Quaker Theology

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  • Chapter 8 — Indiana Yearly Meeting Schism Documents

     Camping Out at the Borderland: Reflections on Life in a Liminal Time (Ruth 1: 1-14) By Stephanie Crumley-Effinger (Expanded from a message in Worship at West Richmond IN Friends Meeting, First Month 13, 2013) Read More

  • Theology & Peace Witness by Chuck Fager

    A Letter to the Next Director of Quaker House, Fayetteville-Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Here’s the job description in a nutshell: as the Director of Quaker House (QH), besides managing a small non-profit, the essence of the work a call to continue a protracted, hand-to-hand combat with the Spirit of War, operating behind the lines of…

  • Editor’s Introduction by Chuck Fager

    To be candid, I’m not accustomed to being consulted by Evangelical Friends. I’m not one, and over the past forty years, I’ve often found myself on opposite sides from many vocal or leading Evangelicals. Read More

  • Divine Protection through Extraordinary Dangers

    Goff and her family lived through the ordeal of rebellion and massacre in Ireland in 1798. This amazing memoir is priceless both for its place in the long, sad history of British colonization of Ireland, and its more uplifting place in the saga of the Quaker Peace Testimony applied in situations where its implications and…

  • Wiliam Rotch of Nantucket A Quaker Hero

    Rotch was a leading Friend in the Quaker community of Nantucket Island, and his story of faithfulness during the American and French Revolutions is a truly memorable story.

  • Friends General Conference, Founding Gathering

    Two Addresses from the Founding of the major liberal Quaker association of the modern era. These stirring speeches show the dynamic spirit that launched this movement.

  • Joel & Hannah Bean — Reluctant Rebels

    Historical currents combined with their character to make of the Beans perhaps the key figures, indeed the founders, of the modern liberal Quaker ethos. “Beanite Quakerism” is the term coined by Geoffrey Kaiser, a penetrating amateur Quaker historian, to describe the modern liberal branch of the Society, and once their role is clear, the accuracy…

  • Hannah Barnard — a Liberal Quaker Hero

    The roll of liberal Quaker heroes and heroines is long and notable, but in my mind one name, that of Hannah Barnard, always seems to move to the front of the list. It is as if her spirit elbows her way past many another better-known figure and demands priority attention.

  • “AAA Authenticity of Historic Progressive Quakerism”

    A concise explanation of why this Friend considers the liberal strand of Quaker history and thought a legitimate heir of early Quaker experience and thought.

  • FGC’s “Uniform Discipline” Rediscovered

    This article explores the discovery and significance of the Friends General Conference’s (FGC) 1926 “Uniform Discipline,” a comprehensive set of guidelines that shaped Hicksite Quaker practice but was later forgotten. It highlights key innovations of the Uniform Discipline such as an emphasis on individual spiritual guidance, congregational polity, the abolition of recorded ministers, and a…

  • The Trouble With “Ministers”

    A critical examination of the current efforts to re-establish the system of “recorded ministers” among liberal unprogrammed Quaker groups.

  • Friends’ Ecclesiology and The Quaker-Wide Web

    Ecclesiology, the nature of the church, is a bubbling issue among American Friends today, at least of the unprogrammed variety. Almost anywhere you care to look, Yearly Meetings are struggling with their structures, worrying about staff or no staff, laying down or propping up committees, taking corporate sabbaticals, and so forth. This is a very…

  • Friends as a “Chosen People”

    The post explores the concept of Quakers as a “chosen people,” tracing its biblical roots and its evolution in Quaker theology and history. It emphasizes the theological and practical implications of being a divinely called people, distinct from a mere community or society, and addresses the challenges of particularism versus universalism. The article also discusses…

  • Moment of Truth: Wilmington Yearly Meeting Divides over a Familiar Set of Issues

    By Stephen W. Angell Wilmington Yearly Meeting (WYM), assembled at the Friends Meeting in Maryville, Tennessee, on the last weekend of July, released five meetings (four monthly meetings and one preparatory meeting) that requested to sever connections with the yearly meeting. Wilmington Yearly Meeting includes Friends Churches in the states of Tennessee and Ohio, and…

