Reviewed by Chuck Fager This is a bad news-good news review. Bad news first: In US army jargon, the “Tooth-to-Tail-Ratio” describes the fact that for every armed soldier on the Baghdad streets or in Afghan mountains, there is a “tail” of eight to ten others, stretching back to the states, and typically including civilians. I …
Author Archives: yramesor
“Climate Wars” & “The Green Zone”* Reviewed
Reviewed by Chuck Fager Intellectually speaking, discovering the work of Gwynne Dyer was the best thing that’s happened to me in the past several years. Dyer is a Canadian military analyst and columnist. He’s worked with the navies of Great Britain, Canada and the US, gained a doctorate in Military and Middle Eastern History from …
Continue reading ““Climate Wars” & “The Green Zone”* Reviewed”
“Spirit Rising, Young Quaker Voices”* A Review
Reviewed by Chuck Fager “If we have done our job well,” the editors of Spirit Rising declare, “ . . .some pieces [in this book] may surprise, confuse, alarm or even offend you.” Well, that didn’t happen. And partly that’s because I couldn’t keep from seeing this project in a larger historical context. Spirit Rising …
Continue reading ““Spirit Rising, Young Quaker Voices”* A Review”
“Study War Some More (If You Want to Work for Peace),”* A Review
Reviewed by Doug Gwyn This small book of sixty pages offers a good mix of biblical reflection, lessons from Quaker history, and distillations from Chuck Fager’s years of work for peace. It’s a call to Friends for a more rigorous and long-term strategy of peace witness. As the title suggests, if Friends are serious about …
Continue reading ““Study War Some More (If You Want to Work for Peace),”* A Review”
About The Contributors
Stephen W. Angell, is Leatherock Professor of Quaker Studies at Earlham School of Religion. Chuck Fager, Editor of Quaker Theology, is Director of Quaker House in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Doug Gwyn is the author of Apocalypse of the Word; Seekers Found; and other books. He is now researching a comprehensive history of Pendle Hill, as …
Editor’s Introduction, #16
This issue marks the tenth anniversary of Quaker Theology. It was in the autumn of 1999 when Ann Riggs and I set out on this continuing journey. The math of our venture, however, is out of whack. The plan was to publish two issues per year. We kept to it tolerably well for the first …
Update & Preview Philip Gulley, Western Yearly Meeting, And An Excerpt from His Forthcoming Book
Six years ago, in Quaker Theology, Issue #9, we reported on the effort to revoke the ministerial credentials of Friend Philip Gulley, the pastor of Fairfield Friends Meeting near Indianapolis, Indiana. Fairfield is part of Western Yearly Meeting, which encompasses the western half of the state. The charge was heresy, specifically that Gulley had espoused …
The Quaker Enterprise of Metaphor
By Jnana Hodson In early Quaker usage, metaphor engages far more than its definition as a figure of speech would presuppose. The central overlapping images – principally Light and Seed, linked to a concept of Truth – advance a complex logic grounded in an outpouring of spiritual experiences by many individuals. Given the constraints established …
Narrative Theology: from Psychological Warfare to Peace; My journey to/into Quakerism and nonviolence
Jeanne-Henriette Louis My Ph.D. dissertation on the concepts of psychological warfare in the United States during the Second World War originated in the need to investigate the period corresponding to the first years of my life (I was born in 1938) but also to an extremely painful part of world history. I was teaching North …
Howard Thurman and Quakers
By Stephen W. Angell In 1955, the inaugural year of the Friends Journal, a special issue was published on the theme of the Wider Quaker Fellowship. One of the essays in that issue was excerpted from Deep River, a forthcoming book by Howard Thurman (1899-1981), eminent Christian African American mystical and social gospel theologian, preacher, …
Response to Thomas Hamm: Holiness 2.5 Cheers
Carole Dale Spencer First of all, I want to dismiss any notions that my book was in any way an attack on Hamm’s Transformation of American Quakerism. While we disagree on a few issues, his work was an important catalyst for the beginning of my exploration of holiness and Quakers almost twenty years ago. I …
Continue reading “Response to Thomas Hamm: Holiness 2.5 Cheers”
Thomas Hamm Response to “Holiness, The Soul of Quakerism”*
Holiness: 2.5 CheersThomas Hamm, Earlham College Thomas Hamm Those of us in the little world of Quaker historians have long known that this book was coming. I got an inkling in 1990, when the Conference of Quaker Historians and Archivists was held at George Fox College and Carole Spencer presented a paper on women and …
Continue reading “Thomas Hamm Response to “Holiness, The Soul of Quakerism”*”
“Holiness: The Soul of Quakerism”*
Reviewed by Chuck Fager It was the British historian John Punshon who told a large Quaker body in 2008 that: . . . one way of studying the Quaker past is to use it as a means of self-justification. At times, interpretations of our history have been produced that have been used in the doctrinal …
“Fit for Freedom, Not for Friendship, Quakers, African Americans, and the Myth of Racial Justice”* A Review
