Syncretism and dilution

June 11, 2018

Bri­an Dray­ton looks at the effects of syn­cretism, dilu­tion, and cul­tur­al appro­pri­a­tion on the Quak­er movement.

At first blush, such a process might be cel­e­brat­ed as a process of enrich­ment: Quak­erism ver­sion 1 turns into Quak­erism v2, now new and bet­ter because it has bells or out­ward sacra­ments or what-have-you. But note that this kind of change is not just a mat­ter of sim­ple addi­tion, because ele­ments drawn from var­i­ous oth­er tra­di­tions are them­selves embed­ded deeply in some cul­ture, and so they are clothed round with mean­ings and nuances that are implic­it­ly adopt­ed along with the idea or prac­tice that has been explic­it­ly imported.

Love, judg­ment, and the “inner crit­ic”, pt. 2b: Syn­cretism, dilu­tion, and the draw­backs of cul­tur­al appropriation

Group decision making and moral disengagement in the context of yearly meeting schisms

June 11, 2018

Group deci­sion mak­ing and moral dis­en­gage­ment in the con­text of year­ly meet­ing schisms

This is an aspect of group dis­cern­ment and con­sen­sus deci­sion mak­ing rarely dis­cussed among Quak­ers. Like­ly this is because the pre­sump­tion is that in wor­ship­ful busi­ness meet­ings the pre­sump­tion is that deci­sion mak­ing is Spirit-led. It is a noble ide­al and one that I have seen in action. And yet, it is also a dynam­ic that can be sub­ject to abuse and as such ought to prompt some self-examination and pos­si­bly some inten­tion­al safe­guards into meet­ing processes. 

http://​quak​er​lib​er​tar​i​ans​.wee​bly​.com/​b​l​o​g​/​g​r​o​u​p​-​d​e​c​i​s​i​o​n​-​m​a​k​i​n​g​-​a​n​d​-​m​o​r​a​l​-​d​i​s​e​n​g​a​g​e​m​e​n​t​-​i​n​-​t​h​e​-​c​o​n​t​e​x​t​-​o​f​-​y​e​a​r​l​y​-​m​e​e​t​i​n​g​-​s​c​h​i​sms

Legacy or burden?

June 8, 2018

Lega­cy or burden?

One issue to which I am par­tic­u­lar­ly sen­si­tive is how our obses­sion with the past comes across to new­com­ers. Some peo­ple (espe­cial­ly those with Quak­er ances­tors) are excit­ed by our his­to­ry, while oth­er peo­ple are turned off or sim­ply puz­zled by Quak­er jar­gon and Quak­er genealo­gies, which they expe­ri­ence as a seri­ous bar­ri­er to being included.

Lega­cy or burden?

Make Quakerism Militant Again

June 7, 2018

Make Quak­erism Mil­i­tant Again

Quak­erism is designed for dis­rup­tion. Active­ly stir­ring up trou­ble, caus­ing a scene, shed­ding Light on oppres­sion. Fol­low­ing Christ calls us to be out­laws, to defy the pow­ers of this world. To simul­ta­ne­ous­ly break into and out of the state and extend the King­dom. We are called to cre­ate and live into a new society.

Make Quak­erism Mil­i­tant Again

Introduction to “The Christian Universalism of George Fox”

June 2, 2018

Intro­duc­tion to “The Chris­t­ian Uni­ver­sal­ism of George Fox”

Since Benson’s time, denominational-mindedness has gained ground among Quak­ers, and a diver­si­ty of philoso­phies is now seen as valid not only for those out­side of the Soci­ety but for those with­in. A tight­en­ing con­for­mi­ty to the doc­trine of indi­vid­u­al­ism has accel­er­at­ed the pro­lif­er­a­tion of ide­olo­gies with­in the Soci­ety. Resist­ed by most is the obser­va­tion that human nature is intrin­sic and uni­ver­sal, the same in every time and place, and that Jesus Christ speaks to this uni­ver­sal condition.

https://​patradall​mann​.word​press​.com/​2​0​1​8​/​0​6​/​0​2​/​i​n​t​r​o​d​u​c​t​i​o​n​-​t​o​-​t​h​e​-​c​h​r​i​s​t​i​a​n​-​u​n​i​v​e​r​s​a​l​i​s​m​-​o​f​-​g​e​o​r​g​e​-​f​ox/

Spirit-Led Evangelism

June 1, 2018

Spirit-Led Evan­ge­lism

Adria Gulizia guest post­ing on Johan Mau­r­er’s blog: It is hard to talk about God, Jesus and the spir­i­tu­al life in this moment in Amer­i­can his­to­ry. Many of our non-Christian neigh­bors find the lit­tle they know about Jesus to be attrac­tive or intrigu­ing, but they know enough about the fail­ings of the church to have very neg­a­tive opin­ions about actu­al Chris­tians. If we do have non-Christian friends, it may be despite our Chris­t­ian faith rather than because of it — we may be seen as the excep­tion that proves the rule.

https://​blog​.canyoube​lieve​.me/​2​0​1​8​/​0​5​/​a​d​r​i​a​-​g​u​l​i​z​i​a​-​s​p​i​r​i​t​-​l​e​d​-​e​v​a​n​g​e​l​i​s​m​.​h​tml