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Originally published between 1930 and 1988 many of the volumes in this set are based upon years of painstaking archival research in private and published papers. They provide many insights into the Puritan world of the early 17th Century and: Analyse the economic depression in the mid-1600s and the resultant unemployment and poverty which caused social upheaval. Discuss the importance of the divisions among the Puritans for political processes within both the church and wider society. Examine the motivation of the Puritans who emigrated. Discuss the impact the Puritan family had on the spiritual development of the Anglo-American world.

The Complete Writings and Selected Correspondence of John Dickinson, vol. 1 inaugurates a multivolume documentary edition that will, for the first time ever, provide the complete collection of everything Dickinson published on public affairs over the course of his life. The documents include essays, articles, broadsides, resolutions, petitions, declarations, constitutions, regulations, legislation, proclamations, songs and odes. Among them are many of the seminal state papers produced by the first national congresses and conventions. Also included are correspondences between Dickinson and some of the key figures of his era. This edition should raise Dickinson to his rightful place among America's founding fathers, rivaled in reputation only by Benjamin Franklin before 1776. Dickinson was celebrated throughout the colonies, as well as in England and France, as the great American spokesman for liberty, and the documents in this edition evidence his tireless political work and unmatched corpus.

Irish Quaker biographers have focused on ministers, the influential and wealthy; many biographies are also unstructured and selective, leaving gaps in the narrative. The current work uses the life and family of John Boles (1661-1731), a Quaker stalwart for 50 years, as a case study for the biographer, introducing the major sources and showing how they can be deployed to'resurrect'the contributions of the anonymous Quaker majority. As the biography is developed, information is explored and analyzed to construct reliable genealogical charts; information is culled from Friends'records to document the contributions and failures of family members in the context of their Quaker meetings; land records are consulted to measure and assess their gradual accumulation of wealth and the historical context is discussed as a backdrop to their evolving socio-economic status - all topics essential for comprehensive Quaker biographies and family histories.

During the years 1764 through 1766, John Dickinson became a leading figure in the Pennsylvania Assembly and in the growing American resistance to unjust British taxation. The documents in this volume show that, in both roles, he sought to protect the fundamental rights of ordinary Americans. In the 1764 Assembly, after working to punish those responsible for the slaughter of peaceful Indians, Dickinson challenged Benjamin Franklin and Joseph Galloway in their plan to abolish Pennsylvania's unique Quaker constitution that secured liberty of conscience and place the colony under the control of the Crown. Then, in 1765, he served as primary draftsman at the Stamp Act Congress in New York, producing the first official American documents of the Revolutionary Era. In his private capacity, Dickinson continued to write through 1765 and 1766, publishing, among other documents, the first practical advice to Americans on how to resist Great Britain. The present volume also contains draft legislation, fascinating case notes from his legal practice, and personal correspondence.

In American Christian Programmed Quaker Ecclesiology, Derek Brown argues that American Christian Programmed Quakerism has inherited a practical and pragmatic ecclesiology at the expense of an ontological understanding of the church. Inspired by the work of Gerben Heitink, Brown proposes a normative, deductive, ontological ecclesiology based on the biblical concept of koinonia, which would act as a'foundational'model for future confessional, empirical, and practical efforts. To help form the proposed ecclesiology, Brown explores the ecclesiological views of George Fox and Robert Barclay, the adoption of the pastoral system, and the emergence of the Evangelical Friends Church. The ecclesiological writings of Miroslav Volf, Wolfhart Pannenberg, Hans Küng, Jennifer Buck, and C. Wess Daniels are also surveyed.

'As the Oracles of God'examines how Quakers in colonial America sought to control both the written and spoken word in their religious communities. It looks at the ways in which American Friends set up committees to censor texts deemed heterodox, as well as the ways Quakers sought to moderate the words of believers through encouraging self-censorship as a way to access personal revelation, while also paying particular attention to the experiences of those who ran afoul of Friends'rules in these regards, either by publishing works without the consent of their meetings or speaking in un-Quakerly fashion. Debates over freedom of speech, the work asserts, defined early modern religious communities just as much as it did more formal legal institutions.

Speaking from the traditional Quaker claim of inward knowledge of Christ the Light, the author shows her accord with early Friends'writings and the Scriptures they affirmed. Promptings arising from daily readings and personal interactions provide the starting point for many of the book's essays. Other genres, including interviews and dialogues, also present a perspective that largely has been lost to modern-day forms of the faith. Though not allowing authoritative texts to displace the prerogative of Spirit, the author often cites both Scriptures and seventeenth-century Friends to support her themes with their good sense and authority, and thus she demonstrates the unity of the faith from century to century, from millennium to millennium.

