Quaker Theology #11 -- Spring-Summer 2005
REVIEW
The Creation of Quaker Theory: Insider Perspectives. Edited by Pink Dandelion.
-- page 2
Some of these persons are or were in the academy; the Bouldings, indeed, were certified stars of that circuit. Others were at the margins, and still others, like Corbett, shook the dust of the ivory tower from his feet and took to ranching. In these pages, only Douglas Gwyn pays tribute en passant to Corbett’s "brilliant combination of biblical study and political analysis – from an avowed nontheist" (134), his only mention there. Yet all these "outsiders" have important and quite varied "theories" of Quakerism to be reckoned with by thoughtful Friends. The absence of such names from this volume often made it seem, quite frankly, rather thin and more than a bit parochial.
There is another dimension of this myopic thinness which deserves mention: the fact that the book presents us "theories" of Quakerism, rather than what the top scholars of most other Christian denominations would be expected to produce, namely theologies of, and for, their church.
To be sure, there are theologies here: that’s what Davie sets forth, as has Carole Spencer, an American evangelical whose focus is the Holiness tradition.. Theological perspectives also underly most of the other views, though mainly disguised as "theory." My sense is that this partly reflects the traditional stance of antipathy to theologizing (even while doing it) that is a characteristic conceit of so much Quaker thought. It also likely reflects a rather dated modernist academic prejudice in favor of the social sciences and historical research, as somehow more definitive for religious studies than such abstractions. It’s hard to be too critical of the title, thoughj; one wonders if a book project to be titled, The Creation of Quaker Theology would attract enough avowed living contributors, especially from the academy, to be larger than a pamphlet.
At its best, this skeptical outlook can root theology in the concreteness of the world, which can make it more accessible and productive. (Jim Corbett’s work, I believe, reaches this level.) But at the other end, where it too often has lingered among Friends, it reflects an arrogant and ultimately foolish presumption that Friends have outgrown "all that." In truth, of course, iognoring theology only leaves a faith group uncritically in the grip of whichever fashions are most current in their subculture, be it liberal, fundamentalist, or an academic guild.
One other feature that nagged at this reader was that among all these very modern "theorists" of Quakerism, the mention of the peace testimony in its pages was rare almost to invisibility. In a typical work of theory, one might forgive such avoidance of the concrete. But this is a book of Quaker theory, and in this setting – not to mention in this time – such neglect simply does not wash.
To be sure, there are a few stray mentions: Hugh Barbour closes his survey of recent Quaker historiography by asking whether that "common core of Quakerism can again provide the unity and strength we found we needed" to face the era’s continuing succession of wars and rumors of war (30). Thomas Hamm, by contrast, mentions his work on the decline of pacifist sentiment in Indiana Quakerism (181).
Only Douglas Gwyn speaks at any length of this, in recounting his own liminal pilgrimage among the fringes of academic, pastoral and nonpastoral Quakerdom. (127-148) "I write," he notes grimly, "as the Antichristian forces of finance-driven capitalism, multinational corporations and technomilitarism have reached a decisive stage of conflict with the basic needs of the world’s majority of people . . . ." (127)
This glance out the library window at what the old elders decried as "worldly tumults" is a whiff of realism in this rarefied atmosphere. Yet Gwyn cites this backdrop mainly to place himself as an exile in it, and within Quakerism. He spent twenty-five years producing a series of deeply-researched and thought-out books about how early Quakerism was forged in another revolutionary struggle – a struggle he thinks the Society mainly lost, in both worldly and spiritual terms, even while surviving as a sect.
Moreover, for all that his writing was driven by an effort to plumb the roots of Quaker tradition for resources with which to cope with the current crises, the outcome was unequivocally equivocal, leading him to the weary conclusion that his work "does not offer ready made formulas for renewal in any present day [Quaker] stream . . . . Nor does it engage easily with the deepening malaise of social and political life . . . ." (147) He finds himself still a pilgrim, like Abraham, moving toward a new country he cannot, and may never, see.
Could such melancholy candor account for the lack of attention shown to the peace testimony by most of the other writers here? In any event, Gwyn’s admission is an indicator that there isn’t much in this collection of Quaker theories to equip outsider Quakers to meet the trials that the times may hold for us. My own view is that some of the "outsider" theories hold much more promise in this crucial regard. Their exploration, however, will have to await a different project.
Postscript: As in my review of another book overseen by the same editor for the same academic press, (Fager) I must again, and more vigorously, protest the fact that this book was published in a manner that required a price of a hundred dollars for 275 pages. Such absurdly expensive publication processes are entirely unnecessary and counterproductive. If the thinking in these volumes is intended to be of benefit to any but the tiniest circle of "insiders," it is imperative that some more economical approach to publication be adopted for future efforts.
LIST OF WORKS CITED
Boulding, Elise. Born Remembering, Wallingford, PA: Pendle Hill, 1975.
Boulding, Kenneth. The Evolutionary Potential of Quakerism. Wallingford, PA: Pendle Hill, 1964.
Cazden, Elizabeth, The Modernist Reinvention of Quakerism: Independent Meetings in New England, 1920-1950, Master’s Thesis, Andover-Newton Theological School, 1997.
Cooper, Wilmer. A Living Faith. Richmond IN: Friends United Press, 1990.
Corbett, Jim. Goatwalking. New York: Viking, 1991.
Fager, Chuck. "Review of Towards Tragedy/Reclaiming Hope. Pink Dandelion, et al.," in Quaker Theology #10, Vol. 6 No. 1, Spring-Summer 2004, pp. 63-69.
Freiday, Dean. Nothing Without Christ. Newberg, OR: Barclay Press, 1984.
Kuenning, Larry. Exiles In Babylon. Cambridge, Mass: Publishers of Truth, 1978.
Taber, William P., Jr. The Eye of Faith. Barnesville: Ohio Yearly Meeting, 1985.
Wilson, Lloyd Lee. Essays on the Quaker Vision of Gospel Order.