"But who do you say that I am?" : Quakers and Christ today

by Douglas Gwyn

Other authorsChel Avery (Editor), Mary Helgesen Gabel (Designer)
Pamphlet, February 2014

Status

Available

Call number

CP 426 c2

Publication

Wallingford, PA : Pendle Hill Publications, 2014.

ISBN

9780875744261

Description

An overview of Quaker perspectives on Christ -- Foundationist, Conservative, Ecumenical, Interfaith, Universalist, and non-theist.

User reviews

LibraryThing member QuakerReviews
Gwyn writes this pamphlet to examine and challenge the current range of perspectives on Christ among the liberal unprogrammed branch of Quakers today. He characterizes these various perspectives along a spectrum from clearly Christian Friends through ecumenical and interfaith Friends (where he
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includes "hybridized" faiths combining some elements of Christianity and any other tradition) to "Universalist and nontheist Friends." He then poses questions to each group about what they can say about Christ. The point seems to be not only to challenge Friends to clarify their understanding of Christ, but also to call back the strayers to the Quaker tradition of Christianity.
There are several problems of confusion and misrepresentation in this, among them the conflating of universalists with nontheists, no explanation at all of what Quaker universalists are, and no clarification of any distinction between nontheists and atheists. He asserts that universalists and nontheists have an incorrect and prejudiced stereotype of Christians, and it seems rather clear that he has a comparable stereotyped view of universalists and nontheists. Such stereotyped views are likely when people do not listen well and lovingly to each other.
Gwyn includes various asides that add to the reader's confusion, but his point emerges, calling Friends to claim and learn to explain Quaker Christianity, as the true Quaker faith. Gwyn presents, from the heart, an important point of view on a controversial issue, but his argument against the alternative views is not clearly thought out or carefully written.
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LibraryThing member ReadingMeeting
An overview of various perspectives on Christ among Quakers today - Foundationist, Conservative, Interfaith, Ecumenical, Universalist and Non-Theist.

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Call number

CP 426 c2

Barcode

6347
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