While many recognize William Penn as the founder of Pennsylvania and a defender of religious liberty, much less is known about Penn as a man of faith. This wide-ranging history examines Penn as a deeply religious man who experienced personal triumph and success as well as tragedy and failure.After an introduction to Penn and his times, J. William Frost explores various aspects of Penn's faith, including his conversion, service within the Society of Friends, moral teachings, and advocacy for toleration in England and religious freedom in Pennsylvania. He examines Penn as a figure whose contradictions reflect, at least in part, his turbulent times. Penn was a radical who converted to an outlawed religion and sought to transform English society, but he was also a conservative who supported monarchical authority in England and demanded deference in Pennsylvania. Penn was born under Puritanism and lived through three revolutions, five wars, and decades of religious turmoil. He died in the Age of Enlightenment, having gone from leader and shaper of the Society of Friends to king's courtier to a prisoner accused of treason (though he was eventually exonerated).This intriguing history fills significant gaps in writings about Penn—particularly concerning Penn's faith and its intersection with his work as a statesman and politician. It will be of interest to those interested in William Penn, the history of Quakerism, and the history of religion in America.

Scholars continue to dispute the foundations of Quakerism. James Nayler, his prophetic Bristol'sign'of 1656, and George Fox's relation to him have been of especial interest in defining the movement's identity. Conventionally, historians and theologians have taken either a'traditional'approach, which assesses Nayler by the standards of orthodoxy, or a'revisionist'one, which absolves him by the standards of early Quaker relativism and Christology. This study by Euan David McArthur mediates between these positions, finding that Nayler and Fox developed an ambiguous theology, but adopted a consistent approach to Quaker performances. The latter dissuaded against performances such as Nayler's'sign'; Nayler is argued, instead, to have diverged from other Quaker leaders following disputations between 1655 and 1656. The lessons his person and actions hold for us are concluded to be complex, but worthy of study for a wide range of historians and thinkers.

Originally published in 1959, this book was planned as a second contribution towards critique and apologetics of Quakerism, the first being a booklet called Friends and Truth published in 1956. While the author did not lose sight of that original intention, the scope of the book widened in the writing. It was hoped that it would make a contribution from the Quaker point of view, to the study of the predicament of Western man. Today it can be read in its historical context.This book is a re-issue originally published in 1959. The language used and views portrayed are a reflection of its era and no offence is meant by the Publishers to any reader by this re-publication.

Friendly Connections: Philadelphia Quakers and Japan since the Late Nineteenth Century discloses the history of relations among members of the Religious Society of Friends, or Quakers, of Philadelphia and Japanese intellectuals, educators, and activists. In this book, Japanese and North American experts demonstrate that education, women's rights, interracial equality, politics, disaster relief, reform, and peace efforts have all benefited. Seventeen chapters detail this underappreciated history. Throughout the modern era, these ties, often between women, have transformed efforts for peace, equality, and women's rights in Japan and the United States. With a focus on “women's work for women,” and revelations about supportive British Quakers, this book uncovers networks that sustained Japan-America ties for a century and a half.

In Search of Hope delves into our lived experience today to discover the fleeting moments of hope available to us and offers stories, as well as easy practical exercises, to give us paths into the self so that we might create a personal landscape in which hope can flourish. Inspired by the writings of one of the founders of Quakerism in the seventeenth century, Margaret Fell, In Search of Hope is an attempt to bring some of the first ideas of Quakerism into our lives in these challenging times.

'In this age of electronic noise, political antagonism, and general discontent, Paths to the Personal delivers to the spiritually hungry a delicious feast of peaceful promise.'Walter Gulick, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, Humanities and Religious Studies, Montana State University BillingsPaths to the Personal: Thinkers on the Way to Postcritical and Theopoetic Depths seeks to define and explore the dimension of the personal underlying all knowing, doing, being, and religion. Using a lens combining Michael Polanyi's postcritical and Stanley Hopper's theopoetic thought, which carries the author into and beyond their explorative depths of the personal, Keiser asks to what degree the personal is present in the thinking of Augustine, Tillich, H.R. Niebuhr, Fritz Buri, Freud, Mircea Eliade, Merleau-Ponty, William Poteat, Hopper, and Polanyi. The immersive issues in these pages are: how we know; how words (symbols, metaphors, myths, and religious talk) work; contributions of philosophy to justice and peace-making; and the nature of religious thinking and being. While not focused on Quaker thought and spirituality, the author's Quaker perspective undergirds these inquiries.

Born into one of the wealthiest families in Philadelphia and raised and educated in that vital center of eighteenth-century American Quakerism, Anne Emlen Mifflin was a progressive force in early America. This detailed and engaging biography, which features Mifflin's collected writings and selected correspondence, revives her legacy.Anne grew up directly across the street from the Pennsylvania statehouse, where the Continental Congress was leading the War of Independence. A Quaker minister whose busy pen, agile mind, and untiring moral energy produced an extensive corpus of writings, Anne was an ardent abolitionist and social reformer decades before the establishment of women's anti-slavery societies. And at a time when most Americans never ventured beyond their own village, hamlet, or farm, Anne journeyed thousands of miles. She traveled to settlements of Friends on the frontier and met with Native Americans in the rough country of northwestern Pennsylvania, New York, and Canada. Our Beloved Friend provides a unique window onto the lives of Quakers during the pre-Revolutionary era, the establishment of the New Republic, and the War of 1812.

