March 28, 2013

A month ago, I featured here three paragraphs from a 1959 Friends Journal article by Howard Brinton entitled “The Place of Quakerism in Modern Christian Thought.” The three paragraphs concerned Brinton’s view of fundamentalism among Friends.

The blog post drew…

March 25, 2013

This is the fifth of a series of posts on John Punshon’s Reasons for Hope: The Future of the Friends Church. Part 1 is here. Part 2 is here. Part 3 is…

March 22, 2013

Fourth of a series of posts on John Punshon’s Reasons for Hope: The Future of the Friends Church. Part 1 is here. Part 2 is here. Part 3 is here.

John Punshon begins his…

March 21, 2013

Third of a series of posts on John Punshon’s Reasons for Hope: The Future of the Friends Church. Part 1 is here. Part 2 is here.

John Punshon’s Reasons for Hope is unabashedly an argument. Those who are uncomfortable with arguments may not warm to this book,…

March 19, 2013

Second of a series of posts on John Punshon’s Reasons for Hope: The Future of the Friends Church. Part 1 is here. 

In no way does John Punshon attempt to give a proper history of Quakers in the U.S. over the past two centuries, but he does see Quakerism – indeed any denomination – as being a dynamic movement that constantly has to adjust in response to new…

March 15, 2013

I’ve been re-reading John Punshon’s Reasons for Hope: The Faith and Future of the Friends Church (Friends United Press, 2001).  I read it quickly in 2001 when it came out, but now see I didn’t give it the care and attention it deserved. What’s more, I can’t find any indication there was much substantial discussion of it among Friends. I think it was and is worth our careful…

March 13, 2013     Important Update Below

I was struck recently – quite favorably – by something written by Colin Saxton, General Secretary of Friends United Meeting (FUM).  Unity was his topic:

“For all of our principled moral and doctrinal stands, however, I keep wondering, “Why is there almost never a principled stand for unity, at least among those who are followers of Christ?” In fact, in the…