Finding the right words

Ann Conway-Jones and Brian Phillips write about prophetic witness in turbulent times

Last year was undoubtedly one that left many Friends feeling speechless. Events of enormous significance – from Brexit to the election of Donald Trump; from the siege of Aleppo to record-shattering global temperatures – frequently found us searching for the right words to articulate our fears, our sorrows, our hopes and our faith.

From all indications thus far, that challenge to find a language appropriate to a deeply troubling historical moment will prove no less urgent in 2017. George Fox’s ever-contemporary question – ‘What canst thou say?’ – confronts us once again as we seek to take the measure of where we stand in a time of acute social, political and economic upheaval. To whom might we turn to help us think?

In the turbulence of their mid-seventeenth century world, the first Friends found orientation and inspiration in the words of the prophets of the Hebrew Bible. Rosemary Moore, the historian of that period, has noted how early Friends were drawn to specific texts from Jeremiah, Isaiah, Daniel and Ezekiel as they sought to read and discourse upon the signs of their times. In looking at these texts in 2017, might we discover that, in the words of Abraham Joshua Heschel, the great twentieth century rabbi, ‘the things that horrified the prophets are even now daily occurrences all over the world. There is no society to which Amos’ words [Amos 8:4-6] would not apply’?

The Hebrew prophets lived in cruel and violent times, faced with the devastation caused by invading armies. Their poetry struggles to create meaning, to keep hope alive for a traumatised people. They ask tough questions, not least about God’s role in their nation’s destruction, and give no easy answers. But their poignant and vivid metaphors repay exploration. In the face of the imperial might of Assyria, Babylon and Persia, they defiantly proclaim faith in divine justice. From a defeated, exiled people come words which have resonated down the centuries: ‘swords into ploughshares’, ‘the people who walked in darkness’, ‘a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief’, ‘saying, “peace, peace,” when there is no peace’, ‘every valley shall be lifted up’. The words and actions of each of these individuals posed searching questions not only to the wider communities in which they lived and spoke, but to assumptions and practices within the Religious Society of Friends as well.

There are resonances of the Hebrew prophets in John Woolman’s ministry against the evils of slavery; in Lucretia Mott’s struggle for the recognition of the rights of women; and in the radical stand taken by Quaker ‘total objectors’ during the first world war. In enlarging our understanding of how both the Hebrew prophets and these remarkable Friends discerned their vocations and found their voices in uncertain times, Friends now can be better equipped to express themselves prophetically as we all face the mounting demands of our own day.

Ann is a scholar of biblical interpretation and early mysticism and an honorary research fellow at Birmingham University. Brian is a Quaker historian, human rights practitioner and educator.

They will be running a course at the Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre on 22-25 May entitled ‘Prophetic Witness in Turbulent Times’.

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