We live in a day of fast information, fast fingers, fast food, fast shipping, fast words, fast anger, and fast judgment. Our fight-or-flight impulses keep us on high alert, aided by mobile devices that vibrate each time another crisis strikes. All this fastness can easily interfere with a slow, intentional life grounded in God's love. Christian faith has deep treasures and practices to offer us. How will we live, and who will we be in this highly charged era where politics, economics, environment, and social norms are under significant duress? Come explore quieter, more intentional ways of being, and how these might attune us to the slow work of God in order that we might love one another and the world as God does. Our chapters pair a lure to move fast with an invitation to slow. Becoming slow to anger is an invitation to empathy, slow to judge is an invitation to humility, and slow to grasp is an invitation to contentment. Ultimately, each of these invitations is a movement toward God.

This book introduces readers to the life, thought, social activism and political conflicts of the Quaker intellectual and peace activist Henry Cadbury (1883-1974). Born into an established Orthodox Philadelphia Quaker family, Cadbury was among the most prominent Quaker intellectuals of his day. During his lifetime, he was well known as a contributor to one of the most important English translations of the Bible (the Revised Standard Version) and wrote scores of articles and books on the early history of Christianity and the history of the Society of Friends. He also had enormous influence over what may be the single best institutional instantiation of the Quaker commitment to nonviolence—the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), an organization Cadbury helped to found in 1917 and served throughout his long lifetime. When the AFSC was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1947, Cadbury was asked to accept the prize on its behalf.

This is an interspiritual commentary -- largely though not exclusively Buddhist-inspired -- on the life of Elijah as recounted in the Bible. It treats the externals of his life as metaphors for internal mind-states, his story as a labyrinth-like journey toward enlightenment, an unfolding realization of the non-duality of himself and God. Elijah begins with a henotheistic conception of God as a national deity connected to the land of Israel and progresses to a realization of God as the ground of being, being-itself, the God of those who struggle with God, which is the deeper meaning of the name Israel. While the inner dimension is emphasized, there is also a focus on the political dimension of the story, which liberation theologians call God's preferential option for the poor, and here it is called the politics of anatta -- the core Buddhist principle of not-self.

As the community of life on this planet experiences the anthropogenic climate crisis, what tools from faith traditions can help us meet the coming challenges? By expanding the metaphor of light within the Christian and Quaker traditions to include light's role in ecosystems, this project develops an ecotheology of light that aims to answer this question. Cherice Bock and Christy Randazzo draw on their contexts in the Religious Society of Friends, placing the Quaker Inward Light in dialogue with the Bible, and light in Eastern Orthodox, ecological, and interdependence theologies. The Quaker ecotheology of light developed argues that Light is a vitally important and mutually translatable metaphor providing a common language that can aid humanity, reinterpreting traditions to meet this moment with spiritual grounding to transition to a just and sustainable future for the Earth, our common home. Bock and Randazzo connect this ecotheology of light with implications for Friends testimonies.

This collection investigates the world of nineteenth-century Quaker women, bringing to light the issues and challenges Quaker women experienced and the dynamic ways in which they were active agents of social change, cultural contestation, and gender transgression in the nineteenth century.New research illuminates the complexities of Quaker testimonies of equality, slavery, and peace and how they were informed by questions of gender, race, ethnicity, and culture. The essays in this volume challenge the view that Quaker women were always treated equally with men and that people of color were welcomed into white Quaker activities. The contributors explore how diverse groups of Quaker women navigated the intersection of their theological positions and social conventions, asking how they challenged and supported traditional ideals of gender, race, and class. In doing so, this volume highlights the complexity of nineteenth-century Quakerism and the ways Quaker women put their faith to both expansive and limiting ends. Reaching beyond existing national studies focused solely on white American or British Quaker women, this interdisciplinary volume presents the most current research, providing a necessary and foundational resource for scholars, libraries, and universities.In addition to the editors, the contributors to this volume include Joan Allen, Richard C. Allen, Stephen W. Angell, Jennifer M. Buck, Nancy Jiwon Cho, Isabelle Cosgrave, Thomas D. Hamm, Julie L. Holcomb, Anna Vaughan Kett, Emma Lapsansky-Werner, Linda Palfreeman, Hannah Rumball, and Janet Scott.

Navigate through the sacred, the impossible, and the unexpected in these hard-won reflections on parenting with humility, connection, resilience and joy. Tending Sacred Ground: Respectful Parenting is a series of essays, each of which alights on the experience of parenting and is inspired by a Quaker perspective. Pamela Haines shows how to cultivate respect, resilience, humility, connection, discernment, and joy while encouraging and inspiring a wider view toward inclusion.

Rufus Jones was a Quaker giant of the 20th century. Charismatic and controversial, he reshaped the way many Quakers thought about the relationship between God and humans. Rufus Jones and the Presence of God traces Jones'life from adventurous farm boy to much-loved college lecturer and popular author on mysticism, showing how he wove together ideas from Quakerism, psychology and philosophy. It also explores some of his spiritual practices, asking whether there is anything we can learn from them today, whatever our beliefs.

