Thought for the Week: A religion of the Spirit
Ian Kirk-Smith reflects on Quakerism as a religion of the Spirit
When he began his travels around England in the 1650s George Fox, who is regarded as the founder of Quakerism, did not set out to create a new sect – nor did those who gathered with him.
The early ‘Friends of the Truth’, as they were known, felt that an urgent responsibility had been laid upon them: to bring the Christian church back from error to truth. Christianity had lost its way. It needed to rediscover the correct one. They had no ambition to add a new sect to the various Christian groups of the mid-seventeenth century: the Anglicans, Roman Catholics, Presbyterians, Baptists and Independents.
So, what did they want to return to? William Penn, in the title of a book published in 1696, put it clearly: Primitive Christianity Revived. Edward Grubb, a perceptive Quaker writer of the early twentieth century, described the faith of early Friends, very aptly, as ‘The Religion of the Spirit’.
In the period after the death of Christ he believed there was a religion of the Spirit. It was a golden age. Rufus Jones has written: ‘Christianity in the golden age was essentially a rich and vivid consciousness of God, rising to a perfect experience of union with God in mind and heart and will.’ The power of this faith lay in a Spirit that made its abode in the hearts of believers.
The question of authority is central in the story of Christianity. In the seventeenth century early Friends offered a radical answer to it.
Between the second and the sixth centuries an institutional, hierarchical, organisation with authority centred on Rome emerged: the Roman Catholic church. Set forms of worship and sacraments, which could only be administered by those duly ordained, evolved. Edward Grubb felt that ‘the bishops changed Christianity from a religion into a theology, and substituted the rigid walls of dogma for the free expansiveness of the Spirit.’
The Reformation introduced an alternative source of authority: the Bible. The pulpit replaced the altar. The preacher of the word replaced the priest performing a sacrament; but an ever present temptation was to follow the ‘letter and not the spirit’ of the Bible.
Quakerism presented a truly radical option. The inner life of personal and direct religious experience (a religion of the Spirit) never completely disappeared from the church. It found expression in different ways, particularly in strands of mysticism. However, early Friends made the ‘Inward Light’ central. Their authority lay in this Spirit. It lay within and their faith was, crucially, firmly rooted in their own experience. It involved a profound personal transformation. The beliefs and practices of early Friends were radical. Indeed, many in the status quo felt threatened.
Today, the Quaker way remains radical. The language of early Friends has dimmed. Some find that it does not speak to them. They use other words. In this issue Harry Albright considers the word ‘God’ and highlights some of the dangers in making assumptions about what people mean when they use it. Harvey Gillman also reflects, in the first article of a new series, on the uses and meanings of words in Quakerism. He emphasises the elusive and symbolic nature of words and also draws us back to the authenticity of personal experience.
Early Friends replaced the emphasis on an historical Christ with a belief in a living one. They found, within themselves, a religion of the Spirit. It was a Spirit of love, compassion, openness, concern and charity.
The Quaker way remains open to new light: challenging, adventurous, welcoming, visionary and radical. It is a way for today.
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