Quaker Beliefs; Faith I

 QUAKER BELIEFS; FAITH I

277. What is Quakerism: A Primer (by George T. Peck; 1988)
           About the Author/ Acknowledgements—George Peck was a trained historian & received a doctorate in Italian history from the University of Chicago. He taught for 8 years before & 10 years after working for 20 years in his family’s advertising business. Currently George is clerk of Pendle Hill’s General Board & is a member of Media Meeting. He consulted with Friends in London, Philadelphia, Ohio, Indiana, Pendle Hill, Australia, & Oregon in the writing of this pamphlet, which is one Quaker’s attempt to envisage unity under the variety of forms. [Where quotes are numbered, they are from selections in Christian Faith and Practice, London Yearly Meeting].
           INTRODUCTION—[This primer is for someone who]: is a genuine seeker; felt an immediate bond with [a Quaker] and wants to know why; reads Quaker authors; delights to hear the Source spoken of with love; asks the question: “What is Quakerism?” Probably most Quakers think of themselves as beginners and seekers.
           Some preliminary observations are: Quakers are Friends. Justice Bennet derisively called George Fox & his followers Quakers. They most often use “Friends” to identify themselves & address each other; Quakerism’s truths are simple but not easy. A child can understand them. One 1st listens for the truth, then discerns God’s will from [all the input]. After discernment comes conviction & ability to live the Truth; it is not easy.
           Do we cherish our Variety?—It seems that there are almost as many different kinds of Quakers as there are Christians. We all proclaim the basics of William Penn’s “primitive Christianity revived.” Our conviction is that Quakers are united in faith & express that unity in various manners. Jack L. Willicuts writes: “To be one in the Spirit is true togetherness … [but] unity is spiritual, uniformity is mechanical.” Isaac Penington writes: “And oh, how sweet and pleasant it is to the truly spiritual eye to see several sorts of believers, several forms of Christians in the school of Christ, every one learning their own lesson, performing their own peculiar service … and loving one another in their several places … [each one feeling] the same Spirit and life in him … this is far more pleasing to me than if he walked just that track wherein I walk.” #222
           REACHED—Early Quakers used “reached” to express the living action of God in men & women. George Fox despaired & found no help in fellow creatures. He said: “Then I heard a voice which said: ‘There is one, even Christ Jesus that can speak to thy condition’; when I heard it my heart did leap for joy.” #5 Fox called this event an “opening.” Under any name the experience is surrender to the one source of grace, faith & power. We think Fox to be stern. We learn with surprise that many who knew him thought of him as “dear George.” [When Fox speaks of knowing, it was] knowing that still had its Biblical dimension of the union of knower & known. Quakers today can be weighed down with compassion for suffering & injustice & yet be touched with divine joy.
           Margaret Fell, when [George] asked: “You will say, Christ saith this, & apostles say this; what canst thou say? Art thou a child of Light?, Margaret Fell responded with: “This opened me so that it cut me to the heart … & I cried: ‘We are all thieves, we have taken the Scriptures in words & know nothing of them in ourselves.” #20 She was called “nursing mother of Israel.” Large numbers of early witnesses were women, who made long voyages on their own. Mary Dyer & Ann Burden made their fateful trip to Boston, & Mary Fisher traveled to Turkey to preach the Gospel. Mary Dyer was sentenced to hang twice & reprieved once, [finally hanged in 1660].
           Many know longing for God which Penington expressed, but perhaps may not realize that God also longs for them. Barclay, laird of a great Scottish house, was distantly related to Stuart’s house; he had the finest education available. His convincement wasn’t a matter of rational syllogism but of inward fire. He wrote a theological defense of Quakerism in Apology (1676), perhaps the most widely read Quaker book after Fox’s Journal. Many friends today seem to grow into Quakerism by quiet daily increments of glory. Rufus Jones wrote: “[As a child] I quickly discovered something real was taking place. We were feeling our way down to that place where living words come; very often they came … My 1st steps in religion were acted. It was religion we did together.” #91
           GATHERED—Although founded in individual experience, Quakerism isn’t a religion of hermits, for it is nourished in community. George Fox said: “The Lord let me see … in what places he had a great people to be gathered.” Friends would recognize Francis Howgill’s being gathered, caught “as in a net” … [so that] our hearts were knit unto the Lord and one unto another in true & fervent love.” #184 After [a gathered] meeting for worship, one Friend may remark to another who has given a spoken message: “You spoke to my condition,” meaning the message fit in with his own worship. Thomas Kelly wrote: “In the gathered meeting the sense is present that a new Life & Power has entered our midst … We are in communication with one another because we are being communicated to, & through, by the Divine Presence … In such an experience the brittle bounds of our selfhood seem softened, & instead of saying “I pray” or “He prays it becomes better to say “Prayer is taking place.” #249
           WORSHIP—Divine openings [in worship] don’t come without periods of prayer & reading, contemplation & study. Worship doesn’t just happen. In the 17th century, early Friends were passionately devoted to the Scriptures. Today it is Friends that emphasize preparation for meeting through study of the Scriptures. [Devotional] material includes The Fruit of the Vine (Barclay Press), & Daily Word (Unity). Some use devotional literature of other traditions. Fox respected spiritual insights of Native Americans, & Barclay accepted as Christians “those who by providence are in the remote parts of the world where knowledge of history is wanting”; he also included ancient Greek philosophers, “since all such lived according to the divine word in them.”
           Daily devotions are essential to a full Quakerly life. A message may form out of daily meditation and may develop to be shared with others on 1st Day; Sunday morning worship is not an isolated act. Worship is the realization of the eternal in the temporal, the discernment of the infinite cosmos in the finite individual, and the experience of the transcendental divine reality in the indwelling Christ. Anyone present who does not participate detracts from the worship of the group. The 2 [Friendly] ways of waiting upon the Spirit are: The programmed and the unprogrammed meeting. Worldwide, more attend programmed meetings. The unprogrammed meeting is almost unique to Quakerism and has been practiced for over 300 years in the same form.
           UNPROGRAMMED AND PROGRAMMED MEETINGS—Unprogrammed meeting has silence. Silence is not an end in itself but a way toward worship. [Everyday flotsam of the mind] must be calmly put aside. Worries should not stand in the way of submerging your individual self in the one eternal Self. The way to this Union is through prayer, which can be a petition to set your deepest longings in the Light to see if they are pure.
           Silence will at times be broken by vocal ministry, when a worshipper feels led to share an opening with Friends. Thomas Kelly writes: “When one rises to speak … one has the sense of being used, being played upon, being spoken & prayed through.” #249 Messages should deal with God’s kingdom, never with business. Messages should be simple & brief & expressed in the speaker’s own words, & not argumentative, for when persons argue, God retires. Friends try not to be judgmental in listening to messages, but bless the speaker & hearer in their hearts. None should come expecting to speak, nor should they come expecting not to speak. After usually an hour, Friends close the meeting by shaking hands with their neighbors. Thomas Kelly writes: “Such a discovery of an Eternal Life & Love breaking in, nay, always there … makes life glorious & new.” #114 Friends may find joyful unity not only with their own but with all worshipping communities who experience Living Presence.
           [Friends Church programmed meetings] resemble other evangelical Protestant denominations. It is open to spontaneous ministry & draws on roots in early Quakerism as directly as the programmed meeting. All the great 17th century leaders preached from a thorough knowledge of the Bible & would feel at home listening to an evangelical preacher as entering into the silence. Membership in programmed meetings doubled in the last century, while unprogrammed meetings were declining; early Friends believed salvation grew out of the holy Spirit’s gift. In the 1870’s missions were sent out to Jamaica, Palestine, Kenya, and elsewhere. North Carolina YM writes: “The good pastor conducts … worship so that every one present feels a sense of responsibility, and a sense of freedom; vocal participation is encouraged … The pastor in a Friends meeting must follow the … way of worshipping with the people rather than preaching to them.”
           Quaker worship stresses a revolutionary discovery; the sacred always lies within each of us & so can infuse the profane continually. Every day is a holy day. Friends can worship in a magnificent cathedral, plain room or private home. Friends don’t deny sacraments but affirm them in their everyday lives. Jack L. Willcuts writes: “God has sent God’s Spirit to be not only with us but in us. So we can enjoy God’s actual presence all the time. Using only symbols or the elements can become a hollow substitute for feasting on the Bread of Life. In marriage, [Quaker] couples make their vows before God & a community, each of whom shares God’s presence & witnesses to the vows. The Quaker way of life is dynamic process of spiritual growth rooted in daily behavior.
           A WAY OF LIFE—George Fox’s spiritual growth came to him as a gift from Jesus. He said: “I was come up in the spirit through the flaming sword into the paradise of God. All things were new, and all the creation gave forth another smell unto me than before, beyond what words can utter.” #9 Similarly, the spiritual journey of John Woolman (1720-1772) was intensely Christ-centered. [He had a dream that] he later realized had shown him the death of his individual will and his submergence into the divine unity.
           Friends aim to achieve a thoroughgoing honesty, knowing it is useless to try to hide from God. This quality of life is the testimony of simplicity. Friends try to express with clarity & brevity the truths that they perceive. Candor toward others often makes Friends seem brusque. Friends seek moderation in their choices about life style. It is a blessing to have time to enjoy God’s creation. The most important aspect of the simplicity testimony is the economic. John Woolman wrote: “To turn all that we possess into the channel of universal love becomes the business of our lives.” Woolman taught us to avoid exploitation, give up greed, live frugally, & have a deep sensitivity for the plight of poor. Akin to simplicity is their “regard for the integrity of others, regard for their individuality, their needs, their strengths, [& their divine centers].” You may conclude that Friends are confident, loving, unprejudiced, considerate, generous , joyous, & strong. Most Friends would be thankful if after years of living in the Light, they were less anxious, smug hateful, depressed, etc. than they had been.