The period from 1830 to 1937 was transformative for modern Quakerism. Practitioners made significant contributions to world culture, from their heavy involvement in the abolitionist and women's rights movements and creation of thriving communities of Friends in the Global South to the large-scale post–World War I humanitarian relief efforts of the American Friends Service Committee and Friends Service Council in Britain.The Creation of Modern Quaker Diversity, 1830–1937 explores these developments and the impact they had on the Quaker religion and on the broader world. Chapters examine the changes taking place within the denomination at the time, including separations, particularly in the United States, that resulted in the establishment of distinct branches, and a series of all-Quaker conferences in the early twentieth century that set the agenda for Quakerism. Written by the leading experts in the field, this engaging narrative and penetrating analysis is the authoritative account of this period of Quaker history. It will appeal to scholars and lay Quaker readers alike and is an essential volume for meeting libraries. In addition to the editors, the contributors include Joanna Clare Dales, Richard Kent Evans, Douglas Gwyn, Thomas D. Hamm, Robynne Rogers Healey, Julie L. Holcomb, Sylvester A. Johnson, Stephanie Midori Komashin, Emma Jones Lapsansky, Isaac Barnes May, Nicola Sleapwood, Carole Dale Spencer, and Randall L. Taylor.

The period from 1830 to 1937 was transformative for modern Quakerism. Practitioners made significant contributions to world culture, from their heavy involvement in the abolitionist and women's rights movements and creation of thriving communities of Friends in the Global South to the large-scale post–World War I humanitarian relief efforts of the American Friends Service Committee and Friends Service Council in Britain.The Creation of Modern Quaker Diversity, 1830–1937 explores these developments and the impact they had on the Quaker religion and on the broader world. Chapters examine the changes taking place within the denomination at the time, including separations, particularly in the United States, that resulted in the establishment of distinct branches, and a series of all-Quaker conferences in the early twentieth century that set the agenda for Quakerism. Written by the leading experts in the field, this engaging narrative and penetrating analysis is the authoritative account of this period of Quaker history. It will appeal to scholars and lay Quaker readers alike and is an essential volume for meeting libraries. In addition to the editors, the contributors include Joanna Clare Dales, Richard Kent Evans, Douglas Gwyn, Thomas D. Hamm, Robynne Rogers Healey, Julie L. Holcomb, Sylvester A. Johnson, Stephanie Midori Komashin, Emma Jones Lapsansky, Isaac Barnes May, Nicola Sleapwood, Carole Dale Spencer, and Randall L. Taylor.

On 25th May, 2020, George Floyd, an African American, was murdered by a white police officer. Storms of outrage and protests spread globally. Many learned about the Black Lives Matter movement, and perhaps the most honest conversation began on racism's causes, the tools that engineer and sustain it -- and how best to dismantle it. In late 2020, teacher, community development worker and freelance writer Jonathan Doering approached Nim Njuguna, a retired Baptist minister and former Quaker prison chaplain involved in social justice and mental health issues, seeking an interview on the current situation. Nim offered a project of co-interviews, both participants developing their thoughts on racism and right responses. These dialogues between willing novice and seasoned activist offer possible ways forward whilst the worksheets encourage allies to delve into their thoughts, feelings, and responses to this major challenge of our time.

Do Quakers Pray is a short book for the Quaker Quicks series that considers questions such as'What is prayer?'and explores whether, when and how Quakers might pray. Do we pray together? Do we pray alone?

What do Quakers have to offer when there is pain and distress in body, mind and spirit? Can their beliefs and worship help in the processes of healing? In this book, Diana and John Lampen try to answer these questions, drawing on their experiences of caring for troubled people and working in situations of conflict, as well as their long membership of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers). The book contains practices which readers can use for themselves.

In 1777, Congress labeled Quakers who would not take up arms in support of the War of Independence as “the most Dangerous Enemies America knows” and ordered Pennsylvania and Delaware to apprehend them. In response, Keystone State officials sent twenty men—seventeen of whom were Quakers—into exile, banishing them to Virginia, where they were held for a year.Prisoners of Congress reconstructs this moment in American history through the experiences of four families: the Drinkers, the Fishers, the Pembertons, and the Gilpins. Identifying them as the new nation's first political prisoners, Norman E. Donoghue II relates how the Quakers, once the preeminent power in Pennsylvania and an integral constituency of the colonies and early republic, came to be reviled by patriots who saw refusal to fight the English as borderline sedition. Surprising, vital, and vividly told, this narrative of political and literal warfare waged by the United States against a pacifist religious group during the Revolutionary War era sheds new light on an essential aspect of American history. It will appeal to anyone interested in learning more about the nation's founding.