  • The Separation Generation

    By Chuck Fager; with material edited and adapted from previous issues of Quaker Theology. I – Background It’s not easy – in fact, impossible – to pick a starting date for what I call the “Separation Generation” in American Quakerism. My personal preference is July 1977, when the first major interbranch conference in decades, gathered in…

  • Back From The Brink: North Carolina Yearly Meeting Says No To A Split

    Chuck Fager I North Carolina Yearly Meeting-FUM (NCYM) has ended the two-year effort to purge its “liberal meetings.” This seems to be the most definite outcome of its showdown annual session on August 13 and 14, 2016. It was a very close thing. The leadership wanted a purge disguised as a split, and the steamroller…

  • “Our Life is Love: The Quaker Spiritual Journey”* A Review

    The article reviews Marcelle Martin’s book *Our Life is Love: The Quaker Spiritual Journey*, highlighting its effort to elucidate ten essential elements of Quaker spiritual life through a blend of early Quaker history and contemporary voices. The review praises the book’s inclusiveness and historical clarity but critiques it for idealizing early Friends, underrepresenting non-mystic and…

  • Thunder In Carolina, Part Two: North Carolina Yearly Meeting – FUM And “Unity” vs. Uniformity

    Chuck Fager I We begin by looking back to August 30, 2014, at the annual session of NCYM-FUM. The Executive Committee has just made its report. Read More

  • Rufus Jones and the Laymen’s Foreign Missions Inquiry: How a Quaker Helped to Shape Modern Ecumenical Christianity

    by Stephen W. Angell. Read More

  • Reflecting Theologically from the Gathered Meeting: The Nature and Origin of Quaker Theology

    The article explores the nature and origin of Quaker theology, emphasizing its experiential, relational, and non-dualistic qualities rooted in the gathered meeting and inward spiritual experience. It highlights Quakerism’s integration of physical, social, and spiritual concerns, the centrality of silence and metaphor in worship, and the ongoing reflective enterprise of living “in the life” of…

  • 03: The Cold War’s Effect AFSC, 1947-49

    H. Larry Ingle Reprinted from Peace & Change, 23 (Jan. 1998) Read More

  • 04: Pickett vs. Chambers: A Case Study of Elite Class Power

    H. Larry Ingle Reprinted from: An Early Assessment: U.S. Quakerism in the 20th Century. Papers from the Quaker History Roundtable, 2017. Read More

  • 06: AFSC and Southern Appalachian Yearly Meeting & Association

    An Exchange About Numbers; (SAYMA), 2011-2012 From SAYMA’s minutes, 2011: [SAYMA =] Southern Appalachian Yearly Meeting & Association June 9-12, 2011[Below: SAYMA’s logo & Map of Meetings] Read More

  • Is There Life after Death in Quaker North Carolina?

    Chuck Fager Demolishing a 320-Year-Old Meeting     At 10:58 Eastern time,  Seventh Day (Saturday), Eighth Month (August) 5, 2017, at Quaker Lake Camp near Liberty, NC, Clerk Michael Fulp asked, “Do you approve?” Read More

  • An Increasingly Familiar Story: Northwest Yearly Meeting Expulsions & Sequelae

    Chuck Fager We’ve also been following the growing tensions in Northwest Yearly Meeting, out west (see Issue #24:, Issue #27  ; and Issue #28 ). Read More

  • Wilmington YM: Another Yearly Meeting Schism?

    By Stephen W. Angell Read More

  • Lucretia Mott & The Perils of Dissent – Excerpts from James & Lucretia Mott, Life & Letters.