           THE WORLD—Early Quakers’ impact on the world came mostly through ministry. [They had a] goal that the world be called off from outward things & come to live by Inward Light. [They traveled & wrote extensively]. When Friends realized that the world wouldn’t become Quaker, they started cultivating the “remnant” of God’s people. Howard Brinton described Quaker outreach as: “A Friend might ask for “an opportunity” in a home or school. Such a one desired to hold a brief & informal meeting, & perhaps unburden one’s self.”
           Penn’s colony, his Holy Experiment, under Quaker tutelage for over 50 years, thrived in peace & prosperity. Few realize how much of the American Constitution parallels Penn’s Frame of government. Almost all Friends feel that their efforts at furthering the politics of conciliation are tragically inadequate in the face of the politics of confrontation. British Friends are likely to have their views represented in the political parties & the Commons. In the US, the Friends Committee on National Legislation defines Quaker goals & sets up legislative priorities in consultation with its many supporters. The case is the same for the Quaker United Nations Program.
           PEACE—Friends Peace Testimony is based on divine love’s spirit. James Nayler said: “There is a spirit which delights to do no evil, nor revenge any wrong, but delights to endure all things … Its hope is to outlive all wrath & contention … whatever is of a nature contrary to itself. Its crown is meekness, its life is everlasting love unfeigned … In God alone can it rejoice.” #25 George Fox responded to suspicions of subversion with: “We deny all outward wars & strife & fightings with outward weapons, for any end or under any pretense whatsoever … [Christ’s spirit, which leads us into all Truth will never move us to fight & war against any man.” #614
           [However], many Friends believe in the use of a limited amount of force to keep the peace. Quakers have been divided in every major wartime situation between those who refuse to fight and those who join up in what they believe to be a just war. [In] this last ¼ of the 20th century, the aggressive acquisitiveness that served more primitive people has outlasted its usefulness in a world that must rapidly learn the ways of love and trust if it wishes to survive. Howard Brinton writes: “In the long run reconciliation and love, the main characteristics of the divine Logos, as expressed in the New Testament by its greatest human incarnation, triumph over the aggressive forms of life …The fittest is the one who best complies with the gospel of reconciliation or love.”
           SERVICE/ COMPASSION/ EDUCATION—When Quakers were faced with hard choices in WWI, American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) & its British counterpart, the Peace & Service Committee were founded so that Friends could serve humanity while others served their countries. The 2 organizations have joined with others in eliminating war’s causes. They jointly received the 1947 Nobel Peace Prize. [For Quakers], perceiving divine unity among all creatures leads to innovative vision. When the needs are more than Friends alone can meet, others are welcomed into the work. Eventually the innovation becomes the norm for a social service.
           Quakers’ emphasis on fairness, toleration, simplicity, & social responsibility is important in education, always a major concern among Friends. Non-Friends greatly outnumber Friends in the large number of fine Quaker schools & colleges in Britain & America. Quaker innovation led to the development of free, universal public education in early 19th century England. Many Friends are reluctant to refer to the accomplishments of Quakerism, some fearing complacency, some conscious of how little of the universal spirit has been realized. History challenges each individual and generation to share in the ever-present and ever-continuing revelation of divinity.
           HOW THE WORK GETS DONE—Most Friends try to express religious insights in their daily lives, & to participate in the work of their local meeting. Each meeting comes together usually once a month to handle its business in a [“meeting for worship with attention to business].” The newcomer would first notice what does not happen—no voting, no debating, no  , no minority, no compromises, no consensus.
           Quakerism assumes unity in God’s will. Unity is created by Truth. Penn writes: “there is no one who presides after the manner of the assemblies of other people; Christ only being their president, as He is pleased to appear in wisdom to any one or more members … to arrive at a firm unity of conviction.” The clerk prepares the agenda, guides the discussions, and records the decisions. Widely different ideas are often expressed, and frequently new syntheses emerge; [it is part of the clerk’s task to discern the syntheses, “the sense of the meeting” and express it]. If even a few trusted Friends are firmly convinced that the move is wrong, then the clerk cannot find unity and the matter is laid over to a future date. John Willcuts finds in Acts 15 a similar process used by the Council of Jerusalem. A number of committees carry out the work [e.g. Peace and Social Concerns]. A central one is that on ministry and oversight [or counsel], which is responsible for cultivating the quality of the spoken ministry and for pastoral care, including marriages, memorials, membership, and visits.
           Meetings are organized regionally into quarterly and yearly meetings. In the larger groups Friends can initiate larger scale projects. Beginners should get a copy of the book of disciplines from their yearly meeting. One of its most important features is the “Queries and Advices”—questions which individual Friends should ask themselves about their lives and parallel advices containing what many Friends believe, “not as a rule or form to live by, but that all, with the measure of light which is pure and holy, may be guided.”
           Are you ready to join in the worship and life of the Society of Friends? Don’t answer quickly, for it is a decision that will change your life. Wait. Attend. Listen. Talk. Ask hard questions. Challenge. Receive. No one will hurry you. No one will knowingly hinder you. It is your life. And God’s. Should God lead you into a corporate life of worship and work, Friends are glad to share the voyage of discovery.
           Queries—How did you first come to the Society of Friends?      Would you say that you have felt the living action of God within yourself [i.e “been reached”]?      Have you ever experienced a gathered meeting?      What teaching do you use to prepare for worship?      How do you center down in meeting for worship?      How do you accept & offer vocal ministry?      Do you set aside daily periods of reading & prayer?      Are you surprised by wonder & worship outside of formal structures?      Do you find Jesus of Nazareth to be a role model?      What does testimony of simplicity mean to you?      Do you participate in Quaker outreach?      What does peace testimony mean to you?           Do the Quaker ideals of compassion & service find any expression in your life?      [What is your attitude toward monthly meeting for business]?      What role do you take in larger Quaker bodies (e.g. quarterly, yearly meetings, AFSC, Friends General Conference?
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377. Creed and Quakers: What’s Belief got to do with it? (by Robert Griswold; 2005)
           About the Author—Robert Griswold has been convinced Friend since 1947. [He has gone from a Friends Church to Mountain View Friends (unprogrammed) to Anchorage, to Director of Scattergood Friends School to West Branch Friends (Iowa YM Conservative) to Brinton Visitor in Pacific YM; he welcomes other views].
           The Quaker Authority: A Different Foundation— Creeds' role in Quaker theology needs far more attention than it has been given. Quakers have often not responded well to the critiques on Quakers avoiding creeds from established Quaker groups and other denominations. There is reason to doubt that any of the present-day branches of the Religious Society of Friends has been diligent in its appreciation of the witness against creeds.
           The foundation of Quaker spiritual authority lies outside belief systems. All other forms [of worship] can't rise to a place of authority of the direct communication of convinced Friends and the Divine Spirit. Quaker spirituality threatens not just the particular creeds of believers but the mental process by which they are formed and clung to. The believer cannot avoid regarding someone who fails to grasp the “true belief” as a heretic.
           Quakers were extraordinary heretics. This fact can generate enormous frustration in believers and may go far in accounting for the venom heaped on early Friends. Fox saw Christian pastors as “merchants” who were apostates from genuine Christian faith. Early Friends hoped to change the spirituality of every one in the world.
           Creeds in Quaker History—Deep & revolutionary insights of the earliest Quakers didn’t last as its originators had envisioned. The Quaker way to a spiritual life was a threat to the established creed-bound Christians of the 1600’s; they accused Friends of being secret papists or of fomenting a revolution. From 1660-80, the powers of government & the popular sentiment were aligned in the intention to destroy the Quaker movement.
           Friends’ defense of themselves changed the movement. When the defense of the inner experience was put on the level of verbal debate, the arguments written to counter beliefs come to be beliefs. [Even] Fox’s continued arguments for Friends results in statements that are barely distinguishable from those of creed-based Protestants. [In following years], the original vision smoldered at a very low level, as ecclesiastical considerations were given the form of ministers’ meetings & designated elders. In the 19th century, some Friends’ meetings acquired paid pastors & moved back to traditional Protestant doctrines & reliance on scripture’s authority.
           Others kept their silent meetings but were led more and more to support causes from an ideological foundation rather than from a leading by the Light. Liberal Friends’ witnessing to Friends’ testimonies is based more on a trust in ideology than in the direct apprehension of Divine Truth. Truth is not served by being captured in particular creeds, nor is it served by the collection and amalgamation of beliefs in good causes.
           Clarifying Terms: Beliefs, Faith, & Creeds—Faith is vital to the formation of Friends’ spiritual life, while belief is a dangerous threat. Belief is a conclusion reached & held with enough confidence to be a guide for action. Creeds represent hardening of beliefs into systematic theology. Faith is “the spiritual apprehension of divine truth or intangible realities, founded on experiencing Divine reality.” Repeated attention to the Light Within nurtures that vision's growth. Intentional choice, [however careful], isn’t the same as “spiritual apprehension.”
           What do you know from your own personal spiritual experience? Fox, when he uses the word truth, is not talking about verbal propositions that can be verified; he uses the word [to mean something] closer to our present day use of the word reality. Fox said: “And the written word brings no soul to Christ the life, but [the soul] who comes to the life that the written word speak of …”
           Fox’s Experience of the Light—We overlook 2 things in Fox’s transforming experience. 1st, it seems appropriate to infer that the voice Fox heard, isn’t “Christ Jesus,” but a voice pointing toward “Christ Jesus.” It isn’t the voice, but the experience of the voice that is primary. [Fox & Friends] use a lot of words for the Divine Within that speaks to us: “Truth,” “Word,” “Seed,” “that which is pure,” [at least a dozen different terms]. This great volume of pointer words is evidence that, for early Friends & for us today, experience is primary; name is secondary.” What I focus on here is Fox’s & early Friends’ direct experience & what that experience implies.
