Quaker mysticism and truth

Tony Philpott muses on some big questions

Are Quakers mystics? How do Quakers find the truth? These related questions are answered by two contemporary Quaker writers in recent Quaker Universalist Group pamphlets.

Are Quakers mystics?

This question is tackled by Rex Ambler in Mind the Oneness: The Mystic Way of the Quakers. Rex Ambler traces mysticism back to its Greek roots. It is to do with closing the mouth, or not being able to speak about things that are beyond words. There are the deep questions of life and death which are beyond our grasp. Occasionally we get insights into answers, but how do we communicate these to others?

As a Quaker historian, Rex Ambler devotes some of the pamphlet to our Quaker roots in the seventeenth century. The conventional Christianity of the time was based on the authority of the Bible, the church, the priests and the sacraments. But the country and its religion were in turmoil: a civil war was being fought and there was great uncertainty. It was in this context that George Fox and his contemporaries founded Quakerism.

Rex Ambler emphasises that the early Quakers turned inwards to find the truth. George Fox had to let go of dependence on what other people said so that he could discover what was inside him, ‘his own deeper resources, his own experience of life’. This was George Fox’s ‘convincement’ – this was what he ‘knew experimentally’.

The Quaker way was not easy. Early Friends had to survive under persecution and without the props of the church and the priests. But they managed to keep going by the regular practice of silence, going inside themselves to access the Light within. Rex Ambler draws here on the Experiment of Light, which he cofounded, to describe the stages of ‘going within’.

However, Quakers do not stop here. They ‘obey the truth’ they have found and go out into the world, treating people differently: they use ‘the deeper sense they have within them that we humans are all fundamentally the same and belong together’. All people have ‘the Light of God’ inside them.

So, are Quakers mystics? How does Quakerism compare with other forms of mysticism? Rex Ambler outlines the mystical practices of Christianity. He traces this through the desert fathers to the monastic tradition.

Practices and hesitancy

Rex Ambler’s understanding of the desert fathers is that they went within to reach the ultimate reality which they called God, gave up attachment to themselves, experienced union with this reality, found freedom and wholeness for themselves, and responded in love. Rex Ambler contrasts this type of Christianity with ‘the predominant spirituality which relies on structures of authority and mediation’. He moves on to other definitions of mysticism, quoting Bernard McGinn, Rufus Jones and Evelyn Underhill, among others. His conclusion is that Quakerism is a mystical religion, though some Quakers may be hesitant to say this.

This hesitancy comes from three reasons. One is that Quakers have traditionally argued that union with God is mediated through Jesus Christ. Rex Ambler argues, however, that the early Quakers ‘experienced Christ as a “light” within them’ rather than ‘someone outside them’. Secondly, classical mysticism is otherworldly, whereas Quakerism is grounded in the world. In response to this he quotes William Penn and Robert Barclay and argues that Quakerism is ‘an inclusive mysticism’; it is union with the ultimate reality through embracing everything, rather than withdrawing from the world or the body. Thirdly, in an interesting footnote, Rex Ambler says that, in common parlance, today mysticism can be ‘preoccupied with paranormal phenomena, with disembodied spirits and supernatural or magical powers’. He does not develop this point, but mentions that people have used this definition as a way of disparaging mysticism.

His last section is on the ‘distinctive elements of the Quaker way’. One is that Quakerism is experimental: everything is ‘grounded in and tested by experience’. Secondly, it is what he calls ‘profoundly Christian’, or what William Penn calls ‘primitive Christianity revived’. Within this Christianity the Bible does not tell us what to believe, but points us to the experience that gives us the life and light we seek. Thirdly, truth must be acted upon. Quakers bring together what in classical mysticism are called the ‘contemplative life’ and the ‘active life’. Referring to the title of Rex Ambler’s pamphlet, we must realise the oneness in practice.

How do Quakers find the truth?

This question is answered by Joycelin Dawes in her pamphlet Truth: Reflections broadly, but not only, in a Quaker context. One striking feature is that she has printed ‘This is not the truth’ on each page; she calls it a ‘mindfulness bell’. It reminds us that we will never get to ‘the truth’ completely and we will need to work out the truth for ourselves, not borrow it from someone else, including Joycelin Dawes. She suggests we should approach the question with honesty, integrity and clarity, qualities for which Quakers have always been known in their words and business dealings. Our Quaker testimonies are truth lived out in action.

A key argument she puts forward is that the individual Quaker should approach truth with the whole person. This includes the mind, but also other parts of us, including our emotions, intuition, sense of unity, aesthetic faculties and so on. She quotes the contemporary Sufi mystic, Kabir Helminski, who calls this ‘total mind’ the ‘heart’.

Joycelin Dawes outlines the Quaker approach to truth as shown in Quaker faith & practice. Truth is dynamic, a process, a method, a living experience. Truth offers direction in our life. Truth is fundamental in creating community. Rex Ambler’s pamphlet is referred to on how ideas of truth developed in the early days of Friends and how Friends described their experience using terms such as ‘Seed’, ‘Inner Teacher’, ‘Light within’, ‘Christ within’, ‘Spirit’, and ‘Inward Light’. Moving to today, Joycelin Dawes suggests that some Quakers will see the Inward Light as ‘the presence of the Christ’. Others will use secular language like ‘the inner place that each of us can reach’; and universalist Friends might see it as ‘a universal light, the source of wisdom, inner peace, and just/righteous living for everyone’.

Like Rex Ambler, Joycelin Dawes sees truth in religion as coming from different sources. She suggests there are four main approaches: from tradition, from texts, from leadership and lineage, and from spirit. But in all cases these approaches have led to ‘splintering’ and ‘quarrels’. Quakers are very much in the fourth approach, from spirit, as each of us, either individually, or when meeting together, discerns the truth.

An experimental approach

Joycelin Dawes also devotes a section to truth in science. She recognises the commonality between scientific and Quaker approaches to truth: both rely on an ‘experimental’ or ‘experiential’ approach. She realises how the huge advances in science and technology, especially in the last 200 years, have led to our modern society. However, she rejects the idea that ‘science and scientific method is the only proven, therefore valid, truth’. Continuing her theme of truth from ‘the heart’ she uses two models to illustrate a ‘multi-factorial’ approach to the truth. She quotes in detail from two Americans: the integral theory of Ken Wilber and the idea of ‘meditation as contemplative inquiry’ from the scientist Arthur Zajonc.

Joycelin Dawes is, as always, practical in her writing and she lists four ways for us to test and live in the truth. We should ask whether there is ‘clarity, honesty, rigour, transparency, accuracy’, and a willingness to admit mistakes. We should look at authenticity: where does the information come from? We should use specific practices to search for the truth, referring here to her recent book Discernment and Inner Knowing. Finally, we should be accountable. Is the so-called truth morally defensible? Is it urgent? Is it the best available?

There is much talk within Quakers and in the wider society about ‘post-truth’, an approach with a seemingly shameless disregard for the facts. Both Rex Ambler and Joycelin Dawes ground us in the Quaker way of truth and integrity, and suggest ways forward for us in this challenging environment.

Both pamphlets are available for £4 each from Quaker Universalist Group Publications or the Quaker Bookshop at Friends House, London.

Further information: tonyp@qug.org.uk

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Comments

I wonder whether the Society of Friends looks to outsiders much more like a traditional religious organisation concerned essentially with its bureaucracy, discipline and scriptures rather than with the well-spring of profound, dynamic and spontaneous mystical experience…

By PETERHANCOCK on 11th January 2019 - 13:48

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