SPRING 2004Thomas H. Jeavons
General Secretary, Philadelphia Yearly Meeting[Thom Jeavons presented adult First-day School at Woodstown MM last fall talking from these notes. The discussion that resulted was lively and challenging—Ed.]
ost Friends would agree that a key, distinguishing feature of Quakerism is that it is experiential religion. That is to say, we believe the experience and practice of faith is more important than how one talks or thinks about that. So it might be fair to say that Quakers are a people who seek an authentic experience of the Divine, the Holy, the presence of God, and who believe that experience is available to all who seek it in spirit and in truth, and who believe that experience will transform our lives for the better and enable us to transform the world for the better.
With our focus on experience, we are often distrustful of and poor at using words to explain our faith. Because we rarely give good energy and skill to articulating what we experience and believe, we often find ourselves unable to explain or share our faith clearly with others. In addition, we find ourselves unable to talk fruitfully with one another about this “faith” — as experience and conviction — that should shape our practices and behavior as Friends.
This may not really be so hard, though. I would suggest it is possible to give a fairly quick and not overly complicated explanation of the essential tenets of Quakerism centering on five points. This would unfold as follows:
God is real. What the first Quakers found, and Quakers ever since have experienced and taken as given, is that the Divine is real. That spiritual experience is real experience. The most often repeated phrase in Fox’s Journal is “The power of God was over all.” Penington, Ellwood, and other early Friends all describe their first experiences of Quaker meetings for worship where they encounter a Presence that was unlike any other — undeniably there, all-encompassing, challenging, comforting, and transforming.
We should note that this conviction is, in and of itself, an unusual and radical conviction in a culture that is overwhelmingly empirical, scientific, and materialistic. The secular culture that surrounds us tells us in many ways, “If you cannot see it, touch it, or measure it, or (better yet) buy it and sell it, then whatever it is, it doesn’t really matter.” And the Divine cannot be seen, touched, measured, or traded; but those who have experienced this Presence know that nothing could be more real or more important.
God is accessible and knowable directly and immediately. The central elements of Quaker practice — the way we worship, make decisions, and look for direction in our lives — take this as a given. We look for, expect, and (if we are faithful) act on “leadings of the Holy Spirit.” Quaker worship is about “communion” just as much as any celebration of the Mass is; but we believe that the Presence of the Divine can be known inwardly and directly, without need for any outward, sacramental representation. The ways we make decisions and seek guidance, both individually and corporately, simply make no sense unless one assumes God’s presence and wisdom can always be known by those who seek the Divine “in spirit and in truth.”
There is a spark of the Divine, “that of God,” in every person. This is one reason that God is knowable to us in an immediate way: because there is that of the Divine in us that recognizes the Divine presence, power, and love that is at work in the universe — “that of God,” by far the larger part, that is transcendent, that is beyond us. This is also one of the reasons we have (traditionally at least) been so clear and strong about affirming the dignity and inherent worth of every human being.
Jesus Christ has some very special and uniquely important role in revealing the nature of God to humankind. George Fox’s transforming spiritual experience came as he heard a voice that said, “There is one, even Christ Jesus, that can speak to thy condition.” Quakerism has always been strongly and clearly anchored in the Christian tradition. Quakers have long held that the Judaeo-Christian scriptures offer invaluable insights and present critical truths on which we should reflect and to which we must respond to live whole lives.
So, whether one understands Jesus (as the Christ) as “the only begotten Son of God,” or “the Light that lights all who come into the world,” or “the Inward Teacher,” or a distinct (if not unique) example of a “spirit person” who helps us connect with the spiritual dimension of life, may not matter so much, so long as we understand Jesus as a figure whose life and teachings we cannot ignore. But to attempt to construct a version of Quakerism without Jesus is to engage in historic revisionism and create a spiritual text that is without authentic content.
Being “faithful” — literally “full of faith” — requires and creates a genuine community. Living a whole and spiritual life is not a solo act. Jesus sometimes encountered people one by one, sometimes in large groups; but he created a small community around himself in his life, and a larger one after his death. The occasion of Pentecost, when his disciples were each given the gift of the presence of the Holy Spirit, was also the occasion when they were formed into a community (Acts 2).
Quakers took that community, the early church, as the model for their religious movement and practice of faith. They looked to create a community in which people were drawn into and nurtured in a living, transforming relationship with the Divine. And they believed — and created community practices like the meeting for business that assumed — the community of believers has a necessary role in helping each individual see God’s truth and love and live by that revelation.
So here are five essential beliefs or tenets that shape modern Quaker faith and practice. Now, if I stop here, someone will say, “But what about the peace testimony? What about the testimonies on equality, integrity, and simplicity? Are not these essential elements of the Quaker faith?”
Not meaning to sound like someone splitting semantic hairs, I would say no, they are vital fruits of our faith. They represent ways of seeing the world and being in it that depend upon and give evidence of our faith. They are ways of behaving and explaining our behavior that “testify to” — that is, point at and give evidence of — the core of our faith, which is the reality of the presence, love, and power of God we know as that heals and transforms our lives.
If we believe in the five tenets I have described so deeply that they shape the way we live our lives on a day-to-day basis, then the testimonies inevitably emerge. They describe ways our lives should speak. And to say this is in no way to diminish the importance of the testimonies. For besides being ways of living that should change the world for the better, living the testimonies is another way of sharing our faith. St. Francis of Assisi once said, “Preach the Gospel always; and when necessary, use words.” The words are often necessary, so let us do both, and be prepared to have both our words and our lives testify to our faith.
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Wednesday, February 18, 2004 at 08:19 AM
