Friends of the Truth
Stuart Masters asks: What’s in a name?
What’s in a name? Well, quite a lot it would seem when it comes to dissenting religious movements. Early Quakers called themselves ‘Friends of the Truth’ but their opponents called them Quakers ‘in scorn’ due to the physical shaking or quaking that represented the outward sign of a process of spiritual crucifixion and rebirth taking place within the individual. The names chosen by groups and those given to them ‘in scorn’ by opponents can tell us a great deal about their spirituality and theology and how they were perceived by the wider society out of which they emerged. Quakers actively chose to be known as ‘Friends of the Truth’. So, what does this name tell us about the nature of the Quaker way?
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