BIO: Joseph John Gurney, Quaker Evangelical (4 Jan 1847) JOSEPH JOHN GURNEY, QUAKER EVANGELICAL (4 JAN 1847) This series includes biographical sketches of about ten Quakers. Most sketches are accompanied by sections on various topics related to the Quaker movement. A Table of contents, enabling the reader to find material on various Quakers and various aspects of Quakerism, can be reached by clicking . A reading list, sorted according to topic, can be reached by clicking . $$$ JOSEPH JOHN GURNEY In the Gurney family, Quakers of Earlham Hall, Norwich (see Elizabeth Gurney Fry, 12 Oct), the most distinguished members were Elizabeth Gurney Fry and her brother, eight years her junior, Joseph John Gurney, always called Joseph John (1788-1847). He was (in Trueblood's words) "scholar, banker, author, preacher, philanthropist, and cultivated gentleman." He was a brilliant scholar, and studied at Oxford <51:45 N 1:15 W>, although as a Quaker he could not be granted a degree. At sixteen, he was reading Dante in Italian and the Old Testament in Hebrew. At seventeen he left Oxford to work in the family bank, but continued his studies on his own. He became a chief organizer for the anti-slavery movement in the Norwich area (his sister Hannah was married to Sir Thomas Buxton, who was, after William Wilberforce (see 31 July), the principal voice in Parliament against slavery). From 1811 to 1836, the Bible Society held its annual convention at Earlham Hall. In 1837-1840 he traveled in Canada <@ 55 N 100 W>, the United States <@ 40 N 90 W>, and the West Indies , and addressed a joint session of Congress. For his correspondence with a then relatively obscure politician named Abraham Lincoln, see THE CHRISTIAN HERALD, July, 1965, pp 24-7. In 1842 he traveled in France <@ 47 N 3 E>, and spoke with King Louis Philippe and the Prime Minister, seeking an end to slavery in the French colonies. Gurney was constantly being accused by his fellow Quakers of being unorthodox. The charge was that he relied too much on the Bible, rather than on the Inner Light. He read the Bible diligently in the original Hebrew and Greek. He was deeply committed to belief in Jesus Christ as Lord, God, and Savior. He stressed the identity of the Inner Light with Christ in the heart of the believer. He had many close friends who were Anglicans, in particular the bishop of Norwich and Charles Simeon (see 12 November) of Cambridge <52:12 N 0:07 E>. Even when he was defending the distinctive tenets of Quakerism, he tended (his opponents thought) to quote the Bible too much. As noted below, he introduced the study of the Bible at Ackworth School. For all this, he was opposed by a Rhode Island <@ 41:48 N 71:30 W> Quaker, John Wilbur. Their respective adherents came to be called Gurneyites and Wilburites. The division gave rise to separate organizations in New England <@ 43 N 72 W>, Ohio <@ 40 N 83 W>, and Canada. Gurney was committed to Quakerism, but he was a Christian first and a Quaker second. To be otherwise, he thought, was to be both a bad Christian and a bad Quaker. He wrote in his JOURNAL: "I adopt and have professed with the utmost openness the middle line, on which account my name is cast out as evil on both sides to a remarkable degree. I wonder I do not mind it more." He died 4 January 1847. $$$ QUAKERISM AS EVANGELICAL Does Quakerism affirm the central teachings of traditional Christianity about the nature of God and Christ? George Fox maintained that it does, in his letter to the Governor of Barbados <@ 13:10 N 59:35 W>, partly reproduced here. For the Governor of Barbados, and his Council and Assembly, and all others in power, both civil and military, in this island: from the people called Quakers. [written by Fox and others in 1671 Journal of George Fox, chap. 21, near the beginning] Whereas many scandalous lies and slanders have been cast upon us, to render us odious; as that we do deny God, and Christ Jesus, and the Scriptures of truth, &c. This is to inform you, that all our books and declarations, which for these many years have been published to the world, do clearly testify the contrary. Yet notwithstanding, for your satisfaction, we do now plainly and sincerely declare that we do own and believe in God, the only wise, omnipotent, and everlasting God, who is the Creator of all things both in heaven and in earth, and the Preserver of all that He hath made; who is God over all, blessed for ever; to whom be all honour and glory, dominion, praise, and thanksgiving, both now and for evermore! And we do own and believe in Jesus Christ, His beloved and only begotten Son, in whom He is well pleased; who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, and born of the Virgin Mary; in whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins; who is the express image of the invisible God, the first-born of every creature, by whom were all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers, all things were created by Him. And we do own and believe that He was made a sacrifice