Reviewed by Chuck Fager Winston Churchill was once told, regarding another politician, that “Mr. X is a very modest man.” “Yes,” Churchill replied, “but then, Mr. X has much to be modest about.” Several times during eight years in North Carolina, I have been introduced as a Quaker to black persons of substance, mostly ministers. …
About the Contributors, #16
Stephen W. Angell, is Leatherock Professor of Quaker Studies at Earlham School of Religion. Chuck Fager, Editor of Quaker Theology, is Director of Quaker House in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Philip Gulley is pastor of Fairfield Friends Meeting in Camby, Indiana. Among his books is a series, “Front Porch Tales,” and If Grace Is True. Thomas …
Editor’s Introduction, #15
This issue covers a wide spectrum. From reflections on John Wooolman’s visionary experiences, it ranges across an effort to reframe early Friends’ spiritual experiences in modern psychological terms, all the way to an exploration of the parallels between Quaker silence and Pentecostal speaking in tongues. And there’s more. Two of our reviews deal with matters …
Silence in Heaven: The Revelation to John Woolman
We might call theology a conversation between present and past. Theology seeks to address contemporary concerns but does so as part of a historical community. So we look to our communal elders of ages past and to their gathered wisdom as a resource for our own theological work.
The Psychology of Salvation: Recovering, Reframing, and Reclaiming the Early Quaker Experience
As it continues to lose its historic identity as a distinctive Christian movement, contemporary Quakerism becomes increasingly diffuse, a condition leading to diminished vitality, commitment, depth, community, and influence. Throughout the range from Christocentrism to nontheism, Friends express various views of what Quakerism is about, what its essential principles and practices are.
The Spiritual Similarities of Quaker Silence and Pentecostal Glossolalia in Worship
By Ho Yan Au The means for worship and liturgy vary among Christian denominations. Traditional churches such as the Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Anglican/Episcopal Church promote a sensible sacredness and solemnity through symbolic rituals with materials such as incense, bells, candles, etc. Protestant churches simplify the whole process by abandoning the use of materials and …
“Hideous Dream,” “Full Spectrum Disorder: the Military in the New American Century” & “Hold On to Your Humanity: An Open Letter to GI’s in Iraq”* Reviewed
Reviewed by David Gosling In preparing this collective review of three written pieces by Stan Goff, a one-time Army Master Sergeant turned Socialist; I found myself simultaneously repulsed and intrigued, pushed and pulled, by his suggestions, opinions, insights, findings, memories, and rants. Of the three works, one is a straightforward memoir of Goff’s experiences in …
An Interview with David Gosling, Winter 2008
Q. Can you tell us first a bit about your military service and your deployment to Iraq? A. I am an Infantry Captain in the U.S. Army and have been stationed with the 10th Mountain Division of the XVIII Airborne Corps for the past three years. Before that, I spent approximately eight months at Ft. …
Continue reading “An Interview with David Gosling, Winter 2008”
“An Introduction to Quakerism” & “The Quakers: A Very Short Introduction”* Reviewed
Reviewed by Doug Gwyn Over the past several years “Ben” Pink Dandelion has been party to a great deal of fresh Quaker research. His own sociological analysis of Friends in Britain has reframed our understanding of current liberal Quakerism on both sides of the Atlantic. It has also inspired a number of similar, sociological approaches. …
“Seeking Paradise: The Spirit of the Shaker”* Reviewed
Reviewed by Robert Pierson “The peculiar grace of a Shaker chair,” wrote Thomas Merton, “is due to the fact that it was made by someone capable of believing that an angel might come and sit on it.” (p.85) Seeking Paradise reflects the Trappist monk’s enduring fascination with this “peculiar grace.” The editor, Paul Pearson, calls …
Continue reading ““Seeking Paradise: The Spirit of the Shaker”* Reviewed”
“The Dark Side” and “Never Surrender”* Reviewed
Reviewed by Chuck Fager Since I live and work next door to Fort Bragg, North Carolina, I looked forward to these two books. From very different angles, they shine sharp spotlights on Fort Bragg and its important role in our current war. Beyond that, they illuminate much of our common landscape in the United States …
Continue reading ““The Dark Side” and “Never Surrender”* Reviewed”
About The Contributors, #15
George Amoss Jr., a member of Homewood Meeting in Baltimore, attends Little Falls Friends Meeting in Fallston, Maryland. A social worker and psychotherapist, he has served as editor of Universalist Friends, the journal of the Quaker Universalist Fellowship, and he established the Quaker Electronic Archive Web site at http://www.quakerarchive.org. His earlier essay for Quaker Theology, …
Editor’s Introduction #14
We don’t do “theme” issues here at Quaker Theology, but readers could be forgiven for thinking that this Issue #14 had a theme of Scriptural study and interpretation. The first piece, by our newly-appointed Associate Editor Stephen W. Angell (Welcome, Steve!), considers how differing approaches to reading and understanding the Bible play out in several …
Opening the Scriptures, Then and Now
