“In the Hand of God”
A meditation inspired by the first lighting of the rebuilt Church of St. Nicholas at the World Trade Center.
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 Church, the Draft Board, and Me (1) — Introduction
A sketch of my evolution, despite encounters with predatory priests and a vindictive draft board, from youthful candidate for the Catholic priesthood to adult a-theistic Quaker who still asserts that “God is love.”
The Church, the Draft Board, and Me (9) — Sidebar 2: Letter to Father Robert
My letter to a priest from whom I’d requested a reference for the draft board, in which I explain that I must refuse, as Tolstoy put it, “to be ready on another’s command (for this is what a soldier’s duty actually consists of) to kill all those one is ordered to kill.”
God Is Love: A Quaker Reading of 1 John 4
In 1 John, the apostle makes the explicit identification of God and agapē — universal love — that can serve as the primary interpretive principle for post-theistic Friends in our reading of both scripture and the Quaker tradition.
“To all Friends” — an Adaptation
A 21st-century adaptation of George Fox’s Epistle CXXX, “To all Friends, to dwell in the truth, the life of God, the light, &c.” (1656).
Law, Love, and Liberty
Life in agapē is life in the “freedom of the children of God,” the liberty of those whose Spirit is divine. It differs radically from the ersatz liberty of the human spirit that, breathing where it believes it should, remains nonetheless enclosed.
A Basic Theology for Friends
“A Basic Theology for Friends,” an adaptation of the essay “Quaker Theology in Brief,” is the concluding part of Section I of my work in progress, Quaker Faith & Practice for the 21st Century.
Christ Within You: A Quaker Manifesto
[W]ithin us is a relational spirit that “never consents” to selfishness. That holy spirit, which we tend to repress, constantly critiques our attitudes and actions, … wanting to awaken us to the divine power and wisdom waiting in our hearts.
The Basis of Quaker Pacifism
We are pacifists because, re-centered in God-who-is-agapē, we find that love is stronger than our fear and anger.
The Postmodern Quaker 