The Effects of the Blood

Chapter 4 outlines the first Christological (and in turn, soteriological) changes in Quaker thought. More explicit distinction was made between Christ and the Light within, the historical Jesus was mentioned more frequently, and Quaker soteriology moved towards Reformed beliefs regarding atonement and justification. Simultaneously, the Quakers were also engaging with more radical streams of thought, and there is some evidence of their early engagement with Spinoza. However, these alliances turned out to be unsustainable; after Friends’ engagement with Dutch Collegiants broke down, their efforts turned back to the more constraining Anglophone West. These developments all reflected a theological process which should not hastily be attributed to the effects of regime change, and the impact of the Restoration upon Quakerism has been exaggerated. Documents such as George Fox’s famous letter to the Governor of Barbados also illustrate the limits of their theological re-evaluation before the early 1670s

Children of the Light

Chapter 3 is the first of six chapters which meticulously trace the development of the Quakers’ Christology—the central theological shift affecting the movement during this period—in conversation with those outside the movement. The first Quakers professed an electrifying belief in the full, spiritual presence of Christ within the individual. This was not strictly a rationalist or a spiritualist dissenting position; nor was it a doctrine of celestial flesh. Rather, it was a highly spiritualized understanding of Christ which should be understood in context as an outworking of a Reformed theological culture and the broader Christological crisis of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Christ was understood to be fundamentally spiritual in nature, and the ‘Light within’ and ‘Christ’ were viewed as ontologically equivalent. However, this understanding was vehemently criticized as an attack on the historical Jesus; the earliest period of Quakerism was marked by hostility rather than dialogue

The Vehiculum Dei

Chapter 6 explores the influence of the scholarly community circulating Ragley Hall—most notably, Henry More, Anne Conway, and Francis Mercury van Helmont—on Quaker Christology. This group were influenced by Kabbalist ideas, and introduced the notion of a ‘middle substance’ into Quakers’ understanding of the ‘inward Christ’. This intellectual influence was immortalized in Robert Barclay’s Apology, and is most prominent in his account of the ‘vehiculum Dei’. While George Keith claimed to have given Barclay his ideas as expressed in the Apology, this chapter argues that Barclay was engaging with the Ragley Hall group directly during this period. That such an important contribution towards the Quakers’ understanding of Christ’s body was produced out of conversations regarding the most pressing philosophical issues of the day demonstrates strikingly how the development of Quaker theology was guided directly by wider intellectual trends of the seventeenth century

Divine Reason

This chapter elucidates a dispute regarding the proper understanding of the ‘Divine Logos’, between the philosopher John Norris and the Quaker Richard Vickris in the early 1690s. It draws on the commentary of the priest Edmund Elys to contextualize the dispute in terms of the publication of John Locke’s Essay and the empiricist ascendancy towards the end of the seventeenth century. A more nuanced understanding of Quaker theology allows for a fuller understanding of what was at stake in this intellectual moment: while the period has generally been characterized in terms of an epistemological crisis evidenced by the outworking of rationalist and spiritualist excess, deism, scepticism, and the growing influence of natural theology—that is, a reconfiguration of the relationship between natural and revealed religion—these epistemological issues were often deeply imbued with (and perhaps more fundamentally driven by) Christological reflection

The Keithian Controversy

This chapter assesses the extent to which ordinary Quakers were affected by the theological changes traced through the preceding chapters, through a consideration of the Keithian controversy. It argues that this controversy was fundamentally a theological disagreement about the place of the historical Jesus in Quaker spirituality—and while the Quakers would not retreat from their belief in the ‘sufficiency of the Light’ in public, their internal records reflect a far greater appreciation of the Incarnation than Quaker thinking in the 1650s. At the same time, they appealed to earlier Quaker writings as authoritative in their own right, suggesting the emergence of a ‘Quaker orthodoxy’ by the end of the seventeenth century. In this sense, the Keithian controversy was a coming of age for the Quaker movement—and when considered alongside the changes traced in Chapter 1, it confirms the significance of theological motivations in the development of seventeenth-century Quakerism

Religious Experience in Seventeenth-Century Quakerism

This chapter traces the precise ways in which the actual religious, emotional, and cultural experience of Quakers changed from the origins of the movement to roughly 1700. Recovering this experience, it becomes clear that Quakerism itself emerged out of a particular response to an awareness of Christ’s presence, and that Friends’ commitment to belief in immediate revelation was continuously affirmed throughout this period of transformation. However, other important religious changes did occur—namely, an altered understanding of divine immanence, the emergence of a powerful group identity, the loss of a distinctive prophetic vocation, and a growing understanding of perfection as moral righteousness. These shifts do not indicate a process of mollification in the pursuit of socio-political respectability, but rather point to a process of theological transformation—as the next chapter will show

Conclusion

This book began by noting Barry Reay’s daunting challenge that ‘it is easier to chart the transformation of Quakerism … than it is to account for it’.1 By charting this transformation in terms of the Quakers’ previously neglected theological and philosophical concerns, it has contributed to the effort to provide a fuller approach. Crucially, this account is not intended to divorce Quakerism from its socio-political context, or to deny the importance of socio-political concerns as a driving force behind the transformation of the movement. Nonetheless, it suggests that these concerns are disproportionately represented in existing historiography—and has therefore focused on the ways in which theological analysis can elucidate aspects of early Quaker development which are otherwise difficult to explain....

Explaining Continuity and Change

Chapter 2 establishes the limitations of a purely socio-political account of the changes explored in Chapter 1. The Quakers were not altogether removed from social and political motivations. However, as this chapter systematically demonstrates, the notion that they were merely seeking political ‘respectability’ fails to explain the pace and scope of the changes affecting the Quaker movement during this period. Rather, the Quakers were seeking to bolster their ‘theological reputation’, through a concerted refinement of their theology as a means of strengthening their ecclesial claim to ‘true Christianity’. Unlike respectability narratives, the quest for theological reputation was not subordinated to the concerns of their opponents, but involved appeals both to Christian doctrine and the proactive assertion of Quaker values, as well as the interplay between the two. At the heart of this process was a concern to make sense of the Quakers’ experience of Christ within and amongst them

The Christian Quaker

As Quakerism entered its third decade, the 1672 Declaration of Indulgence created new space for theological dispute. This chapter considers a series of early 1670s pamphlet disputations involving William Penn—first with Thomas Hicks and then with John Faldo—which demonstrate the challenges facing any intellectual outworking of the Quakers’ belief in the immanent Christ. Quaker apologists accepted openly that the Light within was derivative of ‘Christ’ in himself, and at least some engaged directly with the metaphysical issues at stake. This shows the greater willingness of later Quakers to compromise to confirm their reputation as true Christians—and while there was still a lack of real theological innovation, support from the philosopher Henry More indicates a subtle shift in Quaker metaphysics emerging in the mid-1670s. This shift gathered pace after this point, as is elucidated more fully in Chapter 6