    Anna Davis Hallowell. Boston Houghton Mifflin & Co., 1884 1860: “[The black abolitionist] Robert Purvis has said that I was “the most belligerent non-resistant he ever saw.” I accept the character he gives me; and I glory in it. I have no idea, because I am a non-resistant, of submitting tamely to injustice inflicted either on…

  • Joseph Southall & The Ghosts of the Slain:

    A Quaker Artist Takes on World War One    Editor’s Note: Joseph Southall (1861-1944) was a successful British artist, who was at the peak of his renown and productivity when World War One began. A lifelong Quaker pacifist and socialist, he set aside much of his conventional work to make drawings of protest against the…

  • Everyday/Extraordinary Resistance: Two True Stories from the Vietnam Years

    Leafleting a Meeting of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Marion Anderson By 1970, I had been organizing against the war full-time for five years. First, in Washington where I was an organizer of the televised National Teach-In which was watched by about ten million Americans and then in Michigan as chairman of Michi-gan Clergy and…

  • Jim Corbett, Sanctuary Prophet of Post-Desert Quakerism

    Chuck Fager Friend Jim Corbett, of Pima Meeting in Tucson, died on his Arizona ranch August 2, 2001 after a short illness. He was 67. With his passing a quiet giant of Quaker resistance departed. Read More

  • Remembering Tom Fox Introduction to: Tom Fox Was My Friend. Yours, Too.

    Chuck Fager Christian Peacemakers Kidnapped in Baghdad John Stephens called me with the news: Tom Fox and three other members of the Christian peacemaker Teams’ group (CPT) in Baghdad had been kidnaped. It was just after Thanksgiving, late November, 2005. Read More

  • Passages by Tom Fox & James Loney

    1. From James Loney Easter 2006 For 118 days we lay in a tomb – Norman Kember, Harmeet Sooden and me. Tom Fox too, for 104 days, until he was murdered in the early morning hours of March 9. Read More

  • Resisting Oppression: Friends and the Stuart Restoration, 1660-1689

    This article explores the responses of Quakers to the Stuart Restoration from 1660 to 1689, highlighting their struggle against religious persecution, efforts in political lobbying, and the development of internal organizational structures. Key figures like Margaret Fell and William Penn played crucial roles in advocating for religious tolerance, culminating in the 1689 Act of Toleration,…

  • The Quaker Peace Testimony as Questing Beast

    The 1995 Roundtable was sponsored by the Pendle Hill Issues Program, for which I was then the coordinator. I asked Chel to prepare an overview of the Quaker Peace Testimony, because I was looking, quite frankly, for “new talent” and new thinking in the field.

  • The Influence of Psychoanalysis and Popular Psychology on Quaker Thought & Practice: An Exploratory Survey

    Jacob Stone One Saturday back in the early 1990’s I found myself in a brief workshop sponsored by a Quaker organization; there was a short business meeting, a presentation, some socialization and networking during “dinner on the grounds”. And then…..     …..a program about how I could “heal” myself. I didn’t at that time feel…

  • Narrative Theology: The Land

    Ken Bradstock On the Appalachian Plateau in Southwestern Pennsylvania, a farm lies fallow from decades of disuse. The fine old Pennsylvania bank barn has collapsed toward the silo. The roof is lying on the wooden ruins and they, in turn, have buckled and fainted onto the stonework foundation. The pastures and crop fields all across…

  • Whittaker Chambers, Alger Hiss, and Quaker Leadership: A Problem for Friends

    This post explores the complex relationship between Whittaker Chambers, a mid-20th-century Quaker and anti-Communist witness, and the broader Quaker community, including prominent leader Clarence Pickett. Despite Chambers’s profound religious conviction and his significant role in exposing Alger Hiss as a Soviet spy, many Quakers distanced themselves from him, highlighting tensions within Quaker politics and theology…

  • Attachments: NC Yearly Meeting Documents

    Attachments to North Carolina Yearly Meeting Split debate

  • Tom Fox: In Memoriam: Introduction

    by Chuck Fager Read More

  • Three Reflections on Same Sex Marriage

    Philip Gulley Why I Support Same Gender Marriage Several years ago, I was attending a Quaker conference north of Chicago and began talking with a man from Ohio, who spoke in the plain language of our Quaker ancestors. Lots of thee’s and thou’s. It seemed pretentious, as if he were subtly reminding the rest of…

  • North Carolina & Northwest Yearly Meeting Updates: Ambushed, Sandbagged, and Kicked Down The Road

