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Contributors -- Quaker Religious Thought No. 133

Quaker Religious Thought

No abstract provided.

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 …

Henry Cadbury, The Peace Testimony, And The First World War, James Krippner, David Harrington Watt

Quaker Religious Thought

How did twentieth-century Friends understand the nature of the so-called Peace Testimony? That is, of course, a very large question. In this brief essay we hope to shed what is admittedly a very thin sliver of light on it by exploring the life and thought of Henry Cadbury (1884-1973). The essay is divided into four sections. The first presents a brief overview of Cadbury’s life. The second looks at Cadbury’s general approach to peace. The third explores how it was that Cadbury’s strenuous opposition to the First World War led to his being forced to resign from the faculty of …

Book Review: R. Scot Miller. Gospel Of The Absurd: Assemblies Of Interpretation, Embodiment, And Faithfulness (Wipf & Stock, 2017), Cherice Bock

Quaker Religious Thought

Although Quakers have long been known as a peculiar people, would we go as far as to call ourselves absurd? R. Scot Miller in his Gospel of the Absurd: Assemblies of Interpretation, Embodiment, and Faithfulness invites Christians to try on this identity, arguing imperial Christendom coupled with modernist rationalism has often tamed the radical gospel message of Jesus. Miller does not write to a specifically Quaker audience, but he self-identifies as a Quaker and studied at Earlham School of Religion. Through this text, he presents a Christian ethic based in the Bible and that belies his Friends perspective: made up …

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: 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 …

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 …

Olson, Mead, Hill, And Atwoods' "Handbook Of Denominations In The United States" (Book Review), Kyle D. Diroberts

The Christian Librarian

No abstract provided.

Castelo's "Pentecostalism As A Christian Mystical Tradition" (Book Review), Juliana Morley

The Christian Librarian

No abstract provided.

Review Of The Cambridge Companion To Quakerism, Ed. By Stephen Angell And Pink Dandelion (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2018), Julie Peyton

Quaker Religious Thought

This is a fine book, and while it should be of interest to anyone with an interest in world religions, I particularly recommend it to those of you who identify as Quaker, no matter what branch (or twig) of the Quaker family tree you occupy. The book is well-written (for the most part, but more on that in a minute), and is nicely divided into manageable chunks, and filled with variety – history, literature, social justice, women’s issues, cultural diversity, conflicts, stories of faithful people, and more. I emphasize another aspect of that variety: this book has two editors and …

The Relationship Between Self-Compassion, Religion, Gender, And Objectified Body Consciousness In Christian Nazarene Women, Arielle R. A. Marston

Doctor of Psychology (PsyD)

Body shame and objectification of the female body are well known contributing factors in physical and mental health issues including high stress, eating disorder symptomatology, depression, anxiety, and low self-esteem. Religion plays a role in body shame and female objectification through both scripture and theological writings although this relationship remains inconclusive. Self-Compassion has been found to be a mitigating factor with regard to body shame in college and caregiver contexts. The Church of the Nazarene promotes itself as supporting female leadership and roles within the church. Since religion and gender roles seem to play a role in body shame and …

Frontmatter, Quaker Religious Thought No.132, Jon R. Kershner

Quaker Religious Thought

No abstract provided.

Friends And Global Feminist Theology: Jennifer M. Buck Offers A Vision For Reframing Evangelicalism - And Quakerism - For The Twenty-First Century, Cherice Bock

Quaker Religious Thought

In Reframing the House: Constructive Feminist Global Ecclesiology for the Western Evangelical Church, Jennifer M. Buck places Friends theology in conversation with twentieth century theologians, Karl Barth and John Howard Yoder, and encourages twenty-first century evangelicals to learn from feminists in the two-thirds world. She offers Friends theology from Christ-centered traditions as a bridge between mid-century evangelicalism and current global feminism. For Quaker readers, her book shows a path toward creative and Spirit-filled engagement with majority world Friends.