           2nd, we overlook Fox’s condition prior to hearing the voice. What was the condition Fox was in, that needed to be addressed in a way that would shake him out of it? The experience of a voice shifted Fox out of a blind spot where he thought ideas were the way to solve his spiritual quest. Trusting that our own powers of thinking and reasoning can save us is, in fact, a universal condition; one that we all need to change.
           Gaining a Perspective on Creeds/A Further Look at Fox—Unless we are fully cognizant of the threat that creeds and ideologies pose for us, we are in as much danger of falling under their influence as the rest of the world. [We have raised the witness of early Friends so high above us, that we are] less able to see our own spiritual struggles reflected in the struggles of our Quaker forebears. Fox at 1st sought answers from the well known spiritual “experts” of his time and place as to what he should believe and do. But he failed to find a belief system that did not compromise his spiritual integrity; one that, when made part of himself, would be the key to a spiritually centered life. It is upon this failure that the Quaker faith and its integrity were founded. Fox said: “And if the truth sets you free, you are indeed free … free from all ego-based religion and airy doctrine.”
           The nature of silent worship’s experience of the Inward Light eclipses all tendencies toward creeds. Fox wrote: “But oh, the poverty, the shadows, the worships, traditions, & sects that be in the world.” Others before Fox & since have found the Light from a Divine source for themselves (e.g. Hindu Vanaprasthas; Gautama Buddha; Jesus of Nazareth). They found that letting go of the ego's confines would open them to compassion and love. We are dependent on the experience and convincement of individual members. Without a creedal test to winnow out those who would join us, the opportunity for the infusion of creeds is ever-present in our meetings.
           The Threat Creeds Pose for Quakers—While the words “There is that of God in everyone” may seem to newcomers to be the Quaker core creedal statement, that is a grave misunderstanding of Fox’s message. He and other early Friends knew that people didn't always choose to use that wisdom. Contact with the Divine wasn't enough unless it shook them out of their devoted attachment to their own belief systems. Isaac Penington wrote: “Give over thine own willing, running, desire to know or be anything, & sink down to the seed which God sows in thy heart.” Following the Light was a kind of authority for one’s life that was entirely different from following a creed. And, to be effective, the Light had to be followed with discipline and practice. Group creeds or personal creeds alike lead us away from the profound authority we need in our lives. [Perhaps elders] have been eliminated partly because some members were made uncomfortable by having their private creeds challenged.
           Some are attracted by the peace, simplicity, equality, community & integrity testimonies. But testimonies embraced as ideals are without spiritual grounding; this makes them “good notions,” but still notions. Friends don't make it clear to others that their testimonies are the fruits of their spiritual foundation, not the foundation itself. Creeds aren't just recitations in church services. Actually, creeds & ideologies are continually forwarded by all segments of human society; nothing is easier than being swayed by them. Quaker membership will never be easy. We have no product for believers to buy. We want them to do something on their own, not follow us.
           Flaws & Notions—Fox disparaged ideologies & creeds by calling them “notions.” Creeds act as a screen, a prism, through which we filter our experience of the world. What we see isn't what is but only what our creed lets us see; we become blind to what doesn't fit the creed. Creed becomes part of our self, a personal possession. We seek to possess a spiritual life, [rather than live one]. By adopting a creed we place those who do not share our creed outside the faith. [We create adversaries, opposition, enemies, those who have less faith than we have].
           Creeds and ideologies are the tools by which worldly powers keep us in their thrall. They are “shepherds who feed only themselves, clouds without rain.” As long as we remain credulous, we will be ready to wear the labels we are given and act accordingly. Creeds make for contented settlements that put the mind and conscience to rest and leave them there. Prophecy is what breaks down the contentment and defensive walls of creeds. Silent waiting is still what enables Friends to resist the lure of creeds and retain the ability to prophesy to a world mired more than ever in the illusions of creeds and ideologies.
           Finding a New Authority—When we let go of what we are most certain we know, when we have humbled and opened ourselves in silence, what we need to know to guide our lives comes to us. Friends were trying to end all religious practices. They were Christians in the sense that they discovered and practiced for themselves what Jesus discovered and tried to teach—that “The Kingdom of God is near.” Rex Ambler wrote: “It was an inner awareness which would enable them initially ‘to see themselves’ as they were, in reality, beyond the deceptions of “the self,” but then also to see what they and others could become, and should become.”
           To grow spiritually we have to let go of illusions we have come to cherish. When we depend on our ego-centered judgment to be our life-guide, we lose our relationship with the Divine. Fox’s argument opposed all religious thinking & practice based on conclusions reached by the human mind’s efforts alone. He wrote: “Now you have to die in the silence, you with your wisdom, your knowledge, your reason & your own understanding.” The process isn't easy or painless, but if we are able to do it, we find ourselves in a “new world.”
           Knowing and Knowing About/Bruising the Head of the Serpent—I can know all about a work of art. None of that knowledge adds a jot to my aesthetic experience. It is grounded in the relationship between the “is-ness” of the work of art and my own “is-ness.” To have a genuine relationship with Divine reality, I must be open to experiencing that reality directly, putting aside all I think I know about it. Creeds are what lead us to judge others rashly while we remain blithely unaware of our own faulty thinking.
           Creeds & ideologies were seen by Fox as the apple offered by the serpent in the Garden of Eden. Giving up beliefs requires the discipline of feeding on the Inward Light. We need to be open to being filled by what is, & to let our actions be true to what has been made known to us. As believers, we have come to trust in our powers to choose what to make of reality rather than trusting that we are a part of the reality that encompasses us.
           The practice of silently opening to the Light is challenged by nearly every aspect of our human society. Now more than ever, the survival of the human species depends on that species’ ability to let go of what it can manufacturing/ imagining/ own for itself/by itself so that it can freely receive the blessings of living within reality. All people can do it, if they will because what they need is already inside them. We can point toward the place where the experience is to be found, but we can’t give it to them. Those who build with creeds are rejecting the capstone of the spiritual life in favor of their own constructions. The discipline of waiting in the light will enable Friends to continue their witness in the world. What’s belief got to do with it? Nothing.
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161. The Religion of George Fox (by Howard H. Brinton; 1968)
            Introduction—In reading through folio text of Fox’s letters I have found him to be more philosopher than I expected, going farther toward developing religious philosophy than do Barclay, Penn, & Pennington. 2 books of selections from Fox’s epistles have appeared: Samuel Tukes (1825); L. Violet Hodgkin Holdsworth, A Day-Book of Counsel & Comfort (1937). William Penn wrote of Fox: “an original, no man’s copy; a new & heavenly minded man; an incessant laborer; unwearied & undaunted. His presence expressed religious majesty.” The list of his published works occupies 53 pages. The present pamphlet deals only with the 420 letters in the 1698 folio.
           Fox’s religion comes through most clearly in his letters, [where] he speaks to his fellow Quakers. In the 1698 folio epistles, Fox writes without restraint, regardless of repetitions or formal sentence construction, and without any effort to conform to schoolmen’s standards. These letters resemble the preaching which I remember from ministering Friends [around the turn of the 20th century] who still wore traditional Quaker garb.
           The following pages are an attempt to describe George Fox’s religion in the usual sense of that word. In George Fox’s religion & philosophy there is first his belief in the Christ Within every man. 2nd, is his doctrine of 3 ages: before Adam fell; after Adam fell, a time of Law; the coming of the Christ & the New Covenant. 3rd is the frequent appeal for unity. Fox’s later letters are largely concerned with bringing unity into a group in which ecclesiastical authority was vested in no one individual. Leaders exercised influence, not authority. To counteract anarchy and the effects of persecution, the tone of Fox’s letters is occasionally emphatic to the point of violence.
           Fox uses many words to say what the Bible says briefly; he cited the Bible in arguments, but appealed to the spirit which produced the Bible as the final source of truth. Fox was a radical in his religious views. I am not dealing here with the so-called “Letter of George Fox to the Governor of Barbadoes.”
           The Light of Christ in Every Man—This central and best-known doctrine of George Fox is based on John 1:9. Fox constantly points out that this Light existed from eternity and was the creative power, and is the source of knowledge of good and evil and of all religious truth. This light is in every man of every religion; all know something of Christ, even though they have never had Christianity proclaimed to them. Quaker slaves held in Algiers were urged to appeal to the knowledge of the truth in their captors.
           This doctrine of [heathen knowledge of the truth] was particularly obnoxious to the Puritans. Convincement of this truth gave the Quakers a different attitude from that of Puritans toward Negroes, Indians, and Muslims. Given their belief Quakers could not treat the Indians as “heathen savages” as the Puritans did in following the Old Testament (OT) precedent set by the Jews. The Quaker was to “answer” that of God in every one. Fox used “answer” in his own peculiar way. To answer meant to reply to, to correspond with, or even to develop and stimulate “that of God in other persons, whether friend or enemy, regardless of race or creed. To traveling ministers the instruction is given, “walk cheerfully over the earth, answering that of God in every one.”
           Another important element in George Fox’s religion is his “perfectionism,” which was based on the text: “Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.” To be perfect, however, did not mean to reach a state beyond which further growth was impossible. This meant simply to live up to the measure of Light given you, whatever that measure might be. Fox frequently employs symbols used in John’s Gospel (e.g. life and light of men, Light of the world, the way the truth and the life).