    Chuck Fager I Have you seen moments like this in detective films, or in stories? When Sherlock, or whoever the sleuth is, hunches forward and shouts: “Good God, Watson! How could I be such a FOOL??” (Usually, it means things are about to get very interesting.) Read More

  • Quakers and “Transformation”

    An Editorial Commentary You ask me, it’s a sure sign of a needed change coming: Read More

  • George Fox University and West Hills Friends:

    Controversy and Conflict in NorthwestYearly Meeting By Stephen W. Angell [Editor’s Note: In Issue #24, we reported on a two-sided struggle that had appeared in Northwest Yearly Meeting (NWYM). On one side, there emerged a visible support group for LGBT students, staff and alumni at the Newberg. Oregon campus of NWYM’s academic offspring, George Fox…

  • Part II: Northwest Yearly Meeting Elders “Release” (i.e., Expel) West Hills Friends Meeting

    Background On July 24, 2015, only hours after the annual NWYM sessions had adjourned, NWYM elders communicated to West Hills Friends Meeting (WHF) that they had been expelled, or, in the el­ders’ term, “released,” from the yearly meeting. Read More

  • “Holy Nation: The Transatlantic Quaker Ministry in an Age of Revolution”* Reviewed

    The review critically examines Sarah Crabtree’s book “Holy Nation,” which argues that early Quakerism was shaped by a “Zion tradition” viewing Quakers as a chosen people, analogous to biblical Israel. While the thesis sheds light on a neglected aspect of Quaker identity and activism, the book suffers from numerous factual inaccuracies, weak research, and a…

  • Excerpt from: “Holy Nation: The Transatlantic Quaker Ministry in an Age of Revolution”*

    This post explores the Quakers’ self-identification as a “holy nation,” emphasizing their theological rejection of nationalistic allegiance and worldly authority during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It highlights their active resistance to nation-building efforts, their educational initiatives to prepare future generations for spiritual warfare, and their influential, yet often quiet, role in philanthropic and reform…

  • “A Sustainable Life: Quaker Faith and Practice in the Renewal of Creation”* A Review

    Reviewed by Chel Avery “What sustains sustainability?” Mark Helpsmeet(1) has proposed this question as an alternative title for Doug Gwyn’s deep examination of Quaker life and sustainability. How do Quaker thought and Quak­er practice provide a firm foundation for individuals and communities that are trying to live in harmony with creation and with prophetic attention…

  • Thunder In Carolina: North Carolina Yearly Meeting – FUM

    Chuck Fager Read More

  • Letters From Meeting Demanding Disciplinary Action Against Meetings With Which They Differ – And Responses

    [Note: The letters are reproduced here, and are also online at our website. Links are listed after the letters. The quality of reproduction is as good as we could make it from the available copies.] Read More

  • Links to NCYM-FUM letters online

    Protesting Letters Poplar Ridge Letter:www.afriendlyletter.com/files/Poplar-Ridge-Friends-NCYM-FUM.pdf Read More

  • Quaker Theology is not Explained by Apocalyptic Expectation and Delay

    The article critiques Douglas Gwyn’s thesis that Quaker theology originates from imminent apocalyptic expectation, arguing that this view conflates Pentecostal spiritual experience with genuine apocalypse and fails to explain Quakerism’s theological uniqueness and survival. It further challenges Pink Dandelion’s endtime/meantime dynamic as an insufficient explanation for Quaker theological shifts, proposing instead that the tension between…

  • A Review, “Personality and Place, the Life & Times of Pendle Hill”

    Reviewed by Chuck Fager Read More

  • “From Personality & Place”* An Excerpt

    Douglas Gwyn In Pendle Hill’s Upmeads library hangs a print of Edward Hicks’ The Peaceable Kingdom. Hicks (1780–1849) was a noted Quaker minister who lived in Newtown, Pennsylvania (about 45 miles northeast of Pendle Hill). He was also a painter at a time when Friends still shunned the arts. His great theme was the prophet…

  • “A Convergent Model of Renewal: Remixing the Quaker Tradition in a Participatory Culture”*