'This book makes a strikingly original contribution to the science-and-religion debate. Through a series of bite-sized biographies Helen Holt explores the distinctive approaches that Quaker scientists have brought to their scientific work. Emphasising shared commitments to social justice, pacifism, experience and the Inner Light, Holt paints compelling and human portraits of both Quakerism and science. This book stands out as an important milestone in studies of science and religious faith.'Mark Harris, Professor of Natural Science and Theology, University of EdinburghQuakerism has a rich tradition of engaging with science and has produced many notable amateur and professional scientists in fields ranging from psychology to physics. Quakers and Science discusses some of the historical reasons why Quakers embraced science and introduces ten 20th-century Quaker scientists to explore the intriguing resonances between science and Quakerism. Author Helen Holt shows how the distinctive Quaker emphasis on ‘deeds not creeds'motivated Quaker scientists to address the ethical questions raised by science, and how the emphasis on continual revelation meant that they often gladly reformulated their religious beliefs in the light of new scientific discoveries.

Isaac Penington was a leading Quaker when the movement first emerged during the confusion and crisis of the English Civil War. Inspiring people to move toward a new vision of peace, equality, generosity and integrity, Penington saw the potential in everyone to help create such a new world. Like other Quaker leaders, he discovered that silently waiting on the divine helps us better understand ourselves and others so that we are more able to respond to life's challenges with openness, confidence and courage. In Exploring Isaac Penington: Seventeenth-Century Quaker Mystic, Teacher and Activist, author Ruth Tod not only draws upon Penington's letters and pamphlets to build a bridge between his time and ours, she also uses examples and interpretations of his writings to explore the beliefs and habits that shape our lives. Tod's fresh look at Penington's own insights reminds us just how much we can learn from those early Quaker leaders.

The forty texts collected in this volume offer a small but representative sample of Quaker women's tremendous literary output between 1655 and 1700. They include examples of key Quaker literary genres — proclamations, directives, warnings, sufferings, testimonies, polemic, pleas for toleration — and showcase a range of literary styles and voices, from eloquent poetry to legal analyses of English canon and civil law. In their varied responses to the core Quaker belief in the indwelling Spirit, these women left a rich literary legacy of an early countercultural movement. The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe - The Toronto Series: Volume 60

American Quakerism changed dramatically in the antebellum era owing to both internal and external forces, including schism, industrialization, western migration, and reform activism. With the “Great Separation” of the 1820s and subsequent divisions during the 1840s and 1850s, new Quaker sects emerged. Some maintained the quietism of the previous era; others became more austere; still others were heavily influenced by American evangelicalism and integration into modern culture. Examining this increasing complexity and highlighting a vital religiosity driven by deeply held convictions, Janet Moore Lindman focuses on the Friends of the mid-Atlantic and the Delaware Valley to explore how Friends'piety affected their actions—not only in the evolution of religious practice and belief but also in response to a changing social and political context. Her analysis demonstrates how these Friends'practical approach to piety embodied spiritual ideals that reformulated their religion and aided their participation in a burgeoning American republic.Based on extensive archival research, this book sheds new light on both the evolution of Quaker spiritual practice and the history of antebellum reform movements. It will be of interest to scholars and students of early American history, religious studies, and Quaker studies as well as general readers interested in the history of the Society of Friends.

A groundbreaking look at how a predominantly white faith-based group reset the terms of the fight to integrate US cities. The bitterly tangled webs of race and housing in the postwar United States hardly suffer from a lack of scholarly attention. But Tracy K'Meyer's To Live Peaceably Together delivers something truly new to the field: a lively examination of a predominantly white faith-based group—the Quaker-aligned American Friends Service Committee (AFSC)—that took a unique and ultimately influential approach to cultivating wider acceptance of residential integration. Built upon detailed stories of AFSC activists and the obstacles they encountered in their work in Chicago, Philadelphia, and Richmond, California, To Live Peaceably Together is an engaging and timely account of how the organization allied itself to a cause that demanded constant learning, reassessment, and self-critique. K'Meyer details the spiritual and humanist motivations behind the AFSC, its members'shifting strategies as they came to better understand structural inequality, and how those strategies were eventually adopted by a variety of other groups. Her fine-grained investigation of the cultural ramifications of housing struggles provides a fresh look at the last seventy years of racial activism.

In the 2022 Backhouse Lecture, Yarrow Goodley looks at the critical issue of climate justice—at how our responses to the climate emergency have the potential for great suffering, as well as great redemption. In a world where the rich pollute, and the poor suffer, we do not just need to address our rapidly-warming planet, but also the injustices which drive this environmental catastrophe.

Find spiritual insight for developing courage and meeting life's broken-open, pulled-apart times for anyone seeking hope.Daily we are asked to move toward bravery, to stretch in the direction of goodness, kindness, forgiveness, patience, and vulnerability. Yet life's tender fragility, fear, anxiety, and our own practiced self-sabotage can derail us from growing and thriving, leaving us fractured and afraid.Ordained Buddhist teacher and Quaker Valerie Brown invites us into the heart of compassion, insight, and courage. Filled with Quaker wisdom, mindfulness meditation practices, and portraits of real people living out simple yet life-affirming bravery, Hope Leans Forward is a guidebook for all of us who are on journeys of self-transformation, self-discovery, and spiritual discernment. Centering small, everyday acts of bravery with diverse stories from marginalized communities, Brown's unique perspective as a Black Buddhist Dharma teacher in the Plum Village tradition and her extensive leadership experience shepherd us in navigating life's essential questions to discover true aliveness and meaning. When we focus on cultivating clarity and discernment in our purpose, we begin to understand that we are truly connected to--and that we contribute to--a larger whole.Written through a period of profound personal loss and in the urgency of the Black Lives Matter movement, Brown's spiritual insight and life- and spirit-tested wisdom offers a new source for anyone seeking hope, and seeking to alleviate suffering within ourselves and our communities.

