History of Christianity Commons^™

Redefining Quaker Simplicity: The Friends Committee On National Legislation Building, 2005, Margery Post Abbott, Carl Abbott

Quaker Studies

In 2005, the Friends Committee on National Legislation, the major Quaker peace and justice lobbying organization in the United States, completed a substantial remodeling and expansion of its office building on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. The building exemplifies a self-conscious effort to express Quaker values of simplicity and stewardship in architectural choices. Examining the changing meanings of simplicity as expressed in Quaker meeting houses, this article argues that contemporary Friends in the United States have given nontraditional meanings to the concept and now associate simplicity with environmental stewardship in personal and community life. For example, the use of natural …

'Do We Still Quake?': An Ethnographic And Historical Enquiry, Pam Lunn

Quaker Studies

Michele Tarter's (2004) essay, on first generation Friends and their prophecy of celestial flesh, explores the striking bodily manifestations of their spiritual experience, particularly 'quaking'. Reflecting on this, she writes: 'it is precisely what we no longer do: quake'. Using interview data from a small group of British Friends I shall show that some twenty-first-century Friends certainly do quake. I use accounts of early quaking, a variety of Quaker commentators, and historical accounts of the understanding of the body, to show the ways in which current quaking is different, and differently understood, from that of early Friends.

'What They Seek For Is In Themselves': Quaker Language And Thought In Eighteenth- And Nineteenth-Century American Literature, James Peacock

Quaker Studies

This paper argues that Quakerism was an important influence on a number of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century American writers. Looking at the work of, amongst others, Charles Brockden Brown, Robert Montgomery Bird, Ralph Waldo Emerson and John Greenleaf Whittier, it demonstrates that both the stereotyped depiction of Quakers and the use of Quaker ideas, such as the inward light in literature of the period, helped writers tackle some of the paradoxes of democracy in a young nation. The perceived mystery of Quaker individualism is used in these texts first to dramatize anxiety over the formation of American 'character' as either fundamentally …

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.

James Nayler And The Lamb's War, Douglas Gwyn

Quaker Studies

James Nayler was perhaps the most articulate theologian and political spokesman of the earliest Quaker movement. He was part of a West Yorkshire group of radicals who added revolutionary impetus to George Fox's apocalyptic preaching of Christ's coming in the bodies of common men and women. With other Quaker leaders, Nayler insisted upon disestablishment of the Church, abolition of tithes, and disenfranchisement of the clergy, in order that Christ might rule in England, through human conscience. For early Friends, Christ's sovereignty in the conscience was less a principle of individual freedom to dissociate religiously than a basis for collective practices …

Editorial, Pink 'Ben' Dandelion

Quaker Studies

No abstract provided.

Phillips And Lampen's "Endeavors To Mend: Perspectives On British Quaker Work In The World Today" - Book Review, Pam Lunn

Quaker Studies

No abstract provided.

Homan's "The Art Of The Sublime: Principles Of Christian Art And Architecture", Pink 'Ben' Dandelion

Quaker Studies

No abstract provided.

Jennings's "Gender, Religion, And Radicalism In The Long Eighteenth Century: The 'Ingenious Quaker' And Her Connections" - Book Review, Edwina Newman

Quaker Studies

No abstract provided.

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

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.

Gertrude Von Petzold (1876-1952): Quaker And First Woman Minister, Claus Bernet

Quaker Studies

Gertrude von Petzold was a pioneer in many ways: in England she was the first woman who got a post as a church minister, in Germany she was the first woman who qualified for a professorship in Germanics at Kiel University. At times when woman were not even allowed to vote, von Petzold pursued her academic career eagerly. Her ecumenical attitude resulted in membership within the Lutheran Church, the Unitarians and finally the Quakers.

The Fellowship Of Reconciliation's Propaganda And Theodora Wilson Wilson's Literary Contribution 1914-1917, Bert Den Boggende

Quaker Studies

During World War I Theodora Wilson Wilson, who shortly before the war had returned to her ancestral Quaker faith, made a unique contribution to the Fellowship of Reconciliation's (FOR) propaganda. Instead of the usual expository writings aimed at the well educated, she wrote simple stories directed at casual readers. They emphasised the kind of activity, 'doing', the FOR leadership had decided to curtail after an attempt at tramping in the Midlands in the summer of 1915 had resulted in a near riot. Her perspective reflected that of many Friends. Some very limited attention has been given to these stories, but …

The Journal Of George Fox: A Technology Of Presence, Hilary Hinds, Alison Findlay

Quaker Studies

Critics have debated at length whether George Fox's Journal is primarily to be understood within the tradition of seventeenth-century autobiographical writing, or as an historical account of the early Quaker movement. This article suggests that this is a false dichotomy, and argues instead that the Journal might be reconceived as a 'technology of presence': that is, in its attention both to the figure of Fox and to the detailed chronicling of time and place, its principal narrative impetus was to record, demonstrate and reproduce the presence of the returned and indwelling Christ. The Journal thus constitutes, in its form and …

'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 …

'Turning Hearts To Break Off The Yoke Of Oppression': The Travels And Sufferings Of Christopher Meidel, C. 1659-C. 1715, Richard Allen

Quaker Studies

This study of Christopher Meidel, a Norwegian Quaker writer imprisoned both in England and on the Continent for his beliefs and actions, explores the life of a convert to Quakerism and his missionary zeal in the early eighteenth century. From Meidel's quite tempestuous career we receive insights into the issues Friends faced in Augustan England in adapting to life in a country whose inter-church relations were largely governed by the 1689 Toleration Act, and its insistence that recipients of toleration were to respect the rights of other religionists. In England and Wales, although not censured by Friends, Meidel's activities were …