By Stephen W. Angell From East Africa to the Midwestern United States, the first decade of the twenty-first century has proven to be a momentous time for the Religious Society of Friends. In Ohio Valley Yearly Meeting, to which I belong, Friends have been discussing whether our minute on environmental sustainability should include the concept …
A Quaker Perspective on the Qur’an and the Bible
By Anthony Manousos George Bernard Shaw once observed that England and America are two countries separated by a common language. It could also be said that Christianity, Islam and Judaism are three religions separated by a common religious heritage. The three great monotheistic faiths all claim Abraham as their common spiritual ancestor. They ascribe to …
Continue reading “A Quaker Perspective on the Qur’an and the Bible”
The Importance of Context
Joe Franko “He has brought me to his banquet halland his banner over me is love.” – Song of Songs 2:4 “This is just my opinion. I could be wrong.” — Gay Spirituality by Toby Johnson On Being Gay and Quaker Above my desk as I write, there is a statue of a horse, a …
We Are the Missing Link Reflections on Walter Wink’s “The Human Being”
Douglas Gwyn The Human Being: Jesus and the Enigma of the Son of the Man, Walter Wink. Augsburg Fortress, 368 pages, $26.00. When I began my seminary education at Union in New York in 1971, I took a New Testament survey course with Walter Wink. I vividly recall that he began his first lecture by …
Continue reading “We Are the Missing Link Reflections on Walter Wink’s “The Human Being””
“Restless Souls: The Making of American Spirituality”* A Review
Reviewed by H. Larry Ingle In the last two or more decades the word “spirituality,” as a substitute for religion, and even “spirit” has taken on a slightly “new age” connotation, with its vague usage making deep inroads among Friends. I haven’t heard anyone propose that the Religious Society of Friends change its name to …
Continue reading ““Restless Souls: The Making of American Spirituality”* A Review”
Four Publications on Torture
A Question of Torture: CIA Interrogation, from the Cold War to the War on Terror. Alfred McCoy. Holt, 320 pages. Torture Taxi: On the Trail of the CIA’s Rendition Flights. Trevor Paglen and A. C. Thompson. Melville House Publishing 208 pages. $23.00 Teaching About Torture, a Curriculum. Peggy Brick. 19 pages. The Quaker Initiative to …
“The Trouble with God: Building the Republic of Heaven”* A Review
A theist Friend’s Appreciation of Quaker Non-theism
About The Contributors
Stephen W. Angell, is Leatherock Professor of Quaker Studies at Earlham School of Religion. Chuck Fager, Editor of Quaker Theology, is Director of Quaker House in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Joe Franko, teaches mathematics at Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut, California. He is also Presiding Clerk of Pacific Yearly Meeting, and a founding member of …
Editor’s Introduction #13
This issue includes both new pieces and some followups. On the new side, Mennonite pastor Pearl Hoover offers a preliminary examination of Friend Tom Fox’s evolving spirituality, a process of growth and reflection that led him to the Christian peacemaker teams, Baghdad, kidnapping, and martyrdom. We hope that Tom’s life and witness will be studied …
The Sermon on the Mount in the Life and Death of Tom Fox
Pearl Hoover [Editor’s Note: This essay is adapted from a presentation at a memorial session for Tom Fox at Baltimore yearly meeting, in Harrisonburg, Virginia, August 4, 2006.] This paper encompasses the life of Tom Fox, from his earliest decision to give his life towards peacemaking to the fruit of his decision as expressed by …
Continue reading “The Sermon on the Mount in the Life and Death of Tom Fox”
“Putting the Bible into Perspective: Hicksites and the Theological Treatment of the Bible in Progressive Reform”
Jody Cross-Hansen This article is part of one chapter of my doctoral dissertation–a work-in-progress in which I am examining the Nancy Hewitt hypothesis that perhaps the Hicksite schism was a positive event because it led to liberal reform among women. The jury is still very much out on this hypothesis. At least in the area …
The Baptisms of John and Jesus: An Exegesis of John 1:19-34
Lloyd Lee Wilson Introduction to the Problem A distinctive of early Friends which they frequently defended in debates with other English Christians in the 17th century was their rejection of water baptism as a necessary part of the Christian life. Not only was it unnecessary, these Friends argued, it was actually spiritually harmful, as a …
Continue reading “The Baptisms of John and Jesus: An Exegesis of John 1:19-34”
Melting Icebergs Don’t Scream: A Response to Keith Helmuth’s: “The Angel of History, the Storm of Progress, And the Order of the Soul”
By Chuck Fager In Quaker Theology #12, we published an essay by Keith Helmuth, which offered a theological interpretation of our environmental plight, its associated crises and very uncertain outlook. Your editor praised the piece highly, as offering a superior quality of analysis and articulation of this very difficult situation. We stand by that praise; …
“Godless For God’s Sake: Nontheism In Contemporary Quakerism”* — A Review
What have we come to in Friends religious thought, when the most exciting book of Quaker theology I’ve read in years is produced by a bunch of Quaker non-theists–twenty-seven in all?