This historical survey of Quakers in the United States examines their responses to war during World War I, World War II, and the early Cold War, including the Korean and Vietnam conflicts, with particular focus on the social, political, legal, and theological aspects of the Quaker peace testimony. Quakers responded to these conflicts in a variety of ways, ranging from pacifism to support for military action. The boundaries and constraints of Quaker beliefs about violent conflict and the meaning of the peace testimony were determined by debates within the Religious Society of Friends. Isaac Barnes May asserts that Quakers'reactions to war in the twentieth-century should also be understood as closely related to Quakerism's relationship to state power. The choice to accommodate or resist government pressure worked alongside internal forces to shape Quakerism in the United States. Ultimately, May argues that there is no single pattern of Quaker response to modern war.

American Quakerism changed dramatically in the antebellum era owing to both internal and external forces, including schism, industrialization, western migration, and reform activism. With the “Great Separation” of the 1820s and subsequent divisions during the 1840s and 1850s, new Quaker sects emerged. Some maintained the quietism of the previous era; others became more austere; still others were heavily influenced by American evangelicalism and integration into modern culture. Examining this increasing complexity and highlighting a vital religiosity driven by deeply held convictions, Janet Moore Lindman focuses on the Friends of the mid-Atlantic and the Delaware Valley to explore how Friends'piety affected their actions—not only in the evolution of religious practice and belief but also in response to a changing social and political context. Her analysis demonstrates how these Friends'practical approach to piety embodied spiritual ideals that reformulated their religion and aided their participation in a burgeoning American republic.Based on extensive archival research, this book sheds new light on both the evolution of Quaker spiritual practice and the history of antebellum reform movements. It will be of interest to scholars and students of early American history, religious studies, and Quaker studies as well as general readers interested in the history of the Society of Friends.

Nonviolence for the soul. Nonviolence for the world. The future of democracy. How are we going to find our way through all the polarizations to a new world that works for everyone? Against the backdrop of his Quaker heritage and his own life story, Dan Snyder brings together the four disciplines of theology, depth psychology, strategic nonviolence, and spirituality. The resulting conversation points toward a reimagining of God, self, and world. We can be both incredibly joyful and deeply responsible citizens. We can drink from the deep wells of compassion and mercy. Those wells are fed by hidden springs that are beyond fixed ideologies, beyond belief and doubt, beyond action and inaction, even beyond all of our convictions about religious, moral, or political correctness. We are created by Love, for love. We drink deeply from Love's hidden spring when we learn to pray in the dark.

John Dickinson's entry into public life in Delaware and Pennsylvania is a highlight of the ninety-eight documents written over four years printed in Volume Two of The Complete Writings and Selected Correspondence of John Dickinson. The volume opens with Dickinson's legal notes as he established himself as one of the most prominent and learned lawyers in colonial British North America. His cases dealt with, among other issues, interpretation of wills, disputes over land, sailors suing for wages, a fine on a Quaker who refused military service, and a notorious murder in a prominent Philadelphia family. It concludes with Dickinson offering thoughtful advice to a young man who was considering the arduous work in becoming a lawyer. “I think,” he wrote, “those must be infinitely the most happy, whose fatigues are softend by a conscious Benevolence of mind wishing & endeavouring to [pro]mote the Happiness of others as well as their own.” Dickinson's hard work on behalf of his clients brought him success in other areas of his public life. In October 1759, he was elected to his first public position as a representative for Kent County, Del., the following year he was elevated to the position of speaker, and in 1762, he became a representative for Philadelphia County, Pa. As a legislator in two colonies, learning his craft as a global war unfolded, he contributed to bills on military and defense, Indian relations, infrastructure improvements and city management, and served on various committees. The death of George II occasioned debates over laws and judges, in which Dickinson participated. This era concludes with Dickinson playing a central role in managing the unfolding Paxton Riots, in which frontiersmen massacred peaceful Indians and threatened the Quaker leadership of Pennsylvania. In private, Dickinson lost the two most prominent male figures in his life in 1760, his father, Samuel, and soon thereafter, his mentor, colleague, and friend, John Moland. In honor of Moland, Dickinson published a poem and became a proxy head to Moland's large family. Though his extant correspondence during this period is small, he exchanged letters with Mary Cadwalader Dickinson, Israel Pemberton, William Allason, George Read, Thomas McKean, and others. Perhaps most significant, he wrote a lengthy, unpublished essay on the flag-of-truce trade and also maintained commonplace books as he considered his place within the British Empire, opening up the next phase in Dickinson's life as a leader of the resistance against Britain. Published by the University of Delaware Press. Distributed worldwide by Rutgers University Press.

