‘Where there is the greatest evil, there is also the greatest good.’
Swarthmore Lecture: Joseph Jones watches, and reads, Tom Shakespeare’s ‘Openings to the Infinite Ocean’
‘I saw also that there was an ocean of darkness and death, but an infinite ocean of light and love which flowed over the ocean of darkness. And in that also I saw the infinite love of God; and I had great openings.’ Many Friends will recognise these words from George Fox in the title of this year’s Swarthmore Lecture, given live on YouTube by Tom Shakespeare. Fox had been in despair at the state of the world, said Shakespeare, but shared with New Testament Paul a vision of grace in which we are encouraged to live in intimacy with God. This intimacy is the source of real hope, he said, a spiritual experience beyond the cognitive reasonings of optimism.
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