“Wrestling With Our Faith Tradition”* A Review
A review of Conservative Quakerism on the Rise
Apocalypse – Later*
A Postscript by Chuck Fager As noted in our review of this novel in QT #12, the author had used the novel form to spread a prophecy that the real town of Farmington, Maine would be transformed into the New Jerusalem, free of death, sin, and illness, on June 6, 2006, at dawn. The transformation …
About The Contributors
Jody Cross-Hansen is a doctoral candidate in U.S. History at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, specializing in American religious history. She is an adjunct assistant professor in the Religion department at Hofstra University where she has been teaching for twenty years. She is also an ordained minister in the New …
Editor’s Introduction #12
We admit it – we’re proud of this issue. It centers on two of the most substantive and challenging essays we have published in a long time. To lead off, we have heard many mediocre efforts to relate environmental concerns and theology; but Keith Helmuth’s presentation to Southern Appalachian Yearly Meeting & Association in Sixth …
The Angel of History, the Storm of Progress, And the Order of the Soul
Keith Helmuth He who fights the future has a dangerous enemy. The future is not; it borrows its strength from the man himself, and when it has tricked him out of this, then it appears outside of him as the enemy he must meet. attributed to Soren Kierkegaard Anyone who has felt a baby being …
Continue reading “The Angel of History, the Storm of Progress, And the Order of the Soul”
Historical and Theological Origins of Assemblies of God Pacifism
Paul Alexander Introduction The General Council of the Assemblies of God changed their official position regarding war from absolute pacifism to freedom of conscience in a mere fifty years.(1) They stated their early adamant stance in the following resolution during World War One: Therefore, we, as a body of Christians, while purposing to fulfill all …
Continue reading “Historical and Theological Origins of Assemblies of God Pacifism”
“America’s Providential History, Including Biblical Principles of Education, Government, Politics, Economics, and Family Life,”* A Review
Reviewed by H. Larry Ingle At a superficial level, America’s Providential History seems to be a textbook: a large format paperback, it looks like a text; it has the feel of one; and it has wide enough margins for the interested student to make copious notes on its pages. Moreover, the authors claim, in the …
“Farmington! Farmington!” A Review*
Licia Kuenning and her prophecy.
About the Contributors
Paul Alexander is Associate Professor of Bible and Theology at Southwestern Assembly of God University in Waxahachie, Texas, near Dallas. Chuck Fager is Editor of Quaker Theology and Director of Quaker House in Fayetteville-Ft. Bragg NC. Keith Helmuth helped develop and administer the Independent Study Program at Friends World College in the late 1960’s. Subsequently, …
Editors’ Introduction #11
In this issue, we note some important landmarks, as well as taking some new looks at perennial theological issues. The first landmark is the centennial of the founding of North Carolina Yearly Meeting (Conservative) in 1904. NCYM (C) may be the most viable of the remaining groups expressing the Conservative or Wilburite stream of American …
A Conservative Yearly Meeting is Born
Lloyd Lee WilsonAdapted from Remarks at Representative Body, North Carolina Yearly Meeting (Conservative), 10/30/2004 Several years ago, Wil Cooper gave a plenary address to our yearly meeting sessions. After his prepared remarks, a member of the audience (not a Friend) rose to ask a question. Friends, this man observed, in his experience talked about themselves …
The Core Quaker Theology: Is There Such a Thing?
Chuck FagerAdapted from a presentation atAmawalk Meeting, New York, 8th Mo 14, 2004 When I hear or read of questions about such things as “normative Quakerism,” or “authentic Quakerism” or “traditional Quakerism,” it usually means one of two things: either a person or group feels very much confused and at sea, and is honestly looking …
Continue reading “The Core Quaker Theology: Is There Such a Thing?”
