The Peacebuilding Endeavours of Daniel Oliver and the Palestine Watching Committee in Mandate Palestine, 1930-48

This paper analyses the peacebuilding efforts of the official British Religious Society of Friends representative in Mandate Palestine, Daniel Oliver, and the Palestine Watching Committee (PWC). Previously unexamined documentation stored in the Friends House library and Haverford College archives details the extensive negotiations by Oliver and the PWC, which he co-founded, to influence British, Arab and Jewish senior political and royal officials. Combining individual and collective Quaker values concerning the Peace Testimony with a deep focus on British government colonial policies proved problematic. Internal fractions developed over the conduct of British forces in Palestine and the issue of Jewish immigration. Oliver defended the British government and continued to press for peace, demonstrating how patriotism significantly influenced his own spiritually guided message, while the PWC reduced its activities and became despondent over their lack of success and the decline of the Mandate.

Johns Hopkins and Slavery

Questions about Johns Hopkins, his family, and their relationship to slavery have been raised by Johns Hopkins University, most directly in the announcement made by President Ronald Daniels on December 9, 2020, that, based on newly discovered records, the university’s founder owned five enslaved people who lived and worked at his properties in Baltimore in the mid-1800s. This announcement and other statements by the university have caused many people to doubt long-held beliefs about Johns Hopkins’ character and his support for anti-slavery causes. This paper investigates three of the primary assertions made in December 2020 by examining: (1) whether or not Johns Hopkins’ parents were slaveholders, (2) whether or not Johns Hopkins opposed slavery, and (3) whether or not census and other records prove that he owned enslaved people. After a careful review of the evidence uncovered to date, we argue that (a) Johns Hopkins’ parents and grandparents were devout Quakers who liberated the family’s enslaved laborers prior to 1800, (b) Johns Hopkins was an emancipationist who supported the movement to end slavery within the limits of the laws governing Maryland, and (c) the available documentation, including relevant tax records, does not support the university’s claim that Johns Hopkins was a slaveholder. We conclude with a discussion of the complex nature of Johns Hopkins’ economic relationship with the institution of slavery and a call for further research on his business networks, investment practices, and membership in the Religious Society of Friends.

Jean Toomer after Cane

I reassess Jean Toomer’s poetics after the publication of his first novel Cane (1923). Cane’s critical reception has impacted and limited our understanding of his poetry, and of his racial identification, from the late 1920s to 1940s, when Toomer sought inspiration from the Eastern mystic, George Ivanovich Gurdjieff, and later from the Religious Society of Friends, or Quakers. Challenging the neat binary of Toomer’s lyrical and didactic strains in his later work, and spotlighting the complexity of his racial posturing, I argue that the central elements of Toomer’s poetics remained constant, particularly his attention to moral and spiritual enlightenment in order to address the pressing psychosocial and racial issues of his time.

Confessional Range of Protestantism

Diversity and the fragmented nature of Protestantism are the reason of various interpretations of its boundaries and the number of denominations it comprises. The key criterion of affiliation with Protestantism is the acceptance of basic doctrines set forward in the Niceno- Constantinopolitan Creed. The analysis of the beliefs of the religious organizations traditionally connected with Protestantism suggests that Jehovah's Witnesses, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Pentecostals-Unitarians are out of the doctrinal field of Christianity in general and out of the range of Protestantism in particular. The other distinct characteristic of Protestantism is the acceptance of the Five Solas – sola scriptura, sola fide, sola gratia, Solus Christus и Soli Deo gloria, which are aimed at the validation of Christian doctrines set forth in the Bible. This thesis was demonstrated via the analysis of the doctrinal sources of Lutheranism, Reformed Church and Anglican Church. The article also reports on the five solas present in the creeds of Baptists, Pentecostals, Methodists, Mennonites, Religious Society of Friends, and Seventh-Day Adventists. Cultural and historical proximity of protestants and religious organizations that do not meet the criteria above calls for a new category – “post reformation religions” – that can embrace them all.

Plague as a means of religious controversy

Translation of a treatise by George Whitehead, a member of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), criticizing the position of the Church of England during the Great Plague of London, 1665-1666.

‘Nones’ Belonging: Sunday Assemblies, Cathedrals and Quakers

This research note reports on observations of the Sunday Assembly and places this movement in the wider context of ‘secular spirituality’: those who do not hold traditional religious beliefs but engage in spiritual or religiously shaped practices. In particular, we argue that the group identified in the sociology of religion as ‘Nones’, or people who identify as ‘spiritual but not religious’, commonly engage in spiritual practices and have spiritual aspirations. Observations of Sunday Assemblies are compared with the situation of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) and other church settings such as cathedral attendance to shed light on varied religious participation by ‘Nones’. As such, it suggests that researchers investigating nones or non-theists may need to better understand the spiritual nature of their engagement.

Irish Quaker Identities: Complex Identity in the Religious Society of Friends

This work is a sociological study of Quakers, which investigates the impact that sectarianism has had on identity construction within the Religious Society of Friends in Ireland. The research highlights individual Friends’ complex and hybrid cultural, national and theological identities, mirrored by the Society’s corporate identity. This publication focuses specifically on examples of political and theological hybridity. These hybrid identities resulted in tensions that impact on relationships between Friends and the wider organisation. How Friends negotiate and accommodate these diverse identities is explored. It is argued that Irish Quakers prioritise ‘relational unity’ and have developed a distinctive approach to complex identity management. It is asserted that in the two Irish states, ‘Quaker’ represents a meta-identity, which is counter-cultural in its non-sectarianism, although this is more problematic within the organisation. Furthermore, by modelling an alternative, non-sectarian identity, Quakers in Ireland contribute to building capacity for transformation from oppositional, binary identities to more fluid and inclusive ones.