    Reviewed by Chuck Fager There’s more than little déjà vu about A Convergent Model of Renewal. Quakerism, Wess Daniels argues, will be renewed by the coming together of Friends from the fringes of the various branches, particularly younger members and seekers. Or as he puts it: “It could be said that convergent Friends signal the emergence of a…

  • Forgiveness over Khmer Rouge: a journey or an obligation? A Beginning of Dialogue

    Editor’s Introduction: Forgiveness is a frequent topic of discussion among Friends these days. For American Quakers, most of whom live in relatively comfortable circumstances, the issue is typically posed in personal terms: as a means of coping with lingering grievances, failed relationships, family trauma; in broader social contexts, it might involve experiences of group injustices…

  • Response: Forgiveness and Letting-Go: An Inter-Religious and Internal Dialogue Sallie B. King

    Sallie B. King I thank Claire Ly for giving the interview, “Forgiveness: a journey or an obligation?” in which she shares her reflections upon her experience under the Khmer Rouge regime. I also thank Chuck Fager for sending the interview to me and inviting me to respond. Coming from an entirely secure and comfortable background,…

  • Love and Peace in Cuba Today From the Perspective of a Quaker

    By Julio Antonio Cuesta Martínez(Translated From the Spanish byStephen W. Angell) Introduction By Stephen Angell, Associate Editor I met Julio Cuesta in Gibara, Cuba, in January, 2014, during the Fourth Encounter of the Cuban Quaker Institute for Peace. I was teaching courses there on Quakers and the Bible and Peace; and Quakers and Mysticism and…

  • Varieties of Interpretation of Francis Howgill’s Works: Apocalypse, Light and Convincement in Tension

    This post analyzes the apocalyptic theology and rhetorical style of Francis Howgill, a prominent early Quaker leader, focusing on his works and their historical context amid the English Civil War and Restoration. It also explores how his writings, especially his convincement narrative, were interpreted and edited through different eras, shedding light on evolving Quaker theological…

  • “From Peace to Freedom: Quaker Rhetoric and the Birth of American Antislavery, 1657-1761″*

    Reviewed by H. Larry Ingle Read More

  • “Following Jesus: The Heart of Faith and Practice”* A Review

    This post critically reviews Paul Anderson’s book *Following Jesus: The Heart of Faith and Practice*, arguing that it inadequately synthesizes Evangelical Christianity and early Quakerism by prioritizing scriptural interpretation over the immediate, inward leading of the Spirit. The review highlights the author’s failure to authentically represent early Quaker theology, particularly their emphasis on direct experience…

  • “Paper Trail: Writings from the Front Line of Peace Action, Quaker House/Fort Bragg, 2001-2012″* A Review

    This review highlights Chuck Fager’s book “Paper Trail,” a detailed and personal account of peace activism at Quaker House during some of the most militarily intense years. The book covers topics like opposition to torture, the human cost of the Iraq War, and the complexities of peace work, emphasizing a message of support for troops…

  • “Remaking Friends: How Progressive Friends Changed Quakerism & Helped Save America, 1822-1940″* A Review

    Reviewed by Isaac May In his introduction to Remaking Friends, Chuck Fager informs his readers that his book “attempts to answer a question… How did the liberal branch of Quakerism become what it is in the early 21st century?” (p. 3). He takes on this rather considerable task principally by examining an important historical antecedent of modern…

  • Links to NCYM-FUM letters online

    Protesting Letters Poplar Ridge Letter: https://afriendlyletter.com/files/Poplar-Ridge-Friends-NCYMFUM.pdf Read More

  • “Angels of Progress: A Documentary History of the Progressive Friends: Radical Quakers in a Turbulent America”* Reviewed

    This review examines “Angels of Progress,” a volume documenting the history and sources of the Progressive Friends, a radical Quaker movement that emerged in the 19th century advocating social reform and opposing conservative Quaker authority. The reviewer highlights the movement’s complex stances on abolition, peace testimony, and liberal theology, noting its influence on modern liberal…

  • An Excerpt from Remaking Friends: How Progressive Friends Changed Quakerism & Helped Save America, 1822-1940

    By Chuck Fager FIVE: “Oh! No, It Cannot, Cannot Be – My Darling Babe Will Live . . .” Read More