“Many Friends do not know ‘where they are’: Some Divisions in London Yearly Meeting During the First World War”
Thomas Kennedyauthor of British Quakerism 1860-1920 Late in 2001 in the terrible aftermath of the September 11th attack on the World Trade Center, Scott Simon, newsman and commentator for National Public Radio who claims membership in the Society of Friends, presented solemn public testimony in which he declared that because of the deaths of so …
In Search of Religious Radicalism
By Charley Earp 1. The Radicalization of a Preacher’s Kid A Long Strange Trip At the very core of my being, I have undergone an earth-shaking religious transition in the past few years. Less than nine years ago, I was a passionately committed Bible-believing Christian. Not that I was a conventional evangelical by any stretch …
“The Spiral Staircase: My Climb Out of Darkness” and “Grace Notes” Reviewed*
Reviewed by Ellen McCambley The Spiral Staircase is the latest book written by scholar and author Karen Armstrong, who presents it as a “sequel” to her earlier book, “Through the Narrow Gate,” which documents her early years in a Catholic convent. Karen is the author of several other books on religious affairs, including A History …
Continue reading ““The Spiral Staircase: My Climb Out of Darkness” and “Grace Notes” Reviewed*”
Review Essay
Review Essay: Taking Up Niebuhr’s Irony: Living a Theological Saga Six Books by Gary Dorrien Published by Westminster John Knox, Louisville: The Making of American Liberal Theology: Imagining Progressive Religion, 1805-1900. 2001, 494 pages. The Making of American Liberal Theology: Idealism, Realism & Modernity, 1900-1950. 2003, 666 pages. The Word As True Myth: Interpreting Modern …
“The Creation of Quaker Theory: Insider Perspectives,”* A Review
Reviewed by Chuck Fager The title of this book resonates with irony at several levels. On the surface, as the “insiders” who contributed to it are mainly academics, or serious scholars; the pages exude a guild mentality. Moreover, its contributors, at the one actual forum where three preliminary papers were delivered by three contributors from …
Continue reading ““The Creation of Quaker Theory: Insider Perspectives,”* A Review”
About the Contributors
Charley Earp is a father, husband, and erstwhile theologian. He is a member of Northside Meeting in Chicago, with a day job in the travel business. Chuck Fager is Editor of Quaker Theology and Director of Quaker House in Fayetteville NC. Thomas Kennedy is Professor of History at the University of Arkansas. His most recent …
Editors’ Introduction, #10
By Chuck Fager & Ann Riggs The theological history of American liberal Quakerism has not been examined in any comprehensive way; it has been terra incognita to those both within and without its fold. But in recent years several researchers, including your Editor, have been at work making forays into this unknown territory and bringing …
Lucretia Mott, Liberal Quaker Theologian
Chuck Fager Let me begin by posing a question: If Lucretia Mott had ever been arrested for being a liberal Quaker theologian, would there have been enough evidence to convict? Of course, she would have loudly protested that she was no such thing, that in fact she roundly despised theology, and steered clear of it. …
Messiahs of Every Age: A Theological Basis of Nineteenth-Century Social Reform
Priscilla Elaine Eppinger At the age of 87 Lucretia Mott attended the 1880 Philadelphia Quaker Yearly Meeting. The representative committee reported that although the issue of temperance had been before them, the “way did not open for them to take action upon it.” After a lively discussion it was noted that a bill proposing the …
Continue reading “Messiahs of Every Age: A Theological Basis of Nineteenth-Century Social Reform”
Questions for the Movement: Property Damage as a Tactic in Nonviolent Actions
Dean J. Johnson[Note: A quote below includes strong profanity] The paper that follows explores questions of nonviolence and property damage as they pertain to nonviolent actions aimed at radical social change. In times of great duress, which are not always ripe for revolutionary turn-abouts, the use of property damage must be given several considerations. How …
Continue reading “Questions for the Movement: Property Damage as a Tactic in Nonviolent Actions”
The Journeyman – The Making of a Muslim Quaker
Brent Miller-White How does a person start out as a liberal Protestant Christian, follow doubts about Christian orthodoxy into Quakerism, move from there to becoming a Muslim – and through Islam find a way back to understanding and valuing Jesus? That’s my story, a journeyman’s story, which is laid out below. My understanding of a …
Continue reading “The Journeyman – The Making of a Muslim Quaker”
“Towards Tragedy/Reclaiming Hope,”* a Review