for sin who knew no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth; and that He was crucified for us in the flesh without the gates of Jerusalem; and that He was buried, and rose again the third day by the power of His Father, for our justification; and we do believe that He ascended up into heaven, and now sitteth at the right hand of God. This Jesus, who was the foundation of the holy prophets and apostles, is now our foundation; and we do believe that there is no other foundation to be laid than that which is laid, even Christ Jesus; who, we do believe, tasted death for every man, shed His blood for all men, and is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world; according as John the Baptist testified of Him, when he said, "Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world." John 1:29. We believe that He alone is our Redeemer and Saviour, even the Captain of our Salvation, who saves us from sin, as well as from hell and the wrath to come, and destroys the Devil and his works; who is the Seed of the woman, that bruises the serpent's head, to wit, Christ Jesus, the Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last. That He is (as the Scriptures of truth say of Him) our wisdom and righteousness, justification and redemption; neither is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we may be saved. It is He alone who is the Shepherd and Bishop of our souls; He it is who is our Prophet whom Moses long since testified of, saying, "A Prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; Him shall ye hear in all things, whatsoever He shall say unto you; and it shall come to pass, that every soul that will not hear that Prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people." Acts 3:22,23. He it is that is now come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know Him that is true. And He rules in our hearts by His law of love and of life, and makes us free from the law of sin and death. We have no life but by Him; for He is the quickening Spirit, the second Adam, the Lord from heaven; by whose blood we are cleansed, and our consciences sprinkled from dead works to serve the living God. And He is our Mediator, that makes peace and reconciliation between God offended and us offending. He being the Oath of God, the New Covenant of light, life, grace, and peace; the Author and Finisher of our faith. Now this Lord Jesus Christ, the heavenly Man, the Emmanuel, God with us, we all own and believe in; Him whom the high-priest raged against, and said He had spoken blasphemy; whom the priests and the elders of the Jews took counsel together against, and put to death; the same whom Judas betrayed for thirty pieces of silver, which the priests gave him as a reward for his treason, who also gave large money to the soldiers to broach a horrible lie, namely, that His disciples came and stole Him away by night, whilst they slept. After He was risen from the dead, the history of the Acts of the Apostles sets forth how the chief priests and elders persecuted the disciples of this Jesus, for preaching Christ and His resurrection. This, we say, is that Lord Jesus Christ, whom we own to be our life and salvation. Neave Brayshaw (THE QUAKERS, THEIR STORY AND MESSAGE, London: Allen and Unwin, 1953) writes: Fox and the early Friends identified this principle--the Light, as they called it--with Jesus Christ.... It was not for them an impersonal abstractions, a substitute for God or for Christ; for them it was CHRIST, manifesting Himself in the hearts of men; it was He whom the heathen, obedient to the Light, were obeying, even though they had not heard of His earthly existence, a more eminent manifestation of Himself than any other. This is the Logos doctrine of the gospel of John. Trueblood writes: We do not need to refer merely to what occurred long ago in Palestine, important as the historical record may be, because the same experience is possible here and now, because the Light which shone then continues to shine. The Spirit of God, which inspired the men who wrote the Scriptures, is still at work, in each human heart, and will be known by all who respond. Worship, therefore, is not the performance of a dead ritual, but genuine waiting upon the Lord to hear His voice and to know His power at first hand.... The God who is like Jesus Christ can indeed be inferred by argument, but that is never sufficient. It is experience, and especially the experience of the changed life, that is the true verification. That is another way of saying that Quakers have placed strong emphasis on the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. Though Quakers have not made much use of the Trinitarian formula...the experiential basis of the doctrine has usually been recognized. By this is meant the observation that God, who is, in one sense, One, has been revealed in a variety of ways. He is seen in creation and in the order of nature; He is seen historically in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ; He is