During the 1650s, James Nayler was one of the most important leaders of the emerging Quaker movement in England and, arguably, its most effective preacher and writer. However, his legacy has been dominated by events that took place in the summer and autumn of 1656, leading to a conviction for blasphemy, brutal public punishment, and imprisonment. Official histories of Quaker beginnings portrayed him as a gifted, but flawed, character, who brought the Quaker movement into disrepute, and prompted a concern for corporate order. Scholarship during the past century has begun to question this received position. However, a continued preoccupation with his ‘fall'has tended to overshadow interpretations of his writings. In this volume, Stuart Masters seeks to identify a number of important theological themes visible within Nayler's works, and to locate them within their radical religious context. He argues that a powerful Christological vision at the heart of Nayler's religious thought engendered a practical theology with radical political, economic, and ecological implications.

'This book is destined to be a classic of Quaker theology and spirituality. A deep dive into the roots, coherence, and originality of Quaker living, this text is a stunning articulation of what and how Quakers believe. Keiser draws on recent philosophers and early Quaker authors to articulate the contemporary vitality of Quaker insights regarding issues such as equality, interrelation, and mending creation. However, the brilliance of the book is not ultimately educational but invitational. Every page emerges from the depths of Keiser's own mature spirituality, shaped by a lifetime of Quaker commitment, experience, and practice. The reader is carried into a particularly Quaker way of being in the world. Like the works of Kelly or Thurman, the book leaves one both satisfied and longing, comforted and unsettled, encouraged and challenged to live more deeply in this strange and sacred world.'Rev. Dr. Shannon Craigo-Snell, Professor of Theology Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, author of Silence, Love, and Death: Saying Yes to God in the Theology of Karl RahnerR. Melvin Keiser delves into the depths of Quaker spirituality and their philosophy, showing us that we require silence to unlock our relationship with God. Seeds of Silence: Essays in Quaker Spirituality and Philosophical Theology questions the modern world's addiction to distractions and instant gratification, and leads us toward a semi-forgotten Christian tradition of contemplative thinking.

'Joanna gives us a very helpful and meaningful exploration of Quaker ‘stillness'along with an assortment of exercises to take us along the meditative path. She also talks about the obstacles that can block the process. I found her quote – ‘Explore who you really are rather than who you think you are'very helpful and she compares Quaker legendary writings on ‘stillness'.'Isa Louise Levy, MA, Artist/Arts PsychotherapistHow can we find inner stillness in our lives today? What is it for and how can we use it? Inspired by the fiery writings of early Quakers, such as George Fox and Margaret Fell, this book calls on their advice to go within and wait, adapting it to create a modern, relatable method for finding stillness and peace. This meditation is for us to use however we most need it, whether to explore and heal the self and others or to help us be more effective in the wider world.

In The Writings of Warner Mifflin, Gary Nash and Michael McDowell present the correspondence, petitions, and memorials to state and federal legislative bodies, semi-autobiographical essays, and other materials of the key figure in the U.S. abolitionist movement between the end of the American Revolution and the Jefferson presidency. Virtually unknown to Americans, Mifflin has been brought to life in Nash's recent biography, Warner Mifflin: Unflinching Quaker Abolitionist (2017). This volume provides an array of insights into the mind of this conscience-bound pacifist Quaker who became instrumental in making Kent County, Delaware, a bastion of free blacks liberated from slavery and a seedbed of a reparationist doctrine that insisted that enslavers owed “restitution” to manumitted Africans and their descendants. Mifflin's writings also show how he became the most skilled lobbyist of the antislavery campaigners who haunted the legislative chambers of North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, and Pennsylvania as well as the halls of the Continental Congress and the First and Second Federal Congresses. An opening introduction and introductions to each of the five chronologically arranged parts of the book provide context for the documents and a narrative of the life of this remarkable American.

William Hobson, a staunch nineteenth-century Quaker minister and determined follower of Jesus Christ, was shaped by revival, Quaker history, and his Friends upbringing. As a young adult he left his home state of North Carolina for the Iowa frontier where he honed his God-given leadership skills while shepherding the pioneer congregation at Honey Creek. After two decades in Iowa, Hobson received a mid-life call from God to establish a new missions-focused Quaker community somewhere on the West Coast. Following an extensive search for the perfect location, Hobson eventually chose Newberg, Oregon, and Quaker influence in the region quickly spread, culminating in the organization of the Evangelical Friends Church (Quakers) in the Pacific Northwest. Hobson's lifelong determination to follow God continues to serve as a godly example inspiring us to likewise dedicate our lives to God's kingdom purposes.

This book provides a fascinating account of the architecture and historical development of the Quaker meeting house from the foundation of the movement to the twenty-first century. The Quaker meeting house is a distinctive building type used as a place of worship by members of the Society of Friends (Quakers). Starting with buildings of the late-seventeenth century, the book maps how the changing beliefs and practices of Quakers over the last 350 years have affected the architecture of the meeting house. The buildings considered are illustrated, predominantly in colour, and are from England, Scotland and Wales, with some consideration of colonial American examples. The book commences with an introduction which provides an accessible account of the early history of Quakerism and it concludes with a consideration of whether there is a Quaker architectural style and of what it might consist.

