Quakerism 101

with Michael Cronin

It’s said Quakerism is less a set of beliefs and more a way of life. Yet, to discern our way of life, we need a willingness to examine and understand our faith assumptions and principal beliefs. We may begin by affirming our basic commitments.

To encourage understanding of the basics of Quaker faith and practice, and how they connect to our spiritual journeys, we’ll examine these traditional Quaker themes:

Quaker history, and sources of spiritual authority [such as the bible, the Inner Light]
Gospel order, worship, and Quaker testimonies
Spiritual disciplines and other tools for faith and practice

Our main resource is Wilmer Cooper’s A Living Faith. Cooper, professor at Earlham College [1959-1985] and founding dean of its School of Religion [1960-1978], says, in his intro, [p xi, paraphrased] Friends have a genuine fear of thinking or writing about faith, apart from experiencing it, and can be suspicious of theological interpretations and formulations. This suspicion is a major reason for Quaker testimony against written creeds or doctrinal statements, which are viewed as being “out of the life.”

WHY ARE WE THINKING ABOUT BELIEF IF IT’S “OUT OF THE LIFE”?

Quaker beliefs are grounded in experience, especially the experience of the Spirit working in our lives, of God or Christ or the Light working in our lives. Thinking about our beliefs in this way can help keep them alive and fresh.

As Friends. we are all responsible for our own ministry. As we better understand our assumptions, we can: 1) see how they affect our lives, 2) see when they’re changing, as they are affected by our experience, 3) converse with others about them and 4) be able to expand our spiritual horizons.

Our INTENT is to consider 1) what Cooper calls “normative” ideas — those beliefs and practices that, through the test of time, have formed a central theme and position in Quaker tradition and history, and 2) how they inform our lives. Normative beliefs include the peace testimony, the Light of Christ within, truth telling, refusal to take oaths, and a covenant to stay in community — to labor with one another over our differences.