seen experientially, as the Holy Spirit, reaching directly into the human heart, giving guidance and strength in life's darkest as well as life's brightest ways. Robert Barclay in his APOLOGY writes: By this seed, grace, and word of God, and light wherewith we say every one is enlightened and hath a measure of it, which strives with him in order to save him, and which may, by the stubbornness and wickedness of man's will, be quenched, bruised, wounded, pressed down, slain and crucified, we understand not the proper essence and nature of God precisely taken, which is not divisible into parts and measures as being a most pure, simple being, void of all composition or division, and therefore can neither be resisted, hurt, wounded, crucified or slain by all the efforts and strength of men; but we understand one spiritual, heavenly, and invisible principle, in which God, as Father, Son, and Spirit dwells; a measure of which divine and glorious life is in all men as a seed, which of its own nature draws, invites, and inclines to God. Trueblood writes: The early Quaker writers called the Light, "The Light of Christ Within." They wanted to identify it with the Christ of history. If they had decided otherwise, Quakerism might easily have become separated from its Christian roots and have ended as something similar to theosophy. John 1:9 ("That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.") was used so often that it came to be known as "the Quaker text." Over and over, when Quakers have been asked to distinguish between the Christ of History and the Christ of Experience, they have refused to accept the distinction, maintaining, instead, that it is this very identity that is the central point. (See, for example, the 1674 book, THE CHRISTIAN QUAKER, by William Penn and George Whitehead.) What Christ said long ago and what He says now must be consistent and coherent. The ancient words are supported today, as we enter into the continuing fellowship of verification, while present leadings are unreliable if they are inconsistent with what He said when He walked on earth. In short, Quakers take the Resurrection seriously and therefore do not suppose that they must mention Christ merely in the past tense. It is not surprising that an idea as powerful as that of the "Indwelling Light of Christ" was full of danger. Just as other Christians sometimes put all of the emphasis upon the Christ of History, Friends have often had a severe temptation to put all of the stress upon the Christ of Experience. In the eighteenth century, and even in the first half of the nineteenth century, many Friends almost forgot the Biblical roots of their faith or, in any case, they neglected them sorely. It was always a temptation to make such an excessive stress on the "Inward Teacher" that the major deterrent to spiritual anarchy was removed. Joseph John Gurney recognized this danger, and, in 1816, he gave a copy of the Bible to every boy and girl in Ackworth <53:39 N 1:20 W> School. When John Barclay [descendant of Robert Barclay] visited the school in 1819, he expressed his uneasiness at this, stating his belief that regular, systematic teaching of the Scriptures was incompatible with Quakerism. The evangelical revival among Quakers, led by Gurney, was much needed. One major danger inherent in the idea of the Light was that of a sterile humanism. It was always possible to suppose that Quakers were talking merely about human reason or even about the natural goodness of men, after the fashion later popularized in the French Enlightenment. On the one hand [the Quaker intellectuals] rejected the pessimism of total depravity as inconsistent with the idea that man is made in God's image. On the other hand, they rejected the high opinion of man as being fundamentally akin to God, and a very nice creature if only left alone. The spirit of man may be the candle of the Lord, but it is a candle which often sputters. We need to maintain the same dualism between ourselves and Christ. He was indeed a person of flesh and blood, tempted as we are tempted and wounded as we are wounded, but He was, at the same time, the very Image of the Living God. God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, as He is not in us. The experience of almost every thoughtful person who seeks to confront the Christ of the Gospels, with any seriousness, includes the recognition that, in Him, we find something different from anything we find in ourselves. He is different in kind and not merely different in degree. Fox said, "There is that of God in every man." He meant to speak of the universality of God's grace, but it is possible to understand the phrase as meaning that every man has a piece of God in him. Some go so far, in this direction, as to claim that the divine in men is all of the divine there is.... It cannot be too strongly pointed out that such an immanentist conception is wholly at variance with the mainstream of Quaker thought, as represented by the brilliant men who became Fox's exponents