Leaving Liberal Quakerism: What Love Would Have Me Do
After four decades of membership and ministry, I find myself a conscientious objector to today’s Liberal Quakerism.
“This I Knew Experimentally”: an Analysis of George Fox’s Convincement Narrative
“What Fox describes is a set of Bible-based cognitions carrying powerful affective impact and leading him to believe that God’s promised kingdom would be fulfilled in and through him.”
Continuing Revelation, ‘What Canst Thou Say?’ and Speaking One’s Truth
“What canst thou say?” is sometimes taken to be a call to “speak your truth.” But that’s an idea that George Fox could not have endorsed; more likely, he would have taken issue with it in forceful terms. His challenge was, and is, much more radical.
Quaker Faith & Practice for the 21st Century: Ia
This is the first public draft of the Introduction to the work-in-progress called Quaker Faith and Practice for the Twenty-first Century.
Writing a Faith and Practice
An announcement of my (quixotic?) plan to compose a book of Quaker Faith and Practice for the 21st Century, and a tale of trouble as a Yearly Meeting struggles to update its manual of Faith and Practice ….
A Song of Experience
My concerns about the contemporary liberal Quaker fascination with what is called “spiritual experience,” a fascination I shared earlier in my life, are longstanding.
I Am the Way
Does Quaker spirituality subsist in our climbing a path to peak experience? Are we essentially seekers, our living the divine life deferred as we seek the summit? George Fox would answer those questions with an emphatic “No!”
Questioning Quakerism as Mysticism
In this post, I examine the content and the meaning, for him and for us, of George Fox’s famous “There is one, even Christ Jesus” experience.
Antiquaker: Further Reflections on the Dark Side of Liberal Quakerism
Liberal Quakerism increasingly identifies itself with a small subset of Quaker vocabulary and practices, all loosely defined if at all. The Quaker narrative context which gave our vocabulary and practice meaning is ignored or intentionally rejected rather than faithfully developed, as if our selected slogans (“spirit,” “light,” “continuing revelation,” etc.) and practices (silent “worship,” consensus…
That of God, Spirit, and Light — Lite
In their proper context, Spirit, Light, and that of God are characters in a narrative. Within the narrative they have well-defined characteristics and roles. They have life. And they have evocative power. Ripped from that narrative, they become vague metaphysical notions that stir no one ….
The Postmodern Quaker 