The Fruit of the Spirit
“Sometimes when the Christ-light within wants fruit from us, it’s just not a good time ….”
“In the Hand of God”
A meditation inspired by the first lighting of the rebuilt Church of St. Nicholas at the World Trade Center.
“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.
If Love Flows Through Us
If love flows through us, then we can’t possess it. And if love flows through us, then we can’t take credit for allowing it to do so.
Delusion, Quaker Worship, & Spiritual Life
If the goal of my spiritual life is transformation, spiritual attainment, or personal improvement, then any path I walk leads back to me — that is, nowhere. … Openness to sobering, even painful revelation is at the heart of silent Quaker worship: the turning of bare attention, without denial or rationalization, to whatever appears as I am searched by the light that was in Jesus. … By dispelling the delusion of self as center, the Christ-light eases my need for self-validation and spiritual success.
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.
Quaker Theology in Brief
Primitive Quakerism … was hyperfocused on the power for/of living righteously. To bring that vision into the 21st century requires no elaboration but, on the contrary, invites further simplification.
The Publican, the Quarisee, and Christ
Two guys walk into a house of worship ….
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.
The Postmodern Quaker 