in the learned world. With a concerted voice, they held that the saving Light is not a human light, that it is wholly divine, and that it comes to men who do not deserve it. John William Rowntree, of the famous chocolate-producing family in York, England, was convinced that the Quaker concept of the Inner Light was true and important, but saw that, separated from faith in the Incarnate Christ, it became vague, and ended as a simple endorsement of whatever the individual wanted to believe. He wrote (ESSAYS AND ADDRESSES, 1905): The difficulties of the doctrine of Inward Guidance are, as James Nayler's experience reminds us [see under DANGERS OF SUBJECTIVISM], serious and practical. I would suggest that the solution lies in a deeper interpretation of the person and message of Jesus Christ. Apart from the thought of God as we see Him set forth in Jesus, and the common consciousness of truth as revealed in lofty souls who have been touched by His spiritual fire, it is not evident how the faults of individual interpretation are to be corrected...but with Jesus as the Gospel, witnessed in the conscience of a civilization infected by His Spirit, I see the balance-wheel to the doctrine of the Inward Light. Then, O Christ, convince us by Thy Spirit, thrill us with Thy Divine passion, drown our selfishness in Thy invading love, lay on us the burden of all the world's suffering, drive us forth with the apostolic fervor of the early Church! So only can our message be delivered:--"Speak to the Children of Israel that they go forward." In 1870, Hannah Whitall Smith, a Quaker of Philadelphia <40 N 75:10 W>, published a book called THE CHRISTIAN'S SECRET OF A HAPPY LIFE. Since then over two million copies have been sold. Its message is neither complex or original. The secret of happiness is complete trust in Christ. She invites her readers to join with her in the following statement of commitment: "Lord Jesus, I believe that thou art able and willing to deliver me from all the care and unrest and bondage of my Christian life. I believe that thou didst die to set me free, not only in the future, but now and here. I believe thou art stronger than sin, and that thou canst keep me, in my extreme of weakness, from falling into its snares or yielding obedience to its commands. And, Lord, I am going to trust thee to keep me. I have tried keeping myself and have failed, and failed most grievously. I am absolutely helpless. So now I will trust thee. I give myself to thee. I keep back no reserves. Body, soul, and spirit, I present myself to thee as a piece of clay, to be fashioned into anything thy love and thy wisdom shall choose. And now I am thine... I trust thee utterly, and I trust thee now." Trueblood writes: Any honest study of the life of Quakers in the exciting days of their origin cannot fail to show how exceedingly Christ-centered they were. The experience of Fox and Burrough and Penn was not religious experience in general or the flight of the Alone to the Alone. Quakerism began, not with the inference that there was in the universe an Oversoul, but rather that Christ could be known directly. In the most quoted of all of the insights of George Fox, he did not even report that he knew GOD; he said that there was one, even Jesus Christ, who could speak to his condition. Fox and his associates, as E B Castle (APPROACH TO QUAKERISM, London, 1961) has said so vividly, "never remained in rapt and self-satisfying contemplation of an infinite Beyond." Instead, they centered their attention on Christ as their practical Teacher in the practical world of concrete events. Castle is very clear when he says, "This unhesitating Christian emphasis is important, for it established firmly the fact that the founders of Quakerism had no doubt whatever that their faith was Christ-centered and Christ-derived." There is a danger that persons who find other churches over-restrictive, and are attracted by what they perceive as the freedom of the Quaker way, will assume that that freedom means freedom from Christ. Professor Douglas V Steere addressed this danger as follows: We have now and I predict that we shall have increasingly in the future, many men and women in our ranks who treasure our tenderness with those who, out of inner honesty, dare not formulate the cosmic redemptive scene in even as rigid a way as I may seem to have done in this swift statement. I should be the last one who would want to crowd or to compel these precious seekers to go beyond what their integrity or their experience up to now has disclosed to them as valid. But I would not want these persons to be deprived of facing the fact that the Quaker experience of the centuries, joined with that of other Christians over the years, has found this windowing of God's own nature in Jesus Christ of compelling significance. Thomas S. Brown ("The Personal Relevance of Truth," ARCHWAY) comments on the spiritual journey of Justin Martyr, who came as a philosopher to believe in the Logos (see John 1:1), the creative