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Nontheist Quakers

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Nontheist Quakers (also known as nontheist Friends) are those who affiliate with, identify with, engage in, or affirm Quaker practices and processes, but who do not necessarily accept a belief in a theistic understanding of God, a Supreme Being, the divine, the soul or the supernatural. Like traditional Friends, nontheist Friends are actively interested in realizing centered peace, simplicity, integrity, community, equality, love, joy, and social justice in the Society of Friends and beyond.

Beliefs

Quakers in the unprogrammed tradition have recently begun to examine the significance of nontheistic beliefs in the Society of Friends, in the tradition of seeking truth. Non-theism among Quakers probably dates to the 1930s, when some Quakers in California branched off to form the Humanist Society of Friends (today part of the American Humanist Association), and when Henry Cadbury professed agnosticism in a 1936 lecture to Harvard Divinity School students.[1] The term "non-theistic" was first written in a Quaker publication in 1952 on conscientious objection.[2] As early as 1976, a Friends General Conference Gathering hosted a well-attended Workshop for Nontheistic Friends (Quakers).[3]

There is a nontheist Friends' website and there are nontheist Quaker study groups.[4] Os Cresson began a recent consideration of this issue from behaviorist, natural history, materialist and environmentalist perspectives. Roots and Flowers of Quaker Nontheism is one history. Friendly nontheism also draws on Quaker humanist and universalist traditions.[5] The book Godless for God's Sake: Nontheism in Contemporary Quakerism offers recent, critical contributions by Quakers.[6] Some Friends are actively engaging the implications of human evolution, cognitive anthropology, evolutionary psychology, bodymind questions (esp. the 'relaxation response'[7][8]), primatology, evolutionary history, evolutionary biology, biology and consensus decision-making, online especially, in terms of Quaker nontheism.

Nontheist Friends are a group of individuals, many of whom are affiliated or actively involved in the unprogrammed tradition in Quakerism. F/friendly nontheists are attempting sympathetically to generate conversation with others who are more comfortable with the traditional and often reiterated language of Quakerism. Some nontheistic f/Friends see significance in this lower-case / upper-case distinction in terms of inclusiveness and friendliness, welcoming both to the ongoing NTF email list conversations. Questioning theism, they wish to examine whether the experience of direct and ongoing inspiration from God ("waiting in the Light") – "So wait upon God in that which is pure. ..."[9] – which traditional Quakers understand as informing Silent Meeting and Meeting for Business, might be understood and embraced with different metaphors, language and discourse.

Notable Nontheist Friends

See also

Further reading

References

  1. ^ Cadbury, Henry, 1936. My Personal Religion. Accessed online: July 17, 2007. Unpublished manuscript in the Quaker Collection at Haverford College; lecture given to Harvard divinity students in 1936.
  2. ^ Tatum, Lyle (ed.). 1952. "Handbook for Conscientious Objectors." Philadelphia, PA: Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors.
  3. ^ Morgan, Robert. 1976. 'Report from the Workshop for Non-Theistic Friends – Friends General Conference, Ithaca, NY, June, 1976.' (Note at end of report reads: "The author of this report is "Workshop for Non-Theistic Friends". The workshop was led by Robert Morgan (1916–1993), a Friend from Pittsburgh PA." Morgan was therefore 'recording clerk' for this report).
  4. ^ NontheistFriends.org
  5. ^ Cresson, Os Roots and Flowers of Quaker Nontheism NontheistFriends.org, September 16, 2010
  6. ^ Boulton, David (ed.). 2006. Godless for God's Sake: Nontheism in Contemporary Quakerism. Dent, UK: Dales Historical Monographs. ISBN 0-9511578-6-8
  7. ^ Benson MD, Herbert and Miriam Z. Klipper. 2000 [1972]. The Relaxation Response. Expanded updated edition. Harper. ISBN 0-380-81595-8
  8. ^ Benson MD, Herbert. 1976. Steps to Elicit the Relaxation Response. RelaxationResponse.org. From "The Relaxation Response." HarperTorch.
  9. ^ Royce, Josiah. 1913. George Fox as a Mystic Cambridge, MA: The Harvard Theological Review. 6:1:31-59.
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