Okay, readers, here’s a pop quiz: What is UP with Indiana pastoral Friends? Can AFSC get its mojo back?
And not least, is it possible for Quakerism to take root in France, or is the Society so incorrigibly Anglo that it only thrives in territory over which the Union Jack flies, or once flew? (Answers below.)
Pardon the lapse into pedantry. All these questions are taken up in detail in this issue.
And more: there’s a remarkable glimpse of what peacemaking looks like after a community falls into genocide, and in which both victims and perpetrators have to live with the aftermath, together. Plus a consideration of whether faith communities like Friends can really change the world for the better – or just screw it up with ever-new combinations of naiveté and fanaticism? (This is not a trick question.)
Then there’s the richly ambiguous fate of one idealistic Quaker project which did set out to change the world, or at least part of northeastern Arkansas in the wake of the Civil War. How did that turn out? Thomas Kennedy, a superb historian, found the answer, and now you can too.
In short, another full and provocative issue of Quaker Theology.
Happy reading, and thinking; and keep those articles, reviews and letters coming. Subscriptions too.
– Chuck Fager, Editor