Reading List - Workshop-#43

Advance Resources for Workshop #43:
"Confronting the Peace Testimony: Quakerism 9-11"
FGC Gathering 2002

(Read the formal description of this workshop here)

A Letter to participants:

Dear Friends,

Welcome to Workshop #43!

I look forward to working with you in this week-long workshop.
Given the circumstances in which we will be gathering, this should be
a time of serious searching and threshing, informed throughout by worship;
but I hope that along the way we will also be able to laugh at ourselves
and our crazy, doomed human condition.

To give you a head start on our efforts, here is a list, with links, of
some advance readings now on the Web, which I think would be of value.

As you will see, some of these pieces are based on my study
and reflection on this general topic over almost thirty years. Others
are historical documents, which seem to me to highlight key points
in the evolution and dilemmas of Quaker thought and experience on peace and war.
All are intended to increase the potential for learning and discussion
in our work together.

The selection is hardly comprehensive; my work and reflection in this area
is continuing, and there will be other
documents available by the time the Gathering begins.

None of this is "required reading," and we will not have a final exam.
(Yet you will be tested on it; not by me, but by life.)

Printed copies of these and many other documents will be available
in a notebook at the beginning of the workshop; we will refer to
these materials often in our sessions. I will be asking for a "materials fee"
to cover the cost of preparing the notebooks. How much is unclear yet,
but it should be less than $10.

Also, for at least the early part of the week, bringing a Bible is also recommended.

I will be at here at Quaker House in Fayetteville, NC until about the
18th of Sixth Month (June). I’ll answer e-mails as I have time,
but if you have questions about this material, and I hope you will,
I recommend you note them down
and bring them with you, to share with the whole group.

The subject of Quaker peace witness is always a weighty one. But this year,
it has become much more concrete, even a matter of life and death.
I look forward to our exploring and reflecting on it worshipfully together.

See you soon!

Chuck Fager
E-mail: quest@quaker.org

Advance Readings:

A Prelude For Friends: John Greenleaf Whittier, 1863

Background:

Some Key Bible Texts on War & Peace

         The 1660 Declaration of the Harmless and Innocent People of God Called Quakers, By Fox & Others
         Historian H. Larry Ingle on the Origins of Quaker Pacifism
         A Discussion of Isaac Pennington's Views on War, 1661
         An Excerpt from an essay by Jonathon Dymond on War vs. Early Christianity, 1821

A Case Study: Three Distinctive Quaker Views of World War I

Contemporary Overviews:

       Mary Lord: Can Love Really Overcome Violence & Hate? FWCC, Third Month, 2002
       The Quaker Peace Testimony as 'Questing Beast', by Chel Avery, 1995
       Some Quaker Reflections on the Current War, by Chuck Fager, 1999, 2002
       Scott Simon on Pacifism and After, September 25, 2001
       A Personal Story: Living the Peace Testimony, Val Liveoak, 2001

Stories:

Non-fiction:

American Revolution: William Rotch, Memorandum (1814)
The Irish Rebellion of 1798: Dinah Goff, Divine Protection (1857)

    Fiction:

        King Philip's War, 1675: The Man With the Extra Hand
         U.S. Civil War: Fire In the Valley

E-mail: quest@quaker.org