  • The Fall of Man

    The article challenges the traditional Christian doctrine of the Fall of Man, arguing that human nature is not intrinsically fallen but rather in a continual process of moral and intellectual growth. It presents human development as analogous to natural growth, where “evil” is seen as a necessary stage in the unfolding of human maturity, with…

  • “Let the holy seed of life reign” Perfection, Pelagianism, and the early Friends

    The post examines the early Friends’ theological stance on human perfection and the accusation of Pelagianism against them. It argues that unlike Pelagius, early Friends acknowledged human depravity and the need for divine grace but also emphasized human free will and responsibility, proposing a “third way” through the concept of “two seeds” (the divine seed…

  • Blessed Unrest: The Radical Act of Gathering

    Scott Holmes          I am a Quaker lawyer finding myself in the middle of the legal defense of Quakers arrested for failing to disperse from an unlawful assembly at the North Carolina General Assembly during the “Moral Monday” protests this summer. I have been inspired, moved, and challenged by Moral Monday protesters. I am…

  • Separation Accomplished: New Beginnings for a New Association of Friends and a “Reconfigured” Indiana Yearly Meeting

    By Stephen W. Angell The disagreement became so sharp that they parted company; Barnabas took Mark with him and sailed away to Cyprus. But Paul chose Silas and set out, the believers commending him to the grace of the Lord. He went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches. Read More

  • Northwest Yearly Meeting and “Shattering” Conflict: Chapter One

    Chuck Fager with Jade Souza With the schism in Indiana Yearly Meeting over one meeting’s open welcome to LGBT persons now complete, one could have thought this journal would have a break from coverage of such events. Read More

  • Excerpts from “The Dance Between Hope and Fear,” by John Calvi

    An Introduction and Review For some years now, a small chorus of people has nagged John Calvi to write a book. Finally, over the past year, he has heeded these calls. Read More

  • Progressive Friends: The Top Ten Reasons Why They’re The Most Interesting Quakers We Never Heard Of

    Chuck Fager (Adapted from a presentation at the Conference of Quaker Historians & Archivists, Sixth Month 2012) Read More

  • The Battle for Battle Creek: Sectarian Competition in the Yankee West

    The article explores the history of liberal sectarianism in 19th-century Battle Creek, Michigan, highlighting the significant presence and influence of Hicksite Quakers, Progressive Friends, Swedenborgians, and Spiritualists. It details how this religiously tolerant and reform-minded environment shaped Battle Creek’s development, including its health reform movements, and impacted the rise of Seventh-Day Adventism and the cereal…

  • “The Early Quakers and the Kingdom of God: Peace, Testimony and Revolution”*

    This review critically assesses Gerard Guiton’s book on early Quaker theology, particularly his emphasis on the “Kingdom of God” motif and the Peace Testimony of early Friends. While acknowledging Guiton’s extensive research, the reviewer criticizes his anachronistic approach, lack of engagement with historical actions, and dismissal of evolving Quaker stances on war and pacifism.

  • “Quaker Brotherhood: Interracial Activism and the American Friends Service Committee, 1917-1950″*

    Reviewed by H. Larry Ingle Friends often are at their best when they have visible opponents who are deeply entrenched, respectable, and powerful but support some odious practice – think slaveholders. But the reality is that partially through dramatic Quaker pre-Civil War and wartime pressure, President Abraham Lincoln abolished slavery 150 years ago this year.…

  • Indiana Yearly Meeting Update & Documents

    In This Section: Read More

  • “350 Years of the Society of Friends in North America: 1661-2011″*

    The post reviews Geoffrey Kaiser’s detailed and provocative “Quaker Family Tree Chart,” which visually represents 350 years of Quaker history in North America, highlighting numerous schisms and theological tensions. Kaiser’s perspective emphasizes Robert Barclay’s theology, particularly the universality of the Inner Light, and contrasts the numerous evangelical splits with the more stable liberal Quaker tradition.…