           In speaking of sanctuary to prisoners he tells them that they need not be troubled by their outward condition for they have an inward habitation to which they can repair and be at peace. Fox made no attempt to take the Quakers out of the world, but he did often tell them to live at the same time in a different place, the inward world ruled by the Spirit of Christ. Here the dualism is sometimes indicated by the word “pure,” meaning that which is not mixed or contaminated by anything worldly. John Woolman never refers to the Inward Light, but always to “pure wisdom.” George Fox’s philosophy is that instead of meeting difficulties and persecutions head on, we should look at that which is over and above them.
           Fox said: “There is the danger and temptation to you, of drawing your minds into your own business, and clogging them with it; so that ye can hardly do any thing to the service of God, but there will be crying, my business, my business; and your minds will go into things, and not over things.
           The Three Ages—Much of Fox’s thought is based on a special philosophy of history of 3 ages: before Adam fell; after Adam fell, a time of Law; the coming of the Christ and the New Covenant. The essence of this conception comes from Paul’s letter to the Galatians. John 15:15 says: “Henceforth I call you not servants . . . but I have called you friends: for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known to you. The contrast between the Mosaic covenant made at Mount Sinai and the New Covenant at the coming of Christ is significant to Fox, who says: “All the figures, shadows, and types, in the OT and Covenant, Christ the substance is come, and abolishes them . . . the children of the New Covenant are called, “a spiritual household, a royal and holy priesthood. . . Christ our high priest, was made after the power of an endless life.”
           Fox also said: Before Adam’s Fall, man and woman were equal. After the Fall, men dominated the women; but in the New Covenant they are again equal. Fox could repudiate the OT as an imperfect revelation of the Truth, and claim for the New Testament a new and higher revelation based on the Spirit of Truth. By coming into unity with Christ, the Second Adam, man could rise to a higher state than that of the first Adam.
           The Quaker case was based on an inward experience of the Light of Christ which leads to God, but it was also based on the claim that it was a New Covenant religion. [The Light of the Old Covenant, compared to the Light of the New, is] like the twilight before the dawn compared to the daylight when the sun rises (William Penn). Jesus came to fulfill the Law, not end it. On the 2 great commandments hang all the law & the prophets.
           Even the persecutors of the Quakers who were sending them to prison by the thousands had a Light in them which could be “answered” or appealed to. The Quaker movement would not have survived persecution had the Anglicans and Puritans been as ruthless as were the Lutherans in slaughtering Anabaptists. Fox did not believe that the outward blood shed by Christ on the cross was the means of salvation. Salvation comes from the cleansing power of the blood shed inwardly in the heart and not outwardly. [Fox would contest this point at] “great meetings of professors.” The biblical text which appears more often than any other in his epistles is Genesis 3:15: “And I will put enmity between thee (serpent) and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed. . .” This Fox believes to be a prophecy of the coming of Christ to restore man and nature to the condition before the Fall. The “seed” of the Inward Light will grow if it is sown in fertile ground.
           Word of God as Source of Unity—The temporal emphasis [of 3 Ages] is typical of Hebrew thought. Greek thought soars to the timeless & eternal, & Fox soars with it, [so that] Christ appears as the “Word of God” who existed before creation, who still creates, & who will exist forever after creation. Early Quakers & early Christians had many problems in common. Both were “come outers,” rebels against conventional codes & behavior. Both depended for unity on common loyalty to Christ, not only human Christ, but above all the eternal Christ.
           It is clear that Fox felt his relation to the early Quaker meetings was like what Apostle Paul had with the early Christian Churches. Fox is Hebraic & Hellenistic in his thought. [He draws from Paul, who was Hebraic, & John, who was Hellenic]. Fox accepted Paul’s whole message except his apocalyptic ideas. Fox’s religion was Christ-centered in a double sense. The Christ of history is one with the eternal Christ who created the world. Christ’s death becomes a cosmic event. Christ the seed must die if it is to grow & create. Fox more often quotes from John’s gospel & letters than from any other part of the Bible; yet Fox & Quakers were closer to Hebrew prophets than to Grecian mystics, receiving inspiration from a personal God rather than an abstract principle.
           It should be noted that there was from the start an element of anarchy in the Quaker movement. Quakerism survived because it was a group mysticism in which all sought to follow the same Inward Light & thus come into unity. While Fox gives no evidence of familiarity with [logos], he makes frequent use of “Word of God” to designate eternal Christ through whom “all things were created.” Fox, in telling persecuted Friends that they can take refuge in an inner sanctuary free from the storms of this world is not far from Stoic philosophy.
           Fox unintentionally found a coherent philosophy in John, Ephesians (1:10) & Colossians (1:12-23). That Christ is above all principalities & powers is often asserted in Fox’s epistles; [Fox included the persecuting Christian churches under “principalities & powers”]. [In Colossians] Jesus was promoted above the status of a Jewish Messiah to a cosmic figure. Thus, the dramatic conception of history, the belief in 3 ages is expanded to include the history of the universe. The conception that there is an integrating power bringing order out of chaos is characteristic of Smuts, Lloyd Morgan, Alfred N. Whitehead, Samuel Alexander, [even] C. J. Jung.
           [While Fox and Quakers] were closer to Paul & the prophets than to Hellenistic thought, Fox made use of Hellenic elements in John’s gospels, Ephesians, & Colossians, but he used them in a practical prophetic way. For the Quakers the relation to God was a person-to-person dialogue in the manner of the prophets rather than dependence on philosophic speculation. [In today’s theological controversy], the transcendent God on his throne with Jesus has died & has become the immanent God within us, present in the midst of man’s daily life. Fox would have little to learn from the most modern theologians. William James wrote (1902): “Christian sects today are simply reverting in essence to the position which Fox and the early Quakers long ago [360 years] assumed.”
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447 Living in Dark Times (By Rex Ambler; 2017)
           About the Author—Rex Ambler is known for his search to experience & understand the Light & the workshops he developed & material he wrote to share his discoveries. He taught theology for over 30 years at Birmingham University, & travels a lot to teach Quaker meditation or how to set up "Experiment with Light" groups, which use early Friends' writings & practices to facilitate self-discovery & inquiry.. 2 of his books are: Light to Live by: An Explanation in Quaker Spirituality; (2002, 2008); & The Quaker Way: A Rediscovery (2013). His other Pendle Hill Pamphlet is The Light Within: Then and Now (#425; 2013).
           [Introduction]—For a long time, perhaps for a century, we could rely on widespread support for Quaker concerns in the world. Now, the world is changing, and that confidence that we can make a new world is beginning to wane. There are very big forces in the world, which are getting bigger and stronger, making the world less free, less equal, and less peaceful; these forces have their own growing momentum. We are beginning to have doubts. What are we to do when people stop listening and politicians turn their attention to gaining and keeping power? Mutual respect and trust is fading.
           "Dark times" indicate: hardship; frustration; anxiety; and deep puzzlement as to what is going on. Even those in power seem to have this problem. If we believe that institutional leaders are not telling the truth, our unease will deepen, and our mood will darken. We have had dark times before, but not in our memory, & we doubt our ability to make a real difference or see hope for the future. Hannah Arendt writes: "It was by no means visible to all ... but was covered up ... by highly efficient talk and double-talk of nearly all official representatives ... who ingeniously explained away unpleasant facts and justifiable concerns ... We have to take the "establishment's, the "system's" camouflage into account. [The tools of] the public realm [are meant] to throw light on men's affairs ... Darkness has come ... and now speeches and exhortations are being used to sweep it under the carpet, and [false preservation of] old truths [instead] degrades all truth to meaningless triviality."
           [Brexit and the Global Crisis]—The British referendum to leave the European Union (EU) was our generation's most important decision. Yet the public discussion [degenerated] into a crude slanging match between parties; ins vs. outs. The EU was a peace project and it worked. It had to do with more than just trade; it included more justice and overcoming poverty. It turned into an almost exclusively capitalist & economic growth project. We are sharply divided between those wanting wealth and those wanting security. The "wanting" is intense and overrides everything else. Wealth and security are the idols our society worships. We have walked blindly into a disaster; we are in the dark. How do we live in a world we no longer understand?      How can we as Quakers make sense of what is happening?      What new responses do we need to come up with?
           I was born and bred in dark times, at the center of WWII. Only with the war's end & beginning of reconstruction in Europe did I feel hope for the world. The '50's, '60's, & '70's were times of growing hope. But then in the '80's things stalled, and then started coming undone. The global crisis echoed crises in my personal life, [and sparked] a quest to look more deeply into the spiritual roots of these problems. I encountered the political Green Party, Gandhi [in research], psychotherapy, and Early Friends [again, in research]. I struggled to understand 17th century Friends [and their dark times], which they eventually found a way through. I offer my understanding in hopes that it will enable you to make a new connection with founders of our faith and their great discovery.
           Advice from William Penn—It was William Penn who enabled me to see the world in a new way and see how we might mend it. In the preface to his advices, Some Fruits of Solitude, he urges us to step aside from the world and take an honest look at it, [so as not to] be swept away by illusions and distractions of the world.
           We understand little of God's works. We misunderstand what knowledge & education is. [We misuse] affection, [& indeed] our whole life, making a burden that which is given for blessing. We [misunderstand] happiness ... Until we ... stop, & step a little aside out of the noisy crowd & the hurried burden of the world, & calmly look at things, it will be impossible...to make right judgment of our [self], or know our misery. [When we do], we shall think the world [mostly] mad, that we have been in Bedlam, [an insane asylum] all the while. 

