The Rise of Liberal Quakerism—Part 3
May 23, 2018 § 5 Comments
Two Influential Books
While the Duncanite controversy in Manchester in the 1860s revealed some cracks in the evangelical edifice of British Quakerism and some yearning on the part of young Friends for something more, it took a while for both the resistance and the seeking to mature. Kennedy, in British Quakerism, points to two books as a crucial turning point in these processes. Both were written to minister to this yearning for “a reasonable faith”.
The first was published anonymously in 1884 with the title A Reasonable Faith: Short Essays for the Times. The authors, cited originally as “Three Friends”, were later revealed to be William Pollard, Francis Frith, and William Z. Turner. The second was Edward Worsdell’s The Gospel of Divine Help: Thoughts on Some First Principles of Christianity, Addressed Chiefly to the Members of the Society of Friends, published in 1886.
These two books were enormously popular among younger Friends and enormously influential. These writers believed that “the same Divine enlightenment which has taught the world all that it knows of Religious Truth” was still at work and guiding them to interpret the fundamental principles of Religion “rather by the spirit than by the letter”. (Three Friends, p. 6) The Three Friends go on to say:
“In accordance with these fundamental principles we understand the Bible to be not simply either a Revelation or the Revelation, but rather the Record of a Progressive Revealing of Spiritual Truth; each part adapted in its day to the gradually maturing intelligence of mankind (sic) in their inevitably slow progress towards a true understanding of those things which lie furthest from the elementary perceptions of men (sic)—‘the things not seen.’
And further we do not find in the facts or probabilities of the case, nor does the book itself claim that we are to look to the Bible (invaluable as its Spiritual Revelations are) as the sole religious Light and Teaching of the World; nor that the Most High withholds from any living man (sic) some measure of the same Divine Influence which ‘inspired’ the religious element of the Bible.”
We see here some of the essentials of liberal Quakerism in formation: a determination to find, express, and live into a faith that is relevant in the modern world; faith in a continually revealing God; and, consequently, a respect for the Bible that nevertheless makes room for creative and reasonable interpretation and ultimate deference to the teachings of the Light; and a universalist rejection of an exclusivist Christianity.
Worsdell goes in the same direction regarding the Bible with some of the topical subtitles for his chapter 4, The Interpretation of Scripture”: “The principles of Accommodation and Spiritual Insight.—Progressiveness of Divine Revelation.—How are we to be trained to see spiritual truths for ourselves.—When reason and conscience demand it, we are intended for our own discipline’s sake to rise to conviction as to matters about which Scripture is not explicit.”
The Three Friends also redefined doctrine to mean “that which refers to the practice of Christianity” (emphasis theirs), according to the original meaning of doctrine as ‘teaching’, rather than doctrine understood as just theological principles. Here we see the beginnings of the liberal Quaker shift toward defining Quakerism in terms of values and practice, rather than theology.
I am reading these two books now and plan to ‘report’ on them more fully in subsequent posts.
Through the Flaming Sword 
This study has my full attention. Something has been bothering me from the beginning and I have now identified that as the use of the term “liberal Quakerism.” The term liberal is weighted with modern political meaning and “liberal” also does not seem to describe the movement. In fact, one could argue that this attempt to return to the roots of the Friends movement before the evangelical schism is in fact, conservative.
I am quite clear in that the evangelical, creedal and doctrinal approach to Quakerism is well outside of our founders intentions and practice. Also, it does not speak to my condition or my Experience of the Light. It seems clear that those young Friends in the 19th Century had rediscovered the Experiential Source of faith that was at the heart of the early church and at the heart of Fox’s ministry. That Experience then in turn orders our lives. “the liberal Quaker shift toward defining Quakerism in terms of values and practice, rather than theology.”
So, Don, what would you call the modern Quaker movement that is neither evangelical or conservative? In Kennedy’s book, he uses the term conservative to refer to Friends in London Yearly Meeting who were similar to our own “Conservatives”, not evangelical but uncomfortable with the new ideas that were coming out of the “liberals”.
My feeling was simply that such labels ill serve the cause because they carry unintended meanings. I was not preferring “conservative”, just saying it is perhaps more accurate. Modern Friends represent a broad spectrum of “belief”. May we move in a direction that might be called Experiential Originalists.
That’s funny. I read part two on the train this morning, shared it on my blog, and wondered if Pollard would make an appearance in later installments. Here I am with the morning coffee and here he is in part three. Wonderful!
http://www.quakerranter.org/the-rise-of-liberal-quakerism/
[…] I wonder if British Friend William Pollard will make an appearance in Steven’s posts. I’ve been fascinated how Philadelphia Hicksites took to him despite the formal institutional barriers. [update: Steven just dropped part three and there’s Pollard]. […]