self-expression of God. He says in part: But it is just at his point that Justin's thought takes the crucial step, the same crucial step that every thoughtful Christian must take, and without which Christianity remains simply one religion among others, one philosophy among others, all equally open to the smorgasbord nibbling of the enlightened eclectic. The razor-sharp commitment, the bridgeless leap is this: that the Logos became the human being, Jesus of Nazareth. Let me say that more slowly: the Logos, the Self-Expression of God, the Creative Power that brought the Universe into being, became flesh and blood; mind, body, and soul; fully, unequivocally human; "full of grace and truth": as the Gospel of John says. This incarnation, this "becoming red meat" of the Self-Expression of God, was, furthermore, not solely as dominion and power but principally as love, as suffering, as triumph over death, as joy and peace; as healing and lifting; as radical, active, passionate opposition to evil. I should like to re-emphasize the implications of this statement about the Logos-Christ. In the first place, Christianity so understood is not like one religion among others or like one which is chosen as a student chooses courses out of the college catalog. In the second place, Christianity does not see itself as right and other religions wrong, as for instance a Democrat would be right and a Republican wrong. The "simple" claim of Christianity is that the full Truth of God, the very center of his Being, appeared in time and space as Jesus Christ, and that his revelation of Reality in human, concrete, historical terms is the basis of Christianity. Thus Christianity speaks about the nature of Reality and the relevance of Reality to us. In the same essay, he writes: Since I am the creature of God, I can never escape relationship with him. But it must be noted very clearly that I am not divine because of that relationship. I am not God, and nothing that is in me as man is God, any more than the painting is the artist; neither paint nor canvas is human, but only the means through which the genius of the artist shines. >>> 65 (APOCALYPSE, by Gwyn) Now I was sent to turn people from darkness to light that they might receive Christ Jesus, for as many as should receive him in his light, I saw he would give power to become sons of God, which I had obtained by receiving Christ. The consistent emphasis of Fox's preaching is the power of the risen Christ within the believer. In the intensely Christian culture to which he preached, a knowledge of the earthly life of Jesus was assumed. It is Fox's insistence that no saving knowledge of Jesus can come from the record of the New Testament. Only as the light inwardly reveals Jesus to the believer is a saving knowledge and power received. This understanding presents Jesus less as an outward ideal to be emulated than the inward incarnation of the new creature actualized in the obedient life of the believer. [The light begins as a light of condemnation (see John 3:19-21, Ephesians 5:13), which rebukes sin. He who heeds the light finds himself convicted (convinced) of his sins, aware of his guilt. However, "he that shows a man his sins, is the same that takes it away." God brings down to the grave and brings up again. Having brought a man to see his utter powerlessness the Light of Christ then empowers him and renews him.] >>> 81 (APOCALYPSE, by Gwyn) The light, the spiritual presence and power of Christ in the world, is a paradox; it is universally bestowed as an unnamed revelation "in every man that comes into the world," yet it is unambiguously identified with Jesus of Nazareth. Understanding this mystery is essential to grasping Fox's message and placing it in relation to Puritanism. Brayshaw 46: Fox and the early Friends identified this principle--the Light, as they called it--with Jesus Christ. Penn said that Friends preferred to speak, not of the "Light within," but of "the Light of Christ within." [A REPLY TO A PRETENDED ANONYMOUS ANSWER, etc. 1675] It was not for them an impersonal abstraction, a substitute for God or for Christ; for them it was CHRIST, manifesting Himself in the hearts of men; it was He whom the heathen, obedient to the Light, were obeying; even though they had not heard of His earthly existence, a more eminent manifestation of Himself than any other. [See Penn, THE CHRISTIAN QUAKER (1669), cc. 16,17.] This is the Logos doctrine of the Gospel of John. Penington argued that, if, according to the almost universal belief of his day, all men were involved in the guilt of Adam, even though they had never heard of him, so they might be saved by their faithfulness to the light of Christ in their hearts though they had never heard of His outward appearance. [SOME QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS] Brayshaw 49: The emphasis was placed on salvation, not from the consequences of sin, but from the power of sin itself. Penn dwells on the thought of salvation from sin, and THEREFORE from