“In the Hand of God”

A meditation inspired by the first lighting of the rebuilt Church of St. Nicholas at the World Trade Center.

John Woolman and the Pandemic

In the era before vaccination, John Woolman declined inoculation against smallpox and practiced such isolation as he could manage. His reasoning, despite its basis in religious belief, can help us think critically about our behavior in this time of COVID-19.

A Post[-]modern Disclaimer

I intend the term “postmodern” to point to … an unreadiness, born of experience, to assent to any totalizing, teleological, grand story. As a child of both the Catholic Church and the 20th century, I am deeply suspicious of such stories.

Quakerism / spirituality / Vocal ministry

A Quaker Way of Life

Over 45 years ago, I was invited into a peculiar way of life, a way of unity in diversity, authentic relationship, respect for conscience and the work of love’s light within, fidelity to one’s measure of that light, and moral freedom.

An Analytic Perspective on Quaker Spirituality

The notion of neurotic repression may offer a helpful perspective on a central doctrine of the early Quakers; namely, that all human beings are naturally and fundamentally flawed, but most, if not all, can be significantly changed for the better.

“Silent Ways of Knowing,” by Maggie Ross

“Silent Ways of Knowing” by Maggie Ross is the first essay to appear on The Postmodern Quaker that was not written by me. I think that its message is important for contemporary Quakers, and I am grateful to the author for permitting its republication here.

The First Step of Peace

“Quakerism is rightly called an experiential religion: one becomes a Friend in the experience of being illuminated, convicted, and empowered by the light within.”

The Psychology of Salvation, Pt. 9 — The Quaker Meeting as Therapeutic Milieu

By developing and expressing a contemporary, tradition-rooted understanding of the inner, experiential meanings of Quaker images such as “Inner Light” and “that of God,” and by returning to understanding themselves as communities of salvation here and now, our Quaker organizations, especially local meetings, can play an important role in the process of change.

The Psychology of Salvation, Pt. 8 — Responding to the Call

Salvation requires that we learn to discern and attend to something deeper than conscience, something that can properly orient and illumine the conscience; namely, the hidden light of love within us, which, as we have seen, Friends identified with the life and power of God. Only that can give us “a new heart” by leading us out of our self-centered schematic bias.

The Psychology of Salvation, Pt. 7 — The Call of Salvation

If deep change is to occur, somehow a powerful dissonance must be triggered; our well-established schematic network of core beliefs must be challenged by love.

The Psychology of Salvation, Pt. 6 — Inheriting “the World’s” Perspective

In a Quaker reading of the Fall myth, Adam and Woman have fallen into the spiritual death of the “way of self-wisdom and knowledge,” attempting to usurp God’s role as the Light which shows us what is good and what is evil. Each person will now define good and evil in terms of his or her self-interest, often unaware of doing so.

The Psychology of Salvation, Pt. 5 — Salvation from Sin: Schematic Accommodation

“[F]or the least measure of God’s righteousness is perfect, and all are in perfection who become servants to it, and thereby become free from sin.” One might have flaws, but one’s basic orientation had changed; one’s heart had been set free from the self-centered orientation that is sin.

The Psychology of Salvation, Pt. 4 — Cognitive Dissonance and Metanoia

Life presents us at times with experiences that get through the filters and challenge the validity of our basic worldview. Such experiences create in us a dissonance, a tension between our beliefs and new information. Cognitive dissonance is particularly strong when the conflict involves our self-concept. There are two principal methods of reducing such dissonance.

The Psychology of Salvation, Pt. 3 — The Heart of Quakerism: A New Orientation

To be saved is to be one whose basic bias is toward universal love, which is the opposite of “the world’s” orientation to self. To begin to turn to that new orientation is to enter the process of metanoia.

The Psychology of Salvation, Pt. 2 — Texts, Tools, and Thesis

Our thesis is that, in psychological terms, the biblically-shaped experience of the first Friends implies, first, that the characteristic of commonsense, “normal” self-centeredness constitutes a pervasive schematic bias in the psyches of most human beings, and, second, that Quaker conversion/salvation is a process of detaching from that self-centered bias and adopting a new, love-centered orientation.