           In 17th century England, "treatment of mental illness was by isolation in the family's bosom ... or by being in St. Mary's of Bethlehem mental hospital [otherwise known as Bedlam]. Its inmates furnished a spectacle to Londoners." For Penn it was a metaphor for how the world really was. People weren't in their right minds, thinking clearly, or feeling appropriately. The world's fundamental problem was [disturbances] deep in people's minds. Penn doesn't seem fazed by this crazy world; he can accept it for what it is. He can detach from mad talk & turbulent feelings that [blind] people & see things as they are, using retirement & solitude, which make detachment possible.
           [Deeper Attention, Insight and Wisdom]—When people sit quietly and are able to stop thinking and imagining, they will be open to a much deeper kind of attention that will give them the insight and wisdom they need. Then they will have the clarity and sanity to see what is going on in the world. They will see the madness for what it is, recover a sound state of mind and see their self and the world more clearly.
           Penn gives advice to his children to "retire into a pure silence, from all thoughts and ideas of worldly things" before they get dressed and "before you close your eyes": "Rather meditate than read much. For the spirit of the man knows the things of a man, [Meditating on] the tempers and actions of men ... in the world ... and your own spirit, you will have a deep and strong judgment of men and things ... You have a better spirit than your own, in reserve for a time of need, to pass the final judgment in important matters."
           What is happening all around us, even in our own personal lives, cannot really be understood by our normal conscious minds. [In our conscious state] the more important issues of life, [the deeper realities], elude us. The really important issues of life are deep within, at least in part. Both objective observation of what people are doing and the subjective observation of what is happening in me, in us are required; one depends on the other. Penn also wrote: God, having given them a sight of their self, they saw the whole world in the same glass of truth, and sensibly discerned the passion and affections of men, and the rise and tendency of all things."
           In their 1st experience of God's Light Quakers discovered that they weren't what they thought they were. Thinking had been distorted by the self, the posturing ego. When they stopped posturing, the Light of God within them showed what was really going on. [Penn]: "Of Light came sight, of sight came sense & sorrow, of sense & sorrow came amendment of life." If the Light of God in them is like a mirror, then it can be turned slightly to see the world as it really is & "sensibly discern passions & affections of men," behind rhetoric & appearance.
           Get Back to Reality—I learned from Fox that to go deep into my life, contrary to meeting for worship's free-ranging openness to all that comes, I had to be focused on what was disturbing my conscience, & disciplined in paying attention to the concern & the reality [surrounding it, without all the] thinking, fantasizing, [& assuming I added to it]. In a personal relationship, I wasn't being totally truthful, & rows would suddenly erupt. I was afraid things would only get worse if I spoke my mind. I meditated & allowed the whole situation to become apparent to me, without judging it or trying to make sense of it. Words came to me from I don't know where: "Be real." I now knew what I had to do to make amends. I became more real; the relationship became more real.
           I gained confidence in applying the meditation more widely. I visited Israel and Palestine in 2008. I could not understand [both sides continuing in the same, futile, antagonizing tactics]. I realized my own need for security and belonging was obscuring my view. Focusing on my need to make a difference meant I wasn't properly focused on the needs of people in need of help. The media provides essential help; they also inevitably distort the complex reality, if only to make it more intelligible [or "newsworthy]."
           In meditation, I saw myself in a hall of mirrors, [seeing the "reality" as a reflection of a reflection of a reflection]. When asked for advice by Palestinians in the 1930's, Mahatma Gandhi sent someone there, saying: "I can't entirely believe what I am reading in the papers. Go ... see what's really happening, then come back and tell me. The truth about young Israelis was more complex than we 1st thought, as a couple acknowledged to me that some Arab animosities might have been provoked by Israel's defense of itself. We gained more truth by face-to-face conversations. We have to let go of preconceptions about the situation, especially when they involve our sensitive egos. There is deeper wisdom in us, beyond conscious thinking, that is able to put our sense of self into a wider perspective. We have to be open to being led and guided; humility is essential.
           Mind the Oneness—We don't like reality. Or, not "very much reality." We prefer images & stories of our self that make us more acceptable to our self & others. [Radical change sends a blast of unpleasant reality our way]; people get hurt; someone dies; we are rejected. We have the choice to turn our backs on reality or to face it, to reconnect with reality & with our own deepest selves. We may come to see the world as a very dark place.
           Here we need to be patient. George Fox writes: "In the light that shows you this, stand, neither go the right hand nor the left; here patience is exercised ... thy will subjected; & thou wilt see mercies of God made manifest in death ... The 1st step to peace is to stand still in light." Ambler's [reaction to this Fox quote is]: "This is ...when your ego will be brought down, where in what seems like death, you will experience the forgiveness of God."
           I meditated on 9/11[/01], [& reached progressively deeper levels of understanding]. I was upset by the attacks. I was upset by the response to the attacks, seeing them as a declaration of war, a War on Terror, with the "Terror" being linked to Islam. Just as Western leaders were demonizing Muslims, I was demonizing Western leaders, After many meditations, I had thought that the world was "out there," waiting to be changed. My "job" was to understand the world & help make a difference in it. [At a deeper level], I was given to see, this conflict was not independent of me. I cannot influence the world's response to this conflict, as if from the outside; we are the world. It doesn't make for peace or mutual understanding to objectify the world; it generates struggle.
           I realized that, in asking what Western leaders were doing, I am projecting onto those leaders aspects of my self I don't like; [all the "badness" could be somewhere other than in me]. [Ambler offers a Modern English translation of what George Fox said about this process: "I could see what they were doing, priests & their people as they ... [vehemently] denounced Cain, Esau, Judas, & other wicked people ... mentioned in [the Bible]. They failed to see characteristics of ... [wicked people] in their self. Priests & others would [point &] say "They, they, were bad people, putting it off from their self ... Some of them came to see into their self ... & say, "I, I, I, it is I myself that have been Ishmael, Esau, etc. When these people ... came to thoroughly search their self with Christ's light, they would see quite enough of those things in their own lives ... I & we are found in this condition."
           I knew I would want to look again at what the big powers were doing out there in the Middle East, but 1st I had to untangle this war going on in me, which I now recognized was part of the larger picture. I was not over come with remorse. When I accepted I found myself accepted, embraced by the larger reality to which I belong. As I acknowledged my part in the dark ways of the world, that I was part of the problem, I felt affirmed rather than condemned. The world was askew and I was askew, and that's all right. That's the way the world is.
           The world is 1 great, creative, ongoing event; we are all part of it. We are called to provide the help needed where we are. We are always able to help, to be part of the healing, reconciling process already at work. That's the deeper reality, the hidden oneness, below the conflicts & confusions of the world. Tapping into this reality we can engage consciously in realizing oneness. The real struggle is a spiritual one, not a political one. The struggle is to "mind the oneness," & affirm the oneness against every denial & suppression of it; that is faithfulness.
           Trust the Light—Penn's 1st advice was to "stop, step aside" & take a long, cool look at what is going on, in the world out there & in us. This way we can center our self, get in touch with reality, feel the ground under our feet. Then we can make deeper connection with the world that we now feel fully a part of. "True godliness doesn't turn men out of the world but enables them to live better in it, & excites endeavors to mend it." The world isn't just a madhouse; it has lost a sense of itself. It's a remarkable creation of life & being; we are a part of it. We can cherish it & love it. When we see our self as part of the world, embraced by it & God who is behind [this truth], this remarkable world/event, we feel safe & confident. All we have to do is live according to that truth & act on feelings of love toward those we share the world with. We can't know the whole world. If we have our eyes open to God's Light, we can see this patch of light immediately in front of us and know where to go.
           I was trying to meditate in the middle of the night once, when I noticed specks of light bobbing up & down in woods outside my window. People were walking in the woods, with lamps attached to their heads, which lit up the small patch ground in front of them. When applied to the world's darkness, this image reminds me that we have to make sure our lights are switched on & focused on the path immediately in front of us. We began this journey when we sensed we were walking in the wrong direction. What we do will depend on what we see in front of us, & how we feel about it. It will be good to pay attention to the facts of our situation, our known gifts, & to the friends around us, all of which can give us clear discernment of what we are called to do, our leading.
           We may think a more [individual], personal response to things, based partly on feeling or intuition, is going to be ineffective in the larger scheme of things. Living in response to the world as you experience it affects people at a deeper level. People will notice & be affected. Your life will bear witness to this reality of human life, which everyone is aware of somewhere deep inside, but can't quite recognize or accept. They may not altogether like what they're feeling; they may back off & think, "I don't want to go there." Your lived witness may resonate within them & evoke a deeper awareness. Your testimony as Fox said, "will answer that of God in everyone."
           [Testimony: Witness to Reality & Leadership]—Testimony is bearing witness to reality, the reality of lives as human beings. Quaker testimony's point is that by living a certain way, we enable people to see how they live. Their spoken testimony is close to that given in a court of law: someone bearing witness to what they knew to be true from experience, when others might not have been in a position to know. Society needs testimony as desperately as do the courts. Living out their truth by [not swearing or using violence] was their most effective way of communicating. They lived in such a way that other people would be moved [to see new possibilities].
           In that way Quakers were able to reach the most dangerous & destructive people of their time. Having recognized darkness in their self, they could recognize it in others. They came to discern "affections & passions of men, & the rise & tendency of things." There were people who did evil things, who weren't evil, because they were not truly aware of their self and their world [and did evil as self-protection]. People today are acting out of ignorance and fear; they were not being [their true self], but a false self;[they need awakening to their true self].
           Our testimony, lived out fully & bravely, might help them come to realizing true self. Coming to self-aware-ness is a deep and mysterious process. We can only trust that what has woken us to reality is secretly at work in them. There will be few tangible results that we can point to as evidence for our radical approach. We have to rely on our and community experience as to the reality of the world, and how to "live better in it." We gain this confidence when we have the courage to go deep and the faith and trust to share the understanding we gain with one another. Reality is certainly not as we normally understand it. We have to trust something invisible and intangible. Our way of life is bound to go against the grain of society that understands only ideas and ideologies as a means of control. [This "control"] is surely one of the forces that provokes fear, insecurity and rage. We have to be brave to live truthfully and honestly in such a world. We have to be humble, faithful and bold.
           Afterword—Even with this Light of God we don't understand everything; we don't see the whole picture. There are forces in the world & in us too deep & mysterious for us to grasp. Who understands why people do evil?      Why is it so hard for us to accept reality?      Why do so many people have to suffer?      Who can square God's love as we experience it in our self & our Friends with what happens in the world or our life? We are called on to humbly accept the darkness along with the light, what is given for us to know & what is given us not to know. We are called on to trust that we are given enough light to live by. "Live up to the light thou hast, & more will be granted thee" (Caroline Fox). We are more able to accept what we can't properly see, to accept the whole of the reality [we can see &] in which we live, with its light and its dark, its good and its bad.
           When I embrace the situation as it presents itself, I am free to act, indeed, empowered to act. The power is in the truth I embraced. We can even embrace the suffering. How can we accept the suffering of thousands or millions of people in war or oppression or famine? In the sense of trying to alleviate or prevent the suffering, we don't & can't accept great evils. We have to accept that suffering is built into life, a part of the [mysterious] scheme of things that makes life possible. Our care & the process of healing or restoration gives meaning to pain, which doesn't disappear, but is supported & held by love that can embrace it & the good it makes possible.
           When we are hurt, the loving embrace of family or friend seems to take away pain. It is important to feel pain if we are to give it the care it needs; that care inspires us to help. Numbing our self against the pain is all too common now in a world that wants to live without it. Suffering & death are experiences that give us the compassion to feel for others. It seems we are adding to pain when we look at it head on & accept it [unconditionally]. If we do embrace it, it becomes less painful. When you accept your faults & failings with total openness & honesty in God's presence, you find you are accepted, held & embraced. Embracing suffering & death, is accepting life; life responds. My wife died suddenly 2 years ago. The pain & shock were unbearable. But they released new energies & insights in me, which I don't think I would ever have known otherwise. William Penn writes: "Love is the hardest lesson in Christianity; but for that reason, it should be most our care to learn it."