wrath. [See, THE CHRISTIAN QUAKERS, cc 13,17; NO CROSS, NO CROWN, pt. 1, c. 1; ADDRESS TO PROTESTANTS, Pt ii.  4. There are, however, passages which put forward the idea of paying the debt and of the "substitutionary" conception of Christ's sacrifice (A KEY TO DISTINGUISH QUAKERISM, 9, and PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY REVIVED, c 8, 3,4).] Brayshaw 52: The early Quakers taught that the Inner Light was not part of man's nature, but external to it, like a candle in a lantern, illuminating it for a time, but leaving its essential nature unchanged. [Barclay, APOLOGY, v., vi. 16.] It was said to be IN man, but not OF man. [This was a favorite expression of Penn, and occurs repeatedly in his works.] $$$ QUAKERISM AS MATURE PURITANISM See also Geoffrey F. Nuttall, THE HOLY SPIRIT IN PURITAN FAITH AND PRACTICE (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1947), chap. 10. [Henry J Cadbury, A Quaker Approach to the Bible, in THROUGH A QUAKER ARCHWAY] Geoffrey F. Nuttall... in his book THE HOLY SPIRIT IN PURITAN FAITH AND EXPERIENCE, arranges seventeenth-century religious thought in such a way as to show how Quakerism had much in common with all the Puritans but stood rather to the extreme of a graded spectrum. xiii (APOCALYPSE, by Gwyn) The two dominant modern readings of the Quaker message have been the mystical one by Rufus M Jones and the Protestant reading by Geoffrey Nuttall and Hugh Barbour. >>> xvi (APOCALYPSE, by Gwyn) The first decisive study in this historical analysis came with Geoffrey Nuttall's THE HOLY SPIRIT IN PURITAN FAITH AND EXPERIENCE (1946). ... Taking a number of radical Puritan themes, he shows the flow in Puritan thought toward the conclusion of Fox and other early Quaker writers in each case. ...Hugh Barbour, a leading historian of Quakerism today. His THE QUAKERS IN PURITAN ENGLAND (1964) is probably the most influential contribution in the area of early Quaker history since W. C. Braithwaite's massive study. ... Extending Nuttall's work, he narrates the birth of Quakerism in the fertile matrix of spiritual Puritanism where prayer, singing, and daily life were increasingly subjected to the Spirit's leading. [But Nuttall and Barbour overlook crucial differences.] Certainly Fox shares with the Reformers a strong emphasis on experience and saving faith. Yet [for Fox] the Christian experience unfolds within the context of Christ's return, instead of scripture's record. $$$ QUAKERISM AS MYSTICAL For an overview of the debate on Fox's mysticism, see Melvin B. Endy, Jr., "The Interpretation of Quakerism: Rufus Jones and his Critics," QUAKER HISTORY 70 (1981): 3-21. Christopher J. Holdsworth, "Mystics and Heretics in the Middle Ages: Rufus Jones Reconsidered." JOURNAL OF THE FRIENDS HISTORICAL SOCIETY 53 (1972): 9-30. [Hale Sutherland, "Man and His World," in THROUGH A QUAKER ARCHWAY] In their moments of vision these great men and women... have come into direct perception of and communion with vast overshadowing Reality; joyous Being; have perceived themselves as being one with that Being and, in that unity, one with all mankind beside. ... Those who are of this vivifying experience are convinced that they have touched deeper levels of reality than are reached in ordinary living. They are convinced that in some sense they are parts of a living Whole and that theirs is a definite purpose in existence, to carry out into manifestation the plan and purpose of this living Whole. They are convinced that their individual lives have reality and significance only as elements in the Cosmic Being, that their purposes and choices are valid only as they are expressions of that deeper Selfhood which is the common Source of all seemingly individual selves. They are convinced that this realization of unity is the destiny of every human being and behind even the most prosaic of mundane occupations they see expression at some level of the Divine urge to creative unity. >> xiv-xv (APOCALYPSE, by Gwyn) Inspired by the rise of religious liberalism, psychology, and his own philosophical inclinations, Jones portrayed Fox's message as a highly evolved mysticism. ... Jones defined mysticism as "life itself at the highest inward unity and its most consummate attainment of Reality." He placed mysticism at the heart of all religions that emphasize the primacy of personal experience. Jones says of Fox and certain others that "they all proclaimed that deep in the central nature of man--an inalienable part of Reason--there was a Light, a Word, an Image of God, something permanent, reliable, universal, and unsundered from God himself." Jones conceived of Fox as advancing a concept of rationality as a divine aspect of human nature. Hence, he assigned to Fox an optimistic view of the human condition, in which the person's inmost core is eternally good and unfallen. ... Reading Fox closely, however, shows that while Fox believes in a universal spiritual experience that may remain unnamed, this light very definitely has a name--Jesus Christ--and that the language of the Bible is essential to understanding this experience. Quaker scholar T Canby Jones concludes from his extensive study ("Nature and..."