What is Quakerism and what is its mission today? Church History Response

The Society of Friends emerged from 17^th Century English Civil War time.  It is arguably another step in the centuries long Reformation of the Catholic Church, or Christianity, that is still taking place today.  In another sense it is the result of centuries of mystical practice, outside of the Catholic Church, now taking a public place in the worlds of Christianity and, arguably, Islam.

Martin Luther’s challenge to church authority in the early 1500s led to the first Christian body not of the Catholic Church.  Soon many alternative churches had formed.  In England, which had been Catholic until the 1530s, King Henry VIII sought to reform the church, the monasteries, and the relationship between Pope and King.  When the Vatican refused his terms, he broke with the Catholic Church, forming the Church of England.  His daughter, Queen Mary, reinstated Catholicism in England, and her successor, Queen Elizabeth I, made England Protestant again.  

By the time of the English Civil War, in 1642, religious struggle was part of the English experience of life.  The beheading of King Charles led to the breakdown of many British institutions, including the Church of England.  Civil disorder spread through the country, and many small religious groups formed.  Out of this chaos, Quakerism emerged under the leadership of George Fox, James Naylor, and Margaret Fell, though Fox became the most influential spokesperson.  He set up the structure Quakers use today - Monthly, Quarterly, and Yearly Meetings.  

Fox articulated the Quaker mission as one of freedom of conscience and freedom from the tyranny of tithing, church mediated life events (infant baptism, funerals, marriages), and rituals that were not done from the spirit of Christ.  He advocated spiritual equality between the genders and among all economic classes of all peoples, regardless of their native religion.  Many of his followers traveled to Muslim, Jewish, and native populations to speak of this equality and freedom before God.  (NOTE: They were not attempting to convert these populations, for the most part.  Once they delivered their message, they left in peace to return to England or the American colonies.)  

A second theory of the lineage of Quakerism follows the thread of mysticism from the Desert Fathers through the medieval mystics to the religious seekers of Fox’s time.  Some have said that Marguerite Porete, who was executed by the Inquisition in 1310, was one of the first to articulate ideas similar to George Fox.  Her ideas were read, assimilated, and published by Meister Eckhardt after her death.  Her book, The Annihilation of Simple Souls, has been read for 700 years (unattributed until 1947, when an Italian scholar uncovered her authorship), and influenced people of all classes, including the Beguines and Beghards, many solitary mystics, and many monastics.  The Catholic mystical traditions were affected by Islamic scholarship in southern Spain, and spilled over into the restless ferment during John Wycliffe's time, through to the Bohemian protests of John Hus and others, all of which influenced the religious movements of 17th Century England.

A modern understanding of unprogrammed Quakerism includes the mission of religious witness in the world without religious or other coercion, as part of the Peace, Equality, and Integrity testimonies.  Thus, unprogrammed Quakers generally do not "preach what they practice,"  relying instead on social action and witness.