  • The Proposed Split of Indiana Yearly Meeting: What Its Monthly Meetings Say

    By Stephen W. Angell Read More

  • Beyond Liberalism: Rufus Jones and Thomas Kelly in the History of Liberal Religion

    Guy Aiken Read More

  • “Deep Green Resistance: Strategy to Save the Planet”*

    Reviewed by Chuck Fager Read More

  • Editor’s Introduction: Divorce in Indiana – Quaker Style

    Divorce is not as traumatic an experience as it once was. In fact, today most spouses resolve to part peaceably. No-fault laws and mediators can smooth the way to property and custody agreements. The results are still wrenching, but civilized, and much better for the children. Not only couples, but countries have managed this: in…

  • The Darkness of Mother Teresa, Two Reviews*

    by George Amoss Jr. Read More

  • Two Current Conflicts in Midwestern Friends Meetings

    Stephen W. Angell Read More

  • Postscript: Allen Jay on the Spirit of Separation

    This post highlights Allen Jay’s role as a peacemaker among various Quaker divisions in the nineteenth century, emphasizing his view that separation and judgment among Friends impede the spirit of the Gospel and Christian love. Jay advocated for unity, recognizing the value in differing perspectives within Quakerism and warning against the bitterness caused by schisms.…

  • “A History of Southland College: The Society of Friends and Black Education in Arkansas,”* A Review

    This article reviews Thomas C. Kennedy’s comprehensive history of Southland College, a Quaker-supported African-American educational institution in Arkansas from 1864 to 1925. It highlights the school’s religious and educational mission, the challenges it faced due to racial violence and financial difficulties, and the evolving Quaker commitments to racial equality. The review also emphasizes the significance…

  • “Climate Wars” & “The Green Zone”* Reviewed

    Reviewed by Chuck Fager Read More

  • An Argument for Comprehensive Religious Education of FGC Young Friends

    Joyce Ketterer I am a life-long Quaker and a product of ten years of formal Quaker education as well as nine years of Young Friends experience in Philadelphia Yearly Meeting. In high school, I was not only an avid attendee of Young Friends but also a strong Quaker leader, the co-founder, and co-clerk of an…

  • Selected Excerpts from, To Be Broken and Tender: A Quaker Theology for Today

    “Waiting and Attending” One day in prayer I saw a mound of clay being worked by two hands, one the hand of a child, the other the hand of an adult. Then I saw the infinite faces of Jesus. Some faces were familiar— one, the face in the children’s book of my youth, another the…

  • “Hostage In Iraq” & “118 Days: Christian Peacemaker Teams Held Hostage in Iraq”* Reviewed

    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. Read…

  • The Quaker Enterprise of Metaphor

    The article explores the significance of metaphor in early Quaker theology, focusing on the central metaphors of Light and Seed. It argues that these metaphors conveyed complex spiritual experiences and theological concepts that differed from mainstream Christianity, shaping Quaker identity and practice amid persecution. The piece also discusses how the use and understanding of these…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • Thomas Hamm Response to “Holiness, The Soul of Quakerism”*

    Thomas Hamm reviews Carole Dale Spencer’s book “Holiness: The Soul of Quakerism,” agreeing that holiness is central to understanding pre-1900 Quakerism but differing on interpretations about the 19th-century holiness revival among Friends. He critiques Spencer’s focus and omission of key figures in the revival, and examines Hannah Whitall Smith’s complex role and theological differences within…

  • “Holiness: The Soul of Quakerism”*

    This post is a detailed review of Carole Dale Spencer’s book “Holiness: The Soul of Quakerism,” which argues that holiness is the central theme of Quaker theology and history. The reviewer critiques Spencer’s interpretation, particularly her emphasis on mystical holiness as the defining essence of Quakerism, and contrasts it with other scholarly works, highlighting the…

  • “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…

  • “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…

  • 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

    This extensive essay explores the early Quaker experience of salvation as an inward, transformative process focused on love, detaching from self-centeredness, and embracing a new moral orientation rooted in “that of God” within. It interprets early Quaker theology through contemporary psychological concepts like schemas and cognitive dissonance, arguing that true salvation involves ongoing conversion (metanoia)…

  • “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? Read More