--see reading list), "Incessantly, inevitably, and unalterably, George Fox identifies and defines the Light as Christ." Moreover, Fox is quite clear that moral imperative is essential to the experience of Christ's light. Morality cannot be made a secondary aspect for Fox; Christ's light is moral, or it is not his light. Jones's sense of the universal is tied to an understanding of human reason as a divine, saving faculty. But we shall see repeatedly in this study that Fox understands the light as inward by fundamentally alien to human nature. Far from being optimistic about human capacity, Fox sees our nature as utterly dark: human reason may be creative, but it is ultimately unable to save. ... >>> xvi (APOCALYPSE, by Gwyn) The philosophical liberalism of Rufus Jones's mystical interpretation of Quakerism... ignores the structural integrity of the message itself, finding a "buried treasure" at the core which, in fact, has been projected there by the investigator. There is too much in Fox's writings that Jones had to ignore in order to reach his conclusions. $$$ QUAKERISM AS APOCALYPTIC Douglas Gwyn, APOCALYPSE OF THE WORD: THE LIFE AND MESSAGE OF GEORGE FOX, Friends United Press, Richmond, Indiana, 1986, ISBN 0-913408-91-3 Gwyn is concerned to present the message of Fox, based on an analysis of some of his statements. He sees Fox's thought as based on the New Testament, in particular on the Book of Revelation. He explicitly disagrees with Rufus Jones, saying: "Jones's sense of the universal is tied to an understanding of human reason as a divine, saving faculty. But we shall see repeatedly in this study that Fox understands the light as inward but fundamentally alien to human nature." APOCALYPSE OF THE WORD by Douglas Gwyn. 1986, 241pp. $15 from FGCB, Study Guide $1.50 Examines the apocalyptic vision behind Fox's teaching and spirituality. Study Guide includes 12 sessions with Bible readings, questions for discussion, and resources. ... xxi-xxiii (APOCALYPSE, by Gwyn) Lewis Benson [WHAT DID GEORGE FOX TEACH ABOUT CHRIST?] has shown that the core of Fox's message is found in his repeated proclamation that "Jesus Christ is come to teach his people himself." Clearly this is a bold statement on the issue of the parousia. ... Fox's understanding indeed places justification in right relation to salvation history.... Justification and sanctification become one continuous work of God in Fox's preaching that "Jesus Christ is come to teach his people himself." ... Christ is come by his Spirit to judge, to empower, to war against Satan, and to rule among his people. The kingdom of God is revealed concretely on earth now. ... and the Church in Christ is a prophetic community, speaking and acting in the Spirit of Jesus. ... Early Friends concluded that communion with the risen Lord must be substantially the same as that enjoyed by the first disciples--a fellowship in which he TEACHES his friends. $$$ QUAKERISM AS NON-SYSTEMATIC On the other hand, Larry Ingle (FIRST FRIEND, p107) says of Fox: [Fox] was not a theologian, nor was he interested in being one originators of new sects seldom are. First and foremost he was a man of faith. He wanted to communicate his spiritual experiences to his generation, many of whose members shared his own frustrations and goals. Thus he relied on what he considered his inspired intuition and his sense of the way things were, not on theological systems created by mere mortals. ... His output of epistles and pamphlets more than two hundred were published, and presumably hundreds more were lost were dashed off to meet whatever concern rose to the top of his mind at a given moment. They read like products of a person more oral than literary, compositions developed while the author was speaking, transcribed, and them hurried off to the printer. He liked to relieve himself by pontificating on all manner of subjects. His views were erratic and subject to shifts over time, as well as to major modifications as he encountered new situations. The Barbados Letter is not Fox's only creedal statement. Two others, both less orthodox than it, are SOME PRINCIPLES OF THE ELECT PEOPLE OF GOD WHO IN SCORN ARE CALLED QUAKERS (London, no pub., 1661) and SOME PRINCIPLES OF THE ELECT PEOPLE OF GOD IN SCORN CALLED QUAKERS (London, no pub., 1671). Ingle writes (p313, n 5): Ever since the seventeenth century, [Fox's] followers have endeavored to systematize his theological musings and thereby risked distorting his views. The first to attempt the project was former Scottish Presbyterian and Jesuit-trained Robert Barclay, who produced his APOLOGY FOR THE TRUE CHRISTIAN DIVINITY in 1676, and the most recent systematizer is Douglas Gwyn, APOCALYPSE OF THE WORD: THE LIFE AND MESSAGE OF GEORGE FOX in 1986, written from a perspective allowing no sense of historical development, despite its subtitle. See