom and freedom of conscience is implemented in public policy. It is emphasized that, unlike during the Soviet period, when the Jehovists were persecuted for their beliefs and missionary work, a required legal framework for free development of this religion has been created in …

Luhansk (Donbas): Religious Freedom Survey, February 2022, Felix Corley, John Kinahan

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

Freedom of religion and belief is severely restricted in the rebel Luhansk People's Republic occupying currently (February 2022) about a third of Ukraine's Luhansk Region. Forum 18's survey analysis documents violations including: rendering illegal all Protestant and non-Moscow Patriarchate Orthodox communities; a climate of fear about discussing human rights violations; repeated denials of permission to a Roman Catholic priest to live in the region; and increasing numbers of banned allegedly "extremist" books, including an edition of the Gospel of John published in 1820.

All human rights including the freedom of religion and belief are severely restricted in the rebel self-declared …