           Queries—How would you describe the present world situation?      What is William Penn's advice for seeing the world in a different way & being able to change it?      Why do we need to know our self before we can understand what is happening in the world?      How do our own needs for "security & belonging" obscure our view of what is happening?      What has been your experience of facing and acknowledging faults in your self?      How is "the real struggle" we face "a spiritual one, not a political one?"      Why is it important to experience and accept suffering, and how can this acceptance be positive?
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425. The Light Within: Then and Now (by Rex Ambler; 2013)
           About the Author—Rex Ambler taught theology at Birmingham Univ. (UK) for 30+ years. He now writes mostly on Quaker faith & practice, & teaches Quaker meditation [in the form of] "Experiment with Light," & helps those interested to set up "light groups" to practice it. See www.experiment-with-light.org.uk., Light to Live By: Exploration in Quaker Spirituality, & End of Words: Issues in Contemporary Quaker Theology.
           Then and Now—The Light Within is a fundamental concept of our Quaker faith. It is also a remarkably vague concept. There is little sense of a secure and lasting meaning grounded in our history or in our own experience. How do we make sense of our faith [using the Light Within as a fundamental concept]? How do we communicate our faith [using the Light Within as a fundamental concept]? [Modern definitions of the light struggle between being specific enough to be meaningful, and broad enough to include the wide] variety of Friends' understandings. [Such definitions do not come across as a coherent concept]. [Perhaps] the definition includes paradox, Christian, and Universalist components. What exactly does the Light refer to then? We cannot answer that question because in the course of our history we have forgotten. Life has changed since our beginning, and we can no longer recall our distinctive language then or know what it could mean today.
           A Brief History—The 1st thing to note is that George Fox's message, and that of early Friends, was new and radical, a radical answer to radical times. George Fox said: "Your teacher is within you, look not forth." The outside things he was referring to included the Bible, [which could be used only in concert with the teacher within]. Fox said of the light: "The light is that by which ye come to see./ For with the light one sees one's self."
           The Light as he understood it, wasn't something you saw in the distance, like a beacon or a lamp. It is something you see by. With it you could see reality around & inside you, normally covered by the dark. "Dark" & "light" were the time's regular metaphors, beginning a century before. [e.g. William Tyndale, Francis Rous]. They echoed the language of John's Gospel. Fox message was that if they could open themselves to God's light, it would show them all they needed to know. If the learned didn't really experience the reality they were talking about, they were no help to themselves or to anyone else. This message wasn't welcome in church or society. It threatened to undermine the given structures of society by persuading people to trust themselves. Church & state tried to eliminate the movement. The educated among them wrote some impressive books setting out their case.
           Robert Barclay's book, An Apology for the True Christian Divinity (1676) was the most effective, brilliant piece of theological argument. It helped establish Quakerism as a respectable, law-abiding, Bible-reading religion. It had a negative effect. It established that Quakerism was based upon reason & the Bible. Although accepting in theory that Quakers depended on Light within them to show them the truth, [he used scripture & theological reason to interpret it]. The Light was reduced to a God-given faculty which enabled them to recognize truth.
           Barclay played down those elements of their faith that had provoked the persecution in the 1st place, namely their rejection of external authority and affirmation of internal resources. This appealed to Friends too. For the next 200 years they accepted Barclay's defense as the best guide to faith. They continued to "wait in the Light" for illumination and guidance and have truth revealed to them and to live by it. But it was no longer the truth of their own life, but a distinctly religious truth about God and his will. The Light Within now took 2nd place to the Text without. We have been attracted to one religious position after another. In the process we have lost our distinctive understanding and therefore much of vibrancy and power of our distinctive faith.
           A Closer Look at the Original Meaning—Over the years, we have stayed with our faith & practiced it the best we can. We recognize it when we see it, even in Hindu and Buddhist writing. I have also found it in the writings of the 1st Friends, which shows the richness and depth of our own tradition. The Light of God within people is central to their understanding. They "turned to the Light," "walked in the Light," and "knew experimentally" the deeper bond that held them together. I describe the early Quaker's understanding of the Light With-in under 3 statements: The light was a capacity for awareness in every human being; The Light was revealed 1st as self-awareness; The Light revealed the source of life and unity.
           The Light was a Capacity for Awareness in Every Human Being—What enables us to "see ourselves" isn't physical light but a spiritual one, & is internal. Reason & conscience aren't adequate to the task of enabling us really to see ourselves. They are connected to ego, which may not want to see the reality. We need a "light of God" to expose the deeper realities. We don't normally take all of reality in. We select what we want & we make up the the rest to suit our needs & desires. It detaches us from reality, & our images & ideas come to stand in for reality. George Fox said: "When once you deny truth then you are given over to believe lies ... Mind God's light in you, [hypocrites], which shows you the deceit of your hearts & obey that." If we are attached to our ideas & images, our normal thinking capacity may be bent on justifying these ideas & bolstering our self-image.
           For Fox as with others who became Quakers, the theological stand-ins for reality were no longer adequate. They were open to some deeper or more immediate experience of life that would finally expose the truth of it. George Fox said: "And then the spiritual discerning came into me, which I did discern my own thoughts, groans and sighs, and what it was that did veil me, and what it was that did open me." It made him aware of what he was doing in one's self, and with other people, and the dire consequences of his behaviors. One saw others and one's self as they really were. He was in touch with reality and reconciled to it.
           He saw the light "shine through all." Those who responded to his message were launched on a journey of discovery together to find life's truth that could make them whole. Fox said: "As there is a world without you there is a world in the heart." It was "experimental religion," comparable to the new, experimental science; everyone could try it for themselves, & live out of their insights in everyday life. They don't so much believe a set of truths or values, as trust a source of insight that can show them the truth, & then live according to that insight.
           The Light was Revealed 1st as Self-Awareness—This is one of the most neglected themes of Quaker faith. Even the Quakers at the beginning of last century, who brought so much of the early understanding to life again, [did not mention this basic early understanding]. Early 20th century Quakers were so optimistic about human nature, they saw no obstacle to humans' [embracing] reality. 100 years, 2 world wars, & fairly constant conflict [somewhere in the world], we aren't so likely to be optimistic. We recognize the huge unconscious motivations that turn people down destructive ways of life, while convinced they're doing the right thing, much like the early Quakers insight that human life is blighted by deceit and make-believe.
           Fox was emphatic; the truth had to begin with us. We have honed self-image to make it acceptable to our Self & others. We have to pay attention to those neglected parts of ourselves & accept them as part of the picture. There will be much resistance to any such subversive inquiry, & the ego will defend itself vigorously. Early Quakers knew it took courage & patience to face the truth about themselves. They had the Light as a resource within them that enabled them to see & accept what they saw. It gave a detached & holistic view of life, unaffected by fear & prejudice. George Fox said: "Which light being owned, self & the righteousness of self [are] denied." The self thought it was central & important & flawless; it can be seen in the Light to be none of these things. Being rooted in the deeper self, it will find it is bound up with others in the unity of life. The Light frees people from self-imposed restrictions by showing them the truth & enabling them to be truly themselves.
           The Light Revealed the Source of Life and Unity—Since the deep self manifested itself initially as light, it was giving them a view of themselves somehow from outside themselves. As it showed them, and they accepted their failures and weaknesses. Fox could even say that it was love that had shown him the truth about himself, "as I was without him." By opening himself up to its truth and accepting it, he was connected to God, the source of his own being. Fox and 1st Friends did not want to say that the Light was "human." Barclay may have confused matters by saying that the Light was implanted [i.e. made part of us] by God. There is a tragic sense that humans are cut off from the ultimate source of their lives because, out of fear for their egos they have turned away from it. Turning back to it is where they found their true center in that of God within them, and where they could experience their oneness with God.
           People of influence constructed great barriers to keep others at bay, with class, religion, & nationality, & persuaded themselves & others that these divisions were inevitable & even beneficial. Quakers saw through the pretense. In their various "testimonies" they were trying to act out in their everyday lives the truth about life which they had discovered for themselves, in hopes that others would recognize that truth. They could see how people were caught in a trap similar to their own. William Penn said: "God, having given them a sight of themselves, they saw the whole world in the same glass of truth, & sensibly discerned the affections & passions of men, & the rise & tendency of things." They could see the root of evil in others, in their denial of the truth, but they could also see the root of goodness in others, in their deep (if unacknowledged) awareness of truth.
           The Light does all things & more things that I haven't described by making people aware of who they really are. George Fox said: "Through the light that enligheneth them they have life ... they have salvation, they have truth, they have peace with God ... All they that are in the light are in unity; for the light is but one." The various aspects of the Light's activity were well summarized by Elizabeth Bathurst: " The Principle of Truth is a principle of divine light & life of Christ Jesus, placed in the conscience, which opens the understanding, enlightens the eyes of the mind, discovers sin to the soul, reproves for & makes it appear exceeding sinful, quickens such as accept it ... makes them alive to God, and brings them into conformity to the image of God's son Christ Jesus ... Christianity consists of conformity unto that one eternal principle, to wit, the light of Christ manifest in the conscience, and yet leads into a heavenly order both in doctrine, principle and conversation."
           A Reflection on its Meaning Today—The early understanding of the Light was very different from the understanding we may have now. Does what early Quakers were saying about the Light speak to our condition? Is it still relevant & important? In their time, people took the phrase "the light within," as a metaphor for a capacity within themselves to see the world & understand it. The Quakers said that the "true light within" was a capacity to see things as they are, to see reality, & that was beyond their normal capacity to think or discern. They needed a source that challenged their normal self & enabled them to get beyond it, a light of God.
           It required giving up a familiar sense of self & trust a source within that was apparently beyond their control. Those with power feared losing it to [the people's reliance on something other than church & state for guidance of their behavior & views]. We don't have the rigid 17th century world hierarchies, but we do have structures of power, less visible perhaps, that determine how we live, & we look to authorities of a different kind, to tell us what to think [about reality]. Do we need to recover the early Quaker's immediate sense of reality?
           They knew that they had to dig deep, and they needed one another to support them in this quest. They needed to trust the deep spirit within them and follow it. They had to wait patiently and listen to one another as each one bore witness; they found that it worked as an "experimental" religion. We would have to sit lightly by our treasured beliefs and values and put them to the test in experience. [We have to do more than tolerate the views of others, and seek to come to unity]. We have to be taken deeper than thought. We may have lost the understanding of the Light that inspired the Quaker movement, but we have kept the practice of sitting in silence that grew out of it. Our history can tell us what it means to be enlightened and how the experience can be prepared for and nurtured. In meeting for business we look for understanding we can all share. Light brings people to an awareness of the reality they share so they can embrace it and find fellowship together.
           This understanding opens the way to a new approach for our Quaker life; it points the way to a deeper practice. One can sit and ponder, hoping for some bright idea, or let go of our ideas, and wait patiently for the reality of the situation to be disclosed to us. If there is family or group tension, we can respond in a number of ways. If we took our cues from early Friends, we would choose to sit quietly and open ourselves up to what is really happening, and what our part in it is. I have found that opening myself to the Light in this way makes a huge difference to the way I see my life and the possibilities before me; the answer is given when I wait patiently for it.
           How do we speak to people of our faith without seeming to impose our opinion on them? We bear witness to what we know from our own experience and leave it to others to decide whether and how that witness might be relevant to them. We can tell them that there is a capacity in us humans to see the reality of life as we each have to live it and that that reality can be trusted and lived by. If they find our words puzzling or odd, we can give up words altogether, and let our lives do the talking, "Let our lives speak." They [can] exemplify what it means in practice to live in the Light of the God and follow the truth it reveals to us.
           Queries—How would you define the Light?      Why are reason and conscience not adequate to the task of enabling us really to see ourselves?      What does it mean to be "judged with the light?"      How does the Light connect people at a profound level with each other?
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268. In God We Live (by Warren Ostrom; 1986)
           About the Author: Warren Ostrom has lived almost all his life near Puget Sound in Washington State. He has a Masters in Social Work and has done a year of studies in comparative religion, after which he joined University Friends Meeting (Seattle; 1983). He was a psychotherapist in a community health center. This pamphlet grew out of discussions with his wife, Jana; with a Pendle Hill friend and with faculty and students in the comparative religion program at the U of WA.