Crossing Borders And Negotiating Boundaries: The Seventeenth-Century European Missions And Persecution, Sünne Juterczenka

Quaker Studies

On their journeys through the Dutch Republic and the German territories, seventeenth-century Quaker missionaries came into contact with a wide variety of religiously inspired groups and individuals. This article considers some problems of conventional historiographical approaches to the new religious diversity in early modern Europe. Persecution was an especially important issue for travelling ministers. Despite their own experience, some religious radicals strongly objected to the Quaker view on persecution, so that, among others, 'sufferings' became a controversial subject. This article argues that controversy was part of a transnational process of mapping out the new, radical spectrum in which many religious …

The Testimony Of Martha Simmonds, Quaker, Bernadette Smith

Quaker Studies

Martha Simmonds (1624-1665) was an early Quaker whose spiritual journey involved preaching, travelling, becoming a devotee of James Naylor and participating in his re-enactment of Christ's entry into Jerusalem and its aftermath. This event has largely defined her place in history and little serious attention has been given to her writings This paper attempts to fill this lacuna by discussing spiritual writing within the context of her life and contemporary constructs of'signs' and suffering, both on a personal scale and within the wider context of the collective persecution of the early Quakers. It aims to re-assess the Bristol 'sign' and …

Travelers Here In This Vale Of Tears: William Penn Preaches A Funeral Sermon, Michael Graves

Quaker Studies

William Penn, the significant seventeenth-century political figure and writer, was also an important preacher, but his role as a public speaker has received little attention, though at least two of his speeches and twelve of his impromptu sermons have survived. This essay argues that Penn's sermonic work is noteworthy through an examination of his 1688 public response to the death of Rebecca Travers, an important first-generation Quaker leader. Penn's response to Travers' death reveals his struggle to come to grips with the vicissitudes of his own life and, by implication, Travers' life. The sermon is interpreted as an instance of …

Editorial, Pink 'Ben' Dandelion

Quaker Studies

No abstract provided.

When Esther And Jezebel Write: A Feminist Biblical Theology Of Authority., Cameron B. R. Howard

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, His Life In Brief, Kerry Irish

Faculty Publications - Department of History and Politics

This brief 3500-word biography emphasizes Bonhoeffer's theology, spiritual journey, and work in the German resistance until his death in April 1945.

From Patristics To Postmodernity: Does A Message Still Exist?, Douglas Taylor

Other Graduate Scholarship

Dr. David Wheeler once advised that while not all are called to be an evangelist, all Christians are called to be evangelical. Although some may counter that postmodernity is waning, the question remains how one might be evangelical in a postmodern world. The concept that no metanarrative exists has been one of the pillars of postmodernity, and as such challenges the premise that Scripture contains an overarching story encompassing all of mankind. If Dr. Wheeler was correct, and all are called to be evangelical, then the question that would seem to require answering is how one might begin to address …

Junior Topics Outlined 1908, Ella N. Wood

Books

No abstract provided.

Forward To The Son Of God: Three Views Of The Identity Of Jesus, James F. Mcgrath

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

James McGrath's Forward to: The Son of God: Three Views of the Identity of Jesus, by Charles Lee Irons, Danny Andre Dixon, and Dustin R. Smith. Eugene: Wipf & Stock, 2015.

The Unity Of The Church And Church Authority: A Comparative Study Of The Views And Practice Of Alexander Campbell And Ellen G. White, Wendy Ann Jackson

Dissertations

Problem. A clear understanding of the nature of church unity and the role of authority in the maintenance of unity is imperative for the church in the face of its increasing growth and diversity. While a considerable volume of literature addresses the topic of unity of the church, little attention has been paid to the historical dimensions of the differing viewpoints on church authority, which present contemporary obstacles to Christian unity.

Purpose. In an attempt to address this void, this dissertation examines the views of Alexander Campbell and Ellen White with regard to the nature of church unity and how …

Peter Abelard’S Theology Of Atonement: A Multifaceted Approach And Reevaluation, Denis Kaiser

Faculty Publications

As a person trained primarily in philosophy, Peter Abelard employed an intense questioning mentality in fleshing out his theological ideas.  His extreme debating style of totally deconstructing theological positions and then afterward including some of those same aspects into his own views made it easy for his religio-political enemies to take apparently heterodox statements and declare these as representative of Abelard’s entire atonement theology.  However, many of his theological beliefs are supported in the New Testament and were already held by the church fathers.  He frequently affirmed Christ’s substitutionary sacrifice as the ransom to redeem man.  He rejected various contemporary …

[Book Review Of] American Protestant Theology: A Historical Sketch, By Luigi Giussani, Denis Kaiser

Faculty Publications

Many scholars in the field of American religious and theological history may never have heard the name of Luigi Giussani (1922-2005) because he spent most of his life in his home country Italy, his proficiency in English was limited to reading literacy, and the majority of his writings were not concerned with American religious history anyway. Giussani was a Catholic priest, theologian, high school teacher, professor, and founder of the international movement Comunione e Liberazione. He was closely acquainted with Pope John Paul II and the then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. His influence on Italian and European religious life and culture …

The Pauline Ministry In The Kentucky Mountains: A Brief Account Of The Kentucky Mt. Holliness Association, Lela Grace Mcconnell

Books

No abstract provided.

International Legal Experience And The Mormon Theology Of The State, 1945-2012, Nathan B. Oman

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.