A Review Of Jennifer Buck's Reframing The House: Constructive Feminist Global Ecclesiology For The Western Evangelical Church (Pickwick Publications), Grace Ji-Sun Kim

Quaker Religious Thought

I want to thank the Quaker Theological Discussion Group and especially Carole Spencer for putting this session together and for inviting me to be part of this book review of Jennifer Buck’s book Reframing the House. Though I am not a Quaker, I do teach at a Quaker institution, Earlham School of Religion, so it is an honor to be part of this session and to review this fine book.

Reframing the House is an interesting read on the global church and ecumenical theology which is a pertinent topic of our time. Our world is getting smaller and smaller and …

Author's Response To Cherice Bock's And Grace Ji-Sun Kim's Reviews Of Reframing The House, Jennifer Buck

Quaker Religious Thought

Thank you for these robust and thoughtful reviews. I am grateful to both Cherice Bock and Grace Ji-Sun Kim for being here and giving time and care towards my work.

Woolman And Apocalypse: A Review Of John Woolman And The Government Of Christ, Stephen W. Angell

Quaker Religious Thought

We are in the midst of a renaissance of Woolman scholarship, and now comes this wonderful book by Jon R. Kershner, devoted to examining Woolman’s “comprehensive theological vision for colonial American society,” performing a deep dive into the framework of “Woolman’s alternative vision for the British Atlantic world.” Kershner’s work builds upon and augments a host of other fresh theological work that will provide a solid foundation for the next generation of scholars. Full disclosure: I blurbed the book, and was a reviewer for the press.

Not Your Grandmother's Apocalypse: The De-Liberalization Of John Woolman, Michael Birkel

Quaker Religious Thought

It is, first of all, a pleasure to engage the work of Jon Kershner, who has rapidly established himself as an important scholar. In this same year that saw the appearance of his book on John Woolman, Jon Kershner also published “To Renew the Covenant”: Religious Themes in Eighteenth-Century Quaker Abolitionism (Brill, 2018) and coauthored the volume Quaker Studies: An Overview, The Current State of the Field (Brill, 2018). As we speak, a book that he has edited, Quakers and Mysticism: Comparative and Syncretic Approaches to Spirituality (Palgrave, 2019), is on its way to the press. Additionally, Jon Kershner has …

An Apocalypse By Any Other Name: John Woolman In Apocalyptic Context, A Response To Angell And Birkel, Jon R. Kershner

Quaker Religious Thought

I want to start by thanking Carole Spencer and Christy Randazzo for organizing this session and for including my book in this discussion. And I want to thank Steve Angell and Michael Birkel for their care, humor, and insight, and the great questions they raise and comments they make. It is a humbling thing to have my work reviewed by two preeminent scholars of Quakerism, who are also mentors and friends.

Review Of New Critical Studies On Early Quaker Women, 1650-1800, Edited By Michele Lise Tarter And Catie Gill (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018), Jay Miller

Quaker Religious Thought

Scholarly interest in early Quaker women is not particularly recent, but the research gathered in the edited volume New Critical Studies on Early Quaker Women, 1650-1800 shows that this area of inquiry remains vital and continues to be reassessed. While the editors gesture to Mabel Richmond Brailsford’s Quaker Women, 1650-1690 (1915) as a “pioneering work” (1), the scholarship on early Quaker women began in earnest during the 1990s as a part of the broader growth in the field of women’s studies—although this was preceded by the books of Margaret Hope Bacon, especially Mothers of Feminism (1986). Studies such as Phyllis …

Review Of Gary Nash's Warner Mifflin: Unflinching Quaker Abolitionist (Philadelphia University Of Pennsylvania Press, 2017), Mike Heller

Quaker Religious Thought

Gary Nash’s biography of Warner Mifflin is an important contribution to Quaker history. It’s exceptionally well written and researched. Mifflin is largely a forgotten figure who needs to be recognized along with John Woolman and Anthony Benezet. Mifflin was possibly the most important American antislavery activist of the late-eighteenth century.