H. Larry Ingle, "On the Folly of Seeking the Quaker Holy Grail," QUAKER RELIGIOUS THOUGHT 25 (1991): 17-29. The best modern introduction to Fox's theology is Aimo Seppanen, THE INNER LIGHT IN THE JOURNALS OF GEORGE FOX: A SEMANTIC STUDY (Tampere, Finland, Department of English Philology, University of Tampere, 1975). See H. Larry Ingle, "George Fox, Millenarian," ALBION 24 (1992): 259-76. See H. Larry Ingle, "George Fox as Enthusiast," JOURNAL OF THE FRIENDS HISTORICAL SOCIETY 55 (1989): 265-70. William Prynne, A NEW DISCOVERY OF SOME ROMAN EMISSARIES (London: no pub., 1656). See Stephen A Kent, "The 'Papist' Charges against the Interregnum Quakers," JOURNAL OF RELIGIOUS HISTORY 12 (1982): 180-190. Maurice A. Creasy, "Early Quaker Christology, with special reference to the Teaching and Significance of Isaac Penington, 1616-1679." PhD diss., U of Leeds, 1956. Christopher J. Holdsworth, "mystics and Heretics in the Middle Ages: Rufus Jones Reconsidered." JOURNAL OF THE FRIENDS HISTORICAL SOCIETY 53 (1972): 9-30. H. Larry Ingle, "From Mysticism to Radicalism: Recent Historiography of Quaker Beginnings." QUAKER HISTORY 76 (1987): 79-94. T. Joseph Pickvance, GEORGE FOX ON THE LIGHT OF CHRIST WITHIN. Gloucester, England: George Fox Fund, 1978. Douglas Gwyn, APOCALYPSE OF THE WORD: THE LIFE AND MESSAGE OF GEORGE FOX, Friends United Press, Richmond, Indiana, 1986, ISBN 0-913408-91-3. Gwyn is concerned to present the message of Fox, based on an analysis of some of his statements. He sees Fox's thought as based on the New Testament, in particular on the Book of Revelation. He explicitly disagrees with Rufus Jones, saying: "Jones's sense of the universal is tied to an understanding of human reason as a divine, saving faculty. But we shall see repeatedly in this study that Fox understands the light as inward but fundamentally alien to human nature." >>> Arch 121f,124f >>>Arch 277 Quotes from Douglas Gwyn, APOCALYPSE OF THE WORD $$$ QUAKERISM AS LIBERAL See H. Larry Ingle, "George Fox, Millenarian," ALBION 24 (1992): 259-76. Brayshaw 224: A letter to the BRITISH FRIEND in 1858 deplored a group study of "obscure and difficult passages of Scripture," saying that the Holy Spirit would make the meaning of such passages clear to the believer in His own time, and that to apply human reason or study to them was to usurp the work of the Spirit. Another letter, in 1861, expressed a similar alarm at Bible study, saying that, "if the instructions of the Holy Spirit, as revealed in the secret of the heart, are no sufficient for salvation; if the 'anointing' which abideth in us does not obviate the necessity of human aid, then the apostles and our early Friends were manifestly in error." The practical effect of this was a disparagement of the Bible as being an "outward" teacher and therefore necessarily inferior to the "Inward Teacher." Brayshaw 226: There were those who held that parents ought not to give religious instruction to their children, but to leave them to God alone, since any effort of theirs was interference with Him. Brayshaw 228: In the early 1800's many Quakers worked with non-Quakers on behalf of slaves and prisoners, and so came into personal contact with the Methodist movement, and with the Evangelical movement in the Church of England, and were moved to take an evangelical view of the redeeming work of Christ, and of the Scriptures as our guide to Christ, and the final authority on matters of doctrine. Brayshaw 230: The American separation of 1827-8, "Hicksite" as it is called, was due to the uneasiness felt by many at the teaching of Elias Hicks, minimizing, as it seemed, the import of the work and particularly the death of Jesus Christ. He pushed to its farthest extreme the doctrine of the Inner Light, severing it from the rest of man's knowledge and experience, and so far isolating the individual as to hold that to each human being God had given "a complete and sufficient rule of faith and practice without the aid of books or men." Brayshaw 230: See R M Jones, LATER PERIODS, chapter 12, on what was enlightened and what defective in Hicks's teaching. $$$ QUAKERISM AS HUMANISTIC $$$ QUAKERISM AS AD HOC H. Larry Ingle, "From Mysticism to Radicalism: Recent Historiography of Quaker Beginnings." QUAKER HISTORY 76 (1987): 79-94. >>> 33 (APOCALYPSE, by Gwyn) At a nation-wide General Meeting of Friends at Skipton <53:58 N 2:01 W> in 1660, some local justices and militia came to break up the gathering. But when Friends showed them the records of their work in poor relief (particularly among Friends, desiring to keep all their adherents without any obligation to parish relief), the justices were deeply moved, admitting that Friends were doing the work they themselves would otherwise have to do. In epistles to Friends, Fox counseled that legacies given to local meetings should be used to help set up apprentices in the trades; he also urged them to provide care for the unstable and infirm and to set up their widows and young men in gainful employment.