Lessons from the past
Ian Kirk-Smith reviews a new e-book on Quaker history
The value of the past to inform, inspire and challenge us today is given a very telling validation in John Lampen’s excellent new book, A Letter from James: Essays in Quaker history.
The author has performed an important service for the Religious Society of Friends. Central to his endeavour is a plea for Friends to re-engage with the spiritual basis for action in the world.
The importance of having a clear, discerned, sense of calling – one rooted in a deep spiritual experience and reinforced in Meeting for Worship – as a basis for action the world is a central theme in all the essays.
This is a book of stories. It highlights their enduring relevance to our lives, faith and witness in the world. John Lampen devotes each chapter to a topic from a different period of history and the publication, which is available free as an e-book, contains a very personal selection. He covers major figures in the Quaker narra-tive – such as George Fox, John Woolman, Job Scott and Stephen Grellet – but also highlights less well-known Friends, such as the Grimké sisters and David Wills.
Roy Stephenson, in a thoughtful introduction, reinforces the value of stories from the past. They are interesting in themselves, he writes, but also ‘tell us things about ourselves which we need to hear.’ In A Letter from James the reader is also taken on a fascinating journey into fields that Friends worked in – of ‘medicine, psychology, literary criticism, philosophy and the history of ideas’.
The James of the book’s title is James Nayler, a controversial figure in early Quaker history who, in recent years, has been given a welcome rehabilitation. John Lampen devotes a chapter to him and also concludes the book with a long selection, and a free paraphrase, from James Nayler’s writing.
There is very perceptive analysis of the witness of James Nayler. The author stresses that Nayler used ‘nonviolence to evil’ rather than ‘active nonviolence’ and believes he wanted ‘our peace witness to be the expression of an immense tenderness in us’. It must, John Lampen argues, be rooted firmly in the transformative experience of the Inward Light, and cites the response of James Nayler to his punishment, torture and imprisonment as an example of this.
A deep appreciation and respect for the value of history radiates from every page. The author is not overly concerned with the biography of his subjects, though he does paint this in each case with some broad brushstrokes. His main focus is to subject every life chosen to a careful analysis and consider some basic questions: what did this Friend do that was distinctive, how did they approach it, how was it spiritually guided, how did they do it, and what can we learn from their story today?
All of the Friends in the book found a way to ‘speak truth to power’ in different ways, at different times, and with different results. All were united in ‘an inner command in all its authenticity’. This is different from a desire or an impulse or a sense of duty. The author stresses the enormous personal sacrifices they made.
As Friends address a concern that a more centralised religious bureaucracy has emerged in Britain; as trustees assume more authority and responsibility, prompted by charity legislation; as internal critics worry about the trend towards a ‘church without God’; as non-Friends are increasingly employed to work in Quaker institutions; and as good people who have little grounding in Quakerism are perceived as acting on behalf of the Society; it becomes more important for Friends to study their past and to be informed, refreshed, inspired and challenged by it.
This book is an essential read and a reminder that ‘the wish to do good, or feel good about ourselves, or to deal with our guilt for the suffering of the world’ is, while commendable, not what motivated the extraordinary Friends who are the subject of these powerful and inspiring stories. Friends must re-engage with the source – the Inward Light – as the authentic basis for Quaker activity in the world.
A Letter from James: Essays in Quaker History by John Lampen is published by the Hope Project. It is free from http://bit.ly/ALetterFromJames. ISBN: 9780956302281.
