What is Quakerism and what is its mission today? Writing Emphasis Response

Unprogrammed Quakers are underrepresented in the world of letters.  Thus, those few that we claim, we treasure.  Rufus Jones we consider a hero.  Thomas R. Kelly’s Testament of Devotion is almost required reading among us, as is everything by Howard Brinton.  Beyond these, we are subjected to reading “in translation.”

Many Quakers seek reading with the Buddhists (Tibetan, Zen, Classical Dharmapada, Western a la Suzuki), the Hindus (Gandhi, Deepak Chopra, The Bhagavad-Gita), New Agers and the like, Sufism, and mystical Christians.

We view our religion as akin to scientific study (as Howard Brinton describes in Friends For 300 Years).  We seek “experimentally,” to find guidance from the Spirit (or from God, Christ, Buddha nature, whatever is holy).  Thus, reading and writing are valued for what we learn, not just passively, but in the action.  While reading, I learn not just what the words convey, but also, in my reactions to those thoughts, I learn where my fracture lines are, what I might know that is similar or different from the content of the reading, or I might gain an insight unrelated to it.  In other words, reading is one way to slow down my internal processes enough to examine them, and to hear messages I would not ordinarily notice.

The act of writing, like the act of teaching, informs us of what we think.  For me, the act of writing is a voyage of discovery.  I truly do not know what to say until, somehow, I write it.  This is a religious practice, then, for me.  My tiny conscious mind is only aware of part of a subject.  What floats into consciousness as I am writing is amazing, leaving me speechless, ironically.  I continue doing it, trying to understand where insight originates.  Because I surely do not know.

Quakers also have written, and continue to write, memoir.  Spiritual autobiography was one of the ways that early Quakers traded insights with each other.  Because of the close association between spirituality and psychology, these memoirs were therapy as well as education to others, as is all autobiography, I imagine.  Many Quakers find journaling helpful.  My own practice in journaling is spotty - sometimes prolific and then long periods of silence.

The Quaker blogosphere has become one place where unprogrammed Quakers are active.  Because our interests are counter-cultural and often chided, we find little outlet in the mainstream press or in large publication houses.  In the general climate of reactionary politics, the web is one place where liberal thought can flourish, along with everything else.

In conclusion, I would posit that our reliance on silence, our sense that ministry is primarily doing social action, our reluctance to proselytize, and the private nature of much of our spirituality, few unprogrammed Quakers turn to writing to express their religious views.  I am doing so because (1) I have to write, and (2) someone has to.