Reviewed by Chuck Fager Is tragedy dead? If so, is this a “tragic” loss for our culture? And does the scope of the presumably disastrous effects of its presumed demise include the Religious Society of Friends? If so, is there any prospect for regaining the tragic sense, and thus regaining hope? These questions are the …
Continue reading ““Towards Tragedy/Reclaiming Hope,”* a Review”
“The Passion of the Christ,” a Movie Review
By Gulielma Fager In Mel Gibson’s February, 2004 interview with Diane Sawyer on ABC, he responded to the rampant pre-release criticism of his movie, The Passion of the Christ, by saying, “Critics who have a problem with me don’t really have a problem with me in this film. They have a problem with the four …
Continue reading ““The Passion of the Christ,” a Movie Review”
About the Contributors, #10
Priscilla Elaine Eppinger is Assistant Professor of Religion at Graceland University, Lamoni Iowa. Her fields of interest include Ecological Theology, Ministries of the Church, and Christian Feminist Theologies. Her doctoral dissertation was Lucretia Mott: Theology is Reform’s Foundation. Chuck Fager is Editor of Quaker Theology and Director of Quaker House in Fayetteville, North Carolina. His …
Editors’ Introduction #9
By Chuck Fager & Ann Riggs We are pleased to offer here a wide-ranging selection of the thought and work active among Friends. The issue begins with Stephen Angell’s scholarly examination of George Fox’s efforts at basic religious education, and then jumps to a very personal “oral history” account by Richard Lee of his family’s …
The Catechisms of George Fox
Why they were written in the first place, what was contained in them, what use was made of them, And what we can learn from them today By Stephen W. Angell Catechisms are out of fashion in the twenty-first century, perhaps because of a perceived rigidity or undue conformity that seems to many to be …
Friendly Healing in Frampton and the Forest
By Richard Lee Frampton on Severn was around before William the Conqueror and his Normans conquered England. It is an old village on the edge of the Royal Forest of Dean. Still, no one knows for sure just how old Frampton is. It was in Frampton where my Ol’ Gran taught me the Old Ways …
Continue reading “Friendly Healing in Frampton and the Forest”
Nimrod and the Tower of Babel: Genesis 10-11 in Seventeenth-Century Quaker Writings
By Esther Greenleaf Murer This paper grows out of the Quaker Bible Index, an attempt at a comprehensive Scripture index to make readily available Seventeenth and Eighteenth-century Quaker writings. The first version, which appeared in 1993 and is available on CD-ROM, included about 10,000 Scripture references to works by Fox, Barclay, Penn, Woolman and others. …
The Church: Called, Gathered, and Faithful
a response to The Nature and Purpose of the Church: A Stage on the Way to a Common Statement (World Council of ChurchesFaith and Order Paper No. 181, Nov. 1998) by Friends United Meeting Ecumenical Task Group February, 2002 Friends United Meeting commits itself to energize and equip Friends through the power of the Holy …
Continue reading “The Church: Called, Gathered, and Faithful”
“If Grace Be True: Why God Will Save Every Person*” and “A Treatise on Atonement*” Reviewed
Reviewed by Chuck Fager Dissident Quaker Meetings in Indiana Almost two hundred years ago, Hosea Ballou foretold what would befall two Quaker pastors in Indiana, Philip Gulley and his good friend James Mulholland, in 2002: To profess universal salvation,” Ballou wrote, “will subject some to excommunication from regular churches; others to the pain of being …
“Just War Against Terror: The Burden of American Power In a Violent World” a Review
Reviewed by Chuck Fager I First a bit of autobiography: Jean Bethke Elshtain and I were both undergraduates at Colorado State University, and late in my time there, we became acquainted. I recall with a smile a party where she, a known intellectual, amazed me by dancing wildly to the Beatles, at a time when …
Reviews: “A Stone Bridge North,” by Kate Maloy & “Driving By Moonlight” by Kristin Henderson*
Reviewed by Chuck Fager Living out a faith is the substance of narrative theology, and memoir is one of the best forms through which we can glimpse this theology taking shape, with all the accompanying struggle and exaltation. Two recent memoirs by Quaker women name and present this process superbly, and, as might be expected, …
About the Contributors, #9
Stephen W. Angell is the Leatherock Professor of Quaker Studies at the Earlham School of Religion. Chuck Fager is Editor of Quaker Theology and Director of Quaker House in Fayetteville, North Carolina. His most recent books include Shaggy Locks & Birkenstocke: Exploring Liberal Quaker Theology, and A Quaker Declaration of War. David Johns is Assistant …
Editor’s Introduction, #8