           “The Ocean is within as well as without; and the path of the mystic is a gradual awakening … a remembrance of the Supreme Self which infinitely transcends the human ego and which is none other than the Deep towards which the wave ebbs.”      Martin Lings
           Through the lens of wholeness all of life, all existence is revealed to be holy friendly and familiar; no one is a stranger…Loving from the center means channeling the love which pervades the universe through my heart and my hands…“I go for refuge to the spirit of which all reality partakes, to the great teachings and writings that lead me towards that spirit, to the community of believers     . Warren Ostrom
           THE GEESE—The geese are an affirmation, a benediction, a reward. Their number dwindles when I slip from what I should be doing, & rises when my course is true. The geese told me I was being who I should be. A Friend said: “If you don’t listen, the voice inside gets softer, harder to hear, over time. 2½ years ago I started a comparative religion program. Doors opened, [thing fell in place; time and resources were provided].
           I am a normal middle-class American man; so much so that I feel safe in guessing that it is normal for middle-class Americans to feel empty and adrift when we pause long enough to realize how we feel. Not even children are enough; we still need to come to terms with ourselves. We are afraid of who we aren’t, afraid of the light we’re given, afraid of what the geese might tell us.
           My beliefs began as a boy with the Apostle’s Creed. [I did all the church things]. I was told there was only one way to God. Once I told a deacon that we shouldn’t recite the creeds, because nobody believed them anyway; [he got angry]. I delivered papers in the dark, in the fog. Still, I felt completely safe. [In spite of my increasing doubts about the church], there was no doubt that the author of the 23rd Psalm said something true. At times I knew the presence of the divine with unmistakable certainty; but I didn’t sense the divine presence in church.
           At age 19, a friend told me if I saw only one thing in Europe, I had to see Chartres; he wasn’t a religious nut so I believed him. It was a summer of discovery: independent adult life; sexuality; English cheese; Irish stout; & French countryside; & Chartres Cathedral [the most amazing of them all]. [The town had the normal sounds]. The cathedral was pool of silence. The real shock was that I felt, was surrounded by, the God I had never felt in church]. It didn’t fit what I thought, so I had to keep re-thinking until my thought, experience, & intuition all fit.
           THE GROUND OF BEING—The theologian Bernard Lonergan writes that the mind must move from experience, through understanding, to judgment of truth. Most of us simply don’t talk about our religious experiences, because religious experience doesn’t fit smoothly into out every day social and intellectual world. When I have felt the divine presence most profoundly, that presence has made itself known in an outpouring from my depths, & in a simultaneous exultation of the divine in all existence. When I am true to myself—when I cut through to what is at the core of the soul—I find not only pure me but pure God, & union in God with all reality.
           Once, I was sitting in meditation in my living room at sunset. I found myself in a consciousness awash in light. My mind joined a far bigger mind, and I could feel my neighbors moving through their houses and knew what they were preparing for dinner. Awareness spread wider and wider, to more and more people, until the universe seemed to pulse to its single beat. I have observed meeting for worship through the eyes of a bird perched high on a window looking in. I have felt everything in the room and the Presence penetrating everything. My “drop” of consciousness flowed together with all consciousness, [and then separated again].
           There is really in essence no I, you, and it—just we, and we are within the much larger identity of holy universality, what I call the Spirit or the Presence. Union with the Spirit is at once a profoundly humbling and a profoundly exhilarating revelation. Martin Lings writes: “The Ocean is within as well as without; and the path of the mystic is a gradual awakening … a remembrance of the Supreme Self which infinitely transcends the human ego and which is none other than the Deep towards which the wave ebbs.”
           Mainstream Christianity and Judaism tend to maintain a clear divide between the human and the divine. In all the centuries of discussion it seems never to have been suggested that humanity and divinity are one. For me the experience of oneness amounts to being saved; it is salvation from isolation to total communion.
           I have come to a new understanding of the Apostles’ Creed: A divine presence reveals [God’s self] as the ongoing creator, sustainer, and substance and spirit of all existence. Jesus seems to have had the access to and intimacy with God [that one] associates with only-child-ship. The spirit is so limitless we each can be as close to the Source as an only child to a loving parent. We are all “conceived by the Holy Ghost.” I think the essence of a dying person returns to the divine wholeness and continues in the incorporated-but-separate condition which characterized him or her in life. I can’t see where Jesus affirms judging the “quick and the dead.” All worshipers of the Spirit and the Truth meld in their focus on the Holy. When the sin is renounced, that obstacle is removed; so the sin can be said to be forgiven. “Amen” is a fine old word related to “omm.” It returns us to the meditation from which our awareness springs. I affirm the Apostles’ Creed as my own.
           I do not deny that Jesus was Christos’ most complete fulfillment. I simply add that we are all the Christ when we are true to our deepest natures. We are a tiny part of God, but a precious part. All my joy, all of my hurt resounds in an awareness that has not limit in time or space. War is so repugnant because it is the slaughter of the Spirit’s incarnation. It is one thing to rejoin the divine ocean after a good death; it is quite different for any limited, partial consciousness to decide when a death should occur. Through the lens of wholeness all of life, all existence is revealed to be holy friendly and familiar; no one is a stranger.
           Sin is whatever blocks our union with the divine. That which dulls intuition and spiritual alertness is sinful. [Remembering this] I walk more, listen more, and meditate more. I re-experience that every person is composed fundamentally of the divine. [If I find myself full of hate], I summon my memory of the unity experience and let that fill my mind. The Light has never misled me, and each time I turn to it, I emerge feeling tuned and nourished. The Spirit does not work against itself. The center of adversary is the same as my center, no matter how repulsive the shell which has grown around it.
           Somehow we’ve let the idea develop that we are all separate and in competition. I was afraid that if I looked deeply into myself I would find emptiness. I even feared that God was an idea that I had adopted, an ego defense mechanism, and had no reality. I began meditation fir stress-reduction; when I risked a little deeper meditation. I found my refreshment and appreciation for life steadily grew. The miracle grows; when my own competitiveness is dissolved, my adversary’s [eventually] melts away too.
           I volunteered to work with some inmates of a minimum security prison for young men. They were me; they were you; they were of God. & they were grasping desperately for acknowledgment. They showed me the answer isn’t more prisons, or any other kind of walls. The answer is more love from the center, the love of understanding identification. Most people in jail have never come face to face—spirit to spirit—with love from center. Loving from center means channeling the love which pervades the universe through my heart & my hands.
               BOUND AND BOUNDLESS—A major category of psychological disturbance is partly defined as a condition where the individual does not know where he or she begins. Am I sick because I believe the boundaries between [all substance, energy, consciousness, and emptiness] are more illusion than real? I know that while people are all part of a single identity, we also have separate identities, which for certain functions are quite important; we are at once separate and inseparable, bounded and boundless. People with borderline personality disorders have difficulty believing that they are real, that they exist at all. When I am able to live in aware-ness of unity, reality is exquisitely obvious [as I participate in all the substance, energy, consciousness, and emptiness around me]. In the hours, the days, the weeks in between, I need community, and I need religion.
           RELIGION—[The Buddhist have a saying about Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. I would translate it as] “I go for refuge to the spirit of which all reality partakes, to the great teachings and writings that lead me towards that spirit, to the community of believers; [it is what we all need]. [I was alone one night at work, between clients. The stillness steadily grew. Gradually it filled me, filled the room, and peace flowed in. What was stunning was that I knew it wasn’t just me being peaceful.
           At times I felt taken up by a powerful stream—as though all I needed to be sure of the right thing to do, was to be tuned in, in harmony with a powerful stream. I found a resounding chord in reading about Zen. In Zen meditation, I felt lifted by luminous flood waters, and the world was fresh, new, and spectacularly beautiful. And whole. When I thought of going to seminary, my wife suggested a Friends meeting. In Meeting we both felt at home. Friends offered a convincing understanding of the Presence.
           As the years pass, I also find the love support, and challenges of a Christian Sangha. I encounter the Christ among Friends—in Friends who call themselves Christian and in Friends who don’t. Other people following their own inner promptings and experiences find the Christ in other places. Some even find it in the very church which for me was an airtight, imprisoning box. [5 geese are on the pond]. Life swirls around and through me, rich and full of meaning. I am—you are—we are all—in the palm of Christ’s hand.
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194. Quakerism of the Future: Mystical, Prophetic & Evangelical (by John Yungblut; 1974) 

