Status
Available
Call number
Collections
Publication
Wallingford, PA : Pendle Hill, c1993.
ISBN
0875743099 / 9780875743097
Local notes
Pendle Hill Pamphlet 309
Description
This pamphlet sets out to describe what has become known as "universalism" and how the ideas that this term enshrines have developed within Quaker thinking and experience. It has been suggested however that universalism poses a danger to Quakerism in that "it is not rooted and grounded in the organic, historical continuity of one of the living faiths" with the consequence that in Hugh Doncaster's famous phrase, "any Friend can believe anything and the Society of Friends stands for nothing." The pamphlet seeks to address this criticism and sets universalism within "spirituality" rather than "religion."
User reviews
LibraryThing member QuakerReviews
Hetherington writes a low-key clear explanation of the development of universalist ideas in Quakerism, for example in William Penn, Isaac Penington, George Fox, and Robert Barclay, and through the Quietist period. He also cites other Christian universalist thinkers. Quaker universalism has been
This is a clear reasoned presentation on a topic that has raised anxious controversy among Friends.
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developed in liberal Quakerism based on the reality of the Inward Light, the authority and guidance of the Light, and the universal availability of this inward divine source to all people everywhere. He concludes that Quaker universalism is well fitted to provide a theology and discipline to meet the needs of the present, including our ecological crisis. This is a clear reasoned presentation on a topic that has raised anxious controversy among Friends.
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Call number
CP 309