Just Finished Reading: The Quakers – A Very Short Introduction by Pink Dandelion

Oh, I kid you not about the author’s name. I guess it could be worse.

Anyway, CQ lent me this (the 3^rd of 5 VSI book from her) recently after we had several conversations regarding Quakerism. CQ is a Quaker so offered to ‘fill me in’ about some aspects of her beliefs. Some of it I’d picked up from elsewhere such as the origins of Quakerism during the bloody English Civil War and the fact that Quaker merchants were the first to offer fixed prices for their produce (before that haggling was commonplace). Other aspects were new to me though the tales of internal argument and schism didn’t really surprise me much – it seems to be the way of all religions as interpretation leads to debate and debate leads to argument, disagreement and eventual break-up. I’m actually sure that given long enough the world’s religions will multiply until every individual believer will have his/her own tailor made religious belief – but I digress….

A few things I liked about Quakerism included its idea that there should be no church official who stands in-between the believer and his/her God and that communication between them should be a direct two way transmission. I also liked the way that silence was used during this communication without the fanfare of some church ceremonies. I did find the liberal tendency in Quakerism to be the most reasonable but also the strangest as not only are they welcoming to non-Christians but also to non-theists. I could just about accept the idea of a non-Christian Quaker but a non-believing one….? That seems more that a little strange to me.

Quakerism is definitely a minority belief and I doubt if it will grow much over time. Some sides of the house are shading into convention mainstream religions such as Protestantism whilst the edges of the liberal tradition seem to be also fading into New Ageism and have a real danger of trying to be all things to all men (and women) and thereby being not much of anything to anyone. Needless to say I do not intend become a Quaker anytime soon – despite their many admirable qualities not least of which is their dedicated pacifism. If more of the world held these beliefs to the extent the Quakers hold them it would be a far more peaceful place. Interesting.