Contributors -- Quaker Religious Thought No. 132

Quaker Religious Thought

No abstract provided.

Interview With Orville And Marilyn Winters, Cherice Bock, Ralph Beebe

War & Conscientious Objection in Northwest Yearly Meeting of Friends, 1940-1975

Orville Winters discusses how he registered for the draft as a noncombatant. His wife Marilyn discusses how her brother Arnold Lee was a conscientious objector.

Review Of Paul Buckley, Primitive Christianity Revived: Translated Into Modern English (San Francisco, Inner Light Books, 2018) And Primitive Quakerism Revived: Living As Friends In The Twenty-First Century (San Francisco, Inner Light Books, 2018), Paul N. Anderson

Quaker Religious Thought

In translating William Penn’s analysis of the early Quaker movement into Modern English and in expanding on its meaning for reviving the spirit of early Quakerism for the 21st century, Quaker theologian and historian Paul Buckley has performed a great service. These two books go hand-in-hand, and individuals and reading groups alike would benefit greatly from reading these books and considering their meaning for today. The text is readable, and Buckley’s language is readily accessible. Thus, in rendering William Penn’s Primitive Christianity Revived in a welcoming form, and in expanding upon its meaning as a source of spiritual renewal for …

Robert Barclay's Christology, Madeleine Ward

Quaker Religious Thought

Robert Barclay (1648-1690) was arguably the most influential Quaker theologian of the seventeenth century, but his legacy has been controversial. This article will assess this legacy through an examination of his changing Christology over time. This focus on Christology is justified because underlying the earliest Quakers’ belief that Christ was ‘come to teach his people himself’ was the notion that the Light within was Christ—and Barclay has been accused of striking this concern at its heart.

Review Of T. Vail Palmer, Jr., A Long Road: How Quakers Made Sense Of God And The Bible (Newberg, Or: Barclay Press, 2017), Isaac Barnes May

Quaker Religious Thought

T. Vail Palmer, Jr.’s A Long Road provides a nuanced and comprehensive overview of the thought of two centuries of Quaker Biblical scholars and theologians, focusing on the careers of individual religious leaders to chart the trajectory of a movement. The introduction positions the book as building on classics of Quakerism like Rufus Jones’s Faith and Practices of the Quakers, John Punshon’s Portrait in Grey, Walter Williams’s Rich Heritage of Quakerism and Carole Dale Spencer’s Holiness: The Soul of Quakerism, but the Quaker work that Palmer’s book most closely resembles is Wilmar C. Cooper’s attempt to document a systematic Quaker …

Frontmatter, Quaker Religious Thought No.131, Jon R. Kershner

Quaker Religious Thought

No abstract provided.

Response To Anderson, Ward, And Randazzo, Jeffrey Dudiak

Quaker Religious Thought

In this issue we have been gifted with three credible, nay expert, expositors of three interpretations of Quakerism in historical perspective: Penn’s interpretation of Quakerism as “primitive Christianity revived,” Barclay’s evolving interpretation of Quakerism’s “inward Light” as vehiculum dei, and his speculation on a corresponding spiritual sense, and the twentieth century development of Quaker understandings of Christianity and universalism—mutually excluding or complementary?—traced across the prestigious Swarthmore Lectures.

Primitive Christianity Revived—The Original Quaker Vision, Paul N. Anderson

Quaker Religious Thought

Quaker histories over the last century or so have been highly interpretive in their interests and approaches, yielding a number of diverse results as to the character of the early Quaker movement, with varying implications. Obviously, one of the interests in history involves seeking to understand more about the past in order to shed light on the present and the future of the Friends movement itself. What, however, if such an interest is itself misguided? What if the founders of the Friends movement did not seek to start a movement, but rather, were solely invested in something entirely different? In …