George Whitehead was a key figure in Quakerism from around 1660 until his death in 1723, but he has been neglected in recent scholarship. He was an effective political lobbyist in the struggle for religious toleration and was active in the developing work of the national Quaker bodies, Yearly Meeting, Meeting for Sufferings, and the Morning Meeting. He was also a leader in the adaptation of Quaker theology to the needs of the late seventeenth century. In his old age he was involved in the campaign to permit Quakers to use a form of affirmation instead of judicial oaths. This study by Rosemary Moore begins with an account of his life, using his memoirs and other contemporary sources, continues with a consideration of his published works, including his understanding of the ‘light within', and concludes with a look at his place in Quaker history in comparison with George Fox and William Penn.

This third installment in the New History of Quakerism series is a comprehensive assessment of transatlantic Quakerism across the long eighteenth century, a period during which Quakers became increasingly sectarian even as they expanded their engagement with politics, trade, industry, and science. The contributors to this volume interrogate and deconstruct this paradox, complicating traditional interpretations of what has been termed “Quietist Quakerism.”Examining the period following the Toleration Act in England of 1689 through the Hicksite-Orthodox Separation in North America, this work situates Quakers in the eighteenth-century British Atlantic world. Three thematic sections—exploring unique Quaker testimonies and practices; tensions between Quakerism in community and Quakerism in the world; and expressions of Quakerism around the Atlantic world—broaden geographic understandings of the Quaker Atlantic experience to determine how local events shaped expressions of Quakerism. The authors challenge oversimplified interpretations of Quaker practices and reveal a complex Quaker world, one in which prescription and practice were more often negotiated than dictated, even after the mid-eighteenth-century “reformation” and tightening of the Discipline on both sides of the Atlantic. Accessible and well-researched, Quakerism in the Atlantic World, 1690-1830, provides fresh insights and raises new questions about an understudied period of Quaker history.In addition to the editor, the contributors to this volume include Richard C. Allen, Erin Bell, Erica Canela, Elizabeth Cazden, Andrew Fincham, Sydney Harker, Rosalind Johnson, Emma Lapsansky-Werner, Jon Mitchell, and Geoffrey Plank.

The Quakers were by far the most successful of the radical religious groups to emerge from the turbulence of the mid-seventeenth century--and their survival into the present day was largely facilitated by the transformation of the movement during its first fifty years. What began as a loose network of charismatic travelling preachers was, by the start of the eighteenth century, a well-organised and international religious machine. This shift is usually explained in terms of a desire to avoid persecution, but Quakers, Christ, and the Enlightenment argues instead for the importance of theological factors as the major impetus for change. In the first sustained account of the theological changes guiding the development of seventeenth-century Quakerism, Madeleine Pennington explores the Quakers'positive intellectual engagement with those outside the movement to offer a significant reassessment of the causal factors determining the development of early Quakerism. Considering the Quakers'engagement with such luminaries as Baruch Spinoza, Henry More, John Locke, and John Norris, Pennington unveils the Quakers'concerted attempts to bolster their theological reputation through the refinement of their central belief in the'inward Christ', or'the Light within'. In doing so, she further challenges stereotypes of early modern radicalism as anti-intellectual and ill-educated. Rather, the theological concerns of the Quakers and their interlocutors point to a crisis of Christology weaving through the intellectual milieu of the seventeenth century, which has long been under-estimated as significant fuel for the emerging Enlightenment.

Presents the unique approach of Listening Hearts to the spiritual practice of discernment for a new generation.Written to make the often elusive and usually clergy-centered spiritual practice of discernment accessible to all people, Corazones que escuchan/Listening Hearts features simple reflections and exercises drawn from scripture and from Quaker and Ignatian traditions. The seminal work in the Listening Hearts Series, this bestselling book has been a beloved resource for tens of thousands of individual readers, retreat participants, small groups, and church leaders listening for and responding to God's call in their lives.

This book invites all people of faith to consider how our personal and communal faith practices in growing deeper spirituality should bring us to a fresh engagement with the needs of this world. This includes being active in promoting those values which align with our understanding of the gospel and standing against injustice, oppression, and evil inflicted on any of God's children. Such activism, rooted in deep spirituality, may include being what Quaker civil rights activist Bayard Rustin called “angelic troublemakers.”

Many Quakers who reached maturity towards the end of the nineteenth century found that their parents'religion had lost its connection with reality. New discoveries in science and biblical research called for new approaches to Christian faith. Evangelical beliefs dominant among nineteenth-century Quakers were now found wanting, especially those emphasising the supreme authority of the Bible and doctrines of atonement, whereby the wrath of God is appeased through the blood of Christ. Liberal Quakers sought a renewed sense of reality in their faith through recovering the vision of the first Quakers with their sense of the Light of God within each person. They also borrowed from mainstream liberal theology new attitudes to God, nature and service to society. The ensuing Quaker Renaissance found its voice at the Manchester Conference of 1895, and the educational initiatives which followed gave to British Quakerism an active faith fit for the testing reality of the twentieth century.