A Man that Looks on Glass
Craig Barnett welcomes a provocative book on Quakerism today
In this searching and provocative new book (the title is taken from a poem by George Herbert), Derek Guiton diagnoses a crisis among British Quakers; that of ‘growing secularisation, the emergence of incompatible belief systems and a readiness, in very many cases, to embrace ideology as a substitute for faith’.
Guiton observes that Britain Yearly Meeting has been on a consistent course for several decades, away from a grounding in shared religious commitment and towards becoming a humanist friendly society. He argues that we may now be approaching a ‘tipping point’, as a growing minority voice their explicit opposition to religious faith, claiming that God is nothing but a projection of human attitudes.
Guiton is concerned that a widespread reluctance to engage directly with nontheist critiques of religion has left many Friends with the impression that ‘those who hold to the traditional Quaker faith have no answer to the arguments of secular rationalism’. Instead, he argues that Quakers need to be willing to think about and communicate the essentials of our faith. ‘We have nothing to fear from theological and philosophical debate if we are firmly rooted in our own God-centred and deeply inspiring mystical tradition. But we have a lot to fear from refusing to engage with those for whom reason is the only guide.’
Guiton questions our willingness to uncritically ‘celebrate diversity’. He argues that some attitudes are so incompatible with Quaker faith and practice that the determination to include them on an equal footing renders it difficult to practice a shared Quaker spirituality. He also notes Britain Yearly Meeting’s vulnerability, as a community which is deeply concerned to include the experience and attitudes of all of its members, and which also regularly revises its core written expression in its Book of Discipline. He warns that ‘nothing is more certain to guarantee the future of nontheism in the Religious Society of Friends than its incorporation into Quaker faith & practice…’ If explicitly anti-religious sentiments are eventually included in our Book of Discipline, ‘there is nothing to stand in its way, there is no going back… with every current of thought on an equal footing the drift towards a secular Society may become irreversible’.
Much of the book is concerned with a robust philosophical and theological defence of Quaker faith that is grounded in encounter with a God who is both ‘immanent and transcendent’; both present in daily life and also a reality beyond our ability to capture in words or concepts. It explores alternative theological possibilities to relativism and nonrealism, such as the ‘mystical theism’ of traditional Quakerism and many other modern religious thinkers.
Guiton also considers our current confusion about membership and proposes a reconsideration of membership criteria, in order to preserve Britain Yearly Meeting’s character as an experiential religious community. His suggestion is that new applicants should be expected to demonstrate, not any particular form of belief, but simply ‘an attitude of openness to no more than the possibility of transcendence as a minimum requirement for membership’.
This book is an important work of Quaker plain speaking. It challenges us to confront some uncomfortable realities, which need careful consideration by Friends today. It also points to the possibility of a spiritual renewal, to ‘rescue this once incomparably beautiful resource’; the Quaker path, grounded in the experience of God as ‘the spiritual basis of all reality, which can be discovered by us, hidden deep within our own selves’.
A Man that Looks on Glass: Standing up for God in the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) by Derek Guiton, FeedaRead.com. ISBN: 9781786102324. £7.99.
Comments
this man speaks my mind.
By triplejay on 27th November 2015 - 16:29
I believe that Craig Barnett in his write up ‘A Man Who Looks on Glass’ has raised some very major issues for Quakers today. Here in Nottingham I am in process of setting up a meeting to look at just these issues. The comments I have received so far would imply that this is a very real and live concern.
There are two issues. The first is whether Quakers have drifted into a position where secularism has started to become dominant, with a loss of experience of the transcendent. The other is whether Quakers have a common language any more with which to express that experience of the transcendent, accepting that it can never be adequately put into words. If we are trying to be all things to all people of any religion, we will find it increasingly difficult to communicate in depth.
The advantage of being Christian, is that we do have a common language through which we can express our experience of the transcendent both with each other, and to those outside of Quakers. It does though need to be a radical re-interpretation of Christianity that is fit for purpose for the twenty-first century, an interpretation that can incorporate the widest knowledge of psychology, science, recent Theology and so forth, and hence able to speak to today’s world. Much as George Fox did.
By Richard on 28th November 2015 - 17:56
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