knowledge - Quaker Ranter

On the State of Religious Discourse at Haverford

Martin Kelley — Tue, 13 Mar 2018 18:59:13 +0000

This one only tangentially skims Friends but it’s an interesting case. A independent student website at the historically-Quaker Haverford College decided not to do a special issue on religion and one student penned an article about why he disagrees: On the State of Religious Discourse at Haverford

Haverford is not immune to this plague: we too relegate religious knowledge to a dimension of the personal. Considering the religious history and Quaker roots of our institution, this is particularly troubling. Haverford sells itself as a Quaker institution, and there is a sense in which this is true, as there are certain traditions at Haverford (speaking out of silence, quorum, confrontation, etc.), and yet the school split from organized Quakerism long ago, and one need only look at the last year to understand that we make decisions as an institution that are quite separable from any promoted quaker values.

Haverford’s official statement on its Quaker identity is a rather strained two sentences, but in recent years it’s developed a Quaker Affairs program, which is currently led by the awesome Walter Sullivan. The program’s Friend in Residence program has brought in some great Quaker thinkers on campus.

More on this topic soon as Friends Journal’s May issue will ask “What Are Quaker Values Anyway?” (Some of my preliminary thought are here).

Martin Kelley — Thu, 08 Mar 2018 14:33:25 +0000

Only wait to know that wherein God appears in thy heart, even the holy seed, the immortal seed of life; that that may be discerned, distinguished, and have scope in thee; that it may spring up in thy heart, and live in thee, and gather thee into itself, and leaven thee all over with its nature; that thou mayst be a new lump, and mayst walk before God, not in the oldness of thy own literal knowledge or apprehensions of things, but in the newness of his Spirit.

— Isaac Penington [Source]

Membership

Martin Kelley — Sun, 25 Feb 2018 04:17:37 +0000

Quaker Ranter is an email newsletter of Quaker stories. I follow a lot of Quaker media–blogs and feeds and Twitter accounts, etc., and share the pieces that stand out to me. I usually add context and commentary to the links and provide it all as a curated daily email. Sign-up is free but if you’re a regular reader you can support the work by becoming a Member.

The primary benefit for now is the knowledge you’re helping to share a wider Quaker conversation, though in the future I’ll experiment with some interesting member-only discussions. Thanks! –Martin

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The Quaker testimonies as our collective wisdom wiki

Martin Kelley — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 17:13:59 +0000

My sort-of response to Callid’s great Youtube piece on the Quaker testimonies, I compare the classic testimonies to a wiki: the collective knowledge of Friends distilled into specific cautions and guides. “We as Friends have found that.…” I do talk about how the recent “SPICE” simplification (simplicity, integrity, integrity, community and equality) has robbed our notion of testimonies of some of their power.