           About the Author—After serving the Episcopal Church for 20 years, he became a member of the Religious Society of Friends in 1960. He was director of Quaker House, a civil rights and peace program in Atlanta, from 1960-1968. From 1968-1972 he was director of the International Student House in Washington, D.C. He and his wife taught at Pendle Hill. This essay is from the Henry J. Cadbury Lecture on March 27, 1974. 

           Beneath the currents which have shaped Christian thought there sounds like the fabled sunken bell, the strains of Mysticism. The mystic note floats up from the depths—now muffled, now clear.      (E. Herman) 

           Introduction—I am saying here that the only Quakerism that can survive in the future will have to be mystical, prophetic, and evangelical. These are the very best elements in our tradition. It is the vital energy for which our institutions have provided reasonably effective conductors that is most precious to us. 

           The mystical is most crucial, because it provides sustained motivation both for the prophetic involvement & the evangelical spirit. Rufus Jones saw Quakerism as a spiritual movement “showing deep affinities with Mysticism” & [sought] to interpret it in this light. Within the Society of Friends, a growing group would have us disclaim this heritage. [They don't see as] mystical the life-affirming religion of Jesus, Paul, & John in the New Testament (NT). It is true that no word has had such varying & conflicting connotations, or been more abused than “mysticism.” But there is no other word that will do adequate service. It is hard to describe the characteristic mystical experience. Eastern sages say: “He who says what it is doesn’t know, & he who knows, doesn’t say.” 

           Dean Inge defines it as: “The attempt to realize, in thought and feeling, the immanence of the temporal in the eternal, and of the eternal in the temporal.” George Fox said: “I knew experimentally that Jesus Christ enlightens” & “I now knew God by [personal] revelation.” William Penn wrote: “Wherefore stand still in thy mind, wait to feel something divine to prepare and dispose thee to worship God truly and acceptably. The Almighty’s power will break in, his spirit will work & prepare the heart, that it may offer up acceptable sacrifice.” 

           Robert Barclay’s thinking had aspects of the mystical, [but it was mixed with a low opinion of man; the Light within us] has nothing to with man’s own nature [and is separate from man’s soul]. Fox, Penn and Penington [disagreed with the Light’s separateness from man], and believed that man was capable of moving toward perfection through obedience. Rufus Jones has convincingly traced the devastating passiveness of the 200-year Quietistic period in Quaker history, at least in part, to Barclay’s despair of the natural man.

           Insofar that Fox experienced the mystical, he did not need to have learned this from anyone else. The mystical faculty resides in all men and women by virtue of our shared humanity; it is the evolving edge in man. The mystical experience comes by grace. We can at least engage in purging. We can, by an effort of the will resolve to move toward the simple life in which we are not encumbered with possessions nor driven by an over-scheduled daily program. We can examine ourselves to see if moral duplicity in any of its many forms currently precludes the movement of the spirit in mystical experience. We can trust that when the wind of the Spirit does blow we will not be without an unfailing inward mariner who can keep us on course. [Such a] movement of the Spirit in our midst [is] the mark of a gathered or covered meeting.

           The Prophetic—[When we consider all the mystical opportunities given us, all the calls to obedience, all that that early Quakers had to say, it comes down to] “but what canst thou say?” We must hold that Jesus was a mystic and a prophet because of his mystical consciousness of the Kingdom as a present reality. Lewis Benson says: “Fox identifies himself and the Quaker movement with the prophetic tradition and his oppressors as standing in the priestly tradition.” The mystical consciousness of Jesus’ presence and prophetic utterance through a meeting member lays at the heart of Quaker prophetic testimonies. Quietism conditioned Friends against genuine mystical experience and its prophetic demands.

           It is no accident that the prophetic emphasis was recovered largely through men like Rufus Jones and Clarence Pickett. Prophetic action issuing from mystical identification gave birth to the American Friends Service Committee. The want of a genuinely mystical theology tended to reduce the incidence of mystical experience and the passion for social protest among Friends. [And now] when one looked in vain for movements reflecting the same idealism that earlier had motivated the civil rights and peace efforts, suddenly there began to spring up communal experiments. The true community to which they are committed is produced as much by grace as by dedicated effort, and must be recovered afresh every day. These [communal] life centers are potential training cells which do at least insulate individuals for a season from much in our contemporary society that conditions them against seeking mystical consciousness. 

           The Evangelical—When I say that the Quakerism of the future must [include the] evangelical, [I think first of the fact that Early Friends attached to the Scriptures an importance second only to the revelation imparted by their mystical experience of Jesus as the Christ. Only a recognized organic connection with our [gospel] tap root can prevent our withering. To have survival value I believe the Society of Friends must be evangelical in the sense of preserving a faith that is demonstrably and organically related to the gospels in the New Testament. 

           The 2nd meaning assigned to the word “evangelical” is “those Protestant churches that emphasize salvation by faith in the atonement of Jesus.” A committee of evangelical Friends invited Friends of all groupings and called for “a national conference, guided by the Holy Spirit to seek a workable, challenging and cooperative means for the Friends Church to be an active, enthusiastic, Christ-centered, and Spirit-directed force in this day of revolution.” A spirit of gracious listening and hearing prevailed on that occasion. I do not look for consensus or organic unity in the foreseeable future. I understand my personal salvation in terms of being made whole. This kind of at-one-ment was realized in Jesus’ life. He became at one with himself and with God. I want to be disciple of Jesus of Nazareth, and to learn of him to live and to die. 

           Because of important continuing revelation I need to distinguish between the Jesus of history and the evolving Christ myth. Myth is the only language religion can use to speak of the ultimate truths it perceives. Christ for me is God in man, the Son of man in the new sense of man’s successor. Though this Christ was revealed most fully in Jesus, we must not think any longer of Jesus and the Christ as identical. Jesus did not have 2 separate and distinct natures, one human and one divine. He had one nature, human, the very core of which is divine. Evangelical’s 3rd meaning is feeling the passion to spread the good news. The time has come to preach the faith we have resolved to practice. 

           We are the inheritors of a mystical faith; we are, all of us born mystics. In proportion as the mystical faculty is nourished and given scope in our lives we shall be driven to prophetic action. Our growing mystical consciousness shall transform us in evangelical Christians, bursting to share what we have learned about living in the Kingdom from Jesus of Nazareth. Fox revised “the truth of his day” in significant ways, in keeping with his world view and his personal revelation. We are being more true to the spirit that was in Fox by adapting the myth to meet the demands of the [currently] revealed truths than by trying to return to his theology in all details. It is not Quakerism that must survive, but a Christian faith with the characteristics we described. I shall continue to hope that the Society of Friends will become increasingly mystical, prophetic, and evangelical.

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