By Chuck Fager Much of Quaker theology is inextricably interwoven with our history. This is a truism fitting most if not all religions; yet it is especially true of the Religious Society of Friends, because of our relative paucity of formal theologizing. Hence it felt natural, at last autumn’s conference on the Legacy of George …
Quaker History & Theology: Three Interviews
By Chuck Fager Editor’s Introduction: In Tenth Month 2002, some very interesting people gathered at Swarthmore College for a Conference on George Fox’s Legacy. Numerous papers were delivered, many of which will be published presently in Quaker History, the journal of the Friends Historical Association. Both in the papers and in personal conversation, many intriguing …
Continue reading “Quaker History & Theology: Three Interviews”
A Quaker in a Material World: A Materialist Perspective
Osborn Cresson I am a Quaker and a materialist. That is, the only reality I know is the physical world of cause and effect, and yet Quakers and their practices are fundamental to my life. People are surprised by this combination of the secular and the Quaker. They ask, can materialism lead to a moral …
Continue reading “A Quaker in a Material World: A Materialist Perspective”
Peace Theology and Foundations for Ecumenical Dialogue
Lauree Hersch Meyer Editor’s Introduction: In 1999, the Central Committee of the World Council of Churches invited WCC member churches and others who share their concerns to participate in a decade of work to overcome violence in our world. Giving shape and direction to the commitment of the eighth Assembly of the WCC (1998) to …
Continue reading “Peace Theology and Foundations for Ecumenical Dialogue”
Milton Mayer, Quaker Hedgehog
A Review and Profile, by H. Larry Ingle State Authority Over the Individual Oxford-educated political scientist Isaiah Berlin, in his minor classic “The Hedgehog and the Fox” (1953), divided people into two groups, those who understood one big thing like the hedgehog and those, like the fox, who knew many things. The subject of this …
Review: “A Catholic’s Journey through Quakerism*
Reviewed by Jeffrey Gros This fascinating pilgrimage will be of interest to all Friends and to Christians beyond the boundaries of Quakerism. The author offers her text particularly to those traditions that have nurtured her own very full life: “I hope that Catholics who read my story may find in the message and spirituality of …
Continue reading “Review: “A Catholic’s Journey through Quakerism*”
About the Contributors, #8
Osborn Cresson, of Mount Holly Monthly Meeting, is a retired special education teacher who lived in Monteverde, Costa Rica, for many years. He has just published a book about his family’s experiences in Afghanistan (www.quaker.org/afghanistan). Chuck Fager is Editor of Quaker Theology. His latest book is A Quaker Declaration of War. Brother Jeffrey Gros, FSC, …
Editor’s Introduction, # 7
By Chuck Fager This issue of Quaker Theology is one of the most exciting that it has been my privilege to work on. In it the work of serious religious thought is tackled from several strikingly different but revealing directions. We begin with with an appeal by two distinguished scholars, Duke Divinity School’s Stanley Hauerwas (a disenchanted …
Abolishing War? An Appeal to Christian Leaders and Theologians
By Stanley Hauerwas and Enda McDonagh As Christians called to serve the Church in differing Christian traditions we appeal to our Christian sisters and brothers to join a campaign to abolish war as a legitimate means of resolving political conflict between states and within them. Although our appeal is addressed to the Christian community, we …
Continue reading “Abolishing War? An Appeal to Christian Leaders and Theologians”
Real Presence and First-Day Pitch-Ins: Why Quakers Are, and Must Be, a Eucharistic People
By Patrick J. Nugent “Wait upon God for the Living Bread, that never fades away.” George Fox “I myself am the Bread of Life. Whoever comes to me will never hunger: whoever trusts in me will never thirst.” (John 6:51) I. A Eucharistic Theology for Quakers? In a recent paper, Scott Holland, a minister and …
From Reason to Truth to Mystery: An Odyssey to Orthodoxy
By John W. Oliver Some days ago an off-the-cuff reference to myself as a former Evangelical Friend caused a slight stir. Chuck Fager said, “You must do an article.” Jerry Frost (retiring Director of the Friends Historical Library at Swarthmore College) said, “We must talk.” This is to respond to these kind invitations. At first …
Continue reading “From Reason to Truth to Mystery: An Odyssey to Orthodoxy”
The Making of “The Tree Of Life”
By Bruce “Pacho” Lane Quakerism and Mexican Indian Religious Beliefs This is a story about learning to put Quaker faith into practice in a way George Fox never anticipated, while making a film about a Mexican Indian religious belief and ritual. I’m a “birth-right” Friend. My father, Ralph Lane, was convinced while in college at …
Friends for 350 Years Howard H. Brinton. Historical update and notes by Margaret Hope Bacon.
Reviewed by Chuck Fager There is really no honest way to say this but straight out: Except for its handsome new cover design, this reissue of Howard Brinton’s Friends for 300 Years is an utter embarrassment. For the sake of Pendle Hill’s reputation, and out of respect for Brinton’s decades of service to that institution, it ought …
Quakers and The Lamb’s War: A Hermeneutic for Confronting Evil, Non-Violent Resistance
By Gene Hillman A paper presented at the International Historic Peace Church Consultation Bienenberg Theological Seminary, Switzerland, June 25-28, 2001 As they war not against men’s persons, so their weapons are not carnal nor hurtful to any of the creation; for the Lamb comes not to destroy men’s lives nor the work of God, and …
About the Contributors #7
Chuck Fager is a member of State College (PA) Meeting, and Director of Quaker House in Fayetteville, NC. He is Editor of Quaker Theology, and his most recent book is The Harlot’s bible. Stanley Hauerwas is Professor of Theological Ethics at Duke Divinity School. In September 2001 Time Magazine pronounced him the most influential theologian …
Editor’s Introduction (Issue #6)
By Chuck Fager “There is one, even Christ Jesus, that can speak to thy condition.” It’s a familiar, and central, quote from the Journal of George Fox. But most attention to the sentence has been focused on Jesus, the “speaker,” especially the familiar debates about how “Christian” Quakerism, was, is, or should be. In this issue, Robert Griswold …
Friends for 350 Years
George Fox, Firbank Fell, England, 13th of Sixth Month, 1652: While others were gone to dinner, I went to a brook, got a little water, and then came and sat down on the top of a rock hard by the chapel. In the afternoon the people gathered about me, with several of their preachers. It …
“Condition” in Quaker Theology and George Fox
By Robert Griswold Save us from what our own hands might do; lift the veilbut do not tear it.Save us from the ego; its knife has reached our bones.Who but You will break these chains?Let us turn from ourselves to YouWho are nearer to us than ourselves.Even this prayer is Your gift to us.How else …
Continue reading ““Condition” in Quaker Theology and George Fox”
Friends’ Theological Heritage: From Seventeenth-Century Quietists to A Guide to True Peace Though Silent Worship
By Dianne Guenin-Lelle Quaker Theology and Silent Worship The purpose of this paper is to re-establish an historical link between Quaker theology and practice of silent worship and the Quietist movement of seventeenth-century Europe, especially France, Italy and Spain. The most evident connection between Quakers and seventeenth-century Quietists is the nineteenth century text A Guide to …
Herrymon Maurer and the Tao of Quakerism
by Anthony Manousos “When I first read Herrymon’s version of the Tao The Ching, I was bowled over,” recalls Steve Penningroth, a biochemist from Princeton University. “What struck me was the commentary. Without it I was lost. Herrymon’s commentary helped me because I had the sense that he was on to something and that he grasped …
A Great Deep: The Peace Testimony and Historical Realism
By Chuck Fager Walking in the Way of Peace: Quaker Pacifism in the Seventeenth Century. Meredith Baldwin Weddle. Oxford University Pres, 2001 British Quakerism 1860-1920: the Transformation of a Religious Community. Thomas C. Kennedy. Oxford University Press, 2001. Re-examing Quaker Peace Testimony In our current circumstances, few tasks are more urgent for Friends than to …
Continue reading “A Great Deep: The Peace Testimony and Historical Realism”
Contributors, Issue Six
Chuck Fager is Editor of Quaker Theology. He serves as Director of Quaker House in Fayetteville, North Carolina, and is Clerk of the Fellowship of Quakers in the Arts. Robert Griswold is also the author of an article, “No Creed Is Not the Same as No Theology,” in Friends Journal, Eighth Month, 2001. He is retired from a career …
Editor’s Introduction #5
By Chuck Fager In this issue of Quaker Theology, matters of peace and war are again in the forefront, due as much to the force of events as to our own inclinations. We begin with something which would not have occurred to us prior to Ninth Month 11, 2001: a resource list for Friends and meetings grappling …
Quaker Peace Witness After 9/11 – A Resource List
By Chuck Fager Quaker Thoughts on September 11 Terrorism The shocks of 9/11, the September 11 attacks, on and their aftermath have abruptly put the Peace Testimony at or near the top of the priority lists of many Friends and meetings. As this soul-searching continues, here is an admittedly haphazard and highly personal list of …
Continue reading “Quaker Peace Witness After 9/11 – A Resource List”
War in the Social Order: the Great War and the Liberalization of American Quakerism
Howell John Harris (NOTE: This essay was first published in David Adams and Cornelius van Minnen, eds., Religious and Secular Reform Movements in American History [Edinburgh, 1999], pp. 179-204. It is reprinted here by permission.) Introduction When, or if, historians think of the American branches of the Religious Society of Friends, of Quakers, we probably …